Rupegia

 

The next level is… different. Well, it's weird.

It's like being inside an omnidirectional camera that can see outside the dungeon. It shows the night sky, the clouds, the Gothic cathedral that is the dungeon's entrance, and also the Sky Lander fleet alongside our Carrier as they prepare the final line of defense. There are now even floating islands with tower fortifications that were brought by the Chimeras to allow more men to defend the skies.

The image is a bit warped, making it look obviously fake, but ahead of us, there's nothing, or rather, we can't see anything, as we don't have Alissa's fox eyes to scout ahead, so it's a bit disorienting.

"Send me back, Wolfy," Hana requests, pridefully trying to keep her exhaustion out of her tone.

I just nod and open a [Gate] for her.

The mounted mages stop spawning on the previous level, so Alissa and Roxanne clean things up, and then they land and contact Alcander to recover the airship because I can't afford to go back for it.

Now that the teens are free to return to the fortress, we could potentially push out with the melee squad again, but the grenades make that too risky. The Hau-Hou and Urmeie can definitely hold an entrance by themselves, but anyone following them would be too exposed if they went out any further than that.

Soon, the portal back disappears behind me as Ted and I fly into the nothingness, so I decide to get Samkelo to help me grab my Thread again to ensure that I don't get lost.

 

"I'm almost passing out, man…" he whines tiredly as he waits for the summon to connect the Bed of Preservation.

"Sleep a bit, then," I grumble back, not feeling like doing too much banter.

"I'd rather continue trying to help Lily," he replies stoically, and I decide to not give him shit for it due to his noble intentions.

"Then ask a healer for some drugs. They have some mean shit better than meth," I amusedly suggest, and he hums eagerly, making me shake my head.

But this gives Yunia an idea. "Perhaps we should put her in a Bed of Preservation," she concernedly shares through [Bind], still using [Soul Shield] on Lily.

At this point, it won't hurt to try.

 

Our fortress starts to get rocked by big spells as we can't properly go out anymore to deal with the mages. The average soldier already struggles against the golden cans, not to mention the shower of grenades, while there are too many hippogryphs for the Sky Lander airships and the Horns to deal with, and the shiny cans make even the girls and the Hau-Hou sweat, so there's not much we can do.

I don't know how many losses we've had already, but the medical area is so full that we're having to [Gate] the worst casualties back to the Sky Lands.

The fortress is falling, and we're gradually being pushed back.

"There's someone trapped in the rubble!" a knight desperately shouts as he rushes into the medical area. He seems to be one of Urmeie's.

Ciel immediately runs towards him and orders, "Take me there!"

And I sigh tiredly. It's 4 AM, and our nerves are starting to fray.

But I still don't see any sign of the portal, so I push the Raki to maximum speed and boost the enchantments again. My mana organ is starting to complain, though the girls have it worse because the enchantments in the Raki are at least super efficient, thanks to cheating with Lina.

I feel my Thread getting closer, though, so at least we're making progress.

Queen Patika comes back from her rest and deletes the horde outside by using [Water Magic]'s [Absolute Zero], then blows the statues away with a low-power but wide-range [Tornado]. She doesn't need to actually cast system spells since her "Magic Power" is high enough to bend the elements to her will, but it's just simpler unless you have the need for something very specific that's not covered by the system spells.

This only gives us a momentary breather, though, as the horde is continuous and endless. It feels futile to kill them when they just replace whatever we kill instantly, especially since we're barely holding the fortress, so we should just stall them while the Sky Landers arm the populace.

Then the Raki suddenly starts to shake so much that I almost lose control of it, forcing me to slow down to subsonic speed.

The fuck?

"Master, one of the wings is bending out of shape," Ted states observantly and points with her cute little doll arm.

It's barely perceptible, but the left wing really is bent.

"Can you fix it for me?" I tiredly request.

And she nods cutely. "Using [Manipulate Metal] will weaken the alloy, but it'll serve as an emergency fix."

Lina and Aoi help us so that we don't fuck up the tempering, and we put it back into its proper shape as best as we can. The shaking lessens, so I guess it's good enough, but my fly boy's time is running out.

Soon after, we finally spot the portal to the next level, but a dreadful feeling makes me hesitate.

