MGW CH20

It must be destroyed. To ascend the dungeon must die by my hands. In my heart of hearts, I knew it was the only way. With the wall gone from my cultivation, I had to look elsewhere. And where else would my wall be than a delusional hivemind entity that believes it has a soul. It was just a copy and nothing more. The human soul didn’t exist.

A smile spread across my face. I was sure it thought the same of me. Why wouldn’t I confront it again and spit in the face of its beliefs? It sent Dani to me because it knew I would get attached after we had sex. That damn thing believed I would volunteer myself in her stead. I wanted to believe that. But, if that wasn’t the case, then I didn’t know what was going on. Why would the dungeon sacrifice one of its own to preserve my life?

Or was I missing something that was also a possibility because a dungeon wouldn’t think like me? My thoughts were based on chemical reactions. The chemical reactions that caused me to love Dani weren’t natural. Time away from her had made that clear.  A dungeon didn’t use chemicals to think.

There was also something else I couldn’t leave without burning it to ash. I was stronger now than ever before, but the dungeon was a force of nature. Leaving without destroying it wouldn’t feel right. That made me think.

Where did my power come from? That question rolled around in my head as I stared at my staff. It had grown from a six feet piece of wood with two-spirit cores inside to a small tree. Black and orange fruits hung heavy from drooping branches filled with qi collected from the world spirit. I planted it in the middle of the room to absorb as much qi as possible during the orgy. By building this staff and gaining experience wielding wood-type qi, I had the knowledge and capability to use the orgy. If I broke that down further, it was because of my spirit sense.

By paying attention to how the world acts and having to skills to take advantage of that, I built the framework for a ritual. What I did made sense.

I took a bite of another fruit. My cultivation climbed higher from 1.37 to 1.381. However, every bite after the last had diminishing returns. After my second bite, that became obvious. The fruit alone couldn’t help me reach the heights I wanted. Somewhere deep in my bones, I knew more spirit cores wouldn’t either. They, too, had diminishing returns.

My cultivation base was strong enough to sustain my battle form. Though it wasn’t really my cultivation base that was the problem. After reaching my current strength, I understood my battle form a little better. I could tell the difference between my past self and now. My cultivation base was never the issue.

That’s right, even jumping a realm wouldn’t have helped my battle form. It wasn’t draining my qi to sustain itself. It was to heal my body when it drained my qi or the qi around me. The only way to ease the burden of that form was to strengthen my body. Some of the pills helped in that regard, but Kale helped the most.

She had nearly killed me, but my cultivation base brought me back by draining the qi in the room. It's funny; I didn’t understand where my power came from, not really. Wood type qi provided survival of the fittest; the fire burned the dead cells, earth strengthened what remained, metal targeted the strongest cells, and water fed them first. How did I know this? That was an ability gained from lightning. I understood my body better than ever before. To be more precise, I gathered information directly from my cells differently.

This told me something I didn’t want to hear. My flesh was weak. Even with my enhancements without my cultivation, I was maybe a little above a normal human. Cultivation could only go so far. I had limits just like anyone else. My cells weren’t immortal; they were very adaptive.

Fortunately, I didn’t beat Washington by personally being stronger. My weakness to lightning had seen to that. I built a weapon to surpass my limits. Men didn’t fight with their fists if they didn’t have to.

I plucked my staff from the ground and knew immediately that it wouldn’t work.

“You don’t have to do this alone; we can fight with you,” Kale said. I took out a piece of paper from my inventory and began drawing designs. When it proved too small, I tossed a seed out and manipulated its growth. A wall of wood grew from a single seed until I had a flat canvas to work with.

“I don’t need your help with this. You’ll only be a hindrance.” I said.

“You agreed to remain here and be a good human male.” Terra reminded me.

I waved my hand, and roots swirled around her. She struggled until the roots drained the qi from her perpetual engine.

“You’ve grown stronger,” Lizzy said.

“I need you to get the others out of here. The dungeon and I have some unsettled business.” I said.

“Does that mean the ritual was a success?” Molly asked.

“No, but that isn’t a bad thing. If it worked, I wouldn’t have learned anything.” I said.

Yea, I was going with that. Anything to wash the taste of failure out of my mouth. My orgy had done a lot of good for me, but I also lost any chance of easy cultivation. To reach greater heights, just increasing my cultivation wasn’t enough. My power never really worked that way. I never wanted an assist before either. So, before I knew what I was doing, I tossed any chance of that away.

“Would my ass make you feel better you promised to fuck our asses at the end?” Molly said.

