Thunderclouds continuously shot bolts of lightning at them as Moyo deflected the majority of the attacks, twisting it or using his command over reality to deflect the attacks that carried the same weight as Ara’s lightning bolts as well. Gritting his teeth, he let the other masters face off against the elusive master of thunderstorms and clouds, Monomono himself who seemed to keep appearing out of nowhere, dropping attacks after attacks against either of them should they so much as let their guards down for a brief second. Then came the creatures formed from the same thunderclouds that blanketed the same area in a thick fog that the eyes of masters could hardly pierce through.

Oshosi’s ferocity allowed him to see the creatures coming from afar, shouting out warnings in advance for the masters who were able to deflect most of the attacks in time before they landed on them. Moyo activated Digi aye, seeking to absorb the entire aether in the cavern in a bid to deprive the elusive master of thunderclouds from hiding about, sending his minions forged from his thunderclouds at a distance. Digi aye vibrated as Moyo felt the skill get repelled, a chuckle coming from somewhere,

“Impressive, but it would take more than that to take what is mine” Monomono said,

Moyo saw Skatha fly through the air like she’d been hit by a force, turning to see a giant being forged of thunderclouds with two war hammers in hand. Duval blazed again like the sun, bending his entire power into lighting up the entire area in a bid to reveal the position of the master before the clouds darkened further again,

“Da pa da” Moyo commanded, his edict washing out in time to hold back the deluge of rain filled with the mana of the elemental master,

Skatha texted as she blazed to life, burning intent in order to act as a beacon,

In a second all the other masters turned to her position, layering attacks after attacks in a bid to root out Monomono, the being grunting as no doubt some of the attacks landed. Skatha was suddenly back at their side, panting softly as Moyo steadied her, the fog dissipating away to reveal a being made entirely of thunderstorms, except this time he shone with the powers of the other two masters. Eyes made of blue fire that burned, beads of lightning on both his neck, wrists and ankles, a large two handed Warhammer gripped in one hand no doubt as a show of strength, the being grinned at them, cocking its head to one side,

“a child of old Ife, two masters bestowed with the powers of Ina and Ara, and one final master of stealth, I must say, it is quite the odd group” he said with a smile,

“You know everything by now, don’t you?” Moyo asked quietly,

Monomono nodded, shrugging,

“Indeed, I knew well enough not to trust the cosmic dragon, and I know better than to question fate that has led a child of Ife to us, however what I question is if the great father was right” he said,

“The cosmic dragon?” Killian asked, eyes widening as Moyo nodded,

“Ah, they aren’t privy to the ways of the primordials, but you know better, don’t you, titan blade, or isn’t that your sobriquet?” Monomono asked,

“It is, and I do, but time is of the essence, please, would you hand over the shards?” he asked,

Monomono chuckled,

“You know very well that that’s not how it works young one” he replied,

“you mean we would have to beat it out of you?, fine” Duval said,

The being smiled,

“Please, indulge me, give me one last battle of my lifetime” he said,

Moyo took one step of Ogun, appearing right at the spot where the master had been all to realize he had moved just as quickly, going for Duval who backpedalled in a burst of fire, swinging his red-hot blade at Monomono. Cursing to himself, he saw Killian swing his blade, moonlight glowing behind him as lances of bright light shot at the master of thunderclouds. Like the cloud he was, the attacks passed straight right through his body, Monomono slamming Killian with his Warhammer which the master barely was able to deflect with his blade.

Nonetheless he was smashed away, crashing into a hanging stalagmite of crystal on the ceiling, Duval roaring as the entire cavern blazed in an inferno,

“Fire users” Monomono chuckled,

“Such hot tempered beings” he finished as he bashed aside a hit from Duval, slamming one palm into the sol blade, effectively cutting off his rage as another hit to his throat had the master gagging. Skatha was there next, relieving the sol blade of the pressure on him, exchanging blows with the thundercloud master as Monomono laughed, excitement in his eyes from watching the silent blade slip through his heavy attacks,

“good, good!, light footed is the way” he encouraged despite his attacks carrying enough weight to crush the skull of a master like a watermelon,

Moyo moved again, smashing his core realm down on Monomono and activating his gravitational ability, the master chuckling,

“What are the powers of the earth to a thundercloud?” he asked as he switched to Moyo, swinging his hammer for the titan blade,

The hammer smashed into Moyo and summarily got repelled, displacing the footing of Monomono whose eyes widened in surprise. Then Moyo went on the attack, Ashe, aspect and veneration coating both his body and dominion as the blade actually cut through the thundercloud, drinking of its essence. Monomono blew apart like the cloud he was, reforming a good distance away, all to find Moyo there, grinning, sage’s eyes already predicting that move.

