Without the sun, it was difficult to tell how much time has passed. He wasn’t sure how long they were in this labyrinth, but they scoured nearly every single pathway and still couldn’t locate the exit. Since the others asked to take a rest, Kihet led them to a brazier holding blue flames.

“Lily, wake up. It’s time to go.”

“Mm. It’s time? Did you get some sleep too?”

“Stayed up. Mostly.”

While the insectoids were waking themselves, Kihet went to take gulp of water only to notice his waterskin was about to be emptied.

“Are you okay? You look pale.” She asked.

“I… didn’t get a good nap.”

It wasn’t because he couldn’t sleep. Whenever he closed his eyes and rested next to the blue flames, he relieved the tragedy of his past self. That was why he forced himself to stay awake most of the time, even when travelling outside of cities. It was why he’d always volunteered himself to act as lookout whenever possible without overburdening his body.

“Here, take these. I took some of your arrows when you were asleep and modified them.”

“Concussive arrows?”

“Yeah. I refined and altered the recipe of the blend back at Xu. The explosion won’t hurt but it should stun and blind enemies that get struck by it. It’ll take practice to prepare before you shoot it. Use it at your discretion.”

“Thanks, Kihet!”

“Ready to go?”

“En! I’m good. As for the other two…”

“Sorry…. We’re ready.” Yixy answered. “Though I wish I could’ve slept a bit longer.”

“We searched through the rest of the layout, and it doesn’t seem there are any path that goes around the room we want to avoid.” Priqet chirped. “Just a few turns down and we’ll be right in front of that chamber with the big creature I spoke about.”

“Are there enemies ahead?”

“Down the corridor and to my left.” Priqet answered. “Yixy, if you’d please use magic.”

“Since we’re indoors in such a narrow corridor, there’s not a lot I could do. I suppose I can play around with the little draft there is in here to make it easier to breathe.” Yixy responded to Priqet’s request, preparing a spell. “O’Wind, untameable, wild yet gentle, let us hide our presence in your graceful breeze. Furl, Ulos, Larv, Val, Cirk, Cirl, Dupil.”

A light breeze swirled around the group. Other than its effects to conceal their scent and footsteps, it had an extra effect to blow aside light obstructions. An arrow would pass, but anything smaller than a leaf would be flung away.

“Wind?” Lily asked.

“It’s the only element I can use. It’s essential for cave and dungeon exploring since the wind doesn’t travel far in here.”

“How many, bring?”

“Only ten charms. To make up for it, I add prayers to empower my spells as much as I can.” Yixy let out a big yawn as she tossed the burning talisman into the air. “Mages are a rare career choice among Insectoid adventurers, though knowing a few spells does help when you’re trying to put a party together.”

“Oracle, we’re back to where we stopped.” Priqet interrupted. His feelers still shaking.

“Is the thing you mention still there?”

“Yes, and it hasn’t moved one bit I believe.”

Ahead, through the dark tunnel, a gallery waited for them. The chamber was identical to the dungeon core from the one in Xu with an artificial moon casting its light down on them. However, this time there was a spot of shade at the center of the floor.

“Kihet, this…”

“The dungeon core’s room. Or it’s supposed to be.” He looked up.

“It looks like a giant cocoon.” Yixy said.

“How fitting.” Priqet huffed.

The silhouette was pitch black as with every other Shadows on this floor. The cocoon hanged down from the ceiling relying on webbings to keep it suspended in midair. Upon first inspection from below, it had bright orange neon spots all over its exterior that pulsed as if the cocoon leeched energy from the tower’s core.

“Usually I find cocoons cute, but this one creeps me out.” Yixy flapped her wings uncomfortably. “Where is the way out, Priqet? I don’t want to be around this thing.”

“Not that I can tell, but this room contains several floors going up. It appears to be gallery or a theatre of some sort. Exciting isn’t it? It’s been a while since I’ve had felt a sense of danger going dungeon diving! Oh hey, what’s that?”

“And he’s off… I’ll find a place to sit.”

Priqet suddenly ran off as Yixy fluttered to the second floor, sitting at the edge to keep a lookout.

While the insectoids explored the ground floor, Lily and Kihet already made their way onto the stairs. Kihet noticed the walls were decorated with drawings as he climbed to the second level, but he wasn’t able to decipher it.

Lily walked at a faster pace, curiously touring as she browsed the pictures. There were times she stopped in front of one, cocking her head to the side with her arms crossed as if she tried to understand the meaning behind each drawing.

