Maxon sat on a log near a campfire at the base of Soulwind Forces; he’s currently reviewing a handbook that was given to him by one of the lieutenants. As for what happened after their raiding the dungeon, Maxon and the team he was in had obtained a lot of treasures and powerful items, but the biggest highlight of them were scrolls that contained information on how to defeat the Archdemon.

The conversation between him and the two supernatural beings was still fresh in the foot-soldier's head.

Flashback Begin.

“Despite all of our efforts and assistance from the archangels and even some Dragon Monarchs, we were unable to permanently seal away Uruzel.” Oranius explained.

“And not only that, half of the world's population perished from the decisions, actions, and behavior of him, his army, and his fellow archdemons,” Mel’zae said, “It was never the same, even after 9,000 years had passed.” The vampire princess stated with a regretful tone.

“But unfortunately, the return of Uruzel is imminent and will soon be resurrected by those who worship him,” the demon king said, “That’s why I’m willing to give you the tools and keys to aid you in your quest to defeat him once and for all.” Oranius offered.

“Alright then, show us what you got.” the leader of the group accepted.

The phantasmal being turns his attention to where he and his companion’s throne chair laid; he performed a hand gesture and low and behold, a giant vault raised from the ground. The vault then opened, revealing a plethora of powerful artifacts, items, and weapons. The items that stood out the most were four scrolls and three keys: one gold, one silver, and one bronze; all of them sat on a large pedestal.

Maxon, Rena, and the other soldiers were blown away by such things.

“Now then, we shall depart, but understand that this won’t be the last time we meet,” stated the demon king, “When the time is right, we shall also be resurrected in the flesh to assist you in defeating Uruzel and sealing him away for all eternity.” he said.

“Farewell for now, friends!” sent off Mel’zae in a giggly tone.

The spirit forms of the Demon King and Vampire Princess disappeared from the place. As the strike team helped themselves to the vault, Maxon and Rena have this thought in the back of their heads about the meaning of fighting for others and what you believe in. Getting yourself involved in one of the biggest showdowns in the history of history can really get to you.

When the inevitable war occurs and the horrific destruction that will follow, the foot-soldier and cat-girl witch will have each other's backs. Moving from that momentary episode of introspection, the two helped themselves to the treasure vault soon after.

Flashback End.

Ever since the strike team had cleared the dungeon, the fog that was essentially ever-present had almost completely disappeared; along with that, Maxon had found that he was in Southeastern Otono. After the reports were filed from the last dungeon raid, the higher-ups, more specifically Linda and her lieutenants, have decided to move to another location after decoding and deciphering the maps that came inside the scrolls. Everything and everyone started to close up shop, pack up, and move on to their new location of their base.

Soon, Maxon retrieved all of his items and placed them inside of his backpack; following along with the moving army. However, it’s all straight forward from here; hiding in the distance were a group of mysterious individuals veiled in dark-gray cloaks. As the army caravan was moving away, they whispered to each other in a strange language, hatching up a plan. They nodded heads with each other, before going off in their own directions.

---------------------------

A rough-terrain vehicle was moving at a rather expeditious pace along the unpaved road in Otono. Inside the car were Jeffrey and Leslie in the back, and David in the front, along with a soldier wearing steel armor covering him from head to toe.

“Boy, it’s a good thing that I stumbled upon the three of you,” the driver said in a relieved tone, “We’ve almost resorted to paying you a visit to your base over at Menda Village.” he claimed.

“Well, it’s no surprise that since we’ve risen to prominence almost a year ago, we’ve got nothing short of work to do.” Hamilton remarked, “This might as well be a continuation of the previous mission we’ve done.”

“You’re damn right about that one,” the armored soldier said, “Because let me tell you something, the cultists of Uruzel, their antics, and sheer evilness are just ramping up, along with the fact that they’re really stepping up their game.” he informed.

