10/6 10:34 (Autumn, Day, Sud Midrar, Undead Dungeon)
The four of them proceded forward, even deeper in the Dungeon, reaching the Third Floor together for the first time and more precisely a circular room.
Differently from the previous one, this one was properly illuminated letting the four Mates view the kind of Room it was.
Before them was a group fifteen large of D-Ranked Undeads, composed of five Undead Abominations, three Liches hidden at the back, four Giant Zombies wielding differents armor and shields even bigger than their immense, over ten meters tall, stature and three two-and-a-half meters high Skeletons armed with large and long bows with a quill containing bone arrows inscribed with softly glowing Runes.
There was no need of a genius that already saw it before to figure out that the arrows had the same effect as the bolts shot in the previous Boss Room.
A sense of foreboding emanated by Mafel followed soon after by a mental warning thanks to their Marks, leading to Sabel jumping away from where she previously was as a bone bolt pierced the air where she just was.
After the previous Boss fight, the Rank of her "Spiritual Gaze", a Skill similar to the True Dragon's "Soul Sight", increased allowing her to see the Runes inscribed within the bolts themselves.
Luna's Aura exploded, taking advantage of her newest Skill, "Divine Power", to deflect the bone spikes sent by the archers towards them away from the four and towards the general locations of the ballistas moving in a room beneath their own as indicated by Mafel.
Amber's Aura followed suit, expanding at full force while her Mate bore the burden, the Giant Zombies in response roared, a small amount of Mana being spent by both to create two Barriers around the three Liches with different purpouse, deflecting physical and magical blows directed at them to the two armored ones.
Arrows were launched immediately by the archers and the Phoenix moved forward in an instant, her Unique Arma covered in flames flashing out and subseguently she swung straight throught the arrows, cutting them in two.
Luna concentrated on protecting their Mates in the meanwhile, her own Senses pushed to her limits while she used her "Divine Power" throught her Aura and the Black Blood mist around her, deflecting any incoming attacks.
Mafel would normally start Chanting for an Holy-Attribute Spell to support her allies however she needed to concentrate on the ballistas beyond this Room to make sure none of them would be taken by surprise by unseen attacks.
Sabel started to channel her Mana around her, generating light thanks to Mafel's and Luna's previous teaching about Magic in general, concentrating it around herself and her sword, her Bracelet shining slightly around her wrist.
After all they decided their roles before even entering the Dungeon itself without the use or need of any words.
Amber launched herself at one of the D-Ranked Undead Abominations without further hesitation, thrusting her sword wielded in her left hand clad in fire into its head, charring him from the inside out before she formed a fireball in her right hand that she slammed into it, causing a golden explosion.
She moved on, her Aura continuously sapping the dying Abomination she left behind of its Vital Energy and Mana while moving towards her next targets, fireballs flying from her beatings wings towards all the Undeads in the circular room they found themselves in.
The Demonic one mercilessly punched one of the Giant Zombies' shield, it stepping back a couple of times to deal with the force of the impact before it moved forward again, launching the woman back, this last one spinning a couple of times in the air before landing precisely on her feet.
The blonde breathed in a couple of times before exaling a wave of fire, forcing the two shielders to step in the front to block the destructive wave for their more fragile allies, continuously roaring in order to create a wall of force before them with the purpouse of blocking Amber's attack.
The Skeletons drew back their arrows before shooting right throught their guards without any hesitation, their arrows phasing both their bodies and armor, they too made entirely out of bones, and Amber decided on her own to grab two out of the four arrows, launching them towards Luna for this last one to analyze them before destroying all the others with a mix of flames and sword swings.
All the while the Liches continued to Chant undaunted and indifferent to the battle in progress around them.
Amber's Aura exploded at full power, the air in the room itself starting to violently lit ablaze with her not showing any reguards for her Mate trusting them, more specifically Luna, to be able to handle it without any issues.
