“Are you listening, Zy?” Aisha questioned adamantly, walking right behind Zycor continuing, “You are not dodging the subject this time, so fess up! What or who the hell is ‘Zweicor’?”
Zycor wore an expression of mental exhaustion and irritation, grumbling in response, “I thought I made it clear to save this topic for when we are outside this dungeon…”
Aisha exploded accusingly, “You were listening!”
Mylon placed a hand on Aisha’s shoulder, forcibly slowing her pace, “Calm down Aisha, I am certain there are plenty of questions you have. However, now is not the time or place. This is not like the Alice dungeon we delved into previously.”
Aisha swatted Mylon’s hand away and huffed, “I guess you’re right… but this isn’t over, you hear me Zy!?”
A giant, scaled arachnid lunged from one of the side corridors at Zycor. He slammed it to the ground with his gravity magic and squashed it, killing it instantly. He continued on with his pace undisturbed, replying to Aisha, “I don’t plan on dodging you any further, Aisha. I had been planning on saying something, I just hadn’t found the right time to.”
Aisha continued to grill and chastise Zycor while Baz asked Mylon in a hushed tone, “Hey, how do you think you’d fare alone against one of these dungeon creatures?”
Mylon chuckled, his reply coming quicker than Baz expected, “I would get destroyed, honestly.”
“I thought you’d think about it at least for a moment, but no hesitation?”
“That’s just how dangerous this dungeon is, and this is only the first of its two floors. Honestly, if not for creatures like that melting lizard thing, Zycor might be able to clear the first floor by himself…”
“Normally I’d call you an idiot for making such a claim, but so far he has handled the other handful of creatures we have come across by himself.”
“It just goes to show just how beyond comprehension awakening is. And if I am to be frank, I believe Zycor isn’t even exerting his full capabilities at the moment. He is so used to his previous limitations, it will take him a bit of time to acclimate to being so unrestrained.”
“Mylon, Baz, you two are gonna fall behind at this rate, so hurry up.” Zycor called to them, one of his hands on Aisha’s face holding her back.
The party progressed through the dungeon, Zycor spearheading their offense whenever necessary. Compared to the previous dungeons they had been in, there were far fewer monsters roaming the halls of this one. Almost as though to compensate for that fact, the monsters that were found in this place were many times stronger. They seemed to be more monstrous than a typical dungeon monster, the latter normally being mixed animals as their base. These creatures, however, seemed to throw form into the wind to maximize function.
For those parties that lacked at least one awakened member, it felt as though the dungeon was unconquerable. Despite some of the monsters being easily defeatable for Zycor, there were plenty of others that required close teamwork. Even though their party seemed to meet the requirements to challenge the dungeon, it was merely the bare minimum.
They continued their walk through the halls lit with wall torches that seemed to burn despite the absence of fresh fuel or sticks. The dungeon itself appeared to maintain these sources of light, though the reason was unclear.
Aisha, falling back from Zycor’s side and matching her pace with Mylon and Baz’s, asked, “Any idea what the hell is up with this place? It just feels… a little unnatural, even for a dungeon.”
“Your guess is as good as mine, Aisha. My best guess is that it has something to do with this dungeon being made by the evil god.”
“I think I’ve read briefly about him. Though, it’s nearly impossible to find any detailed information about him.”
Mylon’s tone grew more serious as he explained, “That’s for good reason. If people knew the whole truth, it would lead the world to ruin. My own knowledge on the topic is incomplete, but I believe I know more than most. The evil god, Itzal. He was sealed away somewhere on the planet after he lost a battle against the goddess Alice. Apparently, he hated the idea of life having a will of its own and sought to take control and remove free will from existence. Some records that were stashed in the cathedral I was raised in said that the demi-humans and monster hybrids were created due to some moron attempting to release Itzal. Although they failed, he let out a wave of pure chaos mana that drove the world mad.”
“The goddess didn’t just kill him after she won? I feel like that would have solved a lot of problems.”
