Galen could not believe that Adira had won. Against all odds, she escaped the death claws and overpowered the man who killed a Demigod. The poor girl was almost dead herself. His “Hunter Sense” confirmed she had barely any health.
The aftermath of the fight was evident across her body. She had multiple cuts on her head, legs, and shoulders, two large wounds on her chest, and her stomach had a large circle burned around her body. The worst was her face as if smoldering tears ran down her cheeks and left violet burn marks. What sort of magic could even leave such a wound? Galen would never guess what she had experienced during that fight.
Seeing the sorry state of the girl he pulled three healing potions and poured them into her mouth. The girl’s vision became more focused, she returned from her stupor.
Godslayer level 67 leveled up to Godslayer level 69.
“Where am I?” The huntress asked looking around. Her voice was wheezing. Then she shook her head remembering what led up to the fight. Adira looked around. A huge chunk of land was lying on the ground, as if someone had put a small mountain upside down, with clear rock at the bottom, and greenery at the top. “Is that?..”
Galen briefly explained what happened. Adira looked at her arms, still shaken from the battle. The images of the fight ran through her head.
“I saw a level 100 Godslayer skill.” She spoke to no one but needed to be heard. Somehow, she felt it was important to say. “It can kill a God.”
Galen looked at her worriedly.
“Then good thing you are stronger than a God.” The man chuckled soothingly. That was a wasted effort, the girl was in a turmoil of her own to listen.
Even the victory tasted sour. Her resilience cost her. Somehow, she felt she lost something, that made her human. No, Adira shook her head, she will not be haunted by the memories again. The insane king’s words had no weight. She beat him, which meant she was right. Finally, the healing potions regained Adira’s strength enough to stand.
“Glad you managed to take down the island. Can you make sure arachne won’t leave while I recover?” She looked at Galen, but he frowned and stepped away. The man faced Salgos, who was quietly staring to the side, ignoring the surroundings. The Demigod had this habit of standing with empty eyes, looking like a simple armor and nothing more, perhaps that was his way of resting.
“The feat could not be accomplished without Skreetha’s help.” Adira stiffened at his proclamation. It was said with a clear purpose, and a grim anticipation began to swell in her throat. The girl looked at Galen, as her expression grew more and more antagonizing. Skreetha crawled out from the shadow of the island. That was her cue to speak up. Galen promised to keep her alive. It was time to act.
“I have served with my life to you.” Salgos turned his head slightly towards Skreetha. The air suddenly got thicker in Adira’s lungs. She knew where this was going before anything was said.
“You ask me to break my promise to my trusted Champion. Why?” The Demigod had a similar hunch. However, he usually listens to all the information before making a decision. The archer shook his head, stepping forward.
“I believe, there are better ways of fulfilling your promise, Lord Salgos.” Seeing his words caught his interest the man continued. “You said, Skreetha’s life is hers, that does not mean Adira has to kill her. I believe you have a solution that can save both your servants.”
The Demigod fell in thought but was quickly stolen out of it.
“No!” Adira’s scream resounded with an echo, resounding through the whole height of the island’s wall. Everybody looked at her. “You promised me I could kill her! Don’t listen to their manipulations.”
The girl knew it was just a plot to keep her away. Skreetha, the Master of Lies, will use anything to escape the girl’s wrath.
“Hunter Galen is right, I promised you her life, not her death. I need her to fight for my cause. As much as I need you.”
“But I have to kill her!”
“Her life is yours now, but I decide when she dies. This decision is final. Do not disobey me.” Salgos stepped closer, putting his arm on her shoulder. The armor that was broken during the fight reconstructed itself from shadows over the girl’s body. He turned away and addressed everyone around him. “The island will not go anywhere. Many of you are hurt. Sleep and recover. Tomorrow we will challenge Gods!”
He walked away towards the island, leaving them to face each other.
Adira stared at Skreetha letting her rage burn through the arache, unsure what she should do. If she kills her here, what would Salgos do? The face of the arachne made that thought more and more appealing. She was taking everything from the young huntress. Now that she had an undeniable power over her, the monster treated her differently, submissively, yet still manipulated her.
They met eyes. Adira was expecting Skreetha to smirk and gloat, but the arachne approached the girl instead, with a surprisingly gentle expression.
“I am sorry. I cannot undo what I’ve done to you. Or many others. But I…” She gulped, eating her words in a sudden rush of emotions. “I think… I want to prove I am different now.”
Whatever the girl expected from the monster, was not an apology. Luckily, the huntress already figured out her strategy.
“Yes, whatever you say.” Such an obvious attempt would never sway Adira.
“Listen, I being honest! I always thought I was alone against world. Either my rage and spite win or… the world.” She held her eye contact with the girl. Adira knew that the feeling was familiar, and it irked her. The arachne turned to the old hunter. “For the first time, I have not been feeling alone. I never thought my actions could bring something other than destruction. But I know I capable of more.”
