They arrived just before midnight. One moment the dungeon was on high alert. Then out of nowhere, undescribable things appeared all across the dungeon and began a vicious assault. It only took me a few moments to praise my foresight about putting auras on every floor of my dungeon before leaving.

I noticed several of the Duergar on the third floor grab their temples for a few moments as they first laid eyes on them. But once they recovered, threw themselves at the abominations and tore them to pieces in an enraged frenzy. For now, this floor would hold firm. As I tore a bloated mass apart, I began receiving reports from the different floors.

We held the first floor in a stalemate. The Shadows and Cubes didn’t do that well against the void entities, but in return, they couldn’t do much back either. The shadows were immune to mental assault, and the cubes’ minds were too simple to drive insane.

The second floor was holding up just fine, as Talka’s Brood was eagerly hunting down every Void entity they could find. The Void entities’ abilities didn’t phase her brood at all.

The 4th floor was a massacre on the void’s side as the ghosts were out and about. It didn’t make matters better for them that my brothers got involved as well. Latra was doing fine. Her aura immediately subjected the Void entities that entered within range to a plethora of issues as it cut off their link to the void. This stripped most of the power of those it didn’t outright banish.

We held easily the deeper floors against these lesser entities. I had developed them to counter high level adventurers, not weak void entities that relied on their madness inducing effects to do most of their dirty work. The entities were feeling the brunt of that. Of course, things would not remain as simple. This was just the beginning.

——————————————

The door to the meeting hall burst open, and several guards hurried inside. I noticed the City Lord looked annoyed for a second before he noticed the horrified expressions on the guards’ faces. “My Lords and Ladies, we are under attack!” One guard began, only to suddenly lurch forward as one of the other guards stabbed him in the back.

The others immediately jumped the maddened guard and subdued him. Several of the assembled clerics rose and hurried over to aid the injured guard and to cure the maddened one of his frenzy.

Another guard looked at the City Lord and continued the report. “It’s full chaos outside. The people who didn’t get to the evacuation area have gone insane and attacking everyone and everything they come across. The wards we began placing are helping to lower the frequency. But it’s only a matter of time before they overrun us, since we couldn’t finish in time.” He stopped talking as the frenzied guard began fighting fiercely, and he had to put his full attention to keeping him down.

The Lord looked at me. “Guildmaster, can I count on the aid of the Adventurer’s Guild to resolve this?” His voice was calm and firm, as always. I rose and bowed lightly. “Of course, my Lord. I will rally them at once.” I hurried out of the room, with Micha and Mandol close behind. They drew their weapons the moment we left the hall and kept scanning everyone we passed for threats.

The trip back to the Guild was harrowing. The streets were a war zone with running conflict against the undescribable horrors that seemed to appear and disappear as they felt like. They did not exempt the three of us from the madness effect, either. By the time we returned to the guild, we all had searing migraines from the protective gear and magical oaths preventing the madness from taking hold.

As soon as I set foot inside, I rushed over to an insignia in the main hall and touched my amulet of office against it. Every available Guild member in the city would know about the emergency now. If the sound from the chaos outside somehow hadn’t alerted them already.

———————————————

I arrived in the Main Hall shortly after Penumbra and just ahead of Medino. The others had already assembled. Father looked at the three of us and nodded. “Good, we are all here. I shouldn’t need to tell you about the severity of the danger we face, so I will be brief.

Our avatars are all under assault from our ancient foe. Since we cannot use them, I am lifting the ban on physical manifestation until the crisis is over. Get suited up, we leave for battle within the hour, dismissed.” Father vanished immediately, and I turned to Penumbra.

“Father didn’t lift the ban on manifestation during the last war until the very last moment, so what is different this time?” Penumbra squeezed my hand reassuringly. “I don’t know, but I am sure he has his reasons.” It felt good to finally be on good terms with my sister again.

