- The Underground City -

At the break of dawn, the dwarves were already working away at the walls of the dungeon. They expanded some of the rooms into long grand halls and made others far more labyrinthine.

“Gahahaha!” a dwarf laughs, “They called this a dungeon?!”

“Hah! It’s more like a play pit for tikes!” another jeers,

“Stay focused men!” Dusty shouts, “Our job’s only just begun!”

Taro oversees the construction like a foreman. The dwarves are free to make the rooms as they saw fit as well as free reign to mine where they please. However, the only caveat is that they don’t tunnel through areas that can become structural weaknesses. So far they have found sediment rich deposits of metals deep in the mountain, however in one of the fissures they uncovered filled them with fear. ‘Bad luck’ one of the dwarves would call it.

Shion stops by to see how they are doing.

“Hey, Taro,” Shion calls out to him. “Working hard?”

“Hardly,” Taro answers, “They’re doing all the work.”

“Don’t sell yourself short,” she smiles, “This wouldn’t be possible without you,”

“Heh…” he laughs, “Flattery won’t get you anything extra you know?”

The dwarves continue to work on a long platform overlooking a chasm as they chat.

“Anyways…” Shion continues, “Me and Akari are going to check out that hole that the dwarves found earlier.”

“The cursed one?” Taro says, “It could be risky…”

“I can’t guarantee it won’t.” she starts, “But it might be better to assess it now rather than later."

“Sounds fair.” he says, “I do worry that it’ll be dangerous”

“If it is, we’ll face it together!" Shion says with a puff, “Right?”

“Heh… What am I going to do with you…” Taro laughs,

Taro gets up to follow her, but a familiar voice rings in his ear.

“Don’t let her revive her mother Taro.” the angel’s voice calls.

“Huh?!” Taro looks around,

“Is something wrong Taro?” Shion asks,

“Sorry, must still be tired,” he reassures her,

The two go to pick up Akari. Though it took some time thanks to their new layout.

They found her in her room, on the floor playing with the gaming handheld that Taro had given her.

“Akari, c’mon let’s go!” Shion cheerfully beckons,

“Ahh… just one more level!” she resists,

Shion puts her hands on her hips impatiently,

“Ughh, fine…” Akari finally relents,

After wrangling the errant child, the group goes to the troubled fissure. From the outside it appears to be a normal crack in the wall. Just large enough for an adult to walk through.

Taro, despite not being superstitious, feels an ominous aura from the crevice. Akari, seeing the hesitating Taro, walks in.

“A-Akari!” Taro shouts,

“What?!” Akari snaps back, “What’re you afraid of?! It’s just a cave!”

“I don’t have a good feeling about this!” he protests,

“Akari, maybe we should be a bit more cautious.” Shion says,

“What’s the big deal -!”

*CHOMP!*

A large jaw clamps shut on the red oni, and makes a hasty escape.

“AKARRII!!!!” they both yell,

Taro had expected something like this to occur but not so suddenly. What he saw was a blur, he could ascertain that the creature was fast and large, but not much detail could be made out in such a short glimpse. Taro looks to his right to see the gigantic glowing amber eyes.

Shion had turned to her serpent form ready to chase down the quick-legged napper.

“Get on, now!” she ordered,

Taro quickly hopped on and held onto a horn.

“Let’s go!” Taro says,

With immense force the serpent bursts through the crevice, widening it to about Shion’s size. She moves through the winding tunnels at breakneck speed. Taro feels like he was on the roof of a high speed monorail.

“D-Do you know where you’re going?” Taro shouts, hoping his voice would be heard over the immense wind,

“I still have his scent,” she replies, “We’re coming up on him now,”

The great serpent caused a large amount of destruction in her wake. Her enormous body moving at great speed shook the ground beneath her and hairpin turns inevitably broke some cavern walls. Up ahead, a crowd of skeletons stumbles onto Shion’s path.

“Shion! Clackers!” Taro cries,

Undeterred, she bursts through them like bowling pins. Bones of various nature would splinter off in every direction. One flies into Taro’s face, getting stuck from the wind pressure.

“Ack!” Taro yelps,

He pulls off the morbid artifact, looking at it, he sees the inscriptions laid within it. Faint magic fades off its runes and Taro makes a mental note of it. The pair make it up to a clearing where the oni and her shangehaier awaits.

From the ride, Taro slips off the Dungeon Lord, falling safely to the ground. Seeing that her passenger was safe, she arches her neck to the monster to intimidate. She lets out a warning hiss.

It was a great warg. The black beast still had Akari in his maw. Seeing nowhere else to go, the monster takes a battle pose. It spits out Akari to the side in preparation. Shion roars at the beast to no avail, undeterred, it matches her and roars back.

What came next was a great battle between giants. The resulting tremors shook the foundations of the cave around them. Shion would attempt to constrict the agile beast and it in turn would struggle, throwing their combined weight around the walls to get her to relent. A fierce mash of claw, tooth and muscle.

Taro runs over to Akari in the chaos.

“Akari!” Taro holds up the girl, “Are you ok?!”

“Huweh?...” She looks up confused, “Where am I?”

“You got bit by a warg just now!” he explains, “We’re in a cave,”

“Huh? But why are we outside then?” Akari deliriously asks,

“What?...” Taro looks up to see what did in fact look like the night’s starry sky.

It was a high crystalline ceiling reflecting light in a way that it resembled a night sky. The ground also cracked beneath them. Taro takes her away from its edge and the both bore witness to hundreds of thousands of pounds of rock and sand moving. Unveiling grand structures that stretch out as far as the eye could see. They were sitting in a dungeon within their dungeon. No. A whole underground city buried by time and sand.

“W-What is this place?” Akari says, filled with dread.

An ear piercing howl shook the ground. Taro and Akari looked to see the warg expend the last of its energy as Shion clamped down on its limp corpse. She had conquered the beast. Shion let out a victory roar!

“Wow! Shion! So cool!” Akari runs to hug the great serpent.

“Huhu, you think so?” the snake bashfully boasts, “That guy wasn’t much at all!”

A light emanated from her and she was returned to her mortal form. Shion bore some battle damage from the fight.

“Shion!” Taro exclaims, “You’re hurt!”

“Ah.” she says unbothered, “I suppose I am. - but more importantly!”

*Bonk!*

Shion gives Akari a good bonk on the head and noogies the still hugging oni.

“Ow! That hurts!” Akari yelps,

“Good! Remember that pain and learn!” she nags, “That was dangerous!”

“What’s the problem if you can just revive us?” Akari complains,

“I don’t like that kind of thing!” Shion says indignantly, “You can’t be reckless! You have to cherish the life you have!”

“...Okay?” Shion pleads,

“... Okay, I promise…” Akari concedes,

“In any case, where are we?” Shion, only just realizing her surroundings asks,

The group looked around the great city that surrounds them. Its shimmering towers astonished the group with its grandness, though they agreed to retreat for the day. Shion had sensed far more dangers lie in wait within the city.

The crew followed the path of destruction that Shion had carved out back to the dungeon. Various rooms and buildings poke from their encasement as they walked by. They wondered how large this city truly was and for what purpose it was built for?

When they re-emerged they were met with angry dwarves and a piles of bones reaching the ceiling!

“You lot!” Dusty screams, “I thought I told you to not go into that crevice!”

“What happened here?” Taro asks,

“The damn skeleton legion came is what happened!” He snaps, “You’ve gone and unleashed them upon us, we didn’t get any work done!”

“Ehe…” Shion laughs nervously, “My bad...”