“-um, Mum!” A voice rang out in my mind, an urgeness coming from it, mixed with fear and worry. I felt my mind start to whirl, waking itself in response to that voice. My body wanted to move to protect it, hold it and keep the owner of that voice safe. My eyelids are heavy, my body sore and tired, my mind blank and as I slowly open my eyes, Alice’s worried face enters my vision. I’m alive?
“A-Alice?” Feeling my body over, I knew I had been severely injured, my natural regeneration slowly recovering my body. I could barely move, my lips were dry and cracked. I could feel all of my injuries and as I sat up with Alice’s help, I looked around slowly and saw the scene before me.
A large rift in the sky sat there, a night sky could be seen in it, a power that made me shudder. What happened to Lilith? Who used that power that is close to what I felt from Tessa? The dried blood on my face made it hard to blink, my dried lips told me I had been out for some time, and looking at Alice, I slowly spoke.
“Alice, what happened?” As I spoke, I started to recall what should’ve been my final moments. Alice had run over to me, hugging me tightly as she had tried to give me mana. At that time, our link had become stronger than ever before the System told me about Alice and I…merging?
“I-I don’t know! Mum, are you okay?!” I slowly looked at Alice before shaking my head.
“I’m not. My injuries are too severe, I can’t move. My regeneration isn’t working properly, my mind is still trying to catch up with what happened. All I know is that we still haven’t conquered this dungeon, nor do we know how much is left.” Alice started to dig around in my bag before pulling out a ration square and a bottle of water.
Smiling at her, I wondered if she’d pull out a ration cube as well. Seeing her dig around in her near destroyed pants, I panicked for a moment that she really would pull out a ration cube. Against my expectations, she pulled out a healing potion, uncorking it and slowly feeding it to me. Drinking the amber liquid, I let it run down my dry throat before closing my eyes. I felt my wounds recovering slowly, but it would take time, the injuries were severe. I didn’t even know how I’m alive, and looking at my injuries, I hissed.
My right leg completely snapped in half, holding on by a strip of flesh. My left leg’s shin bone completely shattered, the foot broken as well. The hip with the scar broken, my right shoulder crushed, the arm broken in several places while my left arm is completely missing from the torso on. It’s like it had disappeared, not torn off but just like it had been sliced off.
“Alice, have you seen Mummy’s arm?” Not realising my arm had gone missing in the first place, I saw Alice looking around with a frown. Looking around as well, I realised that in the mix of debris and dirt, finding an arm would be near impossible. Feeling angry at such a loss, I knew to regain my arm I would have to likely save up to have it regrown. Alice, unsure on what to do, went to look around to see if she could find it, but I knew that my arm wasn’t here, I couldn’t smell it.
As the hours passed, my body strengthened and after eating several ration squares my stamina allowed my natural regeneration to start to quicken, and within another half a day, the majority of my injuries had healed, except for my right leg, which hadn’t healed. I knew that that leg had also been lost, meaning that I had lost an arm and leg, and after digging an old dagger out of my bag, I bit down on my leg and lopped off what remained of it.
“Argh.” Holding a scream back as I cut the remains of my leg off, I saw the stump quickly healing over and wanted to cry. I’ve effectively become crippled, unable to fight unless it is with magic or if Alice could throw me at the enemy. Looking at where the rift in the sky sat, I could feel something underneath it, below the ruins calling out to me. I knew it wasn’t dangerous, but a part of me wanted to leave and have my injuries regrown if possible, but I knew if I did that I’d likely have to fight Lilith again.
Suddenly, I felt myself being picked up, a hand around my waist and knees. Gasping in surprise, I looked around and saw Alice lifting me. I smile softly as Alice looks back at me.
“Alice will help Mum!” As she says this, she starts walking over to the ruins where Lilith had appeared as I kept my guard up, not used to being carried like this. As we made our way through the ruins, we found a staircase where the orb had been, leading downwards. Alice slowly walked down while she held me, my vision clear of any darkness as we continued downwards. Soon, we arrived on a new floor, a door in front of us.
“Alice, I’ll open it, just keep holding me.” Alice moved towards the doors as I stretched out my right arm and pushed one side open. A stale draft hits me as the door creaks open, revealing a room that held a lot of different items. The walls were lined with shelves, the back wall had weapons of all kinds while in the very centre a large orb sat floating, crystal clear with a faint amber colour.
Tomb of Lilith Dungeon Core
“Dungeon core?” Tilting my head slightly, I decided to ignore it while looking around. A lot of the items here had a faint power within them, a mix of magic tools and tomes. Alice puts me down as I use a hand to hold myself up as I hopped around the room, looking at the various tomes and items. I understood none of the writing on these books and tomes, even opening them I didn’t understand the language they were written in.