“It seems that flames of hell are getting more intense by the day; I’m beginning to wonder if they’ll stop at Pit Lords,” Jeffrey spoke, “Using my knowledge of the arcane and religion, along with abductive reasoning: if they can summon the most powerful kind of Major Demon, then heaven knows what unspeakable things they’ll do next.” he stated, with a concerned tone.

Leslie clutched her sheathed weapon, “In that case, we have to do whatever it takes,” she declared, “Even though we’re clearly non-natives to this world, the friends and allies we’ve made, the lessons learned, the stuff we gained, and overall the connection we’ve made, they’re all too valuable for us to throw throw away; we have to fight this in any meaningful way, no matter what.” she uttered with a determined, yet restrained voice.

Hamilton smiled in response to her brief speech, giving him the impression that his lessons molded the person that Leslie is. To a reasonable extent, Jeffrey and even the driver is impressed by her tactful, yet inspiring statement.

Finally, the vehicle has finally arrived at its destination: The Lost Temple of Geoise. The place was a huge, ancient temple made of limestone; it was surrounded by a large amount of willow trees and had a bunch of ponds, rivers, and lakes to boot. Not too far off laid numerous military-grade tents and sturdy shelters.

For the dungeon itself, Jovius mentioned that it was abandoned for several millennia; while that was true, it wasn’t really the whole picture. In order to explain somewhat in-depth about it, it’s best to go over the historical context about El Mundo, which was the name of the world itself, in broad, yet relatively brief detail.

El Mundo was way, way older than it looked. It’s ancient history spanned back to over 100,000 years, making it particularly extensive and lengthy of the things it went through, what occurred that drastically altered its history forever, what was discovered, lost, and re-discovered, and so on and so forth. For the sake of preventing information overload, it will be told in little bits and pieces and if the current situation/context is relevant to it.

With that out of the way, dungeons like our heroes face is one of a practically innumerable amount. They’re built in honor or to worship someone or something, like a high noble or a deity, but due to outside forces, circumstances, and events that were beyond the control of its original inhabitants, many of them were destroyed, taken over, and/or modified and repurposed for something else. After a specific event in world history has subsided, for the most part, these places are essentially abandoned and often falling apart due to the ravages of time. Its original owners have either died, moved to safer places, or just simply disappeared; often, their original names were lost as well, as in the case of Geoise.

Now the temple’s specific function, even back several centuries, was a lot more heinous and despicable. It’s main purpose for a long while was to serve as a slavery compound, torture chamber, or flat out used as places to ritually sacrifice innocents to dark and wicked gods. Those that exploit its usefulness when it comes to area, rooms, items, tools, equipment, weapons, and artifacts will forever be ingrained into its history. Sometimes, these places are better off destroyed and forgotten permanently. However, that story is for another day.

Returning to the characters, the trio exited the car; they were promptly greeted by the commander running it all. He was a Grizzly Bear Darwinian with dark skin, a solid build, and a full beard; his most standout physical trait was a slash mark on his right eye. His name was Henry Schwarzen; he was a high-ranking member of an organization called the Knight’s Association, which was a part of a group named The Four Leagues.

David shook hands with him as a friendly gesture, to which Henry liked quite a lot.

“So, General Schwarzen,” David called, “What’s the situation?” he queried.

Henry sighed, “Not looking good,” he revealed, “Just recently, we were involved in combat with a group of Uruzelian extremists; even though we managed to neutralize most of them and repelled a residual group, we’ve suffered some rather serious casualties.”

“Like what?”

“A lot of my men were killed in combat and some of my finest suffered serious injuries, all because one of the cultists manage to detonate a Mobius Bomb.”

That statement alone gave David significant concern. It seemed that the statement Jeffrey made previously was correct to a reasonable degree; if the cultists are willing to use a dangerous weapon that not only emits sharp metal spears, but also releases a substance that is similar to napalm, then they must be really stepping their game up to this degree and will do anything to accomplish their goal. However, he also remembered Leslie’s meaningful speech about the things they accomplished, thus giving the E.M.A. teacher a small boost in bravery.

