A quake shuddered the ground.

As the sound of clashing metal and flesh filled the air.

It all happened so fast that they barely had enough time to process it.

As Kaine and the rest stepped out of the dungeon entrance and back into the Delve which spanned before them. They were greeted by the sight of Luna crushing an armoured Elf ‘s head within her jaws, as the rest of the scene played out before them like a sick joke. Exiting the cavern to find themselves faced with a battlefield.

“What in the world…” Jedd mused as she watched the nearest Watcher dive bomb down into a squadron of Elven Covenants, blasting them aside with its massive wingspan before quickly leaping onto two halberdiers, tearing them asunder.

“The kingdom found us!” Luna exclaimed, rushing to their side as she noticed them. “You must leave! They are after you!”

“After us? All the way down here!?” Roy said in surprise.

“Fucking persistent aren’t they!?” Rey grumbled.

“Where’s Dark and Sin?” Kaine asked the wolf.

“Apologies, your two comrades cannot be found anywhere! The pack thinks they were captured first as they left the Delve!” Luna explained frantically, sniffing the air as she kept eyes in each and every direction possible.

“They were leaving?...” Kaine mused, “Hah, of course they were.” He sighed as his Dark Elf appearance quickly faded into his Elven disguise.

“W-What shou-should we do!?” Lara asked in a panic.

“Escape obviously.” Nova muttered but was overtaken by Jedd.

“We can’t just let the Covenant leave with them, Luna, what’s going on exactly?” She asked.

“They came all too suddenly miss, too many for the Pack to keep out so the Watchers took into battle as well! But-” Luna began to explain when suddenly an aura of malice filled the air.

Out of the deepest cliffside of the Delve it rose, the Titan monster of this place, it flew up and loomed over the battlefield of clashing Elves and beasts.

“You…you dare attack this uncharted place? You dare, assault our home, our Delve.” Trio growled as each wingbeat sent the air shuddering all around it, sending down bursts of wind that even the party had to withstand.

Kaine’s stomach flopped as a second aura of power joined Trio’s right then, this one far heavier and more terrifying than the Titan’s.

Watching with his keen eyes as the largest of the Covenant’s platoons approached the edge on the complete other side of the Delve’s mid-level. A white robed figure walked at the front of them, with an unfortunately familiar face.

Donning the ornate robes of a mage, Elder Squire Dheron Tallow led the raid, wielding a long wooden staff ending in an emerald spike. “You harbour fugitives, sir monster.” Dheron explained condescendingly as Kaine then noticed shadowy movements in the cliffs higher up.

Noticing several dozens of bow-wielding Covenants taking aim at Trio and his Watchers.

Raising his staff up, “I am Dheron Tallow, Squire of the Elder’s Coven. I command you, bring forth our quarry and we shall leave this place only mildly…scarred.” He said with a mocking grin.

To which, Trio laughed.

A resounding monstrous laughter which shook the entire Delve.

“Escape with your friends, Dark One,” Trio exclaimed, glancing over to Kaine with one of its three heads, “Your story, tickles my curiosity. So go, entertain this old being. I will hold these fools at bay for as long as I can.”

Kaine and the rest watched in awe as the Titan’s wings then opened up further than they already were, doubling in wing-span, its feathers then seemingly hardened into a glistening metal.

“We monsters swore, to stay out of the kingdom’s way, we swore no conflict for as long as the kingdom stays out of our homes!” Trio bellowed out, “Over the past generations, the kingdom has grown lax on that promise…And now…Now you’ve broken trust.”

A dark shadowy energy then oozed out of Trio’s feathers, as each of its eyes glowed fiercely.

To which Dheron smashed down his staff, slamming its butt into the ground and signalling his archers, each platoon let loose upon the Titan.

As a rain of arrows submerged Trio, the mass of projectiles only dissipated into its shadowy aura, having apparently no effect.

Followed up by a second wave of monstrous laughter, “I believe it is due time, that the overworld is reminded of what horrors delve below. Of why, the kingdom past, agreed to a pact of non-aggression!” Trio announced, suddenly beating each of his wings in unison, a blast of pitch black blades of wind burst out of them in each and every direction.

