"It wouldn't be the first time in which a creature from our world managed to sneak into a dungeon produced by the raids and defeat one of the monsters in it, but, if that were the case, that means that our guest arrived and defeated the boss, which would have ended up closing the raid and as you can notice, that still doesn't happen, Ergo, you before being convoked as a hero were a student at the AintAol academy, what could you add to this hypothesis?" - Claymore said as his eyes lit up with a blue glow, his magic cast ability was so developed to the point he can conjure spells without reciting it, he used inspection at the moment.
"I suppose the master of this dungeon must still be alive, the shattered state of this room was not the result of a fight." - Said the golden-haired young healer as his eyes widened.
"He was just testing his new arsenal." - Leered, Anvil, and Yaga said.
"Y-yes, in the academy I read that there are some creatures that are dedicated to parasitizing stronger ones to steal nutrients from them, feed, and continue living, but that only happens with small insects, something capable of infecting a dungeon monster to that extent shouldn't even exist, it has no precedent whatsoever." - Ergo was saying as he tightened his grip on his staff.
"What if this parasite manages to access the memories of that which it infects?" - The winged Yokai asked as she held her wand ready to cast any spell.
"It would know exactly where to hide in case it's being hunted." - Pein and Beo refuted.
The beast-men's pointed ears quickly perked up as every single hair in his fur, the beast-men threw himself on the floor and stuck his ear against it, just a few seconds passed until the ground began to shake, small rocks on the floor bounced effusively, the dust began to fall from the walls, with each passing instant the vibrations on the floor became louder and stronger.
"He set a trap for us!, Ecate!, keep the guard from the sky!, everyone!, form a perimeter with Ergo in the center!" - Leered shouted with maximum adrenaline, countless stories were about groups of heroes being overwhelmed by enemies that caught them off guard, these men and women were practically his family, cold sweat ran down his skin covered in scars as his worst fear seemed to be near, he quickly wielded his axes, he surrounded the team healer, with Anvil on his right and Yaga on his left, he struggled to stand as little by little the floor gave way.
The floor quickly began to crack, and the dungeon seemed to be collapsing, from the outside, for the containment group it might seem that the fight was devouring part of the dungeon but only the members of the vanguard team could see the purple glow that peeked through the cracks in the floor, this was not a simple collapse, this had been caused by a powerful technique, little could the heroes gathered there do as quickly the floor began to give way and everyone fell into a darkness that seemed to be endless.
"Heavy Ground!" - Yaga shouted
"Protective wind force!" - Claymore shouted.
The giant's hands first clashed sharply and then quickly slammed into the collapsing ground, a red energy began to transmit through the earth and rock floor as Yaga shouted, and the ground around the heroes slowly compressed, creating a solid platform upon which they now fell, luckily the quick action of the group leader assisted the giant in this situation as underneath the rock platform a bright swirl of wind began to form. Thanks to the efforts of the giant and the elf the impact was slightly softened, resulting in the majority of the group only having a spectacular but not fatal fall, from the surface Ecate quickly descended.
"The dungeon fell, we're out of the way!" - Shouted the winged woman as she rushed to rejoin the team.
"Sacrum Magma!" - shouted Igra as she wielded her heavy weapons with her four arms, she quickly launched a couple of magma-imbued slashes towards the sides of where they had fallen, taking care not to harm anyone, the magma penetrated the rock and resulted in some slight illumination so everyone could have some visibility.
"Guide fireflies." - Pein said seconds after his companion as from between his hands small pinkish-colored lights flickered around the place, illuminating it perfectly.
"There." - thought everyone present at the same instant as a faint glow shone in the distance, the glow of an old armor returning the light created by the heroes.
Old ruins were all that the adventurers could see, pieces of the castle, large rocks, and earth devoured the scenery but most of all the attention of the heroes was drawn to a silhouette several meters away, as Pein's guiding fireflies spread across the stage the heroes clung tightly to their weapons, there in the middle of the stage a thin and inert armor seemed to be watching them, its intense red color was being devoured by a texture similar to that stain in the throne room, this was without a doubt the dungeon master, a monster capable of meaning a danger to an entire nation had been practically devoured by whatever was now hiding under its armor.
The reason behind why the weakness of all the monsters was quickly understood thanks to the aura of rottenness and death emanating from that thing, it is not that it defeated all the strong opponents, it stole their power like a disease sucks the health from a healthy body, it did not kill them and fed on them, it stole their lives little by little, they were not facing a simple monster considered the boss by others, they were facing a monster whose slender figure enclosed the strength of an entire dungeon in a single being, an amalgam of hunger and death stared at them as if it pretended to be a simple empty armor.
"Igra, Yaga, and Leered, the four of us will go ahead, Anvil, Beo, and Pein, you defend both Ecate and Ergo, if we lose the defensive potential of the support magic or the offensive potential of the best magic caster, I fear our probabilities are reduced to something very close to 0." - Claymore said as he wielded his relic weapon, quickly the spear transformed into a one-handed sword as with the other hand the elf began to conjure a wind spell, a green colored bubble like figure spinning at high speed took hold of the group leader's right hand as he gave a strange look to his back line companions after observing Leered leading the offensive.
The sound of the wooden grips on Leered's axes accompanied the screeching of Igra's heavy swords and the cracking of Yaga's neck as he smiled like a little boy excited to play, now on his hand, again a red arrow was drawn like the one that appeared when facing that monster from before, it seemed that the giant had something in mind.