Chapter 142: Personal Problems

"...Do you want to come see it with me, Nio?" Nioh asks as both Nios sense the magic of someone powerful, yet someone who was obviously captured not all that long ago.

"...I’d rather stay here and protect myself with a barrier. I don’t want to see how disgusting this place is up close. Sorry, but I’ll leave everything to you this time. I already worked my ass off on the third floor," Nio says as she uses magic to create a barrier and sits down inside it.

"...Alright. You helped a lot on the third floor, so leave trying to get us out of the fourth floor to me." Nioh lets Nio stay put as she walks forward.

Passing through some trees and following the path of the powerful magic she sensed, she even finds herself confused about how someone who appears to be so strong could have ended up captured.

"..." Nioh sees the person in question on the ground, trapped by numerous vines, but what shocks Nioh is that the girl trapped by the vines looks at her with complete lucidity.

’She’s conscious? In this state?...Well...that’s good...’

Nioh takes a deep breath and approaches as she smells the strong scent released by the sap leaking from the girl’s body.

The girl follows her with her eyes, her messy, disheveled silver hair hanging down as her belly and breasts are grotesquely swollen.

"You seem conscious..." Nioh grabs the vine in the girl’s mouth and pulls. She keeps pulling and pulling until she finally removes twenty-one meters of vines from inside the girl, freeing her mouth.

"Haaa...that was really suffocating...I appreciate the little help." The girl mutters in a dry, dehydrated tone of voice as her chest rises and falls, golden drops of sap running from her nipples.

"...You seem very powerful. How did you end up trapped here? And more importantly, do you know where the exit to this floor is?" Nioh studies the girl, realizing that she is a spirit. Her slightly gray skin and golden eyes give away what kind of spirit she is.

’A Moon Spirit...They’re rare, and they’re actually pretty calm compared to other spirits...’

"...I...I know where the exit is. I’ll tell you if you get me out of here." Nioh looks at the girl as she makes the offer, a vine emerging from beneath her eye socket.

"You want me to free you? How do I know you’re even remotely trustworthy?"

"...I was deceived by someone I allied myself with, which is why I’m trapped here, but I really do know where the fifth floor is, and I want to get out of here...I could provide information. I can even tell you part of it."

"...Tell me first, then."

"The nearest exit gate is twenty thousand kilometers from here."

’The area is enormous...and without a direction, it’s impossible to find...Tsk...’

Nioh clicks her tongue, realizing that this information is worthless without a specific direction.

"Alright...I can help you get free, but if you don’t give me the rest of the information, you’ll pay dearly for it." Nioh grabs the vine entering through the girl’s ear and pulls it out. The spirit doesn’t even react to the pain it causes inside her.

"You’re strange. A Nightmare Dragon...They’re extremely rare. I’ve only seen one in my entire life. What are you doing in Hell? You usually live in isolation, so you rarely die, and you tend not to leave the first floor of Hell when you end up here." The spirit speaks as the vines are torn from her body.

"That’s none of your business. We just need to finish this negotiation and nothing more...You’re incredibly lucky we found you before those things ruined your mind." Nioh had actually only been curious about who was emitting so much power. She hadn’t expected to find someone who was still conscious.

"It’s funny that you think that. I’ve been trapped here for ten years, and I’ve kept my mind very well protected with magic. That’s why I wasn’t dragged upward, but I can’t use magic freely, so I’m still here."

’Ten years in that position?...Her sanity is monstrously high...’

"...You’re taking too long, Dragon Girl. Just stick your hand into my mouth and pull out the vine inside. It’s a small one. It’s restricting my movement and touching dangerous areas of my brain that I’m forced to defend with magic." The spirit speaks arrogantly, annoyed by the delay.

"Whatever. Don’t complain if it hurts." Nioh shoves her hand into the girl’s mouth, breaking some of her teeth. She grabs a small vine from the roof of the girl’s throat and pulls it out. The vine is a full meter long and comes out covered in blood.

"Haaa..." The spirit lets out a moan of pure pleasure from the relief that follows, the pressure on her brain disappearing.

"Much better..." Without that vine attached to the spirit’s nervous system, she rises. The girl grabs both breasts and squeezes them so hard that she crushes them, causing a large amount of sap and seeds to be expelled through her nipples in a display that disgusts Nioh.

’Damn bitch...Did you really have to do that right now?’

Nioh thinks without actually voicing her disgust. She looks down, seeing the seeds that had been close to developing.

"That damn traitor put this thing inside me while I was sleeping, so I didn’t notice until it was already too late...Hmmm...It feels so good to be free again." The spirit’s body begins to swell like a bubble.

’She’s strong...’

Now that she’s free, Nioh can feel the true extent of her strength, and she is undoubtedly very powerful, as powerful as Nioh herself.

"..." The girl’s body finishes swelling until it explodes, spraying blood and flesh several meters in every direction while numerous vines, sap, and seeds fall to the ground.

"Ewwehhh!!" Nioh recoils in disgust as the blood and sap splatter all over her, while the spirit’s body reconstructs itself using magic to accelerate its regeneration, effectively ridding itself of all the roots and seeds.

"This is why I hate spirits. You can be so fucking disgusting. Did you really have to explode?" Nioh waves her hands around, trying to get the blood off, while the spirit stares at her.

"Of course I did. I wasn’t going to manually remove every single seed from inside me..." The girl, her body now completely regenerated, speaks as she checks herself, looking much smaller without all those things inside her.

"I suppose I should fulfill my part since you fulfilled yours..."

"Go twenty thousand kilometers to the right from here. There’s a huge tree ten thousand kilometers away. If you see it, then you’re going in the right direction. There should also be a massive ravine along the way that is still burning. A battle happened there, so it’s another landmark." The spirit gives Nioh the information.

"Great—"

"You’re already infected, from what I can see." The spirit speaks with a devilish smile as the skin on her back opens, exposing her wings, a skeletal mixture of structure, flesh, and feathers.

"...What..."

"Our agreement is over. Thanks for the help, Nightmare Dragon, and I hope you know how to get this out of you. You have two weeks. Hihihi." The girl begins flying low and leaves, enjoying her newly acquired freedom.

Nioh had no way of knowing it, but she had been infected the moment she entered this floor.

And the reason was simple: each door to each floor works by teleporting everything that enters it without actually replacing the space, meaning that every time someone teleports, whatever is occupying that space at that moment ends up appearing inside that person’s body.

There had been a spore falling from the top of a tree in the exact spot where Nioh appeared, and she had simply been unlucky, just as anyone could enter a door to the next floor and end up inside a wall or inside another person.

"DAMMIT!" Nioh looks at her own body, unsure what to do.

"How did I not notice this...Bones...yes...she said two weeks, but it shouldn’t take that long...It must be inside the bones of my body..." Nioh looks over herself. She has no way of knowing where it is, so she can’t simply get rid of it without knowing whether it has moved somewhere else in her body.

"Nio!! I need help!!" Nioh runs toward Nio, ignoring the important discovery she had made regarding the exit from this floor.