Hey guys...Been a while huh. Well RL been pretty busy and I constantly had to find the time to write and sit down as well as it was simply agonizing over making it a bulk release which I will never do again. But I'm close to through with Chapter 24 and editing Chapter 23 so 'Fingers Crossed!' this weekend you should get a nice finale to the first arc. I hope you guys will stay tuned throughout everything as the rollercoaster and main story and why I named the title what it is to soon come to pass and thank you for being patient.

Also I'm trying this new Donations tab deal out to see if it works. To be honest I really don't expect much from this at all but we'll see....If this becomes a good source of income for me per chapter my priorities would obviously change and I would probably  make more time to writing much more often.....who knows a few bucks each chapter from everyone and I imagine id want to press for writing more, obviously.

Well without further a due I hope you enjoy this story I've enjoyed weaving into a unique experience and world that you will only enjoy more with time.

Chapter 22: The Storm

Boom!

Booooom!

Ughhh!

ROaahhhhh!!!!

BOOOOOOM! Boom! BOOOM!

Roars of explosions and loud screams continued to fill my ears. The flashing lights and raging whirlwinds looked as violent as if a hurricane had touched down.

The twin swords both seared through my skin and anchored me back into the ground...‘Ughh!!!!’

‘It all happened so fast! From the entire span of us discovering Alysteir in the pool of blood and me lying on my back took less than a few seconds....She just moves too fast.’

BoooM!

BOOM!

BOOOOM! BOOOM!

‘UGHHH!!!!!’

I activated demonic awakening and jerked my weight forward through the twin swords lodging me to the ground and searing through my muscles. The pain from the fire I could hardly deal with even hope to ignore.

The agonizing burning sensation from her swords just kept burning past my arms and ripping through my chest. It felt as if her swords were incinerating my insides as my health continued to drop dramatically. However, I could see that my regeneration was steadily keeping my health right around 85% even while being scorched from the inside out.

I fought against the pain and felt my muscles began to expand in my awakened form. An intense surge of power pulsed through my limbs and pumped continuously through my blood..... ‘I’m going to crush this woman!’

I lunged forward and used Lord’s Earth Shattering Smash with a stomp with my two feet and hurled myself into the air. The ground itself exploded in a violent roar and broke apart, flying in the air along with me. I yanked the swords out of my arms and tossed them away before I pulled out Abgrund.

I flew through the air and was then dozens of meters above the ground. Looking down I then saw several figures beginning to emerge from Alysteir’s initial smoke bomb.

I started to see dozens of the brightly glowing pixies as well as dozens of Annunakes standing several meters away from a loan figure they were all surrounding. I immediately used my spatial magic and appeared in between the loan figure and the large crowd. I couldn’t tell if there are any casualties yet.

An Annunake took a step forward towards me alongside Akino who both appeared to have a bright white barrier surrounding them as well. Can the pixies cast such a barrier for them too?

Standing beside Akino is one Annunake who is missing a large portion of his left arm. His entire left side looks partially scorched and even some of his face received major damage. His health is already in the yellow.

He then growled angrily towards Alysteir and threatened her while pointing with his other muscular hand now covered in blood.

“Come at me!  Even if die here. I swear I’ll at least take off one of your limbs girl!” – Annunake

Looking forward I saw Alysteir now standing in pools of blood and smiling in my direction while not making even the slightest movement. She didn’t at all seem bothered by the Annunake’s threat either. I then

I gritted my teeth and then used Death’s Grip.

Before Alysteir could do anything I attempted to grab her life force a second time. Her body started to shake which caused me to smirk only to twitch as her figure started smiling nonchalantly.

‘What? Is she resisting it?’

She then raised her arm and twitched her fingers showing off several rings on her fingers.

“Gifts from Malaki. I gotta say I didn’t have much faith that this little thing would work against that magic of yours but they said we’ve been developing this for a while. It was made to combat Malthiel I’m told… I even set up that smoke screen just in case but who knew it’d work right?” - Alysteir

I would have pondered on how this was possible but from what I saw around her once the black cloud had finally dissipated had truly paralyzed me…. with horror. There surrounding her were limbs and severed heads scattered all over the field...’No...NO!!!’

I knew the moment I saw them. Cyanin’s head had been cleaved off and the rest of her body was simply too destroyed. Next to the severed head was just small pieces of scorched and completely destroyed remains. Next to it were the bodies of Jade, Vale and Kai also in pieces. There were so many pieces it looked impossible for them to regrow or attach to themselves with or without their healing abilities. All over the ground were almost shredded remains of those I once knew.

I looked forward at the soon to b dead neko I was going to kill...I was going to hurt…Badly!

I swung Abgrund down when an immediate force explosively impacted on my wrist, knocking my weapon away from me. Her image again had disappeared and kicked my weapon several meters away from me. The whole mountain shook the moment it touched down but that sound dulled as an explosive impact barraged against my open chest and body.

BOOOOOOM!

Critical Hit!

You have been struck by Pleasant Nightmare

You have received 14,650 damage

You have received 18,880 additional explosion damage

Due to your resistances you have received an additional 2,180 Fire and Light damage.

BOOOM! BOOM BOOM!

You have been struck by splash damage from Pleasant Nightmare

You have received an additional 4,330 damage

Due to your resistances you have received an additional 2,100 Fire and Light damage.

You have been struck by splash damage from Pleasant Nightmare

You have received an additional 5,565 damage

Due to your resistances you have received an additional 1,410 Fire and Light damage.

It felt like a bomb had gone off on my chest and sent me dozens meters back. I continued to feel additional cannon blasts from my neck to several other critical parts all over my body. I immediately warpe and appeared standing several meters away looking back towards Alysteir who then appeared right back in the same location. ‘ Geez…Did she just hit me 10 times in the second because my whole body ached from assault just now.’

Even with my resistances it felt like holes were burning right through me with every attack. If I couldn’t heal myself or had such a durable body I would have been blown to pieces by now. Even now if regardless of my high HP a simple mistake could be the difference between life and death.

My health had dropped by almost a fourth before it started to jump back up.

’74%...82%...97%..100%.....’

I then saw Alysteir now standing back in her original position only now staring back at me oddly. ‘Damn this neko’s  so fast! She knocked my weapon away before I could even finish my skill off and unleashed a fury of attacks the moment she got close. Her attacks knock off hell of a lot too so this might be very risky. I’m going to have to get creative.’

She looked back at me, however this time, instead of giving off the impression of a predator  from before, she was expressing a face of curiosity while slightly lowering her swords. It almost looked as if for a brief moment she was giving miniscule signs of slight fear. She however squared herself in my direction and smiled back towards me.

“Hmm… Well that’s disappointing. And here I thought none of you could survive even one of my strikes but everyone has an interesting little white barrier on themselves don’t they…. And such interesting armors too. I guess my new skill isn’t as eventful as I would have hoped, but at least things are interesting finally. You’ve all learned such…. Hmmm things have gotten interesting haven’t they...” – Alysteir

She then smirked looking in my direction when a voice had distracted me from my side.

“Oh wow it just went black for a moment!”

“Hehe no kidding, it was like lights out then you can almost feel yourself growing back.”

‘Wait those voices…’

Looking towards the direction of the familiar voices I saw Cyanin and Jade now wobbly standing up and talking to one another. Cyanin then saw me and waved before looking back at Alysteir grinning. Her health was at 100% and she didn’t even look like she missed a beat while casting her barrier magic on herself and the others once again. Her bright turquoise aura shined as if showing to have thickened and increased her defense while she extended her wings in a shield like motion in front of her. Then following that two more bright lights then surrounded her again and she looks to be surrounded by Tanin’s fire. …’ Harvesting that hydra ability was worth risking our lives for … It even brought them back from death….’

“Hehe look Vale thought she was really a gonner. Come on Vale it’s not like some of us haven’t had our health drop to 0 before.” - Cyanin

“Shut up! This is different... We had only ever talked about trying it so it wasn’t even for sure we could even do it. Kai did you get her?” – Vale

“…..Nope hahaha! I didn’t but this is truly incredible it was all we had hoped for. How long were we out and what’s the total yield?” – Kai

I now see Kai and Vale as well who just had a severe neck wound and nothing from the waste down now standing up with their lights shining as bright as ever.

The pixies continued to chatter idly while standing to the side of me paying attention to Alysteir.

She looked back towards us with a smirk on her face but I can see she’s trying to comprehend just how all this could be happening. The pixies were in pieces just a few moments ago and here now they are now, like new.

I then heard coming out of one of Daisy’s flower petals that it took less than 3 seconds to heal each of them and the answer to his next question was zero.

“Cyanin? All of you are…”

Cyanin then looked back at me and smiled at my disbelief. They were all talking so casually ,but I in all honesty thought it’s absolutely not possible for them to be capable of restoring themselves if they the were brutally torn to shreds. ‘How can you share your life with something that has been turned to ash.’

“Look Vali was saddened by my death the most, so it means he likes me best!” – Cyanin

Just then a lightning bolt shot forth from Vale’s hands and hit just a foot away from Cyanin causing her to jump. She then warned Cyanin to get serious causing her to turn around and look back grinning towards Alysteir.

Alysteir however seemed to look at the pixies as if they were zombies.

“Zero! And you’re saying Jana and Cari were the only catchers for us?  What does this even mean?” – Kai

“Why don’t you shoot lightning at Kai? He’s the one who’s goofing off.” – Cyanin

Cyanin and Vale starting looking at one another while Kai starting laughing to himself. All of those in the surroundings including myself were still slightly frozen by this. I knew they could heal themselves incredibly but even I haven’t lost a head and grew it back yet….It’s just completely different, seeing it actually work as it makes me wonder how one could actually kill them…..Wait this is a game changer.’

It was Alysteir however who seemed the most shocked.

“Ah Vali you were right we really have become something truly special. Even in front of the Rank 1 we don’t have to use any of our backups and can continue to fight with you…To tell you a little something what I mean Alysteir well, our formations try to incorporate the best chance for survival then victory using our abilities to share our lives…If you influct us a certain amount of damage per second we wouldn’t be able to have this conversation as we would have to immediately change tactics or flee. But even after killing the 4 of us, you couldn’t even cause 1 Total Damage over our limit as our mana is already back to full capacity.  Now we can even heal our own from floors away... Sucks for you since we’ve been having this discussion we have already bought enough time for the others to get into our long-range formation. We actually survived having our bodies destroyed and came back with zero Total D’ and full Mana!… Ugh! If everyone only knew what this means.... You lose, even if we die 100 times...no a 1000 times, you’ll still lose.“ – Kai

As Kai spoke this I now peered around and the pixies who were all behind and surrounding the Annunakes and I had all disappeared.

Only Kai remained…..

“Mphmphmph…Oh you don’t think I can hurt you folk enough until you stop growing back is that it?”- Alysteir

“It’s just how our race ability works and basic math is all… Once we die we can’t receive any further damage but each of us have some light regenerative abilities. Lucky for us, the four of us only had around 2 thousand health each as a total of a little over 9,000…. Unlucky for you I estimate we can regenerate roughly a hundred times that every 2 seconds. And if we’re anything like that Floor Boss we took these abilities from…. Even if you could manage to kill all of us across the span of this entire floor within a second, I have doubts if that would even kill us….” – Kai

As he finished speaking with absolute confidence everyone present heard him loud and clear. To all of those present listening to his words made them wonder if the each of the words they stated could possible be true. Ollie’s even seen the extent of their fire magic but this is something else entirely…..

He like myself and the one we are fighting were momentarily frozen comprehending each of Kai’s words..’ No …game changer is a wrong word for it this is broken…. That’s…wait seriously? Almost million health recovered every two seconds….’

“…..”

“Hehe Kai’s sounds so cute when he talks so smart!” Jade

“Hehehe look at everyone’s faces this is priceless!” – Cyanin

Kai continued to speak while grinning cynically as if not believing his own words and the other pixies continued to laugh. Looking around I can even see now that the surrounding pixies that I we’re behind me next to Sting and Ollie are now gone. These three however we’re all talking this whole time to set their schemes up.

His remarks caused Alysteir to stand there silently contemplating what he had said and possible means of attack from here on out. She doesn’t seem to care whether they’re getting into formation or not however but she seems more intrigued how all this is possible.

Oddly enough I doubt she wanted to step in and initiate another attack carelessly as she just realized her ultimate move hasn’t even accounted for one casualty yet. She must be a brilliant tactician as well considering she has attained the number 1 status in this dungeon and the weakest race just survived her onslaught and are laughing about it. This alone must shock her down to her very core.

Everyone then stood in silence staring at Kai as if the once weak and diseased pixies they have known their whole lives were monsters worse than those they’ve been fighting all this time. Those in this dungeon aren't ignorant, they are actually incredibly observant and diligent. Within only a single skirmish they had even come up with a way to fight with me.  Now trying to comprehend the extent of Kai’s words and that if they can heal someone indefinitely along with their new array of skills makes these pixies incredibly complicated opponents to have to deal with. ‘Hell I haven’t even done something like this and coming from the fact its coming from this race who have never been strong, everyone here looks as if someone had forcibly sucked all of the air out of their lungs ….’

Before they received these abilities it didn’t matter if they could heal each other with sharing their life because if they were dismembered or received too much continuous damage by a much stronger monster, it would only put everyone else at risk. Cosmia told me once, ‘Ever since Kai took control of our group tactics, he’s been coming up with formations to reduce losses every time they went out hunting.’ I’ve only talked to Kai once and he’s someone who talks about having backup after backup plans and formations that utilize everyone’s strong points best. They use to have some who weren’t great at fighting, stand in the back or hide and send their life to the ones who were. Sometimes they would even have to stay hidden even while feeling that their family had been killed.

This method of attack immediately changed when they let Kai make up formations and only a short while after that is when they started receiving abilities from the crystals. Simply put that regardless of their level gap the abilities that they’ve acquired from the King Hydra has given them an incredible advantage over any species when combined with their life sharing skill….. It’s a cheat that makes my cheats look weak.

 They can even hide their healers levels away and simply wear down their opponents without ever receiving any actual damage to them at all. Alysteir can’t even fly....As long as they stay up in the sky they’re right it could take time to figure out a way to take her down but the pixies could potentially be able to do it without even losing a single person.

“I guess I’ll just have to hurt you each enough until you all decide it’s best not to grow back....…”- Alysteir

“Even if you’re not afraid I don’t care…Vali’s our family now. Look at us, do we look scared of you?” – Kai

I then cut Kai and everyone off and told them to stand down, as I wanted to say this my fight. But he simply shook his head and interrupted me.

“Vali we’re family now… I made this formation specifically so we can fight alongside you incase we really could heal ourselves like that Boss. Listen... You’re not someone who saved our family, you are our family… Now and forever.” – Kai

Kai then began to smile towards me before his entire image had disappeared and blurred into the surroundings.

“Right and Pixie code… Family never fights alone….” – Cyanin

Cyanin then appeared over to my left and raised her wings again in a shield like position while readying her Adamantine Pick at her waste.  Her armor looked dark and even partially destroyed showing the durability to have gone down by quite a bit but the hydra armor beneath was still in perfect condition.

“We will fight too Alpha. “ -?

All of the Annunakes then started to take steps forward while preparing again for Alysteir’s rapid attacks. Everyone had a small yellow bar under their green health and blue mana bar. Speaking of everyone has a small white barrier on themselves including the Annunakes. Are the pixies able to put their barriers around other races?

Seeing the small flapping bird flying above their heads in the corner of my vision, I assumed this was Hjokk’s doing.

‘What I don’t get one either?’

“No!”

Hjokk then shouted causing all to turn towards her including Alysteir before talking back through my thoughts.

[I mean no.... Just because you made a mistake or are an idiot doesn’t mean everyone else should suffer. Besides if I gave you a barrier and you killed her I could descend before ever even facing off against Balor. I however would love to see this demi human suffer.]

As I stood there listening while staring back towards Alysteir, she just stood there not showing any signs of any emotion at all.

“AHAHAHAHA!!!!!! Bahahaha!!!!!  Oh how marvelous! Ughh I haven’t had this much fun in Ages! Who would have thought that the little bugs would be so intriguing? I have to say this is more fun than making those big fur balls wallow in pain!”

