And, in a completely different location, pale light illuminated the ocean's surface as waves lapped against the ceiling. In the center of the room was a shrine, which was supported by four massive pillars. It had no walls, and the ceiling was held up by the pillars alone. An altar lay in the center of the shrine, with a detailed magic circle engraved on its face. Also, it was surrounded by seawater, and four floating paths jutted out from it along with the cardinal directions. They each ended at a circular platform. There were magic circles carved into the floor at each platform.
"Oh, we made it to the end." On one of these platforms appeared Ivan, Yue, and Felis. They looked around cautiously before relenting in their wariness. In any case, this was a nice scene to have woken up in. Before stepping forward to the shrine they decided to wait for what they assumed were going to be the others, as the other three platforms remained unoccupied.
One by one each of the other pedestals started glowing with a blue light. The group all stared at each other as they finally reunited. Relief on their faces as they hadn't lost a single member during that time of separation.
They detailed their experiences to each other, each group was exposed to different illusions. But as far as Ivan listened to none of it gave them information that they considered vital, in fact, every illusion carried the principle of devout beliefs barbarically slaughtering people in the name of their god.
"I see, I suppose this does give us an insight on how deep the Holy Church's ties run but it's not exactly new information. We had always been suspicious of their activities since the clearing of the Orcus Labyrinth, which combined with what we saw today just affirms all of it. They cannot be trusted no matter what."
They agreed with that conclusion. The illusions the other girls saw appalled them to the very core, likely a part of this liberator's plan to fester distaste for the Holy Church to whoever held the right to clear this dungeon. As for those unable to handle the information thrown at them… they were deemed failures.
All stepping into the shrine, they stood in place as the dungeon examined their memories before deeming them as worthy completionists of the dungeon. With that they were bestowed the ancient magic they undertook the mission for in the first place.
"Hmm… not illusion magic like I was hoping for but that'll do." With curiosity brimming, Ivan brought a dagger out from his storage ring. He sliced his forearm and left a grizzly gash. Putting away the dagger he used his unharmed hand and covered the gash. He closed his eyes as seconds passed.
And then— he opened them. He removed his hand from the gash before smiling brilliantly. The injury had completely disappeared. Not a single scar or mark was left. Everyone that had at first stood around him in concern let out a sigh of relief, except for Felis and Canis who just saw the matter as normal procedure.
"...Ivan… don't do that again…" Yue had a particularly stern glare as she admonished Ivan for his actions. On the outside, he apologized, though inwardly he wanted to conduct more tests on the spot to see its limitations.
From the name of it, he inferred that restoring injuries wasn't its limit, or more so that it was simply a by-product of its principle. If he was correct in his assumption it should be capable of restoring things to their former status
He closed his eyes and held his hand over where the injury had been. Minor pain stung his arm as he revealed that the gash he had cut in it reappeared. Simply put, he restored his arm to when he injured it. Ivan concluded that there were some principles related to time manipulation in this magic.
Before Ivan could be admonished again, a faint ghostly figure appears right before them. Just like Oscar, it would seem Melusine decided to leave behind a message.
A rectangular block rose from the ground. It was like a miniature version of the altar they were on. It began to glow with a faint light, and a second later a vaguely humanoid shape formed above it... A second later the light coalesced and Meiru's features could be made out. She was sitting on the block, wearing a white one-piece dress and had long, emerald-green hair. Her ears were also shaped like fins. Surprisingly, it seemed Meiru Melusine had been a Dagon.
Her message though seemed very similar to Oscar's. Explaining her group's goals, history, and what she intended the conquerors to do. Only that at the end of her speech was a message, a warning of sorts.
"Please, don't cling to the gods. Don't rely on them. Don't grow accustomed to what's given to you. Struggle on, and grasp what you desire with your own two hands. Decide your path in life, and walk down it with your own two feet. Remember, no matter how bleak things look, you'll be able to find the answers inside of you. Only you have those answers. Don't be deceived by the gods' honeyed words. Only when you live by your own free will can you find true happiness. I pray the path you walk will be forever showered in fortune." With that, Meiru Melusine's apparition faded away. As the light from the circle that summoned her dissipated, Ivan spotted a coin engraved with her crest resting atop the mini-altar.
"Huh… as ruthless as she was, pushing us into those mind-breaking illusions, she seemed like quite the nice lady." WIth that Ivan lifted the coin and inserted it into his storage.