He slammed dominion into the ground, eyes blazing as Digi aye manifested, Esu’s greed as well, one grabbing on to the essence of the master and the latter his aspect, seeking to steal some part for the titan blade. He felt a presence push back as Moyo slammed one foot into the ground, eyes wide at the sheer willpower and authority of Monomono,

“dispel” the master commanded,

Reality twisted, struggling to heed the command of the thundercloud while Moyo pitted his entire authority against the command, Monomono’s eyes widening at the power that fought back against him,

“hold” Moyo commanded,

Pitting reality against the command of the thundercloud back, forcing him to a spot,

“This is no willpower of a mere master” Monomono grounded out,

Moyo simply grinned, Monomono gasping as a blade pierced him from the back, his form unable to disperse to negate the attack. Skatha stood behind him, as silent as the wind, twisting the blade as she poured intent right through the attack, shredding the gaseous insides of the master who grunted in pain,

“yield” Moyo gritted out, struggling under the pressure of holding the master together,

He had a tier 2 aspect and he still struggled against a master on the verge of being a ruler, perhaps Ina had been right, the masters of old were monsters in their own rights. The cavern began to shake as the struggle of willpowers began to affect the stability of the cavern and cave as a whole, no doubt the aftereffects were being felt in the entire dungeon as a whole.

Monomono struggled to the end, despite the attacks unleashed by the masters, he fought on, creatures of all shapes and sizes forged from the fog that slowly dissipated as the master’s power waned crashed into the sol and stellar blades respectively who fought to hold back the tides form Skatha and Moyo.

Eventually the deadlock was broken, Moyo’s titan aspect crashing repeatedly against the willpower of the thundercloud master. Cracking it and subsequently absorbing it, Digi aye flared to life, absorbing the foggy aether and dispelling the creatures who faded away. It revealed Monomono, slowly breaking into aether as he smiled,

“you’re lucky you fought an echo of ourselves” he said as his voice began to fade away,

Moyo bowed to the master,

“Thank you for all you’ve done” he replied,

Monomono chuckled, two aspect shards, one of opaque white and one grey floated out of him,

“Do not let it be in vain young primordial” he said as he faded away,

Moyo sighed as he sat on his back, breathing heavily,

“Well, that was fun” he said as Killian snorted,

Dungeon notice: congratulations!, your team has defeated the last mini-boss of the cavern of mini-bosses!, for that each of you gets:

100,000 diamond coins 200,000 gold coins 500,000 silver coins 1,000,000 bronze coins 20 legendary aether shards 50 rare aether shards 100 uncommon aether shards 500 common aether shards

“Wow, that’s quite the haul” Moyo said,

“regular day in a masters dungeon, a bit on the low side, but seeing as we each got a legendary weapon to boot, I’m not complaining” Duval said,

“I didn’t” Moyo said frowning,

Killian flicked his hand as two gauntlets coated with lightning appeared on his hands, claws for fingers,

“Legendary lightning greaves” he said,

A helmet of fire appeared Duval’s hands,

“Helm of the fire elemental legendary, provides a 100% resistance against elemental fires” he explained,

Moyo turned to Skatha who gestured to her feet, he saw a silver footwear, looking more like those worn by old Greek army soldiers,

she wrote,

“aren’t you already silent?” he asked,

she wrote back,

“didn’t you get any weapons from the masters you fought?” Killian asked,

“Well I did get from Ina and Ara, guess its fair that way” he responded,

Glancing at the two shards, he read their descriptions,

Aspect Shard of the greater elemental Monomono (Ancient): imbued with the fiery command of Monomono, emissary of Shango, this shard has evolved to an ancient aspect shard, due to its previous owner acting as an emissary to a primordial. It invokes the aspect of elemental thundercloud, granting its user the sub-aspect of stealth, shielding them from all gaze.

Greater Aspect Shard of the greater elemental Monomono (Primordial): imbued with the direct tri-aspect of Shango himself, this shard has evolved into a primordial aspect shard, due to its previous owner on the cusp of becoming a ruler. It invokes the true aspect primordial thundercloud of Monomono, can only be bestowed upon trial by combat

Tossing the first aspect shard to Skatha,

“Should be useful to you” he said,

she wrote back,

Moyo opened the rest of his messages,

Notice: level 600! (400 points)

you have slain:

three greater elemental warriors of level 850 20 creatures of elemental fire, lightning and thunderclouds combined

You get:

50,000 diamond coins 100,000 gold coins 200,000 silver coins 500,000 bronze coins +100 to all attributes

“Has it ever occurred to you all just how rich we are?” Moyo asked,

“You tend to realize that as masters, pursuit of wealth is the last thing on our minds, those are for the lesser ascenders to squabble over and gather” Duval replied,

Moyo nodded, he had more money than he needed in his now extensive lifetime, perhaps when this war was done, he would consider what to use them for, seeing as he still had his proceedings from selling his runes to consider. Dumping his entire 400 points into his intelligence, raising it to 4,505, he closed his HUD. Sheathing dominion as he stretched,

“Time to get out of this hole” he said,

Then Oshosi warned him and sage’s eyes showed him the trajectory of the attack coming, faster than the masters could even react. He was there, grabbing the intent and authority laden attack and crushing it within his palms, staring as masters Urcar and Hilar shot out into the cavern. The masters moved immediately, clashing as other masters appeared behind the two main masters of house fang blade.

