Chapter 168 (Patreon)

AN: Sorry for the long silence, guys. As some of you might know, I got fired from my irl job last month, and I haven't really had much motivation since. I know it's unfair to all of you, though, so I've done my best to get back into the swing of things. Enoy the new chapter!

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The Creator, Occupied Atlantis, The Kalenic Sea

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It took seven hours for the crusaders to fight their way from The Cuck Box to the Sixth Floor, and it only took so long because they spent five of those hours fighting their way along the hallways. After reaching the freshly sealed door, they barricaded themselves in, preventing any fungal zombies from reaching them, even if they had to remain on guard for the manabeings. Given they'd already managed to mission-kill most of the Earth and Darkness court on the floor, I was leery of sending more after them. 

The Crusaders took a short rest while the mages figured out how to break into the boss arena. Once they understood that I'd sealed the door, fused the stone and flooded it with mana so they couldn't affect it with their own, they moved into a more... brute force solution.

Bombs, I'm talking about bombs. Actual bombs. Gunpowder secured inside scored metal casings with fabric fuses, enchanted with fire, air, and energy mana to make the explosion strong enough to melt stone. I mean, I always knew they had gunpowder, since those merchants that first found me had cannons on their ship. And yet, I'd never seen a single guilder use any gunpowder weapon. Bows, crossbows, swords, and daggers, but absolutely no pistols, rifles or anything of the sort.

I'd put a lot of thought into the why, and eventually decided that it made a certain sort of sense. Powder-and-shot firearms like muskets and hand cannons had long reloading times, unrecoverable ammunition, and were relatively inaccurate. More suited for an army line than tunnel-fighting and ambushes. I wasn't sure why they hadn't enchanted them to be more accurate, or run on mana instead, or a dozen other things. I have no doubt it was some hero from Earth who'd shared the secret with them; gunpowder weapons normally didn't show up in high-fantasy worlds, since there were other alternatives.

But, in times like this, when their mana was unable to breach a wall... well... Let's say the door wasn't in their way anymore.

The explosion had been loud, and the whole Fifth had shaken. Rocky dust fell from the cavern's roof and throughout the castle. In the aftermath of the explosion, the crusaders rushed through into the boss arena. They were faced with three Potentium Metal Golems and one Potentium Light Golem. The metal golems were typical examples of their kind, emulating the T-1000 as their bodies shifted at their will. As always, Potentium amplified their power. Even though they were only sprites, they moved smoothly and confidently, and their sharp-bladed limbs kept the crusaders wary as they kept them occupied.

The Light golem, however, was a different beast entirely.

Originally, the boss for this floor had been a light sprite, inside a metal golem. It had been... serviceable. But, as always, Potentium made manabeings much, much stronger. The resulting golem was a being of pure light, its body a white silhouette against the arena's stone, with a radiating halo emanating from every surface. Energy beams from Mr Laser Eyes were bent and diverted around it, and aimed right back at the crusaders. Lasers of its own lanced out, disrupting those engaged with the metal golems, keeping them off-balance and providing opportunities. 

Despite the huge difference in numbers, a crusader was the first to fall. It wasn't one of the Templar, or any of the Summoned heroes, though; It was one of their otherwise ordinary guilders. Momentarily blinded by a laser, he couldn't react in time as a bladed limb sliced through his neck, and the disconnected cranium was thrown to the ground.

The death of one of their own seemed to reinvigorate the crusaders somehow, though. Their formations grew tighter, and they allowed fewer openings, while those that did emerge were quickly covered for. One by one, my manabeings were overwhelmed. The first suffered a lucky strike to their core; the manabeing fled into the floor, and the potentium body melted through the grates beneath it. With those crusaders freed to refocus on the others... it was practically a cascade. The Golems couldn't handle this many enemies at once, and I was proud of the fact they'd lasted as long as they had.

After the Light Golem was finally put down, I allowed myself an evil grin. The head templar, the one with the Dungeon Core in his armour, was fuming. It was probably because I had such a 'powerful' servant of one of the very gods they were fighting in the name of. They had no way of knowing it was a mere Spirit, after all, nor that it'd been a Sprite when it was summoned. 

Either way, the Potentium was collected in the room beneath the arena, then, while the spell woven into the metal kept it in liquid form, it slid down a pipe that led all the way to the Tenth. There, it was deposited in a basin. A work crew of Minotaurs called up from the Eleventh collected the metal, transferred it into a wagon, and took it into the Eleventh. Soon enough new Manacores would be harvested for them, and the manabeings who'd died would arrive from their flight. By that point their new golem bodies would be ready, and they would be allowed to live on their respective Islands.

Meanwhile, back on the Fifth, the Crusaders were quick to push to the exit door, finding that it still opened automatically on the boss's death. They followed the long corridor down to the Sixth, and emerged into my Invasion-ready lava hell.

The entirety of the Sixth was flooded with lava. There were no safe islands, no tidal mechanics, and no clear passage. Lava cascaded from lavafalls on the walls, breaking the clean rock, just in case they tried to climb around. Beneath the surface of the lava, thousands of heat-adapted monsters waited patiently. They remained hidden and would only reveal themselves when the crusaders made themselves vulnerable by crossing the ocean of lava between them and the exit.

