The tunnel leading to the next area was long and windy. I assumed it was to defend against people like us invading the dungeon, but since most of their Imps were dead after constantly attacking the base, they couldn’t use it properly.
We had left Staff Sergeant Falkwreath behind by the portal. Gloria was sure he would be fine until we came back. If we were not back within an hour, he would leave and let the base know we died.
The next room was different from the cave-like dungeon we have been traveling through. The floor was covered with a purple and orange carpet, or just a really large rug. A couple of books were on tables along with random tools and instruments for something. In the center of the room was a stone platform. Standing on top were three figures. In the middle was a cloaked figure that was my size, but on either side were two taller and far more handsome devils. They had no shirt on, so I could easily see their chiseled abs.
They all turned toward us when we entered the room.
The left one spoke first. “Ah, I see Pitruddix failed. No matter. You all will become great sacrifices for our new warlock to practice on.”
“Yes brother, if we fail, then Morthrus will punish us severely. As much as I would love that, I rather do so on our own terms.” The right one responded.
I looked them all over and a tinge of fear ran down my spine.
Trazix, Level 6, Infernal Teacher
Dracex, Level 6, Infernal Instructor
Sergeant Willups, Level 7, Warlock
One of the missing Marines! We outnumber them, but we can’t over do it since we still have to fight Morthrus.
Trazix snapped his fingers and a wall of black flames appeared behind us, blocking us in. While Dracex pulled out a large hammer from seemingly nowhere. “Willups, be a dear and cover for us, I am sure you can handle that much”
“Of course Masters, I shall carry out your will.” Willups said while a purple energy swirled around his hands. “Hex!”
I felt my body become covered in pins and needles and it hurt to move . All my movements were slowed as I tried to cast a spell. I could still see and everybody else was already fighting. Trazix threw balls of black fire at us and occasionally beams of red light. While Dracex was swinging his hammer left and right to hit anyone he could. Those two were a perfect duo of range and melee.
Park threw his own spells at Dracex to slow him down and keep him weakened. Leo, Crow, Madison were all on top of Dracex to keep him away from the rest of us ranged fighters. Luckily Becca and Marcus kept Trazix and Willups busy with their own attacks. I was the only one standing there doing nothing, due to whatever spell Willups put on me.
Fuck it, Wispy get out here! Blast Willups!
Luckily the spell only affected me, not my summons. Jeffery ran wide and came behind Willups and latched onto his leg with a bite. At that point, Wispy spewed blobs of ice at Willups in the hopes that it would break the spell somehow or keep him busy.
Willups hollered in pain from the attacks. “Fucking get off me mutt!” He pulled out a knife and slammed it down into the neck of Jeffery. All that did was enrage my wolf even more who started to thrash his head side to side with a knife sticking out of his neck.
I glanced at his health and I saw it was slowly ticking down, already below half health. I tried to send mana to Wispy, to blow Willups up, however I was sadly unable to. When is this going to end?
All my teammates were fighting for their lives at this point. Leo was hacking at Dracex whenever he could, but the hammer wielding Incubus would just use the momentum of his hammer to move out of the way, and hit either Crow or Madison. Trazix’s own attacks were weird enough as it was, he never had to speak aloud for his attacks like the rest of us, so I had no clue what he was even casting.
Becca cursed from behind me. “I am getting low on Arrows, if we keep this up I won’t have enough for the final fight if it comes to that.”
“Luckily this place is full of rocks, Mathew can you help out Becca dude?” Marcus shouted
I couldn’t move still, as much as I wanted. Did they only now realize I was stuck?
“Mathew! Dude pay attention!” Park shouted and he nudged me with his arm to get my attention.
That single touch brought pain across my entire body as if I was stabbed. I collapsed down in pain and was writhing on the ground, screaming my head off.
“Oh I see you all figured out your leader is currently out of the fight. Not to worry, you all soon will soon join him!” Dracex shouted while knocking Leo to the side with his hammer.
“Gloria help him!” Park shouted and she was soon next to me.
