Ank

The surrounding area of the dungeon was absolutely covered by monsters; every single tree of the jungle had been cut down, and in its place a giant creature stood in wait, and in between their legs, legions of terrifying enemies; waiting and protecting the entrance to the [Dungeon], and each with a level high enough to face an Intermediate [God], ravage entire armies, and crush kingdoms.

Just like the last time Hunah and I came across the sea of monsters, none withstood a chance, and couldn’t even resist our intense aura.

“Maybe this will be easier than we thought…?”, the muscular ax wielder, Guillian, commented, pale, jumping from the summon that flew us all to that place and walking in between the sea co intact corpses.

“It’d sure be nice if that was the case~”, I agreed, stopping before the cave that served as the entrance to the [Dungeon].

“If we manage to move quickly enough, that may be just the case: we would only need to deal with the leaders of the cult. But if we move too slow… It would be a problem for the entire planet”, Kon replied.

As my twin sister pulled tickets for everyone, and these items burned in between her fingers, consumed to envelop everyone present in a purple light, she asked the anxious yellow girl beside her:

“From the explanation from before, you were one who originally made it so hard to enter your space, right? Why?”

“Well…” Incute starts. And we all get teleported to the interior of the dungeon, to that initial dark room from long ago. Except, this time, it’s full of abandoned stalls filled with a variety of cheap products, and the ground is covered in trash, and smelling like vomit and urine.

“Ugh~!”, I cover my nose, especially disgusted because of my high [Perception].

“I just didn’t know people could be so annoying”, Incute sighed.

“Well, let’s get this over with, then”, I wanted to get away from there as fast as possible. “[Rule Bender]”, I created a small army of powerful creatures, before turning to the two weakest members of our [Party], and saying: “Each of you, mount one of them, and they will move you around the underground labyrinth. If you discover the entrance to their pocket dimension, I’ll know”, that said and done, my monsters and the four armed woman, and the muscular axe wielder vanishing deeper into the tunnels, it was my twin sister who moved next.

Hunah pulled a huge golden spear from her inventory, looked up, and threw it against the earth ceiling:

“PWUUUUSH!”, turning into an enormous pillar of golden light, her weapon dug through the layer of roots, rock, and earth above our heads, and opened a huge hole to the surface; and the spear could still be seen, stuck in the fake sky of the [Dungeon].

“WAAAH! MY PRECIOUS [DUNGEON]!”, Incute screamed, holding her head in despair. “This is exactly the type of behavior that made me seal up this place! No one wants to explore, just push through everything…!”

“Uuh… Sorry, but this time we kinda have a time limit, and everything…”, Hunah, embarrassed, apologized.

Sighing, Incute replied:

“Yeah, you’re right. And, I guess, this is not my [Dungeon] anymore, anyway…”

That solved, I conjured some flying creatures, and we all flew to the surface of that small artificial planet. Looking around, I asked:

“So, Incute, any idea where they could have installed this secret passage?”

“Well, it could have been anywhere, really. But… If they’re trying to be energy efficient, to save as much power as possible to summon their master quicker, then they should have chosen the exit of the [Dungeon], since magic is naturally gathered there to allow transportation to the outside world”, just like last time, then?

“Back to the top of that tree”, Hunah commented, almost nostalgic.

And then, as I guided my summon to the right place, we all saw it:

“I- I didn’t remember this tree being always this big…?”, I pointed out. For, before us, stood the colossal tree.

With many kilometers of height, the giant tree we once climbed was then many times bigger, so much that after the point that was its limit once, the giant sloth that was the last boss of the place became a common enemy, and even a small fry when compared to the creatures dotting the path ascending higher up all around the tree.

“After you told everyone about my existence, I got visitors enough to grow a little bigger”, a proud, embarrassed Incute explained, laughing as she scratched the back of her head.

“Good thing we don’t need to climb all of that on our feet-”, I said, until an impact on the side of my summon, shut me up: a huge purple beam pierced straight through the chest of the creature that flew us upwards, killing it instantly. “Fuck, [Summon: Winds of Despair]”, I conjured another flying creature, even stronger than the last one, just beneath my falling [Party] catching us all. “[Rule Bender]”, I continued, and created a full swarm of monsters around us, so to hide us. But it was all for nothing.

“VUUUNNNSH!”, another laser pierced straight through the swarm with ease, and right in our direction, beheading the summon that tried to take us upwards.

“What an annoying fuck…”, I whispered, clicking my tongue as we all lost height in free fall.

I probably could summon something strong enough to resist the laser, but then I’d have to leave those two in the underground unprotected; or I could search and kill the attacker, with my high [Perception], and incomparable strength…

“He’s hiding inside a pocket dimension”, Hunah noticed too. “And is very aware that we can easily dispose of him. His objective is to slow us down”, our gaze pierced even the difference in reality, and caught the man, someone named ‘Mamon’, behind thousands of annoying traps and hindrances and a labyrinth of pocket dimensions inside pocket dimensions created by his slaves.

It’d probably take some full 40 seconds or 1 minute for Hunah and I to take the guy out, and who knew how much longer we had?

“Inside a multitude of pocket dimensions, hu?”, to everyone’s surprise, Giselle commented, staring precisely in the direction the enemy was hiding. Noticing our surprise, the woman with scarred arms smiled, and explained: “You’re not the only ones who became more powerful in these past year! My [Detect Lies] evolved into [Revive Scene], I can recreate any happening perfectly inside my head, and I saw the guy shooting us from behind a bunch of aligned portals; and since I reached [Level: 1000], I can use these pocket dimension things!”, turning serious, she concluded: “Ank, Hunah, we don’t have much time now that we’re not defending the city: these guys surely have sent an army after the common people already. We need to end them before they can shed any more blood, else we’re all doomed. We have no time to waste… You have no time to waste. Throw me there, and continue ascending!”