Just as I was about to reply, the world went white for a second, and a confusing mess of images and sensations assaulted me. As I came to, I noticed I was lying on the floor. “You alright, Inlas?” Medino was kneeling beside me with a worried expression.

I nodded weakly. “I am, but we need to hurry, or else that Sphinx will be in serious trouble. The Lord will manifest above her dungeon.” I got back to my feet and after a few moments stood without aid. Penumbra nodded and moved back to her own domain to arm herself.

Medino hurried to his Domain to grab implements of healing, and after a few moments I moved to mine to get ready as well. I needed to protect that Sphinx and make amends for my earlier actions.

___________________________

The battle had been ongoing for hours now. It had woken me up rather suddenly and had only intensified as time went on. The screams of the dying monstrosities and injured combatants were ever present. And locked up as I was, I couldn’t get away, either. Then there was that blasted migraine. I didn’t have the faintest clue what was causing it, but it seemed to affect everyone.

As I was sitting there pondering, something just faded into view in front of me, something so grotesque my mind refused to accept something like that could actually exist. It reached for me slowly. Then there was shouting behind it, and with a sickening sound of torn flesh something ripped it backwards and out of the cell, through the bars of the door.

The sight was enough to make me throw up. The mess of innards and black, tar-like blood that remained after its trip through the bars smelled absolutely horrid. After a few more seconds, a woman about my age appeared in front of the door. I nodded slowly.

She looked at the remains of the thing and my puke, then with a look of disgust waved her arms. The ground of my cell cracked, rumbled and shifted around, and a few seconds later the floor was once more pristine. I nodded silently, and she left without another word.

————————————

The fighting had been going since midnight, and now we faced a dawn as black as pitch, with no sun in sight. The only real upside was that it turned out Latra’s barrier seriously messed up the Void spawn that entered within its range. Even those who survived the initial entry crumbled away to nothing on their own rather quickly. I had made the right choice in keeping my Core there.

This had been an incredible boon, as it freed up Minos to do pretty much whatever he pleased elsewhere. Any floor they pushed us back on Minos would turn the tides back in our favor. He was currently on the 187th floor, a Ruined Temple biome. As I watched him lead a small army of Will-o’-Wisps into battle against a rather corpulent Void spawn, it happened.

I finally got the message I had been expecting and dreading for the last 7 hours. Not good.

As I watched, the Void spawn twisted and grew into a vaguely humanoid shape, the size of a troll. It’s multiple appendages growing long horrible looking claws that tore through the Will-o’-Wisps to shreds. Figures, bad news never comes alone. Please tell me there was something good about all of this. I’ll take that as good news.

I materialized and got Minos’ attention as he finished tearing the Void creature to shreds. “Minos, your primary target has arrived. Get topside, now.” Minos nodded once, then teleported away. As the dust settled after the fight, the Will-o’-Wisps slowly reformed and floated towards the nearest battle.

——————————

I silently thanked Pearl for letting me stay by Yrsha’s side, as her dungeon was in bad shape. In the beginning, it hadn’t been that bad. But then this strange shift in the air occurred, and the Void creatures we were fighting had suddenly gotten way stronger.

Even with the help of Rinnojj, we were being pushed back now, as our enemies were too many for Rinnojj alone. They were popping out of the trees from all directions, and we would likely get overrun soon. “Yrsha, we can’t hold this. We gotta retreat through the portal!” Next to me, Granite sliced an abomination in half. “I gotta agree, Lady Yrsha. Stayin’ here is suicide. They have too much space ta appear in that we can’t guard.”

Yrsha cursed silently under her breath. “Fine, everyone, through the portal. We cannot afford to stay here any longer. Rael?” I patted the box in my hand. “It’s safe. Not sure what you want with this stuff, as Ritual Magic isn’t something I have training in, but I got it.” Yrsha nodded. “I would explain it but.-”

Before she could continue, a beam of bluish-black energy missed Yunika by an inch. “Less talking, more retreating!” She yelped as Granite grabbed her and yanked her out of the way of a spiked that had tried to hit her while she was off balance.