“Mathew, what is this?” She asked while healing me slightly, but it did nothing to stop the pain. “It’s a debuff according to the Party thing, but other than that I have no clue.”
It was then that I felt a mental cry and noticed Jeffery’s health bar go to zero. “Stay dead, you mutt!” Willups shouted.
Wispy was still attacking him, and he turned in our direction. “Teacher, may I?”
“Of course, feel free to practice however you want. A hands on experience is best in my opinion.” Trazix responded.
Willups pulled the dagger from Jeffery’s neck and walked over to me and Gloria. Fuck, why can’t I get up!
“Taunt!” Crow shouted to bring all the attention to him for a bit and let everyone regroup. However Dracex just scoffed and brought his hammer over his head and down onto Crow.
Luckily Crow was able to put his shield up in time to block a decent amount of the damage, otherwise he might have died. However, he still was knocked down onto the ground, flat on his back. Dracex put a foot on his chest and looked down at him.
“That has no effect on us, we are immune to mental attacks like those. Sorry cutie, I would have loved to spar with you more, you know your stuff!” Dracex lined up to slam his hammer onto Crow one last time but a flash of light and a searing pain came from behind him.
“Smite!” Leo shouted as he cut a long gash across his back. “Now!”
Madison leaped forward and started to punch and kick him, finally close enough where the Hammer was useless. “Flurry of Blows!”
Madison repeated the attacks over and over, each one covered with fire. Slowly she pushed Dracex away from Crow so he could stand up and attack with his own mace.
Willups had to jump to the side to avoid getting in the scuffle himself. He glanced in my direction again
“Trazix, help me!” Dracex shouted after leaping back to get away from the attacks.
Trazix however was starting to have his own problems. Park, Marcus, and Becca found a rhythm to their attacks. Park would first throw a Shadow Bolt, followed by Marcus’s rock. Meanwhile, to conserve ammunition, Becca started to use Aim more and more. That way every attack would deal maximum damage.
Willups was almost to us, and the others took notice, primarily Madison. She broke away from Dracex to fight the warlock and to keep him away from me and Gloria. “I always wanted to try this ability, let’s see if you are fireproof like the two Ken dolls,” she said.
Madison screamed and a wave of heat left her body. “Fire Nova!”
The entire area around her caught fire, including the carpet. Willups own cloak caught fire as well and he back stepped while raising a hand covered in purple energy. “Hex!”
Instantly the pain I was in was gone. However Madison instantly froze. In her eyes was fear as she couldn’t move due to the pain, and her ability ended instantly. I sat up myself and yelled. “He has a spell that can paralyze us, don’t touch Madi and get Willups!”
I felt much better with the spell no longer affecting me. Standing up I started to build up magic in my hand. “Ice Bolt!” Shooting the attacks at Willup.
I placed my palm facing Wispy and fed him the mana for his large attack. It’s time to end this. “Crow! Leo! Push those two together!”
I had no idea if they heard me, and I could only hope Dracex and Trazix didn’t pick up on what I had planned. Wispy waited on my command to release the attack as I threw two more Ice Bolts at the two brothers, followed by Parks’ own Chained Movement.
Leo cut his axe across Dracex with another smite, causing pain to sear across the Incubus’s body. Crow used that moment to shove him away and as he did, his shield glowed green.
Dracex flew backwards into Trazix causing them both to fall into a pile together. “Now!” I shouted.
Not only my attack, but Marcus, and Becca threw in their own attacks. The end result was a massive and loud sound of flesh being destroyed. I winced at the sound, however after realizing they were dead, I turned toward Willups.
He stepped forward and placed a knife on Madison's throat. “Back off or she dies!”
I didn’t even have a chance to say anything before I heard Leo shout twice each word followed by a blast of a shotgun.
“Smite!”
BAM!
“Smite!”
BAM!
Where Willups head was, is now a bleeding stub. His body collapsed on top of Madison. No longer under the effects of the spell anymore, she crawled out from under him.
“Gross. See now I am covered in his blood Leo!” She half heartedly complained, but I could see she was slightly shaken.
“Yea next time I’ll aim for the guy’s non-blood filled body parts. Are you good?” Leo asked as we started to heal each other up.