Alysteir then looked to have been truly laughing to the point of tears as she was now whipping them away with her thin arms.

“Mmmm….Let’s see how long each of you can fair then. You have made this so much fun for m....... “ – Alysteir

Whoosh!

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Alysteir then shook her swords and jumped back. She kept swinging wildly as if to an invisible opponent.

“Hmph….Clever illusions but slow!” – Alysteir

She then closed her eyes and darted to the side. She swung her weapon swiftly through the air several feet away from Cyanin.

BOOOOM!

Cleaving straight through a bright blue image caused Aurora to appear with her left wing been completely blown off.

“Gotta do better at masking that blood lust of yours mphmphmm!” – Alysteir

I warped towards her location but she had already moved to a different location and began to spin while swinging through the air. The image of her sword severing and splitting a small silver pixie in half came to view and Vale then appeared and split in half destroyed from the waist up.

Her strikes ripped straight through the Pixie’s barriers as if they weren’t even there to begin with and wreaked havoc on the Pixies who were underneath.

As Vale’s body then split apart and fell, before her body even touched the ground she had already grew her upper torso back as if the first attack were all a lie.

Alysteir then spun around and her opposite hand. She activated a skill and an image similar to Wind Claw appeared and three slashes came out of her bright shining rapier towards Cosmia. This skill however looked to have been stopped by Vale’s barrier followed by another explosion, which launched Cosmia’s body down to the ground. I tried to use my spatial magic to warp her away but Alysteir’s skill activations were even immediate.

I warped to the location next to her and casted Wind Claw towards Alysteir along with Lightning Step, Demonic Awakening, Toughened Exterior, and Lightning Armor and used Flicker to go in close to her.

BOOOOOM!!!!

She swung her opposite rapier down as fast as lightning and a quick orange stream of fire flung back and disrupted my initial Wind Claw causing another loud explosion as her skill came into contact with it.

The force from the explosion pushed me several feet back almost knocking me completely over long after the end of the skill….

‘Holy crap what is this bitch!’

So much power came off of these explosions whenever her skills or swords would come into contact with anything.

If I wasn’t built the way that I am, I can’t imagine normal humans even surviving a few breaths against her.

The explosive force behind her swings felt stronger than an impact from a small bomb and it’s with every single swing. Everything her swords come into contact with just get blown to pieces.

She then deflected Tanin’s incoming magic and continued to jump around throughout the battlefield.

Alysteir then back flipped and landed on the ground lightly with the feet of a cat and grace of an exotic dancer. She’s still smiling…

ZAAP!

A loud strike looked to have erupted on the ground right next to where Alysteir was standing. Vale had sent a bright silver lightning bolt towards Alysteirs location only to miss by a few paces.

Alysteir then lunged forward grinning manically and then swayed her curvaceous body backward dodging two Annunakes who had attempted to attack her flanks upon landing.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!!!!!!

Alysteir then spun around and two loud explosions happened as the images of two Annuankes who had leaped towards her had been blown away before they got within arms reach of her.

Another vision of an Annunake came in from behind her when a loud explosion sent the Annunake flying dozens of meters the other way.  Even her flank seems to be protected by her swords too.

The Annunakes barrier has now been broken and he looks to have received a small amount of damage.

ROARRRR!!!

BOOOM!

GRRRRRRrrrr!!!

BOOOOOOOM!

The Annunakes continued to surround and swarm Alysteir as they did with me. But even though their speed could keep up with Alysteir her reflexes were just too extreme.

She didn’t even need to dodge as each and every Annunake who lunged towards her was only sent flying back with the same skill she used on me.

She simply moved throughout the battlefield like a raging storm that nothing could seem to get close to at all. Everywhere she appeared she wreaked havoc and moved onto the next location as the aggressor not the other way around. Even when her flanks are attacked it sends the same explosive reaction from her swords, it’s as if she has a barrier of her own.

Even with the barriers in place the extent of the force behind each attack is enough to feel something. The Annunakes who got hit by her are barely staggering up but are only attempting to jump in at a concise opening it’s just difficult to find one. Even appearing behind her she can still strike you equally as fast as her front. Any skill we fire off at her she simple shrugs off or sends another skill to deflect it.

I activated my spatial magic and went and picked up Abgrund. I can’t use Dark sever as a wild swing could potentially kill an ally but I can definitely use this to cut this neko’s body in half…

‘Anything that get’s close to her receives just a colossal amount of damage it can even cleave off the extra armor provided by Hjökk, Adimar wasn’t kidding when he said anything that got close to this woman gets torn to shreds but it’s more like anything that gets close gets blown to bits.’

I used my spatial magic again to get in close behind Alysteir but again her image had already disappeared from where it just was. It’s as if every moment I attempt to get close she moves away faster than I can blink.

I looked around and then noticed where the fight had turned to. Even while surrounded and outnumbered her movements never slowed down or faltered in the slightest. She simply spins her slender athletically toned body with absolute perfect form. I’ve seen the nekos dance with their swords before but never like this.

She doesn’t make a single wasted motion and every movement is directed towards a vital or fatal location if pierced. She’s is a swordsman that looks to be those who are born once every 1000 years.

And yet.....

Seeing her image she is slowly being boxed in. Never being given a break or a moment to think. Her health has even dropped by a couple percent already. Every time she attacked someone with that Grootslang armor or Tanin’s barrier she receives just a small amount of damage each time. ‘Kai was right... It doesn’t matter if they aren’t strong enough as long as the durability of their armors last long enough she’s gonna lose.’

She’s moving faster than anyone could track. She attacks so swiftly and severely....But she hasn’t caused one casualty. Once the Annunake’s lose Hjokk’s added armor I ushered them to back off when suddenly the ground started to shake and the whole area started to feel 20 degrees colder..

Less than 10 seconds into this battle and Cosmia is now using her area of effect skill ‘Icy Grave’. I used my Eclipse View and then noticed the simplicity of Kai’s formation.

There standing in the center of this Icy Grave was Alysteir. Surrounding her in a triangle formation were Aurora and Cosmia, Jade and Tanin, and then Cyanin and Vale. Tanin, Vale, and Cosmia were however all flying overhead and constantly surrounding Alysteir with their element of choice while the other three were on the ground as defenders and attackers.

It looked as if a new storm had taken place and continued to rain down in every location Alysteir would appear at and even stopped her attacks for a few seconds. Even with my spatial magic I doubt I would be able to dodge all of these attacks so simply but Alysteir has yet to be hit from the flying pixies efforts even once.

ZAAAPPP!!!

BOOM!

Large gusts of fire met with a bright thin streak of lightning and rained down over Alysteir.

Her hair swayed back and forth as she flicked her wrist and looked to have parried the magic with her sword and canceled the skills out entirely. ‘Second time I’ve seen that, she can even parry magic?’

Alysteir then immediately jumped away from where she was standing as large red ice shards began to crash down from above... Everywhere she moved a large red spike would emerge from the ground as she continued to evade.  Soon the whole field began to become covered in ice. The pixies alongside the Annunakes were not allowing her a moment to catch her breath so she could eventually slow down.

Above everyone however was the rest of the pixie race separated in groups. Some are even floating above activating their other area of effect skills from the hydra attempting to slow her down even more though I only know that from using Eclipse View.

Every pixie is currently being hidden by illusions from all those present.

I activated Moonlight Claw, which has an 8 second cool down, and Wind claw at the same time and swung it towards the direction she was go to land….

My dark grey nails then turned a bright pale blue and my arm swung towards her direction as a transparent wave shot out from my fingertips.

Though it just looked to be nothing more than a pale blur this could potentially kill almost anything on this continent in one go.

As she saw this she then activated that similar skill from before only this time the bright orange crystal flame looked to go straight through it. This caused Alystier to momentarily panic and begin to spin violently in the air like a tornado. Her twin swords began to spin wildly at her sides until it eventually changed her trajectory. As she landed lightly on the ground she immediately swung her body sideways, narrowly dodging the fatal blow.

The image of her bright blue hair was then clipped off at the ends as the skill past right by her and dissipated.

I used the my spatial magic not to give her a chance at escape only to find she was no longer in the same location again…’Where’d she…’

Her silhouette then emerged dozens of meters away and looked to have just finished dancing as her arm had extended upward and disappeared. As we made eye contact her image then disappeared again.

Whoosh!

‘Oh shit!’

Her image then immediately reappeared only an inch away from my face.

In that brief instance I activated Adamantine King’s Fortification, Lightning Step and Flicker to swing towards her with my fist while possibly evading. Her image slowed down for a brief second but what was odd was even as my fist was clearly going for left side, time almost appeared to have slowed slightly. But her image simply moved around me as if I were the one in slow motion.

As I realized it was impossible to keep up with her I felt a large crack on my ribs, as I was too slow to defend against it.

Boom…

You have been struck by Pleasant Nightmare

Due to Fortification you have received 35% Reduction to all damage for the next 20 seconds

You have received 6,225

You have received an additional 7,240 explosion damage

Due to your resistances and Fortification you have received 11 Light and Fire damage

You have been struck by splash damage from Pleasant Nightmare

You have received an additional 550 damage

Due to your resistances you have received an additional 3 Fire and Light damage.

The force from the sword hitting my sides had exploded on my ribs and sent me to the side by three steps.

The force from that blow was enough to not only blow half of my body clean off a week ago but probably all of my vital organs along with it as well if I hadn’t just activated that skill. Now it feels as though my entire body had a tiny thin layer of diamonds placed on top of it and my skin feels even tougher than steal…‘Though Loki would probably just think I looked like one of those twilight douchebags.’

Regardless, back in my world her swords could potentially turn a tank into scrap metal and my body has currently absorbed that entire blow just now with little damage.

My defense is currently up 210% due to Toughened Exterior, Demonic Awakening and Adamantine King fortification. I also receive 35% reduction to all damage and my Elemental Resistances each rose by 10% for the next 20 seconds.

My lightning armor had attacked her and I felt the current travel from my crystalline body towards my flank. I then warped away and attempted to appear behind her. But again every time I would warp to her location it was as if she could use spatial magic too. We continued to play the game of cat and mouse and appeared in and out of everyone else’s location.

No one attempted to join in the attacks as our movements began to only increase more and more. I continued to swing Abgrund and my claws towards her but I couldn’t even manage to scratch her. Anytime my hand got close the weight of bomb exploding over me caused me to move in the direction she wanted me to go.

My health was being cleaved off in chunks but due to the benefits I gained from the King Hydra and Malthiel it has proven to make me quite difficult to hurt. As my health rushes back to 100% she was slowly starting to lose health one by one.

She started to realize that any time she attacked it meant more damage for her and if she didn’t kill me in one move this was only going to increase in difficulty.

You are in the Area of Affect of King Hydra’s Desolation

All stats reduce by 10%

All healing magic reduces by 5%

You are currently breathing in pixie dust!

You will continue to receive 30 damage per second until you are out of range of the pixie’s poison!

Attack after attack we dove through the battlefield attacking and evading each others strikes. Even though this fight hasn’t even gone on over a minute yet, I’m still somehow shocked that we haven’t even hit her once.

‘Fuck she’s even faster than I can…..’

BOOM!

You have been struck by Pleasant Nightmare

Due to Fortification you have received 35% Reduction to all damage

You have received 3,225 damage

You have received an additional 5,240 explosion damage

Due to your resistances and Fortification you have received 7 Light and Fire damage

She would disappear as quickly as she appeared and had a method of approach to every one of my attacks. I activated my Dullahans behind her as an obstruction but in one swing they disappeared faster than it took to create them and my mana dropped just like that.

I would activate Abysmal Mist and she would shoot off brilliant bright skills coming off her blades to simply disrupt it or allow her to avoid it.

She cut cleanly through the adamantine thread as if it were made of silk and continued to activate skill after skill from many of her equips.

Her bracelet is now growing purple and the necklace is also started to give of a faint light.

Her reflexes were just perfect. Every time I would get close she would simply evade even in Lightning Step, even with Flicker and all my increased agility I couldn’t even begin to touch this neko. She would evade Abgrund and every time she countered with one of her swords….

BOOOOOM!!!!!!

Critical Hit!

You have been struck by Pleasant Nightmare

Due to Fortification you have received 35% Reduction to all damage

You have received 9,225

You have received an additional 10,240 explosion damage

Due to your resistances and Fortification you have received 23 Light and Fire damage

Her silhouette never stopped dancing around me effortlessly as a master toying with a beginner. Someone who stood at the pinnacle of sword mastery and the world has acknowledged her for it. At such a young age it is warranted to call her a genius. I’m someone who’s only been here for a short time and I at least hoped I could gain some ground over her but it’s incredibly hard to gain an advantage over her even with all my skills and equips. She simply shrugs off each attack and even if I could predict where Alysteir was going to appear next…. her elusiveness was also the best I’d ever seen.

If I didn’t want this woman dead so much I would have probably been in awe of how she moved. It was different than how Meifeng and even Malfius moved….

When she dodged she was graceful, as she swung she was ruthless. Flawless with every strike directed at a vital area. Even though she isn’t gaining any ground she almost looks to be having fun.

A large stream of flames then shot forth towards Alysteir’s location as she simply flung her arm perpendicular to her side as if swatting it all away with her swing alone.

As my feet landed on the ground I swung Abgrund horizontally and she then evaded underneath it and then jumped up.

Her tail began to curl and her image in the air almost appeared frozen for a brief moment in time in front of my face. Thinking this was my chance to grab her I reached up only to watch her image blur as she looked to have jumped in air and used the top of my head to catapult herself away.

Alysteir then began to dive towards one of the pixies flying in the air behind me.

Her image then appeared floating right next to Tanin.

This sudden movement from several meters away in an instant caused him to jerk back nervously. In an instant however Alysteir’s blade had rammed through Tanin’s barriers. Her rapier had then slowed down at Tanin’s shoulder where it had stopped.

Just before the following explosion occurred however a gust of fire came pouring out of Tanin’s other fist and flew towards Alysteir.

BOOOM!

Tanin smiled as his entire self erupted and flung backwards deactivating his flame barrier around the surrounding pixies.

Alysteir then dodged a lightning strike while spinning like a top. She swung each of her twin blades into Jade and another oncoming Annunake who had dove in at her. Both were sent flying away before they even got within a foot of her.

One after another she began to get surrounded and pounced on only to look to appear to be getting even faster in her movements. She doesn’t even seem phased at all by Cosmia’s de buff at all.

Her swords danced around and brilliant rainbow lights and shined out, as everyone she hit would get thrown back like a rag doll simply from her raw power.

I then used my spatial magic to jump to her loc.....

BOOOOM!!!!!

Critical Hit!

You have been struck by Pleasant Nightmare

Due to Fortification you have received 35% Reduction to all damage

You have received 9,225

You have received an additional 4,240 explosion damage

Due to your resistances and Fortification you have received 14 Light and Fire damage

When I stepped into the space I was then met with a sudden crack to my neck, which sent me flying backward through the space I came. The moment I appeared close to Alysteir she had sent one of her strikes the moment I had appeared. I

f my body didn’t regenerate damaged cells and have unbreakable bones I’d probably be unable to move from the pain alone let alone dying a 100 times over.

My durable bones had stopped the blow and by the time I had reappeared in another location my burnt and damaged throat were like new. ‘Ugh fuck that was embarrassing. I completely get how this person is ranked Number 1 in a place like this.’

This Neko has only lost a small amount of health but it’s clear she is dangerous. We haven’t caused any of that damage to her directly, as it is simply the benefits of all of our armor and skills attacking her as she strikes us.

Her image then appeared in front of Vale who had been shooting her lightning close to the ground. Vale then stayed floating in the air as if attempting to activate a skill towards her.

BOOOM!

Suddenly a loud explosion happened right in front of Alysteir’s body and blew her back several feet.

Smoke began to appear around Alysteir’s face and I could now see she had taken around 8% from what just happened.

“Wuhaha! How’s your own fire taste? … I waited till you tried to attack Vale and then used my wings to block it!” - Cyanin

Cyanin then got up wobbly with smoke coming off of her blackened body as stared back up towards Alysteir’s direction. Her whole left side had looked charcoaled and ashy but the skin underneath it looked healthy and new. Her entire left side had even been partially blown off and even her insides looked to be made of crystals but was rapidly regenerated as she finished speaking.

