Forgotten Dungeon

Charles

As soon as the blue window with incongruous text disappeared, something had changed. There was an unexpected heaviness in the air. The battles stopped, and people, animals, and monsters stood in absolute silence, as if the world itself was holding its breath. Then came a… crack, and the skies had split open, allowing a violent color to seep in. The wound in reality shredded the blue horizon, while we all watched in horror as something out of this world forced its way into the present.

Gangria's arrival was a thing of awe. Awe and bottomless, eldritch fear. The monstrously powerful presence I had noticed before, far in the north, was her, indeed. For better or worse, she turned up right above my Dungeon.

And in the wake of her passing, the world twisted.

Despite my - now supposedly insanely high - level, I was getting chills.

The battle between Lich, elves, and Non came to a standstill as soon as Gangria appeared, fully clad in her divinity. The sheer weight of her presence stupefied even the most powerful and directly erased many of the lesser monsters and people.

It was at this moment that I understood what it meant for a Goddess of Life and Death to descend on the material plane… especially if there was a bit too much of death in her, supposedly, dual-aspected divinity.

At the same time, I was damn glad that the evacuation had already finished, as her raw power, her vitriol, were currently seeping into the Dungeon's upper levels and the surrounding landscape. And, oh boy, seeing the effect of such power, I sure would prefer to not experience a fallout wasteland, without there even being a nuclear war.

The trees, Sundews, and other Dungeon flora were either burned into ash or managed to survive by the skin of their teeth, twisted beyond recognition. What remained screamed for death, filled with endless suffering. The silver peeled away from my creations with speed that would be comedic if not for what emerged from underneath. The cancerous growths covered places where branch and bark had ruled earlier, pulsating with unholy energy while seeping wads of pus-like substance that corrupted the ground.

Surrounding fauna mostly managed to escape, with only a few of the slowest and stupidest creatures being forced to straddle the line between abomination and death. Those fighting were taken by surprise and fared much worse, but each of the factions had managed to shield the bulk of their troops.

The Lich retreated into its camp, with a bunch of undead and various monsters following in its footsteps. There had to be some additional wards present there, but even so, its ice shield was straining under ungodly pressure.

At the same time, elven angels returned to their flying fortress. Their losses were the greatest, as only a sliver of wingless warriors were fast enough to avoid the divine pollution. The rest died explosive deaths, as if something in their very nature couldn't coexist with Gangria's powers.

Those blessed with wings fled the fastest, and thus most of them managed to survive.

Silver Oasis forces had been sheltered by Non, whose giant Taijitu diagram created a haven. It was, however, not only her might alone sustaining it - I also pumped monstrous amounts of mana to stabilize the defences… at least Valkyrie's barrier was able to convert part of the two-headed Goddess's might into her own.

How very xianxia of her.

"ArE yOu GoInG tO iGnOrE mE mUcH lOnGeR?" Gangria hissed, seeing I wasn't paying attention. Her impatience was like a kick to the balls.

"I wouldn't dare." I smiled while trying to rein in my emotions and facial expression. I thought our last meeting was bad.

I was wrong.

It was so much worse now.

In the past, I was merely a fly, a molecule of dust drifting about. To not completely liquify my soul, body, and mind, Gangria decided on a less intimidating vessel - or so I assumed. After all, her earlier avatar was composed of two similar-looking girls.

Now… now I was forced to perceive her "battle form" - a two-headed dragon, a beast of an unimaginable power, who floated loftily over the freshly created dead zone. Her scales gleamed with jade green and dusklike dark, the color of life and death intertwining in a dance of endless agony.

Both of her heads had heterochromic eyes, and keeping with her earlier style, one of them was black and the other green. She sighed, seeing my dumbfounded face, and prepared to land. The moment she did so, the scarred surface stirred into life, even the barely alive abominations suddenly regenerating their flesh and skin. Some even returned to their former shapes. Or so it seemed at first glance.

The corroding, monstrous power of death now beat inside them, waiting to explode at the lightest touch, like an overloaded nuclear reactor. They were already dead. Omae wa mou shindeiru.

The three factions surrounded the place of Gangria's landfall, each of us warily eyeing the competition, and yet the Goddess didn't care. She was silent and focused. It would be cute, maybe even interesting, if I weren't the sole target of that focus.

Normally, that would be my cue to run. Yet, to make matters worse, I was currently immobilized, held in place by System's ascension procedure. Talk about bad luck and unmoving targets.

As soon as Gangria's draconic body touched the ground, a profound transformation took place. Her overwhelming power receded, like it had been just an illusion, and a flash of light brightened our surroundings. When our eyes recovered, standing nearby were two familiar figures. The vessels that the two-headed Goddess used earlier now stared at me with their expressionless faces and innocent eyes.