We did a fighting retreat, with more spirits and beasts pouring through the portal and into Pearl’s dungeon. The Spirits and beasts kept going, until it was only me, Rinnojj, and Yrsha left. Rinnojj was using himself as a barrier between us and them, and I hurried to push Yrsha through the portal. I looked up at the Leviathan, “Can you fit through that?” He looked down at me.

Then, with a voice that hurt my ears, he answered in a language I could not make a single word out of, but somehow I still understood. Penumbra would summon him once the evacuation of Yrsha’s dungeon was over. I didn’t hesitate any longer and ran through the portal.

On the other side, things were going better. The underground nature of the dungeon meant there was no dead space to appear in. The Duergar, now backed up by Yrsha’s Fox Spirits and forest monsters, was reaping a bloody toll on the invaders.

No sooner had I taken a stock of the situation, before I had to dodge a strange liquid spat by another Void creature. This one had 5 legs and a giant maw among all the writhing and near-indescribable mass that made up its wax-like flesh. I got back on my feet and hurried to hand the box over to Yrsha. “Stay behind me, I got this.” I pulled my sword and charged the wretched thing.

———————————

The city was not faring well at all. When the assault started we were already on the back foot, but after that strange air-quake the blasted things had gotten stronger, faster and were appearing quicker. The guild and guards were still fighting admirably. We were currently holding the Cathedral, the only building in the entire city that had so far not seen any of these things appear within its walls.

The Cathedral was the evacuation point for the citizens. To add even more pressure on us, the Cathedral was also where we were healing the wounded. I would die before I let these abominations through the gates and turn the civilians into lunatics or abominations. So far, Micha and Mandol were doing an outstanding job holding the front lines while I directed the archers from behind. They both deserved a raise, provided we survived this. Heck, they all did.

My musings came to an abrupt end as the ground rocked with such force it sent us tumbling. Then a few moments later it happened again. Then it came into view at the plaza, a giant writhing mass of flesh, bone and limbs, about the size of a giant. I didn’t hesitate. We could not let it reach the Cathedral. “FIRE AT WILL, BRING THAT THING DOWN, NOW!”

The archers reacted to my order immediately and began turning the Void Giant into a pincushion. The Mages under the command of Tilwar, the Guild’s Archmage, also opened fire on the thing. It did nothing to it. The abomination continued forwards with a sickening sound that might have been a laugh. “KEEP FIRING, KEEP FIRE!-” There was a whooshing noise and a colossal explosion of dust and stone that sent us all tumbling from the resulting quake.

It took a while for the smoke and dust to settle and reveal what had occurred. In the middle of the plaza was a huge fissure with the two halves of the Giant on either side of it, sliced in twain straight down the middle. Divine intervention, there could be no other explanation. I made a silent prayer to whichever god had come to our aid, for we would surely need it to survive this.

The Cathedral suddenly shook as ancient hidden runes across its surface in a pearlescent golden to glow. Then a pulse of divine light shot out from it. As it washed over us, our wounds mended, and it restored our stamina. The approaching monstrosities were not so lucky. When the pulse hit them, most turned to dust on the spot. A lucky few staggered forwards, before falling over and slowly transforming into a person or animal. The divine power restoring their bodies and minds.

The pulse continued to the end of the plaza, creating a shimmering bubble of divine light. I quickly ordered some front liners to retrieve the restored people. They had already suffered enough at the hands of these monsters, and I would not let them reclaim these poor souls. As the group of adventurers carried the cleaned survivors back, more of the abominations entered the bubble and were immediately beset by its power. I watched as they disintegrated and faded away. After a deep breath, I allowed myself to hope that we might survive this.

———————

Mistress had not been wrong. As soon as I arrived above the Dungeon, I could sense something horribly powerful approaching rapidly. It was not alone, either. Several giant grotesque forms flitted about, fighting with what looked like vaguely humanoid motes of energy in various colors. So, I was not fighting alone. Well then, better help then, shouldn’t I?