Her plan was to take Alysteir’s hit right next to her and just had faith in her defense and her siblings abilities would be enough to take the death blow. This caused the explosion to occur right next to Alysteir causing her additional damage.

Large shards of ice and fire began to fly out while the pixies from above all began to rain down magic all at once.

A trail of fire then began to explode in Alysteir’s direction and look to almost follow her like a trail of smoke as she continued to evade. She began to run around as the bright rainbow colored smoke turned into flame and was practically tracking her.

You could see her slowing down as she ran away from the trail of smoke and her image began to easily become identifiable.

“Hehe… She fell for it!” - Kai

Alysteir then was in the middle of three large circles of black smog that came from the Black Hydra. If she’s in the middle of there she’s received 3 stacks of that curse magic and is slowing her movements down by quite a lot.

Watching her image you can see she is coughing and having trouble breathing as well as slowing down.

BOOM!

Then a cloud of dust appeared as her image then disappeared again. Only this time she was nowhere to be seen.

“Yes she fell in! NOW!” – Kai

A loud roar erupted and coming down from the sky were hundreds of flashes of magic pouring out of the sky. The enormous amount of magic then directed towards the floor around a hole that just now revealed itself.

It looked like every pixie at once continued to fire magic towards the ground. It looked impossible to dodge even for someone like her. It was enough to cast a huge shadow onto the medium sized hole and flood it with attack magic.

The image of Kai then appeared as his bright purple wings flapped slowly descending towards the ground. He then flew up close to a large hole in the ground as continuous fire, ice and lightning magic tore down and incinerated the surrounding.

He looked in with a smirk as everyone continued to watch from dozens of feet away surrounding the hole. Did the pixies really set this up so quickly?

Just then appearing piercing through the innumerable amounts of magic raining down was the image of Alysteir now free from the small hole and magical barrage. Her image doesn’t look to have even taken so much as a single hit and is lightly glowing in a pale blue.

Her black leather and hat is now however smoking. Her bright blue hair drooped down over her face and covered her almost unhittable existence. Her health said it was at 94% from all of our efforts but I feel our exchanges in blows have been completely different.

“AHAHAHAH! “

She started to laugh obnoxiously loud. This startled the once confident Kai standing only a few feet away from her.

He jumped back until his entire body then jerked and began to levitate lifelessly into the air.

Alysteir had unleashed a flurry of attacks all over the barriers surrounding Kai in less than a second and then advanced towards him as he was trying to get away. She tried to stop unleashing that unrelenting bomb skill only to then pierce straight through Kai’s chest.

She then pulled Kai’s motionless body in close to her while revealing her pearly white teeth…

“I’m having so much fun! –Alysteir

“KAI!”

Kai with blood dripping out of his mouth began to look towards Alysteir lifelessly. I could see that through his eye and mouth a bright white light was beginning to emerge out of his mouth and eyes as if he were being burned through from the insides.

As I was about to jump to his location something happened.

“…Hehe so stupid” - Kai

Kai then suddenly awakened and shot forth and latched onto Alysteir’s thin wrist.

“DO IT!” - Kai

Magic again began to rain down as Kai swung his right wing towards Alysteir, which was then immediately blown off. As she was trying to swing her other sword towards Kai again his left wing then came straight down and cut right through Alysteir’s black leather while also sinking firmly into the dirt.

 She then flicked her wrist in a lightning quick motion and swung her sword swiftly launching Kai out of the ground with ease.

“Rapid Paw!”

Before Alystier could react to that however she was already moving to dodge an oncoming Annunake. For a brief second the white one armed Annunake had matched Alysteir’s reaction rate and swung his one arm clearing off the black leather of Alysteir and causing a cut on her shin bone.

The Annunake had not missed this chance from Kai and cut her pretty left leg from the bottom of her shin to halfway up her knee.

Her face then distorted and smirked. As her right arm came down in a sudden movement to execute the Annunake by severing the back of his head. Just before the sword came to him however his image had disappeared and warped to another location.

BOOOooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOM!

At the same time her strike came down I jumped into his location and activated Lightning Step again and attempted to test Alysteirs right sword against Abgrund. I increased its weight and I could feel the force behind this swing must have been well over several tons.

All Skills have been deactivated

The moment our weapons collided and made contact a blinding white light shot forth from Alysteir’s sword making it impossible to see along with the incredibly powerfully force that blew me and everything in the surrounding area away.

My weight felt non-existent as I was launched back.

BOOOOM!

The force from the explosion along with the weight of Abgrund sent my scythe flying towards the floor causing the whole mountain to tremble.

I can only assume that blast just now, happening so close to Alysteir , must have caused her some form of damage.

BOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!

My back then crashed into a large, cold pillar of ice as I must have hit the outer boundary of Cosmia’s skill. Getting up, I observed my surroundings and then reappeared back in the same location.

Everyone is still scattered about looking around they seemed exhausted trying to keep up with this Neko.

I saw her now dozens of meters away. Her left arm now appeared broken, as coming into contact with Abgrund must have caused insurmountable amount of damage. It was bent in an odd way and covered in blood as most of her arm up to her shoulder is now visible and partially burned off.

Her shin has a small gash and now her health has dropped to roughly 85% after those two explosions she incurred at point blank range.

She doesn’t look scared in the slightest though.  She just keeps smiling back at us as if she is truly enjoying all of this. ‘This woman really has lost it.’

She then bobbed her head back and smiled while looking up causing a small shiver to run down each of our spines. Her image then disappeared and then reappeared in front of me. Even with her broken arm she swung her swords at the speed of light down towards me. Dodging was impossible.

You have been struck!

You have received 6,280 damage

Critical Hit

You have been struck!

You have received 11,280 damage

You have been struck!

You have received 8,475 damage

Alysteir continued to fling her rapiers with strikes faster than I could even activate lightning step to react to them. She simply moved faster than anything perceivable by human eyes could even perceive. I was truly helpless as every swing must have been moving at half her speed. This wasn’t spatial magic this was raw agility and super animalistic honed reflexes at the top of the food chain.

I continued to swing my fists like rockets towards her unguarded face and chest but she dodged them nimbly at the last possible second. She didn’t dodge anything like Malfius as ever movement was the slightest amount possible to miss my blow by a hairs step…. I only knew what she was doing if I had Lightning Step active or else I wouldn’t be able to see her image at all.

Faster than I could defend her  figure continued to dance and evade even faster than Malfius as Alysteir continued to unleash what felt like hundreds of tiny slashes all over my body.

I continued to follow her movements and then used the same steps as Malfius had taught me and side swiped my feet. This action caused Alysteir to immediately adjust her movements but her swords came down onto my chest where I had hoped them to go next.

Shink! Shink!

“Heh…Bet ya didn’t think I’d try to catch them huh….”

I gripped on tight with my fists around Alysteirs twin blades causing blood to drip down onto the white crystalline swords and fall towards the floor below. With my strength I doubt she can compete with me if she couldn’t dodge.

I grinned while whispered quietly towards the now briefly frozen woman.

“Freya Soul Recovery…”

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The same explosion tore past us and engulfed the surroundings with a loud boom and blinding white light. The violent wind gushed past me and flew back as Alysteir’s swords have now disappeared all the way to the hilt. She’s now defenseless.

Not missing my chance I activated Lightning Step and Demonic Awakening.

Her momentary surprise caused her innate quick reflexes to slow down long enough to miss my right arm coming in from the side.

The moment my fist connected with the right side of her face I felt a large impact as it felt like I had hit something that weighed as heavy as a stone wall. Causing the front side of my fist to feel a slight numbing sensation.

BOOOOOOOOM!

The force from the blow of my fist however the moment it came into contact with her face sent her figure flying back in the other direction like a rocket.  

Her body tumbled across the floor and rolled for several meters until crashing violently dozens of meters away.

Without giving her a chance to recover I used my spatial magic to appear in her location to continue in her weakened, unarmed state.

‘What? ... Where’d she….?’

“Mph Ahahaha! Oh wow.... I think I’m in love AHAHAHAHA!” – Alysteir

‘….What?’

Turning my head I see now standing several meters to my left holding her head and laughing hysterically was Alysteir. She had blood dripping out of the side of her eye and now was missing her black generals hat from before. Her arm however looked to have completely healed and her health was now even much higher than it had been before.

Her bright blue hair then flowed out from the side and I could then see something suspicious. ‘Her ears are gone?’

Where her ears are look to be a deep scar that almost covers a large portion of the top of her head. There are small places that looked like she went through some sort of surgery.

“Never would I have thought one of you could actually hit me let alone get my health below 80% even if for a brief moment... Well color me impressed. Well I guess that’s what I get for playing around and not taking things seriously….. Activate Lesser Healing Hand, Activate Greater Leg Strength,….” - Alysteir

Her health then immediately jumped back up to 100% and her body then glowed in a bright green light then a soft bluish purple. This light shot out from one of the rings she was wearing and even her dark black boots began to glow in a pale blue.

Looking at it now almost everything this woman wears looks to give a lot of special attributes and possibly enchantments. In a dungeon like this, it wouldn’t be weird to think some of the weapons and items you can gain in here are Top tier probably in the world.

Not missing my chance I warped to a location slightly further away than normal and then activated flicker towards her left flank.

“Catch!” - Alysteir

She already had turned towards my direction and underhand tossed a small object towards me while smiling. Thinking this was a trick I was about to make a move until I saw her kneel down on the ground and picked up her General’s hat rather casually. As she was adjusting it I noticed what the small silver object was.

It was tiny and from the light reflecting off the sun on this floor it almost looked like… As I used flicker I ran up and caught it before engaging Alysteir once again.

“Wait no!” - Kai

“Stop her!” - Akino

“Thanks for the good time... you’ve each given me quite a bit to think about…. But until we meet again.” -Alysteir

I was in the middle of lunging towards her as she just started to wave at me smiling with blood dripping down her face….

She was still holding her head and I could barely make out her last words as her image then glowed a bright blue and she disappeared.

“What?... What just? Where’d she go?”  

“Ah, she got away...” - Annunake

The large one armed Annunake then walked up to me with a grim look on his face and said Alysteir had actually just escaped.

“When she was activating all those skills just now she must have also activated her warp key. It was all a diversion. Damn.” - Kai

Kai then flew up and looked agitated while looking at the ground.

Cosmia released her skill and all of the pixies then descended back to the ground and revealed themselves. After her ice prison had disappeared and reseeded into the ground everyone from outside then began to emerge to see who survived.

“Wow you’re alive! We had no idea who was winning in there or not. Where’s Alysteir... How many are dead?” – Ollie

“Ok…What the fuck was that bitch!?” - Sting

The one armed annunake from before then walked up alongside Akino and several other Annunakes who also engaged Alysteir just now. According to him they faced no casualties. Because of that barrier from Hjokk they had something close to 25,000 extra armor and they only engaged when they tried to find an opening or obstruct her for even a second. After they learned of the Pixies abilities they simply adapted and attacked when able to…..According to Ollie we were only in that red prison of ice for less than a minute but it felt like an eternity…..

“Yah she got away she used her warp key.” - Annunaake

“Still….no one died?” - Ollie

“I died like 3 times.” - Kai

“....” - Ollie

“Psh that’s nothing I died 5 times.” – Jade

“…heh..” - Akino

The pixies then started giggling to themselves as they walked up and hugged on the 6 frontline pixies and Kai. If anyone had just came in on this situation they probably wouldn’t comprehend why these little pixies would be talking in such a way or laughing about such things.

“Kai you sounded so cool just now! Alysteir looked scared for a second!” - Cari

“Did anyone see her face when Kai came back to life and grabbed her?” - Vale

“Ah that’s nothing. Vali punched her right in the face. She was even bleeding haha!” - Kai

“Hehehe... That was pretty funny.” - One armed Annunake

Akino and some of the other Annunakes started to laugh.

“Wait. I missed that!” - Ollie

“Why is everyone laughing about this? She got away? She could even be bringing back reinforcements right now.”

I was pissed. That insane woman got away! Why is everyone laughing it off?

‘She was just toying with me the whole time….’

“Vali I don’t know what to tell you but that’s just the response we have to these sort of things. I mean... We survived Alysteir. I don’t see it as she got away.... Vali she fled. We caused her to flee!” - Kai

Ahahahahha!

All the Annunakes then began to laugh alongside some of the pixies at this statement nodding their heads as if hardly believing it as well. Noticing my upset demeanor Akino then walked up and addressed me with warm eyes.

“Vali... In this place we lose our own die everyday…… Funerals every day. We’ve come to find death just about everywhere we go... but today we’re alive....” – Akino

‘…….’

“Vali come on details.... What sort of face did she make right after you punched her?” - Ollie

Everyone then started patting each other on the back and laughing beside one another. To Ollie’s questions they would look up and stare with eager eyes as they laughed with one another and enjoyed being alive.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

‘... I got a bad taste in my mouth. It’s not just cause the air in this cave smells bad. Even if it felt quite good to send a punch into that woman’s face, I still feel like I’m the one who lost. Even with Abgrund she was able to push me back and she might not have even been using half of her real strength. ‘

I haven’t even been here two months, I’m just some kid who lost his family and learned boxing only a year ago…. And now I’m fighting monsters of myth and beings of legend.

I can’t expect to compete with some of the strongest opponents in this world after only being here a short time. It just felt like even though she was outnumbered and had the disadvantage she still seemed to be toying with us.

“Vali this place is creepy... “ - Cari

“It’s ok Cari. It’s not much different than how Floor One looks actually. And besides even if a Soul Devourer comes we’ll just beat them up too!” - Aurora

Everyone from the group then came along after our fight with Alysteir to the location of the Titan Tears their teams had discovered in this dungeon. After we checked our equipment those who fought against Alysteir and had shock armor on had the durability of it drop by a massive margin. However Cyanin’s mithril plated female armor looked to be almost in tatters. So now she is just wearing a black hydra shirt….’Wait…oh hehe.’

“VALI! Stop looking at my butt.” – Cyanin

Covering herself oddly with her wings alongside her siblings standing out in front of her I see what hapepned. Her Hydra Armor had restored itself but not her pants….

“I wasn’t looking at your butt.”

Staring back at me strangely Cyanin then started to make an odd face. When she retracted her wings back I could see now she had wrapped cloth given to her by her sibling around her waist.

“We’ll why not?” – Cyanin

I just ignored her and continued to walk in the darkly lit cave. If Cari and the other pixies weren’t here I’d probably have to use that stupid mask Loki gave me. This darkly lit cave is now being illuminated in a complete circle with Cari at it’s center.

I healed all of the Annunakes who had injuries and was even able to reattach a couple of their limbs if they hadn’t been destroyed to such an extent. I was however unable to attach the arm of the Annunake who was able to scratch Alysteir, as there was pretty much nothing left of it.

He oddly enough didn’t even seem upset about the loss of his arm. He was one of the ones who asked to come along and yet he lost his arm because of it. When I asked him about it he simply said he was fine saying ‘I have a spare’. When I said he could leave he simply said he would not, especially since I threatened that Alysteir could come back and this floor was a nightmare for them.

“I hate it here.... More than any other place in this cell, I hate this Floor the most. But I will not leave the Alpha….” - One armed Annunake

As everyone’s breaths seemed to be getting louder we continued in rancid smelling cave.

This Annunake was not among the ones who ever attacked me. For whatever reason he has also taken me as their Alpha with no qualms whatsoever and even treats me with more respect than any other. Looking next to me he was slightly shorter than Adimar and a bit leaner as well. He however shared in having dozens of battle scars all over his white, thick fur. He didn’t talk much unless spoken too, but when I asked his name he simply said... Boro.

I also had my Dullahan Knights on and out in front of us. I used up around 35% of my mana fighting Alysteir, firing off all those skills and trying to use Lightning Step just to keep up with Alysteir. I don’t know if she just killed all the surrounding monsters or what but other than those in my group this entire cave just looks dark.

“Ok we should be coming up pretty close to...Ugh” - Ollie

“Vali down!” - Akino

Then a white dart flew by as Akino had leaped and tried to get me out of the way but then something had then wrapped around my foot and anchored us down.