"Order Sandoro to sound the retreat!" I hurriedly tell the girls.

"Wolfy?" Ciel questions confusedly.

"Something bad will happen when I cross this portal. The dungeon will escalate things."

"I understand," she immediately replies and goes to find him.

The siren resounds throughout the fortress, announcing the command to orderly retreat. Then I cross through the portal, and I come out into another "omnidirectional camera," but this time, it's observing our fortress.

Suddenly, seven spheres of metal appear in a circle above the fortress. Then they start to crackle with wild lightning, and I hover my finger over the summon button for the girls.

But I'm the only one who can see it, so I have them warn everyone, "INCOMING ATTACK! BRACE FOR IMPACT!"

We praise the Gods once again, for it still takes ten seconds for the spheres to launch, but when they do, they rock the fortress like nothing that's come before. The spheres don't get in very deep, though, thanks to the imperial fortress design that specializes in resisting siege attacks like this.

But then they come back out of the fortress and begin to crackle with wild lightning again, so Sandoro announces an immediate retreat as another siren is sounded, but it cycles much faster than the previous one.

Now there's nothing left to do but watch as the Titans demolish the fortress, even though their own troops are swarming it, which makes it feel like the DM is gloating about his little victory.

 

The losses mount as the spheres make it impossible to recover anyone buried in the rubble. Even Aoi and Hana don't feel like they'd come out unscathed if they got slammed by one of them.

It's painful to admit, but we held on for as long as we could; any longer, and the losses would've been unacceptable.

A part of me wishes that I could've stopped progressing, as going through the portals is clearly allowing the Dungeon Master to escalate things, but Lily's curse means I can't stop. The DM really has forced us to play along with this scenario, but I think we've still surprised them with how we've hard-countered most of the bullshit thrown at us.

I soon reach the next portal, then cross it unhesitatingly, and now the "omnicamera" is showing the Raki.

Fucking creepy peeping bastard.

But there's still nothing in this level, and keeping a hold of my Thread is starting to strain me. I also can't find where the hell this "camera" is, even though it's supposedly a few meters ahead of the Raki and perfectly following me.

The dragon is waking up, and it isn't happy.

 

Then I reach the next level, and things finally change.

It's like I'm back inside the overly-decorated Gothic cathedral of the 4D level, but at least now the architecture doesn't melt my brain. I didn't miss the gruesome imagery, though.

There are multiple corridors that I can take, but only one has a golden carpet, and my Thread is pointing in that direction, so I follow it for a bit. Then I reach the most stupidly huge pair of golden double doors ever.

Tacky sense of taste, to be honest.

So I land, store the Raki as I summon everyone, then open a [Gate] for Alcander, who opens his own gate for the rest of our group. Three of The Four, Queen and King Hau-Hou, Urmeie, Belind, Caterina, a few Companions to watch our backs, knights, and bodyguards. We still leave a bird summon with Sandoro and Sainalai for communication purposes, but we've brought everyone that has experience fighting alongside us.

"So, this is it?" Urmeie grunts as she stares at the double doors, a touch of excitement in her tone.

"Most likely, yeah," I dryly hum back. My Thread is telling me that I'm close, very close.

"Expect the Guardian of the core to be more powerful than even us," Queen Patika wisely warns everyone.

"But not more powerful than our combined might," Yunia haughtily states, and the deer Queen simply flashes a smile.

"Holy shit. Why can't anything ever be small?" Thant asks as he looks around and takes in the architecture.

"Ask the dwarves," Hana grunts back with a snort.

"Hey, that's a mean insinuation," Lina whines and frowns at her dear redhead sister-wife.

"Open up," I demand with a snarl. I'm tired of this shit, and I want to get it over with so that I can go back to appreciating my girls bantering again. I'm just too stressed out to laugh.

And Alissa just silently gives her newly-enchanted full-auto rifle a final check, sharing my "too tired for silliness" mood.

Then the doors slowly open up without making a sound just as the horde begins to fly out of the dungeon's entrance.

Today is the 19th, Nev, day of Spirit, and this gray morning starts with the sounds of cannons and gunfire as every soldier pulls their trigger at the same time. The tin cans can now apparently fly… or rather, walk in the air somehow, so they continue their mad charge like a cloud of angry, screaming mosquitoes.