“Sorry, I’m going to be too busy for that. Just get some distance from this place if you can. I’m not sure how much survived outside the saferoom.” I said.

“Lizzy, do you know how to do a saferoom staged back to town spell,” Molly asked.

“You’re speaking a little too informal to me, magical girl,” Lizzy said.

“Does the mighty learned vampire not know a simple back to town spell. Is this your first dungeon?” Molly asked.

“Of course, I know the back to town spell. But I’m clearly above you in the hierarchy, and I’m of the nobility. So, you should only refer to me as Lady Elizabeth. It's only proper.” Lizzy said.

Molly opened her mouth then closed it before turning her back on us and screaming a string of curses. “Lady Elizabeth, do you know the back-to-town spell,” Molly growled.

“I do,” Marie said.

Everyone in the room turned to the hellhound. Fruit juice covered her face, and bits of orange fruit clung to her black lips.

“I learned it before coming to this town. My pack said it's something we should all learn before coming here.” Marie said.

Molly opened her mouth and closed it before shaking her pink hair. “Ok, then this is what we’re going to do. While Red leaves to fight the dungeon for no reason, we will write the spell on the walls and teleport the safe house to town. Do I hear any objections?” Molly said.

Vraley stood up. “I hate to say it, but I can’t agree. There is a chance the dungeon still has the girl in its depths. I may be out of my depths here, but I have to do my job.” Vraley said.

“You didn’t seem so concerned while I was balls deep inside you. What changed?” I asked.

“I wasn’t in my right mind. None of us are around you. Can’t you tell that? When we’re close, we get cum drunk? Your trouble for all of us, and it would have been better if we never met. Most of the town is dead now because of you.” Vraley said.

She acted like I forced the town to abandon everything to chase me. As if they couldn’t make their own decisions. It showed me finally exactly how disposable I was to them. Before, there were more important problems to think about. That hadn’t changed, only I felt different. I no longer needed to locate spirit cores. Only the wall remained in the form of the dungeon. But I had to know something.

“Do the rest of you feel this way?” I asked.

Most of the girls went quiet. “Most of us aren’t used to being around human males. You should have died by now.” Kale said.

“Those gangsters weren’t going to let you get away. Kale, you were already looking for a cheap male slave. Molly, you were hunting for Kale from the beginning. Lizzy, you didn’t seem cum drunk at all when we first met. As for the rest of you, at any time, you could have left.” I said.

“So, you’re not going to take responsibility for any of the deaths,” Vraley said.

“None of you would give me a second thought if I dried up and died. So, spare me your hypocrisy. If you want to search the dungeon for a missing girl, go ahead. The door is right there.  I’m not leaving this place until I’m good and ready.” I said.

Vraley glared at me. “You want me to go out into the dungeon alone.” The deertaur asked.

“That’s what I’m about to do. I guess you really are a deer, so skittish.” I said.

My hand moved while I spoke and wrote the formations where I needed them. The texts from worshipped gods maintained their power even in a different universe. I couldn’t care less why it worked as long as it continued to work. A triad symbol bound many different texts together while I designed a sidearm with the staff’s power in mind. I had studied many texts about the basics of gunsmithing and even magic engineering. What I planned to do wasn’t easy, but it was possible with the tools I had at my disposal. My primary tool, of course, was my cultivation and a diverse number of elements.

I took a small lump of steel from my inventory and began molding it into the shape of a barrel. Using my eyes, roll pins, and a spring-loaded trigger pull scale, I worked on a barrel and trigger. A mid-class metal core powered most of the formations inside. The trigger only covered and uncovered the formations for the firing mechanism. Steel was as easy to manipulate with my metal typing as wet clay.

A seed came free of my staff, full of all the experience my staff contained. Then, with the next generation in my hand, I grew the wood with the formations I needed and connected it to the barrel and trigger.

The results of my labor were a simple weapon as far as guns were concerned. But honestly, it was no more advanced than a primitive musket without the formations.

I moved the dark and fire spirit cores to their new home in my rifle and adjusted the weapon’s grip and stock until they fit my hand perfectly. The barrel was long and thicker towards the stock and hollow in places. I needed to implant many more formations closer to the stock than towards the end.

Once it was finished, I grew a vine from a seed in my inventory. Next, I shouldered the weapon across my back with a few adjustments from the buttstock and forestock. Finally, just to facilitate the power of my weapon, I installed two vents just in front of the forestock. Hopefully, when I used the weapon, the excess energy would discharge from there instead of blowing up the weapon.

“Well, I’m done here. But, Kale, if you never want to see me again after this, I will understand.” I said.