It was unfortunate that Leo used two of his shots, but he has 4 left. Thank God the upgraded shotgun gave two extra shots. I looked around the room and knew this was full of important items for us to loot later. However right now we have one final area to clear out.
Park walked over to Willups body and started to rifle through his pockets. Gloria slapped his hand, “Why are you looting a dead man?”
Park shrugged. “He can’t use it anymore. Look, his body doesn't end up like the people from dungeons.”
He was right. I looked where Trazix and Dracex died and nothing was there. Weird how no loot is dropped from them. Unless we get it all at the end of the dungeon like combat summary?
“Why do we not get any loot?” Marcus asked as he looked at one of the books, unable to read the alien text.
“My bet is it works like the Combat Summary.” I said. “The Gobling Dungeon was similar, nothing dropped that was worth looting until the final boss died. Once we exited the Dungeon we got the rewards from the quest. I assume it will work the same.”
Marcus nodded at that and continued to look around while we fixed ourselves. Becca was retrieving what few arrows she should.
“So Crow, will you tell us what that shield does now? You kept it secret and I saw it glow green.” Becca asked.
“Oh yeah! So I didn’t think it would be useful, but it gives a spell like Mat’s Staff. It’s called ‘Mountains Breath’ it’s a push effect but with wind. I also don’t have to say it aloud as an added bonus, I just think and it activates. Sadly it has a huge mana drain.”
I glanced at his mana for the first time and I saw he had 20% left. If my math is right, that uses almost 300 mana!
“Dang that’s mana heavy, only my rituals cost that much. Sucks you can’t use it again today.” I said.
Crow shrugged. “We can only hope the Succubus won’t have a sister. Agnox didn’t mention a sister did he?”
I shook my head. “No, and this is as good a time as any to bring him out. We will need him since Jeffery is dead.”
I brought out both Agnox and Frosty. Agnox stretched his fat body as if waking from a nap. “Oh? You guys defeated the twins eh? Nice job Weak Humans!” Frosty reamined still as always, while Agnox floated around the room.
“Anything here we can use?” I asked, just to be sure.
“Nah, unless you can read Infernal. Which, you can speak it, so why not?”
“Nope, already tried, can’t read them.” Marcus said sadly.
“Guys, anyone here an expert on weird shit?” Park asked from by Willups body.
We all looked at him as he had Willups shirt halfway off his body. On his belly were brands, each a different shape and size.
“Oh, they got him good.” Agnox said.
“What’s that mean?” Gloria asked, looking horrified.
“Ah, well Master Matty Boi here will learn that paper contracts are not the only form of physical representation deals can form. Brands are common back home, it shows who owns you. A reminder forever that you are not free.”
I grimaced at the thought of doing something like that, or receiving such a thing. “Why were you taking off his shirt?” I asked Park.
“Ah, it’s magical, all his stuff is. His outfit gives a bonus to infernal magic and necrotic magic. I was going to take off my robes and give them to Marcus, then wear these.” He said, continuing to derobe Willups body.
Gloria put a hand on Park’s shoulder. “Dear, maybe not? As smart of an idea as that is, it’s rude to do that to the dead. Have some respect.” We all nodded in agreement.
“Oh, alright. I guess. I just was trying to be smart about the situation. We need all the help we can, right?”
He has a point, and in most cases I would agree, but taking the clothes of a dead man is a line I don’t want to cross.
We were patched up and ready for the final fight. Gloria reapplied two buffs, one to Leo and one to Crow. Saving the rest of her mana for the fight. Becca only had sixteen arrows left, and if she ran out, would have to rely on a short blade she normally used for woodwork.
The plan would be simple. Go in and hit her with everything before she has a chance to attack us. She could summon what few Imps remained here, but both Marcus and I would be on minion control.
We marched down the hallway to where Morthus’s bedchambers resided. I won’t lie and the thought of such a place gave me a gross shiver.
Inside the room was empty. It was the same size as the previous room, minus the books and other things. Insead was the largest bed I have ever seen, and my family has had several. Three cars could fit on top with no problem. Other than the bed, candles were lit giving the room an eerie glow. The room had a weird smell that reminded me of cheap perfume.
