Making sure my armour and gauntlets were on and ensuring that Alice’s ring and earrings were on right, I nodded with satisfaction as I summoned my chakrams and attached them to my hips. Looking at the stairs that led to the hundredth floor, I took a deep breath and with Alice in my arms once again we climbed up the stairs and stepped onto the large platform.
Nothing was here, but I knew this was how it started. A screech resounded as a massive griffon shot up through the clouds and circled above us.
“Gravity.”
Three magic circles surrounded Alice and I, causing us to become nearly ten times our normal weight. With my strength I could handle this and Alice only shifted a bit uncomfortably. The griffon, as expected, hovered before us as a large magic circle appeared behind it and a powerful storm of wind hit us. Even with this weight this wind still threatened to push us off our feet.
The griffon, seeing us still in place, let out a screech but before it could fly back up a massive pair of talons rose and grabbed its wings. Stomping my foot down I used Gravity on the griffon as it screeched loudly before crashing onto the platform, causing it to tremble. Alice climbs around onto my back, hanging off my neck as I flash step in front of the griffon’s head, which was bigger than me. The griffon was struggling to stand under the increased weight and I knew I only had a little time.
“Primordial Darkness.”
“Emotional Upheaval.”
As both of our spells hit, the griffon roars in pain and I notice something strange. There is an absurd amount of darkness within it. None of the reports mention it and noticing Alice staring at the griffon, I change tactics.
Rushing forward to its neck, I hug its neck and dig my hands in while switching Gravity to me, making me ten times heavier, becoming an anchor. Using Lunar Blessing and my Domain, I made sure to only hold it down.
“Alice! Absorb that darkness!”
Without hesitation, Alice moves onto my shoulder and grabs a part of its neck and I felt a suction of darkness coming from her. Knowing it was working, I kept myself anchored as the griffon struggled and roared. Its body was in the air, threatening to take off while I kept my claws burrowed deeply.
I could feel myself losing overtime as I focused more, even though I was empowered like this it was winning.
“Alice, get on my back.”
Alice stops absorbing the darkness and hangs off my neck instead. Just as quills from the monster start firing at me, I use a technique that I had learnt from Tael, one he said had great success against heavy opponents. Using all of my strength as I let out a roar, I suplexed the bastard over my shoulder. Feeling my arms scream in pain, I continued.
The griffon slams onto the ground behind me, making the floor of my Domain tremble. Holding its neck in place, I once again yell.
“ALICE NOW!”
Alice places her tiny hand on its neck once again and continues to absorb the darkness. I could feel the best trying to turn its giant body as I felt dozens of quills hitting my back while I shielded Alice while continuing to keep the beast pinned. After about thirty minutes, Alice finished.
Alice has gained 3,000,000 experience!
Alice has levelled to 4!
Alice has gained insight into flight…
Releasing the griffon, I watched it twist its body as it stared at us in confusion before looking around. It tilted its head and stood up before roaring and with my Domain shattering it took off, flying off into the distance. I noticed right away it had given up on wanting to attack us, it had lost all reason to do so. Was it being controlled by Darkness?
As expected, a magic circle appeared and next to it a treasure chest. However, instead of being blue as the reports stated, this one was deep red. Ah, did we…did we discover another alternative route?!
Facepalming and sighing, I turned my attention to Alice who had her head tilted with her wings spread out. Smiling, I called out to her and she turned with a big grin. I could sense there was nothing wrong, it just seems she wanted to try flying.
“Not yet, Alice. It’s not safe here, we’ll practise later, okay?”
“Ok Mummy!”
Her wings fold back and she runs up to me as I pick her up again. Walking to the chest, I opened it and found the usual loot, some high grade materials and a key to another trial. This time, there was a strange black eyeball. Picking it up, my face turned grim.
Eye of Lilith
Used to open Her Tomb.
“Fuck, we did…” I planned to keep it secret that we had found an alternative path in here and prayed it wasn’t a ‘True Route’.
Sitting down and taking a moment to let my injuries recover, I wondered why the griffon ended up flying away. It didn’t matter too much, after all I couldn’t gain experience, but the fact it had darkness within it…why didn’t the records say anything about it. Or is it a case where it has always been there, but just never used so they didn’t bother recording it?
Sighing, I stood and with Alice we both stepped onto the red magic circle. Our surroundings changed as we were teleported to a new floor.
Floor 101
“Oh?” Glancing around, I saw what I had expected, a swamp of blood. This was normal, so why did the magic circle change? From here, there were no more resting zones so I had to conserve my energy and end fights quickly. Making our way through the swamp dealing with the strange monsters that used blood magic, it didn’t take too long before we arrived at the doors to Floor 110.
The monsters on these floors were not hard to deal with, mostly harmless as long as their magic didn’t hit. We had yet to run into any mutations and while praying this wouldn’t happen for the boss, I pushed the large doors and walked into the boss room, a massive crater filled with boiling blood up to my ankles. I alleviated this by wearing heavy boots that we had bought, Alice too wore a pair. Thankfully we made preparations ahead of time, I look towards the boss.