Entire cliff-sides were destroyed and shattered to rubble by the attack, sending the Delve quaking twice as roughly as it had before.

Kaine glanced over the cliffs twice, but saw not a single survivor, not a single archer that had loosed upon Trio was still visibly standing.

Only the soldiers roaming below and the platoon behind Dheron had survived, as the Elder Squire himself grimaced at the sight. His eyes moving off Trio briefly, they set upon Kaine and his party opposing them. “Bring me our new friends.” Dheron whispered to the Covenant officer behind him who stood in utter shock, staring up at the monster that was Trio.

Who at this point had begun re-oozing more of that dark destructive aura.

“Sir but the Titan class is-” The soldier argued.

“Second Paladin Falco, that, was an order.” Dheron chided, “I shall deal with this vile bird.”

“Y-Yes, sir.” Falco agreed, falling at attention immediately at Dheron’s tone. Turning to his retinue, Falco waved his sword forth and towards the party of adventurers. “Seize them.” He ordered his men.

“Over, our, dead, corpses.” Then growled out a voice, as massive wolvine forms surrounded the soldiers. “This is our home, twig.” The Alpha growled, “Get out.” It warned as the entire pack lit up brightly, each growling and snarling with ferocity.

As all this went down, on the other side of the Delve Luna turned to the party, “You must leave,” she told them before suddenly rushing away.

“W-Wait!” Rey called after the wolf but it was far too late, each watching as Luna crashed through a set of Covenants before continuing onwards.

“She’s rejoining her pack,” Jedd said, “and we have other things to put our attention on!” she exclaimed, pointing out the two squads of Covenants heading their way from both sides.

“Fuck! Why won’t they just leave us alone!?” Rey shouted in frustration.

“We’ll have plenty of time figuring that out once we’re out of their grasp, or plenty of time to ask once they’ve caught us.” Kaine added, “Right now, we really should fucking move!” pointing out as the two squads of six merged into other roaming allies on the way.

With over twenty Covenants moving to capture them only one third of the way across and an entire platoon being stalled behind them, the party had no choice but to choose quickly.

“We’ll go up higher!” Jedd then said, pointing towards the nearest way up, “We’ll have to quickly break through ten of them but if we make it through then we just might be able to make it around the big group while the wolves keep them at bay!” She explained as everyone got ready to move out.

All but Kaine, “No, look.” He said gesturing towards the Watchers, as they picked up other creatures from above and dove down into the sky beyond the Delve. “They’re clearing out the inhabitants, Trio won’t give us long enough to fight all the way through the Delve, neither will the Pack. Not to mention who knows what waits for us on the way out and at the exit itself. If they found us this quickly and this easily, we can’t take anything for granted like an unguarded escape!”

“What do you suggest then?” Farvo asked, loading up his cannon and getting ready to fire away.

Kaine turned to the cave they had just came out of, “Dungeons take a full hour to reset once you leave it still in a party, it automatically resets once the party is fully dissolved.”

“So, we have three full halls with big strong doors to hold our ground at!” Roy realised what Kaine was threading on. “We can stall one group somehow and engage the other, picking our battlefield!”

“But then we’ll be cornered!” Farvo mused.

“Better cornered by a flow of enemies than surrounded by the entire platoon!” Jedd added, turning to also face the entrance, “Let’s do it.” She said nodding at Kaine.

Who nodded back, “Farvo, you still got one of those timed explosives right?”

“Aye, enough powder and string to make a second given time!” Farvo quickly answered, taking aim upon the left group of Covenants that had just reached ear-shot.

“Then what are we waiting for?” Roy announced, pulling his sister and the dwarf off, “They’re coming!”

“Inside! Quickly!” Jedd told them all, pulling a stunned Lara by the hand.

As each of them rushed back inside the dungeon, darkness briefly surrounding them until the dim lights of blue torches gave them some clarity to the first corridor.

“Farvo hand me that bomb!” Kaine asked, slowing down to the dwarf’s hopping pace.

