The Illicitous Dungeon

The four-eyed kobolds in extravagant yet regal clothing, the two Monster Lords and two accompanying envoys looked at each other with cold gazes.

"What is a pompous angel from Heaven doing here? Do you not know that this is Galatica Empire territory? And you…" One of the lead four-eyed kobolds, who appeared to be the commander, gritted his teeth at running into Loreley and the other envoy.

The Monster Lords were completely ignored, while they just seemed interested in watching the drama unfold.

At first, Styx they were speaking elvish to be considerate to the local residents, but he quickly noticed a discrepancy with their voices and oral movements. They were wearing special collars that automatically translated their words into the local language while also reverse translating anything they heard from others.

"This is a Maple Dragon Kingdom, not the Galatica Empire, despite your claim to other's land. Heaven is present everywhere."

The kobold made a grunt that seemed to be a snort of derision.

"You don't dare to fight our empire; you would rather tuck your tail and broker peace every time there is a conflict. Heaven is just a paper tiger."

Loreley's expression turned dark as her large halo began to hum ominously, a frightening pressure descending upon the area. Dragon managed to shrug it off while the other envoys and Monster Lord had stern expressions.

"I suggest you choose your words carefully in the future. Heaven is not to be insulted, or you will suffer our wrath."

The third envoy, the beautiful woman with curved antlers on her head and long, flowing green hair maintained her silence and let the conflict between the two megaliths play out. She was part of a nomadic empire that didn't make public claim to any land and its people spread out through countless empires.

They were The Void, but most just knew them as The Nomads. Nobody knew where the heart of their empire was situated, so they couldn't even be invaded. There had been those who targeted their people in their kingdoms and empires to the point genocide occurred, but not one of those kingdom's survived The Void's retaliation.

Their people spreading throughout countless empires, they were able to influence entire foreign armies to attack empires while never even getting their own hands dirty.

The Kobolds recognized her affiliation by the small Void tattoo on her forehead and simply decided to ignore her, while Loreley had known about her long ago whilst serving as Dragon's assistant. It was commonly known as chasing after the nomads was a fruitless endeavour, not when the location of their home was unknown at least.

Aura detected the intruders the moment they appeared and was held back by Styx momentarily whilst he evaluated the situation. Once he decided to intrude on the meeting before Loreley and the kobold creature came to blows, she immediately vanished from his side.

The space around the group of envoys twisted as reality itself distorted. At first they were standing on the outskirts of the town, then they were in the mouth of a volcano, a dusty old mansion void of life and sound, a prairie ravaged by countless thunderbolts and typhoons, a calm beech.

Scenes flickered from one to another, everyone forced to use their powers to protect their body as the wolf-eared woman appeared out of a door that appeared.

"You have definitely gotten stronger," Dragon said in a sarcastic tone, but he truly meant those words and was impressed. "But can you control yourself a bit?"

Loreley's halo expanded in size and created a protective curtain around her body, while the kobold's activated a device on their wrists which seemed to project magic arrays to create a comprehensive bubble shield around them.

The green-haired woman with antlers smiled and weathered everything with her body alone, even protecting the Monster Lord beside her on occasion. Despite how slim she was, veins protruded on the back of her hands and neck as she smashed and kicked away projectiles firing faster than rockets.

"What is everyone doing here?"

Therina entered the scene as soon as Aura's Phantasmagoria settled down.

"You can call me Ygralea," The green haired woman gave a beautiful smile to Therina whilst the kobolds directly ignored the Second Step ranker. "We detected a Monster Lord's energy rapidly increasing and came to investigate. Such an increase would only happen with a Limit Break after all. This isn't uncommon in lower stage rankers, but for a Fifth Step existence…"

"…Practically impossible."

"Correct. An extraordinary heaven defying treasure could help with this, but that would have been detected long ago if it were the case."

"So, what is your purpose in coming here?"

Ygralea gave a beautiful smile and looked toward Aura, "I want to invite Wolf to join The Void. We will naturally offer her our full support and rare treasures to help achieve godhood. Our Voidgods will also help protect and guide her."

"Just that?"

"We also want to know how she broke through her limit."

The leading Kobold glared at her and stated, "You nomads pillage and plunder from others without remorse."

"Your terrible relations with the surrounding empires have soured relations with a lot of very powerful powerhouses. If you continue acting like this, The Void will also be added to that list. I think you are currently waging enough wars that you can't afford to start more."

The kobold envoy glared at her silently, not daring to refute her as her words struck directly at his sore spot. The Galatica Empire were currently involved in four different wars and their forces were spread thin as is. If they were to start another one, they may be unable to survive anymore.

The giant battleship floating overhead captured everyone's attention in the town, even the citizens and Duke Ashburn of Lagoon Porter City gaze at the giant floating fortress over the horizon with apprehension.

Within it, exotic races of all kinds were operating the ships sensors and weapons, investigating everything around them. Its sensors were capable of analysing 70 percent of the Maple Dragon Kingdom, and even the Fifth Step Monster Lords were of little threat to it.

Goddess Eve's gaze focused on this ship through her statues. She quietly suppressed her existence that mortals usually couldn't feel. The weapons aboard this battleship, powered by a giant mana heart within its core, were even capable of killings gods.

"If you know what is good for you, you will join our empire."

The kobold threatened Aura, causing her to retaliate before Styx could stop her.

His shield automatically activated and protected his body as her outstretch claws stabbed through the shield and were caught inched before his face. His expression immediately blanched and drew a hilt like device with each of his four arms.

Two of the devices erupted light blade made from mana that serves as both swords and whips, while the other two become rifles.