Sage’s eyes already working, Moyo called his core realm the same moment Urcar did, wiping out the prime claw’s in a flash as the feline master twisted in the air, tail lashing at the skin of the titan blade in a bid to avoid the biting edge of dominion.

Moyo grabbed the tail, slamming Urcar into the ground with all the force of his titan’s might, dominion twisting in his hand and slamming down into the shoulder blades of Urcar who roared in agony,

“Care to explain?” Moyo asked, holding down the master with his authority and titan’s might,

Urcar glanced at him, eyes glowing as he roared. The aether in the air obeyed his command, transforming into intent that rained down on the Moyo, and shattered harmlessly against his body, Urcar staring in shock. Moyo raised one eyebrow,

“Do that again and you lose an arm, I promise you” he said with a grim smile,

Hilar crashed next to them, Killian using one leg to hold him down with his silver blade pointed to his neck. Moyo glanced around, watching Skatha fend off the remaining two masters as she slipped in between them, pushing their attacks against each other,

“What are you?” Urcar groaned from beneath the authority of the titan blade who glanced down at him,

Moyo shrugged, drawing dominion out of the shoulder of the primal blade who roared in pain,

“Zip it” he commanded, shutting Urcar up who glared at him maliciously,

“Now I’ll be benevolent, I’m letting you go not because I’m nice, but because we have a war to win, better you die fighting some category 5 or 6 than by my hands” he said,

Letting his foot off Urcar, he removed his authority and watched the prime blade get up, cradling his shoulder that refused to heal. Killian removed his foot off Hilar as well and Skatha jumped back from the brutally injured masters who nursed one injury or the order, though they were rapidly healin. Urcar gazed at Moyo, rage burning behind his eyes,

“you stole from us” he said,

“All is fair in love and war” Moyo replied,

“What love do you speak of?” Hilar spoke for the first time, his voice coming out more like a whisper,

Moyo sighed,

“nevermind, I won it fair and square, and, I didn’t harm any of your diamonds, although I can see you’ve somehow lost most of them” he replied,

“quite stupid bringing diamonds to a master ranked dungeon, what were you thinking?” Killian asked,

Urcar growled,

“you think yourself so high above the rest of us, don’t you, titan blade?” he asked,

“now that you mention it, maybe, yeah, above idiots like you that would jeopardize this war for loot” he replied,

“you just cost our armada a few masters and valuable diamonds, do you have any idea how much that will take away from our fighting force come time for war?” Duval asked,

The cavern shook at that point, grabbing all their attentions,

Skatha sent to them,

“house fang blade will need recompense for the masters and diamonds we lost trying to get what was ours back” Urcar said,

Moyo snorted,

“really?, that’s how you want to play it, the pity card?” he asked,

He saw Urcar squeeze his fists, the cavern shaking again, Moyo glanced at the primal blade,

“I heard you were strong, and maybe if I was some random master you would be” he said,

Pointing dominion at Urcar and opening a pathway back to the dungeon proper,

“believe me, you do not want to know what I’m made of” he finished,

The moment he stepped into the pathway, Urcar threw a construct as Moyo stared wide eyed, the construct exploding and releasing a giant burst of aspect, that destabilized the pathway, threatening to close up with Moyo within it. He blasted his titan aspect out around him, warring with the aspect explosion that contested his pathway with him while watching as Urcar and the other masters went on the attack against his fellow masters.

Sage’s eyes glowed, Digi aye answered the call and Moyo shouted in rage, throwing dominion with all the force in his hand, the blade tearing through the space between him and the other masters, effectively skewering another master of house fang blade whose mouth simply opened in surprise as the blade tore through his skull, slumping to the ground dead.

Then he was past through the pathway, shooting for Urcar who turned at the last minute to catch his attack and got summarily pummelled into the ground, spitting out blood as Moyo shattered his innards Urcar’s mouth opened in a wordless scream. The fists of the primal claw smashed into the skull of Moyo, rebounding back as the bones shattered, Moyo grabbing his wrist, ripping the arm off and proceeded to beat him into the ground with it.

Rage filtered through his mind at the act of Urcar, throwing the torn limb aside, he dodged two concentrated shots of aura at his skull, taking one step of Ogun and appearing next to the master who summarily got his head ripped off his shoulders, tossing it away.

