The next day, Cerion and I packed up and mentally prepared for the final challenge the [City of tears] had to offer. Revan had kept us safe throughout the night, not that I was particularly worried about any threats in the first place. If this dungeon had proven us anything, it was that it liked to stick to its own rules.

‘Imitation’ had been the ruling theme, especially in that last battle. The dungeon imitated our human cities, behaviors and characters in a crude manner, though its goals remained unknown. So far, the mini bosses had all required a certain trick or tactic to defeat. If one didn’t follow the dungeon’s rules, defeating any boss in this dungeon would become nigh impossible. Perhaps the baker and butcher could have been beaten with a large enough party, but the other two required the right method to defeat, curated by the dungeon itself.

I didn’t know whether to thank this enigmatic existence for giving us a straightforward path to victory in each fight, or to curse it for forcing me outside of my comfort zone as far as planning went. If this dungeon had been your run of the mill tier 3, Cerion and I could have blazed through it with no issue. Instead, we had to watch our step and fight for our lives in each battle.

Still, with hardship came progress. We were both close to level 50. Cerion was one level away and I was two levels away from the goal we had been working towards for months now. With an excited grin, I turned to Cerion.

“Come on! Let’s go beat this final boss and receive the rewards for our efforts! Just a little more…”

Cerion chuckled.

“Calm down, Arthur. It’s not like we can walk any faster than we already are. There’s no point in wasting energy just to get there.”

And, indeed, there wasn’t, because as we turned the corner, the clocktower came into sight. The massive building still impressed me, even after seeing it before. The impressively decorated monolith broke through the city skyline, as if protesting against the rest of the dungeon’s monotony.

As we approached, the barrier erected itself in a dome around the tower and nearby buildings, without prompt from our side. It shielded the impressive complex of giant buildings that the clocktower was one of, separating this group of white and blue structures from the rest of the city, as well as keeping us out.

This time, however, the barrier wouldn’t be able to remain in existence. Cerion wasted no time and sent a wave of water at it, covering the shield entirely and revealing the inscriptions that had lit up before. The three crests that represented the three challenging mini-bosses we had faced lit up brightly, before dimming like a diminishing flame, until they became a dull gray. The chains that were interlinked between each crest broke rhythmically, one by one, until only broken links were left. The dull gray shimmer that the crests had become started to spread. First to the broken links of the chains, then to the rest of the barrier, until it lost all of its luster, fading out of existence when it had lost its strength.

With that, the figurative gate to the complex had opened, showing a clear path for us to follow. Unfortunately, heading straight to the clock tower didn’t seem feasible, despite my impatience to finish this dungeon.

The tower was a part of a number of different buildings, including a large cathedral-like structure.

“It’s possible that the boss isn’t in the tower, but at its base, Cerion. I think we should be careful of an ambush.”

Cerion nodded.

“Indeed. This dungeon hasn’t held back in throwing us curveballs before, why would it stop now. Let’s remain on our guards and check out the peripheral buildings first.”

I agreed to his suggestion and followed him as we explored the nearby buildings that made up the previously protected complex, starting from the relatively small and unimportant-looking buildings.

Like before, most were empty or had confusing passageways that lead to nowhere, while a rare few had some small stone statues representing things we used in our everyday life, like a cooking pot or a broom. All were carved out of stone, proving that they couldn’t actually function in the way we humans used them, once again affirming our belief that this dungeon had a strange obsession for humans.

Unfortunately, no matter how much Cerion and I put our heads together, we couldn’t come up with any plausible reason as to why. It wasn’t like it really mattered, either. The royal faction had used this dungeon frequently for who knew how many generations. Cerion and I weren’t about to solve a puzzle that other investigative classers had racked their brains over for centuries. Focusing on defeating the final boss was out true objective, so we left the smaller buildings behind and headed for the cathedral, as well as the clocktower attached to it at one of its corners.

As we approached the entrance, I held out a hand in front of Cerion, stopping him.

“Let’s not both get caught in another trap. Because I have the highest survivability and farthest-reaching mobility skill, I think I should head in alone first. I can then scout ahead and apparate out when I find the boss.”

Cerion furrowed his brow for a moment, seemingly unwilling to let me go in alone. He rubbed his temples and gave my suggestion some thought, at least. Eventually, he sighed.

“Alright. I don’t like to admit it, but that’s a better idea than our usual approaches. I hope you won’t do anything stupid though. I don’t want to have to tell your uncle that we failed.”

I nodded and smiled. Time to play the hero.

A few minutes later, I walked up to the heavy set, stone doors that led into what I assumed was supposed to represent the church of Helios cathedral back up top, in the capital. I put both hands on one of the two doors and pushed with all my strength. Surprisingly, the stone doors gave way rather easily, revealing roughly what I had come to expect from this dungeon, a rough imitation of an actual church.

Wooden benches were neatly arranged along the cathedral’s sides, all pointing to an altar at the front. Near the sides, small alcoves with statues and fake, stone candles were visible.

Strangely, the dungeon deviated from the norm in one way. On the central altar, there was no statue depicting Helios. Instead, a glowing blue marble occupied the space, floating up and down lazily, thrumming with mana, with power. The marble was easily my size and had no visible carvings or runes on its surface.

I couldn’t see the mana that coursed through that thing, but all of my instincts were telling me that a veritable storm of the stuff was rushing through the cathedral. It felt like I was staring into the abyss, just by being in that marble’s aura.

