According to Hera, the human realms have been in turmoil for centuries. Under threat of annihilation for perceived transgressions against their deity or something like a deity, Lavinia isn’t certain about that part. The humans worship through sacrifice and blood, these dungeons are the sorting grounds for such practices.
The Dungeons hosts scores of human’s warriors from all their realms and as Hera says, “It is as much our glimmer of hope as it is the executioner’s blade.” She explains that the mere continuation of the battle for dominion over Yetraltiz means that Yetraltiz continues to exist.
Lavinia doesn’t understand that very much either but she nods along having heard the word ‘Yetraltiz’ from that human, Henry. As it turns out he is a thorn in his species side as much as he is to Lavinia. Henry is a Chosen— a warrior capable of Kingship— and like any other he seeks to proclaim Yetraltiz as his dominion, except, while other Chosen wish to preserve and rule, Henry only thirsts for Yetraltiz to become a part of him, for everyone to become a part of him.
Hera shuddered to describe the horrors mankind underwent when he won the Dungeon’s games and became the first as well as fourteenth King of Mankind. Here Hera admitted that things are a bit confusing, “Every King is the first…technically. The crown of Yetraltiz exists as the personification of OverGod’s pardon and wearing it will make the Chosen the first in that instance to do so but since the OverGod is…as they are, other instances continue simultaneously and so Yetraltiz has its King and the dungeon has a flood of warriors fighting to be the next.”
By this point Lavinia had given up on understanding, whatever the situation is the humans had it bad and all she needed to understand how bad is the sheer absence of them in the Dungeons. Her first time here she at least encountered three teams but now, only one old woman greets her. In a way she’s glad the humans have reduced but as Hera says, the current King of Mankind is Henry, his victory ensured these results and what's good for him can't be good for Lavinia.
“With Henry at the helm he’s refused to bring Mankind to progress, instead he’s slowly absorbing every shred of power within the realms into himself. Punishing offenders by repurposing their souls and ‘rewarding’ exceptional warriors, mages, and leaders by consuming their knowledge and binding their souls to himself.” Hera fidgets, pacing back and forth while twirling her staff, she gazes at Lavinia and full of desperation confesses, “Jeriko is long gone…it’s…I found the next King of Mankind, Lavinia.”
Lavinia tilts her head at her and Hera chuckles nervously, “He’s not with me, of course, I’m searching for him, I had him then I lost him. Fuck. Henry’s thralls are everywhere in this Dungeon and he…Mark I mean, he’s the only Chosen to spawn here since I returned.”
Narrowing her gaze up at Hera, the concerns begin to make some sense and so she asks, “Mark will be new King?”
“Yes, the fifteenth King of Mankind and he’ll strip Henry of control. Henry’s already been King so once he’s deposed he’ll die on the spot or at least he should…” she gnaws on an ugly, bitten fingernail.
Lavinia wishes for his death more than anything but having him die without her direct interference annoys her quite a bit. She wants his curse off of her but she also wants to indulge in the spite and hatred she’s cultivated against the man all this time.
Hera groans, pulling at her hair as her eyes dart around the looping room, “I don’t know how capable Henry’s made himself, enough to kill all his opposition sure but I don’t know he's strong enough to defy the OverGod. Either way, I have to find and protect Mark, bring him here for the crown, watch him defeat the Minotaur and guide him to ruling Yetraltiz the right way. Will you help me, Lavinia?”
Hera has spoken a lot since Lavinia sat to listen to her and though she paid attention, there are a number of parts she couldn’t grasp. Understanding where they are being one, the waterfall sourcing and depositing itself in the same lake is one, the endlessness of their position— the Lavinia she stares at down there will never see the Lavinia staring because…why? She doesn’t understand how the Minotaur is so tough either but Hera did mention something about the creature’s link to the Master of the Dungeon who so happened to be whoever is King at the moment and thus…Henry?
If Henry is Master here then why would she dare lurk within his shadows? Why would his opposition ‘spawn’ to fight in his dominion? How could they hope to survive if Henry chooses to come here and finish what the Minotaur did not? Lavinia isn’t scared, no, maybe a bit but not enough to lose sight of what brought her to these Dungeons in the first place. Although, even the purpose of returning to Corym is put to question; can she make it back? Should she? The opportunity to ensure Henry’s downfall is right here and staring desperately at her. Will it come again?