“Found something?” Kihet asked.

“It’s weird. When I look at drawings of people, I don’t recognize their race.”

“Probably ones from the old era. Like humans.”

“Humans?”

“I’m not too sure myself, but they look identical to Giants. Just shorter and less bulky you could say.”

“Huh… then what about this one?”

She pointed to a drawing of a person with large animal like ears and tail. Kihet immediately wanted to answer Beastmen, but that didn’t feel correct. The figure was lacking fur or hair on their body. It looked human with an animal’s ears and tail. The one next to it had long ears and looked like an Alf from Easul or a hornless Devil Folk. It could be that the races of today were evolved from ones from the past.

“I’m not sure, but we should focus finding the exit.”

“En.”

For the rest of the way up, his eyes were locked onto the cocoon. The way it pulsed and echoed like a beating heart felt incredibly disturbing. He wanted to burn down that repulsive thing, but the Oracle’s power might not be enough. If he failed to destroy it in one hit, there was a chance something like a Screecher could be unleash onto them.

When they climbed the last set of stairs, the insectoids caught up. Priqet gave Yixy a piggyback as she slept. Everyone continued exploring this chamber, keeping their senses sharp for unknown threats.

“Say, shouldn’t we cut down this cocoon? I feel if we leave it be, it’ll cause trouble for the next wave of adventurers coming through.” Priqet stretched two of his four arms apart as he attempted to balance on the stone railings.

As tempting as it might be, the fact that this cocoon wasn’t guarded was suspiciously alarming. If the tower didn’t want them to destroy it, there would be Shadows intercepting them. Destroying it should be a last resort if they couldn’t find the exit.

“And it’ll give us trouble if we do.” Kihet answered. “Keep looking.”

The rest of the way was uneventful. The only notable discovery worth mentioning was a fountain which had clean water pouring from it. Everyone immediately dipped their canteens to refill them after Kihet gave it a taste test for any side effects.

“There’s a plaque, but I can’t read it. Kihet, can you?”

As an Enui, Kihet was taught to speak, read, and write in all languages of races that currently existed but the sign contained characters unknown to him. Those words must be from Henrick’s time.

“I’m going to take a wild guess to say this hall is a resting zone.”

Kihet found the positioning of the plaque strange. It was faced at them when they entered the room. Usually, warnings and signs were placed to warn people from going deeper into danger and if they were trying to find the exit, it was supposed to be facing the other way.

Other than that, a steel door waited on the other side and of course it had to be locked. The hinges were on the other side, so it was impossible to cheat his way through.

“Does anyone know how to lock pick?”

He was responded with silence and head shakes. Priqet even woke up Yixy and asked her. It’s understandable as none of them were a proper Tracker in the group. Although Kihet considered himself as a hybrid of a Fighter and a Tracker, his abilities were combat focused. His lock picking skills weren’t superb, and they didn’t have any picks. The only option was to backtrack to look for hints of its key’s whereabouts in the room from behind.

After he led them back, Kihet noticed the cocoon was slightly larger than he remembered.

“Wasn’t the way we came through supposed to be there?” Yixy pointed down to the spot of the hall they came from. The pathway that led them here was replaced by a solid wall.

“We’re trapped. We need to look for something we can use get out of here.”

“The sooner the better. That cocoon’s making me really uncomfortable.”

“You’re not the only one who thinks that.” Kihet said towards Yixy.

They searched all three floors. The insectoids hopped down to the bottom floor to investigate the blockage while Lily volunteered to scour the third floor. Kihet took the chance to understand the images on the second floor, hoping to discover something similar he found in the dungeon from Xu. Stone murals of those from older races were seen in a battle against monsters. There was a group that caught his eye as he recognized some of their shapes.

There was the Knight leading the Wizard, the Headsman, the other Acolytes and one more figure he suspected was Elenora.

The scene was from the final chapters of a book he borrowed from his friend, Elius. There was a castle surrounded by the heroes’ forces as they rounded up the remainder of the enemy. Unfortunately, six of eight heroes fell in the process of fighting into the inner chamber, the one with the coffin was missing, leaving the Knight alone against the Shadow Lord.

Overall, there was nothing useful on the second floor.

“Any luck down there?”

“Oracle, remember the left behind equipment we found earlier?” Priqet shouted.

“Why?”

“We discovered something. It’s not pretty but take a look at the cocoon.”