And the double doors reveal a long room made of white crystals with a long line of shiny Titans waiting by the wall on each side and a bigger, naked, mouthless Titan made of gold at the end of the long corridor. He's sitting on his crystal throne with a stoic, empty gaze, and there's one robed Titan beside him while the dungeon's core is right above them.

But what stuns us is the being of lightning above them and splayed out against the back wall like a skinned pelt. It looks like the skeleton of a bird but made of solid-looking lightning, and its overall shape is… oddly human-like, like someone picked the midpoint of a skeleton morphing between a bird and a human.

Then we realize that this must be the Lord of Storms, and he's what my Thread had been pointing to, not the dungeon's core.

 

I see a storm ravaging a little piece of land. The island is punished by huge waves that wash away anything growing above ground; next are the lightning strikes that destroy whatever's left, and then the tornadoes come in and remove the soil. Suddenly, the earth cracks from earthquakes, and lava pours out, which solidifies from the constant rain, allowing for vegetation to grow, only for everything to repeat again.

But this is just one of the countless little islands being ravaged by the elements.

 

The vision ends in an instant, and I almost stumble at the sudden rush of information, but grim determination keeps me standing because I see the end of my divine quest within reach. And just as a bonus, I've also been given another little (lowercase) gift: I can now cast spells up to level 60.

The problem is that putting more than 30 skill points in anything makes my soul feel "heavy," so it's only practical to use level 60 spells for a few of the magical schools, but there's some utility we can get out of it, and my [Blessing Magic] is at 23…

"Is that…?" someone whispers in awe at the sight of the Lord, but there's no time to answer them.

I release my Thread and step forward as I quickly change my points around, and then I [Equip] Patrono. I don't care if the others see my secret weapon; I'm going to end this in just a moment.

"[The worms have finally arrived]," the robed Titan beside Goldie speaks haughtily, and we can hear the impotent rage simmering in his tone. Then Alissa notices that Goldie doesn't have a cock, which is very amusing.

"[You speak our language and dare call us worms]?" Queen Patika indignantly replies.

"[You've trampled upon the Endless Circles of Ordeals, treating it as a mere challenge. This offends our faith]," he venomously spits back, his face visibly warped by an ugly scowl, even under his hood.

"[Is it not? You live in a dungeon, which are made specifically to challenge us]," Urmeie smugly retorts, and they immediately answer by pressuring her with their auras, but maybe even if they screamed, it would have little effect on the shameless bear.

So snake-tongue hisses again, "[A challenge you almost failed. If we could've thrown our might at you all at once from the beginning, you'd never have gotten so far, but now that you're here, our Shackles have been completely removed]."

I wish Lily was here because she'd verbally fuck his ass so hard that he'd beg for mercy.

But Alissa is feeling particularly spicy, so she answers back like a sly vixen, "[Is that supposed to be threatening? We still haven't even called upon our Emperor, while your 'god' is about to be killed by Kings and Queens]."

"[We shall not suffer your blasphemy]," he immediately replies with an icy, cold tone, and the shiny cans draw their weapons.

I just [Equip] our overengineered M1 Field Gun and immediately pull the trigger.

Everyone winces back, even the shiny cans, but my trained ears immediately recognize the metallic ringing of the silver force field, so I'm not surprised when I see it after the smoke clears. What is surprising is that it's cracked, and then the field disappears again after a second.

"Reload it!" I telepathically order the golems as I charge forward, and the girls also attack, taking a few of the shiny cans by surprise.

"[Unwashed barbarians]!" the robed Titan growls angrily as he recovers from the shock wave, and I'd snort if he and Goldie didn't suddenly become as tall as the palm of my hand in the blink of an eye. Then I blink again and realize that the distance between us has widened to an extreme degree, and I'm suddenly hit by a wave of [Space Magic]-like mana.

Of course, the DM has shown themself to be a master of space with that level that was so big that light took a few seconds to fully cross it. Then the shiny cans recover and start attacking us.

I click my tongue and try to fly towards Goldie, but the distance only increases, and then I get an idea. Yunia's [Spirit Magic] is at level 27, and though there's a spell called [Mana Burn] at level 50, the level 60 spell seems a lot more useful.