Mylon shook his head, “I don’t know why she didn’t. It could be Itzal was too strong to be destroyed, or she held a soft spot for him. Whatever the reason, he’s said to still be alive, if you can call being sealed away for all eternity living.”
Aisha nudged Baz with a mischievous smirk, “You hear that you damn orc? Sounds like your pappy’s locked away~. So tragic~. At least we know why you’re such an ass.”
Baz’s eyebrows furrowed with annoyance before he calmed himself. With a smirk of his own, he chuckled, “Yeah, guess we’re in the same boat ya mutt.”
Aisha and Baz both began furiously glaring at each other leaving Mylon to regret saying anything.
Zycor called back to the three of them, “Hey, I think I found the stairs to the next level.”
With a pensive look, Mylon thought aloud, “We really didn’t run into many monsters, but the ones we ran into were stronger than anything in any Alice made dungeon. But thanks to Zycor we were fine after the melting lizard. I just can’t help but to wonder what might be lower…”
Baz slapped Mylon’s back with a chortle, “Calm down shiny, no use worrying about it because regardless of what we want, it looks like we have to push forward.”
Mylon let out a chuckle and looked up at Baz to thank him, but stopped short. He watched Baz walk pass with Aisha over his shoulder, pouting in defeat. With a sigh, he followed behind, “I seriously can’t take my eyes off of any of you for a second, can I?”
The party descended down the stairwell that felt like it went on forever. When they finally reached the bottom, the torches that lined the wall suddenly ignited. Everyone readied their weapons; Baz with his Zweihander, Aisha with her armored claw gauntlets, Mylon with his sword and shield and Zycor with his gauntlets.
The torches ignited in pairs leading further down the only tunnel and right to the Dungeons crystal. Sitting under three sets of torches were statues of different, unrecognizable monsters. Zycor narrowed his eyes and began to march forward. Approaching the first statue set, they began to shudder and the stone crumbled away to reveal an actual monster.
Their eyes opened and the feline pair hopped off their perches, their six legs landing with a heavy thud. Several tails swished behind them while they kept each of their four eyes locked onto the boy and his party. A liquid began to ooze from their mouth and when it hit the floor, smoke began to rise from the stone that melted. They let out unnatural chirps and clicks, their feet making minor adjustments every time someone made a slight move.
Zycor’s eyes shifted to gray and he thrust his hand forward, discharging a wild bolt of lightning. The bolt hit one of the feline monsters, stunning it. The other cracked the stone floor and darted at an insane speed towards Zycor. The monster slammed into him, throwing him into one of the walls. The other one shook its head as it regained control of its body. It snarled and lunged toward Zycor who was reeling from the impact. Novos, who jumped into the air before the impact, fired a bolt of lightning to slow the monster briefly.
With the dragon’s assistance, Mylon managed to reach Zycor before the monster and raised his shield to defend. It crashed into the shield and staggered Mylon. Baz brought his sword down upon the now airborne monster. He roared as the blade crashed against its neck and slammed into the ground with great force. Dust was thrown up from the fractured stone. Baz’s eyes widened when he saw the monster push against the heavy blade, its neck still intact.
Aisha shouted, “Hold it still Baz!”
Glancing back towards her, Baz saw Aisha half-transformed running on all fours and her clawed hands and feet coated in fire. She lunged at the feline's torso, her claws shooting out to pierce through it. With a sudden gasp, Aisha was kicked away by the other monster, bouncing once on the ground and slamming into the opposite wall from Zycor. Lightning erupted from him as he stormed, “You bastards! I won’t let anyone take from me again!”
In the next breath he cried ‘engulf’ and was enveloped in a flash of blue light and vanished. The monster that hit Aisha was sent flying into the wall engulfed in lightning. It cried out in pain as it was electrocuted. Zycor extended the blade in his gauntlet and dashed once more at the creature, impaling its stomach. He wrapped his other hand around its throat as he ran the blade down its stomach, gutting it.
