Azaria 2-29 (Patreon)

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Chapter 29: The Queen’s Core

Azaria

I commanded my giant monster to tear apart the city above us. Since Neo-Chicago was all but gone now that it was plastered to the bottom of the demon’s island, I had nothing to lose. It used its breath to blast a hole through the dungeon and subsequently through the clouds above the demons’ island.

My field now covered a good part of the island. Thusly, I had flood the Queen’s dungeon with it to find the path to her core. With the giant lizard monster, that I was thinking of calling Toka, that I created from memories of movies wreaked havoc, I led the way down through the cells that had been reduced to rubble. Which Inadvertently broke the maze spell that had been at work in here. I doubted that we’d actually walked more than a hundred feet since we entered the floor.

With my field in place over it, I could see that it reset during the fight with the jailor. A clever tactic that targeted when a person was busy dealing with an enemy. By the time the fight was over, a new jailor would be at the other end of the now repaired cell passage.

Everyone was withdrawn as we reached the next floor. The floor was damaged by Toka’s rampage as well but appeared to be a temple or church. A ruined statue, one that had been damaged long before we showed up stood in the back of the room. It took the form of a beautiful woman. Even if the face had been blasted off by something.

The island shook and I glanced outside. The eldritch monster that was being held back by the storm was reaching out now that Toka had blasted a large hole through it. One way or another, Queen was going to get it. I waved the others toward the back of the room where I blasted the statue out of the way. A passage leading further down was revealed under its feet.

“There is nothing to fight?” Lance asked. She sounded almost disappointed.

“I’m using my field to interfere with hers. Whatever gimmick that should have activated on this floor is being suppressed, but further down, we’ll have to fight. There should be two more floors.” The dungeon continued to shake as Toka rampaged above us. She had already destroyed a third of the city.

Looking through her eyes, I saw that we had roughly half an hour before one of the tendrils reached the city. Miasma of some sort was wafting from it. I could tell without any hints that if something touched that, it would kill instantly. No matter what abilities you had.

“Only six floors?” Thomas asked pulling me from my thoughts.

“The field covering the city and tower count as two to four floors. Even with support from bound dungeons, it would take a lot to cover that much area.” I had my ability to cheat.

“Got it.”

We made our way into the passage behind the newly formed soldiers. While the others walked on, I called for Zaria and she appeared next to me. “Even having access to my Aether pool, it would be best if you joined us.”

“As you wish,” Zaria said with a nod. “I sense a great pain coming from you.”

I grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “My parents were just killed. I’m not sure what to feel,” I replied honestly. There was no point to hit it from her after all. She squeezed my hand back.

“I understand. Let us go make the one that did this to you pay,” Zaria replied evenly, causing me to chuckle a little.

“Sure.” We walked into the stairwell. From what I could tell this passage was almost a mile long. It wound back and forth to add to the distance. There were traps, but Ophelia’s soldiers were dealing with them.

“What have you done!?” screamed Queen once we were all in the stairwell.

“Evened the playing field,” I replied with a glare.

“We’re all going to die!” Queen sounded panicked for the first time. “If that thing gets past the clouds, then it doesn’t matter! The world will be destroyed.”

“You should have thought of that before you killed my parents!” I shouted back.

“You will regret this!”

“Not before you will.”

We hurried our pace and soon came to what looked like a large throne room. Ophelia had lost close to twenty of her soldiers from traps, but I was too enraged right now to worry about that. I wanted this to be over, completely and fully. The only reason I wasn’t in a ball crying like I normally would be, was the rage that fueled me. I might even welcome death once I made sure Queen wouldn’t survive either.

The throne room was decorated much like the entrance. There were suits made from gold, plenty of priceless treasures laying around. Pews that had golden line cloth over them lined the hall. At the end, sitting on a high-backed throne, was a woman that had to be over twelve foot in height. She had four arms, which each holding a different weapon. Three heads looked in a triangle fashion, each wearing a different crown. A banner along the back declared her to be name Kalina.

“Good. I was getting bored,” Lance said cracking her knuckles. That was impressive given the state of her hands. They were more claw than finger.

“She’s all yours,” I said gesturing at the monster.

“I’m not THAT stupid. I had enough trouble with the jailor. Right, Neo?” Lance shot back and went to smack Neo on the back, but her hand went right through him.

