The humanoid core didn't react to seeing the scabbard, which worried Arthur a little. So, when he pushed the metallic sheath against the invisible wall's boundary and found no resistance, he didn't rejoice. Instead, he moved the object sideways and tried to move his hand through the hole the voidsteel should've created.
His hand found the same impregnable wall as before.
Arthur supposed the wall might just be repairing itself and tried moving his hand faster, but it didn't work. He attacked the barrier again, hoping the passage of voidsteel had weakened it. Nothing. He moved the scabbard around, checking whether continuous "damage" from it would have a consequence. It produced no results.
He tried two things after that. First, he used his metal domain to grab the scabbard by the middle—with a metal hand—and push it until the hand touched the barrier. The metal couldn't move further. Second, he placed his naked hand on the sheath and tried the same thing. His flesh was also stopped by the barrier. Touching voidsteel didn't give his domain or body any anti-magic properties.
The anti-magic alloy could go through, but nothing else could. In hindsight, Arthur should've prepared a voidsteel armor for extraordinary situations such as this. His hurry had blinded him to his potential shortcomings. Sure, as people said nowadays, hindsight was always "20/20."
Still, after all his training, he had messed up on something so basic!
"Stupid," the core said.
Arthur didn't reply. He had to focus on himself while touching the anti-mana alloy, and even after he took his hand away, the headache was severe. He hadn't felt a headache the last time, but he had touched voidsteel for a much shorter period back then.
"Any ideas?" he asked, having trouble thinking creatively. His stats were returning to normal, but it would take a few minutes.
"What if you modify the scabbard a little, Archie?" Sophie suggested as she patted her mythril dagger.
He nodded with a smile, though she couldn't see it through his helmet. "Great idea."
A bit of teamwork later, the closed end of the scabbard melted away under the fire sword's heat, turning into a tube. Arthur pushed it horizontally through the invisible wall. Sadly, contrary to the four people's expectations, nothing could go through the middle. Not metal, not Sophie's blood, not Tamara's air—her skill element—not intent strings, not even Arthur's domain. The barrier's strange magic couldn't be fooled that way. There was no gap to exploit.
Arthur had tried everything as fast as he could, and only a little time had passed, but the humanoid was almost as tall as a fifteen-year-old.
Even if stepping back could take him from this place—which Arthur wasn't sure, as there was no archway—there was no time to go back to the Institute for a voidsteel armor. Not unless time here ran much slower here than the outside, which was a ridiculous idea, considering time ran faster in this dungeon. The prince felt he was lucky enough to get here during the ascension.
Part of him kicked himself for delaying his arrival so much, but it was the same as with Emily. He had no way of knowing things would develop this way. He had suspected it, but...
But...
Arthur sighed.
He had no reasonable excuse. He had known he had to hurry but had gotten lost in love and lust. Yet, he didn't regret a second of it. Not even if the world ended because of that. At least he had found true joy with the woman he loved for a short period.
It was egoistical, yes, but he had never claimed to be altruistic or perfect.
"I have one last idea," Arthur said somberly as he threw the scabbard on the ground. "If it can even be called that. I don't think it'll work." He sighed again. "I also don't think we'll die if the core concludes its ascension. Fate will likely pull us out. I'm even confident I can fight the ascended core. Unless it becomes something like that, of course." He nodded at the giant Devourers. "But just in case..." He turned to Graham and Tamara. "Thank you for your hard work."
"It was my honor serving you, master," Tamara said honestly while bowing.
The prince definitely couldn't see what honor there was in serving someone like him, but he knew better than to tell a woman her feelings were incorrect. The woman in question had taught him that.
Graham just nodded back. Considering what was going on between the two men, Arthur found it more than enough.
The prince then turned to Sophie. "Thank you for the best days of my life."
Sophie smiled bittersweetly under her helmet and hugged him, which was awkward with her armor and his robe. He didn't mind. He also allowed himself to waste a few extra seconds before the attempt.
