“So why exactly have you tried to fuck us over?” Kyle asked the king with a stern tone and cold glare. The other Serenity members noticing his expression began glancing around the room, preparing for whatever was to come.

Jekyll studied them for a bit before glancing over to Helen and Meril, both wordlessly staring at them in astonishment. Snapping herself out of her surprise Helen responded “Whatever do you mean hero?”

Kyle switched to glare at Helen, his expression unchanged “Oh so the illusion magic cast by your underling there was just part of my imagination I presume? So is the fact that not only did you send escorts to take us through the city but you sent two at different intervals. You were already under suspicion from the gazes the citizens sent our way but along with everything else, it all fell in place quite nicely.”

Helen’s expression darkened into a cold glare “If you truly wish to know, the heavy escort was simply for your person Dark hero. The citizens? You were the target of their anxiety.”

Kyle raised a brow “Oh? Well you see that would make sense except that I am used to having others look at me in a certain way. They weren’t just looking at me, nor just the other heroes. They were worried about the whole group, not just as heroes or adventurers but as outsiders.” His cold expression changed as an amused smirk grew” Tell me why exactly are there no other races currently staying in New Ruk?”

Helen couldn’t respond, she hadn’t expected to be questioned in the first place and Kyle’s keen perception of the city made it difficult to retort. (“How do I salvage this situation…”) she thought bitterly.

Meril was now gawking, not only had two of them been completely unaffected by her illusion but to actually see through it and comprehend what it is was beyond her (“The sheer concentration on something else needed to ignore my magic…what caught their attention so much more? And this dark hero…what is he?!“).

Jekyll continued to study the whole party, only two of them looked confused at what was happening. The others of the same guild as the speaker didn’t question his reasoning, instead they studied their surroundings with hands touching their weapon’s hilts or grips. (“These aren’t nobles or royalty, they aren’t ignorant to their surroundings. These are warriors, Helen has miscalculated but the situation can still be salvaged.”)

Stepping away from his throne Jekyll walked closer to the party, as he approached they stepped back and unsheathed their weapons. His guards did the same, raising their rifles while surrounding them from behind. “Lower your weapons” He ordered while staring at his guards.

“But sir?” Thurk glanced between his king and the armed adventurers, not comprehending the situation.

“You question your king? I said lower your damn weapons.” Jekyll ordered more loudly, his tone fierce and unquestionable. The guards followed his order, lowering their weapons but keeping them in hand. The adventurers on the other hand held their weapons ready, all aimed straight at him. Only Kyle remained motionless and unarmed, for reasons unknown to Jekyll as Kyle’s skills had a time limit.

Sighing Jekyll could feel the weight of his people on his shoulders, the grudge they held for so long was so close to being avenged. For once, just for once he let that weight pull him down. As the Dwarven king kneeled down his guards stared in utter shock. Helen’s gaze dropped as her expression grew weary, having understood her mistake she was in no position to continue the proceedings.

Jekyll gazed down at the ground as he spoke sorrowfully “Please adventurers, pardon us for our foolish deception. We had little choice, our people’s lives are on the line. With our vengeance so close, this blade at our necks made us hasty…” he waited for the adventurers to deny his request, to abandon them as the other races did when the demons came. (“History is bound to repeat itself…”) he thought, his eyes twitching as he grimaced.

Kyle crouched down in front of the kneeling king, staring into his sorrowful expression “Why did you deceive us? What is this blade you speak of? You have little need to hide it from us anymore, you cannot keep us here as it would raise too many questions by the dominion. Killing us is out of the question and as you’ve just witnessed deceiving us is far above your paygrade.” He gazed at the king’s eyes seeing him for what he truly was, a victim. Eyes he had seen so many times before, in his own mirror.

Jekyll felt a lump in his throat, unable to get the words out (“How do I explain this…to these warriors of another realm…”). The very idea of an Elven purge terrified him, making him unable to reveal the corrupted beings that roamed his mines. A purge was what the Elves called it, the cleansing of anything unholy. In truth it was nothing more than mindless slaughter, victims and innocents nothing more than fodder in their way as they brought down their collective wrath upon the undead.

Kyle could see him faltering, Jekyll’s mouth opened and closed unable to speak “It terrifies you?” he asked more out of curiosity.