So I stop and move her points around while Lina begins her barrage of [Cursing Magic]. Then Yunia instant-casts [Mana Block] at Goldie and the robed little shit.

The spell gets interrupted after just a second, as predicted, but then she casts it again… and again, and again, and again…

"[What is this]?!" the robed bastard shouts indignantly.

So I resume flying towards them, and the space between us stops expanding to keep us apart, but I don't really need to get close, so I just [Equip] the Field Gun again as the golems have finished reloading it.

But Goldie suddenly stands up and raises a hand, and then a javelin of pure, dangerous-looking light appears in his palm, and I get a bad feeling about it. It doesn't seem like [Mana Block] works against it.

"THANT!" I desperately ask for help.

But Goldie starts moving his arm, and I don't believe the cat will react in time, so I shift into a dragon and stand in front of the Field Gun.

YOU WILL NOT USE DIVINE ENERGY AGAINST ME!

The javelin shoots like a bullet at the same time that I use [Telekinesis] to slash with Patrono, but the javelin simply splits in two and hits my belly.

I'M THE INVINCIBLE DRAGON! AND MY BLESSED SCALES SHALL ENDURE THIS FUCKING DIVINE JAVELIN!

My "Willpower" still isn't high enough to bend reality as I wish, so my draconic belly disintegrates as the javelin stabs through me. I chose to use this form specifically because I can use mana to regrow my body instead of just dying… Though [Mana Body] should let me do the same if I try hard enough.

But that thought is quickly lost as the javelin somehow gets stuck in me, and I'm thrown back into the Field Gun with a lot of force. The javelin pierces it and gets stuck, but the Gun is too heavy and barely twitches in place, though now it's definitely disabled as the barrel has been damaged.

This much isn't enough to disorient me, so I immediately grab the thick beam of dangerous light and try to take control of it. My claws start to slowly disintegrate just from touching it, but I can feel a sort of "response" coming from it.

"I CAN'T CONTROL THE JAVELIN WHILE IT'S INSIDE YOU!" I hear Thant calmly inform me.

"[Hah… your attempt at taming divinity is child-like]," Goldie finally speaks, his rather androgynous voice coming from all directions while also giving us all chills of disgust as if he's trying to control us with [Godly Language].

Then I come to the conclusion that trying to stop the javelin instead of moving the Field Gun with [Equip] was a dumb idea, but then I get an even dumber one.

"Oh yeah? Then how about this?!" I cheekily shout back, then use [Redirect Mana] on the javelin.

The divine energy instantly melts into a watery substance that seems to eagerly answer to my will, and its glow changes from "dangerous and painful" to "warm and delicious," but the dragon can't help itself when faced with such a sight, and he immediately pulls the energy into my body.

I don't even try to stop the lizard because the touch of the energy is orgasmic, and I'd cum in my pants if I were in my humanoid form. Then I sense the wound in my belly close on its own as my veins are injected with a raw energy that fuses with my unbreakable will, and it gives me such euphoric clarity that I almost cry.

This time, there's no familiar warm pair of arms to hug me from behind and point me towards the right path because we don't need it. This fake God will be brought down by mere mortals.

"[I dare you to try that again]…" I huskily challenge him in Reo as I raise my head and let out a toothy, fearsome, divine draconic grin.

Unfortunately, Goldie doesn't banter and just raises his other hand, and then we're blinded by a lightning strike that hits him like a lightning pole. Our eyes quickly recover, and we see Goldie holding a javelin of wild lightning while the glow of the Lord of Storms has dimmed a bit.

"CHESA!" I immediately ask for help.

This time, the teens are ready.

Goldie swings his arm, and a lightning bolt flies towards us but curves around me and hits Chesa. That seems fine, so I look forward again and see Goldie make a fist, and then an arc of lightning forms between the girl and the Lord of Storms, flooding her with electricity.

"AAAH!" We hear her scream of pain as she seems to struggle to contain so much energy, which starts to lash out and hit our men in the back.

Lily would kill me if I allowed her daughteru to get hurt, so instead of slicing it with Patrono, I just put my clawed hands into the electric arc.

I can't help but put my hand in the fire.