“What you using it for!?” Farvo asked, fishing the projectile out of his inventory before handing it over.

“Keep going and watch!” Kaine told him back as they entered the first hall, Kaine suddenly stopping in his tracks. He turned to face the corridor behind them, “Can you hit it from afar?” Kaine spoke to the serpent, as the little demon rose up from around his neck.

“Of course.” Nova mused as her forked tongue slithering out onto his right cheek.

“Then here goes…something,” Kaine said, kneeling down by the left side of the doorway, he set the make-shift explosive down and placed both palms wide open over it. “It sees what does not, in turn, see it. For it is partly light, but it embraces this darkness first!” Kaine chanted and mana flowed into his hands, bursting out as a veil of shadows upon the bomb.

Taking his hands away, Kaine watched with relief, as suddenly the bomb faded from his sight. “Hah, magic rules still apply!” He mused to himself, quickly rising as he heard the first sound of metal boots stomping down the corridor.

Kaine turned tail, rushing after the rest that had gone ahead, he ran at full speed but couldn’t easily catch up since Nidhogg had messed with his stats.

Glancing back as he ran, he waited for the opportune moment, “Nova! Blast it!” he then exclaimed as the first Covenant reached the wide-open doors.

Raising her head back, Nova’s jaws stretched out wide then as a crimson hot light shone out of her maw. “Burn!” The demon exclaimed and out of her mouth she shot a pebble sized sphere of searing hot hellfire.

Nailing the spot Kaine had hid the bomb at and immediately it blew up, sending forth a wave of shredding metal shards followed by a pounding wave of force which crushed the dungeon’s wall inwards and collapsed both the door and the ceiling down upon the first group of Covenants.

“Fuck yeah!” Farvo whistled after shouting out in elation, “How long you reckon that will hold them?” He asked as everyone had paused to wait up on Kaine, the party having almost reached the next corridor over.

“Hopefully long enough! Get started on the next one!” Kaine then said gesturing at the next doorway, “They won’t fall for the same trap so this time put it at the entrance to the corridor, we’ll let one group in and use the fallen rubble to delay the rest.”

“On it!” Farvo exclaimed, pulling at Rey and Roy’s sleeves, “You two gimmie a hand!”

“R-Right.” Rey agreed as she and her brother followed after him.

“What’s the plan after we’re out of explosives and space?” Jedd asked, glancing away from Farvo and the twins as they got to work. Focusing her eyes onto the collapsed corridor instead.

Kaine unsheathed the greatsword off his back, “Fight.” He said.

“F-Fight!?” Lara exclaimed, “There’s too many of them and too little of us!”

“You all will press onwards around the dungeon, there’s a doorway to the left side of the next hall I haven’t taken, it doesn’t lead deeper but revolves around the Delve to another entrance. Your exit.” Kaine explained, “One of the Wolves told me about it, you’ll have to fight through at least four more halls around and a fifth outwards, but you’ll come out much closer to the exit.”

“Right…then what?” Jedd asked, watching as dust and rubble began falling off from the mound blocking the first corridor whilst flashes of magical light shone through from the other side.

“You’ll find the Delve’s exit and figure your way out, take a bad turn towards the end or the start if need be and hide out for a bit. They don’t know what I am, once they do they’ll have no choice but to chase after me primarily. I’ll lead them off on a goose chase deeper into the dungeon while you all-” Kaine explained further but was cut off as Jedd suddenly slammed her fist into his right shoulder.

“This again?” She asked with anger in her tone and eyes, “I don’t care how bloody suicidal you are, we’re in this together and we’re coming out of this together dammit!”

Kaine shrugged her fist away, “Do you have any better ideas? This isn’t just a game anymore, it’s survival of the clever-” Kaine grumbled back when suddenly the entire dungeon shuddered around them.

A shriek filled their ears, the horrid sound coming in from where they had, it forced them to hold their ears shut for several long moments.

Trio…

Kaine thought as the sound subsided, turning back to Jedd then, “Think of your friends first, the Covenant want to kill all Dark Elves, and any soldier who lets one escape will also be executed! What the hell do you think they’ll do to you all once they find out you’ve been with me?”

