The moment I spoke the words, my Brothers fanned out in a half circle. Moments later, the arena exploded into a high-pitched keening noise as they all fired a strange grey cone-shaped beam at Minos. It was as if the sound of screeching tires and nails on a blackboard were mixed, then sent it through a speaker at max volume. From my vantage point, I could see several of the other spectators holding their ears and wincing in pain. Just looking at the beam made my eyes water and as it dissipated, it left behind a strange blue-green afterimage, as if I had suffered a retina burn. They had bathed the entire center of the arena in the attack. As the resulting smoke faded away, I noticed it had vaporized the floor, leaving a crater about half the size of the arena.

My brothers were all grinning with a rather unnerving expression on their strange faces until the smoke cleared enough to reveal Minos. He was floating in mid-air and was busy dusting off his armor, as if he hadn’t even felt the attack itself. He then, with a slow, almost lazy gesture, looked at the five of them. “That’s it, is that all you got?” As he asked that, I looked up Minos’ stats. He had taken just over 1000 damage from that. Now that was impressive. No, not that. I knew that wouldn’t do anything to Minos. I mean, you have seen his stats. I meant the damage it did to him. Minos should have mitigated 99% of the damage that attack dealt. Just do the math. Bingo, granted that was a group effort, however, that’s still around 20000 from each of them on average.

That’s an understatement. Even while cursed, the stats shown for Minos were accurate. And I wasn’t kidding when I said I spent more resources on Minos alone than the rest of my entire dungeon combined, all 200 floors of it. It seemed it finally dawned on Archives just how many resources I must have spent to power up Minos. Mind boggling, right? I guess you could say it had become an obsession of mine to create an undefeatable monster. The worst part is, he could probably have become even stronger if I had more time. No, after a while I had to use the Real Money Shop to improve him and those boosts don’t work the same if used here. At least the auras didn’t. Here’s hoping that thing does, or we’re screwed. I never got to hear the rest. Minos had in the meantime charged into the smallest of my brothers with such force that the sound he made when he hit the barrier was like an explosion.

Minos jumped away from my brother, and he slumped to the floor in a pile, still alive, but dazed, if not knocked out on the spot. As always, Minos was quick to eliminate the weakest link. The largest of my brothers hissed and chanted in a language I didn’t understand. Meanwhile, the two brothers beside him charged towards Minos with a speed that should be impossible for something that big. Minos calmly jumped above the first of his two assailants. Then, while midair, he hit the 2nd with a roundhouse kick that sent him colliding into the barrier with a sickening *SPLAT* sound that made the spectators shudder. Those unarmed and evasive skills from Beast Warrior, combined with his counter attack abilities from Berserker were almost unfair. As this was going on, 4th Brother had joined 1st Brother in his spell casting. My brothers had Magic Assist? Interesting. Magic Assist would improve the casting speed of the spell and let 4th brother cast it as well. Though with a much shorter cast time than even 1st Brother was getting as the first caster. Just what was he casting, anyway? I had never seen a spell like this before.

Before Archives could even respond, I got my answer. There was a bright flash of light, followed by a massive roar as what I could only describe as a small sun appeared in the arena. A second appeared a moment later, increasing the noise tenfold. The light, nose and heat were insane even through the barrier. I couldn’t even imagine how it would be like to be on the inside. With squinting eyes, I watched as Minos’ health ticked down. At the rate the spells were going, it would probably kill him in a few hours. However, there was no way Minos would give it a few hours as his voice roared, barely audible over the noise of having two literal suns so close. “Edict of Nullification Activate!” The suns disappeared. There was no sound, no huge spell, explosion or anything. One moment they were there, the next, gone. He didn’t. He didn’t counter it, he nullified it. Countering means to rip the spell apart completely and dissipate the magic. Nullification is like dropping a guided anti-magic effect on something, it doesn’t counter the magic, it causes the spell to end immediately without further effect. Archives went silent, and I looked at the state of the arena. The melted floor was pouring into the crater and formed a pool of lava, and the barrier had turned an angry red, before now cooling off again. My brothers had some severe burns but seemed to regenerate their wounds at a decent clip. What about Minos? He had already recovered thanks to his Hyper-Regeneration.

