Tyra choked on her saliva, and she had to cough multiple times to push the liquid out of her airways with her magic's help.

  "W-what? That's it?" She knew it was stupid of her, but she simply couldn't understand why her dungeon went from being so wary to allowing the bond so fast. Was revealing her goals all it took? Was her innate knowledge exaggerating about how quickly a dungeon could become paranoid?

  The fairy waited for an answer, but it never came. Instead, one of the flying creatures moved near the cell's opening and extended a leg forward.

  Sighing, she took it, and soon they reached the nest's opening, the flying beast taking off without any pause.

  Now knowing she was inside her own dungeon, Tyra watched around with new eyes, but the journey ended not even a few seconds in. The creature carried her a few meters down, and it gripped the edge of a hole not much wider than 15 cm, barely camouflaged by drooping moss. Confused, she was put inside. The fairy immediately felt the solid brown wood with her bare feet, and giving a last look to the creature behind her, she walked inside.

  Her heart began to beat faster and faster as the green light started to dim, her shadow ahead blending with the darkness around, and she gathered her magic inside her eyes to see in the low light.

  The passage wasn't long, and it opened up inside a big spherical room. Eying the drop, she sighed and crouched down to let the beast move over her. It quickly did and flew her down. As she let the leg go, Tyra noticed her feet sinking a millimeter within the rough dust, but something else caught her attention. The room was empty, with only two flying beasts' corpses on the side. Her heart tried to jump out of her rib cage, and her palms began to sweat profusely.

  'Am I about to die? Did my dungeon choose to bring me inside an empty room to avoid harm to the nest in case of a fight?'

  The dark blue creature kept watching her, and in the complete silence and darkness, it looked more and more menacing as time went by. After three minutes, she couldn't resist anymore. Clenching her hands, she watched upward and asked softly, "Now what?"

  Her dungeon didn't answer for what she felt were years before mana echoed around her. 'Down.' It paused for a while, and from its voice, the fairy realized how hard this was for it. 'Go slowly.'

  Gulping, she moved her toes within the dust as she understood she was just above its core. Avoiding sharp movement, she nodded and slowly crouched down. With methodical motions, she scooped the wood dust and small fragments to the sides, not reacting outward as some tiny splinters were lodged on her flesh.

  Before long, she was deep inside the wood scraps, but there was no trace of her core.

  'Stop.'

  Tyra froze, waiting stiffly.

  Minutes went by in the dark spherical room, and the only sounds she could hear were her own breathing and the creature's ticks.

  'Move your hand in front.'

  Confused, she touched around, but she didn't see nor find anything.

  'Stop.' It sent again, and Tyra didn't move her hand.

  At this point, she knew something was going on since the green-haired fairy doubted her dungeon was making her do all of this for no reason, but she couldn't understand its intention. However, after five minutes, her magic stirred within her body without any prompt.

  The fairy stayed very very still, swearing inside her head and hoping her core would not take this as an attack. Sweating, Tyra shifted her eyes toward the flying creature, and she saw it was only a few centimeters away from her body, mandible ready. While she kept her sight on the monster, her magic surged through her arm and flowed toward the dust. Suddenly, Tyra snapped her eyes on the ground instead, and she stared at her own hand in wonder.

  Under her scarred fingers, an emerald-green gemstone bigger than her head was now glowing with soft green light. She could feel the incredible amount of mana spinning inside, and, without her will, her magic imitated the flows, merging with them.

  Tyra's consciousness followed the currents too, and she touched the gemstone with her mind. However, the fairy felt herself being stopped at the edge of the emerald gem, and she could almost taste her core's indecision. Realizing it was a crucial moment, she pushed herself toward the barrier, letting it see who she truly was. Her goals, her rage, and her feelings.

  After a few seconds, the wall was lowered, and something else reached out.

  A power she couldn't even begin to understand flooded inside everything she was, and knowledge appeared inside her mind.

  The dungeon fairy felt her consciousness grow foggy, and darkness overtook her mind.

  Tyra dreamed for a long long time.