The bear-man continued, “Not only that, there were some Bribons with connections to the cult that attempted to steal electronic equipment from out of my camp,” he revealed, “Thankfully, a band of warriors were there to stop them and drive them back to the hole they were dug out of.” he remarked.

“You got that right!” approved a female with a hearty voice.

Walking by was a female humanoid with green skin, long silver hair, and possessed a physical height that would tower over the average human woman. She was a Gula: a race of beings that were rather tall, had a variety of vivid skin colors, and their most noticeable trait was that they had horns protruding out of their foreheads; having two is the most common, but some have only one.

This one in particular had horns that were jet-black. Along with that, the weapons, equipment and clothing can be described as feral and tribal. Finally, she was holding the blood-stained robes and items of a cultist she had recently killed.

“Man Jek’na, you’re really keeping up a positive attitude despite the nasty things that happened don’t you?” commented Schwarzen.

“Keeping up a good mood is how I operate.” Jek’na responded with strong confidence.

However, that good mood soon disappeared when two paramedics were hauling a horribly injured foot soldier with multiple arrows sticking out of him in a stretcher towards a healer tent. That scene forced the tribal berserker to think.

“Even though I’m a warrior that hailed from the harsh and unforgiving wilds of Southern Otono, I have to give my heart out to those who were terribly hurt or just couldn’t make it,” Jek’na said, expressing empathy, “Even though we’re in the middle of a tough fight, I can’t in good faith ignore those who lost their lives fighting for what’s right and I hope their souls rest in peace.” she uttered with respect.

“I agree; in my opinion life is inherently tough and ruthless, even to those who did nothing wrong.” Jeffrey interjected, “Despite that, no matter what happens and if you feel lost, just keep soldiering on. It may not be immediate, but you’ll get there sooner or later.” the mage spoke.

They all shared a moment of silence for the fallen. Then suddenly, Henry’s advanced hearing abilities picked up the sounds of wings flapping, along with the footsteps of armed individuals moving at an urgent pace.

“Leslie, Jeffrey, Mr. Hamilton!” called a familiar voice.

All of them shifted their focus to the source of the noise. Low and behold, it was the arrival of Jason, his crew, and a small band of angel warriors and wizards.

“Hamilton, do you know this young man?” General Schwarzen asked.

“Absolutely,” confirmed David with a smile, “He’s a member of our group and one of my own students that I’ve been training for a rather long time.”

Looking at all the things that Jason had on tow, he’s rather impressed by it. Jeffrey in this particular instance decided to take a scan of his friend’s attributes. To provide some context, normally, it’s impossible to know the stats of a being unless told directly. The mage has this rather special and powerful ability that allows one to circumvent that, but very few individuals possess this power. Truth be told, it was a major contributing factor to Jeffrey being one of the most sought-after mages in all of Otono. The name of the ability was called Divulge Attributes.

Well anyway, Jeffrey activated this ability and was quickly shocked by what he had discovered, as with this Attribute listing:

Power: 8

Toughness: 9

Mobility: 8

Vitality: 8

Smarts: 7

Charm: 8

Level: 4.8

What this essentially meant was that not only did Jason unambiguously exceeded Jeff’s level, he also had the potential to nearly rival David. For now, Jace had earned the right to be only second-in-command, which was sort of disappointing news for our mage as he held the title up until now. It will be interesting however on how his friend will fare taking a high-ranking position in the Covenant of the Dragon.

Moving on from that assessment, Jason, his group, and the band of angels weren’t the only ones who showed up. A whole suit of guilds arrived at the scene, many of which specialize in the extermination of demons and stopping malignant supernatural forces in general. Some of the guilds even had members with personal grudges against the cult itself.

To put it lightly, the conditions were set for a rather explosive dungeon raid.