- 2 Strength

- 15 Stamina

‘What?’

- 22 Defense

“Crescent Cleaver!” - Boro

My weight then was thrown forward along with Akino as I felt a skill fly past my right side.

Looking down I then saw a small black tentacle around my ankle and bleeding a bright green blood.’ I couldn’t even see anything where did that monster even come from…’

“There it’s in the walls!” - Ollie

“Soul Devourer!” Akino

Akino then got up and pointed at the wall that had small holes in it. Long thin black tentacles then began to squeeze through the small holes until the whole wall around it had collapsed.

Getting up I then readied my weapon. Without needed to hear my commands loud blasts of fire, lightning and ice magic were hurled towards the monster emerging from inside of the walls. I couldn’t even see a level yet but the magic was clearly doing some kind of damage to it with the way it was moving.

AHh....

Uh.....

Looking to the other wall two annunakes then lifted off the air and twitched as something came from behind them and wrapped around their necks. A bright orange glow of themselves then appeared to being pulled out of them. ‘ Is that their souls?’

I warped to their location with Abgrund and tore through each of the black tentacles wrapped around them. Their bodies then both fell to the floor with a loud thump. The orange glows then disappeared as if going back into their bodies but their large wolf bodies remained lifeless. I activated Moonlight Claw and Wind Claw into the wall and a loud boom shook the cave walls followed by a loud screech.

Rumble

Rumble

Rumble Rumble

AhhhhhhHHHHHhhhh!

The loud squeal stopped and the walls and almost the entire floor began to shake.

Large rocks began to fall and a large black beast began to slowly emerge from behind the wall.

It looked like a transparent worm. The front of its face was large and bulb like but it had no eyes. As it opened its mouth it had thousands upon thousands of thin teeth glowing with the rest of its mouth.

Suddenly the long sharp tentacles growing out of the back of its mushroom shaped head curled like spider limbs and began to point in my direction. Following the beast’s long worm like body were smaller, thinner almost see through black tentacles that have appeared to have grown into the ground and cave wall themselves. ‘This is bigger than the body parts outside. Alysteir was fighting these?’

It looked like the morph between a spider, a snake, and in all honesty just a fucking monster. The sounds of its breath we’re loud but the smell coming off its open mouth was just rancid. The smell alone gave my skin goose bumps. I could almost hear cries of anguish coming out of its lightly glowing mouth.

Just the image of this creature is something I would never hope to see again. I feel as if even seeing it now this face will haunt me as one of the most terrifying visions I’ve ever come across since coming to this new world.

Soul Devourer   Level 311

I then activated dark sever and swung it towards the horrific beast in front of me as the only logical response to seeing something like this.

SHHHHHHYEEAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

The large vision of a dark crescent moon traveling at violent speeds was then sent straight towards the Soul Devourers bulbous head. The suddenness of my attack didn’t allow the beast any time to react and the attack looked to have almost gone straight through the beast.

BOOOOOM!

The cave wall behind it was then destroyed by my attack and continued to shake and cave in more and more of the interior walls. The whole ground began to shake but the beast looked almost unaffected while looking right back at me…..It twitched.

Haaaa.......

The large bulb like head then began to split across the middle and fall.

The black almost gelatinous like body then started to turn ashy and grey. The transparent tentacles and spider like limbs growing out the back of its head then started to decay until it cracked.

As the top of its skull fell to the earth a bright green, yellow, and red blood began to trickle down its open neck and fall down to the cave floor.

It’s health then jumped down zero and died.

I looked around and saw that the pixies and some of the Annunakes and Ollie we’re still fighting the other smaller Soul Devourer.

I appeared right next to the side of its head and increased the weight of Abgrund with my swing. The scythe went straight through to his skull and almost stopped after receiving almost a lot of cushion and resistance. The beasts spider like limbs shook violently and then looked to have pointed right at me.

I activated Abysmal Mist and it looked like a cloud of darkness had exploded around me with me in the center. The mist shot straight into the gelatinous body of the Soul Devourer and its head finally caved to the ground by our combined efforts.

- 4 Intellect

-12 Agility

Simply standing on this things head can even take away my stats too?

I tried to retract Abgrund away but it was almost stuck inside this beasts brain if it even had one.

I then activated Wind Claw again into the beasts skull and then it finally dropped to the ground but I could still feel it had some life left in it somehow....‘This things vitality is ridiculous.’

I shot it with Fire Ball and Abysmal Mist and activated Lord’s Earth Shattering Smash into to top of it’s head with my foot.

The beast then continued to get eaten through by my Abysmal Mist and everyone’s combined attacks and eventually died.

By the time it had finally stopped moving its head was entirely gone and the rest of it’s long body looked to have been turned inside out.

Breathing heavy I can see why the Annunakes and many of the races don’t venture round here too often and closed off the floor.

“Ok... Well lets try and hurry up so we don’t have to fight any more of those things.” - Ollie

“These are Soul Devourers?”

“Wha...What the hell were those things!” - Sting

Looking back at that squeal I saw Sting sitting on his ass as he must have tripped running away from just the horrific sights of these things.

“Ugh...Yah they bring out that kind of reaction by everyone’s first time seeing one… So let’s keep moving shall we..” - Ollie

Looking around some of the pixies were indeed shaking while all of the Annunakes including Akino just held a grim expression.

“Yah no kidding.”

‘Seriously these things look like the stuff out of a messed up kids nightmares.’

“Well I think that’s what Balor had in mind when he made em.” - Akino

I then looked perplexed and Hjökk too seemed interested while leaning over my shoulder. Throughout that whole exchange she hadn’t said a word and had simply stayed there firmly grasped to my shoulder.

I had almost forgotten she was there since after our fight with Alysteir.

“Balor made these things?”

Everyone then just started nodding their heads.

“Seriously this god is sick in the head...” - Sting

Ollie ushered us that we really shouldn’t stay and chat and instead will explain on the way. As we walked through the dark cave Hjökk and I were told of how these Soul Devourers are not natural monsters but creations from Balor himself, or so he says. Whenever a person was suspected of trying to escape this dungeon throughout the years they wouldn’t just have their bodies hanged from the walls but they would also be fed to these things.

‘So…He’d threaten them with this sort of death as well then huh. Having you’re soul devoured by this thing just seems...Not the way I want to go.’

I don’t get how those things didn’t get picked up by any of my abilities before it had gotten on top of it.

I had first went and acquired two of the hearts from the two dead monsters which didn’t take too long surprisingly. It was in their bulbous heads and somehow even after all the onslaught it survived as a magical core.

[You’re going to eat those too?]

‘...You never know it could provide me with a sort of immunity to physical damage or something.’

[Maybe....]

As I bit into the two small bright blue orbs a thick purple nectar almost poured out but the taste was nauseating.

Simply biting down onto the orb made my vision blur for a moment as it was simply too grotesque to stomach and force down.

Congratulations! You have just learned a new skill!

Soul Ripper

Congratulations! You have just learned a new skill!

Selfless Soul

[.... What if it was similar to the Fomorians and you just absorbed some traits? What then?]

‘Heh...No they were skills. The first one is...Well it allows me to siphon off stats off my victims but...The end result is well messy….. The second one is weird because I can’t seem to understand it. It’s like my intellect isn’t high enough because I don’t understand the magic behind it at all.’

[...Hmm well your intellect is quite low.]

‘What? My stats are high.’

“Ahaha! Oh are they now? That’s why you got your little butt kicked earlier.” – Hjökk

“Ok, I didn’t get my butt kicked.”

“I think she hit you a total of 197 times and you hit her a total one time.” – Hjökk

“.....”

“I mean honestly she only moved a little faster than the speed of sound.” – Hjökk

“Oh look we’re here!” - Ollie

I caught Ollie laughing to himself while walking around a corner to what looked like a white light reflected off the rock. Daisy who was standing right next to me and holding onto my shirt was also laughing to herself.

‘Unbelievable.... They thought Hjökk’s comment was funny too huh.’

Walking around the corner I then saw what was causing that light to reflect off the rock. There along the length of the entire wall was a large white crystal that resembled what we had been looking for. On the ground there were smaller pieces the size of basketballs and boulders but none came close to the large white crystalline wall that must have been at least 30 feet high.

The length of it however was roughly around 100 feet and dug deeper into the dungeon cave wall. ‘No wonder they couldn’t move this thing it probably goes even further into the cave than we can see. I mean it appears to make up a large part of this wall entirely.

‘Man titan’s must be huge. Given the names I can understand but still. They cried these things out of their eyes? I guess considering this entire world is currently populating on a piece of one of these things too.

“There use to be a large tunnel made of the stuff but it’s caved in and I don’t think we have the time to clear it all out it’s deep within these caves. “ - Ollie

“Eh...Honestly I think this’ll do for now.”

Smiling while looking at this colossal Titan Tear and smile greedily. ‘We’re going to burn you alive with this Balor...’

Turning around towards the pixies again I smiled down towards each of them. I told them with this...They will gain something that no one in this dungeon has, even me. Something that they know full well the power from witnessing it themselves and would make them remarkably stronger.

“With this... No one will ever call you weak again. With this... We’re going to rain down fire on that demented freak and bring his whole world down.”

Looking up their eyes each sparkled as the all stood shoulder-to-shoulder looking back up at me. They nodded their heads and agreed to my warning of not using the skills unless I say.

“Ok everyone try to lock arms and put your hands on the wall.”

Every single one of the pixies walked forward nervously and placed their hands on the wall. They each smiled back and forth between one another then back up at me. Everyone else stood back and I told them each stay there, as we would probably have to warp out of here right after. This cave probably won’t stay stable for very long.

Putting my hands on the crystal wall I knew that this would be the turning point for each of them. They were already changing. I’m sure the abilities we gained here outweigh probably any we could gain on this continent…. Even the combinations of their abilities have made them completely different than the King Hydra ever could be…. They’ve changed a lot, but this is the moment I’m probably realizing how much and just how fast.

With all those smiling faces staring back at me me I looked down at my side. Cosmia standing alongside Jana, Biffrost and Cari and Kai looking up at me with eager eyes.  Beside them was every other pixie with their lights each glowing brightly and looking at me with warm eyes.

‘What Kai said just before we all fought. ‘ You are our family now... and forever’.

Looking towards him I nodded with him nodding right back.

“Freya’s Soul Recovery....”

.......Rumble

Rumble

Rumble!

OOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!MM!M!MM!M!!!M!!M!M!M!M!MM!!MM!!MM!M!M!!M!M!M!M!M!M!!MM!M!M!M!MM!M!!

Rocks from the ceiling began to fall and a bright white light began to blind all of the surroundings shaking the entire floor, maybe even the whole dungeon.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM!

All that followed was a deafening ringing of my own eardrums as the same blinding white light continued to linger on much longer than when I used the same crystals before.

The white light began to disappear as I felt a wave of heat rush past my skin to the point it even caused me to sweat.. As the white light faded I began to see dozens of bright white lights as my eyes began to focus. There staring back at me were all of the pixies with white burning eyes that shined as bright as the sun back towards me. The rush of energy and power I felt was unlike anything I had ever felt in my life. Even now my entire body is shaking from the intense energy blast that shot from my fingertips for that brief second.

Each of the pixies wings are now all extended upward in a ‘U’ shape and towering over their heads. The wings growing out of there back practically look to be made of light night. They all look sleeker, fitter and their eyes are each glowing brightly.

Looking down their lights are all much more intense to the point that they each produce a heat. The temperature of this entire cave has already immediately changed by 20 degrees or so, easy.

Looking down I could see Cari’s brilliant colorful hair sway around next to a Bifrost whose aura has now produced a large black coating around everyone in here. It was the same as when Cari had received this crystal, it almost felt like everything around her was wrapped up by the aura they produce from their magically infused bodies.

Her wings were large and black. They had a feint purple mixed in but the colors that reflected off of her and Cari’s wings were unlike any I had ever seen in my old world. The light that refracted off of Bifrost’s wings however resembled polar negatives of Cari’s light and were colors I had never before seen in my last life. The bright, refracted colors danced back in such a way it almost resembled a light show that touched everyone and everything surrounding each of them with a unique glow.

Bifrost’s short hair stayed black but now she has 3 streaks of green, purple, and red mixed in as well. Just the colors surrounding herself and her sister bouncing off one another showed just magically infused his race is.

And they each looked beautiful….

The wall then began to fall apart and break and I warped the space around all the pixies and warped them away. Then I jumped to the other location with everyone else and again did the same.

“Ahhhhh!!! I can feel the POWER!” -Tanin

“Tanin calm down with your fire you’re going to burn something.” - Cosmia

His fire was brighter than the sun for a brief moment before dying down again. His flames stayed the same but every once in a while his fire would briefly flutter white. The heat coming off of him has now also increased.

Appearing back at base all the pixies then began to look through their stats and feel their bodies testing what had changed.

Everyone now surrounding the pixies who were all crowded together in the middle of the base were observing what was different. This whole trip was technically for them so wanting to know the spoils is a must.

“Hehe! Besides the Divine Skill.... My health went up by 54,290. My wisdom rose by 23,664 . My Light and Fire Resistances have each gone up to 47% for each element which has given us a few skills as well.” - Kai

“....Unbelievable.”

“.....”

Everyone remained quiet at Kai’s statement as all the pixies then walked up to each other and looked at one another’s stats.

Several of the pixies then walked up to those who were recently saved and hugged them while commenting on their new looks, especially Bifrost.

Whenever she realized some of her hair color came back it brought her to tears. This action only made all the pixies around her dance as Cari held onto her warmly.

Even after gaining all this power they’re the same. As I’ve said, I think it’s best that beings like this were given such ability and not any of the other races.

“Huh...”

There below me was a small pink girl gripping my shirt with tears in her eyes.

“Th...th.......” Jana

“It’s ok you..”

“ank you... For the longest time, sitting in that prison inside this…sob…prison. I thought I must have been the weakest existence in the whole world. Hating myself for being so small. Being told stories when you were young of the world outside this place one but...sob...Being so insignificantly small. Thank you so...much...Val…iii….sob…You’ve …done..sob..so much….” - Jana

The small pink girl then began to shake as she cried into my gut. Both those who came back with us and those already in the base didn’t interrupt as the small girl continued to cry without a care who heard.

Kai then walked up right behind her and latched onto her and hugged us both as well. Then Cosmia...Then Cyanin and Daisy...Then everyone else.

“Wait! I don’t like this!” - Hjokk

And just like that we were both swallowed up by the warmth of the small pixies once again.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cassandra POV:

We’ve been following around Vali’s pet for hours now. I don’t know what this wolf cub’s stamina is but wearing this iron armor is starting to feel increasingly heavy with each step. We just kept continuing south running alongside Jheroki Mountains, which extends almost the length of the whole continent.

As far as I’m aware there isn’t much in this direction. It just continues south until you reach the edge of the continent. From there it’s just the sea.

‘Well I guess we’re just lucky Vali’s wolf can track his scent. We haven’t come across even one monster yet which is crazy. ’

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Jogging alongside me are Shakko and Master Shen who are both covered in sweat but I feel I am the one who’s drenched.  These woods are rather humid.

Ruf!

The small grey cub continued to increase his speed and ran swiftly through the dense forest. Thinking this was his signal we were close we too started to increase our stride following quickly after him.

We continued to sprint as he made a sharp turn towards the direction of the mountains.

The lush forest we were running alongside began to look black and dead. They began thinning by the dozens with every few steps. Even the ground looked dead and gave off a rather grim vibe. We arrived at the clearing of the forest and what looked like a large scale battle appeared to have occurred. Destroyed trees and earth were scattered throughout everywhere. The ground itself looked to be dead and absent of all life….

“Woh…” – Shakko

“What do ya think happened here?” – Shen

“Looks like a S class monster tore through this place. ” – Shakko

“Well at least we’re getting warmer it seems.”

As they saw what I had stopped to look at they each widened their eyes. Sitting in a large crater in the ground was the black almost seared shape of a scythe dug deep down. It looked exactly the same as the one Vali used just a lot bigger.