Luna's Aura safely coated her Mates while she herself was busy analyzing the Rune pattern and the difference between the arrows and the bolts, memorizing them, before sharing the information with Mafel considering how she already had a "Runecraft" Skill.
Subseguently she made a couple of True Spears floating around her manipulated by her newest Skill, inscribed with a Runic Pattern both on and within them derived by the one she just examined, that she then threw towards the ballistas indicated by her Elven Mate, those that were preparing to shoot her Mates from underneath the floor before they even could.
Amber instead seemed almost to dance, the flames following her movements gracefully as she relentlessly attacked, fireballs forming around her briefly before they exploded, filling the room with heat and fire while Draining both the Vital Energy and Mana of her enemies, Vital Energy and Mana she slowly and carefully combined into Vital Mana within her own body.
In a burst of speed she exploded forward, a flaming trail roughtly following her movements, as her sword swung again and again, the shield of one Zombies being battered continuously, forcing its wielder to step back lightly with each blow while shielding itself from the following explosions.
The Liches finally finished Chanting at this moment, Casting their combined Spell with a wordless, silent roar.
Curse-Attribute Mana exploded, the three Liches shattering under its weight as they sacrificed their lives to fuel the Spell, and said Mana raged out of control for an instant before it coalesced into a great Gate, the shards of bones floating in the air before condensing into a single skeletal figure slowly manifesting in the Dungeon.
The World of Gaea was overlayed with a semi-Plane, the so-called Divine Plane where Gods resided, and nine different actual Planes from which the Attributes found their origins.
Only two type of Beings could be Summoned from the Attribute Planes, the Spirits, a Race composed entirely out of masses of Attribute Energy with Sentience.
This Gate however was not for a Spirit but for a member of the other type of Beings that could be Summoned from the Planes, an Elemental, a wild mass of Cursed Energy coming from the Planes of Grudges in this case, using the bones as a temporary Vessel for its might until they would inevitably shatter.
The shards formed a long serpentine skeleton while the Curse Energy fled from the Gate, coating the bones in it before the now flying mass of purple acidic Energy released a silent roar.
The Barriers formerly around the Skeletons were devoured in an instant, forming additional fuel for the newly Summoned Grudge Elemental before it enveloped the Undeads without any resistance the following second, their flesh melting down in an instant while their bones shattered into dust before proceding to add to its Vessel, it growing further stable.
Amber twitched, her eyes narrowing in focus at her opponent, before with widening eyes jumping to the side, the place where she was just in attacked in an instant by a wave of Curses, even the Floor of the Dungeon being slowly eroded because of the interference from another Plane.
The Phoenix moved back, flames covering her body completely before exploding from her body and towards the temporary manifested Elemental, it flying right trought the wall of flames without any issues before trying to devour the Demonic-blooded one.
With an explosion she dodged the mass of Energy before sending back swords made entirely out of fire towards her opponent and then flying back out of range of its answering strike, her own wings beating fast a couple of times and sending a rain of embers upon it.
Luna watched from a distance, ready to interfere the moment her Mate was in danger, while her Aura flared before calming down multiple times before it took advantage of the damage the Elemental dealth to the Dungeon Floors to invade the Room underneath this one, destroying and killing anything within it, filling it entirely and starting to slowly build up power.
Amber quickly moved all over the room, dodging strike after strike while dancing in and out swinging her Unique Arma clad in concentrated flames, flying slashes raining down on the inhabitant of the Plane of Grudges, trying to shash apart as much as possible of its Vessel to Dispel its Summoning while starting to Drain its Energy.
This, however, was an error.
Amber dropped to her knees, starting to vomit blood as its violent Energy started to erode her, her organs and even blood slowly starting to rot from the inside out, pain wrecking her body while her natural healing was trying to fight back.
The Elemental didn't hesitate, floating towards the fallen Phoenix and intending on consuming her to increase greatly the Stability of its Vessel and subsequently its time on this World.