“B-But…” Lara mumbled out as she stood behind them, “You are our f-friend…” She said softly, turning bright crimson as the both of them glanced at her.

Causing Kaine’s gaze to fall grim, “I thank you for the sentiment, but sacrifices need to be made. I know that better than anyone, and I’m not gonna stand bigots hunting down others for their own damn gain.”

“They’ll kill you.” Jedd then warned him, her tone at the most serious it has ever been since he’d met her.

“Not if I tell them I’m not the only one. Not if they see my racial title.” Kaine then said, “After all is said and done,” he turned to the falling rubble just as Farvo and the others re-joined them.

“Ready!” Roy said.

“They’ll have no choice but to acknowledge that their methods won’t work anymore.” Kaine finished.

Jedd’s own expression narrowed, “Is this…really the only way?...” She asked herself, clenching her hands about her hammer’s grip.

When the corridor was suddenly cleared, as one last blast of light burst through, sending the mound of black stone collapsing further but clearing the path for the Covenants behind it.

“Let’s go!” Rey exclaimed and the entire party turned tail once more, rushing into the next corridor, Kaine quickly paused by the makeshift explosive this time built into a dug out log. Camouflaging that one as well, he turned to follow them, but gave their pursuers a brief glance as he did.

Meeting the eyes of Falco right then.

“Desist your escape and surrender yourselves! Do so and no harm will be done upon you or your comrades.” The Paladin shouted out, gesturing his men forward, a full platoon of twenty Covenants out of the sixty that stood by his side rushed after the party.

Kaine reached his party at the other end of this corridor, each of them turning to face the incoming enemy.

“How about now?” He asked his familiar and Nova hissed.

“Master thinks too little of little old me.” Nova scoffed, once more opening her jaws wide and firing out a much greyer projectile of flame than before.

The bullet of hellfire flew around the Covenants as they entered the corridor, doing sudden changes in direction and even curving around targets, until it reached its mark.

Bursting into the hidden explosive, once more the dungeon crumbled before them, yet this time everything shook.

“Oh no…” Farvo mused as he glanced about, stepping away from the doorway, “I think we hit a weak spot.”

“What-” Kaine had no time to ask, only watch as meter by meter the entire corridor collapsed.

Crushing each of the twenty Covenants beneath black bricks and stone rubble, the entire party had to step away as even the entrance they had paused at cracked and crumbled.

As the last pebble of rubble came to a hopping stop before their feet, the party stared on in surprise.

“So…does this mean we…uhh, got away?” Rey asked and at those words a feeling of ease filled them all.

“I think…so?” Roy mused with a growing grin.

“And we still have a way out, that they don’t know of.” Kaine said, glancing over the open doorway on the complete opposite side and instead at the third set of closed doors to the left wall.

Jedd sighed out in relief, “Let’s get out of here.” She said, as the shock slowly drained away from them, they made their way to the next set of doors.

Coming up before them, “So h-how…do they open?” Lara asked.

“Lore wise, they’re enchanted to block trespassers. Mechanically? You need a certain level of power to be able to disrupt the enchantment and open them.” Kaine explained with a rushed tone.

“That’s some enchantment then if we can break it…” Roy mused.

As Kaine set his palm over the middle where both doors met, “Imagine having to keep up the enchantment for each and every single doorway in this dungeon,” he continued to explain, “The boss also grows stronger with each doorway disrupted, since it regains the magic power it used to block it in the first place.”

“I guess that makes sense?” Roy shrugged.

“Yeah, whatever, let’s just get the hell outta here.” Rey grumbled, glancing from the doorway as it started to light up with runes, and the collapsed corridor…

As it also…

Began to light up.

“Uhhh, guys?” Rey whispered out, pulling on her brother’s shoulder.

“What?” Roy asked, looking at her as she silently and aggressively pointed at the corridor with wide eyes. “Shit, hurry!” Roy then exclaimed, “They’re gonna-”

As Kaine opened the doorway, the enchantment over it slowly filling each door with bright blue runes, the sound of shifting stone suddenly filled their ears. The entire party turned to the collapsed corridor to see with horrified eyes as the fallen rock began to rise and change shape.