The empty and openness of the room felt wrong. We were expecting a fight and found nothing. I glanced at Agnox who just shrugged at me. Either he was confused or didn’t care. Once we were all in the room we kept our guard up still but slowly looked around. Anyone could take a butter knife and cut the tension in the air.
“Maybe she died?” Crow asked quietly.
“Great, now we are fucked. Have none of you learned to keep your mouths shut?” Madison muttered elbowing Crow.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Still nothing happened and I had a horrible feeling that we are missing something. “Madison, you have the Perception skill, are you getting anything?”
“Just the perfume my Aunt used to always wear filling my nose. I doubt I will be able to smell anything else for the rest of my life.” She said.
A few more still moments went by before the tension was cut. “Hmm, no. Only two of you could satisfy my needs. I thought yummier treats would show up.”
The voice was silky smooth and feminine. I looked around for her, but found nothing.
“You all heard that right?” Gloria asked.
“Yup, and I hate to know which two she is referring to.” Marcus said. “I doubt it is me. Considering my wife wasn’t satisfied with me.”
“Oof, self burn.” Park said slyly.
“Both of you stop playing, she can appear at any moment.” I said.
“No, don't let me interrupt. Actually I Suggest you keep bickering among each other.”
When she finished her sentence my mind was clouded. My annoyance at them always making jokes and not being serious surfaced. I gripped my staff in anger and turned toward them.
“You both need to shut the fuck up. I am tired of the side jokes. We could die in here, why are you bickering!” I shouted at them.
“Us? What about you! Mister ‘I am the leader because I am the highest level’.” Park said, crossing his arms.
“At least Park isn’t responsible for half my hard work getting taken away! I can tolerate a child who doesn't know better.”
“Hey!”
“But, a snide lawyer who cares only for money is someone I can’t stand!” The only reason I am working with you, is to get enough levels to survive on my own, then find my Ex and wack her really good!” Marcus exclaimed.
“Woah, you guys why are you doing this? Knock it off!” Leo said getting in between us.
Crow put a hand on my shoulder. “Mathew, focus man. Big scary devil remember?”
“All of you, I simply Suggest you fight more. Why are you even here sacrificing your lives? For who? For what? Who are you to risk your life for nobody?” Said the voice again. It filled my head and she was right.
Why am I here? Because I was asked to? Because this new world is scary? I could easily just get people to sign contracts and work FOR ME! I don’t need these guys do I? The military can go fuck them selves for all I care.
We all started to bicker and fight among ourselves. Even Gloria, the normally quiet and nice lady, threw a few harsh words.
“And another thing, why do we even trust Madison and Park? They are children! My own child couldn’t be trusted with a knife till he was 16! We trust them to fight with us?”
“Oh please grandma, I was waiting for you to keel over from running too fast out in the forest fighting the plants.” Park said as a retort.
“Ha, all of you are so dumb. At least I have my father’s business to fall back on. I’m the tank, I can’t die remember? It’s my job not to!” Crow said.
“Leo, when are you going to come out that you have tricked Madison to trust you. Just so you can take advantage of her.”
Leo gripped his axe tightly and pointed it at Becca. “You know damn well that ain’t the truth. I am sick of those types of comments. What about you? Nobody even knows your history. You could be a serial killer for all we know!”
Unknown to us, a figure appeared near by licking her lips. “Oh yes, fight among yourselves. Tell me, who here is the real backbone of the group?”
Seven hands raised up. We looked at each other with sneers of hate.
“If it wasn’t for my healing, nobody would be alive!”
“Please, I deal the most damage with my rocks!”
“And who was the one who cooked for us?”
“Mwahahahah!” I just love a good drama show.”
“Hey cunt face, stop your shit!”
“What-” Was all that the Succubus could say before a fist on fire connected with her face. Before she could respond with her own attack, three more punches connected with her.
“Flurry of Blows!”
All of us were on the edge of attacking each other, but suddenly the cloud lifted off our minds and we looked around confused.