Upon seeing the incoming mass, she directed her stored Vital Mana to her hands, releasing a violent blaze before her despite the Curse Energy disrupting her use of Energy in general and using for the first time her Unique Skill to increase vastly the amount of damage it would do.
It passed throught the flames, more than half of its bones burned badly and some of them even reduced to ashes, but its direction and intent, if so it could be called, were unchanged.
As it opened its mouth like frontal part, a wall of solid Aura interposed between them, slowing its progress down to nothing.
Luna calmly walked to between her Mate and the Elemental before them, her Aura enveloping it completely before starting to crush it from all over thanks to her "Divine Power", trying to destroy its Vessel directly.
The pressure she exerted slowly increasing, forcing it to release more of its power to fight back and accelerating the degragation of its Vessel.
"Spirits and Elemental in this World are made out of two components, the Energy composing them and the Vessel. However the amount of power either of the two can manifest depends entirely on the second of the two as the more Energy it uses, the more it is damaged in response. So, what will you do now!" She instantly caused the Status Alteration "Charmed" in it through her "Presence: Charm".
This may seem to be counter-intuitive considering how, while it did not have a Status or a presence in the System, Elemental had an equivalent to Status Alteration Absorption that converted them into more Attribute Energy for them however this was all according to her plan.
As more and more Vital Mana was converted into Curse Energy automatically, the burden upon its Vessel caused by the amount of Energy it was composed out of increased in response.
Amber rose, the time her Mate gained more than enough for her to finish healing.
The Elemental tried to lower the amount of Curse Energy it was outputting but the pressure it was under didn't allow it to under threat of even more damage to the Stability of the Vessels.
"I'm sorry but the affinity between the two of us is terrible for you." The false platitude from Luna was followed by her forcefully filling the Grudge Elemental with Vital Mana again and again as with a final silent roar, its Vessel finally shattered because of the ever increasing stress.
The mass of Curse Energy, now without a Vessel, made to explode but the Aura surrounding it quickly compressed it into a small sphere that she brougth to her mouth, opening her jaws before eating it in an instant.
Luna twitched a couple of times in pain, before her own Vital Energy finished integrating it into herself.
"Well, just the Boss remaining." Luna confirmed.
"Why do you think whoever made this Dungeon allowed the Summoning of a Grudge Elemental?" Sabel asked, confused about why someone in charge of a Dungeon would Summon something capable of destroying it.
"Two possible reasons. Either they don't care at all about this Dungeon or they are convinced they can Dispell it if necessary." Amber affirmed before Luna expanded on it.
"In this case the second. The Spell was altered specifically to Summon an Elemental from the Plane of Grudges. The normal Spell to create a Gate is a general Spell that changes depending on the Mana used as fuel but this one was specificly altered from the roots. Not only that but the previous Floor Boss could probably use its ability to use Telekines to deal damage to it easily, the First Floor could use its Curse Amplifying ability to destroy its Vessel by overloading it and this Floor's Boss is a Lich with a way to take care of it."
"And I suppose no Adventurer spoke about the Summoning of a Elemental because we -" Sabel looked at each of her Mates making sure they all knew she was speaking of only the three of them, the former Second Floor Boss turned Person, the Demonic-blooded Phoenix and the Lunarian, more specifically. "- are too dangerous to be left alive."
"Probably." The red-eyed one confirmed casually before moving to the Boss Room, causing the one with the most common sense between the four to sigh before she followed in, finding herself in a large throne room.
Upon it, rested a great skeleton, golden crown resting upon its head, various bright gems embedded in it, a great purple mantle at its back, a black light armor covering its body, various golden rings around its fingers and silver bracelets dandling around its right wrist.
"---" A breath escaped it, bright purple flames dancing in its empty sockets as it rose, its left hand closing around a long staff made out of bones from which a pair of skeletal hands grabbed its left wrist to increase the connection between teh two, increasing its Casting Efficiency and Control in general.