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Lavinia grunts and picks herself up, “Corym, city of demons. Trirax, Caldri and Kimpe, do you know it?”
Hera’s caught off guard but nods, “Is that where you went? Or where you’re going?” she asks with a hint of hesitation, as though anticipating Lavinia’s next question.
“Can you take me there?”
Hera chews her cheek but relents, “Yes, but I can’t come with you, I can make a portal to it so you jump through. I have business to finish…for Mankind.”
Lavinia nods, understanding that in full, “I will help you so you can help me. Bring new King here and you send me…home.” Seraph and Jonn are waiting.
Hera’s eyes go wide but she doesn’t question any further as she twirls her staff for a mighty smite against the dirt ground. The space changes, the air stops being so suffocating and Lavinia takes an actual deep breath upon noticing. The lake dries up or rather displaces itself along with the waterfall now surrounded by dead trees and dim shining crystal stones. The water of the lake flows along the ceiling, bending into a familiar rising waterfall.
The Minotaur roars above and Hera winks with a grin, “Deal, follow me, we’ll start where I last saw him or where he should be…”
Lavinia zones her voice out as her thoughts takeover. She’d come to the Dungeon in search of a way back and indeed she’s found it, but dealing with Henry Vanavil, even indirectly wasn’t what she had in mind when she started the journey. Still, it’s come to this and as much as she longs to reunite with the rest of Seraph Squad, ending Henry and ridding herself of his curse, it comes before anything else.
Hera ran down in the dark of the dungeon’s renewed caverns, ignoring the Minotaur a level above their heads and following the dimmed trail of sparkling green-red crystals, she leads Lavinia into a narrow corridor, swerving left and right to spare her sides from the jutted rocks poking in.
“Can he win?” Lavinia deigns to ask as she pauses for a moment to retrieve a Crystal from her tattered boot, “Mark, the new King.”
Hera hums in thought far longer than she should given the question, but Lavinia waits and she answers, “No one can bring down the King of Mankind except the next King. I don’t know when or who the sixteenth King will be but he won’t be spawning in these dungeons anytime soon.”
“So, Mark will win.”
Again she hums in thought as the corridor widens and breaks into a stony room with more crystal lights. A large chest sits at the centre of the room but Hera deliberately makes her way around it, “Only if he gets the crown from the Minotaur and only if we find him alive. He’s only a future King or a possible King, nothing is guaranteed unless we make it.”
She punches a part of the wall, having it crumble and reveal a hollow space with a lever she pulls. The chest at the centre collapses in on itself, flattening until it covers triple the space it did before in brown padding. Hera steps on the dissected chest and Lavinia cautiously follows after only for the padding to spring and curl around them like a ball, encasing them in a darkness only Hera’s staff pierces. And then they fall.
The ball crashes through floors and levels outlined only by the faint lights of the passing crystals. Hera is unfazed by their twisting, revolving descent but Lavinia claws unto the ball’s rough and leathery surface, clutching the soul crystal she retrieved from her boot and nearly losing it as the ball crashes with thunderous racket before peeling open like Seraph’s fruits.
More than a bit rattled, Lavinia stumbles out and Hera only seems to notice her then, “Ooh, sorry, human’s fall asleep in these things. I’ve heard the experience is…yeah, sorry.”
Too busy with her spinning world, the pressure building in her feet and the ache in her joints Lavinia ignores Hera’s words and world in favour of absorbing her Soul Crystal. It’s one of the three she’d been hording for Seraph and Jonn, but after losing one somewhere during her one-sided match with the Minotaur Lavinia’s all but given up on the sentiment. To begin with, she’d need more power than she has to put a proper scratch on that pesky Minotaur and if Henry is Master of this place then it goes unsaid for everything else that might lurk.
11 ESQ Absorbed!
5 Essence Points Absorbed!
Crystal Essence Level 4—>5!
As the fog of new power settles over her mind and body, Lavinia growls at the result. Only one level increase for 11EP, growth is becoming expensive. She swallows the cost and its meagre reward of Essence Points without complain, it would serve a purpose in the end and her Essence stores have been slightly increased. She can be less frugal with Perks like [Crimson Blink] and get creative with [Blood Arts; Kinesis].
Decided, Lavinia spends 3EP in her [INT] Attribute and 2EP in [Agility] and her mood brightens as a second notification rings underneath her Identity Sheet.
Vampiric [INT—AGI] Perk {Blood Art; MistForm} Attained!