“HOW!” A demonic voice bellowed from the Succubus.
Morthrus Ky'Kegthellen, Level 8, Dungeon Mistress
I shook off my mind and looked at the others. “We can figure that shit out later, all I know is I am 99% sure it came from Morthrus, get her!”
Everyone silently agreed and turned toward her. We all launched attacks at her as she barely avoided even one of them. She half flew across the room to get away from Madison.
“Imps! Come and serve your mistress! Whoever kills the most gets an entire night with me alone!”
I felt a light pressure on my arm as I saw Agnox pretending to punch me. “What are you doing?”
He shrugged “Hey, a night alone with her is worth almost breaking the contract.”
I shook my head in confusion. “Just fucking help us fight.”
“On it boss!” Agnox threw two firebolts at his fellow Imps. “Oh hey I like that one. Boss. It rolls off the tongue just perfectly.”
“Agnox!” I shouted as I pushed mana into Wispy to try and blow up several Imps all at once. He didn’t respond but put his entire focus into the fight.
The mass of Imps made it hard to see, but we quickly thinned them out. Sadly we lost sight of Morthrus in the confusion. Damn it, fucking Agnox distracted me!
Once the Imps were almost on top of us all, Crow activated his Taunt spell and raised his shield to activate his Hunker Down ability. Becca sadly couldn’t attack in fear of using her last few arrows up, and used the time to try and find Morthrus.
“I can’t find her!” She shouted and turned to Marcus. “You feel anything?”
“No, I don’t. She can float so- MADISON!” He shouted as suddenly Morthrus appeared next to her with a chain like whip and a knife in each hand. The knife however, was plunged into Madison's back.
“Inflict Wounds!” Morthus shouted before letting the knife go and floating backwards.
Madison fell to the ground and Gloria was on top of her pumping healing magic into her. Leo pulled out his shotgun and aimed it at Morthrus.
“Bitch!” He only let loose two shots back to back before she was out of range of any further attacks.
“Guys this isn’t something I can fix, it’s not a poison!” Gloria yelled out.
I pulled out a healing potion and handed it to Gloria. “Keep her alive, we got Morthrus.”
Crow moved to protect them with his own body, leaving only five of us able to fight.
I sent a mental note to Frosty and gave a thumbs up to Park. Both of us slowed down her movement and when she was about to attack us with her whip, she screeched in pain as Frosty attacked her from behind.
I didn’t have the damage numbers up, but if I had to guess, it was easily over 200 damage, if not close to 300.
She flew up out of range of Frosty. Sneering down at us, “Fine then. I wanted to play a bit longer, but enough is enough. Summon Alpha Infernal Wolf!”
Please don’t let it be a giant horned wolf.
A giant horned wolf appeared on the ground, it looked similar to the one I fought a month ago, however this one seemed less feral and more lean. He looked over at me and bared his teeth in a growl. My Staff grew warm in my hand, as if it wanted to challenge the Wolf. I had the feeling Jeffery wanted to fight, but I had no way to summon him right now. Sorry buddy.
“Park, Marcus and Becca get Morthrus. Leo and I will work on the Wolf.” I said while mentally sending Frosty to move behind the large beast. I had one advantage compared to then, I wasn’t alone.
Leo took one glance back at Madison and charged forward, his axe glowing with a yellow light as he infused it with a Smite. I sent a couple of Ice Bolts and risked a knife attack or two just for a difference of attacks. My cold attacks were resisted, but my knives were not.
“Boss, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if we don’t end this soon, she will just summon more Imps and possibly another Demon.” Agnox said between throwing Fire Bolts at the wolf.
I cursed inwardly and just had to hope the combo attack would be enough again. I pushed mana into Wispy, but was met with the message that it was still on cooldown, only ten seconds left. Leo will just need to last that long.
Leo was holding his own well enough. He had a small shield like Crow once started with, and it was the sole reason he was still alive. The giant clawed paws of the wolf beared down onto Leo. He would narrowly dodge and respond with his own attacks from his axe.
“Leo use your gun!” I shouted.