“Giselle…!”, Incute called, scared. But comprehending our, no, the world situation, she held back her words of concern, and simply wished, smiling: “Come back safe.”

“I will”, the woman with scarred arms replied in kind.

There was no time for hesitation: Hunah nodded, grabbed the Guild Master woman by the collar, and hurled her towards where the Mamon guy was hiding; when Giselle invaded the cultist’s hiding spot.

I summoned more flying creatures, and continued our ascent.

For a few seconds, that is.

“GRUOOOOOH!”, As we approached the canopy that completely covered the skies above, a mountain-sized monster; that looked like a whale, but covered in an exoskeleton, and with many enormous crab’s pincers dangling from its chin; broke through the ceiling of branches and leaves, and fell with its gaping maw towards us.

On top of the monster, holding his position placidly, wearing simple black robes, something that barely reminisced a man; his head consisted only of an exposed enlarged brain with multiple eyes in it, and his lower jaw.

“So we finally met… the ones who killed my old companions”, he said. And Hunah and I looked to Kon.

“Uh? Sorry, I killed so many cultists throughout my life, I don’t really know who you are…”

“I’m not talking with you! I’m talking with the twins!”, As my twin sister and I looked at one another, without really knowing what he was talking about, he angrily shouted, pointing an index finger: “When you first met with the cult, you killed the old [Party] of the 10th Guild Master, but there was someone missing! That person was I!”

“Ah, well…”, Hunah shrugged and pulled out a blue bow and arrow, but before she could shot, I stopped her:

“Look: [Portal Mastery], [Space Control], [Reflection Rules], [Banishment], [Movement Curse]…”, it was as if the whale monster and the man above had built all of their strength just for that moment, to keep people from reaching the apex of the ritual that would bring their master to that world; if we attacked, we’d probably ended up teleported somewhere else, even if we managed to kill the thing.

“They’re useless to anything but slowing people down… That’s crazy”, Hunah clicked her tongue. We’d probably lose an entire 3 minutes to deal with those two, just because it had such an annoying set of [Spells] and powers.

“Yeah, the people who pierce their own skulls are crazy”, Kon laughed, stepping forward. Looking over his shoulder, as we quickly approached the enemies, he said: “Leave this to me. You two… Go ahead and save the world.”

And then it was our time to said those words back to him:

“…Don’t die.”

“I won’t”, the 1st Guild Master promised, and jumped from my flying summon towards the whale monster and its master.

Right when Kon was about to hit the giant creature, a bright light, and enemy and ally disappeared, teleported to somewhere many kilometers outside the dungeon. But, finally, Incute, Hunah, and I pierced through the thick up branches of the enormous tree, and reached the peak of that artificial world.

My summon flew in a spiral before landing us in the middle of the place, right in front of a bright purple sphere that emitted a familiar light. It looked corrupted, but was it the “sun” we once saw in that fake sky when we first entered that [Dungeon]?

“My core!”, Incute jumped from my summon, and dashed toward the thing. Swiftly, and yet in the blink of an eye, my twin sister and I reached her, making sure to keep the [Dungeon]-girl safe. “These assholes have taken control over it and have been using my core to create monsters for their armies!”, she extended both hands towards the thing. She seemed to be in pain while doing so, but forced herself to continue: “I have to take control over it again, to stop the continuous spawning of monsters outside this place! And maybe I’ll even be able to help with the fight against this cult!”

“Sure, but…”, I exchanged a worried glance with Hunah.

“…Where’s the secret portal to their real summoning ground?”, my twin sister said exactly what I was thinking. “Wasn’t it supposed to be right here?”, we looked around, but couldn’t find any signal of a secret portal anywhere.

“…Uh?”, the yellow girl seemed to finally have noted it too.

It was when one of my summons in the underground warned me: they have found it. And things weren’t looking good.

“Shit!”, turned around, dashed to the hole through where we came to the top of the tree, and jumped through it. In free fall, waiting until I had put some good distance between Incute and me, I said: “They literally put all of their strongest men purposefully in the wrong spot just to trick, and slow us down?”

“Yeah, crazy…”, Hunah half laughed, half sighed by my side, a throwback to Kon’s words.

Once we decided we were far enough from Incute, at the same time, both of us contracted our legs’ muscles, and kicked the air. We moved faster than it would be to summon a flying creature, or use a flying item, but on the other hand, the air was pushed by our feet with such an intensity, that it combusted into a tornado of flames behind us, a burning spiraling pillar that tried to follow us, and failed, as we exceeded the speed of sound in many times. As the huge tree started to burn because of our kick, Hunah and I broker through the earth and stone with our bodies landing deep within the underground tunnels of the dungeon, and right in between the two adventurers who decided to follow us and my summons, and a group of cultists protecting a red magical circle on a wall behind them. With our high [Perception], we could see that this magical circle was 99.9% charged.

Both of us moved faster than anyone present could even follow with their eyes, and I split all of the cultists in half with my bare hands, as my twin sister opened her [Inventory], and shot a looted lightning against the circle trying to destroy it before it was too late.

It was too late already, however.

Just before the lightning was about to hit the magical circle, we saw it getting fully charged. And, as if a dam had broken, from the red light that filled the internal part of the circle, multiple tons of flesh erupted forward faster than even I, or my twin sister could move, grabbed the lightning, and crushed it, dispelling the ethereal weapon with ease.