Thinking about it this whole place looks like painfully familiar of the place that Lestat had attempted to ambush us. Only with the craters all over the place and rest of the broken trees littering the area it looks much more chaotic.

“Yah, we’re getting closer, not sure I like what this means though… Yah know if that kid’s been through here I wonder why there aren’t any bodies round this place.” – Shen

“Careful…The Intel we received that in the place of the coliseum that scythe touched it became toxic to be around. It’s safe to assume this place could as well…” - Shakko

As Shen began to investigate the ground Shakko had warned him while then briefly turning his head.

“…Ah… Where’d that little monster run off to?” – Shakko

As we all looked up we saw Vali’s wolf now had a very large lead on us and was sprinting towards the base of the Jheroki Mountains. The white thick mist that covered the bottom of the mountain almost looked to have eaten Fenrir as he ran deeper and deeper within.

As we started picking up our pace we slowly approached the edge of the thick mist that surrounds the entirety of the mountain base. We slowed down and took out our weapons and proceeded cautiously towards the same direction as the wolf had gone.

“Alright stay in tight this fog is pretty thick.” – Shen

“Ughh…I’m really starting to get a bad feeling about this place.” – Shakko

“Why’s that Shakko?” - Shen

“Just getting that vibe is all…Be alert…” - Shakko

Walking next to both Master Shen and Shakko I couldn’t quite see where they were but judging by their voices they were no more than a couple feet away from me. It was odd as it almost felt as if there was no light from the sun any longer as well.

I could hear the sounds of their steps becoming slower and much more tense.  Shen stepped out in front and raised his metal arm slowly while holding on tight to his long sword.

“Damn little monster …Took off in this direction, so just slowly keep advancing. I think I see a dim light up ahead. “ – Shen

“I think I see it as well Master Shen.”

I do see a light up ahead but I can’t even tell if we’ve arrived at the base of the mountain yet.  We continued to walk for several minutes when each Shakko and Shen stopped suddenly. At the instant I felt a wave of pressure attack my skin and cause my whole body to tense up and freeze.

Congratulations! You have found Balor’s Legendary Dungeon: Buried Life! You are currently on Floor 52

For being one of the first to discover this hidden dungeon you will receive a 2x experience for the next 44 hours.

For the next 44 hours all monsters will drop their best loot.

Due to your low affinity with the overwhelming darkness that surrounds this place you will now deplete stamina at roughly twice the normal speed.

* You will become 25% more likely to succumb to fear and become paralyzed entirely.

* Healing and Recovery will now become slowed.

* All stats reduced by 10%

“What?...What is this eerie feeling.”

“Wait…We’re in a dungeon? How?” – Shakko

Shen started to ignore us both and continue to walk forward towards the light. He seemed to not care about the windows to the god’s whispers.

We continued to follow behind him and then stopped beside him as we all gazed in awe of the stunning scenery that stood in front of us.

“Beautiful…” – Shen

Standing in front of us was a completely different image than I would have predicted on the other side of that blanket of fog. The sky is orange the sun is large. I even see a floating landmass in the distance… ‘This looks like we entered into a completely different world.’

I then noticed just how high up we are and below us seems to be a large dense forest to where you can’t see what’s below. We’re now not standing at the foot of a mountain but in a crevice halfway up a large rock wall.  

“It said we’re in a Legendary dungeon...And on floor 52. Is this anything like the fabled Age of Gods dungeons in the central continent? It could be like a dungeon trap?”

“Ugh… I don’t know…. I don’t know. Dungeon traps only appear inside of the dungeon… And no those dungeons were more like trials by the gods so they never tried to hide them. Conquering one even gave the Rose Empire their Phantasm item that formed their empire so many centuries ago. Balor…Balor, balor… That name sounds so familiar for some reason…. ” – Shakko

As we continued to peer down the large ledge Shakko continued to whisper over and over to himself. It’s hard to tell his emotional state because of that mask but he sounds like he’s getting nervous. Regardless if he isn’t I am for both of us. I’ve visited some dungeons in my life but none had reduced my power upon entering. All those warnings almost trying to signify this places atmosphere wears you down and even makes recovery to injury more strained.

 The forest below was quite beautiful it was nothing like an image I would assume a dungeon to have, however this entire place looks to be a completely different world than outside….

“We need to hurry and find Vali and return to his Highness quickly. This is not a safe place. If he is just training here it might be best to wait outside.” – Shen

“Well we can just explore some to find Fenri….”

“No…We need to leave. Balor! I knew I remembered the name. He’s the grandfather of the Sun God Lugh… I can’t believe I forgot this name I use to read about him in fables. Balor was a Dark God of drought, which explains the surroundings to this place. This whole mountain must be his domain. Not much was known about him as he died in the ancient war of the gods before the world was made. Which is weird because if he died…Then how does he have a dungeon on what is but a floating landmass of an ancient being who also died in that war….. He was said to be this old, dark deity who went mad and was caught doing experiments on other gods. So I think Cassandra was right this could be an Age of Gods dungeon. Dungeons rank between F – SSS. Having ‘Legendary’ in the title makes me think there are monsters similar to the dungeons in the central continent and even past Triple S.  Meaning the monsters roaming around on the floors also could be pretty tough. And were on floor 52 which means this could very well be one of the most dangerous places on the continent.” – Shakko

“…Ah…I don’t like the sound of any of that…Well let’s have someone stay up here and stand guard unless something bad happens. Cassandra how about you….Huh…Well that’s not good.” – Shen

As Master Shen turned around he continued to poke his sword towards what looked like nothing. But every time he extended his arm a small sound occurred. According to him there seems to be a some barrier blocking us in. ‘Is he serious? The dungeon trapped us inside! Can dungeons even do that?’

“I haven’t ever heard of a dungeon that traps you inside before….”

As  I walked up and tested out Master Shen’s claim there did seem to be a barrier of some sort trapping us all inside. Is this a joke!

This must be why Vali has been late. He’s been trapped in here….

“Well between that and the walls things are already starting to look rather grim…” – Shakko

Listening to what Shakko said both Shen and I both observed the direction to his claim. Focusing our eyes we could then see chained to the walls are a large number of bodies and skeletons covering the ground to halfway up the rock wall. There must have been thousands of them. Could there be bodies like this wrapping around the entirety of this place?

I could hear my heart beat against my chest as I followed the bodies alongside the walls of this place.

“Yah if ya think that’s twisted just look up, towards that center cloud there…..” – Shen

Looking up I then saw bodies hanging from one of the clouds. It was difficult to see like a small spot that appeared on a cloud but if you focused your eyes it looked like bodies where hanging from the ceiling as well.

“Well…I think we need to try and find that little monster pretty quick I absolutely do not like it here.” – Shakko

‘The way I see it our stamina is dropping at twice the speed as we normally would outside of this place. We need to hurry and meet up with Vali as quickly as possible and leave this place. The longer we’re here the sooner we’re all going to perish one by one.’

I started looking for a place to start scaling the mountain until I found a large walkway one dozen steps under the edge of the crevice we we’re all standing on.

“This way…”

The other two followed behind me and we continued to scale down the mountain on this large walkway that looked to have been made into a road and practically blended in to the mountains.

I started to extend my pace as I continued to think about how my stamina had already been diminishing but I feel almost winded already. I father use to make me run with armor much heavier than this to train but I can almost feel this atmosphere pricking at my skin as if it my body itself became twice as heavy.

RUF!

Hearing the small monster’s loud bark we started to run faster towards the direction of the noise. We ran into the dense forest only a few feet away from the edge of the cliff wall.

The trees were tall and thick. But they each had very thin branches covering them. They were so tall and plentiful that all of the sunlight from this place was being obstructed.

“I think I see him he’s right through here.”

“Wait Cassandra…We don’t know anything about this place. – Shakko

As I heard Shakko’s warning I slowed down and stopped at the edge of a large shadow hovering over one of these ridiculously large tree. As they each slowed down beside me we all saw the silver wolf cub now sitting next to a group of small mutilated bodies. It’s hard to see what race they were but there had to have been a dozen of them.

He pushed away one of the lifeless bodies with his paw and looked up while slowly swaying his tail. Though he wasn’t looking at us. Shakko began to step out and observe some of the bodies next to Fenrir when he froze and looked forward.

Shakko almost forgetting his own earlier warning stepped forward and then froze.

ROARRRR!!!!!!!

A brief image of a large black mass jumped forward and yelled at an ear splitting roar. It had a long lizard like neck and large black wings. It’s level shot out in a second over its head in red…246! It looked towards Shakko and took a deep breath.

It then started to choke and turn it’s eyes away slowly.

A large spray of dark transparent fluid shot out of the dark wyverian’s mouth and then for a brief second halt.

I started to reach for Shakko but before I could do anything a large image sprinted out ahead of me. As the dark mist that shot forth towards Shakko the image of Master Shen raising his large metallic arm to shield them from the toxic mist. As it collided with his arm it started to smoke and partially eat through small portions on the once sleek and metal frame.

Looking back towards the high level beast I then see the same black smog dragon now laying its neck at an odd angle on the ground.

It’s shaking all of a sudden.

“What the hell’s happening to it?” – Shen

The image of a small silver cub began to slowly approach the high leveled monster as if not intimidated in the size difference at all. But we’ve each seen the real size of that little monster.

“I don’t get it…That little monster is what…Level 97? How can he shut down a monster so many levels higher than him without even touching him?” – Shakko

BOoom!

What was that?

Boooom!

The whole ground felt as if it had just shook to the point almost each of us had almost fallen over.

YeeHeee Haaaaahhhhhhhhhhh

‘What was that noise? Where did tha……”

As my vision glanced around I saw what looked like the tree tops move suddenly when my vision refocused…There in the tree tops of this massive forest were two red dots towering over us. They weren’t treetops at all but the tops of an incredibly large monster. ‘Can….can it see me?’

ROAARRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I heard the entire ground shake as a violent screaming roar tore through my every being.

You have heard the Roar of the Fomorian

You are unable to succumb to your fear and have become paralyzed

All movement will become impossible until paralysis has withered

Agility has been reduced by 65%

Strength has been reduced by 45%

* Ability to perform magic has diminished due to the effects of fear. Magic has become 20% less effective

* Ability to hold a weapon has diminished due to the effects of fear. Overall Attack Damage has been reduced by 15%

‘Wha…what….i..is…that?’

I turned my eyes away and could see Shakko and Shen too were shaking violently as we couldn’t overcome the raging fear that shook through to our core. Wh..a…..what is..that monster?

Its towering figure looked to almost not even be real….I wouldn’t have noticed it as its body was simply so big.

The giant through the large brush of trees then leaped into the direction of the now almost tiny looking Smog Dragon from before. In one simple move it had cleaved the large smog dragon in two. I

It was as large as a mountain. It’s…It’s just so …

“Damn…what…Lev….level..402?” – Shakko

“We …gotta..get out…of here….” – Shen

I couldn’t believe it when its level was confirmed. Level 400? We couldn’t even hope to hurt that thing and all we could do is continue to shake in our shoes.

Then Fenrir began to growl and take several slow steps towards the dark giant that was standing dozens of meters away. We couldn’t move to help or even move to save our selves, simply looking at that horrific face sends causes my whole body to tremble.

“What is…..that ….mo..monster?”

GRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

The large beast then staggered forward and immediately launched itself into the air towards the small silver wolf.  I then got to get a better image as this monster is truly big but his reaction speed is quite sharp. Its face is something that should only be seen in nightmares. Everything about that thing looks dangerous. How could we even begin to attack that black colossus? For the first time in my life I felt true helplessness… Real fear.

I was shaking, terrified for our lives and watching the wolf take on the nightmare of an opponent.

We found ourselves in one of the worst places in the world….

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWRRRRRRRR!

Fenrir then roared and turned into his black monster form while running towards the high level beast. Fenrir now almost rivaling the dark giant leaped forward to the incoming colossal beast and dove onto the its large and furry shoulder.

YeeeYAhHhhhH!

GRRRrrrrrrr!

It looked towards the beasts face and blew out a terrific blaze of red fire with what looked like lightning attached to it. The thunderous flames blew towards the beasts face and exploded sending the beast’s face backward.

Fenrir then jumped on the ground and blew a gust of powerful ice magic out of his mouth freezing the giants feet into place.

The image of the giant’s face appeared through the smoke and began to grin in a horrific way from ear to ear...  It showed to have taken practically no damage to the earlier explosion whatsoever and slowly grinned towards the wolf giant he outstood.

YeeeHeee hHAAaaaa!

The colossal beast swung its long arms swiftly and nearly half of its long thin claws sliced right through the dark wolf.

Fenrir then howled in pain while continually ripping away at the giant beast’s arm with his fangs. The Fomorian had then begun to swing its long limbs and slash away into the black wolf and appeared to cut right through the Fenrir’s sides slashing aside where his ribs should be. The claws on this beast are well over a dozen meters in length and seemed to cut through Fenrir dark fur with extreme ease.

The giant now grinning looking down at the extreme damage it had done to Fenrir’s sides it began to make a loud laughing noise... A bright red blood began to pour out of his open wounds and drip down into large puddles on the ground. The Fomorian then continued to slash around until it had severed the black wolfs arm in one wild attempt with its claw.

Fenrir began to howl loudly in pain as we were unable to provide assistance of any kind in our truly helpless states. ‘This wolf is actually fighting to keep us all alive….’

Immediately after the black wolfs large paw flew back it was the large beast who was frozen at that moment. The giant’s wounds on its chest and face began to repair itself and the beast’s health began to gradually rise by the second. While the large wolves health was already in the yellow and slowly declining. Fenrir then lunged towards the side of the giant’s chest right under its long arms during its oddly frozen state.

Fenrir began to tear and fight back at the beast which stood taller than any building in the royal capital and would simply wreak havoc if it ever escaped from here.

Sinking his teeth into the monsters side until half of Fenri’s head was no longer visible. He was hardly showing any signs of fatigue even after losing an arm and withstanding such a vicious assault from the beasts ghastly large claws. Fenrir only continued to tear into this giant only a league away causing small amounts of damage while it was unable to fight back at all.

The beast continued to shake violently and thrash around until the dark giant jerked abruptly and then fell to the ground motionlessly. The health of the high level monster then dropped from the green all the way into it had become zero. The level 402 giant was just taken down from a level 97wolf cub?

‘….Or now he appears to be level 108….Even among monsters these beings we’re looking toward allying with us I can’t imagine what we can offer them.’

“Just how the hell did that little monster…..wait what?” – Shakko

Looking towards Fenrir I too see now that his severed paw is now slowly growing and forming back. The image of dark crimson red and pink flesh now continues to grow with a dark black fur. The entire front left paw has now been fully grown back and the giant black wolf began to look back towards us. It almost looked to be grinning. It then walked casually towards the dead smog dragon and started to dig into its meat as well. I guess it was looking to see what these monsters tasted like.

‘I couldn’t even move in the face of such a beast. I just…. Really don’t want to be in here any longer. It feels like the weight slowing me down is only becoming heavier. We could easily perish in this place without a word….What if that fate has already happened to Vali?’

Shen and Shakko began to steadily stand up and observe their surroundings now in a different light.

“Little monster had a healing ability?” – Shen

“…. Hmm. “ – Shakko

“Well, whatever does happen we can’t lose Fenrir inside of here again. “

“Yah…Agreed. So I guess we just wait till he’s done with his meal.” – Shen

“Hey Tin Man. What’s with jumping in front of me earlier like that you got a death wish? “ – Shakko

“Hah! No I just figured if the rest of your body gets ruined like your face you’ll probably start walking around in a full cast.” – Shen

“Oh you know that’s not true you saw my face in Trost. Wait! You’re the one who’s been telling all the Freya priestesses I have horrific face wounds aren’t you! “ – Shakko

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” -Shen

“Oh bull! I heard a rumor of how I jumped into a fire to rescue a wounded child and half my face had been melted off along with all my clothes. And when I rescued the infant the fire had burned everything but my undergarments and the guards didn’t know whether to think I was a hero or a pervert and everyone agreed to say why not both. You’re the only one who would find that funny!” - Shakko

“Hahahaha!” – Shen

“You’re ugly ass is just angry because even with a mask covering my face girls still find me more attractive.” – Shakko

‘Ugh these two never quit. I’m not taking my eyes off this little wolf so as long as he’s here I’m sure we’re at least safer than wondering around ourselves. I mean… Just what was that thing? I want to turn and gaze upon it but I’m half terrified to even look at it again. Even the sounds it made, that horrific smile. How could a human fight such beings? Fomorians…I’ve never even heard of such a beast.’