Kale walked over to me and slapped me across the face. I let my face move with the blow to keep from hurting her hand.

“I don’t care about the rest of these bitches. But I’ll be waiting in the tavern for you. Don’t be late; we’re leaving for Flank town in the morning.” Kale said.

I grabbed her breasts and pressed her dark nipples together. Kale winced as I rubbed her slowly rising nipples together.

“For good luck then,” I said and sucked on them.

Kale groaned. “You won’t ever leave if you don’t stop turning me on,” Kale said.

At first, they were soft until my tongue brushed up against them, causing them to stand and harden. Then, before either of us could get too in to it, Molly pulled them away.

“Maybe we should all teleport away and let the dark lord’s sentinel take care of it,” Molly suggested.

“That is advisable,” Terra said.

“No, I need to kill the dungeon myself,” I said and approached the door.

“Do you want me to come with you? I’m fairly powerful, you know.” Lizzy asked.

“No, I need to do this myself. I can’t sense what’s going on outside this room. There is no telling how dangerous it is out there.” I said.

My qi gathered around my body, creating what I lovingly called an aura. While my aura was always around, it wasn’t always visible. Crimson light danced over my skin like flames on a log. My aura only became visible when I was too excited to hold it back or felt strongly about something. A smile spread across my face, and my aura expanded, covering the room with crimson light. I opened the door and flew out of the room into a hellscape.

Lightning crashed against the ground spearing through thrashing grey tentacles as if the heavens themselves rejected the zombie dragon’s existence. I sucked in a breath as my cultivation climbed. My crimson aura spread far from my body tentacles flailed about as far as the eye could see. A flock of electrically inclined monster girls flew amongst swirling purple clouds overhead, blasting the grey tentacles with their own attacks timed with the lightning. Finally, one of the tentacles lashed out and struck the saferoom only for a golden barrier to repel it.

I flashed forward and fired a calamity blast. The red ball of qi struck one of the tentacles before spreading quickly. Large red lumps appeared all around the appendage before I flew in close. I stuck with my hunting knife and pierced the lumps. Explosions rocked the tentacle as the point where my knife struck set off a chain reaction. Small orbs of qi spewed from the wound and were quickly absorbed by my cultivation.

Hundreds of smaller tentacles shot out from the hole I made in the limb as I flew away from the attack. One hit wouldn’t do the job. A jagged lightning bolt struck the tentacle popping several red lumps at once. The massive tentacle fell apart, and a wall of multicolored orbs formed before my aura absorbed them. I wasn’t sure, but I thought it was a power gained from merging chaos and order. My calamity blast caused weak points to appear in a target that spewed lumps of cultivatable energy when struck.

I didn’t understand it and doing something like that didn’t make sense. The power, though, was exhilarating. I had just feasted on so much energy. My hands spread out, and two calamity blasts appeared. One blasted forth towards a tentacle where if felt the lightning would strike next while the other hit on closer to the safehouse. I shot through the air and felt a boom explode around me.

Lightning flashed, and the first tentacle hit exploded into multicolored orbs of qi. The second I closed in, they froze midair and flew into my aura. My cultivation swelled with their consumption, and I felt just a little stronger. Absorbing the qi of those tentacles didn’t outright increase my cultivation base. It felt more like I gained potential energy from the orbs.

The other tentacle was harder to deal with. While it bulged with red lumps, it refused to stay still and let me hit them. My knife plunged into one, only for the tentacle to shift and a thousand smaller tentacles to fill the hole left from my attack. It seemed the only way to deal with the tentacles was to destroy them with a single attack.

My rifle was in my hands before I really thought about it. The sheer destructive power of the weapon boggled the mind. Just holding it made me feel more powerful. The sleek ashen ebony stock, the polished steel barrel, and the dangerous-looking exhaust ports made the weapon look scary. I held the weapon towards the tentacle and placed my finger on the trigger.

There were no iron sights, an oversight on my part. It was a rushed job. There wasn’t a trigger guard, so any snag could cause the weapon to go off. My next gun would be different.

As if understanding my desire, the formations on the weapon lit up and glowed orange on the rifle’s ebony surface. There was no ammunition other than the qi from the king-class dark core and high-class fire-core. Even the mid-class metal core in the weapon fueled the weapon’s destructive power somewhat. Its design was simple; the formation built into the weapon would activate the second I pulled the trigger.

I lined up my shot with the largest lump on the tentacle and sucked in a breath, then stopped breathing. My body froze as still as a statue as the tentacle flexed around, searching for prey. Then, when I was ready, I squeezed the trigger.