He jumped to the side and left a small gash on the leg of the wolf. “I only have two shots! Shouldn’t I save them for her?”
If we didn’t kill the wolf, we can’t all focus on Morthrus. If we all focus on Morthrus, the wolf would just tear into us. We can’t use the same plan as with the Dryad.
“Do it!” I shouted. Hopefully she can’t summon another Alpha anytime soon.
Leo pulled out his shotgun and infused each shot with a smite for the extra damage. Once he finished his two attacks, I sent Frosty for a sneak attack of his own.
The attacks left open wounds on the beast, and I knew it was near death. It just so happened Wispy’s large attack was available.
I pushed my mana into him and commanded him to attack the Alpha calling out to Leo to move and dodge the attack. That attack seemed to do the trick to end him. I looked over at Marcus and Becca.
Morthrus was zooming across the room dodging rocks and arrows.
“I am out of arrows guys, I have one left just in case.” Becca called out.
Fuck, now what?
“Help Gloria out somehow if you can.” I said. Hopefully she can help somehow, even though she has no healing. I should pick up a healing spell.
I glanced at Madison’s health bar and my face paled. I saw it tick down to empty right then and there, her section fading out, no longer part of the party since she was dead. I turned toward Leo who had a blue box in front of him. “Leo, let’s focus on Morthrus. Let’s kill her now and we can take care of everything later.”
He didn’t move for a moment and Morthrus used that to attack him with a small ball of fire. The attack knocked him back a bit and he fell on his back. Fucking shit.
“Marcus and Park, help me finish her!” I shouted, sending my Ice bolts to slow her down.
“Curse! Chained Movement! Shadow Bolt! Affliction!”
“Create Rock!”
“Ice Bolt! Summon Object!”
We were throwing everything we had at her. Luckily she was slow due to Park and I slowing attacks. However it just didn’t seem enough. I even saw one lone arrow hit Morthus in the center of her chest. But she has easily taken over a thousand damage if not more. I couldn’t believe she didn’t even look tired.
I realized then that the rest of us might not live. A new plan started to form in my mind of possible ways to escape. Crow, Park and Marcus could keep her busy, while the rest of us escaped. But then they would surely die.
Myself and Park? Less people die, but I didn’t want to die either.
Just Crow? Again, he couldn’t slow her down.
I knew what I would have to do, but I didn’t want to do it. It would be way too risky. However, unless I attempted it, we would all die. I moved over to Leo and fed him his own Healing Potion. The blux box remained in front of him, and he just stared at it.
“Leo are you there?” I asked.
He didn’t respond.
“Shit dude, if you don’t get up, I am going to just have to do plan C. I hope Morthrus likes contracts, come on I need your help here.”
He just stayed sitting there, starting at the blue box. It sucked I can’t read it, maybe I could get an idea of what it says. I didn’t get one, so assumed it involved his Oath. I just hope it didn’t hurt him with her failing her part.
I stood up and shouted. “Morthrus, I would like to engage in a contract.”
She gave me a half glance and rolled her eyes. “I don’t want to, you took Agnox from me. Besides you have nothing to offer me.” She looked at something and snapped her whip. “Excellent! Mass Summon Imps!”
A hoard of Imps flooded into the room and I was confused how she could summon so quickly. It took me at the shortest casting of ten minutes. This is it, Madison was first to die, now the rest of us will.
I realized then I had only one thing left to do. I turned and started to try and run back to the portal. “Run!” I shouted, hoping the idea would catch on with everyone. Even at Level 9, and with everyone else almost at equal level, she was too strong.
I had no clue as to why we failed, and at that moment I didn’t care. I focused on myself and started to run. However I only took one step before I stopped due to a flash of red and white light.
Leo was standing and a tall muscular figure stood in front of him. It was the ugliest human I had ever seen. His skin was green, and two large teeth stuck out from his underbite. A purple cloak hung around his shoulders, as had a hand out helping Leo up.
Shit another Demon? Why is he helping Leo up? Did Leo make a deal!
I risked a glance at the green man and nearly choked at what I saw.
King, Level 100+, God of Regret