The situation became clear. This thing was somehow related to the boss, or worse, this thing was the boss. Luckily, even after my entrance the marble made no movement to attack, nor did it activate any spells to my knowledge. With a gulp, I wasted no time and apparated outside, appearing next to Cerion, who stared at me inquisitively.

“So? What did you find?”

With cold sweat running down my back, I gathered my thoughts.

“A blue marble-looking thing was floating where the altar of Helios would normally be. It was completely smooth and left me with just one impression. It’s incredibly powerful. Or, at the very least, it has a lot of mana. I don’t know how adept that thing is at using its power though…”

Cerion hummed and rubbed his chin in thought.

“Is it possible that that thing isn’t the boss, but instead just a power source? All of the bosses so far have been humanoid ghosts. It would be rather strange for the dungeon to divert from its previously set patterns out of nowhere…”

I shook my head.

“Possible, I guess, but it didn’t seem like that thing was just a tool, Cerion. My instincts told me that that was our enemy. I’m almost sure of it.”

Cerion sighed.

“Alright then. If that is our enemy, and It’s as powerful as you described, there must be a secret way to defeat it. Let’s reflect on our previous mistakes. In the last battle, we should have done a more thorough search of the arena’s underbelly. We could have avoided a difficult fight that way. In the fight before that, we shouldn’t have rushed in without preparing. This time, we should start by exploring the rest of the area. Do you mind entering the clocktower? That building seemed significant. It would make no sense for it to dominate the city’s skyline, only to then play no actual role in the rest of the fight.”

“Sure thing.”, I nodded, “Oh, and let me summon Revan as well. We’ll keep the summons near you, in case a fight breaks out. I just don’t think Revan can sneak well enough to follow me inside yet.”

Cerion agreed and summoned Alia as well, who slithered into existence near Cerion and was swiftly joined by my own skeletal companion, Revan. The two summons gave one another a wordless look, communicating in a way only animals could. Perhaps the fact that they were both reptiles had something to do with it.

“I’m sorry you have to sneak back in there, Arthur. I should have asked my father for an artifact that could mask our presence, especially since neither of us have stealth skills.”, Cerion spoke.

“That’s no big deal, Cerion. My affinity lets me keep a cool head at times like these, at least.”

With a wave, I headed back into the cathedral, careful no to make too much noise. I crouched down and stealthily waddled along the backside of the cathedral, my heartbeat quickening as my primal instincts told me to run, rather than fight. Very unusual, for a person with my affinity. Still, I had no choice but to continue. Luckily, the clock tower was built into the righthand corner of the cathedral, at the front. That meant that I simply had to skirt the walls to get to the spiraling staircase.

I slowly approached said staircase and headed up with slow steps, right after checking on the marble’s movements. It was still bobbing up and down slowly, as if breathing, so I breathed out quietly and continued upward.

The slow and steady climb took several minutes, because I didn’t want to make too much noise and wanted to stay alert in case of a trap or an ambush. After a painstaking ten minutes that felt like an eternity, I reached the tower's peak. The spiraling staircase opened up into a larger room, filled with cogs and pipes that were slowly turning. For a moment, I took in the sight of the mechanism, a structure so complicated I had never considered it possible without magic. A few separate staircases led higher up into the tower, supposedly leading to the city’s highest point.

As I followed them upward, the air around me became stifling. Unlike the mana-dense environment around the marble, it felt like I was being overwhelmed in a different way. When I reached the top of the tower, I peeked into the chamber that the final set of stairs opened up into. There, I saw what had been overwhelming me. Another marble, glowing light-blue, bordering on white, as if made out of ice. It bobbed up and down, and radiated a feeling that was hard to describe. Unlike the raw power the previous marble displayed with its mana capacity, this one seemed to represent skill… elegance… perfection. That was the word I was looking for.

Unfortunately, this one wasn’t as oblivious as the previous marble. Right as I had peered into the room, its rhythmic movement had stopped, its aura freezing into place.

It had noticed me. Soon, our element of surprise would be gone.

With no other choice, I decided to take the initiative, since Cerion was safe outside. I shot forward with my aura step, quickly covering the few paces between me and it, drawing my sword as I did so.

With a charged up overloaded sword, I sunk my attack straight into the core, which partially shattered, losing a solid chunk as it cracked. Right as I intended to follow up with another attack, the marbles aura started to shift again. The walls of the chamber caved in, forming spikes that shot at me with frightening speed. For some reason, I knew they would reach me before another attack of mine would reach the marble. Sensing the danger, I apparated out of the building, not willing to be skewered.

As I appeared next to Cerion, I gave him the run down.

“Second crystal, representing skill rather than strength. It noticed me, I took the initiative and broke a large chunk off of it before it came to life. I think it manipulated the stone around it. Earth manipulation maybe?”

Near the end of my sentence, I noticed that Cerion wasn’t wholly paying attention to me anymore. Instead, he was looking behind me with his mouth hanging open in shock, as I heard large booms and crashes behind me.

“I think you can forget about earth manipulation, Arthur.”, he said slowly.

I turned around, and saw what he was talking about.

The whole cathedral was rising up, the clocktower moving with it. The stone that made up the structures warped, slowly changing shape until a giant stone golem appeared before us, made out of the remnants of the tower and the cathedral. It was easily a hundred meters tall, with two blue, glowing eyes in its eye sockets, two stone arms and legs each and a broad, unnatural looking chest that comprised most of its body.

“I think we’ve found our human resemblance, Arthur…”, Cerion mumbled quietly.

“It seems so…”, I replied numbly.