Orange flames spewed from the two exhaust ports on the riffle. My rifle fought against my hold as I struggled to keep it steady. Metal particles lingered in the air, reflecting light from the purple lightning crashing all around me. Half the tentacle fell away, burning as it plummeted to the dungeon below. Flesh bubbled below the glowing orange stump of the tentacle. Lines of black qi stretched down, followed by a stream of ashes falling off as orange stump burned like a lit cigar. Even the qi orbs had been burned up from firing my rifle once.

I aimed and fired, repeatedly bisecting every tentacle in view until the stubby tentacles looked more like a burning menorah than the feelers of some beast.

A shiver ran through me at seeing the sheer destructive power of my weapon. I rebuilt my staff into rifle form to make its power more manageable. Even so, the weapon was devastating. If not for the metal core in the rifle, the weapon would have melted into slag or shattered. Still, the weapon was inefficient. A lot of power was wasted just holding the weapons together. Not to mention it was only a single shot after firing it once. I needed a few seconds to recover before firing it again.

This part of the world hadn’t become a glacier from a few shots, so I figured I was on the right track. Still, there were weaknesses to my rifle that could easily be taken advantage of. When fighting, speed was one of the most important factors. While all I needed was to pull a trigger, what if my opponent was mobile afterward? I could use temporary formations sculpted onto a bullet to hold power and alter the formations on my weapon to connect to a library. That would lower the number of formations needed on the rifle and lower the strain on the weapon.

I strung the weapon across my back and headed down into the dungeon. Half-burned dolls charged at me as I made my way to the basement entrance. The dolls rapidly deteriorated when my aura touched them until only their earthen spirit cores remained. This wasn’t some power gained from my numerous spirit cores. Like what happened to the lower spirits, my aura could affect those who possess dolls. Before, I couldn’t do much against them. Only touching them with my aura was enough to ruin them.

The door to the basement opened, and I flew down. The qi from the dungeon began to feel faint, like it was retracting its reach around the mansion. World qi began to filter in while I traveled deeper. The imps were no more, and that worried and encouraged me. If the dungeon recovered from its frailties and became more confident, killing it would be difficult. My wall needed to be challenging to drive me to the next level. I flew down the lube waterfall and passed by the metal succubus boss room.

I stepped from a boss room into a laboratory on the next floor to a disaster. The bodies of magicians either lay mulched in a crater, some were torn to confetti, or a rare few were on fire. The dungeon hadn’t managed to clean up this mess yet, or that was no longer its concern. Broken glass covered the floor, along with torn spellbooks. Their contents were in a strange circular language the system couldn’t translate or refuse. Mounds of dead flesh lay on tables connected to IVs, dissected, or while being sewn up. A strange label covered the equipment with an unmistakable uniformity. These creatures were a part of some group, and I doubted they were dungeon-born.

System Warning!

Ex Mortus Researcher Identified.

Recommendation: Proceed with caution; let nothing remain intact, rip and burn.

The sudden screen flash froze me on the spot. I haven’t seen a system warning ever. Not even when it teleported us did it give a warning. So maybe Molly was right; I should have left with them. But the system had asked the right guy to rip and burn.

Black flames erupted from my aura like flowing ink wherever my aura touched black dragon’s fire followed. What King left behind I burned thoroughly. The books, bodies, and scraps of robes burned quickly as I passed them by. My aura spread and burned as I traveled further into the dungeon.

I stepped into a room full of massive glass tubes filled with green liquid. The bodies within looked human except for an occasional defect. Some had large insect wings, others had dragon claws, and a few had giant titties. Yet, every face looked the same, and I couldn’t help but identify them as Sam. My aura spread, and the glass containers withstood even my dragon fire. The strange symbols that I couldn’t read before channeled somehow withstood my flames.

That got my attention. I walked up to the nearest contained and punched with a qi enhanced blow. Once again, the symbols appeared, and they stole the qi from my attack to reinforce the glass. Pain shot up my arm as I struck, but that didn’t concern me as much as what the symbols did. Again, my qi was stolen and used to reinforce the glass containers. That shouldn’t happen.

I thought about it and then pulled an ordinary hammer out of my inventory. With a smirk, I slammed the nail driver down on the glass to nothing; even with my strength and bypassing the qi absorption, the hammer didn’t do a thing. Next, I inspected the glass more thoroughly with my spirit sense. There wasn’t any qi inside it, so there could be any number of reasons why I couldn’t break it. From nanites to a plastic force absorbing strip between glass planes, it could be anything. That really made it a head-scratcher.