Kihet let out a heavy sigh after he looked up at the cocoon. There was an object in one of the glowing orange spots. It looked like a bent twig, but after he narrowed his eyes, he identified the object being a dismembered arm floating inside it. Moments later, the torso, a leg then a decapitated head swam by.

“I think I’m going to hurl.” Yixy held her mouth.

“He’s dead either way.” Kihet curtly said. “At least we know where the bodies ended up.”

-But what’s the cocoon doing with corpses? It’s possible they’re transforming the bodies to make more minions. However, I don’t see any resemblances for that theory being true. The Shadows would’ve taken the form of the dead instead of reconstructing a new form. It’d be more efficient in my opinion.-

“Kihet, I found something!” Lily waved from the third floor.

“A key?”

“A hidden switch! Should I press it?”

“Wait for me to get up there.”

“So up?” Yixy asked.

“I’ll go. You two come up to the second floor and keep an eye out for changes.”

“It’s over here, by the same mark on your arms. Do you think it’s going to open the door?”

“Only one way to find out.” Kihet said, pressing the hidden button.

“This one’s sense of duty exceed the ordinary. For failure, the action of this one would go beyond common sense to destroy all wrongdoers with malice towards its master, even if it meant betraying all of humanity.”

A voice echoed through the chamber while Lily and Kihet remained motionless, waiting for what’s next to come. Suddenly the room trembled, dust forced out of cracks between brick walls and floors. The shaking forced everyone on their bottoms as they watched each steps of stair collapsed as the third floor descended and merged with the second floor, then with the ground floor to create a wide-open space.

“Oracle, you could’ve warned us if you were planning to do something, you know?!”

“The hell would I know!”

“The cocoon’s going to pop!” Yixy warned.

The sudden room transformation pressed the cocoon against the ground, cracking it. The orange fluid encased leaked and a gelatinous crust draped over a creature it gave birth. Four giant glassy wings stretched out of the cocoon’s membrane, long branch like arms lifted itself. It looked like a giant hump with wings growing underneath a blanket of ripped fabric.

It remained calm as it tore the membrane off its face. Before it was aware of them, Kihet rushed it with his sword. Using all his strength, he tossed a bola entangling its wings and stabbed his blade in its face, gouging out a piece of flesh. He detonated the Oracle’s flames then leapt back.

“SKREEEEEEEE!”

The monster violently thrashed, shaking off the cloak covering its hideous head. Its eyes, consisted of numerous insectoid heads, each screaming and crying in agony. Its body resembled a giant fly with long grotesque limbs with sharp claws coated in questionable viscera.

“Kihet, above you!”

He put his shield up, holding his ground against long limbs extended at him. Its claws held onto the rim of his shield trying to wrestle it out of his hold. It was then Lily flew to his rescue, chopping down the arms holding him down.

They moved away before more slammed them.

“It doesn’t look like it can regenerate. That’s a good sign.”

“Yeah, but...” She shuddered.

More limbs uncurled out of the monster’s stomach as the lower half unrolled itself. The creature’s belly was drooling with threads of bodily fluids. It initially had eight and now over fifty long limbs wiggled under its belly. What was this abomination?

It let out a terrible screech as lightning climbed between its antennas, embers fluttering between its clacking mandibles. Lastly, cold air flooded below as it erected a field of sharp icicles keeping them at bay while it channeled spells.

“Magic! Scatter!”

The creature spat a wave of searing hot flames towards the insectoids while it dropped high voltage lightning strikes at Kihet and Lily. In response, Kihet unleashed a blast of Oracle’s flames shielding them from its thunder magic and melted the icicle wall erecting around the creature.

Luckily, the flames didn’t travel far. Priqet and Yixy were able to move away safely.

“Oracle, its appearance is identical of that of an Dracalefic Fly!” Priqet exclaimed.

“I have no idea what that is!”

“Did you not listen when we shared about our past?”

“As if I could remember something I didn’t want to hear! So, what is it?”

“A Seeker! They can use magic, be careful!”

As the Seeker turned towards Kihet, it suddenly paused when an explosion detonated on its face. Lily used a stun arrow, temporarily stopped the creature in its tracks for a split second which gave Priqet the opportunity to jump in and followed up with a powerful kick at its face, steering it towards the walls.

“Hey, you!” Kihet shouted to Yixy. “Don’t you have any spells to pin it down?”

“I’m working on it, but it takes time!”