I reached out to one of the few skills I had never used before, but would probably be very useful now. Blood Moon, a skill that Mistress had granted me almost four years ago. I did not know where she got the scroll with the skill, but she seemed pretty pleased with herself as she gave it to me. I shook my head. Now was not the time to reminisce about the past.

I focused and activated the skill. A crimson beam of energy shot up from me and towards the sky. There it coalesced into a giant orb before exploding into a massive red light. As the blinding glare of the explosion slowly passed, it replaced the darkness with a blood-red glow. There in the night sky was a blood-red full moon, banishing the darkness of the Void and allowing people to see once more.

That, however, was not the only boon of this skill. As I watched, sores and wounds appeared all over the large monstrosities. Those with hostile intent towards me or my allies would suffer from bleeding while exposed to the light of the blood moon. Meanwhile, any wounds my allies might suffer would benefit from a rapid regeneration. That should even the odds.

Then I turned my focus towards the main threat. The Lord of the Void. As with most of the void creatures, my brain refused to actually accept what I was looking at. The only thing I could get from looking at the Lord was a sphere of absolute darkness, like a Black Hole. The Lord was hovering above the battlefield, not even bothering to engage with anyone. Mistress said she had a plan to deal with the Lord’s invulnerability. I only needed to keep it busy until she could enact it.

———————

As I transferred to the surface, I saw Minos enact Blood Moon. A brilliant move, all things considered. I had forgotten about that Skill. How long ago was that contest to design a skill for the game and the winner would get a skill scroll with it? Well, it didn’t matter, this would benefit the fight on the surface, while also aiding Caelyn, considering the range of the skill was “Regional.” The downside to the skill was that it didn’t work inside a dungeon, so Minos had never gotten to use it. Hopefully, it was as useful in practice as on paper.

I scanned the red sky for Minos and found him easily enough, as he was blasting a massive black sphere with attack after attack. The thing didn’t even bother to fight back as it slowly descended. Well, time to try out my secret weapon. I pulled out the package and opened it. There it was, my hope and fears in one small trapezohedron shaped gem.

I lifted it and looked at the giant sphere through it. It started glowing with an amber light. As I kept looking, a list of skills slowly coalesced into sight. It was small, but then, The Lord of the Voids skills was insane enough as it was. Hmm, let’s see.

Touch of Annihilation (Divine Unique), Heart of the Void (Divine Unique) and Protection of the Void (Divine Unique). Well, crap, that was not what I wanted to see. Well, it wasn’t unexpected. Now I had to figure out how, wait... I looked up once more, this time focusing on the different humanoid shapes fighting the massive Void Entities around the Lord. Archives, which of these are Mother? Time to get creative.

I focused my mind on the Purple being. The purple being slammed the entity it was fighting, a vaguely dragon-like thing, and sent it reeling backwards. Then a reply came. Mother’s curiosity was clear as day.

I briefly explained the gem, what I hoped it would do, and what the predicted outcome was. I looked up where Minos was hitting the Lord of the Void with all he had. The thing hadn’t even bothered to fight back yet. I quickly looked up what it did, or tried to. OK, so Rubolg had given me a REALLY nasty one. Hopefully, I could still use this thing.

I grabbed the crystal again and once more focused on the Lord. The skills showed up once more. Yes. The effect was immediate.

Pain, pain beyond even getting ripped out of my Dungeon, burned through me, only this time I couldn’t pass out. I felt like a part of my very soul was being ripped out of me and transferred into the gem. There was also a ripple going through the Lord of the Void. Cracks appeared all over the gem. Just a little more now, hang in there. The gem was like a spider web, and the pain blotted out everything else.

The gem shattered. The pain, which had already been searing through me, increased tenfold. Power Overload? Damn, must be a side effect of not being in the game, where that wasn’t an issue. I couldn’t even understand the message. The pain blotted out the words. Before I could ponder what to answer to the apparent question, blessed unconsciousness released me from the pain.

