'Fear not of those who have nothing to fight for as they will fall as soon as a fight breaks on. Watch yourself for those who have something to lose, more important than their own life, and those who have already lost it as those people will not fall until you make them traverse the stige with an unsurmontable strenght.'
-Advise to the dark knight by a demon king
The fine cheseled stairs were made with the most quality obsidian renforced with orichalcum and dark steel.
Looking at it Vanat face was perfectly reflected in all his rage and fury.
He knew what awaited him now.
He feared not, mostly becouse he had no space to.
One step closer and he reached for the heavy door made of orichalcum.
That was the first floor: the stige, they called it.
The floor was made mostly of orichalcum, a material Vanat could not even scratch, and a river crossed it.
It was the widest floor out of all and it provided, with his river, lava to the last floor of Tartarus.
The last floor... that floor was non made to survive it, it was made to kill all his prisoniers and still someone was trapped there.
Vanat could not even Imagine how did it feel to be burned alive by lava falling over you from that much above while being costantly fierced by the strongest golems of all Tartarus and cursed by endless traps.
That place was not suited to a living being and Vanat would have soon been further from it, a relief.
But aside from that Vanat had to deal with a problem he could barely think how to solve.
The orichalcum door before him was a serious matter, he could not crush the wall this time either.
The first floor had a complex mechanical lock that required a combination of three runes as a passcode, changed daily, to be unlocked.
Vanat punched the door weakly thinking about a way to open it.
"Maybe the black knight knows." Mei suggested.
Vanat did not even consider that option but that was, as a matter of facts, his only option.
Speeding down the stairs he ran toward a black armor tied up with ropes and chains (something that was abundant there).
Grabbing the black knight he asked "Hey, you! What's the passcode?"
. . .
No response came back, maybe the black knight was still uncoscious.
Vanat asked again "The passcode, what is the passcode?".
. . .
No response again.
Then Vanat raised his hand preparing a punch that the black knight had many reason to fear.
"Fehu... Ansux... Ingwaz..." A voice wishpered back.
Vanat trew him to the ground saying "good boy".
Giving a look at Mei, who was slightly stisfied, he quikly headed back up to the first floor.
He had just unlocked the door when a burst of flames strucked him.
The first floor, the orichalcum dragon's nest, was one of the worst ones.
With his flesh burning Vanat took a step, he was covered in blue flames.
Thoose flames were similar to the unique ability called 'hellfire' that has three main effects:
> It produces flames that hot to turn light blue (or white);
> The flames extinguish in the exact moment the mana supplied to them is cutted and only in that case they extinguish;
> The flames can burn litterally anything overtime but they are slower at it than their temperature suggest.
Being just an imitation made with Mivia's skill scrolls at the end of the day the flames were far too simalar to regular ones rather than the skill 'hellfire'.
Vanat quikly suffucated the dark blue flames of the cheap imitation with his mana.
When he looked up there it was.
Standing above him on his nest-like platform a giant reptile with millions of tick orichalcum scales looked at him with empty black eyes that shown no sign of life.
It was tall about as much as two big ferris wheels would be in your world and his wings could obscurate an entire valley while his pitch black eyes saw everything just as good even in the darkest places on world 1945.
His metallic blue scales were shiny and almost indestructible as they blocked off any magical attack and stood strong against phisical ones.
Due to a comlex internal mechanism made of mithril, that replaced his liver, no skill could be casted on the whole floor.
It was the most advanced golem of the continent and the only one who had earned the nickname 'The gatekeeper of Tartarus'.
Vanat regained his posture opposing the golem's fire attack, his vision covered by it.
A part of him thanked that the beast's breath was weakened to not destroy the floor itself.
The majestic lizard like golem noticed and, with a weave of his winged limb he cutted trough the orichalcum floor thanks to his sharpened claws.
Vanat jumped back, he had almost died.
Now he realized why no soul ever escaped that place alive. The reason was that golem alone.
Balancing himself Vanat got ready to counter the enormous golem's strikes when the tail strucked him.
The tail was made with complex and specialized crafting methods that allowed it to inflict both blunt and piercing damage.
The crimson tail was, as a matter of facts, made with needles, tousands of them, so near to each other to seem like they were one thing, the problem was, however, that they had not the same lenght.
When the tail struck hundreds of cuts were left on Vanat's body and his bone nearly shattered.
Vanat screamed in agony, who wouldn't had.
Crawling beneath some debris he hidden form the creature's watch.
That thing... It was...
Vanat was slowly losing coscience.
No! He had to stay awake and use his skill in order to survive.
With his eyes closing Vanat did his best to activate 'prime condition' in his state.
Challenging the pain and the tiredness he concentrated and began.
His wounds slowly closed and the blood on his body evaporated as mana covered him.
His conscience slowly began to fall into slumber as he closed his eyes.
In a strange turn of events his body began to move right after Vanat fainted and got up again.
The dragon-like golem noticed him and prepared to strike.
The crimson claws of the golem smashed Vanat's body against a wall trough a column.
It took a bit for the dust to fall down and reveal Vanat's body standing unscratched among the debris.
Mana overflowed from his pores creating a thick layer around his skin.
His breath carried a faint red fog with it as his eyes looked around with caution.
Their eyes met and Vanat's body charged at the great foe recklessy.
The draconic golem had no difficulty to hit him with his tail but Vanat's body charged in again.
The golem prepared to strike him down again as Vanat's body got near, that moment flown very slowly like time had stopped.
The great dragon like golem had his chest exsposed while breathing in air and building up the heat as Vanat's body ran toward him few meters away.
Vanat's body seemed more fit than ever as mana flowed trough all his pores and trough his every breath.
Meanwhile the dragon's bright and shiny scales stood as strong as ever like a thousand shields prepared for the enemy's charge and his wings spreaded over the zone creating a sort of isolated space were his breath could be even more deadly.
It took an eternity for the moment before their clash passed.
The golem burned down with his dark blue flames all that was in the isolated zone between his big wings.
Suddently something still burning emerged an strucked the dragon like golem in the belly with a powerful punch charged with an incredible amount of mana.
The scales cracked under the pressure exsposing a mithril mechanism that was already damaged.
Another punch followed shattering the mechanism that was supposed to block off skills.
The dragonic golem quickly retired his wings to the belly and breathed flames in response.
That did a lot of damage to Vanat's body who was at it's limit.
Still burning it smashed the golem again aiming for the near core.
The golem tried to slice him with the claws as Vanat's body charged a powerful punch at the beast's chest.
The golem was sent flying by the sheer strenght of the impact while Vanat's body fell on the ground, both were unable to continue fighting each other.
Around them the floor was left in ruins. Columns destroyed, the floor shattered and the cells cracked open from the last impact.
Mei watched with contempt the scene and still wondered about Vanat's conditions.
Her grudge against Phaal was strong, she wanted him dead and she needed Vanat's body for that purpose.
She walked over a pile of debris tainted in red that was beneath the giant man who had just faced the gatekeeper of Tartarus, without a proper weaphon or tactic at that.