My aura pulled back while I thought about it. No system was perfect, and just hitting it with normal qi enhancement or dragon fire wasn’t going to work. Well, what about chaos, qi? My calamity blast worked because it caused a disruption in the natural order.

I blasted the tube with one of the red orbs and watched the symbols absorb the attack. Then I waited as they fully absorbed the attack. Once the calamity blast fully absorbed into the tube’s protection, I punched full force again. When I stuck, it only absorbed a partial amount of my qi. My blow struck the glass tube only for the glass itself to absorb my physical blow.

King couldn’t break these either that was why they were intact. If I couldn’t break them and King couldn’t either, then they would be a problem later. All they would need to do in the future was install a door made of this stuff, and boom, they could ignore us all they wanted.

System Message

Qi controlled is more difficult to repurpose than power allowed to diffuse freely.

So that was it. I didn’t have enough control, and even the system felt necessary to give me a hint. This was serious. I had no messages from the system for years, and now two messages on the same day. It was smothering me with attention.

I needed to control my aura. A reward would have been helpful, but the system doesn’t seem to care about that sort of thing. This wasn’t a quest by the system. Instead, it gave me a warning, so I guessed that none of it was planned.

My attention turned to the dungeon’s depths. I could sense the dungeon’s qi pulling in on itself. Soon this place would be free of the dungeon’s taint. King’s qi continued to scream like thousands of souls trapped in a single form. But, no, it was more than that. King’s qi had grown since last I sensed it. I couldn’t help but wonder where he got the extra power. I walked back towards the lab and kicked a head against the wall inflicting petrification and shattering it.

I had numerous abilities that I hadn’t had time to practice with. Each element was special in its own way and held many unique characteristics. While earth made my body sturdier, it could also make other objects too sturdy to the point of becoming brittle. But, of course, that wouldn’t work on the glass tubes with the protections on them.

The system said I needed to control my qi to keep the protection from turning it against me. I pulled in my aura and thought about it for a second. How much of my aura could I control against the pull? I made a qi ball, floated it over to the protections, and prepared to keep it from being pulled in. But, before I could react, the ball was already absorbed. I tried to wrestle control of the qi orb to no effect towards the end. The protections didn’t seem to care what I wanted.

I tried a few more times and felt the saferoom teleport and the dungeon recede even more. Each time I tried to prevent the absorptions of my qi, I failed. I thought I might have slowed it down a few times, but that might have been a delusion.

System Message

If you find a large amount difficult to control, then lower your concerns. It's better to save something than nothing.

Now I really felt spoiled. All this time, without a word from the system, it sent me three messages. The Ex Mortus really must have concerned it if it gave me training advice.

“Alright, I’ll see what I can do. Don’t give me a skill because I don’t think it would do me any good. Your skills are all double-edged swords.” I said.

System Message

The skills given have been adjusted to assist survival by increasing a host’s strength or mental adaptability. In your case, both were necessary your original world was dangerous.

“Will I ever go back there?” I asked.

System Message

The original world was reset. You may return from the point you began with all your acquisitions intact once you complete your world quest.

That was interesting. While I had the system chatty, I should have asked more questions, but I was stuck because I could have a second chance. That was something that felt like a real reward. Before any of that, I needed to gain control.

I made a smaller orb and prepared to resist the pull even as it neared the glass tube’s protections. This time it pulled away from me slowly. Every scrap of power the protections took felt like pulling teeth. My mind screamed while I fought to keep my qi away from the pull.

Rubbing my throbbing temples didn’t make it much better. Control was needed to get past these barriers and destroy these things. I halved my last orb, so clearly, I would need to half it again.

The tiny orb floated in the palm of my hand, and I hesitated. My head still throbbed from earlier. It felt like I had just touched a hot stove, and I would do it again, knowing it was hot. The second my orb approached the protections; I felt the pull. With all my concentration, I resisted even as my head throbbed from the effort.

Despite the insane attraction from the protections, I resisted them. I felt something warm and wet trickle down my nose and wiped my lip. My eyes widened when I saw my hand covered in blood. This was more dangerous than I thought. I couldn’t stop.

I had just taken my first step in controlling my aura when I realized my mistake. The Ex Mortus was sure to use these protections as a weapon. But, despite King’s strength, I could tell he hadn’t moved deeper into the dungeon. So, there was a good chance he ended up in a fight against something with these protections.

How would I increase my control over qi before I fought something that could take advantage of the Ex Mortus made protections? But, of course, I wasn’t, and this was a terrible idea. Still, I held up the tiny ball of qi and flattened it.