"Umu, I'm sure she only did what she did for the sake of her mission." Claire followed that sentiment. In the end, this was a lady who spent her life reaching for a single goal. The group somewhat had a fond impression of her, it surely wasn't because she was kind of a beauty… not at all…
However, expectations were made to be broken. The water level rose drastically, the ceiling opened up to reveal that they had been roomed at the bottom of the ocean. It was truly sadistic to immediately force them right out after leaving such a hopeful message
"I take back everything I said! Fuck you!" Ivan was the first to display his discontent. Immediately withdrawing the diving gear and dispersing it to the others that desperately clung for dear life.
To top it all off, the monster they had been dreading decided to make an appearance for part 2.
"That settles it, she's the cruelest out of all of them!" Ivan transmitted his message through telepathy, not expecting a response. The angel shot its slimy tentacles at him with a speed that was difficult to dodge underwater.
Using spatial magic he teleported a few meters to the left, dodging the tentacle. If not for mana manipulation it would've taken a long one minute and a half speech just to perform that insignificant feat.
Thankfully his needle launcher was versatile, even underwater their guided features worked as intended. He shot off the length of the tentacle before leaving its obliteration to the others. Tio smartly transformed into her dragon mode and carried those unequipped with long-range attacks and Yue way above the surface of the water.
Which effectively meant that Ivan was alone down there. Though that's entirely what he wanted.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Air support was provided by the mage vampire and perverted dragon, each launching fire attacks that somehow weren't affected by the underwater terrain. This gave Ivan enough time to prepare what he needed to stall the thing. With everyone out of the water, he could bust out the move he hadn't used in a while.
The gove portion of his gauntlets receded. The magic circles on his palms started glowing vibrantly. If not for the insulated suit he wore, Ivan would have felt the water turn several degrees colder.
And as time went by it only got colder and colder. Soon specks of white ice started floating about. And suddenly– massive amounts of ic shot from his palms and consumed the angle slime almost instantaneously
As it stood now it was locked within an ice cocoon. This should slow down its regenerative cells and keep it in place for the next attack.
WHIIIZ!
Ivan expended a ton of his mana to perform another feat with spatial magic, he created three portals. One in front of him, another on the back of the hovering Tio, and finally one more within the ice cocoon.
Yue took the time Ivan was performing his ice cocoon to prepare a catastrophic spell of her own. One Ivan hadn't seen in quite some time—
"Azure Blaze!" She spoke with vigor, the seven-meter in diameter sphere of blue-white flames was sucked up by the portal almost immediately. Rather than appearing in the portal in front of Ivan it instead went into the cocoon.
The cocoon glowed violently in a white bang, cracks started appearing on the cocoon's surface at a rapid rate, both from the magic and the angel slime's constant attempts at escaping. This was precisely why Ivan stood around, once again ice poured from his palms, constantly rebuilding the destruction caused by the two titans repeatedly.
For the first time ever, the beast screamed.
"EFAGRSRGSERFTG!" It was about as unintelligible as any other scream but it sounded a bit more angelic if that made any sense.
A minute went by, and the monster completely vanished from the face of the earth. Each inch of it was obliterated into ashes, then ashes obliterated into nothingness. After making sure of his foe's death, Ivan heaved a sigh of relief.
He bent backward and laid down to allow the water to push him back up to the surface. A serene smile on his face as the rays of the sun shone down on him from above, It was a surreal experience he was glad to have experienced at least once in his lifetime.
But back to the main scenario, he was tired after this long day of dungeon diving that had somehow turned into a spelunking trip. They had succeeded in their initial goal and just all felt a bit worn out by the water.
Ivan himself decided that he had enough of being in the water for a long while. A portal opened up above him before he ended up appearing on top of Tio's back.
"Thanks, Yue. I felt like I was starting to lose my mind. Hahaha!" Ivan rested idly as Yue held up a flame to his side, all to dry his clothes.
================================================================
If you want to support me please follow this link! There's a couple new links added~: https://linktr.ee/ardoaleister
I'm tired~! Honestly today I've been anxious. I don't know why but it just makes it hard to focus on anything, especially writing. Maybe because I'm still hungry... Yeah, that seems to be the case. So anyways, imma call it short. I don't know what imma eat so allow me to raid the kitchen for sustenance.
Thanks for reading folks, have a great evening and I'll see you all real soon~!
If you want to support me and read ahead 10-15 chapters, you can check out my p.a.t.r.e.o.n right here: https://bit.ly/ardoaleister
Discord: https://discord.gg/tQ5TWbYd9t