The magic tools I had no idea about either, trying to use them like normal magic items resulted in nothing happening, even with the help of the System nothing happened. Deciding to throw everything into a dimensional bag that Alice held open behind me, I slowly hobbled around the room, not sure of the worth of what we were picking up. Even the weapons we just threw in the bag without really looking at them. If it wasn’t a fist weapon nor Chakrams, I had no interest nor did Alice.
I realised what this room is though, it’s a treasury of sorts, likely items that Lilith or her army had collected over the years. I leaned towards it being items her army had collected though, nothing here felt like it would be for a God or Goddess, or the power of it had faded over time. I still felt something calling to me though, and looking towards the wall at the end, I realised that there is another room hidden there.
Hobbling over, I arrived at the wall and steel myself, I got Alice to get ready to catch me as I threw a punch with all of my strength at a point. The wall blew apart as I fell backwards, with Alice catching me before I hit the ground. A tunnel revealed itself, and with Alice once again helping me to my feet…foot, I hobbled down the tunnel while Alice followed close behind. I didn’t want to have her carry me around, she’s exhausted herself.
A small cave welcomed us, an armour set stood in the middle of the room, a beautiful silver and black designed armour, with black as the case and silver lining. Attempting to scan it with the System, I found myself confused.
???
“I can’t see what it is?” Mumbling to myself, I wondered why and just as I hopped one more step, a flash appeared, revealing a frail looking woman. Completely transparent, she is purely blue in colour, which revealed her to be a projection. She wasn’t looking at us though, but at another point, as if talking to something.
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“If you’re seeing this recording, it means that my rather simple and foolish plan failed, meaning I did not succeed in luring a suitable vessel here and my spiritual remains have been destroyed. That is fine, it is the natural order of all living beings in this world, none are truly immortal and we will all meet our end one day. I just hope mine is by the hand of one who may lead this world into the darkness of the moon.
“The armour before you is the armour I used in my past life and is now rightfully yours. Don’t worry, it’s not possessed by me or anything, the System would forewarn you of that thus it would be pointless to try. It will bind itself to you and grow with you, however you must not wear it until you can see its name through the System. Perhaps it’ll be because you’re not beyond the Crossroads or your understanding of Dark Lunar Magic is poor, but if you’ve been led here, it is because this armour has called out to you, accepting you as its new master.
“Now you may wonder why I’m giving this to you, or if you’re a group you may try to fight over this armour, I don’t particularly care. If you accept this armour, just know you’ll be targeted by Her, the Goddess of the Moon, Lunaria. Or perhaps Her end has come too and another now sits in Her place, don’t know don’t care. The dungeon core in the other room will destroy itself soon, ending this dungeon forever, bringing it to a standstill. Destroying me would have already started this process, don’t worry I’m not evil, you’ll be teleported out of it before the dungeon completely falls apart.
“I expect this world to have forgotten about me, I don’t know how long it’s been, perhaps it’s only been a few hundred years, maybe a couple hundreds of thousands of years. Maybe my spiritual remains lost itself to madness being down here for so long so you had no choice but to kill it, once again that’s none of my concern now. My life is at its end, this is the only way for me to survive and if it fails then at least I tried. My final request is to inform the Primordial Goddess of Darkness, Nyx, of my passing and tell Her that Lunaria is attempting to seize control over the night sky. Perhaps there is a Church of Darkness nearby, but if there isn’t then don’t concern yourself.
“Farewell, vessel. You’ll become powerful as long as you continue down your path, wielding the power of darkness will lead you to control the dark side of the moon. Or maybe your path will lead you elsewhere, I don’t really care.”
The projection ends and the image fades. So, that had been Lilith? Didn’t seem to be a Goddess. Did she stop being one as Her life was ending? Looking at the armour, I decided to throw it in with the rest and decide on what to do later. Placing a hand on it, I felt a temptation to wear it, but remembering Lilith’s warning I didn’t and just threw the armour into the bag Alice held, intending to look at it later after consulting with Alexander.
I wonder though, who is Lunaria? It’s Celestia who is the Goddess of the Moon, right? Or did she take over from Lunaria? Shrugging, I decided to ignore what Lilith had said and slowly hobbled back to the other room while Alice once again slowly followed behind me. As we arrived, I saw the dungeon core had cracked, and sitting down I watched the orb as Alice sat next to me.
Slowly the core cracked as Alice rested her head on my lap, and while she rested we sat in silence, not really wanting to talk about what happened. We both didn’t know what happened earlier, or how Lilith had been killed, we just knew it had happened.
“Mum, are you okay?” Alice looks up from my lap and I give her a small smile as I nod.
