Dungeon Desolation (The Divine Dungeon Book 4)

by Dakota Krout

  Turning the stumble into a roll, Dale jumped forward and was suddenly face-to-face with a befuddled necromancer. Utilizing his training to its maximum, Dale delivered a full force punch to the man’s slightly open jaw. The Mage stumbled back, not hurt in the slightest but still thrown off and confused by Dale’s actions. As he straightened, something *clinked* against his teeth… from the inside. His eyes widened a fraction as the pre-crushed beast Core Dale had shoved into his mouth gave way and detonated with all the stored Mana Manny the Manticore had once contained.

  Headless, the smoking body of the necromancer toppled to the ground. A hideous wailing filled the area as small portals opened and sucked several demons back to their plane of existence. A large portion of the dead surrounding Dale, as well as those around his fellow defenders, simply stopped moving and lifelessly slumped. A ragged cheer came from his group as the Mages stepped out to collect or destroy the fallen bodies before they could be taken by a different necromancer. Dale raced back to his group, a much easier task now that there was open space surrounding them.

  More undead were coming, and Dale was sure other necromancers would target them for vengeance… but it was worth it. Seeing the number of undead that had fallen, Dale knew that this necromancer had been the one responsible for the assault on them and the death of his friend and teammate. Even if it had been murder by proxy, this man was the one controlling the things that had done the deed. Feeling triumphant, Dale arrived back to his position, expecting cheers or even nods of appreciation. Instead, only silence greeted him, and nearly everyone was staring at him. No… they were looking past him. Dale glanced over his shoulder and paled, then hurried to get behind friendly lines again.

  Enormous meat slimes, the swift-travel form of Abominations, were rolling toward them. Once they had gotten close enough to attack, they would take on a form with limbs and smash through the living with extreme prejudice. A Tomb Lord was tromping along toward them as well, quite a way behind the rolling globs of meat. Doing their very best to prepare, the C-rankers formed up while the Mages prepared their most destructive spells.

  “Alright, that is quite enough now,” the twisted voice was heard by everyone at the same moment, belying the idea that it was simply spoken. “While I am enjoying the show, I was asked to end the war, and I’m… *heehee* going to oblige this wish.”

  “That voice…” Dale muttered with wide eyes. “That’s…”

  “I said that was enough!” the voice screamed, Madness obvious in the tone. The SS-ranked Dreadnought was suddenly visible and torn out of the air. It smashed into the ground and bounced back into the air, then did so again and again. Each bounce was half the height as the one previous but also seemed to strike the earth with double the force. By the time the bounces were less than a half inch off the ground, the effect was so strong that the demons were banished from pure physical force, something thought impossible to this point.

  Only a strangely steaming liquid paste remained of the unholy being when Xenocide appeared in the sky. “Hello, everyone, and thank you for attending my ascension into the Heavenly ranks. How should I put this…? I couldn’t have done this without you? Thank you for the centuries of insanity that you propagated? Universal constants are a physical quantity that are generally believed to be both universal in nature and have constant value in time, so there is nothing that you could have done to avoid this outcome?”

  He seemed to ponder for a moment, but his form flickered near constantly even while appearing not to move. People all over the field that had tried to use the lull to attack exploded into bloody mist. “Well, no matter. I did need you to do what you did, and now I need you all not to exist. Also, I finally have the power to do it! I am about to solve all of the issues our planet has faced for millennia!”

  Xenocide’s voice rebounded crazily over the entire area, his speech echoing at odd angles. There were times that Dale heard his words before his mouth moved or where bizarre chanting or whispering was laced through the Madness cultivator’s words. “Hunger, poverty, subjugation of others, inequalities… and finally, finally… war! I’m ending it all! You can’t thank me later! Ha! Ha-ha! Haaa-ha-ha!”

  The land the war had been fought on began to churn, and all the blood, juices, bodies, and detritus generated throughout the entire battle began to shift. All of it raised off the ground and formed itself into a massive Runescript, a formation… a ritual. A dark, twisted, Madness-designed ritual. The S-rankers that had been fighting each other instantly came to an agreement and turned their attention to Xenocide… and a new war began. A war they couldn’t win; a war to subdue Madness.

  Chapter Forty-eight

  I cheerfully watched the unfolding drama.

  “Cal, this is an even worse outcome! Look at that formation; what do you think that massive Runescript is going to do?” Dani practically shouted at me.

  I looked over the behemoth, unbelievably intricate, spinning Runes. I was actually a little jealous about the apparent ease in which he created them. I wanted to be able to do that.

  “I’m pretty sure he meant ‘fix’ those issues in the same way you offered to ‘fix’ people with interesting bodies,” Dani ominously informed me.

  I paused and pondered a long moment.

  “Cal!” Dani bawled at me, making me ‘wince’.

  The placement of the Runes suddenly clicked in my mind.

  “What if he had the help of all the other S-rankers from all the races?” Dani’s quiet voice interrupted my thoughts.