“Don’t touch me until you’ve washed your hands,” Neo said coldly with a glare.

“Didn’t take you for a germaphobe,” Lance said with a snort. She was covered in a lot of blood. A good portion of it her own. Neo for his part looked much like he had when we first came into the dungeon, or the city for that matter. His suit and half face mask were clean, with only a few very minor cuts on them. The dust must not stay when he phased, as he looked amazingly clean.

The strangeness of it reduced the rage I was feeling ever so slightly. It was just that surreal. Lance tried to touch him again, but the same thing happened. She sighed, giving up, and turned back to the monster. “Let’s just kill this thing. Even if the city is lost, I’d like to die on Earth,” Neo said.

“You got it boss,” Lance said with a slightly crazed chuckle.

“If I am to die, I couldn’t ask for better company,” Starburst said moving to stand next to the two. He must have bonded during the string of combat on our way down here. Former god or not, he acted like an old man most of the time.

“Die?” Lance asked with a scoff. “Like I’d let some stuck-up statue kill me.”

Getting tired of the conversation, I waved to Ophelia. She sent her soldiers at the Kalina. Over fifty heavily armored women rushed around the three of them and charged her. The monster rose from its seat and met the charge. It was powerful. Each swing easily sent a soldier flying. Usually with a shattered shield or sword.

“You guys going to just stare, or join in?” I called folding my arms.

Starburst laughed before he raised his hands and started sending blasts of energy at the monster. One of Kalina’s crowns began to shine and a barrier formed, blocking the streaks of light. They burst harmlessly against the energy field.

Neo and Lance rushed through the crowd of soldiers and were soon directly in front of the monster. The jailor was nothing compared to the jailor. As soon as Lance seemed to make a move against the creature, one of the arms reacted and a large blade that normally should have taken two hands to hold, came careening at her. She managed to react much faster than the previous floor and dodged the attack, but just the wind from the passage of the blade managed to send Lance end over end.

Neo didn’t fair much better. As he got closer, another of the crowns began to glow. He must have sensed something was off, as he blocked the mace that was aimed at his head instead of trying to phase through it like he normally would have. The impact of the mace pressed his feet into the ground creating a significant crater.

The women weren’t doing much more than annoying the monster. For every blow they managed to land, one or two were cut in half or sent flying from a mace. I tightened my grip on my violin and thought about how I could help. Magic seemed pointless with the barrier preventing anything from getting near her. I was useless in close quarters.

Staring at the violin, I thought about how I increased the strength of my minions when I played my music in the dungeon. With a quick message to Zaria, I pulled the violin up and began to play an upbeat score. I wanted my allies to grow stronger. Notes from the piano soon joined in.

The attackers started moving faster and striking harder but it appeared to still be lacking. I glanced at Thomas, “Can you play anything?”

He raised his eyebrow and shrugged. I supposed that playing music wasn’t on the top of a dungeon cores mind usually. Not to mention he didn’t remember much more than his name from his previous life. I let Zaria start a piano solo and reached out to touch Thomas. I channeled some Aether into finding what instrument would suit him and a flute came to mind. No sooner had the image appeared in my mind then the actual object form in his hands out of Aether much like my violin.

An understanding washed over him. I could tell that he instantly knew how to play. It was possible that he had played when he was a human. He brought it up to his lips and his music began perfectly in tune with Zaria. I brough the bow back up and joined in. The music was energetic and made me think of those battle scenes from the plays my parents took me to when I was younger.

Turning my attention back to the battle, it hadn’t turned around much. Neo and Lance were employing a hit and run tactic to avoid getting skewered from the two swords. The throne had been completely destroyed from the battle and was starting to spread out to the rest of the room.

In the middle of dodging, Neo seemed to stop suddenly, and a blade went completely through his stomach. I just barely caught one of the crowns dimming. Blood sprayed from both the front and back and I heard him grunt in obvious pain. It was sad that was going to be the first thing I heard that wasn’t ice cold.

Lance didn’t let whatever happen go to waste. She turned into a blur and managed to avoid the other three limbs as she sank her claws into the chest of the monster. A horrifying scream left Kalina’s mouth as two of the arms dropped their weapons and wrapped around Lance. Only two seconds passed before a equally horrifying bone cracking sound reached us.

