Prytaneum
Smothering
There was a storm in the Dungeon, both literally and figuratively. The air spun through the claustrophobic corridors, shaking stones dangerously from the walls and the ceiling—and as it raged, so did I, sweeping through the ranks of the Minotaurs. The water was covered in a swallow layer of water that writhed and spread at the touch of the wind, but flowed steadily forward despite it all, grasping at feet to inconvenience and stagger my enemies, while letting me fight freely. When one Minotaur tripped and stumbled, Riptide traced a path through muscle and bone, severing its leg and removing it's head a moment after. When a Lygerfang slid and rolled into the water, it seemed to soak into and cling to the beast's fur, pulling it down as it tried to rise, until I made sure it'd never rise again.
I didn't go for anything fancy—or rather, I just couldn't afford to. Massive streams and crushing hands and all that was cool and effective and awesome and could turn a monster into paste besides, but it took energy and I couldn't be sure when this fight would end. With every monster that fell, a new one took its place, and the armies of monster the Dungeon sent my way were as massive as ever. If it was just a matter of ending things fast, I could have taken Minotaurs in my hands and crushed them like soda cans, but instead it was a question of whether things would end at all. The herd of Minotaur's I'd fought before were dwarfed utterly by the steady stampede I now seemed to be facing, and I knew I was in this for the long fall.
That was another reason I didn't propose trying to head back up, even leaving aside the monster that might be waiting for us there—if I tried to escape and the Dungeon stepped things up even further, we'd probably all die. The only choice we had was to head deeper until we reached safety and hope it didn't catch on and…
Well, it was a bit early to say it was working, but somehow we weren't dead yet, so there was that. Maybe it was the last Status boost I'd gotten from Hestia or maybe I was just fueled by the desperate knowledge that if I made a mistake here and now, I wouldn't be the only one to pay the price—I don't know, but I fought as hard as I could and managed to hold steady even as my body seemed to ache and burn. The water I'd called in a relatively small amount was steadily healing me and keeping the worst of the exhaustion and pain at bay, but against the injuries I constantly took, it could barely keep up.
The ground beneath me cracked as a Minotaur swung down at me with a chipped, stone ax—a Dungeon Weapon, no doubt—but even as its edge broke against Riptide, the blow sent waves of agony through my arms and shoulders. A Lygerfang leapt and I interposed myself between it and my friends, reaching through a storm of claws and ignoring how they raked at my flesh to quickly break its neck. It was a careful balancing act; I had to push myself hard enough to fight them back even if that meant getting hurt, but I couldn't afford to be incapacitated for even a moment. Could I afford the weakness of a broken wrist until it mended, if it meant killing a Minotaur? Was it worth it to take a hit if it meant the chance to deal three?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no—the only way to know was to decide in the moment and hope I was right. That this broken arm was okay, where that one would have been crippling, that this chance was worth it where that one would have been too costly.
And all the while I had to keep watch over my friends, knowing that none of them were up to dealing with the floor I'd brought them too. Welf was strong and Lili was knowledgeable, but neither would be enough against a Minotaur's ax or a Lygerfang's claws. I kept a pool of water around them, moving it when necessary to shield them from a blow, but for the most part I just drew attention to myself, made it clear through blood and precedent that I couldn't be ignored.
That didn't mean they were simply waiting, however; instead, they pair were steadily hauling away the bodies I cast to the ground, Welf venturing out to drag the larger corpses towards Lili to be harvested. They fed Mrs. O'Leary on magic stones for I didn't know how long, but eventual she seemed to regain some degree of solidity. Eventually, she began to eat on her own, helping by simply devouring monsters that were brought near enough to her. Eventually, she even began moving.
I wasn't sure when that was or how long it had been since, because I couldn't afford the time or energy to keep track. With my usual paths of escape gone, monsters closing in, and worse, all I could do was fight. I knew where we were going, but I didn't know the way, so I simply moved forward, altering my path only occasionally when someone shouted for me to, and even then I didn't ask why. I broke Minotaur horns in my hands and broke the necks of monsters and decapitated and disemboweled and I fought. My bones were broken, my skin was cut, my flesh was pierced, and my blood was spilt, but still I fought. I don't know how many times I was wounded, because I'd never even started counting, but I didn't die, so I didn't let it stop me.
I'd been burnt alive yesterday. I figured I could take it. And if I was wrong…I'd deal with that as I came to it.
Eventually, however, something changed. The fighting reached a lull as we came to a dark and massive room, though I couldn't remember when or how long ago that had been. At the end of the room was what seemed almost like a massive doorway, and though I'd never seen it before, I thought I recognized it.
"The Wall of Grief…" Lili murmured, voice carrying down to my ear from above. Startled, I looked towards the source and found her on Mrs. O'Leary's back alongside Welf. When had she gotten there? I vaguely remembered Mrs. O'Leary helping me in the battle now and then, appearing to steal a still living snack, but I'd told her to guard Welf and Lili…hadn't I? Maybe I'd just thought it, or maybe that was on her shoulders.
I wanted to ask her, but I didn't. Couldn't. It was all I could do to catch my breath, but no matter how hard I tried, it didn't seem to be enough. My heart was hammering so quickly in my chest that I couldn't be sure when one beat ended and the next began. Perhaps more than that, I could feel the rush of blood through my veins, moving so fast it almost hurt, as if someone had removed my human heart and replace it with that of a thoroughbred. Even with the conservative use of my power thus far, my stomach felt like I'd been eating glass, my throat was as dry as if I'd swallowed sand, and I felt like I was starving. I didn't trust myself to speak because I couldn't draw the breath for it and because it felt like my throat would tear if I tried.