The other creature broke free of Baz’s sword and kicked Baz’s stomach with force enough to shatter most bones. However, Baz was not most. He tanked the hit and grabbed the legs it kicked with and smirked, “Good… but not good enough.”
Mylon, his arm outstretched, gathered wind in his hand and shouted, “Rend!”
The wind blew forth and shaped into wind blades and inflicted many gashes on the monster before Baz threw it into the air. Novos bit down on its neck and flew straight into the ground, erupting with lightning after the impact.
Aisha staggered over to the stunned monster that glared up at her furious face. Zycor turned around and began marching over to pull her back. Before he could reach her, she coated her clawed right hand in fire and plunged it into the monster, fire erupting from the wound and its mouth and eyes. The monster went limp and Aisha pulled her hand out as it burned. She clutched her stomach as she snarled, “I hate cats…”
Zycor’s eyes returned to green, rushing to Aisha and questioning, “Are you okay?! Is anything broken!?”
Aisha pushed him aside and huffed, “Of course I’m okay, you think I would be injured by a stupid cat?!”
Zycor exhaled sharply and turned to head to the next set of statues. Mylon, being assisted by Baz, stood to his feet and commented, “You better get that blush under control, he might think you’re angry again.”
Baz chuckled, “Well considering her default is anger, not sure there would be much of a difference.”
A stone hit the orc in the back of the head, thrown by Aisha who chidded him, “You green skinned idiot, that’s not true!”
“My point exactly!” Baz retorted, rubbing the back of his head.
The next statues were insectoid based, the head of a centipede, the body of a millipede and the legs of a spider. Just as the previous one, the stone cracked and fell off as the two insect monsters towered over the party. With a sudden jerk the monsters began crawling over the walls, their movements making clattering and chattering noises. Aisha held her hands up towards one of them and shouted, “Blaze!”
A funnel of flames shot towards the monster and shrouded it. Aisha cried out, “Burn in the fires of hell and die you unholy spawn!”
To Aisha and everyone else's dismay, the giant insect amalgam crawled out of the fire and skittering across the ceiling while burning. The other monster jumped from the opposite wall, lunging at Mylon and Baz. The duo blocked the attack and threw it back towards the wall. It slammed into it, but was uninjured. It hiked its frontend up and spat a fluid at them from its mouth. Mylon threw his hand up and created a wall of wind. The liquid splattered away horizontally, melting the stone it touched. Mylon, aggravated, charged the monster, bashing it with his shield and raised his sword up, “What the hell is up with these monsters and this corrosive spit?!”
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He brought the mithril sword down on the creature with Baz following up. It quickly brought itself back to the ground and their swords collided with its exoskeleton. Both of their swords bounced back, not leaving so much as a minor scrape. The burning insect monster fell from the ceiling forcing the two to step away from its counterpart. The fire was extinguished with the insects chitinous exoskeleton secreting that corrosive liquid. However, the monster was left with burn marks and what seemed to be damage on the parts of its underbelly that were visible.
Zycor asked Novos, who perched himself on his shoulder momentarily, “Think you can get one of them to expose their stomach big guy?”
Novos chirped, small sparks of electricity arcing briefly across his back. The dragon took flight towards Baz, Mylon and the monsters. Zycor shouted, “You two take one of those things with Novos! It seems like it can be hurt by attacking its stomach! Aisha and I will take care of the other!”
Not wasting any time, Zycor sent a bolt of lightning at the insects, striking the slightly burnt one. It turned its attention toward him and Aisha who was standing next to him and began to charge them. Aisha asked, a bit shaken, “Alright, so what’s your grand plan?”
“Remember the melting lizard and how we killed it?”
“You think that will work here?”
“Well, if it doesn’t, our options become incredibly limited. So when I pin it, just throw the strongest, hottest fire you can at it.”
With that said, the two of them dodged out of the way as the monster charged between them and crashed into the wall. In the next motion, Zycor cast gravity magic and slammed it into the ground, pinning it under extreme force. Aisha gathered magic into her hands and then commanded, “Ignite. Blaze. Scorch.”
