CH14: Party of the Dead

[Trial 27]

[In the prominence of death, the sacredness of life emerges. Would you seek the elixir amidst decay? Unshackle the captor of her essence, and in return, she may bestow upon you the gifts of immortality and unwavering strength.]

[Kill the Manticore.]

A portal opened within the skull of the ancient predator that had died on the 27th floor. Emerging from it were a group of eight adventurers, each wearing standard and specialized armors that negated the effects of the dungeon's drastic nature. Depending on the interpretation of what lay on the floor, these adventurers might be called assailants, terrorists, or challengers. The next to enter the floor was a horde of infected creatures, their rotting bodies bound in chains that connected to a wheeled machine they were forced to pull. Of course, the infected were disposed as soon as they were unneeded.

Their natural instinct was to chase the adventurers. However, the adventurers exploited their behavior and instead used them like horses to carry their baggage. The baggage, though, was an unknown contraption in the underdeveloped and lesser country of the adventurers: a cannon-like machine that emitted a deadly type of light beyond their knowledge.

As they entered, a bald, tanned adventurer exclaimed when he saw the horde of infected monkey-like monsters approaching them. "Man, there are too many of them," he said.

"Don't worry. We have our ace in our side. The strongest adventurer of the Serpian Kingdom, Alexis Diablo," the party leader assured, looking at the hooded figure in the rear whose face was wrapped in bloody bandages.

"But boss, don't you think something about him is creepy? Just look at his face..."

"It doesn't matter if you like him or not; we need his power. If you want to save our country from the war, bear with it," the party leader, named Ray, said. He cleared his throat and then commanded with a voice filled with authority as he looked at the slow-moving zombies. "Fighters, scatter! Marksmen, don't waste your arrows."

Immediately, Ray and the bald adventurer moved on their own and killed the infected. Ray, with his fierce swordsmanship, easily beheaded the infected in front of him, while the bald man smashed their skulls with his bare hands. The rest of the party was on standby but kept a watchful eye on their surroundings.

They were the Reclaimer party, a newly formed group solely created and funded by the Serpian Kingdom to conquer the Root of Akasha. A troubled noble had noticed the disappearance of high-ranking adventurers after they signed a contract to challenge the dungeon. Initially, nobody listened to the noble, but the problem grew until the number of adventurers in the country began to dwindle. This lack of adventurers meant increased vulnerability to monster attacks, especially in a time when the Dark Lord reigned. The economy was also affected since most raw materials used by manufacturing companies came from monster parts supplied by these adventurers.

The party was composed of five fighters, two healers, three marksmen, one tank, and three mages. However, only eight of them remained: three fighters, two marksmen, and two mages and one healer who's currently unconscious and fighting for her life.

"Damn."

A gigantic amphibian creature raised itself from being buried in the ground. It resembled a crocodile, but its face was mostly a cracked skull. Realizing they couldn't defeat it, the two adventurers jumped backward and retreated.

"Mages, supply mana to the cannon!"

Upon the leader's order, the two mages channeled their mana into the crystal part of the cannon-like weapon. Using the weapon could drain their mana to death; however, mages specifically wore mana capacitors. Mana capacitors are supportive technology that they wore on their back, and they had been using it for years in replacement for mana potions. It might look like a backpack, but they store mana instead of physical equipment.

These technologies are equipped with protective metal shells that make them heavy but somehow prevent minor damages that could lead to explosive system failures. They have spinning cylinders on the lower part of the technology, glowing with blue lights that generate kinetic energy that supplies the capacitors enough with electricity to absorb and release mana from the user's body and the environment. A metal conductor was connected from the capacitor to the user's stomach enabling connection, utilizing human body heat that optimizes energy transfer efficiency. And then other safety measures such as a temperature monitoring system that forces the device to shut off after excessive energy consumption, cooling it down and preventing damage, however this feature is mostly thrown off.