System Message

Qi is easier to control when it no longer resembles its raw form.

“Thanks, but I already guessed as much,” I said.

Qi was at the end of the day spiritual energy. It was energy that backed thought. The more of it a being had, the easier they could make their desires, emotions, and nightmares reality. Knowing that and doing something constructive with qi were two different things. This felt like something that would have been easier to gain when I was weaker.

My aura resembled flames, but that wasn’t the best form it could take. To be honest, I had let my aura run wild as it grew stronger and hadn’t bothered restraining it. Control hadn’t been a concern because nothing could make use of my lack of it.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time for it. I needed to get a move on and kill the dungeon. The small ball of qi I controlled wrapped around my hand, forming a skintight glove. I reared my fist back and enhanced it.

This time my fist passed through the protections with ease and the glass shattered. Green fluid poured out of the hole while my fist traveled on, wrecking everything inside. I withdrew my hand and took a step back. All I needed was a little control, just enough to create a line of separation between my qi and the force extracting it.

I walked forward and flew off my feet before shooting through the air. A boom echoed in my wake as I traveled through the long corridor of bodies. As I moved, they changed, growing more feminine as I flew. The clawed hands, tentacles, and dicks were exchanged for sleek female forms. I wondered if the first ones I found were the latest experiments or failures. What would Sam’s complete body look like?

“System what are the Ex Mortus?” I asked.

System Message

The Ex Mortus were once living but are no longer. Each of them desires the creation of gods of death.

“So, they’re insane,” I said.

System Message

No, they are mentally sound.

For some reason, the system’s words didn’t make me feel any better about my chances. I gripped the butt of my rifle for comfort. Finally, there was one weapon I could fully rely on and something they might not expect. I’ve used it sparingly for a reason. It’s always good to have a trump card hidden up my sleeve, and if I can’t win, I can always bury this place in the ruble.

Killing my enemies through a cave in still counted as a victory in my book. However, the walls felt fragile, with the dungeon pulling its presence from the upper layers.

My flight took me through a vertical shaft down hundreds of feet. Tentacles of the zombie dragon became more numerous the further down I flew. A stone platform shattered into pieces as I flew through it. I passed pieces of it by as I flew down faster than gravity could draw me. Tentacles lashed out but were too slow as I dropped like a bullet. The source of their power was further down along with King.

I squeezed my aura tightly to my skin just in case there were some Ex Mortus protections nearby. They would slow me down if I wasn’t careful.

Even as the tentacles formed a net to my aura burned them to bits before I flew through their ashes. It seemed that the tighter I compressed my aura, the hotter my flames became.  As I slipped through the tentacles, I halted my momentum and shattered the stone around me.  Without missing a beat, I touched the metal gate blocking me. Black flames quickly spread, turning the steel red then white-hot before it began to sweat and run like wax. My control over the metal allowed me to warp it open for my entry.

My tightly held aura illuminated the darkness of the seemingly endless cavern ahead. Balls of light appeared above my hands before I tossed them out to illuminate the antechamber.

Hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of the glass tubes lined the walls leading deeper into the cavern. Massive grey decapitated dragon heads hung suspended in the broken glass of shattered tubes covered in green fluids. They still wiggled, and tentacles slowly grew from their stumps. If they were left to their own devices soon, they could undoubtedly become new zombie dragons.

Not only were they torn free, but they were sent flying hard enough to shatter the glass tubes. That told me something interesting and raised a lot of questions.

A calamity blast came to my free hand easily. I fired it just as one of the heads turned its gaze on me. For a moment, I felt paralyzed as foreign qi entered my body through my eyes. A rumbling flew through my body as I felt the same effect, I had tried earlier come over me. A lump appeared in the dragon head’s eye socket, throwing its gaze off. In that split second, I recovered and threw my hand up. Lightning crackled between my fingertips.

The being sensed my lightning qi, and it trembled. Dragons didn’t like lightning qi at all. Purple lightning flashed from my fingertips, striking the zombie dragon head and the glass tubes before spreading out. Fortunately, it had the effect I was going for. Precious qi orbs spilled from the dragon head more abundant than the tentacles could supply.

I felt my cultivation base rise, and I repeated the process on every head I found on my way down. There was no reason to allow them to reform when I could help it. It felt as if I had hit another milestone as I flew down. If my cultivation base at 10 spirit cores was a 1 and with 11, it was 1.3, now it was 2. While that jump didn’t sound significant to me, it was. While I was nowhere near the 10x jump that rising a realm would give me, I had nearly doubled my cultivation base. All it cost me were a few zombie dragon heads. I couldn’t imagine what devouring the whole beast would give me.