The air began to heat, the fire turning to a deep blue, then it began to grow and shape into a funnel before finally becoming wild, its intensity spiking. She fired the inferno at the pinned creature, the flames getting caught in the well of gravity and creating another fiery half sphere that torched the insect.
After holding the gravity for a moment, a realization dawns on Zycor as he comments, “Hey Aisha… I may have not thought this all the way through…”
“What do you mean by that?”
“... remember what happened when I released the gravity last time?”
“...”
“...”
“You’re a grade A idiot, you know that?”
“Hey, you forgot about it too!”
Meanwhile, Mylon parried their teams’ insect monsters charge with his shield, Baz smacking it back with his sword. Clicking his tongue, the half orc complained, “You know, I got this awesome sword to cut things, not use it as a freakin’ club!”
Mylon chuckled understandingly, adjusting his grip on his own sword, “Trust me brother, I know how you feel.”
The monster readied to attack again, but before it had a chance to, Novos swooped in, now several times bigger and still getting bigger. He bit down on the insect's neck, but wasn’t able to break through the exoskeleton. He was, however, able to sink his teeth into the underside of the neck though not enough to kill it. The monster screeched in pain as Novos hoisted it into the air, exposing its underside. The monster began secreting the corrosive spit and some of it leaked onto Novos’ scales, hurting the dragon. Angered, Novos let a great deal of lightning rip across his body and through the insects, paralyzing it temporarily.
Baz and Mylon looked at each other and smirked, both gripping their swords tightly. They charged at the giant insect with a synced battle shout. Both of their weapons cleaved through the creatures softer underbelly, green blood spilling out. Mylon drove his sword deeper and channeled wind magic into the blade. Runes lit up on it and shredding wind ripped apart the insides of the monster. Removing their swords, Novos released the monster, letting it crash to the floor lifeless.
Turning their attention to Zycor and Aisha, Mylon started, “So, how did your twos’ fight… go…”
His question wavered as he registered the situation. Sheathing his sword, the paladin ran his hand along his face trying to think of anything to say. With a sigh, he decided to leave the lecture for later and ordered, “Alright, get over behind my shield you two morons.”
Aish snapped back, “Hey, it was his idea! Don’t blame me!”
“Yeah, but I trusted you to prevent him from doing something… like this.”
Aisha crossed her arms, taking a seat behind Mylon and his shield, pouting. Novos reduced his size and Baz crouched down next to Aisha, smirking at her pouting face. The two of them began silently bickering with stares and making faces at each other. Mylon yelled to Zycor, “Alright, we’re all good to go! Let it rip!”
Taking a few steps towards Mylon, Zycor undid his gravity magic and dove behind the shield. A far more intense fire engulfed the room and set it ablaze. Mylon channeled his wind magic into his shield and runes lit up on it, casting a powerful wind barrier. Silently, he thanked Adria for the equipment, before realizing it was always her intention to make him responsible for these children.
The initial wave of the inferno passed, leaving smaller flames burning on the corpses of the previously felled monsters. Emerging from behind the shield, The party looked at the charred remains of the insectoid monster at the epicenter. After taking inventory of everything and everyone, they party pushed on to the next statue duo that was humanoid, but stood at eight feet tall and had four arms. Each one was clad in armor and held a massive sword.
The stone began to fall away from them and they hopped off their pedestals. They faced the party with their massive great swords at the ready.
Tapping the tip of his zweihander on the floor Baz huffed, “I gotta say, I am sick of this monster gauntlet we’re running.”
Raising his shield and unsheathing his sword, Mylon joked, “What, are you tired already?”
The four armed soldier monsters swung their swords in unison. Mylon injected wind magic into the shield and activated another barrier, the giant swords slamming against the swirling wind and being thrown back. With the giants staggered, Zycor and Aisha dashed towards them and launched at one each. They both wrapped lightning and fire around their feet respectively, the former solidifying the lightning into a boot, and drove them into the giants’ stomachs.