She turned, addressing her antagonist again.
“I cannot undo what I done now, but if you kill me, I will never be able to.” Such direct words with a genuine worry on the monster’s face would have made even the coldest of hearts melt.
“You always said that when it was convenient to you. Do you think your tricks work here? I will kill you, that’s the best you can bring to the world.” Adira was unwavering in her conviction.
“Please, let me at least try.” Skreetha’s voice soothed over the angry words thrown her way. “Just think what good we can bring if I work with you. Let me prove that I am genuine. Make me serve your goals, I will be happy to oblige. I will even defend the kingdom you protect if you wish so.”
“Screw the kingdom.” The girl gritted her teeth in response. Adira’s face reddened in the rage she felt. “Screw you, screw gratefulness and your happy stories. All of it brought me pain. Only death will take it all away. Your dead body will be the beginning.”
Seeing no words could help Skreetha slumped and walked away. The angered huntress followed Galen with her eyes, watching as he hurried after the arachne, choosing the monster’s side over his friend again. Adira's lips trembled as if out of her control. Ex-friend. She had no one to rely on. The archer was a perfect reminder of that.
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At least someone must have been on her side, but no. She was left with her own demons all her life. Now she had enough power to submit those demons. Then the world will be next.
They began to climb the island in the morning. Salgos made a stairway out of shadow platforms. Skreetha opted to just climb the wall, keeping a distance from the rest of the group. She trusted her own abilities were safer than a staircase.
“Now is the best time to tell us what we should expect inside.” Galen and Salgos marched in front of the girl. The man nodded. He told a story that he partially explained before, but now in more detail.
In short, the initial investigation team found quite a small temple above with a dungeon beneath it. However, as they approached high-level monsters met them. This was unusual since the only place known for having similarly leveled monsters was the Forest of Monsters, which spanned over several thousand kilometers. The monsters there varied from level 60 to 100. But this place had about 30 floors, each is no bigger than a temple’s hall that was on the surface. Yet, every monster was level 100. That was what the initial scouting party had found out. Later, a group of hunters attempted to conquer the place, only to find that they could not even break through the guards at the entrance.
The monsters were so strong that a special team was assembled to try and break through the dungeon. Multiple parties gathered together and attempted it again. Galen was part of this raid. They defeated the guards and went inside, fighting all sorts of rare monsters.
They began the conquest with 58 high-level hunters, and only 32 of them reached the bottom floor. At the bottom they met a single enemy, Demigod manipulating blood, that they could not go through. He was guarding some sort of ancient door.
“The Demigod of the Chaos God. Quite a weak one, he won’t be an issue for me.” The God of Chaos was in Gods’ Alliance, Adira recalled. That meant they were in the right place.
“Our team was wiped easily. Only ten of us got back.” Galen finished bitterly.
“I doubt the dungeon will be the same as you remember. The Gods brought their allies and fortified defenses. I expect other Demigods join trying to kill me. Whatever you have been preparing yourself, it is going to be much harder.”
The group finally reached the ground level of the Flying Island. They were met with normal, although devastated, temple grounds with sparse trees, a hint of a withered garden, and a temple, that had seen better days, yet was intact. Such landmarks were visible from every point of the island. Luckily, Salgos and others defeated the stone statues guarding the place. The Demigod marched inside with unrelenting determination, clearly in a rash to finish his search.
The devastated benches and broken columns made the temple seem abandoned from the inside. However, it had a circular stairway going underground at the further end of it. A powerful pulse emanated from it. Judging from the magical flow, it was anything but abandoned. Such abundance of mana was likely what drew so many high-level monsters inside. How do they sustain themselves? Adira fell into thought for a moment, yet abandoned these ideas quickly, deciding not to bother.
The girl looked back at the arachne scurrying at the entrance. One long waiting look from everybody made her run forward, catching up to the group. The stairway disappeared into darkness, swallowed by shadows just as their heads went below the surface.
It was an unusual dungeon. The staircase went down and down. It occasionally was broken into a small room, or a hall, which had some rare monster guarding it. But nothing to write home about.
“This is weird.” Adira heard Galen murmuring under his breath. They were on floor five and barely met any resistance. Even with Salgos fighting alongside them the monsters were too easy. The man was trying to wrap his head around it. When the Demigod of Darkness told them to prepare, they were anxious about what to expect. However, their descent being this easy was getting into their heads.
The staircase went lower and was abruptly cut by a cave-in. Instead of following the stairways, a cave was directing their way to the side. The sideway was home for dark spiders, they were everywhere. A rare species that Salgos claimed had been serving him. Nobody met these species for ages. Fighting them was surprisingly tricky as they melted in shadows, avoiding hits.