Creating a tunnel through the rubble.

“Oh we’re so fucked.” Farvo mused, taking aim with his cannon then as both Rey and Roy nocked their weapons too.

“I guess, we’ll be even now…”Jedd suddenly mumbled to her self as the entire party but Kaine turned to face their pursuers, he was still focusing on slowly opening up the doors.

“What do you-” Kaine was going to ask, when a large beastly hand pushed into his back, raising him a foot off the ground and sending him soaring into the next room.

Kaine came to a tumbling stop within the hall and Jedd watched as he pulled himself together. Their eyes met as all the while the doors had begun to close back up.

“Find us,” She told him, opening up her party menu, she mentally selected him in the list.

Do you truly wish to remove party member [Jor Mungandr]?

Kicked party members will be booted out of your {Instances}.

{Yes}

{No}

Player [Jor Mungandr] was kicked out from the party.

“I will.” She heard him say, just as the doors fully closed back up.

Turning to the rest, “Lower your weapons.” Jedd told her guild who on her command they did as told.

Just as out of the magically formed tunnel, Elder Dheron Tallow, Falco and his retinue of Covenants stormed the hall.

“We surrender.” Jedd announced, raising her hammer forth before dropping it to the floor, her form also shrunk back down.

Realising what she was up to, Lara and Roy also dropped their weapons, raising their hands up as she did. Farvo and Roy following up right after.

Dheron smiled widely at the sight of them, tapping away at his cheek with a piece of bloodied white cloth, “Splendid, Falco seize them.” He ordered the Covenant.

Quickly raising his blade forth, Falco’s retinue of Covenants surrounded the party with halberds and swords, three mages also coming up to begin casting upon them.

And as the binding magic enclosed around their hands and feet, each of the adventurers fell to the ground tied up by bright white arcane rope.

“You’ve got us, now what?” Jedd asked in annoyance as Dheron approached them.

“Oh, you will see soon, but before that…” He glanced around the hall, “Where’s the sixth one?”

“Gone, you’re not the only ones who can teleport.” Jedd mused with a smirk.

Even if it’s just abusing the system…

She thought.

Gaining herself a narrow-eyed glare from Dheron, “Impossible, there’s no way any of you can…” he rushed to the doorway behind them.

Quickly placing his palm over the left door, each of the party member’s eyes were locked on him even as the Covenant soldiers lifted them up.

Quickly chanting a brief incantation beneath his breath, mana surged through Dheron’s arm, bursting forth to his palm and then into the door.

In barely a blink of an eye, the runes flashed blue upon the door before suddenly shattering into falling dust-like particles of light.

Stepping away Dheron gestured Falco forward, “Open it up!” He ordered.

Pulling along three of his men, the Paladin opened up the large door.

Revealing a dimly blue lit hall not unlike the one they stood in.

Dheron pushed through them, glancing about as he entered. “Hah…well that is quiet something.” He turned to the party. “We’re leaving.” He said, glancing at the entire place around them as a whole right then. “This place…it’s still active.” He said and as he did the floor in the new hall began to crumble and open up, spitting out monstrously horrid undead.

“What about the other one?” Falco asked, sheathing his sword even at the sight of rising monsters, rolling his eyes also as some of the lower ranked Covenants stepped back from the doors in fright.

“None of these barbarians could possibly cast up anything close to teleportation magic.” Dheron spat out in a mocking tone, “The dungeon is still active, and has him on another of its infinite dimensional existences. We can’t get to him, yet still.” He chuckled. “He won’t make it out alive, not on his own.”

Dheron turned to the tunnel then, “The Coven awaits Falco, let us be on our way from these damned ruins.”

“Yes sir.” Falco nodded, quickly gesturing at his men who held each of the five adventurers and their weapons, they began leading them out.

And they complied, just as Jedd did not struggle, neither did the others.

Yet as they reached the tunnel, they all glanced back at the door Jedd had pushed Kaine through.

A single thought spanning through each of their minds in that moment.

Don’t die.