Chariot entered the ruins of the capital, silent and lifeless. Bodies laid strewn about the streets among the rubble, dust of the undead and even ashes with the vile traces of infernal origins joining them. With no incident at all they moved through at Shin’s lead, into the guardless halls of the cathedral to the highest floor and until they reached the grand corridor to its most important room, a red haired man in red and white armor standing in wait.
“Champion…” Reinolt drew his sword with heavy eyes of no return. The metal of his sword burned glowing hot and the rest of his form burned with it as he took the fiercest most tempered stance of his life, rage straining on his scalding expression. “You will pay-!”
A prismatic sword of black and white severed him in two as the vestiges of light dissolved in the air behind Shin. The cracks in his soul rippled furthered until the life left the commander’s eyes, and Shin continued on, not a single thought paid more to the Flame Knight.
He pushed through the doors to the Pope’s chamber to find a company of powerful undead and Johan standing over the body of a large man in the finest robes, who turned to Shin with solemn resolve.
“So you managed to kill the vampire…”
“Are you giving up?” Shin asked bluntly, a smile still absent from his face.
Johan held his silence for a moment, his demeanor bearing a depth to him that was lacking before. “Loss is inevitable… It is the duty of those who remain to delay such from others. For as long as we are able.”
“Why are you leaving them?”
“You think I do not care?! You think I do not miss them everyday…” Johan yelled, tempered pain in his expression and voice. “But they are gone…”
“They’re not.”
“They are! Face the truth! Some things… some things cannot be undone, not matter how we long for it.” Pain gave way to resolve deeper still. “I will do what good I can with what is left of me.”
Depth rose within Shin as well, more prominent that usual and of a different kind. A rejection. Shin opened his mouth, but a small green being shot from the pope’s body into Johan’s neck, burrowing inside in an instant. Veins and sinew spread over his body as he yelled in pain and shock, but soon his body strained still, and the undead lunged. Chariot burst with them but when the fighting cleared, Johan was nowhere to be seen.
“Wait.”
Shin stopped at the entrance of a secret passage at Jean’s word, who took the vanguard and led them down, sensing for any traps that may exist along the way. Down the path they travelled in no time at all, stopping at a stone carved doorway and a portal swirling within.
[The Library (legendary dungeon) - Greater Monarch]
“This can’t be right…” Yen looked suspiciously at it. “Just a dungeon, not a raid. And legendary? There’s mythic chimeras, how could the final boss room be legendary?”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Shin walked through before any further discussion could be made. “Guess we’ll find out.” Donny went next and the rest of chariot followed.
The party entered to a grand if bleak library. There was no light source but the dungeon seemed wrapped in a dim glow all the same, enough for all of them with their high Perception to see clearly enough. Rows of towering bookcases of aged wood stretched to the ceiling, each filled to the brim with tomes, parchments and scrolls.
They walked carefully through the library, which seemed more of a room in a great manor than a dungeon, not least of all due to the absence of any traps or monsters. Further they walked, still with no incident, and down a wooden staircase to a large empty room to a large humanoid, like a giant chimeric human with a mockery of a sun for a head.
[Chimera (legendary boss) - Greater Monarch]
A mouth form on the creature’s neck as it began to rise, with sneering glee. “You shouldn’t have come here.”
Shin moved first but the Chimera blinked away from the lightspeed invoker as if it knew what was coming. A bare kicked crashed down at it when he appeared and Gregor grinned, a portion of its sinewy green body shooting out as a red hot spike, one that passed through a portal into its own head as Karla’s kick crushed a small part of its body to oblivion.
A force held Gregor in place but he broke the magic at once and breathed a barrage of fire against the Kamala’s mystic barrier that covered the whole of the party. Dante threw a knife at open space as Shin blitzed again, and once more right at the location the chimera appeared.
He thrust his palm through the creatures flesh, and violent ripples thundered throughout, the prismatic chasms destroyed it all. Out of a chunk of its bursting flesh shot a green mass with the dark holes of a face straight towards Yen’s neck. And Dante caught it in his hand, melting it whole, and ten chests appeared in the center of the room.
Some stopped to take the useful items, but Shin moved on without delay so they quickly followed, passing around what was needed to who needed it as they went. At the end of the additional path beyond the boss room was what seemed a grim medieval lab, and at the end of that stood Johan in different attire and a strange demeanor of muted gloom.
[Human Soulweaver (legendary) - Greater Lord]
“Johan?” Yen asked.
The soulweaver turned with a look of disinterested confusion. “Ah… my other half. I took him back.”
“Wha-?”
“I need two laws, you see.” Stein continued as though rambling to himself more than conversing with them. “Resurrection and Immortality. But you can only have one, so I made two of me. That one was meant to gain the pursuit of resurrection but he was a failure. Ah, but that doesn’t matter. I’ll just make another.”
“Where is he?”
Stein shot Shin a look of mild annoyance. “I already told you I took him back. He was nothing more than a part of my soul, a useless one. I’ll need a new path, a better path this time.”
A serating storm of shadows crashed towards Stein and was dissipated harmlessly away. “Why do you care?”
“Bring them back.” Shin had not made a move from his spot, despite the attack.
“Them?” Stein dully recollected something. “Ah, there’s no need. They’re right here.”
Two vampires walked out at his word, a woman with black hair and a young girl. Shin’s neutral face deepened, bordering on perceivable hostility now. “They’re not the right ones.”
“I do not need defectives. Soon I will have a perfect immortal family.” Stein bluntly stated, though his disinterest gradually gain more zeal as he spoke with a smile that had nothing behind. “It thought it would take centuries more. So much time. Trial and error. But with this system, this tower... I’ll hardly need any at all.”
“I don’t like you.” The absence of depth in Shin’s words pulled Stein’s attention for a moment, but only a moment.
“Is that so… You are hindrances. I’ll have you disappear.” 39 chimerified humanoids of all manner of appearance summoned forth at Stein’s call, greater monarch players with legendary tier classes, and charged the party of ten.