Each arm was about four meters long. The longer the Seeker’s exoskeleton was exposed to air, the more they hardened compared to the first few limbs that attacked them. It’s similar to how crustaceans having soft shells for a small period of time after they molt.

With about fifty arms defending itself as its shell hardened, their blades eventually bounced off it. Even the arms grew extremely difficult to cut.

“The exterior’s grown hard, blades won’t work anymore!” Priqet somersaulted back, bumping a flurry of claws away. “Aim for the joints!”

“Easier said than done!”

The arms squirmed in every direction making it difficult to strike the joints with pinpoint accuracy. It wasn’t impossible, but it was like trying to snip off a specific length of a dangling string while the wind flailed it wildly. Lily was the most successful out of them as she was able to cut into but not all the way through the joints. For some of them, her sword sliced most of the inner flesh and caused them to limp.

Eventually, she caught the monster’s attention as it crawled on all usable legs and swept its arms at her. Fortunately, between her and it was Kihet prepared to receive the blow. After blocking, he shook the claws off his shield and locked a bundle of arms under his armpit, pulling its body towards the ground.

“Good! I was wondering when you’d rush us! Hey, you! Anytime now!”

“Just about done!” Yixy replied. “O’Wind, furious breaths of the Elementals! Typhoons shred and tear, whirlwinds scatter. Go forth, invoke your wrath and hammer down everything in front of me! Furl, Ulos, Zek, Ruh, Val, Exlas!”

Because there was the open sky above them, Yixy gathered the air to hammer the Seeker to the ground while razor sharp gust carved its shell. Come to think of it, this was the first offensive spell Kihet saw in a while. Magic was a luxurious asset that was as convenient and useful as he remembered. For this spell, you could hear violent and relentless slashing scrape against its hard husk as the wind ripped the wings and wing cases off it.

“It’s immobilized!”

The creature remained nailed to the floor as it struggled to stand up. An arc of electricity climbed between its antennas as Kihet drew to the Nagamaki and swept at its antenna to prevent it from shooting more lightning. He managed to cut them, but a surge of electricity shocked him when his blade made contact.

“Hmph!”

After tearing off its ability to use thunder magic, Kihet’s burning hands crushed one of the many faces making up its compound eyes and seared it. He reeled his Nagamaki, aimed, then plunged it into the creature’s maw with enough power capable of caving in its skull. Silver flames erupted from its mandibles, smoke flooding out of the many heads.

“SKREEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”

As Yixy and Kihet held the Seeker down, Priqet and Lily attacked from opposite sides. While Lily handled the long legs, Priqet hopped to the back, pried apart its shell and exposed some weak points. After a few more seconds of thrashing from the crew brutally dismantling it, the creature collapsed with no sign of life. The Oracle’s flames eventually claimed the remains and not even ashes were left behind.

“What a peculiar creature. It mimicked the abilities of Dracalific Flies, but it's not as strong as one. I remember putting a bit more effort to take one down.” Said Priqet as he picked up a tag. “Well, we conquered one challenge this tower offered. I had thought it to be much more difficult.”

That was something Kihet wished the Grasshopper didn’t say. Before they were able to regroup, they heard the echoing of a door being unlocked and opened. The ominous door squeak was accompanied by bold heavy footsteps as cold air flooded into the room. Mist crept toward them, masking the cobblestone flooring in white veil.

Trouble.

Kihet charged up and unleashed his biggest wave of Silver flames at the entrance as soon as he spotted a boot poking out from the dark. He then lunged at the person walking out without a care for any consequences. If it was a group of adventurers that also happened to wander in the dungeon, they were simply unlucky. As Kihet entered striking range, he caught wind of a sharp object cutting through his fire and rolled back. The blade missed his head by a hair’s breadth and hacked into the floor even Kihet was unable to damage.

The enemy remained still within the dust cloud. Only when it settled down and the floor was entirely covered in a dense blanket of mist, was Kihet able to identify the attacker.

Every strand of hair on his body stood up as he recognized the weapon his enemy held. His blood boiled, veins being pumped full of adrenaline. He couldn’t have forgotten its appearance even if he wanted to. It was the same one that carried a giant guillotine blade that prevented him from killing the Wizard. If it didn’t interfere, then Lemi could’ve survived but it was also Malth’s murderer.

His foe was the Headsman of the old Heroes, the Acolyte of Retribution. It was among the ones Elenora warned him to avoid at all costs. A nightmare of the past.