Sometimes it was best to take things slow. The sounds of fighting down below increased as I stopped to siphon off every decapitated zombie head I could find. I emptied each one and gained a little less until it wasn’t worth it any longer. But that wasn’t why I did it. If these things were allowed to recover, they could become a nuisance later. When the illumination of my orbs reached the attached heads of the beast, I threw myself to the side to avoid an ice crystal the size of a good-sized shed. I turned my eyes away and blasted down with a purple stream of hungry lightning. The beast screamed, and I had to move quickly as ten more double-decker bus-sized blocks of ice shot towards me.

I heard the shattering of tubes behind me as the ice crystals landed. No amount of qi absorptions saved them from the sheer amount of force behind the accelerated glaciers. I saw a blue blur move through my qi sense just in time to get out of the way of a blue arc. Several heads ripped free of the creature just before blue tethers appeared connected to walls and the decapitated heads. Moments after the tethers held the heads, they accelerated up and out of the cavern.

“Red, what took you so long?” King said as he slashed down again, causing a blue arc of qi to appear before slicing deeply into the creature. More heads immediately burst from the creature’s stumps before I could get a word in.

Calamity blasts appeared in my hands and fired as I moved, peppering the giant multiheaded creature as I flew. As I flew down, large glowing red bumps appeared along the creature’s necks. The creature’s attention divided between us, and King began to tether parts of the creature.

My senses roamed the creature, and I realized what King was doing. Within the monster was the real zombie dragon; if that entity could be forced out of the giant, this battle could be ended. So long as the true zombie dragon remained within this thing, it could regenerate the beast. That’s what King planned to do with his tethers.

“I was busy making sure the heads up there didn’t come back to bite us,” I said.

“Good, I thought you were just being lazy before. How’s Terra? Did she die on the way here, or did she decide that we were going to die and were no longer her problem?” King asked.

“The later, she seemed fine just teleporting away in the saferoom,” I said.

King waved his hands, taking off two heads about to pincer me. I held up my hands and roared as lighting blasted free from them. The beast shrieked in turn, and the heads thrashed while King finished tying the tethers. Finally, a rumble went through the creature as a row of white carnivorous teeth appeared under the purple illumination of my lightning.

Within the beast's maw, there was a still heart made of cold white stone. A ludicrous amount of qi flowed from it throughout the creature. More tethers appeared, attaching themselves to the stone heart while King swiped his hands, unleashing a series of blades. Finally, the arteries connecting the heart to the rest of the beast separated, and the tethers yanked the heart free.

The second she was free; I created another calamity blast after calamity blast and fired them into the creature’s chest. Bulging red lumps appeared all around the creature as the chaotic energies swam through its qi, supplying arteries to the rest of the monster. Finally, I pointed my offhand back at the creature and unleashed hell in a storm of purple lightning.

A flowing stream of qi rose from the beast into King and me. We absorbed the contents of the beast in our own ways. I felt my cultivation base climb more than before, and King’s own qi signature felt like less screaming.

“Thanks, that helped me more than you know. Now we just have to finish off the zombie dragon, and then the dungeon is our bitch.” King said.

“What happened to the other mecha girls?” I asked as my illuminating orbs descended. “Nevermind,” I said as parts of various mecha girls appeared on the stone ground.

“They were only here to make sure I didn’t run away to another world anyway. Terra is probably waiting for some distance away to set off Lilium’s enchantment if I get too close to the dimensional tear.” King said.

“So, you’re a prisoner. What did you mean before when you said I died?” I asked.

“Lilium had me kill you or the version of you in this world.  I will tell you more later; we have to kill this bitch now.” King said.

We approached the white stone heart to fall back from an eruption in grey tentacles. King’s hands blurred the creation of a blue box before throwing it at the creature. That box quickly turned into a mass of tiny blue tethers that quickly attached to the individual tentacles.

“Why are you only using one attack? Shouldn’t you have more than that if you were able to kill me?” I demanded.

King snorted. “That was nearly 50 years ago and well after we fought the first time. I’m not getting into that fight either. We have a job to do Red. As far as skills go, no one has been able to beat me yet, so why should I change my skill set.” King said.

“Is that why Lilium has you by the balls?” I asked.

“Damn it, I said later, and I meant it; this is only the mid-boss after all. The real enemy is up ahead.” King said.