Dominion flew into his grasp, stepping back as Hilar stared at him with wide eyes, the bleeding body of an unconscious Urcar on the ground and a single master left. Moyo flicked blood off dominion,

“Would you like to test me again?” he asked,

“Master Urcar doesn’t speak for the entirety of house fang blade” Hilar said,

“And yet you willingly followed his directions despite the mercy we showed you, should we decide to cut you down here we can justify it to your ruler” Duval replied,

“Are you willing to bring about infighting when we are this close to taking the prime Molrik itself?” Hilar countered,

Moyo spat to the side, took one step forward and stopped with master Killian’s blade holding him back,

“Stay your rage titan blade, I’m pretty sure they’ve learnt their lessons, haven’t you, master Hilar scale viper?” Killian asked softly,

The master nodded wordlessly, picking the body of Urcar and draping it over his shoulder, the master still unconscious. He turned and paused,

“I understand that you are new to the circle of masters, but I would be careful if I were you, your allies are not enough when it comes to this rank” he said, glancing back at them,

“Make an enemy of most of us and find yourself isolated when rulers turn their ire towards you” he finished,

“I can handle my issues just fine, ruler or not” Moyo replied, flicking his hand as dominion vanished,

“Big words for a new master, pray you do not find yourself within our galaxy young one, for you would find few friends and more enemies” he said as he left,

Watching the scale viper bring out a construct and throw it to the ground, the item flickering before opening a pathway back into the dungeon proper. Closing behind the members of house fang blade, Moyo cursed, turning to the masters as he snapped his fingers, a pathway opening up,

“Moyo” Killian called,

“I’m fine, I just hate when everyone seems to think I go around making enemies” he replied,

Passing through the pathway, they came out back where they started from, the cavern slowly crumbling in front of them,

“Power draws both allies and foes in great measures Moyo, it is something you would have to contend with as a master” Duval said,

“Besides, the galaxy of the fang blade and their empire is a place filled with blood and slavery. By depriving them of a few masters, we have weakened them in the long run, ensuring house Dracon loses a valuable ally temporarily” Killian completed,

Nodding silently, they stared around, expanding their perceptions around. Moyo noticed clusters of core realms around, where masters had hunkered down, battling with the denizens of the dungeon. Master Skatha spoke first,

she wrote,

“True, but I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who wants to test myself against the dungeon boss” Moyo replied,

Duval snorted as Killian chuckled,

“What, beating on a prominent master of house fang blade wasn’t enough?” Killian asked,

“didn’t get all the rage out of my system, might as well take it out on the boss” he replied,

“then we’d have to wait till the other factions finish mopping up the denizens” Duval stated.,

“Hopefully it’s not a golem, tired of those things in all forms and shapes” Moyo grumbled,

Skatha shook her head, pointing into the distance where thunder clouds rumbled,

she wrote,

“Is it only me that considered it weird that we got that much aspect shards, think others got some kind?” Moyo asked,

“Most probably, it’s either that or we become the subject of ire around here and I do not like our odds” Killian replied,

“Luckily for us, they’re stored away” Moyo murmured,

Flashes of light began to appear as hundreds of master ranked monsters, filled the landscape,

“What is happening?” Moyo asked,

“it’s the prelude to the boss monster showing up, all the dungeon creatures are congregating to thin out our ranks” Duval said grimly,

“Well that didn’t happen in the dungeon back home” Moyo replied,

“Moyo nothing goes according to plan near you” Killian said as he shot into the air, the others joining him,

The masters of each faction stayed with their allies, casting furtive glances at each other, weapons and skills brimming. Then a dungeon notice went out,

Dungeon notice: the dungeon boss comes, prepare yourselves!

“Again, this is new” Moyo said, staring skywards grimly,

Masters of the mage class took to the air, runic circles manifesting as beams of all sorts of attacks shot for the enemy, taking out huge swaths of enemies in one go. Moyo stared skywards, a loud gong echoing as a bright white light covered area, Oshosi’s ferocity screaming at him. A snap and his core realm blanketed them all, hissing as his skin sizzled, the masters protected under his realm.

They watched in shock as masters fell from the skies above, those who hadn’t been able to manifest their realms burning like drops of acid landed on them,

“What in the archailects name?” Moyo murmured,

All around masters with healing abilities did their best to help their allies, Moyo grimly staring skywards, still searching for the threat,

“what’s that white light?” he asked,

“Not light, refraction” Duval answered, pointing to the shimmering light coming from on high,

Moyo swung dominion, his attack screaming to the high heavens before crashing against something that cracked,

“Glass?” he asked, shocked,

“diamond” Killian replied as the whole skies rippled, a smiling face grinning back down at them,

“welcome” it started,

“To the end”

“Again, is this normal?” Moyo asked,

“Moyo” Killian called,

“Yeah?”

“Remind me not to go dungeon delving with you again” he said as Moyo grinned,