Despite the sudden lack of pressure, I knew that I had no chance in direct battle. The newly gained strength allowed me to feel the gulf between us even more keenly. I idly wondered if the Lich or his elven opponents were feeling the same existential dread, or maybe their lower levels spared their self-esteem.

The Twin Goddess didn't give me more time to think. Her vessels stepped closer, with flowers blooming under their feet. They would be beautiful, if not for the fact that I was currently shitting my pants.

Figuratively, of course.

"This should be…" The right one started. "...much better, right?" As the left one finished the sentence. Huh. I nearly forgot about that tic of hers. Still, the Goddess didn't wait for a response.

"Now, let's..." Suddenly, she was much closer, her heterochromic eyes observing me with a fervent gaze of a scientist staring at an interesting experiment. "...look at you, properly."

"Not human…" She murmured. "...but not a beast either. Curious." There was a second of silence. "A wielder of outside power…" A pause. "...and a demigod."

The examination continued, and I shuddered under her cold, inhuman fingers tracing lines in my flesh. The subdued power I felt before now twisted and twirled like tentacles of an eldritch entity, ready to pounce. I could feel her searching for sources of my power, my convictions, and the lines of karma that radiated from them.

It was a humbling, painful, trauma-inducing experience… and something I resisted with all my being.

A part of me, so silent and malleable I had nearly forgotten about its existence, flared to life in response - the Anima stirred, like a beast awoken, all the while reaffirming my identity. It forced me to remember my past decisions. It anchored my fleeing sanity.

I was Charles. I was also Uno.

The names were more than a designation. Both a price and a color of living.

I was a lover and a husband. I was a virgin and a loner.

Our connections were like lines between equals - a way to stay afloat.

I was a man stolen from my time.

I was a warrior trying to protect what was important.

And the identity was the duty to be defended. A place to call home.

A drone. A mage.

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A dual composite of otherworldly and mundane.

Just. Like. Her.

Gangria staggered back, her expressionless eyes widening a notch at sudden resistance. A drop of understanding colored her icy-cold visage. And yet she didn't stop.

The Goddess dug deeper.

What was my first memory? Who were the parents that I treasured? My first love? My passions? My most celebrated victory? My loneliest moment?

The questions came and went.

I responded in doubles. Sometimes the memory twisted, becoming one. A lack was filled with meaning, freely drawing from both of our lives. Sometimes my mind broke, as schizophrenia took hold, two minds fighting for dominance. Sometimes the raw emotion we felt cooled that battle into a cease-fire.

In those few minutes, I had been tortured, torn apart, analyzed, and then put back together.

But I held.

I didn't break completely.

When my sight returned, nothing had changed. The place where once Silver Oasis stood was still in the middle of blooming and dying, with not even ruins remaining. I felt the corruption seeping into the Dungeon, as my subcores fought for survival. Gangria was still here, silently staring into my eyes… and… ice explosions were filling the air.

Wait, what?

Why was the Lich desperately attacking the Goddess's barrier?

The undead's blue eyes burned with mad purpose, as spell after spell, after spell splashed helplessly against the shield that the Two-Headed Goddess erected. Despite the lack of reaction, it was giving its all, and I couldn't understand why.

"Stop it! Stop torturing him, you damnable machine! You mistake! Whore of the Old Gods!" It screamed in the olden tongue. "You will not get him! He is my experiment! My redemption! MINE!"

The Lich was alone.

In its hurry, the icy barrier over its camp that had barely withstood Gangria's show of power had dissipated, and the ones hidden within had been routed. The living ones, anyway. While orcs and goblins ran north, the rest of the undead mindlessly followed their leader, while backlash from its attacks was quickly reducing their numbers.

Only a few relatively high-level undead remained, and even they were barely standing.

It didn't deter the Lich in the slightest, as it continued its tantrum.

In the end, Gangria turned her impassive eyes toward the undead. Within a moment, she stepped closer, and the skeleton had been forced to kneel by a sheer weight of her presence. And yet it still thrashed about, all the while screaming its nonexistent lungs out.

The vessel twins spoke. "A curious being…" One whispered. "...undead and yet not filled with unredeemable hate." Second one added.

"A monster with purpose…" She smiled, and I could see the curiosity building in her eyes. "...what are you made of?"

Her hand plunged into the undead's chest, fingers curling around the bluish gem embedded between its ribs. "Speak…"

"...to me."

The Lich wheezed. It tried to struggle, but no mortal or immortal was strong enough to break the grip of a God. Slowly, ever so slowly, a fog of blue-colored mana escaped the gem and surrendered to the twins.