I thought about drawing my rifle and blasting a hole through the zombie dragon’s heart. But the heart itself was just a container. The power held within it was something entirely outside of my experience. Just feeling the qi rolling off was enough to make me hesitate. Using my trump car too early could be disastrous. So, I reviewed my options and picked something that might force it out of its shell.

An incredible amount of qi gathered in my hands as I rapidly shaped it into dragon fire. Black flames leaked from between my fingers as I shaped my attack. When power won the day, this attack was king, but shape ruled in the world of control. So, I bent and twisted the flames in on themselves and imparted my desire for the flames to fall in on themselves. This wasn’t quite building a mini star that would require far more mass, something I didn’t have enough qi to convert. What I was doing was more along the lines of fake it until you make it. My mini black star folded in on itself like it had its own gravity well, but it was only my imagination.

Even at superhuman levels of speed and concentration, my attack took real-world time to prepare before I threw it. Seconds ticked away before I let my attack fly. Lightning crackled around the ball of dragon fire as it shot across the distance guided by my will. I thought it should blast out and strike the other dragon, and so it did too. Finally, the mass of folding black flame struck the zombie dragon's heart and exploded.

The flames quickly shot up, eating away at the grey tentacles. Even as the flames spread, they tried to recede and return to what they believed to be their proper state. It was almost like hypnosis, but not really. Any being with enough qi could force their desires on reality. Belief was a dangerous thing, especially in the hands of the powerful.

King struck next, thrusting a spear forward just as the stone heart split open. A tall dragon woman stepped free of the cocoon. King’s spear stabbed high, piercing through the woman’s chest. Her white hair fell over her face like a curtain even as the world suddenly froze. A glowing blue light appeared around her even as the spear ripped through her back and burned through the zombie dragon’s flesh.

A powerful backhand knocked King aside, and grey tentacles gripped the shaft of the spear before they too sizzled and burned. Golden light radiated from the staff, revealing an anti-undead weapon. Given enough time, it would do its job. I thrust my hands out and let loose another burst of purple lightning.

The dragoness screamed, and a wall of frigid air blasted out from her in a wall of freezing death. Ice sickles erupted from the ground, and walls grew at an impossible rate. One speared through my foot and another through my shoulder before I could get away. The ice spread quickly before I could react; my leg and shoulder went numb. My lightning cut off, and the zombie dragon concentrated on me. Her black eyes gazed at me without a hint of remorse.

She raised her hands the ice moved rapidly. I could feel my body losing the battle before I even began fighting. Even my battle form was too slow to react with her freezing death. King was only just coming to his senses and battling several ice sickles impalements of his own. My hand moved in slow motion as I reached back for my rifle. Just as my hand touched the butt of my gun, it lost all feeling in it.

A smirk played on the zombie dragon’s lips as I felt my body go from frigid to comfortably warm. I heard once that meant I was freezing to death. The zombie dragon’s face went from a smile to a full-blown smirk just before a fist crashed into it.

She flew ass over tea kettle, shattering dozens of ice sickles as she flew. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Standing tall with a single yellow eye on its forehead was my armor. The armor turned towards me and sprinted full out while the dragoness recovered. My lone unfrozen eye lost track of it as I felt myself get pulled backward.

Then the armor closed around my body, cutting me off from outside temperatures and manipulations. I held up my armored hand and noticed it was sleeker than before. The digit moved more comfortably even though it felt more armored. I rubbed my hands together, marveling at my ability to feel through the armor. The frigid temperature barely bothered me at all.

I skated the distance to the zombie dragon and formed a calamity blast. She moved faster than I expected, but the suit had rattled her. Even with my new advantage, I felt protections on her body draw in my qi. With that, the secret to her power became obvious. I pulled the spear free of her body, and she screamed in pain for the second time. When I impaled her again, she stopped moving.

“So, her weakness really was the brain,” I said.

“In more ways than one, I imagine,” King grumbled.

I shook my head at his words and pulled out the spear. For a moment, I was tempted to inventory it on the spot. Unfortunately, weapons get lost all the time, and this one might have slipped far past the dragon woman’s brain into parts unknown.

“Don’t even think about taking my spear. There aren’t any like it in this world. I checked.” King said.

“Where did it come from?” I asked.

“Well, with the zombie girl dead, we have some time to talk while we track down the dungeon core. I think it could take another day and a half before its transfer is complete.” King said.

“Alright, then you will answer my questions?” I said.

“Hand me back my spear, and I will tell you what I can.” For a second, I held tightly to the spear. It was a powerful weapon and could easily cover one of my weaknesses. But I wanted answers more. King caught his spear gingerly and tucked it away in his inventory.

“Alright, ask your first question,” King said.