‘What is that? ‘

There past Fenrir eating through the hard shell of the smog dragon I saw a small bright yellow light in the distance.  It looks like it’s moving….

“Ugh…What?” – Shakko

Suddenly there only a few feet away from us where a bright silver demi human standing beside a similar looking demi human but green. They were both brightly shining in their respective colors that appeared to be coming off their large and almost diamond like wings.

The sharp wings reached several feet over their heads and created a bright almost warm light that tingled the skin. They shined in such a bright color it was impossible not to look at them and call them anything but beautiful…. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such demi humans before.

They both wore dark blue sleeveless leather armor with a black furred cape that also wrapped around the back of their necks. Floating next to them were two small yellow crystals spinning slowly right next to each of them.

“Im just saying we can ask them. Hello… Im Jade, who are all of you?” – Dark Green demi human

“Did yall catch any of that?” – Shen

“No they’re not speaking anything that sounds like human tongue.” – Shakko

“Wait…Aren’t these technically monsters. It said we were amongst the first individuals who found this dungeon. What are these things anyways? Are they demi human?”

I readied my stance in case they were going to attack. The dark green one simply looked down at my weapon then back up at me with her eyes half closed.

“…Ugh… I’m not sure what these things are actually. Even though they don’t look dangerous…They’re wearing some well-crafted armor and items… They also appear sentient so I don’t think they’re monsters. “ – Shakko

The two small demi humans holding large spears and supporting armor then started to look towards Fenrir who was eating through the smog dragon before he shook abruptly as if becoming alert.

“Well they could be like Sting.” – Silver demi human

“Ohhh…Do you know Vali?” – Dark Green demi human

The dark green demi human then lifted her wings that appeared heavy but fluttered as if they were lighter than air. She flew over to Shen and started to observe his face. She then flew around to the side and observed him cautiously. Then the silver demi human began to try and talk more to us but we didn’t understand what she was saying at all.

‘Ooooh…Su Wu Vali?...Oh Vali!’

“Vali! Yes I think I understood what you just said, yes we know Vali.”

I then felt my ear get yanked to the side and I abruptly swung my head over while firmly gripping my weapon to see what it was. There flying just above my shoulder was a brightly colored pink demi human who started pulling my ear.  He had tan skin with bright pink short hair. His eyes were even pink just as his large wings around him did. Their sharpness made his small body look much more intimidating. The small demi human had the same sleeveless blue armor on as well as some tight snakeskin on underneath it. The other two then began to call out to their brethren while he held onto my ear.

“Look they each have their ears on the sides.” – Pink demi human

Spark!

Spark! Spark!

“You’re not an aggressor Freyki, get back in formation. Now the girl appeared to perk up whenever it said Vali, maybe they know him.” – Silver demi human

The pink demi human then smirked and flew back towards the silver demi human who had started to produce bright sparks of lightning between her fists. The small pink demi human then fluttered his diamond shaped wings and then stood in an odd location before looking back towards us.

Each of these small creatures were level….159, 141, and 32. Each of them would be difficult for the three of us to take them on. Even the lowest leveled one appeared right next to me without even letting me realize it until he pulled my ear.

“Put your weapons away… They could have attacked us if they wanted to already. I think it would be wise not to fight these things.”

Shen and Shakko both looked towards me. I don’t think these things are enemies. They even said Vali so they must know him. Not only that but even if these things don’t look very threatening the fact that they can get so close without being able to notice is already dangerous enough in here.

“Just to these three things huh?.....” – Shakko

“Hah….I don’t know bout that….” - Shen

With both of his arms resting on his sword I could feel Master Shen contemplating whether to drop his weapon or not to the tiny demi humans in front of us. Calling then tiny is wrong; calling them short would be better as each of them look quite strong.

Shakko too began to slowly reach for a small dagger behind his back as if waiting to see what Shen’s decision would be.

“Vale, Jade the one covering his face is bringing out a weapon.”

I heard a feint whisper of a voice and immediately all three demi humans shot daggers towards the three of us in unison. That action immediately startled us as the small demi humans started gripping their weapons tightly.

Shen then made a swift motion with his human arm he tightly put his long sword back into its sheath. At that one moment however the dark green demi human dashed forward a few steps while the silver one had darted upward and back a few paces. As we saw this even the pink one jumped forward but you could see exactly what this was.

“They’re getting into formations….”

As they started to now stare towards us they saw that the three of us had actually put our weapons away causing the green haired demi human to smirk and also put her weapon away.

“Look over here. The little silver wolf drew a picture. I think they do know Vali!” - ?

The three of us then turned our heads and saw now a light red demi human standing beside a purple one.

“When did they get here?” – Shakko

“I had a feeling there mighta been more of these things….” - Shen

“You’ve seen demi humans like these before?”

As I asked Master Shen he smiled oddly while staring at the odd creatures we’ve found inside of this dungeon.

“Ugh…Not really like these but I think these things might be pixies….I just remembered size of dwarfs with fairy wings. Even though they look kind of different, well it’s just better to think they are always in groups, large groups. I’ve seen some in the central continent one time, low defense but adept in illusion magic. These are just much more athletically built and each of their wings even look dangerous. The leader even looks to know attack magic so it would be difficult to judge just how much we’d have to deal with, we might lose.  ” - Shen

“Pixies… Oho we are really unlucky aren’t we? Well if they’re talking so casually in here it’s possible these things are very dangerous. Yah lets put our weapons away.” – Shakko

“So you know what they are too?”

As I put my sword on the ground Shakko told us a tale of how he heard of several groups of strong adventurers and even some royal guard teams go missing over the span of a year in the west. They tracked it to a small group of pixies who had set up some kind of trap that made the missing teams disappear and fall to their deaths. At the bottom of the trap they set up sharpened spikes from wood and killed close to 100 adventurers before they were stopped. They would loot the dead bodies and sell the items to traveling merchants.

He said regardless of their low attack or defense pixies are in fact very clever. The thing Shakko was more curious about was how these demi humans were inside here at all.

‘The language they’re speaking doesn’t sound familiar. I feel as the only thing that we could understand from them was Vali. I just hope that word to them doesn’t mean something like battle to the death or eat them for dinner.’

I can see the pink and light red one stroking their stomachs…’ You want to eat us don’t you!’

Each of them started to walk away from us as if losing interest in us all together.

The 5 demi humans simply turned away from us and ran over to where Fenrir was. ‘Hmm well I guess I can just pick up my…Where’d my sword go?’

Looking around I didn’t see anything come up or take my weapon but now it’s gone.

‘Vali… This is your fault!’

Shakko, Shen and I then walked over to the small group around Fenrir in his small pup form. They all started dancing around for some reason when looking at the ground in front of them. As we walked closer up we then saw that in the ground was a similar shape as what was on the outside of this place. A stenciled shape of Vali’s scythe and that image caused these little demi humans to each dance strangely enough…..

They were just yanking my ear and felt to have been threatening us only a few seconds ago and now they are giving off a completely different attitude.

“Yes! So you do understand what we’re saying huh wolf?” – Purple pixie

Fenrir then began to nod towards them as if signifying he comprehended them. ‘Wait if he drew that picture knowing what we were trying to explain…Does that mean?’

“…Could little monster understand us all this time?” – Shen

At that moment Fenrir then looked up towards us and then nodded his head again while grinning his large fangs….

“…..”

“The Cripple called you little monster first…” – Shakko

“Bitch…” - Shen

“Jerk…” – Shakko

As if ignoring us all together the small demi humans started to walk away with Fenrir beside them.

“Ugh…I’m guessing we’re suppose to follow them?” – Shakko

“Better than just sitting here, let’s go. I could seriously use a drink right about now.” – Shen

“I betch you would alchy I bet you would…” - Shakko

As we continued to walk through the large forest, I couldn’t make since of everything that was happening and chose to ignore how Shakko and Shen both chose to react to such situations….

We’re in a dungeon… A possible Age of Gods dungeon. The monsters in here are…. How could a human even fight them? I had no idea something like that even existed so close to where we live… Now we’re following these strange demi humans with matching armors like we aren’t pressed for time. Do they….live in here?...

We kept walking for several minutes through the dark forest and I continued to dwell on how I’ve found myself in our current situation. I couldn’t help but to be on alert but oddly enough the small wolf and pixies next to him didn’t look frightened in the slightest.

I mean I did just see that black wolf somehow take down a nightmarish beast almost a hundred times our size….

“We don’t really like wolves but you look really cute!” – Dark green pixie

‘What are they talking about so casually?’

Looking towards Master Shen and Shakko they too seem to be thinking deeply about the situation we’re in. We came here to ask for help with our own problems, what have we gotten involved in?

“Wow….” – Shakko

“…. “ – Shen

As we followed behind the small demi humans there appearing one after another were dozens upon dozens of the same species. All in a different color but all wearing the same blue sleeveless armor on while holding small spears. Each one of them weren’t that high in level compared to the monsters in here but there were so many of them.

I turned around and viewed just how many there were and there must have been over a hundred surrounding us. There were so many of these demi humans that if we had initially attacked them we most certainly wouldn’t have made it out without casualties. Maybe if at all…

Just then a pixie with a bright red crown on her head then began to fly with several pixies surrounding her towards the floating landmass in the sky.  She had deep crimson hair and a small yellow crystal hovering beside her as well. She looked down towards us then back towards the same ones from earlier and nodded her head before flying away. The rest of the pixies then started to walk us in the same direction as before.

‘I guess that was the leader…’

“Well let’s just hope these little guys don’t feel like eating us.” - Shakko

“Do pixies eat people?”

“Yup... You act like it’s weird. It’s not like they’re cannibals. There are some beast man and demi human species that have become delicacies in some countri.....Woh.” - Shakko

We continued listening to Shakko’s tale as we walked by an open field. What were scattered all around this field however were over a dozen of those monstrous beasts from before. They were all dead and looked to have received massive injuries.

‘Did these pixies do this? They don’t seem surprised by all these monsters from the abyss at all....Ugh...Vali!!!’

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vali’s POV

[So what did you mean you were going to speak to someone who would know how to kill Balor?]

‘Well…It’s someone who’s probably older than you. And considering what he is, I’d assume he’d know how to kill something like Balor.’

As Hjokk continued to look at me oddly I took out Abgrund and called out to the old scythe. We were standing in the corner of the base while everyone else was off doing their own preparations for the soon to be fight of their lives.

“….What boy?”

A loud deep echo rang out from Abgrund and the weapon began to vibrate with every word he spoke.

“It talks?” - Hjokk

“What’s up Abgrund…. So, do you know how to kill Balor?”

“Hmph… So the mortal wishes to come and use my power yet again. I might have known this would happen…” - Abgrund

“Can you?”

Abgrund’s voice reverberated from the scythe but there exuded such a presence from his voice alone.

“….If you are asking if I have the ability to slay Balor then no I cannot. “ – Abgrund

‘Damn… I figured since he was the weapon of Death some of these unlocked skills could do some potential damage to that thing but it seems ….’

“Hah! I am not the tool of Death. Malthiel just held the Title he was nothing like the real thing.”

“Oh yah… I forgot you could hear what I think. Wait, so there is an actual Death? Like the Death?“

Abgrund’s low voice then began to tell the tales of long ago. During the times before this world even existed. During the war of the Gods, Malthiel and Hades had been on another planet entirely fighting against Pluto and the Undead Legion. I was under the impression Pluto and Hades were essentially the same person but Abgrund stated they were two beings who simply sought after the same things. Pluto is however now dead, Death killed him…..

Flashes of images from the past began to fill my conscience showing me places I’ve never been. It had a black sky with a dark red sun, jagged black rock that floated in the air. Next to Malthiel was a large dark haired man with a black ornamented crown on his head. He held a two-pronged fork with red tipped blades and glowed in a rich black color. Next to him however were a large number of other Reapers and a massive 3 headed dog that looked as big as a pro football stadium.

They were fighting what looked like hundreds of other deities as well. Surrounded by an endless sea of undead. Billions? Trillions? I didn’t have the number for how many monsters were fighting in this war. There were even beings who looked like humans to be fighting in the mix but every second thousands more would fall from the relentless onslaught from the ever increasing undead.

Hades had an army of Reapers as well as several King Reapers and other gods and mortals alongside him. Two King Reapers had died already and Hades only had Malthiel and Minos left. Minos however was not an Undead like Malthiel was. He had an old face but it didn’t look human. It also had a crown of tree branches growing out from of his head. He even wore however the same cloak as Malthiel and wielded a similar but less ornamented scythe.

“I know what you’re thinking but Hades actually hates the undead. Found the whole idea of Pluto and Baron Samedi raising the dead from their rest to be savage.  He only made Malthiel look the way he did because the Undead only fear one thing, and that is stronger Undead. “ – Abgrund

“Wait isn’t the Netherworld or whatever just full of Undead Skeletons and stuff like that?”

“… Why would there be Undead in the Netherworld? You don’t take your bones with you when you go there. You only take your…well I believe the word you use for it is Soul.” – Abgrund

“….”

As I stood there listening to everything he said as well as looking at the images of the King Reapers sweeping across the endless seas of undead. There were Bone Dragons, Ruin Knights, Undead Ogres and monsters of all kinds I recognized from the game. They fought alongside and against several other beings that each had an intense glow surrounding them. Each was a divine.

Malthiel was in a 1 on 1 match against some odd looking human shaped man who I’m assuming was a deity to be moving so quickly. He had a top hat and cane with a skull painted over his face and seemed to have been parrying each of Malthiel’s swings with Abgrund quite easily. He was dressed odd for battle, as his attire was a dull black vest and pants. He had a large necklace with big beads connected to a yellow skull around his neck. His body was painted black and had odd white symbols covering him that made him almost resemble the relentless Undead Legion that surrounded him.

Malthiel then waved each of his hands and everything within a 100 meter radius surrounding him then toppled to the sides and died.

As each undead fell the thin top hatted man from before jumped out from behind one of a collapsing Bone Dragon’s untouched.

Seeing these images I can’t imagine fighting in a battle like this. Every god moves at such speeds its impossible for there to be a moment to make a mistake. The images are going at such a fast pace I was then told this battle itself took 9 months. With no absence from battle and being an Undead, Malthiel fought continuously for those 9 months while holding tightly onto Abgrund and alongside his master Hades. Anytime they would butcher through a rogue god or a good amount of undead their enemies would simply revive more and their efforts would account for close to nothing.

The top hatted man then stuck his cane on the ground and smiled while lighting a fire in his palm and stuck a cigar in his mouth. He blew out a stream a yellow smoke and started to laugh while everything that was in the surrounding area that fell got up and now had an intense dark yellow and black glow around them.

“… There was even an undead who could revive fallen gods on the battlefield and bend them to his will. The Undead Legion were truly a force like no other as they do not ever stop. They continue to grow stronger as the fight draws longer and do not ever tire.  Even with the unity of Hades and Yama the fight was at a stalemate.  All until he arrived….” – Abgrund

The image of a black suited man appeared in the sky. His clothes looked old. He looked older. He had dark black hair that he had up in a ponytail. I could almost hear his old voice as it interrupted the long bloody battle and echo throughout the planet itself.

“…Mmm. Such an interesting place. Infested mind you but intriguing. The Dead and the Living existing side by side, such an interesting concept. Ah…”

He began to write down in a small book before placing it back into his suit and looking towards the onlookers from below.

“I always do like to write down where I’ve been. When you’ve gotten to be my age you’d understand… Mmmm Such children though…Clamoring on an on for your piece of the pie that was never really yours to begin with now was it..Hmph…Hugh... Quite a beauty…Pitty to see it go.“

The long haired man then materialized a long wooden framed scythe and swung it across the sky. A tear across time itself looked to have opened up a wormhole to another world. Abgrund however explained that the air at this time had been sucked dry from this world killing all the mortals and biologically life in the world in one go. All the followers of particular gods were wiped out within an instant. When dozens of Gods began to attack him everything that got even close fell out of the sky turned to ash before even crashing into the ground.

