Ch. 37 – Sirinê (IV) (Patreon)

Good question. He would presumably be less limited since his Core Level was higher. “I’m not sure. Let’s wait and see what happens in the next few days. I can’t imagine this Dungeon will take us too long. The same with our business up on Tier one.”

Tinuriel nodded and leaned her head back against the stone wall.

Felix’s bars were refilled not too long later, and they moved towards the next set of double doors. The doors swung open silently and the two went inside. Another pedestal with a crystal sat there. “Hold on a second. Rebel Against All Odds.”

The spectral wings appeared behind Tinuriel, and she floated off the ground. “Okay. Keep a hold on my shoulder. You should be immune to mental influence for a minute, but my Inviolable Will Skill requires it to affect me first.”

I’ll activate it as soon as something tries to affect you.

Tinuriel nodded and held her blade in one hand, and Felix’s shoulder in the other. He reached up and touched the crystal. It flared white and sunk into the ground. The rooms’ walls fell away, and the floor and sky both vanished. Felix felt a fuzzy sensation; his ability to form words leaving him as he began to flash back to his life before all of this on Earth. Helping Penny with her homework, and rushing her to and from doctor’s appointments. Trying to apply for jobs and constantly falling deeper and deeper into debt. The feeling of pathetic uselessness. Standing on the edge of calamity and starting to step out into the embrace of nothingne-

Hey, snap out of it. Inviolable Will.

Felix’s sight returned and he snapped back to reality. Tinuriel hadn’t let go of his shoulder and was staring above them. He looked up and recoiled at what he saw. An enormous, bulbous head looked at them. Some blend between an octopus and a person’s face, with enormous black eyes and tentacles in place of a mouth. They were standing on a black expanse.

“Interesting. Mortals who are not affected by my powers.”

“What are you!” Tinuriel yelled.

“No need for shouting. And to answer your question, young lady, I’m simply a construct made by your mind.”

“What do you see?” Felix asked Tinuriel softly.

“I see my king, but warped and monstrous with horns and wickedly sharp teeth.”

Felix smirked, “Hey Lucifer, what do you see?”

“I don’t see anything. It’s just an empty, square room. That pedestal is gone.”

So, you can’t see this giant Multiversal Horror that I can?”

No, I can’t. That is interesting though. I can see everything going on in your mind normally. But it’s like there is a film over your eyes and ears that is providing a partition.

Felix grabbed Tinuriel’s shoulder and squeezed, “It’s just an illusion. You can shake it off.”

“No, you can’t. Otherwise, Inviolable Will would have ended it. This has to be some type of puzzle.”

“Your disembodied ally is correct. You passed the first part of the test – a trial of your willpower. Now comes the second part of the test – a trial of your body.”

Felix felt a crushing pressure as his body seized up like he was being squeezed in a vice, and he groaned from the strain on him.

Tinuriel let out a gasp of pain as well, and Lucifer used one of the Health Elixirs on her as she began to sag. That brought her back to consciousness. The squeezing stopped a few moments later.

“You have passed the trial of mind and body.”

The black room faded away, and the stone walls reasserted themselves, the doors at the far end opening. Tinuriel looked to Felix and frowned, “I really want that Escort upgrade. Let’s finish this and get to Ethdellin.”

Felix nodded and used his Regenerate before gulping down a Health Elixir and three Vigor Elixirs.

“You good?” Felix asked.

Tinuriel nodded, “Feeling fine.” She led the way to the next set of doors, which opened for them just like the others had so far. The chamber was much larger than the last few, and an enormous list of names was etched into the opposite wall. It was an enormous scorecard, with years listed, and next to them, the names of the people who defeated the Dungeon. “This must be the last room,” Tinuriel muttered.

Felix nodded and pulled out his knives. “Hellblade, Netherlight Blade, Execution, Netherlight Cohort, Netherlight Mantle.”

His Wyrmtooth knife ignited with Hellfire, whilst the Channeling Dagger fused both that Affinity and the Netherlight into a silver and black flame. The same Netherlight aura settled around both him and Tinuriel. “Hit it.”

Tinuriel touched the crystal. The room fell away, and both were standing on a huge square platform in the middle of a volcano. The heat instantly sapped away at them and sweat poured from them in rivulets. The lava in front of them bubbled.

A scaled creature emerged from the lava. One they had seen the skeleton of Invictus. Almost straight out of a fantasy novel, a Western-style dragon rose up in front of them. Its scales were red and orange, the lava slipping off from it as the wings unfurled and crawled up onto the platform. It roared, the enormous maw of sword-sized teeth being revealed. The white claws cracked the platform and dug in as it reared its head back.

“Move!” Felix yelled as he split off from Tinuriel, the two going in different directions as the dragon unleashed a gout of flame that surged past the two in a line, separating the battlefield as the orange flames stayed in place. “Detect Weakness.”

The golden circles appeared around the creature’s eyes and alongside the top of the spine. Right. Time to kill a dragon. Felix swallowed the knot of tension in his throat and ran forward as Tinuriel did the same on the other side of the flame wall. He could only tell because of her battle cry. The dragon turned to him and reared its head back again. Dragon Dance.

He dashed under the stream of fire as the Skill let him move faster than the dragon could readjust its aim. He carved into its leg – the Wyrmtooth Knife finding a small gap between the scales as it injected the poison. Felix ran under it as the creature turned, snapping its teeth where he had just been. I have to get on- his thoughts were interrupted as the creature lifted its hind leg and kicked him. The impact was bad enough, but he went sailing over the platform’s edge and his leg landed in the lava. His Anima drained almost instantly as it tried to absorb the damage. Immediately after, the leg exploded from the lava superheating the water in his body into steam.

