Dungeon Annihilation 2 - 23

Morning Everyone! I hope those of us in USA celebrated Veterans day if you know someone that served. 

Louella

The group fights lasted a lot longer than the individuals but there were a lot less of them as well. The most notable one was Noir’s party. Two other women along with Noir dominated the arena and they easily took the win from the others. I knew there were a few parties that couldn’t participate due to a few of their members being over the threshold, but that didn’t take away from her win.

“Noir that was an excellent display of command. Though… I’ve never seen a party work so well together while bickering quite that much,” I said handing her the prize money.

The women who I found were her sisters were almost at each other’s throats as much as they were the other party. What surprised me was that they were both terra mages that used their spells to create places for Noir’s shadows to attack from. The one named Hannah was a massive woman that could overpower any man, while there was a small woman that zipped around the arena with insanely fast movements.

“My sisters are a bit much at times, but I can keep them in line,” Noir responded with a salute.

“Good. I’m not sure the town would survive too long if they went at it.”

“We’ve never caused that much damage before,” Noir said waving her hand like it was a joke.

“But you have caused damage to a town before,” I said letting the statement hang in the air.

“Well… on occasion.”

I grabbed her hand and patted it. “Don’t worry! I know you can control them,” I said with a grin. There was a yell for me, so I released her and moved over to the representative of the tournament. “What is it?”

“Sorry to disturb you, my lady.” He looked down at the ground nervously. I waited with as much patience as I could, but I eventually had to clear my throat. “Sorry! Um. We ran out of money to pay the remaining contestants!”

“Excuse me?!” I demanded with almost a growl. I had provided the tournament several platinum coins at the start of the event. I thought I was going to cough up blood while handing over the coins. How could it have run out?

“Sorry!” He shouted dropping to the floor. “Some… some of the staff made bets with the coin. They… They lost.”

I felt something snap in my head and I kicked the man with all my strength. All my strength which had hit tier two only a few weeks ago. The man flew back and slammed into a nearby tree and crumpled to the ground. I stalked forward with sparks jumping from my hands only to be grabbed by Ezal and Ioa.

“My lady,” Ezal said. “Calm yourself. Their punishment can come later. We need to handle the adventurers before they leave. Rumors about your ability to pay will start to spread.”

Sending one last glare at the man, I took a deep breath and managed to force my anger to recede for the moment. “Ioa. Find Commander Yin. Tell her to find the ones that are guilty and put them in the jail until I can decide what to do with them.”

“Yes!”

“Ezal. Go keep the adventurers busy until I get back. I should need around a thousand gold, right?” I asked after a pause.

“Yes, mistress.” My barely contained anger obviously made it hard for her to argue with me.

“Raven. We’re going into the dungeon.”

“Just the two of us?” she asked surprised. I couldn’t blame her. That was a dangerous prospect even for one for the established dungeons that had been dived countless times. For this dungeon that had a habit of capturing people, it was even more suicidal.

“We’ll be fine. Come on,” I said walking toward the dungeon. I was glad for the first time that the tournament grounds had been placed next to the place. I just hoped the host was in a good mood.

Other than the guards stationed to watch the dungeon goers, the entrance area was quiet. I thought the guards wanted to stop me from heading in alone, but the glare I sent their way quickly made them shut their mouths. Walking straight to the teleport matrix, I moved to the second floor.

“Host! I request an audience.”

“Lady Louella? Is that wise?”

“Its not recommended of a younger dungeon. Generally, it could be viewed as me influencing it, but in the few interactions I’ve had with the host. I’m certain that this host isn’t as simple as a new borne dungeon.” I glanced over to the young elf and placed a finger over my lips. “Just don’t tell the church on me.”

A swirl of darkness formed a few meters off from us. Tendrils of darkness emerged before the tall shapeless shadow form of the host stepped in front of me. No matter how many times I see it, I couldn’t help the shiver that went up my spine from seeing this form. I would be lying if I said I hadn’t had one or two nightmares due to the host’s form.

“You called, mortal?” asked the host with a voice that only made the dumps on my skins get worse.

I cleared my throat. “Yes. Forgive me, but I would like to ask for some gold. I have encountered problems outside.”

“I see…” I gulped as I waited for him to continue. Last time he basically gave me the gold for free. The requirement of attracting more people to his dungeon was inline with my goal of pulling people to the valley after all. I knew that likely wouldn’t be the case this time, but I had to pray that whatever he asked for wasn’t too high a price to pay.

“Blood.”

I blinked not sure what that I heard correctly. “Excuse me?”

“Give me blood. Yours, hers, I don’t care.”

“How… how much blood?” I asked cautiously.

I wasn’t sure how I could tell, but the shadowy face took a contemplating shade. “Until I decide I’d had enough.”

Before I could say anything more, raven took a blade and cut her wrist. It was the sort of gash that would cause someone to bleed to death if it wasn’t treated quickly. “Are you insane!?” I demanded pulling a cloth from my pocket. We would need to staunch the blood flow until we find a healer.

She jumped away from me. “My lady. I shall volunteer my blood. I believe master Earle would do the same.”

The blood poured to the ground only to stop in mid-air and start to float to the host. I stared in horror for longer than I cared to admit before I pulled my own knife from my belt. “No. Host please heal her wound. It shall me by blood that pays for gold that I asked for!” I didn’t know what Earle would say, but if I didn’t want to get further on his bad side, I couldn’t let his subordinate do this.

