"What happened? What the hell happened?! Chifuyu was right in front of me. Where am I?"
"….."
"FUUUUUUUCK!!!"
Ariel yelled from heartfelt frustration.
"Is this a labyrinth? This isn't funny."
No matter how she looks at it, beating this is going to take time, something she doesn't have. She takes a deep breath and accepts the current situation, unsheathing her blade. She plans to save her curse blood, there's no telling how many foes may appear.
This labyrinth spans thousands of feet tall and wide with tree-like pillars. Unlike most, this one is a single enormous area with no other spaces or pathways. Red stones are contrastingly illuminating the blue and purple surfaces. There are gates that only monsters can come out of. Ariel has only beaten a couple of labyrinths which can't compare to the level of the one she's presently in, though she's stronger than she was then.
The red stones start flashing, signaling the start of the battle. First, the gates on the ground level open. An army of undead walk out, followed by golems. There are many kinds of undead, these ones are wrapped in cloth artifacts increasing the density of their bones several fold. They're wielding chain blades, bows, and swords. The golems behind them are 9 feet worth of even tougher stone using only themselves as weapons. A single hit from these is enough to take out a human, normal blades cannot penetrate their skin.
This will be Ariel's first time fighting them, but the blade she wields is stronger. She counts the enemy's numbers.
"Several thousand skeletons, and around 100 golems."
The one who was once a Vampire Lord looks at her hand to find it trembling.
"I'm afraid, huh? It's not a good feeling, but a necessary one. I can't afford to die here."
The undead army begins its charge, and so does Ariel.
***
9 minutes have passed, yet over a sixth of them still remain. Ariel doesn't have time, but she also can't waste energy she might need later on. She cut down over a thousand undead and a handful of golems without using the white flames of her blade. She makes up her mind and decides that time is more important right now. After cutting down a couple dozen more monsters, she jumps into the air as high as she can. Ariel plans to wipe out the current remaining enemies in one fell swoop.
"HAAAAA!"
The brilliant white flames burn the rest of the undead and golems with one giant slash. Grabbing onto a branch from one of the pillars, she waits for the next wave of monsters. The red stones flash a second time, bringing out hundreds of cobra serpents near the ground and 60 wyverns out the gates higher up. Cobra serpents are over 100 feet long, with tails sharp enough to pierce the hardest diamonds and strong enough to level skyscrapers. The wyverns are a smaller race of dragons that only have 2 legs but are much more agile and quicker. Also having one of the most potent poisons secreting from their tails, it could kill any monster as long as they get enough on them. For stronger monsters, they'd need to get hit with a substantial amount though. Like dragons, they can also breathe fire and flap their wings strong enough to attack with wind.
Several wyverns came out the gates on pillars next to where Ariel was hanging. She kicks off the surface with immense force, if she hadn't she would've been sliced by the wings of the wyverns who are faster than her. The serpents spring up at her with the intention of swallowing their prey whole, Ariel runs across them as they dart through the air. Below her is a pit of snakes, if she gets close to the ground she'll be ravaged like a helpless mouse. She wraps herself with the flames of her blade and barrels down to deal an explosive attack taking out several dozen snakes. The wyverns are right above her as she lands, over 10 of them fire off breath attacks at the same time. Ariel ignites her weapon, firing off a 360-degree slash. It cuts through the breath attacks and burns the 10 wyverns to a crisp. Right after, one of the serpents lands a whip with its tail. Ariel blocked in time but it still sent her flying several hundred feet. She recovers, but the wyverns with their insane speed are closing in on her. The vampire fires off a slash which they all avoid. One of them tackles her, taking her into the air. She wraps around its head and snaps its neck. Jumping off to the back of the next one, she stabs into it and lights it on fire. The wyverns surround her and launch wind attacks with their wings. The pressure sends Ariel hurling down with the burning wyvern. Before she reaches the ground, she's swallowed by a serpent. She immediately wraps herself in flames again so as to not get any of the cobra's poison on herself. From inside its body, she fires off her biggest slash thus far which manages to kill over a hundred monsters. She comes out with no blood on her since she was covered in fire.
All the serpents and wyverns converge on her. Ariel activates her curse, black veins run from both sides of her face down to her hands. She throws her arms up and a singular point of fire sparks above her.
"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
Black flames shoot all the way up, and then in a quick motion she throws her arms in a half-circle down to her sides.
"BLAZE ANNIHILATION!"
The conflagration expands out scorching every single monster within over 1,500 feet. Ariel promptly shuts her curse off, breathing heavily. After one last deep breath, she picks her blade up. The red stones flash once more. This time, just one enemy came out. It's 16 meters to the right of Ariel, she looks over her shoulder to scrutinize it.
"So this is the boss?"
One of the most intimidating monsters has appeared, a Titan. Standing 19 feet tall with a body made out of kagerium, one of the hardest minerals in the Alter World. It's composed of a stainless gray and white structure, glistened by lines of bright blue, and looks more human-like than golems.
Ariel smiles in the face of a strong adversary, sticking out her hand and taunting it by motioning her fingers to tell it to come get some, "C'mon boss, let's get this over with."
The titan has no eyes or ears, but it can still hear and sense its surroundings. In response to the vampire, it gives off a menacing grin and lunges toward its opponent. It takes less than a second to reach Ariel.
'It's fast.'