Zycor called out, “Novos, fry ‘em!”
Novos grew in size and fired a volley of lightning bolts that scorched the monsters and paralyzed them. Baz ran up to one of them and cleaved one of their legs off midway up the thigh. Mylon rushed the falling goliath and used the momentum of the fall to help cleave the monster's head from its body. The remaining soldier broke free of the paralysis and raised its sword above its head. Aisha got behind it and plunged her fire coated hand into its back and let loose a torrent of fire that coursed throughout the monster's body, flames spewing forth from its eyes, mouth and other holes that were made due to melting flesh. It fell to its knees then onto its face dead.
Looking ahead, the only left was the dungeon’s crystal, floating at the end of the corridor. Instead of the blue they had come to associate with Alice’s dungeons, this crystal was red. Baz, Mylon, Zycor, Aisha and Novos all grouped up and passed the corpses of the fallen soldier monsters. “We made it. Let's hope that Lathal's information was correct.” Zycor mentioned.
Putting his sword in its scabbard and his shield on his back, Mylon inquired, “Great, so would you mind telling us what exactly we are supposed to find out here?”
“I didn’t tell you?” Zycor shot back, puzzled.
Aisha scolded, “No you didn’t. Like always, you just run into anything having to do with your ‘quest for vengeance’ with a half baked plan and don’t explain anything!”
“The pups right kid, I know how your feelin’, but we’re here tryin’ to help ya. So come on and tell us.” Baz interjected, placing a hand on Aisha’s head to interrupt her.
“You filthy piglet! Quit interrupting me whenever I’m trying to talk!”
“Ha, what are you, his mom? Want me to let you parent your kid, is that it?”
“Hell no I’m not! I’m just saying all of this as his friend and someone who cares about him!” Aisha points towards Mylon and exclaims, “Besides, Mr. Paladin over there is the mom of the group!”
“SO YOU ALL KNOW HOW IRRESPONSIBLE YOU ARE!?” Mylon shouted back.
The rest of the party laughed while the group appointed mom continued chastising them for the brief moments before they arrived at the crystal.
With it looming over them, they realized how much bigger it was than Alice’s crystal. Baz questioned, “You think he’s trying to compensate?”
Mylon, Aisha and Zycor slowly look towards Baz who shrugs, “What? You guys can’t say it didn’t cross your mind too! I’m just the only one with the balls to say it aloud!”
With a sigh, Zycor reached his hand out, “Let’s try not to piss off the literal god please.”
When his hand made contact with the crystal, it began to shine bright and cracks began forming along its body. Everyone stepped back as the crystal shattered into floating pieces that began to spin in a circle to form a ring. Magic was seemingly absorbed into the center and a portal flickered to life.
On the other end was a throne room designed with sharp and jagged edges, cloaked in a deep crimson hue, and populated with torn flags and mounted broken weapons. On the giant throne sat an equally giant man. He had short, dirty blonde hair that peeked through the black helmet he wore. It was cracked with an orange light emanating from the cracks, almost resembling flowing lava. He was muscular and wore armor that resembled the vikings. A solitary pauldron that matched his helmet's design was on his right shoulder, and appeared to be made of some form of leather.
In front of the throne was a legion of what appeared to be soldiers similar to what they had fought, but were obviously much stronger. There was also another man who was dressed far more professionally and was reporting something to the seated ruler. He paused and pointed behind the ruler who looked over, his eyes a piercing blue, and stared at the party. His eyes widened slightly and his entire throne shifted to face them. A smile grew upon his face as he bellowed cheerfully, “Artemis, my dear advisor, look at this! Some of the mortals cleared a dungeon!”
“Yes, I see that sir. It truly is an accomplishment.”
“Hoho, don’t give me that, you were always telling me it wasn’t possible to clear them! That they were too hard, but look here, we have a group who did it!”
“That may be the case, sir, however it has been nearly three-hundred years since the last clear.”
