Everything felt like it was falling in slow motion. Passion was undoubtedly preventing the complete collapse while he watched the struggle from his ship. I could hear his carefree booming laugh echoing in my mind.

There was only one exit, the lowest of the holes. I led the way, no longer needing to pull Yoshitsune behind me but holding onto her wrist regardless. We threw ourselves in like garbage down a chute. Debris and bodies joined us on the journey down. The bloody water that drained down slickened up the stones and made the ride down less jarring. My scales bounced off the uneven stone surface of a car with no shocks and chattered my teeth.

We slid out into the hollow chamber that we leapt down previously, now at a near forty-five degree angle. The platforms, knocked loose by the pulling of Passion’s hook, impeded our direct route down. I landed on the first angle platform; what was once a relief to feel under my feet now frustrated and panicked me. I kicked against the stone to quickly make it to the next gap. The tower was now so tilted that we had to climb to get into the gap.

We managed to navigate a handful of platforms in the way before a loud crashing sound broke out from behind us. The floor of the upper chamber collapsed. Massive blocks of stone and the remaining niceties of the throne room tumbled down the tower’s inner walls. Deafening pounding like the stomping of giants followed the rocks and made impacts that sent fault lines stretching all the way down the tower. The platform we just cleared was turned to smithereens in a matter of seconds, sending a spray of stones down on top of us.

The next platform was coming up on us quickly while the rocks behind us picked up speed. A few smaller rocks bounced off our bodies like warning shots from a tank.

“Hold on!”

I planted my feet into the ground and turned my muscles into springs to send us airborne. Yoshitsune gripped tightly around me while Herzblatt gripped around her. Something in my mind found that annoying, but the sight of the boulders breathing down our necks made me quickly forget about those unnecessary thoughts.

We flew for several seconds. The platform we leapt over was obliterated before we even touched the ground. Thousands of jagged marbles raced down below us to make for an awful landing. The force made me bite my tongue and the taste of blood washed around my mouth.

It was not long until we had launched ourselves again. This time, the sound of the crash was much sooner and the amount of rocks that joined us on our commute grew ever larger.

The bottom of the section loomed. The floor below had cracked and broken enough for a shallow pool of water to await us. The surface constantly rippled from the amount of debris that smashed into it. Death by flattening into flesh pancakes was all that location offered us.

However, I noticed that many of the rocks ahead of us didn’t make it all the way to the water. They spilled into an unseen chamber. I looked up to see the start of the hollow ring that made up the first balcony that we had stood on.

“We came through the sides!” I called out, pointing towards the gap.

I tried to steer us out of the way of the larger rocks, but could not move far enough to the side to spare us. Would another leap be enough to make it?

“Let me handle this!” Herzblatt shouted in response. “Your turn to hold on.”

We flipped positions. Yoshitsune held onto Herzblatt while I wrapped my arms around her waist. Herzblatt summoned a whip. He spiraled the weapon over his head like a lasso and struck out like a cobra. The spike on the end buried into the wall above us. We all kicked to the opposite side, our bodies rising slightly off the ground before the tension in the whip pulled us towards our destination.

We smacked against what used to be the floor of the balcony and bounced along the sloped wall. Our stony pursuers continued their warpath down and smashed into the wet floor at speed. A sound as loud as a bomb echoed off of the walls and shook the tower even more.

For the first time in what felt like several minutes, we all were allowed to exhale. But, there was no time to celebrate our safety. Wordlessly, we continued our march through the rooms until we reached the start of the staircase that would lead us to the slaughter chamber we had to fight our way out of.

The stairs were lightless and, with them resting at an odd angle, moving down them took a bit longer than I’d like. My uneasiness rose uncomfortably high while we limped through the tightly wound staircase.

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A familiar bloody chamber awaited us at the bottom. Well, it wasn’t the same chamber that we had used. The bodies that gravity gathered at the new bottom of the chamber were wholly unfamiliar to the ones that we fought. Fortunately, the sealed doors allowed the chamber to remain watertight and we could comfortably land.

“We need to get one of these doors opened,” I announced. “The bottom door is probably the best. If water is behind all of them, we want the one that won’t blast us.”

“What are we trying to get to?” Yoshitsune asked.

“We need to reach a starting chamber,” I explained. “There is probably some sort of travel magic there. We know that it connects to the waiting room.”

My words were met with silence. Herzblatt and, to a lesser extent, Yoshitsune looked at me with skeptical, even accusatory expressions.