When the cannon's nozzle lit up with fading blue lights and emitted a sharp sound, the leader ordered its execution. "Fire!"

A beam of blue light pierced through the head of the monster, disintegrating its skull. Another victory for the group, using an unknown technology they salvaged on the lesser floor.

The bald adventurer looked conspicuously at Diablo, who didn't lift a finger during the fight. He would have confronted him, but gave up, reminding himself of what Ray told him.

"Ray, Misha is..." a marksman called to the leader. Ray couldn't help but go to the incapacitated healer's side. The healer looked very pale, her head swollen with enlarged veins, and she was having a hard time breathing. She had bite wounds on her arm, and maggots were eating through that wound.

"Misha, can you hear me?" Ray shook her, but Misha couldn't respond. Pain was the only thing on her mind. "Listen to me, focus on my voice. Everything will be fine. We're going to save you."

She wasn't the only one infected. Almost all of them were sick and bitten, except for Ray and Diablo. However, it seemed like Misha's infection was faster than the rest of them. Ray tried to assure her, though one second later, the girl lost consciousness.

Ray closed his eyes and calmed himself down before speaking again. "Oy, can you hear me, you bastard! We're here. Keep your promise to cure my allies once we capture that talking goblin," Ray said to Misha, who had fallen asleep. This was not directed to her, however, but to the entity that, from time to time, borrowed her body when she fell asleep.

Misha's body rose up, as if she didn't feel any pain. Her head cracked as it turned sideways, her skin started to peel off, and her scent was reminiscent of a rotting corpse. Misha smiled at the leader and chuckled.

"Hehe, will I?"

"You...! I'm going to kill you..."

"Oh? Kill me? You mean, kill your friend, whose body I'm using. Sure, go ahead."

Misha taunted, but she wasn't the same girl as before. The one currently occupying her body was none other than the mother and queen of all infected. She could temporarily possess the body of a human infected, enabling her to manipulate the party at her demands. She could harm her host without inflicting harm on itself, which meant she could force Misha to swallow a blade, and no one might be capable of stopping her.

"YOU PROMISED ME!"

"Will there be a cure? Will there not? You'll get your answer once you find my true body. But before any of that..."

The manticore landed near them, with the goblin they were looking for riding on her back. It wasn't a coincidence; the manticore had always been guarding the floor for centuries, and she was well aware that when the portal opened, high-quality meat from the animal they called humans appeared. She sensed it and, with the vigor to eat something good with her child, she immediately flew to capture them.

Theo slid down from the manticore and observed what's going on there. He couldn't contain his shock and sense of melancholy as he saw the humans in front of him. He was aware that they are a threat, and yet he had second thoughts on harming them in any way. But he mentally prepared himself that when they made their move, he would be forced to incapacitate them or kill them in the worse case scenario.

Unexpectedly, however, the manticore met a former friend.

"Yo, Irisia. Remember me?" Misha smirked.

"You..."

"It's been a long time since we met. Those aliens really caught us off guard huh, it's so funny especially the part where your cub died in front of your face, bwahahaha!"

The high pitched mocking tone and that laugh caught the manticore's nerves. Her bloodlust spilled and manifested physically in their eyes as dark eerie smoke. Misha just laughed about it.

"Oh! Time first! Time first! This is not my real body! Have mercy on this poor kid that is caught between our love quarrel-ack!"

However, the manticore didn't have the sense of mercy against the humans unlike Theo. Her scorpion tail extended then pierced Misha's stomach, hurling her away and tumbling like a ragdoll.

"Misha! You-", Ray couldn't contain his emotions, it slipped into his mind that Misha's body won't simply die even if they put a gaping hole in her stomach. Then he enchanted his weapon, "Mighty light imbue my sword, give me the cure for the blight and transform my world. [Weapon enhancement: Lightning Blade]!"

It's a Dragon Slayer technique that imbued the sword with electricity, materializing as if lightning that struck its surroundings, burning. He immediately rushed toward the manticore, Theo prepared himself to intercept him, and the mages from the Reclaimer party bombarded the manticore with spells.