“A bit sore but I’m okay. I just hope they can regrow my arm and leg quickly.” Truly I hoped that Rod would be available to help me, right now I couldn’t even walk properly without a wall to lean on, even stepping into the air is impossible. The cost is what concerned me, perhaps I collected enough here to be able to pay him. Stiffly smiling, Alice and I continued to watch as the dungeon core shattered completely.
You have conquered the Tomb of Lilith!
Rewards available.
Deciding against accepting the reward for now, I felt the entire ground shaking as a power embraced Alice and I, gently pulling us out of the ruins as we teleported away from them.
***
As my eyes adjust from the flash of brightness, I blink and look around to see we were outside of the Tomb of Lilith in the lobby, hundreds of others standing around looking surprised. Glancing towards the entrance of the Tomb, I saw that a solid black mist had appeared, blocking the entrance. The ground continued to tremble slightly even out here, as if the dungeon below us is disappearing.
The Tomb of Lilith has been conquered and will disappear, the land being regenerated.
“I-it’s been conquered?!”
“H-how?! Who the fuck took the Tomb from us?!” I could hear anger in the voices of people around me, and before I could turn my attention at leaving, I heard a voice ring out.
“Is it that bitch, Alisha’s doing?!” An angry voice rang out, silencing those around them. I knew I had become famous, but am I really the first one they would turn to blame?
“We saw her on the 118 heading down there with a teenage girl.” A familiar voice rang out, reminding me of the person I had spoken to on the floor they mentioned.
Several people around Alice and I looked around, with Alice sitting up in her human form. Very quickly I felt shocks from people checking my System and a circle quickly formed with Alice and I in the centre of it. Sighing as I stood with Alice’s help, I looked around with a frown at the various Bronze, Silver and Gold Grade adventurers.
“You bitch, how dare you take the Tomb from us. Not satisfied with the Battlefield of Eternity?” Facing the voice, I saw a Gold Grade adventurer who looked familiar, and placing him as one of those who had been fighting on the 118th Floor, I shrugged.
“So what if I did?” Looking at the Gold Grade, he grimaced for a moment before the surroundings erupted in anger around me.
“You took it from us?!” “That’s the safest way to level!” “We can’t earn a living without it!”
As the complaints kept coming, I noticed a lot of Gold Grades moving their hands to their weapons, eyeing me very carefully. Meeting their eyes, they only smirked while looking at where my arm and leg had been, as if to say they didn’t consider me a threat.
I released a pressure on the surroundings, causing everyone to go quiet as those below level 100 realised that they were not my match. A tense atmosphere quickly settled on the crowd, ready to snap if anything happened. Half of the Gold Grades had their hands on their weapons, with some having already drawn them, all looking at me in anger. I kept myself prepared, standing on my only foot as I kept awareness of my surroundings high.
Sensing magic suddenly from behind me, I dodge by ducking and point towards the person who threw the spell, a Silver Grade who had a scared face.
“Midnight.”
My spell triggered the fight as the rest of the Gold Grades charged towards me, weapons drawn and spells being cast. A cocoon of darkness surrounded me as talons emerged from the ground, attempting to grab those who were attempting to attack us. Lifting my hand up to the sky I prepared to use Darkfall.
“Domain!”
Spreading my Domain out while empowering myself with Lunar Blessing, I focused on those who were attempting to attack me, a massive magic circle appearing in the sky.
“Disrupt the spell! Hurry!” Hearing fear in the voices of those who stood around us, I felt myself close to being able to release Darkfall as magic hit the magic circle in an attempt to disrupt it.
“Darkfa-”
“Magic Break.”
A loud voice resounded out as my magic vanished, followed by my domain and Alice’s cocoon, causing my eyes to widen. It didn’t just disappear slowly nor did the spells get interrupted, it’s like they never existed. Seeing those around me equally confused, they quickly recovered and raised their weapons as if ready to attack, but before they could.
“Mass Imprisonment.”
Ropes of gold wrapped around not only me, but Alice and every single person in the lobby. Immediately I knew this spell to be close to the strength of Alexander and I felt my strength quickly fade and magic was no longer able to be released.
Unable to keep my balance, I quickly fell on my arse and looking around, I saw Roland stand above us, staring down at the surroundings while releasing a heavy pressure of his own.
“Everyone here is to be detained and questioned. Royal Guards, take the Gold Grades away to be questioned!”
The sound of dozens of guards enter my ears as Roland lands next to Alice and I. Looking me up and down with an unusually stern expression, he spoke before I could.
“Alisha Piper and Alice, you two are under arrest for the murder of a Silver Grade adventurer. You will face questioning and your fate determined by our investigations.”