Arthur was more or less fooling his people. Sure, he wasn't lying; he indeed didn't believe his plan would work. But he had to trick the core for his chances to increase even for a millionth of a percent, including setting a scene.
"I'm sorry I'm not a romantic, Soph," he said softly. "If I'm going to fail, I want to fail like a knight. I'll fail while giving my all." He separated from her. "Everyone, do everything you can to destroy this damn barrier. Spare no efforts."
He pulled all the metal from his spatial ring and threw it against the wall. He used all forms he could think of. Disks, drills, darts, javelins, small spheres, wrecking balls. He used his domain and his intent strings. Meanwhile, he used two swords with his body.
Sophie surprised him by pulling thousands of litters of blood from her spatial ring. He smiled, enjoying seeing her prepared like that. The best defense was always something not even the person you trusted the most knew about. If he were ever captured and she had to save him, he wouldn't be able to inform his captors of that. Well, wouldn't have been able to before now.
The scarlet liquid struck the barrier repeatedly, with Sophie in the middle, using her weapons against it. She used her light skills repeatedly, with purpose. Arthur had to force himself not to see her moving because it was always so wondrous.
Fate, he was such a love-struck buffoon.
Tamara and Graham tried all sorts of skills and spells while also using her spear and his punches against the wall. Tamara's air skills and Graham's fire ones added to the chaos of elements striking the wall.
"More!" Arthur screamed as he focused his all back on the barrier. "More! Give it your all!" He attacked as if in a frenzy.
Mana, blood, air, fire, and steel covered the invisible barrier that stood unshakable against the barrage. There were no signs of damage even after minutes. His people's mana was getting close to bottoming out.
Arthur yelled in only partially fake rage, "Coward! Come and fight me! Stop hiding!"
It worked. The core replied. "Pathetic—" it started saying.
The prince never heard the rest. That moment of distraction after relaxing in the face of the failed attacks, on top of the vision impairment caused by all magic and skills, was the final factor that could improve his chances. He didn't hesitate.
The voidsteel scabbard was already waiting right behind him, floating at shoulder height, firmly held by a metal cylinder. Arthur moved his arm back, grabbed the cylinder, and used life mana to make himself as fast as possible for a throw. He used his whole body to send the scabbard flying ahead with all his strength, according to everything he had learned of martial arts from Graham and knew of biology and physiology from his life element.
When Arthur's body reached peak speed, he used his metal domain to push the metal cylinder around the sheath even faster than he biologically could. All his comprehension and insights were added to the authority chain connected to the cylinder's internal layer. The cylinder had two layers, one internal and one external, and he prehended the external one.
The prince even included some tentative concepts of railguns he had barely read about and let Fate fill the gaps. Mana left his body as if a damn had broken and was instantly consumed by Fate to make his prehension magic work.
Arthur used almost all his mana in the pursuit of utmost speed, going way beyond the point of diminishing returns. It didn't matter if he was wasting energy. Every little bit was significant here to ensure the core wouldn't dodge. He only left enough life and metal mana to barely heal and protect himself in the aftermath if needed.
The prince had never thrown something that fast. He couldn't measure the speed. His perception wasn't enough to see what happened. Not at all. He didn't even see a dark streak when the projectile left his cylinder.
The exertion injured his body badly, with bones breaking and flesh rending. The sonic boom was so violent that the protection of his helmet, head cover, and stats weren't enough to shield his eardrums. He barely defended his brain on time.
The scabbard was so fast that to him, it felt as if the world changed at the precise moment he finished his throw.
It was the same effect of walking through the core room archway. One moment, he was on that strange platform. The next, he and the others—all naked—were in the square obsidian room where the core used to be.
No, not used to be; was. At least, what remained of it.
The scabbard had struck the room's opposite wall and disappeared into a small hole, which was surrounded by spiderweb-like cracks. The room's central pedestal, above which the core once floated, was still there, but the core had fallen. Most of the crystal had shattered into smithereens and was scattered all over the floor. In fact, almost the entire crystal had disintegrated into dust, except for a tear-shaped thumb-sized piece that wasn't shining with rainbow colors anymore. Arthur felt no life in any of it.