“And how do you know this, friend?” Herzblatt inquired with a suspicious gaze. “To me, things seem highly bizarre. You disappear for far longer than either Yoshitsune or myself. And then, as soon as you arrived you started to order us around as though you had knowledge that the tower was going to collapse. If I didn’t know better, I’d think that maybe you entertained the voice that visited us.”

“Is that fucking relevant right now?” I snapped at the dog. “Are you going to do what I say or are you going to keep riding my ass until we’re all dead and get nothing?”

“I’m going to follow you, Ishmael-san, but I’d like to talk after this is all over.”

“I agree. I have some words for you, friend.”

“I don’t owe you shit, dog,” I spat.

I straddled the door and inspected it. They were not designed to be exciting. It was a solid slab of metal that spanned the entire doorway. I knocked on the metal to feel it was solid; at least an inch thick.

“I don’t think this door has any weaknesses, should we backtrack and try a different way?” Yoshitsune asked.

“No need, I’ll make a weakness,” I answered.

I pressed my hand onto the door and passed my spell of decay into it. Unlike the powerful creatures that I used it on previously, the metal door proved to be far less of a match. Rust began to coat the door and flake off in corroded flakes. I stomped on the door and it crumpled like aluminum foil. Water began to pool into the chamber from the new breach.

We took one large gulp of air and descended into the water. The feeling of drowning at the bottom of the sea overtook me as soon as the frigid water passed over my scales. My lungs tightened and bubbles slipped from my mouth.

Herzblatt took the lead, the dog’s research of the Dungeon allowed him to pick up on landmarks that weren’t seen on our first descent. Eventually, he spotted a hole that would allow us to travel several floors in one go. However, by that point, we had been holding our breaths for longer than a regular person could withstand. That familiar feeling of liquid hands wrapped around my throat and started to choke the life out of me.

Red portals covered every surface of the shaft. I immediately stuck my head into one of them and took several large breaths of air. I could hear Yoshitsune and Herzblatt sputter and cough.

“Clever, Yoshitsune,” Herzblatt complimented. “I was nearing the end of my rope.”

“How long can you maintain it?” I asked, knowing that every second was crucial.

“If I keep it active for as short a time as possible…two, maybe three times. Follow me into this one, it’s the furthest along.”

We quickly followed Yoshitsune to reach the bottom of the shaft with rested lungs. We plunged back into the water to find that the shaft terminated in the impossibly long hallways that we started in. But, fortunately, Herzblatt showed urgency and swam confidently down one of the hallways.

We made it through a sequence of rooms and a downward set of stairs before we needed another hit of that refreshing air. Even stale air from a pocket dimension left me feeling refreshed.

“This will be the last time I am able to use this,” Yoshitsune informed after we had made more progress.

One last time into the water. I kept my head lingering in that space for one extra second to savor the feeling of air in my lungs.

Knowing it was the last gasp of air didn’t register in my body until the red portal closed for the foreseeable future. My brain started sending my signals of paranoia. Each room that we passed that wasn’t the last room was a betrayal outside of my control. Like a job that revoked your paycheck at the last second, I refused to allow my hard fought gains to evaporate meaninglessly.

My chest tightened again, exasperated further by the knowledge that there would be no relief coming. A burning sensation filled my lungs as I pushed harder. Maybe it’s the next room, or the one after. I could not allow my body to slip away when I could be only a few feet away from freedom.

As if our tenacity manifested it, the rooms finally ended. On the floor, I could see a ring carved into the stone. Herzblatt’s body slowed down and his paddling grew weaker as his body was starved of oxygen. I could see Yoshitsune moving to collect him, but I did not have the luxury to consider him. The same condition that put Herzblatt out of commission was assailing my body. My strokes grew more erratic as I clawed through the water. My brain was fully of static and my eyes were covered in dark splotches and haze.

I felt a hand grab onto my tail as I fully extended my arms. My fingers just barely brushed against the carvings in the stone.

[Activate].

We appeared on the floor of the staging area, sopping wet and sputtering. A plume of water followed us like a small tidal wave, pushing furniture and soaking everything nearby. I lifted my head to see that the building was completely demolished. The walls had fallen and the roof went with it to allow the artificial sun to grace us with its presence.

Like a well spring, there was an eruption of every dead body left behind in the Dungeon. Bloated, waterlogged meat brushed against me and spread out over the floor.

The sounds of talking took my attention upwards. Demons in sparkling armor formed a ring around the condemned building. Their weapons were readied and their eyes were expertly focused. We were completely surrounded.

And not one of them looked pleased.