Infernal Serpents, Hell Vipers, Magma Constrictors, and the Lava Wyrm. Each had age-related evolutions and its own advantages. The standard Infernal Serpent was already larger than any normal snake, even larger than an Amazonian Boa Constrictor, and only increased in size with age. With their incredibly durable scales and adapted physiology, they were very capable. And that was before you considered that, by now, I had thousands of them. This was a floor-wide snake pit that Indy'd hate to see.

Hell Vipers are the ranged evolution. Larger than the Infernal Serpent and bearing a fearsome-looking hood, they spat a napalm-like substance, enhanced by fire mana. Their range started at twenty yards, and only increased as they grew larger and older. Magma Constrictors took the size and durability of the Infernal Serpent and turned them all the way up. Absolutely huge, with scales thicker than a human thigh and the durability to go along with it, they were true beasts in melee. They could crush, compress, and bully their way through most fights.

Finally, there was the new 'boss' of the floor. While the fire court still had plenty of members adding to the defences here, I'd by and large sent them downwards. The Lava Wyrm was enormous, and if it so chose, it could wind its way around the entire circumference of the Sixth and still be able to bite its own tail. With scales thicker and stronger than the Constrictors, and integrating Potentium into itself to project a fire-aspected shield, it was by far the most durable creature I'd ever made. It took the Hell Viper's spitting ability and likewise ramped it up, able to spit artillery-like lobs of napalm across the entire floor. 

Thankfully, with the increased depth of the lava I'd created by flooding the entire floor, there was more than enough space for it. I'd need to manually deepen the floor if I wanted to keep it around on the Sixth after the crusade was dealt with.

This is what the Crusaders encountered on reaching the Sixth; As soon as they'd stepped out onto the only remaining 'island' free of lava, the tunnel behind them shut. I manually filled in the rock behind the veneer, so there was no chance they could break through the 'door' and escape back that way. Once they were trapped, the monsters revealed themselves. Infernal Serpents launched themselves onto the island, while Hell Vipers harried them from a fair distance away. Magma Constrictors were deployed more carefully, to keep their true numbers hidden.

On the other side of the floor, yet fully visible to the crusaders at the entrance, the Lava Wyrm burst through the surface, spraying lava all around it. From its safe position, it launched barrage after barrage of explosive napalm spit. From the cavern's roof, hundreds of Hellbats and their evolution, the Hellscream bat, poured into the battlefield.

It was only due to the quick reaction of their mages, throwing up manashields, that they weren't instantly annihilated.

But that was no matter. The war for the Sixth had only just begun.

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Ithca, The Eleventh Floor, The Dungeon

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"My Friends!" Ossydus boomed as he knelt to pull the little humans into an embrace. He had to be very careful, since he was much bigger than when he'd last seen them. Ah, they looked like they'd been doing well! Their human skin was tanned, their muscles looked bigger, and they all stood with much more confidence than the shrinking, terrified things he'd remembered from that ship.

"Crushing!" one of them, Akio, Ossydus remembered his name was, said with a wheeze. Ossy blinked, and realising he'd squeezed just a bit too hard, released his friends and stood to his full height.

"You've gotten... a lot bigger!" the dark-haired girl, Sophie, asked. Ossy smiled widely and stood with his hands on his furry hips. Yes. Yes, he had gotten much bigger. 

"I have evolved!" Ossy bragged. "The Creator said I'm something called a Cyclops, now." 

"But you don't have one eye?" the shirtless human, Bruce, asked, sounding confused. 

"I have three!" Ossy corrected, kneeling again. His hooves and furred legs had remained much the same, though bigger. His chest and arms, on the other hand, had lost much of their fur in exchange for a thick, leathery skin. It also showed off the definition of his muscles, which his wife definitely appreciated! His head had also changed greatly, which he didn't mind. His snout was much shorter, and his two horns had grown into a crown that encircled his head. His third eye had grown in on his forehead, and let him focus on three different things at once!

"We can see that," Elize commented. "I believe you haven't met our friends, though. This is Bertram and Haythem; they're guilders that are travelling with us while we explore the Eleventh."

"Any friends of these four are friends of me!" Ossy smiled, showing off his teeth. They were sharper and shinier now! "Ah, I have some people to introduce, too! Come, come!" Ossy entreated, waving for the humans to follow him. He led them away from the docks and their ship, and up the biggest hill on the island. At the top of the hill was his palace, built in the same style as all those ruins The Creator had left around the place.

"You'll love Penny. Remember, I told you about her on the ship? Well, you were right! She was waiting for me to ask her to marry. After we moved here and built out the palace, she's even had two calves!"

"That's wonderful, Ossydus," Sophie said, and Ossy could only smile at her. It was wonderful!

"What are their names?" Bruce asked, a strange look in his little human eyes.

"We named them Telly, and Poly!" Ossy revealed. "Look! That's them, there!" Jogging down the hill to meet them were his sons. They were still young, only half as large as Ossydus himself, but that was still enough for them to stand at a good eight feet tall. As his family and friends introduced themselves, Ossy smiled off at the view as the sun set on the horizon. 

Ithca was safe, and he couldn't be happier.

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