I quickly cut my wrist, wincing at the pain. It wasn’t my first time being hurt, but very few people enjoyed pain. The blood flowed faster than I cared for, but more than that, I felt my mana leaving me. When I was sure close to eighty percent of my pool was empty, not to mention the lightheadedness I felt from the blood lose, I felt a hand on my wrist.

Looking down at it, trying to clear the fog in my head, I saw a slender pale hand. A cloud of shadow surrounded it and I felt the dull pain from my wrist fade. The contrast caused the fog to recede and I looked up to see that the hand was Raven’s. If I didn’t miss my mark, she was using shadow magic to heal me.

“Master Earle planned to talk to you later, but I guess its fine.”

I was sure I had a confused expression, but decided to just roll with it. In front of me there was a pile of gold that went up to my shoulder from my sitting position. The host was gone as well. “When did the host leave?”

“A few seconds before the pile of gold appeared. Probably about a minute ago.”

“I see. Thank you for healing me. Can I ask?”

“It is probably better to talk to Master Earle. Our goddess has finally found a champion that can challenge the Lelune church.”

“Goddess?!” I asked surprised but all I got was a nod.

~~

We left the dungeon and paid the adventurers the rewards they were due. Ezal was getting close to the end of her patience. Adventurers could have that sort of effect when they were owed money. Nothing of note happened though, largely in thanks to Commander Yin, Ioa’s party, and a few other parties that decided to have faith in me and waited.

My mind was still reeling from what I had experienced in the dungeon. For as long as I could remember, light mana that had been infused with holy mana from the Goddess Lelune was the only way to heal injures. It was one of the reasons the church had such a strangle hold on the continent. Even if light mages performed healing, it was a fraction as powerful as a priest.

Even before all that, I was more surprised there was another Goddess. If Raven was speaking the truth anyway. Most records from over five thousand years ago were lost during the Demon war. If there had been more gods and goddesses before then it would be incredibly hard to prove.

“Countess.”

I cleared my thoughts and looked to see Commander Yin with a worried expression. “What’s wrong?”

“I’ve received strange reports. I felt it was best if we investigated together.”

Commander Yin was always serious, but this was the first time I had seen her almost nervous. “Understood. Lead the way.”

She along with a small army of guards from the Golden Dawn joined us as we made our way to the part of the valley that had been sectioned off for the coming nobles. It was out of the way on the other side of the valley from the farms. Secluded might be the best way to describe it, the foothills of the mountains making walls on either side. I planned to wall it off in the future, just so the nobles would feel better about themselves.

There was enough land in this section of the valley for hundreds of farms, but I was being forced to use it in such a manner due to the overbearing nature of the nobles and the fact that I had hardly any political strength of my own. It would likely become a blight in the future as most noble districts usually did.

Most of the land was still undeveloped with large swatches of trees. The only development so far was the road that I’d had Thrad build in his down time. The plots had been marked, but other than that no work had been started. At least that was supposed to be the case. Yes, that was supposed to be the case!

The party came to a stop, mainly because I stopped moving as I took in the sight in front of me. A cathedral that rivaled the Lecazar royal palace sat up against the foothills of the mountain wall. A chasm that I knew had been there before surrounded it with only a single bridge spanning the divide.

Soft blue light that reminded me of the light cast by the moon Krona flowed from the structure and magical placements. Street lamps and a few outlying buildings also projected the light out. It was hard to see from the distance, but it looked like there were statues of a beautiful woman dotting the courtyard in front of the cathedral.

“What is this!?” I asked rubbing my eyes a few times to make sure it was real.

“According to our patrols, it appeared overnight,” Commander Yin explained.

“HOW!?” I demanded then closed my eyes and took several deep breaths to try and calm down. I wanted to turn my questioning eyes on Raven, but she had already told me it would be best for Earle to explain.

“Only one way to find out,” she replied pointing. I followed her finger and saw the front doors of the structure were wide open as if inviting us inside. I looked back to the group and nodded. Moving up to the bridge, there was an inscription over the entrance of the structure.

‘Welcome to the Temple of Nyx. The Goddess welcomes those seeking the truth, but her rage is deadly to those seeking to harm her flock.’

“Anyone know that name?” I asked not really expecting to get a reply. Sure enough, all I got in reply were head shaking. We moved past the gate onto the bridge. Just this structure alone looked like it should have taken months if not years to build. It just looked that magnificent.

The dark blue stone that almost appeared to have the night sky reflected in each brick had to be worth a fortune. I knew of several nobles back in Lecazar that would pay their weight in gold for each brick. While the stones were certainly beautiful, I couldn’t tell how they were made. I couldn’t detect any mana from them whatsoever.

The bridge was several dozen meters long spanning over a chasm that looked several hundred meters deep. That fact that this was made in one night without attracting any attention spoke of powerful magics. If a mortal created this, that would undoubtedly put them in the ranks of the most powerful on the continent.

The courtyard after it was just as grand. With two gardens on either side of the path leading to the cathedral. Statues with an almost elven features woman in various poses lined the pathway, each as beautiful as the last. She looked like an Elf, but something told me she wasn’t truly one.

When we finally came to the entrance, we found Sir Earle and two dozen figures in magnificent robes waiting for us. What truly shocked me the most was that they were all dragonkin. Beastkin all had their pros and cons, usually based on the animal they were descended from, but dragonkin were the most dangerous. Generally due to the fact, that they inherited all the pros.

Sir Earle moved forward, and I felt my heart leap into my throat just from him looking at me. I bite down on my lip to control myself. He bowed deeply, but still projected an aura of pride. “Goddess Nyx welcomes you.”

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