———————

Whatever Mistress did, it finally got a reaction out of this damn ball. One moment it was ignoring me, the next it visibly rippled, then as my next attack connected a gush of ichor black blood. Finally, I could hurt the damn thing. A lance of darkness shot out from it and scored a direct hit on my shoulder. I had lost 5% of my HP from that, through damage mitigation. Exciting, nothing had done so much damage to me with a simple attack since my early days as an Elite Minotaur.

Well, if I could now hurt it, let's see if spells worked as well. Before I could do so, however, a grey lance shot from below, piercing the Lord. I looked down. A lizard-like Leviathan was looking back up at us, with bolts of grayish lightning crackling around its smoking, crocodilian maw. I didn’t know who that leviathan was, but it was obvious it was on my side. I gave it a nod of acknowledgement and went into casting.

It only took a few moments because of the amulet I was wearing. “Death Wind!” The spell hit the Lord full force, dealing % damage to it every few seconds. Mistress had said it had an absurdly high HP pool, so this was the only practical way to go about it. This time we got a violent response.

A pulse of energy shot out from it and towards all of us. Because of my proximity, I didn’t have enough time to get out of the way and I took it head on. The pulse sheared away over half my health in one go, activating my regeneration. Bloody hell, if this thing got into the dungeon… No, I couldn’t let that happen. I immediately began casting again, determined to finish this damnable thing off before Mistress or any of my new friends got hurt.

———————

I fired off another spell at the strange blob on the floor. I would not let it anywhere near the precious books. The acid arrow dealt serious damage to it, but I had to face the facts. I was in trouble; I was low on mana. My repertoire of spells had nothing strong enough to kill in one shot, while still leaving me with enough mana to keep up the fight for long. I fired off an Ice Bolt at another wretched blob, then had to grab a nearby shelf to steady myself. Damn, mana exhaustion was making me woozy.

I rose to fire yet another spell when a searing pain erupted in my shoulder. Behind me, floating in the air, was some kind of creature that might have been a bat once upon a time. It had bitten me, and from the pain and lightheadedness it was obvious it was draining my blood. I had no choice, as I lifted a trembling hand and in desperation spent the last of my mana to fire a small Spark spell at it.

The spell worked, and the bat fell back with its face aflame. I staggered forward a step, then fell. With my mind drifting in and out of consciousness, I could feel a pair of hands grabbing me and hoisting me from the floor. “You’re not done yet, young sage.” A voice I didn’t recognize whispered in my ear. Then there was a thunderous bang as the bookshelves themselves suddenly slammed together, crushing a blob. Then I knew no more.

———————

They had overrun the village. Thankfully, Great One had realized this was likely to happen and ordered me to take the tribe to a more defendable spot long before the damnable things even arrived. The tribe was now standing shoulder to shoulder with our human friends, guarding the camp against all that might come.

We had brought with us a Totem of Healing and Totem of Protection as we evacuated, and they were helping big time now. Likewise, alchemical concoctions and fiery flasks were aiding our friends in conserving Mana. Good thing we had stocked up.

However, I was not with my tribe; I knew they would need help, as there were just too many of them, so I had set out with a goal in mind. I had heard all the legends, of course, but there was only one way to find out if there was any substance to them. To do so, I needed to visit the Hive.

Thankfully, I had the small tunnels to take me around the throng that was laying siege to the camp. As I arrived in the chamber belonging to the Umbral spiders, I learned firsthand how terrifying my neighbors could be. They had filled practically the entire room with their webs, and only by squeezing flat to the ground could I get underneath them. I could hear the arriving Void things get trapped in the webs and struggle against their inevitable doom. They would open the chamber again once everything was over, right? I didn’t have time to think about that; I had to get to the Hive.

