Demon Lord’s Castle

All that stands before us now is the Demon Lord’s castle.

Stepping over the collapsed entryway, broken into by Gil’s super duper strength magic. We enter the first lab’s front lobby. Scattered across the open room there are multiple withered humanoids, some even appear to be daystars sporting some blackened horn-like appendages. As we stride on into the facility these monsters flee deeper in upon witnessing our presence.

“Look, they're running away!” Lala points out.

“It's probably for the best, right kiddos, less fighting means the faster we reach the end. But I find it odd.” Dr. Creeks pulls out a small notepad, clicking a pen she begins writing something.

“What are you jotting down, doc?”

“Don’t you find it strange that these creatures would have the knowledge to run away? They fear us. Fear what we might do to them. I feel the closer we travel to the black spire, the stranger things get.”

“Don’t most creatures feel fear though, isn’t that like a pretty normal thing for a living creature to have.”

“Yes it is, that’s what my concern is. You said it yourself, it's normal for a living being to fear. But I’ve always assumed the withering to not be living beings exactly, more like how zombies were portrayed in media. You know, like a living dead sort of deal.”

Lala butts in–

“Does the speculation really matter? In the end they are our enemies, whether or not they fear us shouldn’t really be a problem for us to be worrying about.”

“The more information I have about these wither beasts, the better we can assess the battles ahead of us. Lala if you are to be a battle strategist you should know; "Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories."-Sun Tzu.

“Who?”

“Sigh, I must be old or something, people used to quote that guy all the time.”

Suddenly from where the withered ones fled, stronger ones appear brandishing weapons infused within their bodies’ made of daystar metal.

“Armored enemies–12 o’ clock! I’ve never seen them appear like this before, using tools. It's almost like they’re trying to protect something…” Dr. Creeks scribbles more notes into her notepad.

“Stand back mom! Me and my bros will beat these bad guys up.”

Ten withered knights enter the lobby, they walk upright and appear to be quite strong.

“Coach–got a plan of attack?”

“Let’s see, the daystar metal they wield should act as a perfect conductor for your magic, I’ll just amplify your magic real quick, then you should aim to stun them and get some chain lightning going across from enemy to enemy. Then Gil–I need you to summon that giant again, or use your magic to beat them dead!”

“Aye sir!” Gil and I salute the coach of strategy.

“ALRIGHT BREAK!”

“Electricity–equip, [Electrostatic Discharge]!”

This time more armor forms, it's not the scary dragon armor from before nor the upgraded shovel, but at least now I’m fully protected from head to toe, in electricity!

Gil puts his fists to his waist getting super focused.

“Lend me your magic, share that [Lifelight]!”

Gil’s blood begins to glow that golden light again, this time it shines a clear brightness, not flickering in the slightest.

“Allow me to [AMP] it UP!

Lala waves his bat like a magical staff, sending waves of magical power bolstering up the two of us. Once again the power only lasting a few seconds.

“Ok I get it now, I have to be ready with it; I’ll use it again right when you make your attack!”

The monsters begin charging towards us!

“King! Do your thing!”

“YES COACH!”

Running ahead I greet the first of many enemies. It slightly towers over me, about the size of a human adult, though maybe just a tad taller, but I’ve fought larger opponents. This will be a breeze!

I’ll start unarmed, taking my complete set of armor for a spin. Right jab, left–right right, head grab into the knee! My jolts send black sparks across its body, creating smaller explosive poofs of delayed damage.

ZAP–

As the the withering knight stumbles back falling prone, I unveil my signature weapon–

“Now fall down and die, [Voltaic Arc]!

“[AMP]!”

The shovel penetrates the torso of the withered knight–and the moment it hits, Lala adds his spell on top of it! Sending chains of electricity through to each of the knights crowding the lab’s front lobby. As the lightning conducts across the monsters their bodies’ are nearly completely vaporized by the sudden volatile bolts of power chaining through them.

The knight skewered is whisked away to oblivion as its body completely dematerializes into nothingness.

With the few remaining beaten knights, Gil comes running through ready to throw hands.

POW–

CHOP–

BLAM–

Gil’s fists glow with more magic as they’re flung at the downed enemies. It's as if at the very moment of impact the giant of magical energy overlays his punch!

His punches deliver devastating deaths to each of the last standing beasts, making us the victor of this battle.

“High five!”

CLAP–

CLAP–

CLAP–

“Yayuh, we totally smoked those bad guys, together we’re literally unbeatable. I’m proud to call myself Coach of this team.”

It's true we have pretty much the perfect team comp. I’m our dps, I do a lot of AOE damage and can hit enemies quickly for a good amount of damage. Lala is the support of course, with his [AMP] increasing our damage output threefold. And then Gil is our heavy hitter–I guess he’d fall under the tank role though, since he’s definitely got a healing factor that we don’t fully understand yet.

Dr. Creeks steps out from hiding, and cleans off a smudge of dirt that dirtied Gil’s face.

“Look at you three go! I knew you could do it, but let’s keep moving shall we, there’s plenty of lab left to explore.”

She’s right, I hope the enemies as we go deeper remain the same as these ones. They were weak.

“If my hunch is right, the rest of the lab should just be these types of monsters. I think our greatest enemies are finally behind us.”

Gil corrects me.

“Don’t forget why we’re here bro, the Demon Lord is gonna be the final boss. If it's just these guys until we get there, then good. But don’t forget we still have a final battle ahead of us.

“I’m well aware Gil, but your words serve as a solid reminder to us all. Let’s get moving.”

Maneuvering through the corridor that brought the withered knights we find a room flooded by debris from a ceiling cave in. Standing scattered across the room are little withering monsters all crowding around the now blocked off pathway. The moment they see us a few start coming at us to attack.

“Get behind me!”

Gil steps forward his golden aura creating a wall of transparent golden magic between us and the withering crowd.

“I’ll defeat them with one punch! Lala get your magic ready!”

“RIGHT!”

“My friends, your Souls lost from life, lend me your strength once more–”

“[AMP]!”

“Together as one, and one for all–[AMPLIFY COMBUSTION]!

Gil punches the air before, and in that swift motion his true arm grows to the size of the giant’s fist! And as the punch reaches its maximum length it explodes!? A blast of air and blood destroys the area in front of us leaving no survivors, and a pathway cleared.

The punch left Gil’s arm broken and tattered. However the blood within him ripples of light and as quickly as it broke, it became brand new.

“Woah! Gil I didn’t know you could do all that! I guess you're like some sort of one punch man, aye.”

“Hehe thanks, I guess so. But I can only heal like that if I’m standing still. And can only achieve that type of strength if you help me get there.”

“Hehehe, what would you do without me?” Lala snickers.

“Still it’s a valuable ability to know we have in our battle arsenal, we’ll likely need it going forward. I bet there'll be more halls of enemies to explode. With my electricity, your strength, and Lala’s amplifications, we’re unbeatable.”

“Let’s not get too relaxed now, the heart of this lab is deeper within, and the 1st Observatory there alongside it.”

I catch on to an odd look Dr. Creeks is making at this moment, she looks almost sickly. Her skin appears pale and she’s averting her gaze to the attack Gil just made.

I guess it was a pretty gruesome sight, to see her son explode his arm and then restore it like nothing happened.

After a moment she scrambles to write more notes down, this time rereading her notes multiple times before putting it away.

“Our final destination should be somewhere within this place, let’s get moving.”

Dr. Creeks squeezes ahead of us down the corridor turning down the hall, Lala, Gil, and I follow just behind her.

Maybe she’s just scared.

Hm.

For some reason, I’m not.

END CHAPTER 30