Azaria 2 - 26

Good Morning

Chapter 26: The Queen’s Dungeon

Lance

Once I regained my consciousness, I found that I was dripping from head to toe in blood. Only some of it being mine, thankfully. I climbed a nearby building and found Azaria and her group. It looked like part of the attack force had been incapacitated. I rushed over to join them since I wanted in on the greater demons inside the tower to increase my power. I quickly shook my head. I meant to help my fellow Earth dwellers to regain our freedom.

Sliding down the central building, my claws only managed to penetrate the first two or three inches. After that, it was like I was grinding against steel. I landed in front of the group and realized that I was in my beast mode as I was starting to call it. I deactivated my armor and weapon skills and returned to a somewhat humanoid appearance.

I told the others what Fred explained to me. Azaria’s aura grew denser as she concentrated on something in the distance and the others began to prepare for what was likely going to be the hardest dive they’ve ever attempted. I checked my wounds over, but most of them were already well along their way to being healed.

“I’m ready,” Azaria called and the others all nodded.

I reactivated beast mode allowing all my armor and scales to regrow over my body. “I’ll take the lead,” I said moving through the entrance. Ophelia and her soldiers followed behind me. With the rest of the group coming up the rear. It took me a moment since his movements made zero sound, but I found Neo up front with me.

Once everyone was across the threshold, a pair of doors slammed shut sealing us in. Classic dungeon technique. Part of me was almost relieved to see it. Lights flared to life around the room revealing an entrance foray that was fit for a king. What looked like real gold decorated every surface, with delicate cravings of what looked like scenes from a play lined the walls. A stairwell led up to the next floor in the back of the room. A pair of halls branched off from either side of the room.

“Well, well, well. I never expected to see a prophet again. Not after you set your pet on us,” said a voice that echoed through the room. The lights dimmed until a spotlight effect was cast on Starburst. I narrowed my eyes wondering if this was a ploy to make us turn against each other. It wouldn’t be the first time smoethign like that happened in a dungeon.

“What do you mean, prophet!?” Azaria shouted as she grabbed Starburst’s arm. “He’s my minion.”

“Child. I am over a thousand years old. I can see the very soul of the creatures that enter my halls. Whatever shell he might have now, he was a prophet before.” The voice paused as if to let that sink in. “Do you like what has become of my world?”

“Not a fan,” Azaria said shaking her head with a smirk.

“Well, it was his kind that caused it. Turning those with large amounts of Aether into dungeons that killed their own countrymen. Now the world continues to be torn apart from those that have lost their minds to the power. Not to mention, the monster that makes it so we can never see the stars and sun again.” The voice projected the feeling of helplessness during its speech. I guess when your world was dying and you were alive for all of it, then you did get to the point where it was too much.

“Be that as it may be. We’d like to head back to our home plane now.”

“Are you joking!?” the voice started laughing that quickly grew to insane levels. Even I was a bit worried for the person, and my sanity was like a pendulum most of the time. “With your power, we can finally escape this nightmare of a world!”

“I’d like to say that I broke the veil on accident,” Azaria commented crossing her arms.

“Whatever the case may be.” Energy started to gather in the room. Suits of armor that would have fit the demons outside perfectly began to emerge from the side halls. I could feel the density of their Aether from twenty feet away. “You will soon be my guest… forever.” The animated armor crouched before they started to charge the group.

Ophelia’s women rushed forward, while I did the same and met the armors in their charge. I brought my right claw around and aimed for its helmet, but the metal was thick, and the edges of my claws glanced off. The soldiers were a bit more effective slamming their shields into the armor’s shields. They soon began to parry sword blows causing sparks to rain all over the battlefield.

I tried adding corrosive acid to my claws and with each blow on the armor, smoke started to rise. Sadly, it was nowhere near fast enough to bring the armor down. I blocked a sword swing with my free hand and gained a gash across my palm before it was caught in the thicker part of my natural armor.

A hand suddenly burst from the helmet of the armor I was fighting. It turned to dust before my eyes and the main body of the animated armor collapsed to the ground. Neo stood hovering slightly above the ground, dusting his hand off. “I have high expectations. Please don’t disappoint,” he said in his cold steel lined voice before he moved to another target.

“Yeah. Well if it had been a flesh and blood creature I would have owned him,” I mumbled as I kicked the armor at my feet.

A burst of ice flew past me and froze an armor to the wall. I glanced to see Azaria with her violin at the back of the pack. Starburst was using streams of energy that tore chunks from the animated armors with a few hits.

I groaned and retracked my claws, they wouldn’t be much help. I concentrated on my fist and a layer of scale and hide covered it. Leaping, I aimed for the center of an armor that was about to take down one of the soldier women and slammed my fist into it as hard as I could. This turned out to be the correct approach as the chest of the armor crumpled before the armor was blasted back several feet. I made a mental note to visit Sao’s grave if we made it back to Earth.

The sounds of fighting last for a few more minutes before all the armors were dealt with. We lost a few of the soldier women, but Ophelia didn’t seem to mind. When I saw their faces, they were identical so they might be a clone ability or something along those lines. I doubted it would be the last of them that we lost during this dungeon dive.

“That’s the first floor. Now where should we do?” I asked looking for a hint.

Azaria closed her eyes as did the guy next to her. They stayed like that for several longer than I felt we could wait moments before they returned to us. “We need to go up. The path down is in the next floor.”

“Sounds familiar,” I noted thinking about Azaria’s dungeon.

“So, I’m unoriginal. Sue me,” she retorted before ordering Ophelia to take her soldiers to the next floor.

We started heading to the next floor and the voice returned. “I can’t help but wonder if the prophet with you has told you the ultimate goal of your world.”

“He’s not a prophet. So, why don’t you enlighten us?” Azaria shouted back.

“The world they come from uses the changed world as fuel. A civilization capable of crossing dimensions, not to mention, changing them. And what do they do? Turn us into a giant battery.” Anger dripped from the voice. “We caught on though! The dungeons managed to regain enough of their memories to realize what was happening. We joined with our fellows and pushed back the prophets. Weak from the transformation of our realm.”

“Sounds like a joyous thing. I wonder what went wrong?” Azaria asked with sarcasm equal to the voice’s anger. I had to wonder if that was a good idea, but we were getting a lot of information. If we made it back to Earth, we would have to prepare for the same thing. The gods hadn’t been seen since the very beginning of the Aether Shift, but if they were the same as these prophets, then they couldn’t be trusted. Earth being Earth, and humans being humans, there were already more than a dozen different religions that had formed around various ‘gods’ that had appeared after the Shift.

“We only got to celebrate for a few hours, before the sky tore open and a beast of unimaginable horror began to devour our planet. Piece by piece.”

“I saw. Not my idea of a fun pet,” Azaria replied.

I snorted as we reached the landing of the next floor. A ballroom stretched out in front of us. From where we stood it appeared to go on forever. Demons dressed in various high attire slowly moved around dancing. Blood red tears flowed long their cheeks staining their clothes. Their Aether density was even thicker than the hybrids and a level above the armors on the previous floor. As we entered the room, their clothes morphed into armor and weapons.

“I hope you like to dance. Let’s talk more… if you survive,” the voice said before fading away.