 

  “Cal, not willingly, but… look.” Dani directed my vision to the projection that every other being on this floor was watching. We were watching a few seconds behind reality, as we needed to slow down the projection to a level of speed we could follow.

  Xenocide stood tall as Essence, Mana, and Spiritual energies assaulted his position. Instead of tearing holes in the world or ripping him asunder, Xenocide was able to direct every bit of power into the blood-soaked activation sequence of his floating formation of Runescript. Abandoning long-ranged attacks, the most powerful beings of the respective races worked together to contain all power and attack Xenocide physically.

  The deranged cultivator somehow avoided all attacks by moving into strange, confusing or provocative poses. I laughed out loud when he put his index finger to his lips and bent forward, sticking out his butt and lifting a single foot in a sexy pose, somehow just not being included in the attacks of eight different S-rankers. Dani’s glare made my laughter peter off, and I was happy she couldn’t see my mirth when I kept from being loud. A human would be rolling on the ground if they were having this much fun!

  A glint of something sinister appeared in Xenocide’s eyes, and his hand flashed out and caught a startled cultivator. He tossed the S-ranked man as easily as a C-ranker tosses a ball, and the thrown man splattered against the Rune. In an instant, all of his collected energies were drawn into the Runes, and that was when I saw that there was a dungeon Core being used to draw in the power. I zoomed in on the odd-shaped Core and heard a gasp from Dani.

&n
bsp; “That’s…!” She sounded absolutely sick. “That’s Kantor! That means… mom…”

  If Kantor, the Dungeon Core, was being used as a ritual component, that meant he was already gone… as was his bonded Wisp. Another thought tickled my mind even as I tried to comfort Dani: if the Core of an S-ranked dungeon was being used for this Runescript, it would be far more potent than I had originally credited. If this Runescript were fully powered… there would be no stopping it.

  I demanded decisively.

  Creatures began moving, sprinting to follow the orders of the dungeon. Me that is. My orders. I felt sick. They were all going to die because I was ordering them to. I was ninety-nine percent sure of it.

  I diverted a large portion of the Mana and Essence I was getting into the flight controls. We began gaining altitude even as my creatures swarmed to my surface. The Mobs were going to begin jumping as soon as we were over the massive Runic circle, but Manny suddenly thundered his war cry and squeezed out of the entrance to the dungeon. He was much the worse for his travels, scales caked in mud and blood. He snarled at the assembled Mobs, “Fools! Return to the dungeon! I shall step in, and whether I fail or succeed… your deaths would have been in vain!”

  I would have teared up if it were at all possible. Seeing a single file line of Goblins, Bashers, Cats, and Golems ready to jump over the edge so that they could possibly do something to help me was heartbreaking. Suddenly, having them all back… there was no way to thank the selfless Manticore. We climbed higher, and soon, it was almost time to throw our lives away. I shuddered at the intrusive thought, but I really believed that this was what was about to happen. My Mobs traveled deep into the dungeon and entered the workshops. I directed all of them to lay on the gravity Runes and increased the power of them until there was no way for the various creatures to fly away or be rattled from an impact. At least, I hoped this was the case.

  Manny and I were even with the clouds that had begun to creep back into the area and were soon able to see the smaller of the two moons as it glowed unnaturally brightly in the late afternoon sun. If I were a romantic and didn’t know what was going on, I would try to woo my lady tonight, claiming that the moon had never seemed bigger or brighter. Now, the sight just made me wince; the connections between the Runes and the Moon must be forming vigorously for the light reflecting off the moon to be wavering like this. Celestial feces, I needed to speed this up. The humans on the surface of Mountaindale were falling to the ground one after another, unable to get enough air to breathe. If there had been many cultivators left there, this wouldn’t have been such an issue, or they could have saved the mortals. Whoops.

  Manny launched his attack, jumping and diving off the cliff. I knew what he was going to do, and I was already horrified. He was going to slam himself into the Runes and use the destruction of his Core to enhance a single attack. We were both hoping that his ability to corrode nearly anything would weaken the spot I would be targeting. As he got closer, I couldn’t bear to watch.

  I looked down at the spinning Runes of Xenocide’s formation, then up at the oscillating light surrounding the moon… and released my version of a sigh. Drat. Self-preservation was king; what was I doing? Before I could talk myself out of it, I let go of the power holding up me upright and began to fall.

  The projection of my target so far below, the Runescript shimmered as the base of Mountaindale began to heat up. Soon, the stone was cherry-red and glowing, the friction with the air causing lightning to form and crackle along my surface. I adjusted my course a tiny bit, seeing the space my Manny was going to attack. It was one of the few stationary points on the massive, flowing Script, and as Manny detonated into corrosive poison and pure force… the Runes were painted red with his blood. I really hoped that had done what we needed. Now I had a target to aim for, and as much as I hated to admit it, Manny’s actions had helped me go through with my own selfless action.