So instead, I simply nodded, bobbing my head a tad belatedly as I lightheadedly took stock of myself. As should have gone without saying, my armor was gone, long since lost to who knows what. Most of my clothes had followed, including my shirt, one leg of my pants, half the other leg, and one of my socks and shoes. The other shoe was wrecked enough that the sole was only half connected to the rest and it was just getting in the way; if I'd been able to muster up strength enough to care, I'd have just thrown it away.
"Rivira's behind it," Welf said, looking behind himself as he did. No monsters had spawned inside the room—yet, at least—but the hallways behind us seemed to glimmer. Some of that might have been what little light there was glimmering off the splattered blood on the walls and floor. The rest was probably being reflected off of eyes. "We should go."
I raised a hand silently, bidding Mrs. O'Leary to stay put without words, and then advanced on my own.
"Percy?" Welf said, immediately noticing what I was doing and sounding concerned. "What is it?"
'Just checking something,' I wanted to say, but I focused instead on putting one foot in front of the other, on taking step after step and breath after breath. When I reached a point halfway between my team and the Wall of Grief, I stopped, looking up at it almost expectantly. If the Goliath appeared, I wasn't sure what I would actually do to stop it, but that made it unfortunate, not unlikely.
But when after several long moments, nothing happened, I almost collapsed in relief—or, you know, exhaustion—then and there. I lowered my sword and Mrs. O'Leary took that as a signal to go, walking up to me at a ginger pace that made it obvious I wasn't the only one feeling like shit. Even so, she deftly lifted me up onto her nose and let me slide down onto her back, at which point I managed to cling to her fur.
Then, she carried me through the doorway and I saw the eighteenth floor for the first time.
It was beautiful. Not just compared to the dim light and uneven stone of the seventeenth, but just in general. It was massive, far larger than any of the floors above it, with a ceiling that must have been at least a couple thousand feet high, and it was filled with something like a forest. Except, it was different somehow, lit from within by what seemed like little blue lights, so I gave it points for using my favorite color. Even better, I could feel rivers and lakes throughout it, the water seeming to almost call for me. Above us, there was something that seemed, for a moment, to be the sky—but instead, it was a layer of many, many crystals. Most of them were blue, but they surrounded a cluster of massive white crystals near the center—a 'sky' and a 'sun,' both lit from within.
I felt someone grasp hold of me to help keep me from falling off Mrs. O'Leary's back and appreciated it.
"We should find water," Welf said. "Percy needs it to recover. You can stay with him while I head for the city to get what we need. Anything besides the basics?"
Lili might have shook her head, but she didn't answer.
"Mrs. O'Leary, can you find some water?" Welf asked, but he didn't need to bother. Mrs. O'Leary was headed for water anyway, and wouldn't have taken orders from anyone but me regardless. I did my best to hold on, trying not to close my eyes as I felt more than saw us approach a lake—fresh water, I knew, because…uh, I'm me. Not as good as salt water, but I'll take anything I didn't have to summon myself at this point. Mrs. O'Leary walked up to her ankles in the water and shook herself, sending the rest of us plunging in.
Immediately, I felt better—good enough that after a moment, I stood back up on my own and heard Welf and Lili sputtering in knee- and waist-deep water, respectively. While they were doing that, I drew another vial of nectar from my waist and drank it after a moment's careful consideration on where I stood on the sliding scale of spontaneous combustion. Good enough to drink some more I decided based on the dying warmth in my limbs, and felt that warmth rise into an actual heat a moment later.
It might have been unnecessary but, safe zone or not, I didn't trust the Dungeon not to screw us over and figured we weren't out of the woods yet. I could make more if I had to and it was worth it to be able to actually focus and stand without feeling unsteady.
Gesturing with a hand, I willed the water off of my friends at the same time I slid down to take a seat, submerging myself up to my chin.
"Mr. Percy, are you okay?" Lili asked, sloshing over to me through the water with a look of concern. "We still have a few more potions if—"
"Keep them," I said with only a slight rasp, shaking my head. "We might need them later. Welf, were we followed?"
Welf hesitated for a moment but then shook his head.
"No. Monsters were after us the whole way here, but they abruptly stopped near the end," He said. "Maybe they didn't want to risk going near the safe zone."
"Maybe," I said, suspicious and doubtful. Even if this place had been as well defended as the Camp, I'd been attacked there more than a few times, too; as is, I didn't trust it. "Just…give me a bit to recover and we'll head on into Rivira itself. We'll see what we can find about that thing that attacked us and if we can catch a ride back up, but if we have to, we'll just stay here for the night. But just in case, keep your guard up—even if this is a 'safe zone', that doesn't mean—"
I stopped abruptly, looking up as a loud crack reached my ears—and it was a crack I saw, a crack across the artificial sky, the sound of which seemed to echo through the entire, massive floor and leave it somehow quieter in its wake. It grew bigger steadily, each time accompanied by another echoing noise as the center of the ceiling began to break like an eggshell.
In fact…just like an eggshell.
"No," Welf said, voice tinged with disbelief as he realized the same thing we did. "You're kidding me. I…we can't be this unlucky."
I can, I thought. But I kind of hated how whenever I thought things would get worse, I was usually right.
As the crystals broke on the ceiling and the rest of the sky began to bizarrely change color, a massive, dark shape was born and fell to earth.