He didn’t. His regeneration kicked in once he reached half health. Combined with the Edict of Nullification doing as its name suggests, he could regenerate back up to full almost instantly since he wasn’t taking damage anymore. I chuckled. It was never a fair fight to begin with. All my Brothers are undoubtedly immensely powerful, far more powerful than I, but Minos is beyond that. Remember, Mother originally wanted him, not me because he could fight on an even level to Inlas. My Brothers might be insanely powerful monsters, but I am pretty sure they can’t fight gods.

In the Arena 1st, 2nd and 4th brother had gathered, their grins now gone and replaced with an unmistakable expression of shock. “ImPoSsIbLe…” 4th brother gestured and fired a strange misty bolt at Minos. Who calmly just looked at it “No… I think not.” The spell burst into harmless sparks. Yep. “Well, you three, should we continue or do you surrender?” He smiled pleasantly, but knowing him, he was giving off such an intense bloodlust that most people would have already fainted. Minos might be polite and no nonsense outside of battle. While in combat, he was always brutal and efficient, always opting for the fastest way of ending the conflict. The fact he would accept their surrender rather than killing them meant my Brothers might be far tougher than I was giving them credit for.

Even as he spoke those words, my brothers laughed. 1st Brother slithered forwards and looked down at Minos with the grin back in place. “YoU aRe FaR sTrOnGeR ThAn We ExPeCteD. LeT uS tRy SoMeThInG a BiT mOrE pOwErFuL tHaN mErE cAnTrIpS.” 1st Brother responded as he reached his hand and materialized a spear made from the same strange grey energy as the beam from earlier. A moment later there was a clanging of energy against metal as a massive jet-black shield almost as big as Minos himself deflected the attack. “Brave, though foolish, and so many wasted movements as well.” Minos looked past his shield up at 1st Brother. A moment later, Minos had to dodge to the side as a massive energy mallet slammed into the place he had been standing. 3rd Brother had missed him by an inch. Then he had to block once more, as 4th Brother attacked with an energy whip.

The hit sent him skidding backwards and over the edge of the crater, and it took Minos a moment to levitate to not fall into the lava below. “Got some strength behind that hit, not bad.” Minos seemed quite calm about the entire thing. Despite the force of the impact, and that they had knocked him cleanly across the massive crater didn’t seem to phase him at all. He had never been talkative in the game, for obvious reasons. But the pauses in attack patterns could have had banter in them had they been there. Minos scratched the ground with a hoof a few times, a grin on his face. The next moment there was a rushing sound and 3rd Brother got slammed into the barrier once more. Minos had shield-rushed him with such force you could hear bone crack from where I was. Provided 3rd Brother survived that, he would probably be in tremendous pain for a while. 1st and 4th Brother seemed to finally accept that Minos was beyond them, as their grins faded. “Three down, two to go, so then, whose next?” Minos swung his shield over his head, and there was a flash of light. As it passed, Minos was now wielding his massive axe instead. Neither of my Brothers moved, but took defensive stances as they readied for the inevitable. “Well then, let’s see how you handle some offense!” As he yelled, Minos vanished and both 1st and 4th Brother became a whirl of inky blackness as they tried to fend off Minos’ assault. The entire thing was going so fast I couldn’t see what was going on. It was just a blur of motion. The only reason I could see that my Brothers hadn’t just become a mass of darkness was because Minos had ignited his axe. He was like a shooting star as he moved around the arena. From the sounds of things, however, 1st and 4th Brother was losing, badly.

Then there was another thunderous explosion. The entire floor rocked from the violent impact, and the barrier cracked from the strain of containing whatever that attack was. The dust settled, and the result of the battle became obvious. 1st and 4th brother were lying motionless on the floor, their wounds slowly regenerating. Both were out cold. Minos was hovering above them, the axe held aloft in celebration black blood dripping from the burning axe head and hissed angrily as it hit the ground. I rose from my seat and took a deep breath. “WE HAVE A WINNER!” The arena exploded in applause and cheers, and the barrier faded away as Minos dispelled it. He then mumbled something, and a viridian light filled the arena. When it faded, my Brothers slowly stirred as the restorative magic got them back on their feet. They all looked at Minos for a few moments, then they all bowed their heads deeply before they departed without a word. It didn’t take a genius to understand that they had just shown Minos some serious respect there, considering they had only bowed to Latra in such a manner before.