Starburst and the remaining soldiers rushed forward to take advantage of the wounded and currently limited Kalina. Starburst had picked up two of the chainsaw swords at some point and was nimbly leaping up. The soldiers rammed their swords into the lower section of the monster, while some hacked at her legs.

Starburst reached the main head and with a swift double cut, sent it flying through the air. The remaining two heads screamed as blood pumped from the neck of the missing member. The stunning crown flashed, but he appeared unaffected as he angled the swords down through the torso. The blades tore through whatever organs the monster had before they ground to a stop.

Kalina stopped moving before she fell forward to her knees. Her grip loosened enough for Lance to get free, and with the magic preventing the phasing gone, Neo was able to phase through the blade to get free.

Thomas and I rushed forward. Neo stood and there was almost a wall of ice that said don’t go near him. Thus, I made my way over to Lance. She laid on the crushed remains of a pew breathing heavily. I kneeled next to her to check the damage. From just the outside, it looked like her spine and ribs were completely crushed. She was twitching her fingers but everything waist down didn’t appear to be working.

“That was a rush,” Lance said with a bloody grin. She coughed and more than a little blood came up.

“Are you going to be able to recover?” I asked.

“Not… sure,” she replied. I reached out like the day I met her and closed my eyes. The damage was extensive, but it could be healed. I carefully targeted her spine and brought it back together like it was supposed to be. It was times like this that I was glad that the body itself and magic knew what to do, as I had absolutely no knowledge of autonomy other than the basics.

Lance gasped as her legs jerked. “Not sure… I’m happy you… did that. Now I can… feel twice as much pain,” she said between gasps of pain.

“Sorry,” I said with a small smile.

Everything shook as we gathered ourselves. Looking outside, Toka had managed to level most of the city. The eldritch monster was much closer to the city as well. We didn’t have much time. When I glanced at my status, I had almost ten thousand souls and had leveled up several times as well.

Helping Lance to her feet, we moved over to Neo. He lend against the wall and breathed heavily. When he approached, I realized that he had pulled his mask off. He was quite handsome and looked a few years older than me. “Do you want me to heal you?”

“Just… seal the wound,” he replied and I nodded. Walking over, I placed my hand on his wound. When I channeled my Aether, I had to resist the urge to pull back. There was some sort of sickness in him that I was surprised hadn’t already killed him. I glanced at him, but his ice cold eyes prevented me from saying anything. I sealed his wound and quickly pulled my hand back. He breathed in relief. “Thanks.”

“Over here!” Starburst shouted breaking the momentary tense atmosphere. I rushed over followed by the others. Lance and Neo a bit more slowly than normal. Looking at the spot that Starburst pointed we found a passage under the altar. I glanced at everyone before I ducked into the passage.

The trip to the next floor was much quicker then the rest. We were only in the passage for a total of ten of fifteen seconds. We came out into a natural looking cave. An orb floated in the middle that was probably twice the size of my own core.

“Congratulations. Thanks to you, we’re all going to die,” Queen said as a figure to shape in front of us. She somehow managed to look both young and extremely old at the same time. Black hair that went to her feet, coupled with a long white dress almost reminiscent of a wedding dress on Earth were the most striking features. At least until I saw her eyes which looked like they would suck in your soul.

“You brought this on yourself. People from Earth would rather die than submit willingly,” I replied. Or at least I assumed that since we were always fighting. I couldn’t remember a time when I was still a human that there wasn’t some form of violence or war taking place.

“How good for you,” Queen retorted before she flew over to a side of the cave. A light grew and I saw there was a bar of all things. She poured herself a drink. She looked at the glass than just chugged straight from the bottle. “A thousand years. That’s how long I defended my world. More actually, but you just sort of stop counting after a while. Sure, the mainland cores are more powerful, but I’m the only one that can move freely on this forsaken world.”

“How good for you,” I parroted back. “That’s none of our concern. We’re just here to break your core.”

Queen sighed and leaned back against the bar. “Go ahead. Like I said, now that the Dellomana has reached inside the true atmosphere. There is nothing to spot him from devouring the planet.”