Except this time, I have divine energy inside me, and the arc melts like a wet noodle and then obeys my will like an eager puppy.

Fuck Goldie in the ass.

The arc breaks, then does a U-turn and hits Goldie right where I told it to, but the following flash of light prevents me from seeing what that looks like.

"[You're infuriating]…" Goldie coldly states. Then he suddenly launches forward, coming at me like a cringe shonen character as he holds his fist back and winds up a huge punch. Everyone else is busy dealing with the growing number of shiny cans, so I'm more or less on my own unless I specifically ask for help.

But that's fine with me. I immediately revert to my humanoid form and cast [Reflection] on myself, the level 60 spell of [Blessing Magic].

Goldie comes in too fast to notice the light silver sheen covering my body, and when his fist connects with the side of my helmet, his golden head jerks to the side, and then he's thrown away. The spell isn't powerful enough to absorb all of the force, and I'm still jostled a bit, but it's nothing compared to what he felt.

"A real God wouldn't be so easily humiliated like this," I joke and chuckle as I steady myself. Then I ready Patrono and fly after him.

Goldie's body hits the white crystal wall and leaves a small crack. Then he hovers in place before he can fall and whispers quietly with a dark, seething tone, "[Infuriating…]"

I sense him gather mana, and then a sphere of metal materializes in front of him, but Yunia starts disrupting him by spamming [Mana Block] again, making the sphere fall to the ground. He suddenly jerks his head in her direction, and she senses his divine aura trying to intimidate her, but after getting Ravaged by the Holy Cock so much, it isn't even enough to arouse her.

Then I slice with Patrono, but the blade hits the silver force field, causing the sword to vibrate so hard that it makes my hands tingle. The field is still cracked, and it flickers as Yunia casts the spell again, but he dodges away before the blade can reach his skin.

So I order the golems, and they pull out their Field Guns. Then I [Parry] Goldie's kick to my flank with the blade (which again is stopped from reaching his skin by the force field), and I let myself get thrown away to give the golems a clear shot.

The three synchronized explosions make everyone wince, but their battle resumes after just a short moment as they were ready for it. The silver force field, though, fares a lot worse, with large, visible white cracks all over it.

"[INFURIATING]!" Goldie roars as he launches himself towards the golems.

He's much faster than I can fly, even with [Blink], so we get the girls to intercept him.

Big-Aoi slams against him the moment [Mana Block] is cast again, and he veers off course. Then Hana tries to punch him in the face, but the shield gets in the way, though she makes him stop in the air. Her next instinct is to hug the shield, and then it flickers, and she manages to touch his skin.

"FUCK YOOOOOOU…!" she roars as she breathes fire right into his face and attempts to crush him with a draconic hug.

"[WORM]!" he roars back as he tries to break free, but Lina's curses are starting to take effect, and Roxanne follows up with a [Gravity Crush] to keep him in check.

"AND STAY DOWN!" I taunt as I cast [Telekinesis], then slam both of them onto the ground, right in front of Urmeie and King Temamana.

"DON'T MIND IF I DO!" Urmeie howls as she slices him with [Searing Blade] while the king wordlessly slams his sledgehammer onto Goldie's head.

The hammer is stopped by the force field, cracking it further, while Urmeie's slash isn't, and it cuts off his right arm at the bicep while digging deep into his upper torso, but Hana hugging him stopped the Princess from bisecting him as she would've killed Hana too.

And the arm falling reveals that Goldie does, indeed, bleed, but his blood is golden, which makes me envious that mine isn't silvery.

"[ENOUGH]!" he growls in rage, and his whole body explodes with divine energy, but only Hana gets wounded before Thant contains it.

Or at least that's what I assume he did, for the sphere of light stops expanding as Hana is thrown back, her face burning even though she was using [Draconic Body], and then I touch the light and wrestle control of it with [Redirect Mana]. I can't use the skill on spells, as the presence of two wills fighting over the mana creates a Warped Reality, but when he just throws away energy like this, it's free real estate.

I absorb it all into my body, and the glow dissipates, but he's not there anymore.

The golems reflexively cast [Earth Bullet] at Goldie as he [Blink]s before them, but I interrupt and summon them, then have them immediately cast [Equip] on the Field Guns.