He had done it!
The dungeon was dead!
...or was it?
Arthur cut his body's pain receptors as he healed himself and frowned. What was changing his surroundings so quickly and effortlessly, and why? What kind of magic could do that? What magic could produce the invisible barrier?
More importantly, what kind of magic could make him incapable of feeling any trace of death in the dungeon core? He should feel something if it were alive only an instant ago, even if it were a living crystal.
Lastly, and most important of all, why wasn't he getting an achievement for destroying his first dungeon?
"Graham," the prince said a little after healing his lungs. "Did you feel any spatial fluctuations when we moved?"
Before the knight could answer, the entire room cracked. A strong suction force pulled a big chunk of stone from one side of the room, revealing absolute darkness beyond.
No, not absolute darkness. There were very faint stars in the distance. Arthur was looking at the cosmos.
The prince's frown deepened. The suction force didn't affect the people, but it did pull the core's pieces. He used his domains to move quickly and stomp the big chunk into tinier pieces. His naked feet only hurt slightly because he used magic to reinforce his skin.
He only managed two stomps before he frowned. How was he feeling any pain at all? He had already cut off his pain receptors!
The suction force suddenly pulled everything at once, distracting him from his thoughts. The room and core bits disappeared, pulled into the distance in the vastness of outer space. Only four people remained, floating in nothingness.
Their equipment had returned. Arthur's previously floating metal pieces and Sophie's blood were floating around them.
The cloud nebulae and impossibly big gas giants were gone. In their places were four immense planets, though a third of each had what looked like black tumors sucking their mana and life dry.
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Arthur felt as many people as before dying, which couldn't come from a single planet. And it wasn't only one. As he looked, every planet was both the one he had been looking at and a new one. Each planet was actually countless worlds superimposed on each other. Or, more likely, they were in different places, and the tumor was the only constant that connected them all.
His mind hurt as he looked at the impossibility. Then, each tumor opened a single impossibly large eye with slit-like pupils, each of a different color—orange-red, light blue, teal, and purple—and looked at him. It was like a bomb exploded inside his brain. The pain was indescribable.
And yet, he resisted enough to maintain his consciousness and look away.
There was no air to breathe like there had been on the platform. Yet, Arthur was sure he was in the same place. His headache was enormous, and his mind felt foggy, but he hadn't been fooled by the sneaky trick the enemy tried to play on him.
He was sure: this place was real, but the nebulae and core room hadn't been.
He didn't know why the Devourers tried to look even more impressive than they were. But he guessed the lack of clothing and items in the core room was because the enemy couldn't produce believable illusory interactions between himself and such objects. The pain he got from looking at the planets wasn't from seeing some kind of paradox or anything. He had too many mind stats for that. Instead, it was the genuine pain he had been feeling since he looked at the first illusion. When he freed himself from it, he felt the pain of having his senses fooled. A preliminary analysis found no permanent damage on his mind, but he would have to check more deeply later.
Arthur looked around with urgency, looking for the damn dungeon core—and found it.
He couldn't see it with his naked eyes or feel it with his domains. It was too far away. But just as he had messed up in not bringing a voidsteel armor, so did his enemy mess up at one thing. They didn't use any magic to fool his Mana Sight.
The same thumb-sized tear-shaped crystal piece he had seen in the illusory dungeon room, made of mana of all elements, floated a few kilometers away from them.
Arthur immediately tried to fly towards it to finish it off, but the moment he tried to use his magic, a deep boom shook the nothingness—which should not have sound or other kinds of vibration—and then he and his people were pulled "down" at a quick speed.
He tried to resist with his domain but failed. He tried to use mana, but what remained of his life and metal mana instantly bottomed out in the ensuring mana-loop. The force demanding them to fall was beyond him.
He looked at the direction they were going and understood why he was outmatched. The superimposing worlds with purple-eyed tumor had seemingly teleported and was pulling them. It was only as distant from them as one of the moons was from his homeworld. Purple was the color of the space element. That should be the Spaceblight Devourer.