The monsters’ attacks were straightforward. They had dived into the shadows, then shot up aiming teeth at their victims. The swarm crushed at the group like a black wave against a cliff, attempting to bury everyone under their numbers. Galen and Adira struggled to kill even one of them. However, Skreetha and Salgos shined in that fight. Especially the arachne, it turned out she was a natural predator to the swarm. No poison or webs worked on her, and she picked up the spiders with ease. Each time the spiders attempted their wave charge, she had dozens of them skewered on her legs. The two quickly destroyed the spiders and moved on.
Cave guided them past the crushed section, and they returned to the stairs. The group went down and down for 12 more floors until they faced the same cave-in. Galen looked around.
“What? How is that possible?” He found the dead bodies of the spiders they defeated in a cave that threaded around the blockage. They were going downwards but somehow returned to where they started. Suddenly, all suspicions he had about the place came crashing down on him. Why did he not voice his concerns earlier?
“There certainly was no dimensional magic. We would know, right?” Skreetha seemed wary of being lost.
“Agh!” The Dark Lord made a frustrated roar and turned to the granite wall leading inside the hollow structure that the stairs were wrapped around. “I should’ve done that from the start.”
He summoned his war hammer and smashed it into the wall. His arm went inside like through the water's edge and a wicked smile spread across the wall. The weird mouth grinned with its teeth around Demigod’s arm and then bit it off.
Salgos recoiled from pain. An ugly face with bloated cheeks, that squeezed its eye socket into a narrow line appeared on the wall. Because of its excessive fat, the face looked wider than it was tall. It shared the same color as the wall as if it was part of it. The grimace laughed maniacally.
“Ha-ha-ha-hah! You are now mine, wanderers!”
“Greed.” Salgos recognized the face. The Demigod of Darkness stood tall as if losing a limb did not affect him.
“Who is it?” Adira had not heard of him before. She felt chills down her spine, looking at the repulsive face.
“Greed is a Demigod of Chaos. One of the few who can rival Gods’ power.”
“Is he stronger than you?”
“If we are outside of his body, I can beat him. But…” He eyed Greed. The Demigod of Chaos laughed again.
“You are now in my collection of explorers! I will enjoy your eternal suffering!” A face rolled around the wall, like a barrel, laughing at their misfortune. “Oh! The Gods made me release one of my prized toys. Godslayer Azalor himself! How many of you had he killed before you came here? Tell me!”
“None. I killed him first.” Adira met Greed’s gaze.
“Impossible!” His eyes rolled up and continued spinning until they made a full circle, and his irises appeared from below. “Liar-liar-liar! Let nightmares consume your mind!”
It was some sort of spell, which caused the girl to drop on the ground unconscious. After a moment she began to convulse with an empty scream on her lips. Galen rushed to her side and poured a resistance potion into her mouth.
“The Gods hired you?” Salgos asked.
“Yes! They promised me a good exchange. They promised you to be a part of my collection! I don’t usually work for them, but when I heard, I was allowed to have you! O-ha-ha-ha-ha!” The Demigod spit out his laugh as if it was the funniest joke he ever heard. “The trap was so easy! You just walked into my mouth. Now you are mine! You will always wonder about my stomach! Ha-ha-ha-ha!”
“How can we escape?” Galen asked worriedly, holding Adira.
“We are already inside his body. Nothing can escape from here.” Salgos explained their agonizing position.
“Right-right! Nothing! You are mine!” The face kept mocking them. “Remember I offered you my service Salgos? Remember what you said? Repeat it for me! I want to hear it again! What did you say when I offered to join your army? Te-he-he.”
Salgos stood silent with an immovable posture.
“Are you afraid?” Greed laughed again. “A mighty Salgos afraid to anger me?”
The Demigod of Darkness shook his head.
“I do not memorize what I tell inferior pests.”
The face on the wall turned red in its rage as if it was melting hot.
“YOU WILL DIE HERE AND I WILL CHOOSE YOUR DEATH!”
An infuriated roar filled the cave. A thousand spears pierced Salgos and lifted him in the air.
“Galen.” The Demigod called calmly. “Make Adira wake up and attack this creature. She might be able to force a way through with her abilities.”
“You can still talk?” Greed raged. The spears lit up with sunlight and Salgos cried in pain. “That’s a better sound. Befitting you. The pain will increase, so you won’t get used to it. This is a step one out of seven million. You will have all eternity to enjoy the personal torture I designed for you! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!” The face disappeared back into the wall. His maniacal laugh still lingered in the air.
“Adira, wake up! Snap out of it!” Galen called, shaking the girl. Adira stopped convulsing, the potions helped with that, but she remained unconscious. The archer was no expert in dream magic, the best he could do was pray. However, Skreetha approached them with a resigned sigh.
“Let me. I enter her mind and see what I can do from inside.” The man did not need to think about it twice. The arachne closed her eyes and put a hand on Adira’s lobe. The nightmare enveloped her as well, striking as an ice spear into her brain.