"God of gods, the path is nigh, darkness is your blood and your soul is metal. Let me borrow the strength of your blood and soul. [Void Sphere]," the mage chanted, a sphere of dark solid substance materialized above him then threw it towards the manticore, while the other mage shot her with [Ice Crystal] spell. The marksmen helped as well by shooting the beast with poison arrows and explosives which kept the manticore at bay. Lucky for Theo that he was pushed away by the manticore before any of the projectiles hit her.

"Groah!"

"That's it! Kill her!" Misha cheered their attack spree.

The mages charged the cannon and then fired it at the manticore. And Misha could see as well how the magic-users' mana capacitors were overheating to the point that there was smoke billowing out. Even though these technologies save mana and increase efficiency, it is not without its trade-offs. And if they overheated, it would take a minute or more to make them functional again, except if they somehow removed that limitation. And more than that, the manticore evaded the attack effortlessly, but the fact that she evades means she could be killed by it that the queen smirked.

A minute has passed, and the area was covered in smoke from the adventurers' attack. However, when the area cleared, they saw how the manticore was unharmed as if nothing happened. The adventurers kept their guards up and prepared themselves, knowing that it was the beast's chance to destroy them without their cherished mana.

"Goblin," the manticore looked at Theo. "Close your eyes."

The manticore roared loudly, and suddenly, the adventurers became stiff. They knew from the feeling itself that confronting her would not be good, but they had to finish what they started. Irisia's face suddenly turned dark in their eyes, mysteriously, she became as if something else, even without her transforming physically. She opened her mouth and absorbed the wind around her, then a beam of freezing air shot out from her mouth. The adventurers immediately evaded away and ran around to make it hard for her to aim.

Next, when the freezing beam didn't do anything, the manticore covered herself in flames. Her body turned with fury of blazing fire, which affected everything near her. She became so hot that the adventurers couldn't come close to her. And at this moment, the adventurer noticed something strange.

'_Fire? She just used cryo-magic. How can she use totally antagonistic magic?'_ Ray thought. Normally, this wouldn't be possible. When a person is trained in fire magic, their biological magic circuit is shaped to accommodate pyro-magic but makes it very hard for them to use the opposite, and the effect is permanent unless they miraculously grow extra magic circuits for the element. Yet this is not the only thing that Ray noticed as strange.

The manticore fired another beam of freezing rays from her mouth, all while her body was on flames. She could use opposite spells at the same time. The bald adventurer was hit by it, but his heavy armor prevented him from taking much damage. Then the manticore used geo-magic and reshaped the landscape to her liking, a pit opened around her and swallowed the nearby adventurers while she flew.

"Egdrasyl, I beseech you, lend me your strength. Let me reform the land with your name! [Earth Control]!" a mage adventurer put his hand on the ground and the land rose back again, saving the adventurers. However, because he used magic, he could feel the capacitors burning on his back. And Theo had used that weakness; he snuck up on his back and stabbed the overheating capacitors.

"Wha-"

_Kabam!_

Theo knew which part of the capacitor protective layer is weak to penetration since he in the past used this kind of technology. The two were hurled backward by the explosion. Though it was not Theo's intention to kill the mage, the point is to steal the mana inside the capacitor for the goblin's own use. His sword is modified in a way that it has the magic circle to steal someone's mana on touch since he has a weak mana density. Such is the style of the Dragon Slayer.

The goblin murmurs to himself, then invokes a spell that turned his sword into a blade of flame. "[Weapon Enhancement: Blazing Blade]"

"Oh god, I can't feel my legs. RAY! Oh god no... ohh," the mage mutters in pain.

Theo noticed that the explosion damaged the mage's spine so that he couldn't use his legs anymore. And there is blood all around him. He unexpectedly almost killed someone, though mysteriously for him, he doesn't feel a shred of remorse, rather a sense of delight. The goblin shook his head, noticing his immorality.