  In the vivid fantasy, she wasn't a fairy anymore, but a black seed, waiting for the right conditions within the darkness. Under the rich soil, years went by like a gushing river, and after so long, sensing it was time, she sprouted, two small emerald leaves in a fragile stem. Within the dream, staying conscious for more than mere moments was difficult, and the world around her sped up while she slowly grew. From seedling to sapling to adult, time inexorably went by. Every time she woke up after a long slumber, her body and her surroundings were different, and she couldn't recognize much.

  Thinking she was the only constant thing in the world made her feel alone, and she didn't like it.

  She made the decisions about herself and species following her instincts and desire to see the world grow and survive with her, but more often than not, she was still the only one left after every rest. For some reason, while everything seemed to disappear after the long years, nothing could or tried to bring her harm.

  Siblings and creatures developed and died around her one by one, and the sorrow within her heart slowly grew. Sapience came with the Evolutions, but not much changed, and it made bearing the losses even harder. With time, things improved but stayed the same as well. She became stronger, and she could finally provide nourishment and shelter to those around her. However, they died all the same. Time, conflicts, illness, everything could snuff their feeble existence. Understanding that, she stayed silent and recluse, expressing herself only when necessary.

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  She was Named, she was praised, and she was worshipped, but even among so much Life, she was alone. Everything except herself would surely die before long, but she tried to not think about it, sleeping instead.

  Creatures, siblings, children, and mortals came and went as the centuries flew by, and with them came the knowledge of the Azure Scorching; the reason why she was the oldest around, and her certain death. Yet, nothing really changed even after that, and the final day soon came. The blue fires, the Evolution, the darkness; she lived through them all.

  She saw herself waking up as a dungeon core, struggling to understand her new species and powerful emotions, all the possible choices, her mistakes.

  She dreamed about Life, she dreamed about Growth, and she dreamed about the Vow.

  'The pledge was the first hint of madness. The first hint of obsession.' The fairy thought, soon realizing she was dreaming of her core's life. 'The first condition is an impossible goal.'

  Now, detached from the memories, Tyra watched in sorrow as her dungeon fought with itself; as mana, broken instincts, and emotions it barely felt as a tree and couldn't understand without experience and advice seethed and pushed its mind in different directions.

  Yet, she felt incredibly proud as well. Even with everything influencing its mind, it stayed true to itself and constantly fought against them. Even when not completely aware of it, it didn't let them control its mind and tried to find an impossible way forward.

  Even without her, her core could have held on to its sanity for years and even decades.

  After watching herself living inside the dungeon for a month, the dream faded away, and Tyra was within her own body again.

  However, before she could truly wake up, and reflect on what she just saw, knowledge demanded her attention.

  The energy settled down for a second before swelling back a thousand times stronger.

  Vivid emerald mana and an energy a thousand times more powerful and mysterious flowed from her dungeon core inside her body, and both of them started to float mid-air, suspended by the powerful currents storming around them. Tyra held the gemstone in her chest, afraid for its safety.

  The energy surging inside her body was a fire that behaved like water, burning away her body and remaking it anew. Tyra saw herself from the outside, her scarred body and withered wings shining brightly with green light. Her eyes widened when she felt her broken frame recover.

  Her leafy wings slowly regrew anew from her back, pure life flowing inside the soft and delicate four appendages, with veins of deep brown running through them. The scars began to fade away from her body as well, and her skin began to heal.

  The pulsing agony she felt every waking moment slowly disappeared, and the fairy gasped in relief. However, seeing the last few red marks in her arms about to heal, she imposed her will on the same energy fixing her, 'Stop.'

  The transcendent power arrested, lingering near the scarlet lines for a few seconds without treating them, before withdrawing from her body toward her own dungeon core.

  Gradually, the currents of mana abated, and the healed fairy and her core were lowered within the hollow sphere base. With the dungeon heart held in her arms, Tyra tried to rise up. However, the immense fatigue of the bond caught up to her, and she quickly fell asleep, her verdant leafy wings covering her body.