The shaking grew worse and worse, and then the ground began to split open. Long vines began to erupt from the various houses. They were black and covered in thorns, and they were quickly crowing out, seemingly pulling the city apart.
“IT’S TOO LATE!” The voice of Twilight boomed out across the courtyard. “YOU MAY HAVE STOLEN SOME OF MY POWER, BUT I HAVE PLENTY TO SPARE! RUN ALL YOU WANT. I WILL CONSUME EVERYTHING!”
As if to punctuate her point, the entire town was being eaten in front of us. Innumerable vines wrapped around and consumed even the rocks. The view of the palace in the distance was quickly consumed by black vines, and more of them came every passing second, heading in our direction. Terra grabbed me, helping me to my feet. After casting Mass Resurrection like that, even refresh wouldn’t be able to absorb the exhaustion I felt. After all, I had been starved and my body left for dead for nearly a week, and then I had to cast a powerful spell that overtaxed my body in an already low-mana regen area.
“I’m sorry, you’re going to have to hold me.” I apologized as I put most of my weight on Terra’s small form.
She smiled back. “I am Master’s shield. I will protect you always. Just leave it to me.”
I nodded and then turned to everyone else. Sapphire was still hugging her mom, while the king was still left in a stunned state.
“We need to get moving now. Can we get past the barrier?”
The king finally closed his mouth and glanced at me, his eyes slightly complicated. “The barrier is down.”
“Okay… then… we just have to head up. We can get to the surface…” I tried to brainstorm.
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“You don’t understand, without the barrier, she’d be free to continue consuming. She’ll use this opportunity to head the surface. Her corruption and darkness will begin to spread again.”
“Again?”
“Hell… my boy, the Infernal Dungeon.”
“Hell?” I frowned. “You mean the dungeon under the Demon King’s Castle? Isn’t it just the soul counterpart to the castle?”
“If it were only so simple. Hell was the first place to burrow into her prison. The Dungeon Master of Hell is Twilight!”
As we were speaking, Terra was mostly carrying me forward. We had fled past the entrance to the former deep dwarf city. The vines had already filled it up, turning the entire place into a realm of darkness. While I passed Ruby, I brought her and her mother into my soul world. I felt that was probably the safest place for them at the moment. That’s when I noticed that King Diorite hadn’t moved. He was still standing right at the entrance, seemingly lost in thought even as the vines broiled closer and closer.
“You can explain it all to me once we’re someplace safe,” I suggested.
“That’s how she bypassed Gaia’s prison. That’s why the corruption spread across the north. My dungeon… my barrier… separated her from the Infernal Dungeon. Once she has control of it, she can slowly reconquer it and within a few months, she’ll be able to reach the surface. I don’t know how the demons are these days, but they’ll renew their invasion of the continent with her behind them. That’s the truth of it.”
“I understand, things are bad.”
“Two weeks.”
“What?”
“I can give you two weeks.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I couldn’t save my daughter or my people. When I found out my daughter had returned here, I was hard broken, I had sent you down as a last-ditch effort, completely expecting you to fail. Yet, instead, you have saved everyone.”
“King Diorite?”
He lifted his hand, and a ball of light appeared in it. I was very familiar with lore at this point.
“You were the one who saved my people, so I’m afraid I’m going to have to leave it to you to protect them from now on.” He declared. “In that time, you must come up with a proper defense. You must block her off from the Infernal dungeon, and keep her locked in her prison. Tell them I love them! Tell… Sapphire… I’m sorry I didn’t see her.”
He waved his hand and the ball slammed into me. Terra let out a cry as the last bit of my energy left me. Connecting with this lore seemed to be all my body could take, and I slipped into unconsciousness.