Ray comes to the mage. Several minutes has passed by from the battle, and the mage is the first casualty on both sides. The leader couldn't believe his eyes that the mage was caught off guard by the goblin, but he is surprised himself that Theo's weapon is imbued with magic by stealing someone else's.

"That's a Dragon Slayer technique... how the..."

Dragon slayer sword style was specifically developed to kill dragons but is also effective in killing people, it involves stealing their large supply of mana and using it as a weapon against them.

Ray and Theo clashed, two dragon slayer users were fighting with each other. And Ray didn't expect himself to have a hard time defeating a goblin. The goblin leaves no room for an opening, and each of his strikes were getting parried. The clash between lightning and fire was impactful that both of them were being blown away, but Theo was more on the edge here than the human since he is lighter and smaller. His arm is getting numb just from keeping up, and he is getting shocked by the current every time he goes near him, plus the fact that Ray is better equipped than him. His armor had elemental resistance spells that made it hard to deal any damage.

"You're the strongest goblin I had ever encountered. So this is why she wanted you alive," Ray claimed, but Theo chuckled.

"Me? The strongest? Keke, I'm flattered, but you're off the mark. There are many, many goblins that are stronger and faster than I am."

"What!? How many of your kind are out there!?"

It's a bluff; Theo is just trying to weaken his spirit by attacking him psychologically.

"Keke, lots of them. More than what you could imagine. Hundreds? Thousands? No, of course not. There are millions of us, waiting for the right moment to attack. Each one is as strong or stronger than I am," a sweat swelled on Ray's face, astounded by the lie made by the goblin. "If I were you, I'd just give up and run away."

Theo just wanted him to give up. Even if Ray defeated him, he couldn't defeat Irisia. That much is true seeing that the rest who were fighting her kept getting blown away by the manticore's raw magic. She could use all elements, and that was enough to make her dangerous. But Ray was not about to give up; his mental strength was stronger than what Theo had anticipated.

"Even if you say so... Even if I really had to run away. I can't abandon my friends. The bonds between us are stronger than any goblins."

"Ew, that's cheesy," Theo felt genuine disgust at what he said, a shiver is rising on his spine. His speech is similar to what Albert may say. "You disgust me. How sure are you that the trust and compassion you gave to them will be done to you as well? Humans are greedy creatures you see; when all comes to worse, when they are at the end of their wits, they are capable of doing even the most atrocious shit. They could betray you in a snap and step on you like a dog shit."

"Keep your mouth shut!" Ray was definitely stronger between the two of them. With sheer strength, a slash parried by Theo still made him fly away. The goblin was hurled and impacted on a wall; the impact hit his head, which made him lose his consciousness. "I trust my friends because I want to. Not because I expect they will do the same thing to me," Ray argued, though Theo had fallen into a deep slumber due to his attack.

Ray rejoined attacking the beast, and his participation somewhat changed the tides of the battle. When a marksman was getting clawed by the manticore, he blocked her attack, though it buried his legs in the floor. "Diablo, help me on this one!"

Diablo is the only one who's still not acting on offense; he's still on standby. However, when Ray asked for his help, he was compelled to act, and he grabbed the scythe weapon on his back. "Hehe, I like your guts, kid. Fine, I'll lend you a hand," he said. And Ray couldn't help but smile. It might be because Diablo was inspired by Ray's argument about friendship. Or not.

As soon as Ray knew it, his intestines were outside of his belly. The shock he felt blurred his hearing into a sharp static hymn. He was stabbed by a crescent blade, the blade from Diablo's scythe. He tried turning his head to look at the assailant, motivated by such disbelief but he saw what he expected to see. Diablo killed him.

"Oy, don't look at me like that. I said, I like your guts. I want to open your stomach to see it personally."

The rest of the adventurers were caught off-guard as well. Ray, one of the strongest of them and their leader, was killed by one of them.

