An ogre berserker stumbled back, horribly injured and on the brink of death. It attempted to fight back once more against its opponents and raised its battle-axe over its head. Sadly, just before it can do anything, a blade streak from a sword encased in flame appeared on its chest and created a terrible, burning wound. Very shortly thereafter, it collapsed on the floor with a solid thud, dead and defeated.

“Fucking monsters…” Jeffrey grumbled with annoyance, “When will these things ever learn that fighting for the wrong cause will only land you in trouble?” he wondered with frustration.

“Honestly, I don’t know,” replied Leslie, “It looks like that these creatures were programmed to follow whatever orders were given to them by a higher power, or that could be just me purely speculating.” she stated.

“Well, I can’t fault Leslie for making that assumption,” Hamilton agreed, “It seemed that the day we entered this world, it all felt like a video game like the ones I played as a child.” he said.

“It really felt like none of them had any free will; if they had actual emotions and you know, individuality, they would probably drop everything and flee for their lives when things go south.” Jeff interjected.

“But unfortunately for them, they didn’t, however, I will commend them for fighting until the bitter end.” David somewhat praised, albeit in an ironic manner.

After that brief conversation, there was a small window of respite. Even though the dungeon raid was still occurring, they overheard a conversation between their handheld transceivers (or in layman terms, walkie-talkies) that all of those who were held captive are freed and being taken to the surface. Hearing the news, it was a relief that the innocents who survived can go back to living their day-to-day lives, however, freeing the prisons was just part one; part two was thwarting the ritual summoning of a Pit Lord. The tribulations of everyone involved were just beginning.

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

The trio turned around and to their delight, their friend and fellow ally Jason had appeared along with his crew. All of them suffered injuries, but were relatively minor to the point that they don’t really matter or cause complications.

“Nice to see you again, my homeboy.” Jeff warmly greeted, before grasping hands with him in a friendly manner.

“Me too, bro.” his friend replied.

“So Jace, what happened?” Leslie asked.

“Well, let’s just say me and my crew got into a fight with a huge cobra monster,” Jason revealed, “Long story short, it got pretty crazy in some parts, but we managed to overcome it in the end.” he summarized.

“Good to hear that.” Mr. Hamilton remarked.

“Not only that, some of my friends got stronger; they’ve ‘leveled-up’ if you will.” Jace said, pointing to Tony, Many, and Tammy.

“You’re damn right about that!” Antonio interjected, before giving a hearty chuckle.

Afterwards, they combined forces and continued deeper into the dungeon, which was at this point a hundred feet underground. Despite this fact, they kept moving forward, ready to take on whatever obstacle they may encounter.

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

At the other intersection of the dungeon, Heila and Franklin were being escorted by Commander Schwarzen and his men. The knights were fending off with relative ease various low to mid-level creatures, meanwhile Franklin was holding his wife close to him in a strong effort to keep her safe from danger and hazardous elements in general.

Out of nowhere, a small pack of ghouls and zombies appeared to fight; some of them went after the couple with a strong desire to eat their flesh for lunch. Thankfully, they were neutralized by Henry using his high strength, speed, endurance, and his expertise of swordsmanship, but however, due to the sudden ambush, Franklin and Heila’s grasp were broken. Having no other options and because of a rather tight time constraint, the couple would have to rely on the soldiers for protection.

They continue on towards the exit and at this point, the surge of monsters just seem to keep increasing and increasing. While Commander Schwarzen and his men were fighting off the small army of demonic-looking spiders, Franklin was out of danger for the most part, but the man was also away from the range of the soldiers. Just as the husband and father was about to take a breath, a sole demon spider crawled from a medium-sized hole from the ceiling. The monster spotted the single human and sensed his aura; it began desiring it, wanting his soul to become stronger.

The demon spider sneakily crawled against the wall and into the direction of Frank, with the man being completely unaware of its presence; it charged up its legs and lunged full speed at him. Heila sensed the momentum and force coming from the other side, but it was seemingly too late, Franklin was out of the range of any help; his death was practically imminent. He shut his eyes, awaiting oblivion.

But suddenly, a miracle came…

A thin stroke of light appeared, coming from a sword and it sliced the infernal arachnid in half. Its halved corpse collided towards the ground with its blood splattering all over. Hearing this, Franklin opened his eyes and was shocked to see the spider dead on the ground; despite the odds being stacked against him, who could be his savior in his moment of near death?

Well, Frank was about to find that out real quick.

“Dad, are you okay?” the voice of a young boy asked.

The man turned his attention to the source of the voice. To his utter shock, he found his son before him; even more so, Greg was holding a short sword and a shield and not in a way that it looked like some random child found a way to access his family’s weapon cache, but actually looking like a trained soldier with a fair degree of combat experience.

“Look Greg, I won’t ask you where you get those weapons from,” Frank stated, “Instead, I would like to know who, what, or where did you learn to fight with a sword; so what’s your secret?” he asked with an earnest tone.

“Well, ever since Anya was taught how to be a spell-caster, I was being trained by a guy wearing a full suit of armor, wearing a cloak.” Gregory revealed.

That short description describing the entity’s appearance rang a bell in Franklin’s head way more than it should. However, due to the fact that time is running out and Anya could be in serious danger due to her lack of experience and knowledge of her field, Frank decides to not go into depth and have his son explain his entire backstory when it comes to being trained by that mysterious individual.

“Actually son, you can hold on to that thought,” the father of Greg said, “What’s more important is finding your sister and getting out of this god-forsaken place.” he declared.

The son of Franklin nodded in agreement and proceeded to move. However, before they can do just that, Henry was very impressed by Gregory’s performance and innate talents such as advanced perception that gave him a leg up during combat scenarios. Wanting to make sure that the boy was prepared to take on many scenarios, even the ones that have considerable hazard and volatility, the bear-man gave him several pieces of armor such as a steel gauntlet and some plates of steel mail; all of them fit the fledgling knight like a glove. It may not be complete, but it’s better than nothing.

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

The J-Crew, The Covenant of the Dragon, and soon joining them, Jovius and his band of angels, were all standing before a gigantic double door etched with a mysterious language that was lost several thousands of years ago. It held a somewhat menacing aura to it, due its the age, size, and material it possessed, but Jovius had determined that this door leads to the room of the dungeon’s boss. The problem was that any documentation on its nature and the methods to open it was effectively lost to the ravages of time, so there was no practical way of opening it.

The door was both indestructible and immune to the effects of magic, even if it was extremely powerful; thus the chance of fighting the boss of the temple was essentially impossible. All hope seemed lost, until a notification went off in Jason’s tablet. He took it out and found a message box that used a ciphered language as text rendering it unreadable; the bottom, there was this sole button that read:

‘Accept?’

With no other options, Jason decided to accept the notification. Then suddenly, the door burst wide open revealing a void of nothingness and two things happened:

First, the Willmore siblings, Gregory and Anya, were inexplicably teleported to where Jason and everybody was at. Secondly, all of them turned into a white wisps of energy and were sucked into the door. When it became quiet and absent of all life, the door immediately slammed shut once again.

Quickly, the wisps of energy reappeared and everybody reverted back to their original form; all of them stood before one another.

“Whoa, where are we?” Jeffrey asked, looking at his surroundings with a stunned look.

It appeared that they’re all in an immense, never-ending cave system with innumerable tunnels and passageways. The rumbling of the ground and tectonic shifts in general could be heard all throughout.

Right here, Jovius instantly recognized what this place was.

“We’re in one of the four Elemental Worlds: Tierra Mundo, or Earth-World.” the angel stated.

“Ugh… I’m so not about this.” Emmanuel grumbled.

To be continued.