A muscular white bearded deity with green smoke surrounding him and an odd black armor leaped through the sky causing the ground to erupt and lightning to streak behind him. He covered the distance between him and the suited man within a blink and swung his oddly shaped trident towards the suited man and blowing the surrounding stars behind them to fly further away with one swing.

“Hoh…Strong aren’t we.”

The suited man however then intercepted the gods weapon right on the tip of the blade with his finger and stopped it. The large bearded man then twitched and froze.

“Pluto!”

Many of the surrounding deities and divine beasts present had then begun to yell and cry and even Hades had looked surprised by this.

The large bearded god’s weapon then began to turn to ash and fade away. From Pluto’s fingers to the rest of his body he too began to turn to ash and disappeared from the battlefield entirely.

The image of Malthiel and the top hatted gentleman had each took steps backward, as it must have been an incredible accomplishment in an already bloody war.

As the suited gentleman began to descend towards the ground the Undead Legion and dozens of other deities then surrounded him. The moment his foot touched the ground however the ground began to erupt and the whole planet had died.

Everything had begun to decay and break apart until it was nothing.  The whole world began to fall apart and disintegrate around the suited gentleman. The Undead legion that surrounded him began to collapse into the nothingness that had been created and die as well.

Abgrund explained that the Netherworld was once on the same plane as Middle Earth.  It was held up by a world tree that was connected to Yggdrasil on Middle Earth. It however was also connected to the world tree that was planted into the planet they were fighting on. Not only did the planet itself die along with its world tree, but the world tree of the Netherworld was also destroyed having been connected to it. This caused the Netherworld to fall down into a lower plane entirely than Middle Earth.

“Interesting I thought Hades blamed this all on Pluto… That is why Hades stole Persephone from him. He felt he was cheated that his land was destroyed.” - Hjokk

“HMmm…Not at all Valkyrie… Pluto died that day stepping up to Death. Hades only pretended to be angry so the other gods weren’t aware of how valuable his land really is. And he didn’t kidnap Persephone he won her in a bet that she sanctioned, and trust me when I say they are annoyingly into each other.” – Abgrund

Abgrund then told us that the being who stepped down that day was one of the Four Entities that would later be referred to as Death or a Death King. They were named from the battles that transpired after this event when the emergence of the Demons arrived and battle between the gods turned into a free for all. None of the four were deities or gods themselves but were beings who in such a conflict fought on equal terms as achieved in killing many of them. One of the Entities was an incredibly powerful Lich that could revive dead Gods and armies in battle. One was Malthiel the Death Master of Hades, One fought for the Demons, and the other was this strange Entity that claimed to be the real thing.

Hjökk seemed surprised by this whole story as well considering she had never witnessed him in the war of the gods. But Abgrund claims that after this event is when all the gods present separated and soon reunited to combat the emergence of the Demon race. They never witnessed this being again after this day.

“So I guess to get back to my original question… Since you’re not the weapon of Death,  just some guy who claimed to be. So you couldn’t probably even put a scratch on something like Balor huh? I mean it’s not like Balor already enslaved your previous master so I guess it makes since you couldn’t.”

“…Trying to enrage me somehow to help you mortal? Games of that nature won’t work on a thing like me. However I merely said that I do not hold the power to slay Balor. I myself don’t have the ability to slay anything, it is all only possibly if my wielder can use my power am I able to take lives…But if you are asking if I have the power to scratch something like Balor then yes….In his state, with my power there would be nothing left…”  -Abgrund

“Then how can…”

“You aren’t anywhere strong enough to wield even a fragment of my power. You only used the first skill so recently and you think you have the power to sustain any of the rest? Even if I could let you use any of them your life would whither away in moments. You’re simply to weak.” – Abgrund

“….But you do have the abilities to hurt him… There must be a way to use that. Incase he ends up being harder to take down than Malthiel, which I’m assuming he will be. I want to know how much help I can provide Hjokk in this. Is there a way I can become strong enough within the next day and a half?”

He told me no methods in his opinion could be done in time at all. It’s not something my body could prepare itself for to use. Apparently Blood Wake is only the first skill and Dark Sever and Wrath of Balor were just later added by Balor himself. The skills Abgrund has that I’m unable to use, according to him are enough to kill anything that calls this world home. It could potentially slice through the whole world and he himself has been the tool to end thousands of deities in the past.

“At best you could potentially use one skill if you increased your understanding of Death Magic. You’re lucky enough to learn things so simply, so perhaps if you increase your understandings of it, you may be able to use a particular ability in that time. I only assume you could use it once though. “

“So all I have to do is increase that skill and I can…”

“Vali… talking to yourself or oh you’re bird is there too.” – Locke

“Actualy it was my weapon this time…”

Locke then gave me a peculiar look and smirked as he continued to walk up to me. I was standing on the floating landmass waiting outside for the group who was interrogating the Elven witness.

He must have decided against asking about my comment and claimed to have received quite a bit of information from the elf he interrogated.

According to him the elf wound up breaking and spilled quite a lot to Izzie’s questioning. Not only were the Dark Elves responsible for the creation of the disease but they have been responsible for several events throughout the histories of this dungeon. Including the deaths of Elkia tribesman. Claiming that they had figured out that the Elves had survived and that Malthiel’s puppets weren’t the only traitors. Before they could tell anyone their entire race was wiped out alongside the Annunake guards that protected them.

According to Locke the elves had used some kind of illusion magic by forcing a pixie to do it and then put everyone in the Elkia city to sleep. They then attacked and slaughtered everyone on the floor before anyone could learn the truth.

“Vali there you are. I assume Locke told you the information we acquired. It took some time but well…He ended up dying. I took this for you before his body could disappear.” – Adimar

The large white wolf then walked up towards me and handed me a large heart with his bloodied hand. ‘Hmm…Considering the circumstances I’m sure Adimar didn’t take too kindly to hearing that piece of information. I wouldn’t even be surprised if it was Adimar who killed him. But even in all that he took the time to take his heart for me. I don’t know if I should feel happy or creeped out. I’m sure to anyone else this looks totally fucked up.’

I chuckled to myself and took the heart away from him and tossed it into my inventory and would bite into it later. I saw walking up behind Adimar was now Izzie with dried blood all over her hands and arms. I can even see some specks in her face. ‘She doesn’t seem phased at all by torturing that elf.’

Izzie just wiped off her glasses and continue to walk over towards our direction away from the adamantine jail behind her.

“Well we got some info out of em before Adimar here let em go a little quicker than I would have liked. But we know now there are a large number of elves mobilizing for this battle about to happen. We aren’t sure of who’s leading them but they are not with us that is for sure. “ – Locke

“Well if we come across an elf at any point I’ll be sure. What we need to look for right now is all of the remaining puppets so we can formulate a plan without possibly alerting you know who.”

“Yes Queen Nhaili came by earlier and explained to us the details of the puppets who are remaining here. They gave us a small list of the remaining puppets they were currently aware of. They also gave us a location where many of them are currently right now and have been for some time. I’m in all honestly amazed how she came by such information….We are however leaving now to go and collect them. If the list is accurate it shouldn’t be too much of an issue to gather them all and keep them in this prison if possible. “ – Commander Locke

“Are you trying to keep them alive for the sake of what Balor said bout saving em nya? “ -  Izzie

“No, but if that is a possibility we cannot simply ignore considering it. But puppets aren’t particularly any different than they were when they were alive. They’re strong sure but no more than anything we can’t deal with and can contain. Besides Queen Nhaili gave us some interesting poison remedies that will come in handy… We can deal with the elf problem afterwards. Malfius has already left to take care of one of the members on this list. I’m taking a team with me to take care of the rest on this list. Adimar,  Vali. “ –Locke

Commander Locke then nodded his head towards each of us and put on his hat and walked away with Izzie. He put on his dark black coat with the same insignia as the others and exited the landmass by warping away.

Adimar and Akino were both looking back towards me and explained that on the list Commander Locke was just explaining just happened to have the name Meifeng on it.  Hearing the noise greatly shocked Malfius and he claimed he would go investigate this immediately, it may also be why Commander Locke was also considering keeping the remaining puppets here if possible. According to them puppets aren’t particularly stronger than when they were when they were alive. Even if Balor isn’t controlling them directly they are still abiding by his will and collecting information on some sort of autopilot I assume.

I’m not sure just how long Meifeng has been a puppet but I’m not sure if it would mean anything if I ever found out.

“Vali!” – Cosmia

I heard the sound of Cosmia and other pixies giggling as a small group of 8 began to fly towards me. Each of their wings glistened when the light from the sun refracted the multiple colors in ways that made the world around them almost look to come alive dance as well.

Each of them wore Shock Armor as well as a black Hydra armor underneath. Including Cosmia herself each of them matched.

The pixies flew over and came up to me excitedly. If I recall a large majority of them are fighting together on this floor while a smaller number of them are actually on the lower floors training as well.

From what we learned from our fight with Alysteir each pixie can regenerate a small amount but amongst all of them Aurora, Cosmia, Daisy, Jana, and Cari who each took a crystal from the white Hydra head can regenerate themselves on a completely different level. They each can heal to such an extent that according to Cosmia even if they had no outside help they would still be able to regenerate themselves back from nothing within less than 2 seconds. They were originally going to give the last healing crystal to Bifrost but she refused and said it should probably go to someone who is more of a front line fighter. As since Cosmia, Daisy and Cari are all people who fight in the back. So it was given to Jana instead since she was considered the strongest of their race in close quarters fighting at one point.

If that’s the case they can separate even on a floor this high and be able to fight on much more dangerous territories with no real danger. They however are doing this for training purposes and have left a floating flower crystal with me incase a Fomorian popped up.

‘Honestly I doubt these little guys would even need my help at this point. Sure they can’t cause a lot of damage without their new power up but what monster could honestly threaten them at this point. Even if they were eaten… They could just turn on Promethan March and be done with it….’

“Hi Vali! We found a group of other humans just a while ago. And a little wolf that looks kinda cute. We think they know you.” – Cosmia

Cosmia then flew up next to me with her hands on her hips and told me of a small group of people they came across. They found a dead Fomorian and smog dragon next to them and after trying to communicate with the small wolf they figured I knew them. It sounded like Fenrir but I would have no idea who he would be here with.

“Humans?”

“Yah.. They have ears on the side just like you…” – Cyanin

“Yah one of their arms was Vale’s color! And the small wolf even drew a picture of that Scythe so we wanted you to see them first to decide on what to do.” - Cosmia

They said human? The way she’s describing one of them kind of sounds familiar.

‘Hmm I wonder what this is about.’

We all then followed behind Cosmia and the small group of pixies around her.

Adimar and Akino each smirked while looking towards the small pixies surrounding Cosmia marching in unison beside her wearing matching armor and spears. I’m pretty sure that even the pixies are aware of their newfound power now, as Kai has already explained. You can see it in how their whole attitude has changed. They walk with pride now. I’m sure Adimar has already been told about the appearance of Alysteir and how the pixies had revealed their power. Even if they weren’t each dangerous it really is quite overwhelming.

After we acquired power from the Titan Tear that was bigger than a wall we arrived at the base and realized that Grootslang Armor was finished and every single pixie now had Grootslang Shock Armor on. Only a few of them didn’t have the strength requirement so they switched out with the ones wearing Mithril as even though it is a metallic armor it is surprisingly lighter than a leather armor.

The Jiji had even created small Grootslang forearm protectors with scrap parts that looked to have looked no different than the top quality leather everyone else was wearing. They had then began to create more armor for the rest of their race as well as any of the other races that would want them afterwards. Once Pek finished the Pixie’s armor he had all the Jijis present to finish up enough armor for their race and with their numbers working together they finished it within the span of a few hours since they left the creation of the Hydra Armors in the responsibility of Queen Nhaili and the Arachnee. They would then create armor with the remaining materials for any of the races that would actually want to wear armor at all.

What I was more shocked about learning as that Queen Nhaili is in Master Level 2 in Tailoring. One of her skills allows her to reduce 30% of the materials needed by using a combination of her threads that extend the quality throughout the entirety of the item worn. Just by having that I’m sure we can arm a good portion of our troops just based on this alone.

Now however it has given all of these pixies and myself have the chance to arm ourselves to the teeth with top quality equipment that is unseen in the outside world.

While all this is going on I also had Sting try to work with some of the Arachnee in creating poisons. We are going to be attacking Balor with a lot I’m wondering if we can find something else that can help our cause.  Sting hit me with a poison back at the cabin. If I recall the damage was 5,000 damage for every 5 seconds… That amount of damage from a poison status was a lot. I needed a crystal just to take the status away. I know he must be knowledgeable about poisons so I asked Reinma and some of the Arachnee to see if they can work together on creating a potent poison against Balor.

‘Hmm I want to check out this poison the Elves invented. If we could somehow take out that ridiculous magic supply I’m sure Balor has this battle would go by a lot better for us. Something that actually attacks it specifically could be beneficial to fighting him and the elves if we can somehow poison them with it.

As we left the floating mass and appeared on the ground level we continued to what appeared to be the direction of our base.

Guahhhh! Guahh Guah! GUAH!!

“AHahAHAHAH!!!!”

“…Oh gosh that sounds like Tanin.” – Cosmia

Loud yelps followed by a sinister laughter began to ring out as we walked closer to our bases location. Bright white and orange lights began to flutter and illuminate the dense forest up ahead and we quickened our pace.

Sure enough Cosmia noticed she was right with an emotionless reaction to it at all. There floating amongst the tall trees while laughing hysterically as he rained down fire in a flamethrower type motion was Tanin. The endless stream of fire would pour out from his fists and the moment it touched one of the gnolls below it would then almost engulf the target entirely.

The level difference of the Gnolls and Tanin must have been at least 150.  His fire however was smoldering the medium sized rigid creatures as if he were spraying insecticide on ants. The damage was enough that the gnolls didn’t last more than a a minute before they stopped moving entirely. Many looked to have collapsed while attacking Tanin but none were successful at taking him down. ‘Well his affinity with fire is possibly higher than some of the strongest fire mages in the world. Considering there abilities with magic along with everything else I don’t think level is enough to distinguish them anymore.’

“Hey Cosmia… Can you tell Tanin to cut it out.” – Cyanin

“ Oh whatever… Vali you have got to check this out. When our Fire and Light affinities rose we each learned some really strong passive and attack skills. Seriously, now that my Fire Affinity rose over 50%, once it touches anything it will ignite and not get put out unless I die! Since I don’t die they can’t put it out it’s hilarious. Oh! And the fire also shares in some of the effects from that crystal, so everything in this dungeon has a huge weakness to it. You have to see my new skill… FlA“ - Tanin

“NO! Don’t do it again Tanin! “ – Jade

Several small, bright orange flames began to appear surrounding Tanin and brighten just until Jade flew up and began to become swatted away by her dark green wings.

‘Geez if that’s true that in itself sounds like a cheat. The combination of these guys skills working together would just not be considered fair by anyone else’s standards. By any mage in the world who studies magic would think of their cheat like abilities to probably be blasphemy. Since everything in this dungeon probably has a dark attribute and has a weakness to light the pixies have done a complete 180 on who are the hunters. I was just saying earlier how their attack damage is low but their magical attack power has changed by leaps and bounds.’

“You act like you’re the only one whose fire got stronger. Cari can do that too but her Flash skill is by far the coolest! “ – Cyanin

“I never said my skill was as cool as Cari’s I simply said mine was the most destructive! But I’ll be able to do that too if I just raise my Light affinity by a bit more.” – Tanin

Tanin began to pace back and forth while rubbing his chin.

Kai then flew up and told everyone about the fact that this area is supposed to be hidden and there was smoke that he is now having everyone put out. You could hear him yelling to Tanin it shouldn’t matter if there are gnolls roaming around the base or not.

“Psh well whatever we each raised our levels some so wasn’t that the point. We even got Cari and Bifrost to over level 50 now. That’s faster than I was suppose to have done by now right?” – Tanin

“… That’s not the point!” – Kai

I was watching as the small but athletically built purple and orange pixies begin to bicker at one another.