  A small part of me noted that Xenocide was cheerfully shoving his hand into an unknown cultivator dressed like a necromancer in elaborate dark robes. I saw the instant he noticed the falling mountain and frowned, but he failed to move in time to block me as the obviously high S-ranking man grabbed and distracted him for the quarter of a second I needed in order to be too close to stop. The entire mountain and dungeon slammed at terminal velocity into the section of Runes that had been painted in the blood of my Manticore, sending molten stone to the ground and crushing or burning hundreds of beings on the battlefield below.

  As my projection cleared of the dust and loose energy, I noticed something unexpected. The mountain was still above the Runescript. We had bounced off of it. I hadn’t been able to destroy the Runes, though I saw a tiny stream of power escaping the Runescript from a crack that had formed. A crack. All of that for a crack. Xenocide appeared next to the energy stream, inspecting it with insane fury on his face. When his expression transitioned to relief, I got very, very nervous.

  “Tsk, tsk. Bad dungeon! Punishment!” Xenocide smiled directly at me somehow, raised a hand, and smacked the mountain that was hovering in the air above him. A massive chunk of stone on the side of the mountain was blasted into dust, at least a few hundred tons worth. The rest of the strike sent me spinning through the sky. By ‘me’ I, of course, meant the entire abyssal mountain. If I had a stomach, it would have been emptied on the floors, walls, and ceilings. As it was, the humans that remained on my surface and outdoors were tossed off and sent falling to the ground far below. The ones indoors… I would try to clean them up before anyone saw them.

  There was nothing I could do for several minutes. Even after the initial force of the strike wore off, I was now off balance and still out of control. It took a full half hour until I was able to compensate for the instability and spinning, and by then… well… the war was over. My dungeon was empty of everything but my Attendants and the Mobs that had been held to the walls and floor, and they were all heavily damaged. I had lost a tenth of my overall size, and my lake was gone. The Wisps were fine, but Grace was so dizzy that she kept falling into the floor and accidentally causing corkscrew spikes to form when she came back out.

  “Well,” Dani paused to heave, causing a trickle of glitter to fall to the ground, “I’m glad you didn’t draw attention to yourself during combat. You were *hurk* right… all along. We should have just run.”

  I gazed at her form as she stared at me.

  Chapter Forty-nine

  “War is over, go home?” Hans was still supporting an exhausted Half-Elf as he queried the Mages hovering above them.

  “This is bad. Dale, where are you?” Princess Brianna appeared among the combatants, causing a few people to curse loudly and one man to fire a stream of rocks at her. She dodged and ignored the small attacks, calling for Dale once again.

  “Over here,” Dale called apathetically as he helped Tom get to his feet and stand on wobbly legs. “Please don’t tell me that it is worse than it looks.”

  “At least it isn’t raining!” someone called brightly, obviously trying to lighten the mood. A lake’s worth of water suddenly sloshed to the ground a few hundred feet away, causing decomposing bodies to be washed toward them. Exhausted water Mages directed the flow around the group but glared daggers at the too-cheerful man.

  “Dale, we should speak in… no… everyone needs to hear this.” Brianna took a deep breath and enhanced her words with wind, carrying them across the field, “Every S-ranker in the guild, the High-Elves, Dwarves, Northmen, Humanity… my Mother… they were all kille
d here. They were all used to power that monstrous Runescript floating in the air. Without an S-ranker, the Guild law states that-”

  “Not every S-ranker, Assassin.” Dale stifled a groan as Barry’s voice echoed through the area. A sick smile was on his face even as a huge portion of the survivors began to cheer wildly. “I am quite sure that I am the highest ranked Guild member remaining, so I will take over from here.”

  “First of all, we will need to find a way to destroy this infernal floating Rune and reverse the course of that moon.” Barry started, only to be cut off.

  Xenocide’s voice drifted over, unenhanced and nonchalant. He had paused in the middle of doing sit-ups and was sitting on his Rune smiling at them. “Good luck with that! Also, the Church has a few S-rankers left! You should bring them here; I’d love to play catch with my boy a few times before the world ends!”

  Barry paled, his hands trembling as he looked at the insane person who was staring back at him. He cleared his throat, resuming his speech, “As I was saying, we all have much to do. I look around this field and see undead roaming around, which tells me that we have not wiped all of the necromantic filth from this world; we will remedy that.”

  “Will you, now?” A *crack* resounded through the area as Barry was backhanded and sent spinning to the ground. A man in tattered, once-intricate robes stood in the air where Barry had been only moments ago. Blood was leaking from his mouth and flecked the air whenever he spoke. “I am fairly certain that your only hope, the only hope for all of us, is to join together and launch a counter initiative. Once again, Barry the Devourer, your mouth is getting you into trouble.”

  Chandra joined the group, looking up at the man who could easily swat an S-ranked man out of the air. There was only one explanation for his overwhelming power. “Why would you do this, Ra-”