Yet again, his frown deepened. He noticed for the first time that no matter how much he tried, Fate was not displaying the monster's name any longer.
Until then, the prince had been surprised at everything. He had been confused by things that made no sense or were beyond him. Having his mind caught in an illusion made him scared to a point. Yet, he hadn't panicked. He had believed he was protected by Fate. That it was all in Fate's hands. That sooner or later, they would be teleported out of the dungeon since the dungeon was no more.
Now, noticing Fate was missing, Arthur felt genuine dread.
He looked at the people "falling" with him. He could feel them and knew they were healthy, although unconscious. His mental protection had kept him awake, and the worst the enemy could do was try to fool him. His subordinates and lover hadn't been as lucky.
Arthur searched his mind for a solution and had an idea. He would start with Sophie. It might be dangerous to her, but if he ended up only being able to save one of them, she would be it.
He felt her with his domain and followed his senses to where her traits were. Fate's sphere-like spells still felt ominous to even "look" at. Arthur had never dared to do anything to it before.
Now, he did.
He couldn't truly grab a spell with a domain, but he tried to touch a trait—
Mana exploded out of nowhere from all around him. It was mana in amounts Arthur had never encountered before. He was already suffocating from lack of air and now almost drowned in pure mana.
With the energy came two notifications that appeared in the very center of Arthur's eyes.
| WARNING: Unauthorized access detected
| WARNING: Continue at your own peril
Space shook again. The most horrendous screeches of anger, both acute and deep, come from the Devourers despite them being too far away to be heard. Still, those were only four voices that, although louder, were drowned under the screams of terror and despair from the countless lives that they were consuming. In this Fateforsaken place where nothing made sense, the prince could suddenly hear the victims, too.
A moment later, a golden beam materialized from "above." It covered Sophie first, then widened to cover all four people. It tried to widen more to grab the core, but the four planetary cancers throbbed like a heartbeat. The golden beam's progression halted.
Then, the four people were gone.
----------------------------------------
When Fate took someone out of a dungeon, its teleportation was considered risk-free. It never tried to place any awakener in the same space as another object. If there wasn't a minimum amount of space right outside the dungeon entrance, or if it had become a hazardous environment, like lethally hot or lacking oxygen, Fate moved the awakener to the closest free and relatively safe area.
Arthur didn't know what the League had done to the dungeon's entrance and whatever passages led there, but he knew it was all gone. Only that explained why he and the others appeared not in the voidsteel room underground but in the middle of the road in the Institute.
It was night and raining heavily. The light from the nearby buildings and the public illumination struggled to pierce the veritable veils of water.
The prince ignored the weather and focused on his and his people's health. He was most worried about Sophie, but the first thing he did was run a thorough check on his brain. He searched for any signs of any part of his brain having been meddled with. A full three minutes later, he found only what he expected of the aftermath of having broken free from an illusion.
Unlike the last time he was teleported out of a dungeon, Fate hadn't brought his metal with him, so he couldn't protect Sophie from the rain. That sucked, but he had more pressing worries. He took her gauntlet off—going through the specific motions that would disable the battle maid's defensive enchantments when they were unconscious—then checked her brain. A few minutes later, he was sure she had merely been a victim of sensory overload. He healed her and let her wake up on her own.
Graham was next because he was most likely to protect Sophie if needed. He also was clean. Arthur woke him up immediately. He also woke up Tamara after checking up on her, then vaguely gestured for her to stand guard as he gently woke Sophie up.
"Archie?" the half-vampire said as she woke up. She smiled. "That was awesome!" She sat up excitedly. "How fast was that?!" She looked around for the first time. "We're back! We won!"
He shook his head. "Kind of. The core seemed to survive, but we damaged it. We'll have to recheck the entrance to see if the archway is gone." Although the dungeon had more than one entrance, the archway would crumble if it ceased to exist.
Arthur had no metal to spare except for the unenchanted swords he had used to attack the invisible wall. They wouldn't do. He mentally apologized to the people in the nearby buildings and pulled a lot of wires and metal utensils from their homes, formed a huge drill, and dug down.