With the battle over, several Duergar moved onto the floor to clean up the disaster zone that was the arena floor. The last bout had torn the floor to shreds and natural restoration would take hours. Add in the crater and it could be days before the Arena would be useable if left to its own devices. Minos looked up at me, bowed lightly then vanished as he transported himself to the 4th floor using his Maze Teleport. I stretched and flew off as well. I was honestly unsure what to do right now. Preparations for the inevitable void assault were going smoothly, and every floor had someone overseeing the work in minute detail. As I pondered over the situation a Duergar came running towards me, and he looked quite pleased with himself.

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I awoke to a searing headache, and I felt like I hadn’t had anything to eat or drink in days. Looking around, I found myself in a dimply lit cell of some sort. Just as I was about to stand up, however, there was a violent quake and a tremendous boom. The movement pushed me off the stone slab I had been lying on and I landed with a rather painful smack on the ground. Just how had I gotten myself into this mess? The last I remembered was putting on that NVR visor. But this couldn’t be NVR. Sure some games had pain in them, to a certain degree, but that pain was instant and never lingered. That’s when I noticed movement outside as several stocky, bearded men rushed past the bars that made up the door. None of them even glanced in my direction, though one paused for a moment to talk to someone just out of view of my door. “Dol Narug, iar thrûm bàr nilam?” The voice was grating and deep like two stones grinding against one another. An even deeper and gruffer voice responded. “Meilm anûrn ta intòl sanakkar Burnar, ifrno tantrash infahg.” I did not know what strange language they were speaking, but something about the entire situation gave me a terrible feeling. To make matters worse, however, the one who had stopped now noticed me as I was lying on the floor. “Sillinra vus, Narug, sillinra vus, infa dos Mintra!” then he ran off without another word.

Meanwhile, two of those small men appeared in my field of view, one from each side of the door. And for the first time, I actually got a good look at them. They were about… one and a half meter tall, their skin granite grey with white beards and bald heads. Their eyes shone with an eerie red light, and the way they looked at me gave me shivers. Their builds were unusual though, they were far wider than their height would suggest, and their arms were bulging with muscles. I was not winning a battle of strength with these two. That much was obvious. “Infran gûek grumsgràh.” One of them said to me. But his grin faded when my obvious look of confusion made it clear I didn’t understand what he was saying. “Yràsh Mintra vo dalàlk sillinra.” His companion nodded, and they moved back out of sight.

About five minutes later there was a whooshing sound, as if a strong wind was blowing, followed by a massive thud as something landed nearby, something big. My two captors appeared again and began unlocking the door. Their expressions were now downright malicious as they grinned at me. Once the door was open, one of them walked into the room and roughly pulled me to my feet. “Vùljâk!” He pushed me towards the door. It didn’t take a genius to understand what he meant as I walked out of the cell. What I saw outside, however made me stop and just stare. There, standing on the other side of a small courtyard, was a massive monster. It took me a moment to realize exactly what I was looking at. A Sphinx? Or was it a Manticore? Bah, I couldn’t keep track of all these stupid fantasy monsters that Pearl had been such a fan of. Before I could continue to ponder my predicament, I received a violent shove from behind. “Vùljâk!” The little man, which I now realized had to be a dwarf, pushed me towards the monster.

So, I was to be a sacrifice to the beast, then? Or just mere food? Just as I thought about that, the monster suddenly laughed. “I would be lying if I said that the idea of killing you right here and now isn’t tempting. But even if I did, I wouldn’t eat you. I swore never to eat human flesh, and I intend to keep that oath. And you are certainly not worthy of making me break it.” The voice was deeper and more bestial, with an odd purring quality, but still unmistakable. I couldn’t believe it, though. “Pearl?” She grinned down at me the way she would always do when she knew she had me cornered during practice. I hated that grin, as it meant I had lost. Now that I looked closer at her, her face was almost identical to her normal human face, aside from the slitted eyes and sharp teeth. There was, however, something different about the grin this time. It lacked something, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