Haha!

Goldie stops in the air in confusion for a second, then suddenly launches himself towards us again.

The Field Guns fire, but they're not enough to stop him, though at least it seems that the silver force field is about to break. Then Aoi tries to slam him again, but her timing is off, and she hits the field before it flickers, and Hana has been blinded by the explosion, so I have the golems retrieve the cannons and then split up in all directions.

Seeing this, Goldie doesn't fall for the bait and simply stops in the air. Then his body glows with divine light again, and the cracks start to mend.

But you know what?

"Fuck that!" I shout and turn around as I summon a bird to act as Hana's eyes. Then I [Blink] forward and fly as fast I can towards the core.

The battle with the shiny cans is becoming too chaotic for my taste as more of them are teleported here faster than we can kill them, and Goldie is being a hard nut to crack (heh), so I'd rather end this already as the risk for us just increases the longer we fight. I don't know why Goldie isn't healing himself, but we're basically relying on getting lucky to even hit him, and I hate that.

But flying out of the mess turns me into a target, and I start to get pelted with spells and grenades. I cast [Reflection] on myself, and it works against the physical part of the spells trying to push me around, while the magic part is easily nullified by the divine energy accumulated within me.

"[WORM]!" Goldie finally notices where I'm going and tries to give chase, a sword of divine light in his right hand, but Ciel gets in his way and starts parrying his sluggish attacks (thanks to Lina) with her [Judgment]-enchanted glaive while Roxanne repeatedly casts [Gravity Crush], both things greatly slowing him down.

Then Alissa's, Aoi's, and Yunia's attacks hit simultaneously, a nearly impossible feat without our Gestalt. His spine is shot at the same time that he gets shoulder checked by Aoi, which throws him to the ground. This time, he falls in front of Brett, who takes the opportunity to copy Hana and give him a hug.

"[INFURIATING]!" he roars again and explodes with divine energy, but our cute corgi man is an unbreakable bastard, just like Lily. I guess it's paid off to have a spare.

"UOOOOOH!" Brett howls as he holds Goldie down. Then the force field flickers, and he gets his hands on the fake deity.

The shiny cans immediately change targets and try to attack Brett to free Goldie, but we're right behind them.

Now there's only the loud-mouthed robed Titan between me and the core, and he looks like easy prey. He even tries to cast an AoE spell on me, but with Chesa and Queen Patika here, no spell like that will ever get off.

Suddenly, the ground rises all around him and the throne, creating a dome of protection around the core, but I still have Patrono with me, so I cut a triangle into the white crystal as if it was made of paper. Then I kick it, and I hear the robed shit grunt in pain as he's almost crushed by the slab.

Then I hear a metallic sound of something snapping, followed by a more muffled snap, and I scream in pain as something happens to my legs, "AAARGH…!" I immediately look down and see that they're fine, but a dark, weak laugh comes from inside the dome, and I can see that the slab fell upon the Titan's legs in the exact same location that I felt mine snap, so I think I have a good guess about what happened.

I still have a lot of divine energy in me, so I send a bit of it to my legs, and they heal up almost instantly. Then I enter the dome. Goldie [Blink]s away, then grinds his body against the ground to free himself from Brett while Ciel whacks him with her glaive, but I've already won.

Patrono cuts the core in two, and Goldie lets out a horrible death scream while we all cum in our pants from the deluge of Experience and level-ups.

"You are now level seventy-three."

"Aaaahn~…!" the bird with Sainalai hears Lily's loud moan of delight, likely also leveling up as she's still in a Fellowship with the rest of The Four.

But then Ted suddenly warns us through [Bind], "The Titans are still here!"

Fucking hell!

We force ourselves to recover and engage the now enraged shits, but they're no longer being teleported in, so we just need to mop them up. Unfortunately, that also means that the horde is still out there, but as soon as we're done here, I'll summon a Fay Leviathan to deal with them once and for all, and then we'll free the Lord of Storms.

"No…" the snake-tongued Titan moans in disbelief as he stares at the pieces of the core disintegrating into nothing.

"Your 'god' is dead," I sadistically taunt as I glare.

But he seems too stunned to answer, so I leave for now. I'd like to have a few words with him later.