The Illicitous Dungeon

The entire Lagoon Porter City was abuzz with whispers and feelings of turmoil.

The marriage between Duke Ashburn's son and Duchess Euklid's daughter was a grand occasion talked about the entire week leading up to the event. When Gabralter Ashburn collapsed at the alter and fell into a coma, the news spread like wildfire.

"Duke, can you please comment on the state of your son? Do you know what happened?"

Reporters from The Relevant swarmed the duke whenever he left his mansion. He was completely at their mercy despite being an immensely powerful Third Step ranker.

The duke was stone-faced as he stated Gabralter was under the best care at the Eve Temple, the healers there were doing their very best.

Secretly he was brooding with a storm brewing in his chest. He didn't have any evidence, but his gut feeling was that the dungeon was deeply involved in this, potentially something they did to Rebecca Euklid whilst she was in their custody. Undetectable to the duchess' daughter at the time, but poisonous to Gabralter who came into contact with her.

He held a confidential report from the Royal Academy of Research and Technology that the hunting dagger retrieved from the elf known as Therina created injuries to a person's soul itself.

It wasn't a magic, but an extremely rare material that was completely unknown until now. It was unknown how it was made, but many nobles and researchers were deeply curious.

Attacks which affected the soul itself were generally restricted to Fifth Step existences, a part of what made them so dangerous. The demons in the neighboring kingdom also had several methods for attacking the soul, which the Maple Dragon Kingdom had always had difficulties in dealing with.

Knowing that his son was a regressor, the duke suspected the dungeon had targeted his soul with an attack beyond even his perception. If it was the Monster Lord residing within the dungeon though, it was definitely possible.

~~~~~

⠀

Deep within Gabralter's mind, the comatose duke's son floated on the surface of an endless body of water. Waves crashed as a storm wreaked havoc across the entire ocean except for this small region around where Gabralter lay.

Even the blood stained water had broken its connection with his body, the giant demon's skull in the distant sea less foreboding.

He didn't move nor appear to breath, merely floating there in a state of stasis.

Just next to him, Therina looked down on him with a complicated gaze.

"Do you feel guilty?" Styx spoke into her mind.

"No, it is something that must be done."

"Then what is it?"

"It's just… I feel conflicted."

"How so?"

"I hate humans, they are utter scum. This one even dared want to lay his hands on me, but how much of that was him?"

"What do you mean?"

"I can feel it, the intents of other me's gathered upon him. Endless layers of curses piled on his bodies, so much that he is polluted by me. I think the root of his obsession with me was not of his own desire to save me, but to draw himself closer to my existence, like a familiar scent in his soul."

"He should have had his own fate to live, but he had become a product made by us to reach an end. He won't even remember this lifetime, trapped in an endless loop of being used. Darling, isn't it lamentable?"

"The fallen lay in unmarked graves. The world only favors the victors, those who continue walking forward until they too stumble and fall. In this way, it is lamentable. His death can be called undeserved, but this series of events were set into motion long before an armistice was reached. Are you having second thoughts?"

Therina shook her head, her gaze hardening as she placed one foot on Gabralter's chest and gently pushing him under the surface of the ocean, his spiritual body drowning and triggering a final collapse of his mental processes as the naiad's dream energy laden intent flowed back to his body and told his mind to shut down entirely.

Her twin tails casually reached into the air in front of her and opened a dream portal as she emerged from the dream realm, appeared beside Styx who sat in the town outside of the dungeon, staring up into the starry nightscape.

"I will never hold second thoughts," Therina quietly said as she embraced him from behind. "For you, I would destroy the entire world."

~~~~~

⠀

Within the Eve Temple, Gabralter lay on a comfortable bed in a brightly lit room, several priestesses casting healing spells while others used specialized tools to monitor and maintain his body functions.

All of a sudden, his vital signs began to steadily drop. The priests and priestesses immediately panicked and did their best to maintain his health, but his body seemed intent on dying as it rejected any attempt to keep him alive.

"Hurry up and bring an emergency life stone, we will directly implant it in him!"

A high priest ordered a junior priestess who ran out of the room like the wind, returning not long after with a blood colored crystal shard half the size of a finger.

The high priest held this crystal shard and stabbed it into his no longer beating heart. Sparks of red lightning shot out of the stone as several deeply embedded arrays containing heaven runes lit up, scorching the skin around the stone before it fully integrated into his body.

"High Priest, it's… it's not working." A senior priest examined the arrays monitoring his condition with a frightened gaze.

Gabralter's heart had started beating again and injecting life force into him, but this life was being immediately expelled by his own body. It simply refused to live.

"Why? Why is this happening!? Hurry up and call the duke!"

~~~~~

⠀

Duke Ashburn was in a dim, vast ballroom in his mansion, several empty bottles of highly potent alcohol lined up on a table beside him.

No maid nor butler was present as he sat alone in the grand ballroom, pouring his own drinks. His wife also wasn't present as she was desperately looking through medical and magic books to try find out what was happening to their son.

They had two other sons, both younger than Gabralter, but they were currently in one of the most prestigious academy in the royal capital exclusive for nobles. The duke had long sent them news that until further notice, they were to not return to Lagoon Porter City, instead residing within the Duke's residence in the capital.

The church's bell rang the death knell before the messenger could reach the duke, his guards showing a middle aged priestess into the empty ballroom where the duke sat in grief.

Duchees Ashburn charged into the ballroom in a panic not long after, having heard the death knell herself and instinctively knowing who it tolled for.

"Wait outside," The duke ordered the guards and priestess.

"Husband… please, tell me it's not."

"It is."

"…No."

The duchess grabbed her husband's collar as tears fell from her eyes. They knew of the possibility of this happening, but they had thought they had more time.

"He will wake up in the past again, this time hopefully learning from his errors and being able to change his fate," The duke comforted his wife. "Now, let's go see him."

Duke Ashburn helped his wife dry her eyes and led her out to where the guards and priestess were waiting.

"Husband… you are…"

"I am fine."

Despite his words, his heart was bleeding as he vowed vengeance against the dungeon, regardless as to whether it was behind his son's death or not.

~~~~~

⠀

In another corner of the mansion, Rebecca Euklid sat beside a giant window, still in her white wedding dress.

She absentmindedly stared out into the clear, starry sky and nebular stretching down to the horizon as Dare and Lora, the two baronesses' daughters comforted her.

"Becca, it will be okay. I heard Astrid from back in our days at the academy had her husband suffer grievous injuries against a demon invasion. They didn't even think he would live, but he fully recovered… although he still only has one arm."

"Cheer up, you didn't love him, did you?"

"No, I didn't"

"At least you are safe."

"Am I?"

"Why wouldn't you be?"

Rebecca nonchalantly responded to them, almost out of instinct while the conversation was at the back of her mind.

It was at this moment that the death knell from the temple resounded across the dungeon city and the room fell silent.

Rebecca closed her eyes and buried her feelings, vowing to never reveal them to others.

At this moment, she felt relief.