She ducks backward and transitions into several backflips. The titan is unreluctant in trying to grab her, Ariel jumps onto its head and blasts it point-blank with her curse. However, when the flames disperse she sees that attack did 0 damage. The titan grabs her by the head and drags her through the ground. Ariel is able to escape its grasp and kicks off of it to gain space. She didn't hold back in that previous attack, so Ariel assumes the titan is immune to fire. This is a battle she has to face with her blade. Her swordsmanship is being put to the test. Pushing forward, she intends to bait an attack from the monster. The plan works, as it goes for a punch. She spins around and puts all her strength into this slash. It manages to cut into its leg, but not nearly deep enough. Another punch is coming, and Ariel can't dodge this one. She pulls the sword out before a heavy jab connects right with her face, sending her bursting through a few pillars.
Even with all her raw strength, she was just able to cut a few centimeters into the titan. She needs more force. Fire may not be able to harm it, but Ariel can use it propelling her blade to gain the power needed to cut through. She ignites her blade but only puts the black flames on the backside. The two run at each other, Ariel has to finish it with this attack. Jumping to reach its abdomen, Ariel thrusts her blade into the side of the titan. She's pouring considerable curse blood into the flames on the backside, it's cutting in slowly but surely. But Ariel needs to finish it quicker unless she wants to be squashed into a pulp. The glistening monster grabs onto the vampire's shoulders and pushes her to the ground, yet she won't budge. Ariel is still trying to slice through it. Even though it feels like several tons of metal is trying to squish her, she does not falter.
"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"
The flames shoot dozens of meters out to the side, propelling the blade deeper and deeper. Until finally, the titan is split into two. The slash that followed flew for over a thousand feet, cutting through every pillar in its path. The corpse of the titan crumbles into pieces. Ariel stays on the ground, she lets out a sigh of relief having defeated the boss of the labyrinth.
"I'm coming, Chifuyu."
She stands up, waiting to be teleported back to the mansion. Several seconds pass though and nothing happens.
Then, the red stones flash.
Ariel's heart sinks.
'That wasn't the boss?!'
A giant gate not connected to anything appears over 70 meters away from Ariel. A soul-deafening roar comes out of it, followed by stomps that shake the labyrinth. An Inferno Tempest: The Strongest Dragon enters the battlefield.
Immediately, it fires a breath attack that takes less than a second to build up. The initial launch of the blast was on the verge of breaking the sound barrier. Ariel doesn't dodge, doing so would be impossible. She takes it head-on, blocking it with her own fire. The heat of the dragon's fire starts burning the skin off her arms. To make matters worse, it kicks the heat up a notch making it several times hotter. The insides of the dragon's mouth radiates a vibrant blue as the breath attack goes into its second stage. The blast transforms into more of a spiral accompanied by lightning making it more difficult to block. She outputs more flames to protect herself, but it proves futile. She gets lifted off her feet and before she realizes it, the dragon's fire swallows her up.
Ariel is on the verge of death.
The roar pushed her thousands of feet all the way to the wall of the labyrinth. She lies there defeated, covered in burns and blood with both arms gone. Her eyes have lost hope, but she starts healing nonetheless. Her strength is about 20% to empty. Luckily her blade got blasted along with her, it's literally right next to her. After she finished healing, she grabbed her weapon and sloppily stood up.
"Heh.. At least there's no doubt this time, that is definitely the boss..."
The dragon flies to Ariel and lands right in front of her. Breathing down on her face, the air is strong enough to make her wobble back. But she doesn't lose eye contact. Flames begin to gather around Ariel's feet, she's activated her curse for what may be the final battle. She holds her blade horizontally by her head, lighting it with its ethereal fire. The Inferno Tempest roars directly into her face, the vampire stands strong, she planted herself with her flames. Ariel has beaten her share of dragons, but this one is in another league of its own. After a brief moment of silence, the battle commences once again.
Ariel explodes into the air and runs up the wall. The dragon pursues her, causing absurd wind currents just by lifting off. Ariel looks down over her shoulder to see it gaining on her. Lightning flows across the wings of the monster as it shoots it up. Ariel narrowly evades most of them, while she's been running, a compressed ball of fire has been building up in her mouth. She jumps off the wall and attacks with a roar of her own. The dragon disperses it with its wings, but Ariel was following right behind. Combining her black and white flames, she lands a decisive slash down the belly of the dragon. Its quick to trade blows and slices off her left arm with its wing. Ariel jumps to a pillar while regenerating, and the dragon remains airborne. Flying higher up to gain momentum, it dives down like an eagle and slices through 4 pillars. Ariel jumped off before she got caught in it, watching the giant structures break down. She takes this time to draw power from a self-destructing source.
"Time to start digging into my life energy."
'I don't how much this is gonna shorten my lifespan, but I don't have room to worry about that. As long as the time I have left is enough to see the end of this war.'
"I will not die here."
Ariel's blade becomes a blazing fury for the last time. She charges toward the dragon with a fiery trail left in her wake. They exchange attacks destroying the labyrinth itself, the difference is one can heal and the other can't. Ariel is burning through her life, but she is now able to overwhelm the dragon. The Inferno Tempest created a tornado solely to get the vampire away from it for a few seconds. In mid-air, it fires off its strongest attack, the breath blast. Ariel doesn't dodge it again, instead she plows right through it engulfed in her own flames. Before it can enter its second stage, Ariel slices it apart from the inside. Kicking off a couple of pillars to reach one of her greatest enemies, she slashes right through the strongest dragon before it has the chance to escape.
She lands before the fallen corpse crashes into the ground. Dropping her blade, she clenches her fists and yells at the top of her lungs.
"RAAAAAAAAAH!!!"
This is Ariel Ryuji, the Dragon Empress.