After finally getting out of the spider chamber, things became harder. There was fighting absolutely everywhere. I silently crept past a trio of things that were busy tearing each other to shreds. Since the Evil Eyes were floating nearby, it was easy to guess the cause. The bridge proved a much greater issue. There were striders absolutely everywhere, all of whom were quite busy with an equal, and ever increasing, number of Things appearing out of nowhere.

Despite being swamped, the Striders clearly had the upper hand, as their strange energy seemed to be anathema to these things. With no other choice, I reluctantly did the only thing I could. I entered the water and began crossing by grabbing onto the bridge and pulling me forwards. Bad memories from my trip down the river crossed my mind, almost overwhelming me. But I fought through the fear and pressed on. I had to get to the Hive, no matter what.

Finally, after what felt like forever, I reached the other side and pulled myself ashore. I was shivering from my stay in the water. I staggered into the Hive proper. To my surprise, the Hive was devoid of Void things. As I entered, a Strider walked over to me and gave a curious expression. “N-n-need… C-c-crystal.” I stammered as I pointed at the Crystal of Creation embedded in the roof.

The Strider seemed to think for a while before it gently grabbed me in its talons and started up the wall. I gave a grateful smile to it, as it was kind enough to hold me as I touched the crystal itself. Nothing happened. Was the Legend a lie? Then I felt a tingle in my mind as part of the crystal broke off. I barely secured my grip on it before it fell to the ground. I stared at it with wonder. It was rather pretty, but, what now? Would Queen Talka be mad that I broke her Crystal?

As I pondered, I noticed that the Strider had moved back down and put me on the floor. I shook my head sadly. There really was no truth to the legends then? As the thought crossed my mind, I suddenly had an almost undeniable urge to eat the crystal. I looked down at it again.

Where had that come from? As I scratched my head, the urge came back. But this time it felt more like a suggestion? It was confusing, but as crazy as it seemed, I could only conclude that the crystal itself was guiding me on how to properly use it. However, as I opened my mouth, I also got another sensation. I could not understand why, but somehow I knew swallowing the crystal would end the pact and bind me and my tribe to the dungeon. It would make us part of it as a cost for using the crystal’s power.

Bound as a dungeon creature to Great One’s dungeon? I looked down at the crystal again, now with a sense of being right. That wasn’t a cost, that was a reward. I eagerly put the crystal in my mouth and swallowed. The effect was immediate. Power surged through me as it enveloped my entire body in a silver glow. I could feel myself change. I was growing taller, stronger. My back itched as something pushed itself out of it.

Even as this was going on, I began levitating. Even though I was still mid-evolution, I shot out of the hive like an arrow. I had no control over my movement as I rushed through the floor towards the Adventurer Camp. As I entered the Spider Cavern, I feared I would get snagged by the webs, but no, I passed through as if they weren’t there.

I entered the corridor, which was now filled to the brim with Void things. The energy fueling my evolution incinerated any Void thing that got too close as I flew towards the camp. The landing in the camp was unpleasant and a shock for my friends and tribe. No sooner had I landed before the energy leapt from me and onto every one of my tribe members, causing them to evolve, too. Then, and only then, did my Evolution complete.

I looked down at myself, then over at Erem, which was now only slightly taller than I was. He was staring at me with a confused expression, as if unsure what to do. Then the evolution of everyone else finished as well. Our appearance hadn’t changed too much. We were still lizard like, but now we were taller, with long necks, horns, wings, spiked tails, and far more strength than a human. Yet, we still had deceptively lean frames, giving us a graceful movement akin to elves. Our scales now had a sheen to them. Silver, for me, but other metallic or gem colors for my tribesmen.

Erem blinked a few times… “Ssatassha?” he finally asked. I smiled at him. “Indeed.” My voice was deeper now, no longer a small squeal. He opened his mouth to speak again. But by now the energies from my tribe’s evolution had played themselves out and the Void things were attacking once again.