A massive werewolf sat at the back of the crater, looking towards us and seeing it I frowned again. I could sense darkness within this as well. Recalling everything, I do not remember anything about this boss using darkness based attacks, in fact it preferred physical attacks and blood magic. So why is there darkness residing in it? It’s far more powerful than the griffon too.
I stood there as I looked at the werewolf which also watched me. My mind spun with questions about what to do here, since it’s obvious that draining the darkness from this boss is important, but why? I can also drain darkness, though I’ve never needed to, and so can Alice, but surely there have been others that could. Part of me wanted to retreat from this place and head back to the Guild to find out more, but another part of me wanted to keep going to see what will happen.
Xeno had mentioned that Lilith controlled the dark-side of the moon, so did that include dark-type magic? I couldn’t tell what type of darkness was within the boss monster, and with there being so many different types of darkness it could be any. I knew from the griffon it was fine to absorb it, after all Alice hadn’t been affected by anything bad, since we share our Darkness mana and energy I could tell everything was fine.
“Well, fuck it. Let’s do this, Alice.” Alice jumps onto the ground and as I had taught her she used the ring to create a shield around herself. I would be able to protect her easily like this and since she can still cast magic within the shield it meant that anything that attacked her would need to break the shield, giving me time to get to her side.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
The boss in front of me was level 100, and it would be the last one since the boss on the 120th floor is Delta-Class. I made a plan to injure it badly before getting Alice to absorb the darkness within it. Applying Lunar Blessing to myself, I flash stepped in front of the werewolf as it lashed out at me extremely quickly. Dodging and counter attacking with a full force blow, I follow up with flowing strikes as the werewolf howls as it becomes empowered itself.
The blood from below gets kicked up during our confrontation and starts burning my skin. I knew that the blood here would weaken me over time and make the werewolf stronger. Uppercutting and slamming my fist into its jaw, I failed to dodge an attack as it slashed my arm, half of it blocked by my armour while the other half cut deeply.
Feeling a strange energy enter and prevent my regeneration, I countered and then backed off quickly. The werewolf, intending to not let me go that easily howls and disappears before reappearing right in front of me. Sensing a surge of magic from it, I use Water magic to create shields to protect my exposed skin and land two blows to the werewolf as a red blast of energy blasts out from it.
Being sent flying away from it, I look down to see my armour sizzling, stained with blood. I needed to end this fight quickly, otherwise I would be in trouble. A massive talon arises from the werewolves shadow and grabs it, but it breaks the talon with sheer physical strength. I can’t contend with it physically without kicking up blood and if I get more wounds that won't heal I’ll eventually succumb to this boss. The Toughness of this werewolf was shockingly huge.
Summoning my chakrams, I felt happy I could finally have a way to fight at range without draining my mana. While I could use Night’s Fury, it would exhaust my mana and if it wasn’t dead I would be in serious trouble. Twirling the chakrams, I threw them out while using magic.
“Primordial Darkness.”
“Blind!”
Both spells slam into the werewolf, with the Blind being very effective. Slashing into the werewolf with my chakrams, I aimed at removing its limbs but like it could sense attacks it dodged everything at the last moment, only giving it slight cuts. But with a cut from the Celestial Eclipse chakram…
The werewolf stopped, quivering for a moment and with that second I sent a chakram upwards as I threw it, cutting off an arm. It howled in pain as its eyes cleared up instantly from the vision it would’ve seen and it failed to dodge the second chakram, cutting off its second arm. Seeing a chance, I sent my mana into my armour, and setting the shadow of the werewolf as my location, I sank into my shadow and reappeared behind it. Transforming into my monster form, I grab its head with one arm and the other I wrap around its chest. Shockingly, I saw its arms emerge from the blood and fly up, they started to reattach them. Using both arms, I instead grip the arms and its body.
“ALICE!”
The surroundings turn dark as Alice appears next to me, and climbing onto my back, she puts her hand onto the werewolf and starts absorbing. The werewolf starts struggling, causing me to tighten my hold, causing me to wish I could use magic. This time, it took Alice a lot longer, in that time its arms had reattached and it has been fighting to free itself. It nearly succeeded multiple times but with a headbutt from me it stopped at the last moment.
After nearly an hour, Alice finished and sensing this I released the werewolf and flash step away, releasing my monster form while panting heavily. My arms trembled in soreness, and looking at the werewolf it had stopped moving as well, looking around as if confused as well. It looked at me and its eyes widened.
“Kill…me”
Hearing a growl when it stopped, I had to stop myself from stepping back. I hadn’t expected it to speak, nor talk. The werewolf completely let its guard down with its eyes closed. After a moment of hesitation, I did as it asked and transformed into my monster form once more. I flash step in front of it and plunged my hand into its chest, ripping its heart out.
“Thank…you.”
The werewolf fades away, which had been noted to do as the blood in the crater disappears along with it. The reports I had read however never mentioned the werewolf asking you to kill it however…
Alice has gained insight on transforming…
Alice has gained 4,000,000 experience
Alice is Level 5!