"You will pay for this foolishness," He grit his teeth and fired at her through the shield.

Aura threw the envoy into the air, causing the rifle mana bolts to miss and dig huge trenches in the ground, destroying several buildings in the town but thankfully not injuring anyone.

A giant phantasmal wolf head formed in the air and unleashed Sin of Gluttony at him, swallowing space, time, and anything else within its field of influence. Everyone, even Dragon, adopted severe expressions at the frightening power of this skill.

⠀

[

Jor Yl Operan Ulson (Spectral Void Knight <Lv. 73>) slain by Phantom World Devouring Wolf!

+ 480 exp

]

⠀

It was a seemingly pitiful amount of experience that Styx earned, but Aura was Fifth Step whilst he was Fourth Step, meaning there was an experience penalty of a factor of ten before his ten percent was calculated.

The envoy was killed so fast nobody could react in time. All the remained of the space and time devoured was a small singularity and a distorted broken field. It appeared this was, but it was in fact a hole in the universe where 'nothing' existed.

The other Kobold envoys drew their weapons and the battleship above pointed several dozen weapons at Aura on the ground.

Therina, after hearing from Styx, turned to face Loreley, Ygralea and the two Monster Lords and requested them.

"Styx has stated that we are all a part of the Abyssal Forest. If you can stop the battleship and diffuse the situation, he is happy to work in reaching agreements with both of your forces going forward in the future."

Even though there wasn't a great deal she could do, Therina churned her mana as much as her body would allow, her mana channels straining under pressure.

Ygralea watched her with deep interest, her antlers emitting a faint violet luminous fog.

Aura was also fully prepared to defend against the battleship as best she could. Styx chastised her repeatedly in her head for acting without thinking, causing her to feel very guilty.

Styx was rapidly coming up with means of preserving his dungeon in the worst case scenario. Whilst understanding the potential consequences it could have on her, he ordered Aura that if he commanded, for her to drag the entire dungeon into her Phantasmagoria where it would escape the bombardment.

The main problem with this situation was that Aura wouldn't also be protected in the same way. The other option was to escape with his core and most of the citizens, but this would harm his entire development as well as integrity to protect his residents.

"Allow me," Loreley stated with an ice cold gaze as a ball of black light that defied common sense formed in between her hands.

The ball exploded into a pillar of light, piercing through the ship and leaving a small hole before vanishing amongst the clouds.

Seeing the heavenly beacon, the remaining envoys completely disregarded their own self preservation and frantically shouted, "Fire!"

Mana array as large as the town itself grew below the ship while its weapons fired world destroying bolts of crimson lightning at the group. Should this attack hit, half of the Abyssal Forest would be annihilated, alongside the distant Lagoon Porter City, and every exotic race and monster within the area.

The Monster Lords and envoys may survive, but that was all.

Just before the attack landed, time stagnated. The sky rippled from where the earlier heaven beacon vanished as a response from Heaven arrived.

Golden clouds spread out from this ripple and the divine hymn of angels resounded across the land. The attacks from the battleship and everyone else were trapped in the stagnant timeflow, yet pure white feathers rained down from the clouds almost peacefully.

Whatever these feathers touched would evaporate in golden motes of light. Despite how calm and peaceful it seemed, it was annihilation in its truest form.

The battleship silently evaporated into light without being able to offer up any resistance. These feathers were indiscriminate however, also falling towards the town and threatening the residents, merchants, and monsters within.

A faint, hard to detect violet light broke through cracks in the ground and formed a giant dome over the town and dungeon. Any feathers that fell on this dome sizzled before vanishing, the dome immediately repairing itself of any damage.

For those who could see mana, they watched in amazement over the complex, seemingly impossible ways that mana adopted specific traits or 'intents' and was used to attack. Some of the dungeon residents even seemed to get a faint inspiration, including Klair.

Time returned to usual and the singularity Aura left in the air also dissipated at this time, the world healing itself. The remaining two envoys of the Galatica Empire were on the ground dead, their eyes rolled up in their heads with broken, jelly like bodies.

Nobody saw how they died, but it did not appear to be a pleasant one.

There were two additional people among the crowd, a male angel with four sets of pure white wings and shoulder length straight blond hair, and a stunning woman with pointed ears and very long violet hair with ornate ruby hair pins in it.

"Your lordship."

"Your eminence."

Loreley and Yzralea deeply bowed to the two grand figures in a hurry. They had both sent a signal containing information to their home empires, but neither had expected such grand figures to appear personally.

"I hadn't expected one of the elusive Voidgods would appear here," The angel stared at the seductive woman with a callous gaze.

"Oh, don't be so rude. When an angel of your level descends, how could I not be interested."

The Voidgod giggle with her hand over her mouth. She appeared friendly on the outside, but her power was the real deal and the fate of the remaining Galatica envoys could have only been her doing.

Styx had exited the dungeon himself by now, Therina and Aura immediately joining beside him. The two gods looked at him in slight curiosity, but mostly disregard.

"Your honors, I imagine it was quite tiresome descending. Would you like to come inside and try our hospitality?"

Knowing that there was nothing he could do to stop them, Styx instead adopted a more humble attitude. The male angel looked at him and commented, "At least you know some propriety."

"It is easier change the flow of a river when you move with it, after all."

Styx chuckled to himself and led to group inside the dungeon.

The Voidgod however tapped her bare feet on the ground seemingly pointlessly and commented.

"Something doesn't smell right."

The angel briefly extended his divinity, covering the entire kingdom and more, let alone the dungeon before commenting, "You are imagining it."