“I’ll explain later, friend Erem, for now, let’s cast these things out of our home.” He smiled, bent down, and picked up a spear that one of the wounded adventurers had dropped. Then he tossed it to me. “Sounds like a plan.” He responded as he eagerly returned to the fight, now with renewed vigor. I took my place in the front lines. No longer would my tribe be a liability. Few would dare to call a Dragonewt a liability.

——————————

Things were not going so great anymore. With the influx from Yrsha’s dungeon, we had smashed through the Void entities with more ease to begin with. But then they had changed in both size and strength, and the sheer number popping in was overwhelming us. “Yrsha get down!” I called just in time to allow her to get out of the way of the blue-black flame fired by a Void entity resembling a giant pig.

The only good news in this mess was that the temple of Penumbra had created a dome to keep the damnable things away from the wounded. It also covered the prison cell, though that brat seriously didn’t deserve such luck. I dodged out of the way of the flame breathing abomination and gave it a slash across the side as it charged past. It crumpled to the floor before disintegrating into nothing.

I got back to my feet and looked over at Yrsha and froze; I rushed forward. There was no time to call out, as Yrsha herself was busy fending off no less than three smaller entities. She could not get out of the way in time. I crashed into Yrsha, grabbed her and spun around, putting myself in between her and the incoming barbed spines from the flying, hawk-like entity flying above.

Pain erupted from my back, my sword dropped to the floor, and I could hear Yrsha scream from so far away. I felt someone dragging me. Yrsha was talking the entire time, but I couldn’t make out her words. Through a blurry vision, I noticed I was in the alley between the prison cell and the Temple. What was she doing? I heard her chanting, and the pain faded somewhat.

“I am sorry, Rael, there… there’s only one way to save you from the poison.” She was crying. After a few moments, she took a deep breath and grabbed the box she had brought along. “I… I need your consent, Rael, please, I can’t lose you.” I weakly nodded as the pain flared up again. “S-sure, love, do what… What you need to do.” I mumbled weakly. The pain was coming back, an instant burn spreading from my back. My vision blurred once more, as Yrsha’s magic made me fall asleep.

—————————

These greater Void creatures were tough to deal with, even for me. “Common Inlas, you can do this.” I mumbled to myself, as I sliced at a hand that reached for me and scored a nasty hit on my arm. The blood moon that the Beast of Salvation had summoned was a great boon indeed. I idly noted, as the power from it closed the wound on my shoulder and purged the venom and energies inside.

Never in my life had I thought such a thing was possible. I looked over at my adversary, a shapeless blob of flesh and random limbs circling a gigantic maw. It was losing, even as I watch another wound opened and only slowly healed again. The abominations’ regeneration was slowing down.

With the Regeneration taxed beyond its limit, a normal beast would have died long ago. But not this one. These creatures refused to die easily, even as their blood evaporated in the open air, vanishing into the nothingness of the Void. I readied my Rapier and lunged at it, scoring another brutal hit. This time, the wound didn’t heal at all. Finally, some progress.

I went on the offensive, slicing at its limbs and stabbing at the giant tongue dangling from its mouth. I took several brutal hits in return, but the light of the moon healed me faster than the beast could inflict damage. This fight was basically over. With a final slash, the beast started to writhe and spasm before it faded back into the nothingness that spawned it.

One down, more to go. I looked around. Justina was busy bludgeoning an obese Void beast into a pulp with her morning star, and Penumbra was cutting large chunks off her adversary with her Whip Sword. The last time she fought with it, she had been far less proficient with it. She must have trained far more than I thought.

Above us, The Beast of Salvation was still fighting the Void Lord. That ball of inky blackness had stopped its descent, and black ichor was falling from it like a river. Now and then an Eradicator Beam blasted through the Lord’s entire mass, fired from a Leviathan on the ground. And yet, the damnable thing didn’t seem to take much in the way of damage. According to my Sister, the thing had an absolutely insane health total, even by the divine standard.