I narrowed my eyes at her, but I felt she was telling the truth. Mainly because when I looked outside at the city, that was the feeling I got when I looked at Goulderlia, or Dellomana as she called it. All-encompassing death if I had ever seen it.

We moved over to the core carefully in case it was some sort of trap. With my field covering her dungeon, I knew the device that brought us here was inside her core. Other than the personal pleasure of crushing her body and mind, I had an actual reason to do so. Not waiting any longer, I reached out and surrounded the core with both my hands before I sent a tidal wave of my Aether at it. Queen’s avatar screamed until the core shattered in my hands.

“Final…ly. I… thought… I’d never… die,” she said before her avatar broke up into a thousand tiny motes.

“If you wanted to die, you didn’t have to drag us along with you,” I growled but turned back to the core. A cube of unknown metal floated above my hands. Thousands of smaller objects that was constantly shifting slightly composed the main structure, but my Aether sight reveal a gem of some sort at the center. As I held it, knowledge flooded into my mind. This object was very powerful.

I glanced at Starburst. He had a shocked expression but was rightfully keeping his mouth shut. If we had lost the city, then we’d need this to survive even if we made it back to Earth. The two people that might challenge my ownership of it were Lance and Neo.

“This will… get us back?” Neo asked with only a single grunt of pain.

“It should or rather, it would have if we were over the spot we came into this world. Opening it here might take us back to Earth, or a completely new dimension.”

“I don’t think anywhere is as bad as here,” Lance said with a snort.

“You’d be surprised,” Starburst grumbled.

I quickly thought through the process that had been implanted in my mind. With horror, I realized that we wouldn’t be able to charge it before the monster that was primed to devour the floating island reached us. I sent an order to Toka to hold off the creature for as long as she could. It might buy us a few minutes… or seconds.

“Alright. This can open a rift, but there are several things that need to happen. We need to charge it with Aether, but its been in the hands of the demons for so long that it will need to be calibrated to accept Aether from a being like me.”

“Actually. I have the same ability as they do. We can save some time if we use me as a conduit. Can you phase my hand into the device?” Lance asked Neo how nodded.

“Alright. After that, I just have to use my Total Domain. Unlike the time on Earth, I have better understanding of it and can hopefully target the right veil between this world and Earth.”

“And that beast won’t follow us?” Thomas asked.

“It shouldn’t be a problem. The gods will stop a world that hasn’t fallen yet from being devoured if an accident happens,” Starburst answered, and I gestured there you go.

Neo took our hands and phased them into the device. Without calibrating it, this was actually a great help. I reached out my other hand and placed it on Lance. When we all nodded, I started to pour Aether into her. She grunted and I sensed her start to pour it into the device. It went from inert to glowing yellow then gold rapidly. I had Zaria join us in pour Aether into the device from the dungeon.

While I waited for it to charge, I turned my eye to the surface. Toka was managing to hold back the space monster with her breath. The only problem was that with Queen’s death, the storm that covered the protected the area had receded completely. I could just barely make out the edge of it over the mainland.

A tendril that was the size of a skyscraper slammed into Toka. The scale, metal, plastic alloy that made up Toka’s body started to melt instantly. She bodily threw the tendril away, before pulling in a deep breath and sending a wave of energy at the tendril. While it started to smoke and small parts caught fire, it looked mostly unharmed.

Toka charged the tendril bringing her claws around to dig deep, building size furrows through the hide of the tendril. The attack wasn’t enough and the tendril healed before my eyes. It swung around and wrapped around Toka before it tossed her across the island. Toka weakly got up then charged again.

When the tendril wrapped around her this time, the spikes along her back began to glow brightly. It soon looked like the sun was standing on the island. “Brace yourselves!” I shouted just before Toka detonated all the gathered Aether in her. It was only slightly smaller than a nuke as most of the demon’s island was torn apart by the blast.

With most of our cover now gone, I channeled my Aether as fast as I could through Lance. I felt the presence behind the tendrils almost seem to lock onto me just as the device reached critical mass. I tore a hole in space beneath the island and let gravity take its course, along with a good deal of my remaining Aether as a boost.

“Shit!” Lance shouted and I looked at her with a questioning glare.

What could only be described as chaos personified erupted from around her and sank into the cube. Before I could ask what the hell had just happened everything went black as we went through the tear.