Seconds passed before Gangria relaxed her hand.

The Lich fell to the ground, wounded, but alive… or whatever the undeath equivalent was. Its bones were cracked once again.

"So many curious pawns…" The Goddess spoke. "...on this battlefield of Fate."

"Lich King of Despair, or, as you were once called…"

"...Leon Waltzer. The older brother, mentor, and betrayer of Henrik Waltzer."

"A misunderstood man, who tried his best to become an obstacle in his beloved brother's path…"

"...to pave a way for Henrik to become the hero his people needed."

"The teacher, who killed his younger kin as a part of the ultimate test…"

"...and by doing so, smothered any hope of stopping the Wastes from encroaching on the Kingdom."

"Such…" She closed her eyes. "...delicious soul."

"All this redemption, self-loathing, madness…"

"...all bound in the service of creating another champion."

The girls looked at the cowering undead with a strange, nearly motherly expression.

""And yet you failed once again."" The twins chorused with a childish glee. That did force a rise out of the undead.

"I did not fail! Here he stands! Behold!" The Lich pointed in my direction, while slowly getting up from its knees. "I succeeded! My way was the right one! My theory was sound! Only those who overcame adversity are worthy of ascension! I had created a DEMIGOD! A being that will lead what remains of humanity!"

"A Savior!"

"You will not take him away from me! With my servants and his power, we'll conquer back the wastes, stop the false worship among the monster tribes, and return Gods to their rightful place!"

"I will succeed! I will not let you stop me!" Despite its grandiose speech, I could sense that something was wrong. There was pity in Gangria's eyes.

"You poor, deluded fool…" The Goddess shook her head. "...there's nothing human remaining in this demigod anymore."

"YOU LIE!" The undead screamed with madness-brightened eyes. "I-I I had succeeded! The sacrifices I had made… they cannot be in vain! It cannot be otherwise!"

"The universe is not so cruel." He added quietly.

"See for yourself, then. [Allow Idea Construct: Dungeon] [Show Status]" Her last words were strange, alien, and at the same time commanding. The world stilled, and, a second later, the System responded.

And then a holographic window appeared for all to see. With my status window.

A second later, a window visible to only me appeared, flickering, as if it was hesitating. I nearly ignored its appearance if not for the newly gained clarity.

The silence was so loud you could hear a pin drop.

The Gangria's eyes were… weird. I would expect glee, schadenfreude, or maybe even the earlier seen pity. Instead, she looked on the undead with indifference. Calculation. And yet, it wasn't her I was currently worried about.

The Lich… or should I just call him Leon Waltzer? Leon trembled, his blue eyes piercing me with silent accusation - even through the Goddess shield. I could no longer consider him a faceless undead. There was a tragedy here, a story of redemption. And failure.

"AHHAHA! HAHA! HAHAHAHAAAAAA! HAHAAAAHAAA!!!" He suddenly screamed, laughing like a madman. "All for naught! All lost! All my work, my sacrifice, my lost comrades, my brother's death! ALL FOR NAUGHT!"

We observed the outburst in silence.

His skull suddenly twisted in Gangria's direction. "Goddess." He spoke, suddenly calm. "Was there ever a chance that my plan could work?"

"Not in the time…" She sighed. "...we have left."

"So it could work…" Leon's eyes started to glow with familiar madness, and suddenly I remembered what Non told me about the dead. A great obsession was needed for them to keep coherent.

And truth or reality had no sway over them.

"The way ahead is clear, then." He stood up before turning completely toward me. "I will erase my mistake, and try anew! Yes, it is not a waste, it's a part of learning!"

"Goddess, grant me this boon!" Leon screamed. "Let me fight this demigod of yours! Let me atone!"

Gangria's reaction was strange. Instead of replying, she turned to me and spoke. "Show me, what are you made of…"

"...and if you're worthy to keep alive." Her eyes glinted with unspoken threat.

The system tendrils disappeared as she finished speaking, and I floated down to the ground… only for the barrier to immediately expel me outside. At least with the empowered body, I didn't faceplant on the ground.

That would be embarrassing.

Of course, I had bigger problems than embarrassment. Like a friendly, neighbourhood Lich barrelling closer with each second, while spewing out hatred and magic.

Now, despite the odds being in my favour, there was something weird about the whole situation. I just couldn't put my finger on it.

I shrugged. The green flames came nearly unbidden, slithering up my chest, like they were a living thing. The Dungeon underneath me trembled as my mana cleansed Gangria's corruption and slowly started rebuilding what was lost.

I could feel humans, beastkin, and my faithful monsters huddling on the lower levels. This was a battle I couldn't afford to lose.