Ruf!

Just then I heard a loud familiar bark. Turning to the side I saw the small silver pup running towards me and the pixies surrounding me. Following behind him were three familiar charred figures I have seen before.

‘Ah! I thought so…I don’t want to deal with these people right now!’

“Geezes these things are nuts…He just got his arm almost ate off while he was laughing the whole time. “

“Who’d think the loud one could pull it off. Well thank Freya our search is over…”

As the masked man who reminded me of Loki and the one armed cos player continued to chatter as they walked closer towards us. I began to pet Fenrir as I pondered just how or why they are here. How did they even get inside?

‘Ugh…Don’t tell me they want something? Change plans to the deal? The fact that they arrived with Fenrir bugs the crap outa me. ‘

Walking up alongside them was a dark ashy figure in a dull iron armor. Her blonde hair was practically dyed black from one side from ash alone. No different than the other two walking alongside her.

‘Their levels are far too low for this place… Why they’re in such a place just wondering around is idiotic. Am I going to have to keep them alive now?’

“What?”

---------------------------------------------------------------

“And then those little armored brats found us and we found ourselves here.” – Shen

“Hmmm…”

‘I guess mom decided to send Fenrir…. I have definitely missed my curfew that’s for sure.’

Shen and the other two Asher royal guards sat opposite of me in the war room within the base. This story was actually quite long…

I assume that’s cause this guy with the prosthetic arm wearing a yukata or the masked guard, they both seem to….

“Speaking of…Sir Vali, what are these….things?” – Shakko

The Masked Man then nudged his head over to the small image of Cosmia who just flew over to sit down next to Cyanin. Each of them were off to the side of us petting Fenrir.

“Pixies…”

Answering his question I then looked around the room and there were still Cosmia’s small group staying back with us. The only people who are at base are us right now actually.

“Oh look at that Metal Man got one right.” – Shakko

“What was that I couldn’t hear ya pervert?” – Shen

“…You!” – Shakko

Shakko then stood up and looked down at the man next to him appearing agitated. The older guy just started laughing loudly again as if he didn’t care. These guys…

Looking over Cassandra is still making the same angry face as she has been. She probably just doesn’t like it here, that or these two must be annoying her.

Sting sitting on the chair now had several small white lights appearing around his chest and flashing towards his face. Each time it would it would slightly blind him. After a little while he just started to ignore it.

“Hehehe” – Cosmia

“Tehe he’s trying to ignore us.” – Cyanin

Cyanin and all of the pixies who were messing with Sting then started shining their lights on one position centralized on his right shoulder.  The spot started to smoke for a moment until…

“Wha…AH!...Fire! You little! Wha…It won’t go out! It won’t go out.!! VALI!!!” – Sting

Sting then jumped up and started shaking his arm violently. The small flame no matter how hard he tried wouldn’t go out. Not only that but it was moving along his body. He ran frantically over to me as if I could do something about it.

‘Hmm…Wow speaking of I don’t think I have an ability that can put out a fire…I can manipulate fire but…. ‘

I then just waved at Cyanin and Cosmia to put it out. At this point the small flame that was on his shoulder is now on his opposite sides elbow.

As the fire got put out I can see now it didn’t even singe his clothes. ‘Poor Sting.’

“Well… Looks like you 3 got yourselves caught up in quite the mess along with us. I hate to break it to ya but right now there is a god readying an army of monsters and giants to destroy the whole world out of spite. Believe it or not… I doubt this continent stands a chance. That large monster you said looked like a mountain….They can cut through Mithril Armor and just about anything else pretty damn easy. And you couldn’t even move when looking at them? That let’s me know a lot of people are gonna die. They also heal themselves and apparently only a Legendary grade weapon or above can even cut em.”

As I continued to explain the details of what lies ahead for them each of the trio’s eyes then began to widen.  Cassandra who was earlier showing a look of disdain now showed one of nervousness and fear.

“If that weren’t enough, I’m assuming he himself will be fighting too and if he’s anything like something else I fought recently this could get worse real quick. “

‘Believe it or not Balor has a huge advantage regardless of how I look at it. Homefield advantage, his. Number and Level superiority of troops also his. Hjokk even said he could create armies of darkness with ease and considering his element he can probably shield himself similarly to how Malthiel did as well. Hjokk said the darkness here can probably even heal him….He has the advantage…. So were going to take it from him. We need to bust the walls down like we did before and light this place up. We need to shut his infinite mana supply down but he won’t just let us attack him. Getting anywhere close to him is already going to be a pain. The Annunakes are going to have to drain him of everything and we might have a shot. But I have an idea how to shut him down, if even for a short period of time we may be able to hurt him quite severely. The pixies themselves can become a great asset in this plan of attack. I’m already going to test Balor’s defense against their divine skill, but I need to shut his barrier skill and healing ability down before that time….. If that’s the case then I’ll need bodies… A lot of bodies. ‘

I looked at the small bird sitting on my shoulder thinking to myself quietly.

“So it is Balor? Balor is responsible for this…he’s alive?” – Shakko

“Hah…..Anyone got any alcohol around here cause I could really go for a drink.” – Shen

“….”

The trio each took it differently but I was surprised to find out that Shakko knew of who Balor was. I’m assuming when they entered the dungeon his name is mentioned upon getting inside.

“That’s correct.”

“Can you kill them?” – Cassandra

Cassandra finally chimed in and stared at me intently.

“I’m sorry to sound so rash…. I just. You seem quite calm. You each said he’s a god….Can you kill gods?” – Cassandra

Thinking to my self I answered her.

“I’m gonna try.”

Looking at her I just told her the truth. I’m not some hero from a storybook. I can’t claim to kill something like Balor. In fact he’s out of my league. Not even one year ago I was just some kid with nothing, no one. But with those around me…

“But you said an army? I mean… How big is this army of beasts and giants?” – Cassandra

“I guess…. Enough to take over the whole world with…”

“….”

She just looked down and started biting her lip. I won’t lie I’m sure it’s a pretty terrifying ordeal. As I started to get up I contemplated how I was going to keep them here. Honestly I don’t want them following me right now. Not only would I have to protect them but I wouldn’t be able to practice my death magic. Not with them around.

‘Hjokk and Loki made it pretty clear that type of magic isn’t something that mortals should even be able to wield. If these guards witness that things could get even more complicated for me later. And if I want to keep good relations with that King and Queen it probably wouldn’t look good if I didn’t return with their royal knights. What else could get worse at this point, their kingdom is apparently already at war with whoever that General pretty boy was from. I honestly don’t have time to think about that right now. But if somehow this endangers my family in any way…I’ll hold these three accountable for that as well.’

“Wai…Wait… Where are you going? “ - Shakko

I gave them the warning of the dangers in this dungeon and what lurk inside of here. I may have even described what a Soul Devourer as to them as well…. After that they didn’t make much noise about wanting to wonder outside of this place.

“We’re still not ready. So I need to go prepare more. If anyone comes here just say you’re waiting on me. If you’re in this room it means you’re suppose to be here so you should be fine.”

I then turned around and left them there. Each of the pixies giggled and followed behind me as we left the war room to go hunting. I need to practice my Death Grip and my other skills as much as possible before Balor arrives. Something tells me the first two skills I use on Abgrund the most would probably be ineffective to him entirely.

I feel like the pieces of the puzzle are starting to come together though…Just.. Something doesn’t feel right. We just don’t have all the tools to come up with a decent strategy yet…

‘Hah….’

Taking a deep sign I rose up my gauntlet and pulled out a small item.

Snif…Snif…

As I was thinking I began to smell the small bracelet underneath my Midnight Gauntlet. I began to have a rush of memories flood through my brain yet again. This time it showed my memories I had made in this world. With my mother, with Ari and everyone back at the cabin, even with those inside here as well I have grown quite close to. Looking down at Cosmia she smiled back up at me while walking next to her guards. Smiling back at her I knew somehow we we’re going to do it. We we’re going to take down a god.

---------------------------------------------------------------------  

AHHhhhhhh!!!!!

St…Stooopppppppppp!!!!!!!

HELPPP!!!!

“Va…Val..eh.”

The small red pixie then began to get melted right before my eyes. The black sludge continued to run completely over her until she was no more. Looking to the side the same thing was happening to everyone else. They were being eating away by the incredibly dense darkness. No attack was working as the darkness kept increasing with diameter and density upon every attack. They weren’t growing back. They were all dying.

Tanin then flew into my direction and hit the ground as the darkness was beginning to eat him as well. His fire slowly went out and all that was left was his hand as the smog took him away as well.

……

I was powerless.

I reached for his hand as the darkness swept it away. I could no longer feel his pulse and I believed too he had died.

Just then the shape of Tanin who was swallowed by darkness grew and enlarged. The shaped changed entirely and there standing only a few feet in front of me was Balor.

In an intense rage I attacked him but it felt as if everything I did was useless. I took out Abgrund and cleaved off his head. His image then disappeared and he was gone.

The image of Akino then ran over to me and was screaming something frantic and in fear but I couldn’t hear her voice.

She just kept shaking my shoulders but I couldn’t hear her. She then gave a look as if she was stunned and her eyes went dead panned. I looked down and there was blood covering her chest. As her body fell over to the side I then began to eat on Akino’s heart and feast.

Below me was a mountain of corpses. Piled so high it resembled a skyscraper. There were just so many large piles other than the one I was on. The corpses below me resembled all those who I’ve killed. I’ve tortured and dismembered. Their bodies line a horrific throne built with their limbs. Sitting atop the throne was the head of the demon I thought of every day.

‘…….’

AHHHHHhhhhhhh!

AHhahahahahaha!!!!!

I began to scream and laugh loudly to myself after seeing the magnitude of what I had done.  

The grounds were littered in skeletons to where it almost looked similar to the endless sea of undead from Abgrunds memories.

Looking out in front of me I see the image of myself only…

Out in front of me was a floating mirror showing my black eyes staring right back at me. Now standing before the mirror seeing my image it almost looked like something was wrong. Just then chains began to emerge from the mirror behind my figure and wrap around me strangling and choking me.

The mirror shattered and I fell to the ground from the weight and movements being stalled as the chains continued to suffocate me. Looking on the ground I can now see my reflection through the shards of the mirror.

My face looked broken. Like parts of it were torn off and I see the pitch black bones underneath. As  a gust of wind brushed by…. I then saw nothing but the black bones staring back….

“IT’S Your Fault!”

“it’s your fault…”

“It’s YOUR FAULT!”

‘No…’

I continued to hear the voices of those I had failed followed by a deep whisper.

My siblings, my mother, everyone I’ve come to know continue to remind me of the fears and truths I hated most. As much as I tried…I simply couldn’t get out of the chains that continued to hold me down.

“Hmph….”

Feeling something was here with me I looked up and there I saw him, Balor. ‘It’s him… This is all his fault!’

Now feeling free I got up as if the chains were never even there to begin with. There standing in front of me was the 10 foot visage of Balor. He had no face but two large horns going around the side of his face. He was muscular and looked to be constantly daunting the armor that looks to be made of his own body.  Looking down at me his eyes dimmed.

“You…You did …”

“This is all you champion. You’re dreaming.” – Balor

“…Impossible you had to…”

“This is just what the darkness does to us all human…. It takes and shares in our weakness our fears…. It embraces us while also clutches us without any release….

As I was stunned by this Balor continued to talk. It was then I realized the same immense pressure I felt whenever he spoke before was somehow different.

“And I am really here as well champion.” – Balor

If I wasn’t stunned before, I was frozen now. ‘What does he want. You mean I’m dreaming right now? I felt a rush of relief but what is happening right now?’

“….What do you want?”

Wanting him to get on with what he wants so I can wake up he only grinned and turned away.

“Hmph….You know… You remind me a lot of myself when I was younger. “ – Balor

Balor started to walk away slightly as he was staring off into the landscape inside my own head. His voice was deep but it just sounded old. It didn’t hold the same volume and power from before though.

“Smart….Angry….Trying desperately to pretend I was something good when…Somehow deep down knowing you’re not.” – Balor

Looking back at me as he said that last part I angrily answered back.

“I’m nothing like you. I would never butcher so many for the sake of revenge.”

“ No, you just dream about it…” – Balor

“…..”

I stood there quietly as I couldn’t refute what he had said. Even while I’m awake I can hear some of their screams still.

“Why are you here?”

“Hmmm…. I’m not sure of that either…. To be honest I simply wanted to extend my offer a second time. See if now that you were away from you’re allies you would maybe give a different answer.” – Balor

“Answer’s still no.”

Balor now turned around to face me stares at me intently and I can see a look of irritation in his old eyes.

“There is no shame in joining me boy. If it is revenge you seek I will grant it to you in blood by that fill the seas. Because very soon everything will change. I can grant you more power than you can process… So much that the gods that blessed you would even quiver in fear. But you yourself don’t even realize what state you’re in. Where you are no less!” – Balor

“I think we conflict on a few more things than just that. I’d have some issues with you destroying the world.”

“ The term I would use is liberating it.”– Balor

“And you need to destroy the whole world to attain that?”

“Hmph… Something that is barely even out of his diapers couldn’t possibly understand. You simply trust those who have gifted you so readily. What would you say mortal if I told you those so called gods lied to you, as they did to me?” – Balor

“So that’s it. You’re going to say the god who blessed me is responsible for you descending?”

“Actually I descended long after I was trapped in this….place.” – Balor

Balor’s bright yellow eyes then flickered and twitched and are now looking away. I could hear him making a deep sign seeming agitated. His figure is just so large. I know this is a dream… But somehow he’s in here talking to me. His visage is still intimidating to me even without the overwhelming pressure that brimmed off of him.

‘He can even get inside of my dreams? Am I really capable of killing this thing? ‘

“Mm… I’m done offering such opportunity to an insignificant child who is unworthy. Know this mortal…whether you win or lose…Even if my story soon ends you will know complete despair in this darkness. From the real villains of this story.” _ Balor

As I was about to retort Balor then turned around disappeared.

‘No..Get wait ….huh?’

My vision then distorted and I was then sitting in the darkly lit room. No wait…. It’s pretty brightly lit actually. A small circle around me is dark but everything else is actually pretty brightly lit. There were a few pixies sleeping right next to me while many others were huddled next to each other. Their lights though dimmed were still quite bright.

However this was dulled in comparison to the dark tint to everything being emitted through Bifrost’s strange black aura. Not only does it surround herself and her sister sleeping next to her but it falls over everything else as well which is tinted in all black. All of the lights in the room including Cari’s are almost sucked into her wings and refracted back out to darken the area around everyone slumbering.

After I left the trio a few of us went hunting on several floors. Apparently there was a reason Tanin and his group were getting antsy on floor 52 earlier, the pixie’s power up with fire and light have completely changed the dynamic of hunting for them now. They aren’t afraid of monsters anymore simply because the monsters all flee from the pixies upon the sight of them. And that is all because of Tanin and now also surprisingly…. Cari.

[Can’t sleep?]

Looking to the side I see the small purple crow who has come along this journey with me and who has always been right there.

“No guess not. “

[You know Loki said heroes rarely sleep well.]

“Did he now.”

Getting up I tried not to wake any of the pixies beneath me. I figured if I couldn’t sleep I might as well get some hunting done.

Seeing this Hjokk then got up and flew over to my shoulder and joined me. I needed to increase my skills and magic in one day and I honestly can’t seem to get any sleep.

‘I’ll let the pixies sleep. The trio and Sting are in the war room sleeping and everyone else is out preparing. So I might as well get some work done now as well.’

[Yes…He said…A hero is someone who always second guesses himself. One who deaths will tend to weigh down from time to time regardless if they were good or evil….A tyrant does not.]

Looking back towards the bright purple eyes staring back at me I cracked a smile and left the base. The Jiji and Arachnee are working overnight and I figure I might as well get some hunting in before the sun comes up.

“Guess we’ll see what I am when all this is over.”

End of Chapter

Remember guys I'm trying this whole donations tab thing out as a gamble..not really expecting much from it but who knows if this becomes a large source of income for me my priorities would obviously change....Again thanks for reading and comment below!

Fingers crossed that I can finish Chapter 24 by Sunday and that I can hopefully create something awesome....