Pearl then cast a glance at my captors. “Intrùn ir.” To my surprise, they bowed and left without a word. Was Pearl in charge of them? Wait, was this that game she had wanted me to try? If so, this was far beyond standard NVR in terms of realistic look and feel. I mean they had even emulated the chill of being underground and stuff like that took insane processing power to maintain. “It’s not a game, Erika, this is very real.” Pearl took a step closer, and claws appeared on her massive paws. It occurred to me that Pearl didn’t really like me very much after my little prank those years ago, but come on. She couldn’t still be angry about that, could she? “Angry? Oh Erika, anger is not the word you should be using. I HATE you so much that I have to fight the urge to take your miserable little head between my paws and pop it like a rotten tomato.” How did she? She was reading my mind. She had to be there was no other way to explain how- “I know what you are thinking, you are correct on that one. You know, for someone so quick on the uptake you would think you could understand the consequences of your own actions.” As she spoke, the long dagger-like claws on her paws dug small lines in the stone underneath her feet as she moved. Her voice was utterly devoid of its usual playful tone and was instead ice-cold. This new Pearl terrified me.

Pearl took a deep breath, and her claws slowly retracted. “I have yet to decide on a punishment fitting enough for you. I will admit I am tempted to just toss you to Hazalaar and have him toy with you until you die. However, considering I wouldn’t even be in this position if not for you, I am feeling merciful. Oh, I fully intend to get back at you for ruining my life back then, make no mistake. But I won’t give you the easy way out by dying. So, for now, enjoy your new lodgings while I decide your fate. Hertû vus dif!” The last few words she yelled out loud, and the Dwarves reappeared almost instantly. Before I could even muster up a response, they grabbed me and dragged me back towards the cell I had woken up in. Their grip was like iron, and I didn’t even make their arms budge an inch as I struggled to get loose. They pushed me onto the stone slab and slammed the door shut behind me. A few minutes later, another dwarf appeared carrying a tray with some bread and ham on it as well as a jug of water. After delivering the food to me, he left, and they left me alone in my small cell.

Pearl honestly didn’t think she could keep me here forever, did she? After all, eventually someone would notice my absence and start tracking me down, right? Seriously keeping me trapped in this simulation would only be temporary anyhow. She would let me log out to eat and drink, she had to, I would die otherwise. Huh? I had to be losing my mind I could swear I heard a woman’s voice in my head. I looked around, but there was no one in sight.

Are you for real, what did I do? That prank caused all of this? Common, it was just some fun at her expense. The voice went silent, and I got a distinct feeling the conversation was over. With nothing better to do, I curled up on the stone slab and mulled over what the voice had said.

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Indella arrived for lunch, looking like a storm cloud. “Something wrong?” She looked up at me as she started munching on the meatballs that Lienru had made today. I had only given her a broad description of the dish but she had replicated no improved upon it in less than an hour. Indella just grunted in response as she kept eating. Though her stormy expression mellowed in the face of Lienru’s culinary miracles. A prank, huh? Why was I not surprised? It certainly didn’t improve her position to now learn that she had done it as a prank. What should I even do with her? Just as I was pondering this, a rather out-of-breath Tarad and Delly came rushing into the dining room. “Pearl, Indella, you need ta see this. Get to da surface, now!” Tarad yelled as he rushed past. Dally hot on his heels. I looked at Indella. “That can’t be good, he looked all out of sorts.” She nodded as she finished her food, and I downed the remainder of mine.

A few moments later I was shooting through the 2nd floor with Indella on my back. “It might have only been a few days, but I can’t tell you how much I have missed flying.” Indella gave a silent chuckle. As we got closer to the first floor, I could see that Tarad had been telling everyone they had met to get to the surface. Several groups of Duergar, Fox spirits, Striders, Swarmlings, and most of the other adventurers were streaming from the portal. They then headed up the stairs with curious expressions written all over their faces. As I started my ascent up the stairs, I quickly noticed something was off. There were still a few hours to sunset, where was the… sun… light. Ah crap. As I arrived outside, I could see the problem clear as day. To be more precise the lack of day. The sky was jet black, no sun, no moon and no stars. I didn’t hesitate. “Indella get everyone back below ground, and make sure they understand the Dungeon is now on high alert. No one moves alone or stays alone. I want constant patrols on every floor. The outside is to be treated as a high risk hazard zone until further notice.” Indella nodded, quickly hopped off my back, and began herding the onlookers back down. Her expression as serious as my own. Erika would have to wait. This was a scene I had seen before on pics back in the game. The “Prelude to destruction” as the game devs had called it. Twenty-four hours was all we had left before all hell would break loose. I focused my mind on a single spark of consciousness among the large crowd heading down. I watched as Indella herded the last curious onlookers back underground. Then, I transported away.