Then I saw her, lying on the ground at the entrance, unmoving. I felt a cold chill run down my spine. Without hesitation, I rushed over to Penumbra and helped her finish her beast. While I wanted to head down there myself, there was no way around Father’s decree. I physically couldn’t help her, even if I wanted.

My sister was quick to let me take care of the beast in her place. I could only hope the Sphinx, or rather, my niece, was alright. The thought made me feel weird, in a good way. With renewed determination, I finished what remained of my sister’s fight and headed off to aid Justina with hers.

—————————————

The Lord of the void sent another pulse my way, but I was ready and blinked past it. Just how tough was this thing? I had hit it with enough % damage to kill him 30 times over. Not only that, but I was pretty damn certain those beams shot by the Leviathan below were doing damage to, so what was going on? Dammit, if only I had an ability that let me see my opponent’s status. I had never had a need for such a Skill before, since my fights used to be pretty damn short. A valuable lesson for the future.

Well, there was nothing to it. All I could do was keep fighting. Health-wise I was fine, my regeneration was keeping up with the damage I was taking, heavy as it was. The main issue was my mana. It was getting dangerously low now. Mistress had said this thing’s health pool was ridiculous, but this was far beyond my expectations.

The Lord rippled again, the sign of an impending attack. I made ready to dodge, but this time it was not aiming at me, but at the Leviathan below. The large beast moved with surprising speed as it dodged the beam, the shot itself leaving a gouge in the ground as it chased after the leviathan.

Just before the beam caught up with the fleeing beast, the Lord convulsed violently as several lightning bolts hammered it from above. More backup, it would seem. Normally, this would have annoyed me, but frankly this thing was too tough to take out all alone. With allies, however, I could lend them some aid as well. Time to pull out all the stops. I had so many choices, but the best one would decidedly be that one.

Edict of Unity. It would be a hefty cost for Mistress, but considering the dungeon was running at full capacity, she should be able to weather the absolutely stupid high cost. As soon as I activated it, a brilliant white light shot out from me and towards every ally present. The best part about this Edict was how it worked.

It would give everyone a buff that would set their stats to be equal to the highest stats among all those affected. So if someone here had higher strength than me, my strength would go up. While, if I had higher defense than someone else, they would receive my defense, and so on for every stat. Of course, such a boost in power did not come without a massive cost.

Well, I could worry about that once we won. This thing needed every ounce of power I could muster, and if that meant boosting my allies to beat the crap out of it, so be it. Another set of lightning bolts hit the Lord, these far greater, and I could finally see who was throwing those. Another one of those energy beings, teal in color and crackling with energy. There was no doubt he was an ally, as the Edict of Unity extended to him as well.

He had a muscular build and despite his laid-back posture there was no doubt he was taking this fight seriously. If the Lord tried to attack him, it would be difficult for it to find any openings. I gave him a quick nod and resumed my attacks on the Lord. Better to prepare for the long haul and let my mana recharge for now.

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I landed and rushed over to the girl and began my examination. However, I couldn’t determine the cause of her sudden collapse. I looked at the fragments in front of her. I could sense strange energies from them. She had said she intended to rob the Lord of his protections, and she needed a divine skill to do so.

I scanned her status, and the answer stared me in the face. Power Overload. She had somehow exchanged the skill Father granted her with the Lord’s Protection skill and it was causing an overflow because of its sheer power. I didn’t even want to think about how powerful that skill had to be to cause such a thing.

Well, there was nothing to it. She needed to cope with the excess power somehow. So my little son had realized that was what happened.

Quite perceptive of him. Well, there was nothing to it. If that could allow her to bleed off the excess energies, so be it. Besides, an evolution would most likely help her servant above as well. A sudden attack from the Lord, aimed at Rinnojj, shook me from my thoughts and back to reality. I didn’t have time to ponder what to do; it was a miracle some lesser Void spawn hadn’t shown up to attack her already. Without further hesitation, I activated the evolution process. Hopefully, it would consume enough power.