"Wait here," he told his people. As much as the Institute might be dangerous, fighting an ascended core would be worse.
Less than a minute later, he was back in the null chamber, which had been filled with voidsteel dust. The dungeon's stone archway had also crumbled into dust.
The prince returned to the surface, where Tamara had used an air skill to produce a dome that kept the rain at bay.
"The archway is gone," he said, "but I saw a living small chunk of the core before we were teleported out, and we received no achievement for destroying a dungeon. Also, when you were unconscious, Fate was blocked by some beings." He quickly shared what he had seen and his guesses.
"Can the dungeon return to our world without Fate's teleportation?" Sophie asked, though even she didn't have much hope.
Arthur smiled sadly. "The dungeons always find a way to come, don't they? They don't need Fate. What I saw suggests Fate and the Devourers are enemies. If I'm not mistaken, Devourers are evolved dungeons."
That didn't explain why Fate didn't just destroy all dungeons. His best guess was that Fate needed people to level up. After all, if there were enemies to kill, warriors were needed, and no matter how powerful, Fate clearly had limitations.
It wasn't much different from how kingdoms managed dungeons as resources to level up and mine skill crystals. Or maybe even how they might agree to rules of engagement even in the face of their most hated foes.
Sophie nodded. "So, what now?"
The prince sighed. "Now, we take control of the League and use it to comb the world looking for any signs of that dungeon. Getting reports we can trust will take some work, but it's not impossible if we're in charge. Even then, I have a feeling we won't find anything. Not if the dungeon has the help and expertise of the Devourers. We'll have to prepare for whatever is coming."
The high elves would be easy to convince, and at least one dwarf leader owed him. Ironically, his own "primary" race, humans, would be the harder to bring under his wing.
Sophie smiled. "I meant, what now now? Do we go anywhere? Do we wait?"
"Oh." Arthur chuckled. "We wait to be noticed so as not to raise any alarms. We have to talk to Joint Command again, and I have to pay for the damage I caused." He was already placing the cutlery and wires back in their places but couldn't fix the non-metal furniture or structural damage.
Arthur changed clothes and spent the next few minutes healing himself. Tamara also took her armor off, though Sophie and Graham kept their equipment on.
Twenty minutes after their return, someone finally noticed the damage to their furniture and called security. A man with binoculars at a nearby apartment, who had dozed off, was called moments later. He became alert and checked on Arthur and the others, then confirmed they were back.
Other awakeners sleeping in a nearby building were called and quickly changed clothes before assembling and approaching. Two wore standard white plate armor, and the other was in uniform. The armored ones silently moved to stand on each side of the road, a dozen feet away from Arthur, holding strong flashlights to signal any improbably incoming vehicle that there were people there. The one in uniform stood a few feet closer, respectfully silent, awaiting Arthur's acknowledgment. The three had an artifact that kept the rain a few feet away.
Arthur hadn't expected to see Emily Reed there, much less wearing the League uniform. Her wavy black hair had been straightened and cut short, and her brown eyes were full of anxiety.
Her presence was yet another sign of cooperation from the League. Filling the null chamber with voidsteel dust showed they were closing that entrance forever and didn't mean to use the dungeon in any way he might disagree with. Forcing Fate to teleport Arthur to an open space also demonstrated that they didn't dare to let him feel trapped again. And Emily's presence signalized that they were taking good care of the victims he had saved.
In fact, he felt with his domain that she no longer had any sealed memories nor was suffering psychological trauma. After his enlightenment in the elven forest, he no longer needed to prehend anyone to check, though intent strings made him feel surer, as he had done with himself and his people. Properly healing Emily should've taken a long time, but she wasn't even one year older than the last time he had seen her. The short period, the lack of mental scarring, and the lack of recognition in her eyes evidenced that the League had taken a shortcut with her.
"Erased memories," he whispered so that Tamara, who was stepping ahead to talk to Emily, could hear.