Looking up Jekyll found himself leaning away from those cold silver eyes staring him down “Yes, it would terrify the hardiest warriors” he managed to say that much.

Kyle’s cold expression turned into a frown “If it is magic that keeps you from speaking then tell us so, if you cannot even tell us that much then show us so. If it is simply fear that keeps you from speaking, then it is up to you to beat that fear. Taking risks is what life is about, would you rather regret making a choice or not making one at all?”

Kyle began to stand up “Whatever it takes to get our allies ready, we’ll give you whatever aid you need.” He forwarded his hand to Jekyll “I mean, we did openly declare war to a mad half-goddess and her devils. Really what could scare us off?” he asked with a grin.

Taking Kyle’s hand Jekyll rose up with his own grin “The wrath of all three Elven courts doesn’t terrify you hero?”

Kyle’s eyes lit up with interest “Oh? And where do they come into play here?”

Resigning himself to fate Jekyll crossed his arms and sighed “Down below us are thousands over thousands of mining tunnels, some months ago we encountered a fairly large vein of mithril within the deepest levels. The mine took to a dungeon.”

Kyle’s grin grew as he followed the story ahead, he put the dots together and formed the whole picture. He awaited the punchline, the confirmation to his theory “A dungeon? Why is a dungeon so deep down?”

“The dungeon hid itself instead of revealing itself for explorers, it collected its power and made its choice for type when it felt ready to survive the consequences.” Jekyll explained as his grimace returned “We stand above an Undead dungeon, a prime target for an Elven purge.”

Kyle could no longer help himself, his grin grew into a full smile as he broke out into cold laughter. Holding his face with one hand he stared through his fingers down at Jekyll “So that’s what it was…This is just perfect!” he exclaimed happily. “Not one or two but a whole dungeon full of subjects for me to experiment on? Not to mention the rewards of it being a dungeon…” he began muttering under his breath.

Jekyll, Helen and Meril stared at him in astonishment and confusion, his expression so full of glee at the mention of undead as if the thought of a purge not even fazing him.

Karnage gazed at him from behind with worry, knowing full well what he was so happy about. Skill, Silv, Reyna and Soren on the other hand did not understand the meaning but could tell things had gone their way, they lowered their weapons relieved. Sly hadn’t even pulled out his weapons in the first place and still stood looking around at the inside of the tower’s first floor. He didn’t count himself as a combatant for now, knowing the danger of losing control.

Helen stepped forward “Fool do you not know the danger we reside in? There is only two things the Elven courts would unite against, an invader and a holy purge! They won’t just destroy the dungeon but anything else within it’s proximity! That means our homes! Maybe even us if we don’t get out of the way quickly enough!”

Kyle looked up at the old Fae still smiling, he chuckled in amusement “That is if they find out, they don’t need to find out…do they?”

Helen couldn’t believe her ears, this child too ignorant to know fear “Do you even understand what it means to be Undead? Immortal monsters limited only by their bodies, bound souls of pure evil promised to their one and only master. An endless horde of them, bones, rotting flesh, ash, it matters not what the body is made of as long as a soul is present to occupy it! The darkest of magic arts! The very core of necromancy!”

Kyle rolled his eyes but returned to stare up at her with a grin “Immortals they may be but to us they are nothing more than experience bags, a whole horde of them? All the better! Stupid and slow, skeletons and zombies won’t stop us. Tell me where do dungeons get their power?”

Meril was the one to respond “At first from their surroundings but that is limited, at one point it will need mana from living beings entering it to progress in strength.”

“And why have you not defeated it already then? I mean, it should be too weak to summon anything too strong then?” Kyle didn’t need to ask these question as he had already worked out the reasons but asked anyway for confirmation.

“Traps” Jekyll shook his head “We sent our best but they fell for the traps the dungeon set throughout the tunnels we dug the mithril for, we still do not know how it set those traps so quickly. Neither do we know how it took over the whole tunnel either, it should have taken it years to do so.”

“What if it didn’t take over the tunnels after?” Sly was smiling with amusement “Think about it, what if you were mining inside the dungeon from the start? Is there a rule about the entrance being at the very start of it’s territory? If there is then what is enforcing that rule?”

Jekyll’s eyes widened with shock “That vile abomination…The mithril!” he held his mouth with his right hand, his insides begging to be released from the disgust “It tricked us from the very start…using the mithril it lead our miners around its territory, that is how we lost so many…it activated its traps all together and gathered loads of mana from the causalities!”

