Chapter 89 - Hell Castle (Part One)

How deep are we now? Vivi asked in her head. The glow between bricks had turned yellow, slowly growing hotter as they descended. The world’s levels, I mean. We must be near the eighth or ninth level, right?

“We’re probably still above the eight,” Lucius said. “The main dungeon moves mostly laterally. Still, I’m surprised by the size of this descent. This is already the second largest dungeon I’ve ever hunted.”

Only the second largest…

Vivi slashed at a skeleton with her claws. It was another bulky skeleton with a two-runed blade and a rigor rune in its chest. The skeleton fought defensively, blocking the claw-swipe. It barely tried to fight back.

This made it easy for Vivi to initiate her usual killing blow. She cast down a heavy overhead swing with her greatsword, hitting the skeleton’s block. The hit landed cleanly, snapping the skeleton’s bony sword in half, before crushing its wielder. The skeleton turned to a clump of bones. The rigor runes weren’t strong enough to withstand her runeswords.

Immediately, another skeleton thrust a sword through the sizzling corpse of the first. It was a slimmer skeleton with a swiftness rune embedded into its chest. Veins spread to its legs and arms, enhancing its bones.

Vivi parried its thrust to the side with a grimace. She struggled much more with the faster skeletons. Her greatsword was too heavy to match the speed of the skeleton’s swiftness, sharpness rapier, especially when she wielded the sword with one arm.

So she used her claws. She swiped from below right after parrying the attack. The skeleton was caught off-guard. Red claw-marks appeared on its rib-cage from a clean hit. The skeleton lost its stance. From there, Vivi slashed with her greatsword, cutting it down easily.

Aang finished up his monsters on the opposite end of the room. The leader collected the ether across the room, then promptly said, “Two more rooms before the third level. It was the rightmost turn here if I recall.”

They entered the next room without chit-chat. The dungeon hunt so far had taken around an hour and a half. The second level meandered, filled with annoying infrastructure—bridges and archers, even skeletons on high-ground pushing boulders down a cliff. The boulders hadn't been an issue. Aang crushed them in half with Skeleton Cutter.

The monsters of the second level were strong by an average hunter’s standards, but they were still considerably weaker than Vivi and Aang. The leader could roll through multiple skeletons at once without the slightest risk of losing. Vivi could reliably duel skeletons. Fighting two at a time was difficult, but she managed. Lydi struggled more, but she could keep herself alive if monsters happened to get near.

The last few rooms of the second level passed quickly, and the stairway to the third level loomed ahead. Above the stairway, a demonic skull was embedded into the wall. The glow between bricks grew to a fiery red, and the heat picked up. Vivi could sense a lot more ether oozing out of the rooms below.

“This is as far as we got the last time we visited,” Aang said. “We peeked into the first room of the third level before deeming it far too difficult to conquer. The difficulty picked up a lot. We’ll need to approach carefully.”

“Do we know how deep the dungeon goes?” Lydi asked.

“No,” Aang said with a frown. “If there’s a fourth or a fifth level… I doubt we’ll make it to the boss in time. We're hoping to not get lost on the third level. The dungeon has a lot of dead ends.”

“Just follow the path with the most ether. That’s a foolproof strategy.” Lucius’s tail was wagging. “Most of the ether seems to be concentrating on the next level.”

“Smart words,” Aang said. “Following our instincts will be our only option. I’ll use my ascension skill from now on.”

He stepped into the level below. The bricks hissed like a hot stove as his boots made contact. With each footstep, the lines on the ground blinked, the ether within reacting. The whole dungeon felt alive, as if feeling every step invaders made.

Aang didn’t look too alarmed. Vivi protected the soles of her boots with ether and descended after him.

The gates of a hellish castle awaited.

The ceiling was high—at least a hundred feet—covered in bright magma gemstones. Droplets of lava dripped from cracks in the ceiling. The landscape was rocky and uneven with far more variance from the cubic rooms of the first and second level. The glowing brick path led to a bridge, then a portcullis. To their left and right were small hills.

The castle itself stood atop a hill, a moat of lava surrounding it. Its walls were black, adorned with skulls, lava flowing down the skulls’ empty eye-holes. The castle’s two towers were burning with ethereal flames, wisps rising into the magma above. The gemstones seemed to react with the wisps, causing more lava to drip into the towers. Overflowing lava flowed down the battlements, into the moat below.

Thirty or so skeletons were spread across the grounds outside the castle. Some stood atop hills with bows. Four blocked the path ahead. Ethereal arrows released from all around with enough force to knock Vivi a step backward as she blocked with her sword. She glanced around herself to decide her course of action.

The skeletons had evolved again. Their swords had three separate veins for three runes, outside-carved, and their chests were coated with multiple runes. The largest skeleton stood by the bridge leading to the castle. Vivi squinted to see a mass and a strength rune on its chest. Its greatsword was almost as tall as Vivi, and the skeleton itself was the size of two Aangs. Its aura must have carried at least five thousand ether. The rest of the skeletons were only slightly weaker, wielding around four thousand ether.

“Three against thirty,” Aang said. He cut open two arrows aimed at his head with one swing. “It’s about time for a good warm-up, don’t you think?”

A warm-up? Vivi had thought the first two levels were the warm-up.

Aang activated his ascension skill. His eyes glowed with ether, and his being lit up. He called forth his full aura.

Then he rushed directly through the middle of the path, at the nearest cluster of skeletons. His sword moved like a gust of wind. The crush runes slashed into the first skeleton before the monster could react. Its bones cracked like glass, wisps of ether spraying into the next skeleton.

Arrows shot at Aang from four sides at once. He jumped, dodging each arrow, before landing directly between three skeletons.

He slashed wide around himself. Two skeletons died instantly, spines crushed in half. The third skeleton managed to raise its sword to block. The attempt was futile—its three-runed sword was crushed, cracking into bits.

Vivi watched in awe, too shocked to help. What could she even do? Aang moved from one skeleton to the next, utterly demolishing anything in his path. All the while dodging arrows from all sides.

Lucius laughed in her thoughts. “A warm-up! Interesting.”

Lydi filled her staff with ether and shot at one of the archers on the leftmost hill. The archer was too focused on Aang to react to the attack. It collapsed from the discharge, dying.

The discharge brought attention to Vivi and Lydi. Two sword skeletons were approaching from the right side. One was a bulky skeleton with mass and strength runes in its cores and a three-runed giant slayer sword. It slowly stepped toward her. The other was an assassin with two daggers. Vivi couldn’t see the runes in its core before the skeleton disappeared from her vision.

Only her sixth sense saved her from the attack. Vivi felt the ethereal daggers coming for her head from the right. She slashed in the direction with her sword.

The assassin ducked under the attack and thrust its knife at Vivi’s stomach. Her heart dropped.

Lucius appeared from her core, blocking the attack. He slashed with his claws, forcing the skeleton to retreat. Lucius went back to her core.

“Let’s use Abyss Destroyer,” Lucius said. “Our greatsword is too slow for these monsters.”

Vivi agreed. She quickly switched out her weapon, then dashed after the assassin skeleton’s shadow. She focused ether into her eyes. Watch for its movements!

She could see it. Its movements weren’t merely flashes of light anymore. Her practice was paying off. She could keep up with the skeleton’s movements. Vivi’s weakest link, her speed, was finally improving. She could catch the assassin!

“Vivi!” Lydi called from behind. “Watch out!”

The bulkier skeleton took a heavy step, then initiated a charge at Vivi. An arrow released in her direction. The assassin skeleton threw its dagger over its shoulder at Vivi, turning the chase around.

Oh, Vivi thought. She ran into a trap.