Instead of slowly dealing with Emily's memories, the League had erased part of her life. That was an acceptable workaround if the locked or traumatizing memories only covered a short period, like a few months, and the patient could be removed from their previous environment. When you also gave the patient a new life with purpose, it could work wonders. Emily's uniform showed she had been given a new job and some training. She was also level 3, revealing the League had invested in her somewhat.
Emily tensed up at Tamara's approach and nodded deeply, like a respectful yet hesitant bow. The girl's vitality was under control, and her boldness was gone, leaving a very self-conscious girl in its wake.
"M– Maid Lauquenbur," Emily stuttered and gulped. She had to yell to be heard. "I was as– asked to bring you to t– temporary quarters until Joint Command can c– contact you."
Tamara nodded back. "We thank the League for its hospitality and foresight. However, High Lord Boria needs to talk to Joint Command right now. He has urgent and critical matters to discuss."
Emily took a deep breath. "They are already b– being contacted, Maid Lauquenbur. But I can t– take you to the nearest Red Line. I was ordered to assist you in anything." Her anxiety was getting under control. Enough for her to grow a little bolder. Her cheeks reddened as she lowered her head and whispered, "And I want to thank High Lord Boria for saving me." She teared up in embarrassment. Her whisper became even lower. "Also, sorry. I forgot everything I did, but Dad said I acted like a whor—"
Tamara interrupted her. "High Lord Boria accepts your gratitude and apology, although the latter is unnecessary. Every awakener understands the struggle of increasing vitality while lacking mind stats. There is no need to demean yourself for actions you had little control over. That said, now is not the time for personal discussions. As I said, we have urgent matters to discuss with Joint Command. What is this Red Line you mentioned?"
Emily went through happiness and more shame at Tamara's words. Indeed, now wasn't the time to discuss personal matters. She gulped and couldn't look at Tamara's eyes as she replied, "A new law passed a few days after your departure. Anyone above level fifty can contact Joint Command directly through the Red Line to discuss urgent matters. We can't cut or block the Red Line even if we want to."
Arthur approved of the law. Indeed, some things were too important to go through even more bureaucracy if a level 50 still thought it was urgent. Of course, people should also be punished for abusing such a convenience.
The only issue was that the level felt too high for the current world. Even the Commanders had only been level 50 when he last saw them. Obviously, instead of a law meant to be used by other people, they had created it just for Arthur, yet they didn't want to make it look like it was all about him.
"That is acceptable," Tamara replied. "Thank you for your help. Take us there."
Emily nodded. "This way, please." She turned and walked back to her building.
The entry hall had a red telephone on a red table in the corner, surrounded by a red square drawn on the floor. Three different tubes filled with quicksilver came from the phone, each going in a different direction to ensure the Red Line would still work if one of the tubes found issues.
Each tube had five layers, which Arthur only knew because he could feel the tubes where they began. The innermost and outermost layers were voidsteel. The centermost one was enchanted orichalcum. And unenchanted orichalcum padding stood between the voidsteel and enchanted metal.
If what Arthur had seen until now wasn't enough proof of the League's goodwill, the Red Line was. Depending on how far those tubes went, the cost to build them had been absurd. Probably, that's the primary reason they had made it a law. How else could they justify such expenditure?
"Just dial any number," Emily said. "It's just to send a signal—"
She was interrupted by the phone ringing. She hadn't lied; Joint Command had indeed been told Arthur was back, and they were already calling him.
The prince couldn't deny he felt flattered at their actions. He also felt very suspicious. Were they setting a trap? He was also worried for the world. What if they were acting like this because things were so dire that they saw no alternative to treating him like a king?
"Tamara, gather information," he ordered. He needed to know how long he had been away and what had happened. "Graham, please protect Sophie if anything happens." Arthur couldn't detect any trap, but he had been repeatedly reminded of his shortcomings in the past couple of days.
Then, he approached and picked up the phone.
"Run!" the voice of the old Elf Commander lady screamed from the handset as soon as Arthur took it from the housing. "Nuclear missiles! Terrell's trap! Run!"