Sly nodded “There is no better trap than one with bait taking straight into it, if it gains more mana from those that die than the living then it makes sense that it used those traps to kill the weak miners first.”

“Then it hid those traps and began raising the miners…adding in some of it’s own minions to make it look like they killed them all” Jekyll held back both his tears and anger “Using them as bait for my warriors then using the same traps to kill them. It even gets it’s mana back from the dead it raised…”

“A sound profit, that’s what it made.” Kyle chuckled “You underestimated it and paid the price. Now it’s stronger than ever, the question is how strong?”.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if it can summon a lich or two, the base monsters should still be skeletons and zombies” Helen explained solemnly “If you fail any number of times though wraiths could become a problem. I expect the level to be anywhere between 80 to 100” she studied the whole party “Do you believe able to defeat it still? You may progress through the dungeon but I simply cannot see such low levels defeating a dungeon boss, the being before the dungeon’s core.”

Kyle’s eyes widened as his grin curved from ear to ear “What about blowing the whole thing up? Would the city suffer any damage from that?”.

Jekyll snorted “If it’s about burying the dungeon we have thought about that but the damned thing is nowhere near the other tunnels and collapsing it’s roof would require us mining above it, right into its territory.”

Kyle chuckled as he shook his head “Is it located directly beneath the city though?”

“No it is a fair bit away, otherwise we would have sent earth magic directly down upon it.” Jekyll wasn’t following Kyle’s line of thought; he was missing knowledge of one very important asset the party had in hand.

Still smiling Kyle glanced at the others “No collapsing it wasn’t what I was talking about” gesturing with his thumb at Sly “I meant actually blowing it up, do you reckon a Nephilim losing control and exploding from aura be too much?”.

Sly nodded “Yeah that would def-” he then shook his head “This is abuse Kyll”

“Son this is no time for jesting!” Jekyll thought they were joking, he looked at each of their expressions before his eyes opened wide while staring at Sly “Vulcan protect us…”.

Helen marched over to Sly, her expression solemn as she lay her right palm over his forehead “A Nephilim…Hah…” smiling coldly she nodded “The city is reinforced with strong magic and masterfully crafted metal enchanted by our very best, the blast will be felt but no permanent damage will be done.”

“Then I believe all we need to know now is how to get there, right party leader?” Smirking Kyle glanced back at Sly who glared back at him.

“Yeah…sure…I’m a fucking baneling now.” Sly sighed, resigning himself to whatever he had to do in the name of EXP and loot.

---

Deep below the Dwarf Mountains, A Dungeon of vile corruption.

Within a dimly lit room of red a single pillar of stone lay crumbling in the middle, embedded into the pillar is a light red crystal ball giving off the light. The dungeon core pulsated red light as veins of black grew all around it, pulsating themselves as smaller ethereal veins grew out from them and shot into the darkness of the only tunnel into the room.

A chilling laughter filled the room, a petite feminine tone to it. “My lady will reward you greatly young dungeon, you have done well following my tactics against those petty miners and foolish soldiers” out of the shadows a woman stepped out and towards the core as it pulsated faster, long abyssal black hair with streaks of violet and piercing yellow eyes the woman could have been mistaken for a tanned beauty if it wasn’t for the leathery black wings growing out of her bare back and the two crooked black horns poking out of her forehead.

Her long blood red dress flowed behind her as if she hovered instead of walked, her three feet wingspan wide open behind her as she approached the core. Raising her hand to caress the dungeon core she smiled coldly “Believe in me young one, these Dwarves and Fae are nothing to your power. Grow stronger from their fall, takeover their losses and make their world your own.”

“You promise power, you give power and this one trusts and follows.” A detached voice echoed back in reply.

The woman rested her forehead to the crystal, the room being a storey high but the crystal still taking over half the space inside. “By my name, Abaddon, devil princess and daughter of Lucifer. I promise you.”

The room shook as the voice spoke again “Then this one follows.” The earth around them cracked and rose as skeletal hands pulled the rest of the bony bodies out, ethereal black veins shot out from the core and pierced into the lifeless skeletons as suddenly their eyes shone a pitch black darkness.

In unison, the skeletons screamed bloody murder.

Abaddon smiled with glee as she watched them “Wonderful” she giggled wickedly.