Accolade

the ex-apostle/the spirit

Crippled leg, exhausted body, and a broken mind. But still, the only thing my brain is telling me to do is escape. Escape to the building a few meters away from me. Sweat flows down my back in a stream and rivers of tears flow down my eyes from the excruciating pain.

I should not be able to move, yet my body is pushing itself way past the limit it reached when I climbed the slope.

I walk forward, and every step feels like climbing another mountain. The spider quickly gains on me, but the building isn't very far away either.

Just a few more steps.

At first, I was just prey for the spider, but I've become more of an enemy after I injured its eye. Its pace seems to be much faster than before, to the point it makes me feel as if it was just toying around with me a while ago.

After a minute and 3 steps, I can feel the spider's breath down my spine.

LEAVE ME ALONE!

I would have given up at this point after 3 whole failed attempts at surviving, but this attempt does not count as a failure.

Before the spider can touch me, I lunge inside the building with an open gate.

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And nothing happens. The open gate is still open and the spider is right outside. What was I thinking?! It was at least worth a shot. I'm not allowed any hope.

Hisss

It propagates the sound as if it's mocking me and slowly walks inside the gate that it snuggly fits into. I surrender. I turn around and patiently wait for my impending death.

The spider's first foot enters the building as my heart drops and I close my eyes.

Dhuffff

Huh? What happened? I want to open my eyes but the fear is keeping them shut.

"Kill me already!" I shout hysterically. If the spider doesn't kill me the anticipation will!

I hold my breath.

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A few minutes have passed and my body is still intact. Why is nothing happening? Am I already dead?

I build up all my courage and open one eye of mine.

Darkness. Absolute darkness. The once open gate is now closed and the spider that was about to kill me is nowhere to be seen.

Drip. Lub. Drip. Dub. Drip. Lub. Drip. Dub.

The only sounds coming are from the dropping of some liquid somewhere and that of my heart.

Usually, my heightened senses would've kicked in and allowed me to see. But for my visual senses to work, there must be at least some light. It's impossible to see in a place where the luminous intensity is absolute zero.

I give myself a moment to calm down. The past few minutes have been the most draining minutes of my entire life.

After a few breaths, I roll over to the side and throw up. This must be the result of using my muscles so haphazardously. As soon as I roll over I pass out.

**

"Hey, you! Get up!" An unfamiliar voice nudges my ear canals.

"Get up!" It's the voice of a girl a little younger than me. But then again you can't judge a woman's age by her voice.

"Why're you lying in your own puke like a disgusting freak? Get up already!" Some yellow flickering light passes through my eyelids and disturbs my slumber.

I open my eyes in a stone corridor. I am rolled over to the side so I turn over to face the ceiling.

I can see lit torches from the side of my eyes.

"Hey there!" A woman's face with purple hair pops right in front of me.

Startled, I try to get up instantly but fall back down because of my leg. Can I not move anymore?

"Tch... look at you in such a sorry state." The woman starts circling around my body.

"Who are you?" I roll over to the side and struggle to wipe the puke off my face with my sleeves.

"Me?" The woman stops. "An apostle."

Apostles are the messengers of gods right? Does this mean that gods really exist, or is the woman just messing around? Either way, I'm not convinced.

"Yeah, apostles are messengers of gods, and yes they really exist. Well, seeing how I've fallen, I guess I'm an ex-apostle. So, I did lie a bit. Right now, I'm just the spirit of this dungeon." She starts circling around me again.

"Wait, you can hear my thoughts?!" That's a freaky ability, it makes me incredibly uncomfortable.

"Hearing your thoughts would be really inconvenient, so I just know your thoughts. I'd hate it if someone could hear my thoughts too, so I can see why you're uncomfortable." She's a bit on the talkative side.

Well, there's no point in separating my thoughts from speech anymore.

"What's your name?" I ask her since her identity seems a little off from her introduction.

"Me? My name was Osiris, but I go by Iris now." What a weird name.

Ah, there's something important I forgot to ask!

"The spider?" Iris reads my thoughts again.

"Yeah..."

"I closed the gate on it, so it's probably squished."

I can't believe I got saved by a building after all the struggling.

"Oi! I'm a perfectly fine lady! Why would you call me a building? Weren't you coming here because you thought you'd be safe in the first place?"

"I was talking about the gate! Anyway, why did you help me?"

She ponders for a while and turns her tilted head towards me.

"Compassion? Anyway, I didn't do this for free. In exchange for your life, I'll be taking your body." Wow, nothing feels threatening when it comes out of a face as cute as her's.

"Yeah, yeah... can you give me a hand up first?" I need to get up to see how much damage has been done to my body.

"Sure." The purple-haired spirit comes and bends next to my arm. I push myself up with one arm and entrust the other to her.

Iris grabs my hand but before our hands touch, her body starts turning into purple mist starting from her extended hand. The mist starts covering my body. The last thing to turn to mist was her smug face.

"What are you-" My question gets cut off by a screen forming in front of my eyes, similar to the one that displays status.

|| Updating system.

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|| Update complete.

|| Initiating project ACCOLADE.