"This is why I don't like humans; you ignorant folks are foolish... What...?" Irisia noticed a spill of dark power on Diablo. And it caused her to raise her guard up to the limit.

Diablo smiled. "I didn't expect a beast to be a Grim like me. Oh well, it's a big world out there."

The manticore immediately flew above and prepared herself to manifest her powerful spell. From her mouth, an intense light emerged, glowing brighter than anything else as if a star.

"Not on my watch," Diablo tried to intercept her magic, but he was halted by a mage's attack. He created a wall to block the [Ice Crystal] spell from the mage. A marksman then tried to put an arrow on his head, but the man caught the poison arrow with his bare hand. It was his turn to attack; he raised his hand then muttered to himself. "Eyes that watch the soul, bring me the darkness of the collective deaths of the rotten souls, burn them in hell like how you burn the devil, [Hell Sun]!"

A giant ball of fire emerged above his hand. Normally, it wouldn't be possible; it would take ten advanced magic users to invoke such a spell with how limited the amount of mana is. However, a grim does not concede to fairness. They work differently than the rest of normal beings. With the accumulation of fire, Diablo threw it towards the manticore, who was about to blow a spell.

"[Divine Magic: Burning Light]," the manticore roared. The two spells hit each other, and the impact was so severe that it dug up the surrounding land and threw away the remaining debris. The two spells canceled each other, resulting only in a violent aftereffect enough to wipe the surrounding.

"Bwahahaha! How's that, motherfucker!" Diablo laughed hysterically when he noticed that his spell disintegrated the beast, leaving no speck of dust.

The bald adventurer stood up on his feet even with critical injuries that threatened his life. It was quite a miracle that he was still alive after all of that, or was he? He noticed that his veins were swelling, and he was so hungry, so hungry he was about to eat just anything. He was turning into a monster. He knows, that's why before he turned, he wanted to beat the crap out of this monster who killed Ray.

He tried punching Diablo, but Diablo easily evaded it. A punch from him caused the bald guy to fly away.

"BWAHAHA! FOOLS! NO HALF-BAKED DEVOLVED MONKEYS COULD EVER BEAT ME"

The bald guy stood up again and attempted to attack him, only to receive another powerful punch that nearly crushed his face. The other humans warned him.

"Stop this, no more... You're going to die... "

However, he still persisted in standing up and trying to attack again. Now, Diablo was getting irritated.

"[Rock Bullet]"

This time, he intended to finish off the bald man once and for all. However, the manticore swiftly flew with incredible speed and picked up Theo from the ground. They flew around, and Theo managed to steal Ray's sword.

"Damn, I can't move!" Diablo exclaimed. Mysteriously, he couldn't budge an inch of his body. This might be another trick from the manticore, a binding spell. No, it was more than that... several shadowy figures emerged from the ground, holding his legs up to his shoulder, some hugging him tightly... but no one else could see them except Diablo. His terror escalated when he saw Ray's face among the shadows.

"Everyone, throw your mana capacitors at that guy!" the bald man instinctively shouted, and everyone followed suit. He didn't know why he said that; he just felt that it was what they needed to do. His top priority was to eliminate the traitor who had betrayed them.

The bald man specifically hurled his capacitor towards the approaching beast, and Theo impaled it with Ray's sword. "[Dragon Style: Weapon Enhancement]." Then he thrust it into Diablo. "Set ablaze motherfucker"

"AGHH!"

The manticore flew at high speed before the explosion reached them. Like dominoes, the capacitors next to the man also exploded. His arm was torn away, his foot rendered useless, and Diablo was thrown upwards with his body severely damaged.

But it wasn't the end for Diablo. The manticore captured him and escaped while he was still unconscious. She wanted him to be interrogated and tortured.

Theo looked down at the remaining humans from above. However, Irisia assured him there was no need to fight them anymore. "There's no need to confront them any longer. There's nothing they can do in their current state." They were beginning to turn into rotten; it was the end for them.