Tinuriel reached the creature and carved into its snout, eliciting a roar as her blade flashed blue. The creature bit down towards her, and she slipped past it, slicing along the creature’s jaw as she ran alongside it, slashing at the legs. It tried to kick her as well, but she spun with the blow, her Netherlight coating fading as her body took damage. Her Berserker Collar flared with a sickly, black light as her pain was turned to power. She turned with the spin and unleashed a savage slice into the dragon’s leg as her blade, Valiant Edge, drained the vitality and healed her.

Fuck! Felix felt dizzy as he began to succumb to shock. If his armor didn’t have the Absorbing property, he would have died. And he didn’t think that his (P) Final Stand talent would have saved him, either, since the damage would’ve been catastrophic.

Regenerate. And I’m using a ton of Elixirs.

Felix’s leg grew back, and the Netherlight flowed around him once more, absorbing the heat that would have burned his leg. But he could stand up again, and he pushed himself up. Tinuriel kept the thing busy, and he had the perfect chance he couldn’t let pass. He ran to the back leg and used his Might to jump up, getting on top of the creature.

Tinuriel suffered another glancing blow and continued to trade strikes with the creature. Her sword’s healing-on-hit property keeping her in the fight despite being hit several times. But she was being worn down.

“Use an Anima Elixir!” Lucifer shouted at her.

Tinuriel tapped into the inventory and slurped down the liquid as the Netherlight flared around her once more; her Anima able to take hits after being restored. She backed away just enough to bait out a bite which she side-stepped before slicing down on the monster’s snout.

We’re almost out of Elixirs.

Felix used the dragon’s spines to traverse the creature as it thrashed below him – the Netherlight preventing his foot from being fried as he stepped on the searing-hot scales. He got to the weak spot. Execution.

He stabbed down with both blades, carving deep into the weak spot. Execution.

He stabbed down again. He continued to use the Skill and stabbed over and over, alternating blades as he unleashed a flurry of stabs. The creature roared and attempted to buck him, but he had placed himself in between two of the spines and continued the assault.

The creature let out a scream and a gout of fire into the sky before collapsing. Felix kept stabbing at it, his mind lost to sheer rage and anger at almost dying from the environment of all things. His vision narrowed until he could only see the golden circle.

The dragon vanished and he stabbed the blades into the ground as he huffed with exertion. Tinuriel came over and grabbed him, “We survived.”

Felix dropped the knives and felt drained. I almost died again. A feeling of inadequacy, weakness, and fear of death once more clung to his mind. Maybe being a Versewalker was something he wasn’t cut out for. I could just stay in the VBV and never leave.

What about your sister? Getting back home to fix what you let out?

That brought Felix back from the brink of despair. He had someone who needed him. Someone he had to get stronger to get back to. A Universe he had to fix after unleashing a monster into it. “I’m okay,” he whispered as he held Tinuriel.

The room reverted to its prior state, and Felix glanced up at the etched scoreboard, seeing his and Tinuriel’s names appearing before the world shifted around them.

[Experience Awarded = 75]

[Experience Bonus from Execution Skill = 10]

[Congratulations! You have reached the Experience threshold to level up! Speak with your Versewalker Core when you are ready to Choose your next Class.]

[Dungeon Clear Stat Boost: +1 to All Stats]

They were outside of the Dungeon, in between the groups of mages. A treasure chest appeared next to them, and the two groups of mages began to rush towards it.

“Like Hell you’re going to take that!” Felix yelled as he activated Fallen Flight and unleashed a Hellfire Burst that blew the mages back and sapped their Anima.

“I almost died for this. It better be something good.” Felix started to open the chest.

You should level up quickly so you can use For the Hoard! and get better Loot.

Give me a level of Silent Blade.

[Selection Made: Silent Blade]

[You now have access to several Class Skills]

Finalize.

Use For the Hoard.

Will do.

Felix reached into the Dungeon chest.

[Loot Obtained]

·         Lava Dragon Scales

[Loot Bonus from Execution Skill]

·         Sirinê Dungeon Core

[Loot Bonus from For the Hoard!]

·         5,000 VC

Tinuriel reached in right after and pulled out a set of scale mail armor. “We should leave.” She pointed at the magi who were recovering from the explosion, and reinforcements that were running towards them.

Felix picked up Tinuriel and flew up, rocketing up high enough that they couldn’t be seen in the darkness, and he angled towards the edge of the Tier where the elevators to Mercantus were located.

He burned through most of his Vigor maintaining the flight before they landed, having crossed a half day’s travel in fifteen minutes. “We should be far enough away.” He looked around and spotted a small copse of trees, “Follow me.” He led Tinuriel to the more concealed location and sat down. He held his hand over her new armor, “Detect Properties.”

[Item Description: Scales of the Lava Dragon]

[The wearer is immune to fire, warmth and heat-based effects, and lava.]

Lucifer, focus on opening the VBV.

You got it.

Felix quickly explained what the item did and helped Tinuriel equip it, throwing her old armor into his inventory. He looked at her in her new gear and smiled, but his smile turned to a frown. “I almost died again.”

She sat down next to him and held him to her chest, “You survived. We survived. And you got stronger because of it.”

“Well done, Versewalker.” Tinuriel shot up and pulled her sword out, wheeling on the old man who had met them when they first arrived – Gary. “Please put the sword down. It wouldn’t help you against me anyway.”

Tinuriel slowly lowered her blade, “You mean no harm?”

“Why would I?” The figure gestured and a seat made of sparkling blue energy appeared next to Felix. “Sit, it’s more comfortable than the ground.”

Felix did so, “Who are you?” he asked as his curiosity overcame his despair.

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