“Gah! Do these fuckers never stop coming, or what? How many of these shits are there? Where the fucking god damned hell are they coming from?!”

Kevin raged as he expended more and more of his mana pool. The initial waves of cannon fodder trash had been disposed of relatively easily, but now there seemed to be no end to them! He was down to 50% of his total Mana when he began the fight, and now was wondering if he would have to dip into his large amount of sacrifices so he could simply erase the creatures coming at him using his Mega Pistol/Fuck Everything Gun.

A stone arrow scraped his cheek and drew blood, and Kevin felt pain for the first time since coming to the world of Mortis. Back on Earth, he had never been hurt by anyone, at least not physically. This was the first time he had been hurt by anyone at all, as even his own father would not lay a finger on him in anger. Even though he was embroiled in a battle for survival, he still reeled back in panic as the single thin cut that barely drew blood made him realize that he was still very much a mortal being that could be killed.

“Ahh… AHH! AUAUUURGH!”

Kevin screamed as the extremely unfamiliar sensation of pain stung him like a Tarantula Wasp. He was over exaggerating the damage dealt to him, but to one who rarely, if ever, got hurt it was more painful than normal.

“No! Stay away!”

Kevin yelled before he let loose a barrage of spells. In his panicking mind, everything around him was a potential source of danger. Screw trying to avoid friendly fire,! Since no one around was willing to protect him then they deserved to be caught up in the destruction and viewed as ‘collateral damage’.

Bursts of magic flew in every which direction until Kevin unconsciously decided ‘Fuck this!’ and unleased all of his remaining mana in a single, overwhelming attack directed in front of him. The mix of Earth, Water, Wind and Fire Magic tore a hole through everything in front of him like an energy blast from an anime, carving a gash through friend, foe and structure alike.

“JUST! LET! ME! WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!”

As the tempest of elemental destruction faded, the Female Only section of the Monastery could be seen as 86% destroyed. No one still alive and hiding there was alive by now, as what remained of the nunnery was engulfed in potent and deadly flames and just about to collapse in on itself. As the tempest of magical energy faded, Kevin passed out due to mana depletion and fell to the ground just as the burning remnants of the nunnery collapsed and ended any hope of rescuing anyone still trapped and alive within.

Several heroes had just barely dodged the quad-elemental beam of magic and a few had actually been hit by the random fire Kevin had unleased prior. Everyone, even a good chunk of the clergy, wanted him dead or excommunicated, but as the one who was decided to be ‘the most powerful of the New Heroes’ he was beyond their reach.

“What is that?” Pierre asked while pointing to something that shouldn’t have been there.

The rest of the Heroes and the surviving clergy looked where the Frenchman was pointing and saw a cave jutting out of the ground. It looked very out of place, as not only was it just kind of sticking out of the ground like a man-made tunnel, it also had classical Greco-Roman marble stonework around it. For it to survive while everything else had been wiped away astonished everyone, but they quickly realized the purpose of the cavern.

From the inky-black hole that seemed to devour all light that flew into it, Goblins, Slimes and other monstrous beings emerged.

“Shitze!” Kristof yelled as the monsters emerged. “That is where they are coming from! It is some kind of tunnel network! Darksol is sending its forces in behind the front lines using these!”

Kristof was partially right. Darksol was intending to use these dungeon entrances as a mode of fast travel, but the forces emerging were not being directly commanded by Kain or Alexis. This was less an invasion from behind the lines and more of a test. And it was a test that had just about reached its conclusion.

“Fly, [Arsenal Launch]!”

Kristof let his massive stockpile of random melee weapons shoot out from his hammer space and impale the monsters emerging from within the cave. Soon after the blades and other weapons finished imbeding themselves in the monsters, they disintegrated into dust. By shooting those weapons, Kristof had lost them forever. However, he had stopped one of the waves from ever reaching them in process.

“[Iron Arbor Prison]!” Pierre shouted as he focused his power into growing a set of thick and extremely durable trees in front of the cave entrance. The stone weapons of the monsters would never be able to cut through wood that was as hard as iron.

As the dust settled and the threat diminished, everyone very nearly fell to the dirt in exhaustion. The nearly 10 solid hours of fighting left everyone drained, and some were just barely holding on to their senses and trying desperately to keep from drifting off to sleep. They had fought long and hard, and now the Heroes had a decent understanding that they would have to get quite a bit stronger if they ever intended to fight the military might of Darksol, let alone its rulers. Although, if worse came to worse they could always have that bastard Kevin use his Mega Pistol/Fuck Everything Gun to eliminate the two monarchs.

The whole of the human fighters in the Monastery (or what was left of it anyways) took deep breaths and eventually succumbed to the power of the sandman, going to sleep one by one.

…

“Unexpected. Barrier prevents continuation of testing. Mobs not strong enough to remove. Do I send a Floor Guardian, or just end the tests? Maybe I should as Kain and his wife for help; but that could make me be seen as incompetent. Then again, how many tests was I supposed to give them? Was it just the zombies, or did he really mean it when he said I could go all out as long as I didn’t end up destroying the Heroes? ARGH! I should have asked earlier! Now what will I do? I don’t want to be turned into scrap metal! Please, someone help me!”

Zero Noir twisted his giant mechanical body as he tried to come to a decision as to what he should be doing. He could easily destroy the current entrance and establish another one, but even if he did the Heroes would not have to do anything other than pop up those ironwood trees again. He was in a very dangerous situation, at least to himself. Suddenly, he felt a tap on his metal frame.

“Ah! Ah, My Lord! How much of that did you…?”

As he turned around, he saw a naga that was… different. It wasn’t a normal naga, that was for sure. It seemed to be both human and not at the same time, having legs with the same skin texture as a naga but four webbing-edged tentacles sprouting from its back. It had the trademark octopus’ eyes of a naga, and the webbing in its fingers and toes was also a clue that it was a Naga. But Zero had never created a naga like this. Where did it come from?

“I. Go. Fight.”

It spoke in a mix of a feminine and animalistic voice that seemed to have been the result of a supermodel trying to sound like a caveman.

“Fight. Heroes… Defeat. Heroes… Push. Heroes. Back… Make. Mother. Proud...”

“Your… Mother?”

“Zalga.”

“KAIN HAD AN EXTRAMARITAL RELATIONSHIP?!”

The Naga shook its head.

“Experiment. By. Zalga...”

“Well… ok then. Let’s let them get rested and ready for another run. Just… don’t kill, maim, or cripple them, ok? I don’t want Kain and Alexis shredding me because I let you crush them before they were prepared.”

The Naga nodded and began to make its way out of the Core Room and up through the 100 floors of The Dungeon. Zero Noir shivered as he scanned the prototype Naga that Zalga had created.

“Dear god… She could shred me almost as easily as Alexis could… But then, how powerful does that make Zalga now?”