Alice is evolving!
“What?!”
Turning around, I saw Alice with her eyes closed just as darkness mana erupts from her, forming a very large cocoon around her. In fact, Darkness energy started to be drained from me as nearly all of it was being used.
“Fuck.” I had expected this, but not right here. I knew the boss wouldn’t just appear unless the doors opened. Considering how deep we were, it wasn’t likely but on the off chance a party wanted to come down here for whatever reason…
Allowing the link to take whatever it needed, I noticed it strangely absorbing my mana itself, not just the darkness energy. Worried that it wouldn’t be enough, the drain stopped short, leaving me with about 5% of my mana. The cocoon had formed completely, about the height of me. It had no design, it's like staring into the void…
Knowing this was a big moment, I kept my guard up, in case anything happened. I was worried that Alice would be interrupted, I couldn’t move her towards the stairs that had appeared at the other side of the crater either. Worried to the core, I kept my chakrams in my hands and without bothering to rest, I walked around.
The boss room could be used as a resting zone, the danger being that if anyone were to enter it would trigger the boss to appear once again, and there was a high chance of the floor mutating. Alexander had said there was a group down here, but they usually sat around floor 118 and 119, not killing the Delta-Class boss but instead farming the extremely precious materials and ores. They had departed from the Guild 2 months ago and usually stayed in the Tomb for nearly half a year, so I kept my guard up.
***
It’s been a week, my body is exhausted and I badly require rest. I managed to purge the energy that was preventing my wounds from regenerating but overall I was exhausted. Still, I kept myself aware, I wouldn’t let anything happen to Alice.
My mana had been drained at various times, nearly exhausting me each time. This hadn’t happened before when she first evolved, so I started to worry. I could sense through my link though that she was okay, in fact she had been growing stronger and so had the link between us. Excitement, happiness and a strong feeling of trust could be felt through the link.
As I’m looking at the doors, I felt an eruption of darkness through our link, purer than mine, causing me to gasp in surprise. The Primordial and Celestial Eclipse mana spirits start devouring this energy at an astonishing rate. A crack resounded through the place and turning to the cocoon, I could see cracks running through it. Anticipation and worry overcame me as I kept my eyes on it.
Suddenly, the cocoon smashes opening, a torrent of darkness flooding from it and looking at the centre of it, I saw a young, teenager girl, with clothing that had ripped apart due to her growth. This…is Alice?
She no longer had her wings, nor talons as legs, causing me to worry. Has something happened to her? She looked older, her face and height resembling mine from before I had evolved in Crater Hell. Her hair had grown, reaching her tailbone in length and completely black in colour, like it was absorbing the light. Her irises were also void black in colour with white pupils.
Level 5 Alice
Raven of the Darkness Abyss
“A-Alice?”
At first she doesn’t respond, making me feel a bit worried. Alice closes her eyes and in the next moment two raven wings erupt from her back as her legs turn into talons. It’s like my monster release form…As I continue to watch, the wings fold into her back and her legs become normal once again.
Alice opens her eyes and looks around with curiosity before looking at me, her face turning into a big grin.
“Mum!” I could feel an excitement from her as she ran over and jumped. Catching her, she hugged me tightly while kicking her legs back.
“Are you okay, Alice?”
“Alice is okay, Mum! Alice is hungry, can we eat? Oh oh, Mum, Alice can change!” Alice spoke fast as she dropped to her feet and showed me her transformation once again.
“A-ah, I see. Alice, how do you feel?”
Alice giggles as she changes to her human form again. “Alice feels okay! Mum Mum!” Alice grabs my hand. “Can we eat now?”
Feeling rather overwhelmed about her changes, I knew this was a result of evolution, but what surprised me was her strength. I could tell, she was about equal to me and it gave me a sense of confusion. Was she on her Path? As I’m about to ask her, I remembered where we were. Picking up Alice, she giggled.
“Mum, Alice can walk~”
“We need to leave in case anyone enters. Hold on.” Alice puts her arms around my neck as I flash step towards the stairs and walk down. It was a spiral staircase and it led down to Floor 111, a near exact copy of floor 41, a massive island. Walking on the sand with the ocean behind us, a sight I had never seen before Floor 41, I watched as the stairs faded. Panting heavily while I trembled, I tried to shake my fatigue as I put Alice down.
“Mum, are you okay? Alice is worried.” Looking at Alice, I ruffled her hair.
“Mm, I need to rest.”
“Alice can protect Mum! Come come!”
Alice leads me to a rock with shade and points at the ground. “Mum, sleep! Alice will protect you.”
Smiling, I planned to only sit for a while, but once I sat down, Alice sat on my lap as a powerful surge of mana erupted from her. We were surrounded by a cocoon of darkness, and poking it I found it hard.
“Mum will be okay, Alice will protect Mum!” Alice turned her head and gave me a smile while snuggling up to me.
“Mm, thank you, Alice.”
Hugging her back, I put my trust in her and fell deeply asleep.