“Eh, minor details. What matters is that a group did it, which means I was right!” Turning his attention back to the group, the ruler cleared his throat and continued, “Ah, well, I suppose introductions are in order! My name is… Itzal! Feel free to applaud if you feel it necessary.”
Aisha reflexively blurted out, “You’re THE evil god?!”
Itzal was taken aback and nervously chuckled, “Uh… ‘evil’ god? Apologies, but are you referring to me?”
The whole party nodded carefully in response. Itzal closed his eyes, bringing his hand up to the bridge of his nose as he began to speak with growing irritation, “I see… and who, might I ask, has told you that I was the ‘evil’ god?”
Aisha, Baz and Zycor all pointed at Mylon who raised his hands up in surrender, clarifying, “I only told them what I heard from the church, I swear!”
“What church?”
“The church that worships the great goddess Alice.”
Itzal began to laugh softly, restating, “So you're telling me that Alice, that pretentious sister of mine, has a whole religion dedicated to herself and has made ME out to be the bad guy?”
Mylon further explained, “We were always told that you were sealed away in the forbidden lands towards the south by the goddess after you rebelled against her and lost. You were also the reason for the creation of demi-humans because you unleashed a wave of chaotic mana across the planet when you were partially released.”
“That’s a load of crap!” Itzal exploded, slamming his fist on the armrest of his throne, “She really set me up as the big bad!? This is what I get for letting her run things upstairs, that brat!”
Artemis spoke up, “Sir, there is still a lot we have to get done. Let’s wrap this up, shall we?”
Itzal roared in response, “Absolutely not! Artemis, clear my schedule, I’ve got to have a word with that idiot I call a sister!”
Mylon queried the god, “Pardon me, lord Itzal, but if you are not in the seal… what is?”
Itzal snapped back, “Don’t worry about it, what is in there is beyond what you mortals could understand.”
“If that’s the case, we might need to know. There is someone who is trying to release whatever is locked away in there.”
Itzal paused, his face going pale, “I’m sorry, someone is what?”
Zycor jumped in, explaining, “It’s some guy who calls himself Mr. X. He said something about having enough power to undo it in six months. I came here because I heard I might be able to obtain information about a spell or magic that could grant me power enough to kill him.”
Itzal’s expression turned pensive, his hand drifting to his chin to rub it. After a few tense moments of silence, he spoke, “Considering what’s at stake, I suppose telling you would be within my rights. Hidden within the city of Xirci, there is a temple that houses a spell left here by the same jackass that left what’s in that seal. He left it saying it should be enough to deal with the imprisoned being so long as it’s fought and dealt with as soon as it is released.”
Aisha, unfamiliar with the city, asked, “I’ve never heard of Xirci, do you know where it was located?”
Itzal raised an eyebrow and answered, “Really? Well, I suppose it has been quite some time since I have actually peeked at the state of the world. The city of Xirci was located at the center of the rest of the nations. It was truly a sight to behold, even for a god like myself.”
Mylon and Aisha looked at each other and exclaimed, “The shining city!”
Itzal, not really caring about their new name for the city, waved them off, “Alright, it’s time for you all to go. I have a lot I have to talk with Alice about and this portal won’t stay open for much longer. Do try to prevent whoever this Mr. X fellow from opening that seal. If he does, that’s it for the planet… or worse.”
With that the portal closed and the crystal fragments clattered to the floor. Left in the deafening silence of the now deactivated dungeon, the party remains stunned, processing the information they just received.
“Ya know, we never did ask about his design choices with the monsters here…” Baz pointed out.
Letting out a groan, Mylon replied, “After everything we just heard THAT is what comes to mind first?”
Baz shrugs, “Seemed like we all were curious, and we didn’t even ask.”
Aisha questioned, “Well, guess we should head to the shining city, right?”
With an affirmative nod, sparks of electricity crackled along Zycors arms as he smirks, “Right, and then we make that bastard and Volnir pay!”
END OF VOLUME 2
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