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Lewd Dungeon, Chapter 200!!!!!!
🕑 Added 2020-12-18 00:31:55 +0000 UTCYou knew something big was coming for 200, to end this arc. Hope you enjoy it.
EDIT: So, you guys rightly pointed out a major goof on my part, regarding Tels's power level. So I decided to do some major edits. Hope you like it!
Chapter 200 – Defeat
Belkis looked as though she was working herself up to some great defiant speech about how good would always triumph, or some ridiculous idiocy like that, so I just waved a hand, and caused the gate to rise once again. Out from the gate stepped Tels Xuan, clad in her blackened, magically enchanted power armor, lightning-wreathed sword and crossbow-topped gun in hand, with the massive greatsword she first carried when she came to my dungeon strapped to her back, as it had been. The Atlantean Dark Saint had grown quite a bit during her time here, taking as many opportunities to train, and build her strength, as she could, and it showed.
Tels Xuan
Atlantean Female
Level 10 Dark Saint / Artisanal Armorer
Market Value: $23,450,800
The Crusader-Champion’s eyes blazed with righteous fury when she saw her next opponent. “HERETIC! TRAITOR! YOU WILL BE PURGED FOR YOUR PART IN THIS DESECRATION!”
“Oh, shut the fuck up, you self-righteous bitch! You have no idea what kind of hell I’ve been through. Fuck you, fuck your church, and fuck Pofmis. Probably would do her some good to get laid for once.”
Even I was slack-jawed by surprise at the tone Tels took with the champion of her former goddess. To think she had that kind of fire in her! I could honestly say that I was impressed.
Belkis, however, was less impressed. With a roar of fury and righteous rage, she threw herself at the Atlantean. Blade met blade with a ringing clang, as the power sword easily intercepted the Crusader-Champion’s strike. The next moment, Belkis was sent flying, as a trio of explosions threw her back, courtesy of the still smoking muzzle of Tels’s pistol. I was pleased to see that the explosive bolts the thing fired proved effective against even someone with the stats of a Champion.
Belkis only flew a few feet, before landing, and rolling up into a defensive stance. The explosive bolts had caught her unprepared across the chest, doing quite a bit of damage, but it had the unfortunate side effect of breaking through her rage, as well. Shield raised and presented in front of her, with her sword poised behind it, ready to strike, Belkis began advancing again, but this time with control.
Seeing that her opponent had regained control of herself, Tels took a moment to collect herself, as well. Sheathing her sword upon her hip, she drew the massive greatsword she carried one-handed. Such a feat would normally be impossible, unless one were able to disjoint their shoulder, but it was not the case here, since her blade was not sheathed in the traditional sense.
Indeed, the blade was not sheathed at all, nor fastened to her back by any means that one would normally consider. Instead, it floated behind her, half an inch from her armor, remaining in place even as she moved and fought. In truth, it looked like something out of a video game from the 2000s, but that didn’t matter. All that truly mattered was what happened next.
“Fly, Soulcleaver, we have work to do.”
As she released the blade, it did not fall. Instead, it floated in the air, a blood-red aura surrounding it as it did so. Moving off to the side, the blade then positioned itself as if a person of Tels’s height were wielding it in a guard position. As Belkis approached Tels, who was once more wielding her mace, the sword circled around, attempting to flank the Crusader-Champion.
Gritting her teeth, Belkis looked upon Tels with fresh hate in her eyes. “That is not the sword’s name! It is Hopebringer, the Ender of Suffering!” As she spoke, she moved, trying to keep both sword and blackguard in front of her.
Tels looked at the Champion with disdain. “It used to be. But when I was betrayed, Hope died, and with it Hopebringer. Now, it is Soulcleaver, and it will rip your soul apart!”
The two warriors crashed together, weapons clashing, while the Crusader-Champion desperately kept her shield between her and Tels’s gun. This kept her from suffering a massive blow like she had before, but it also closed up her stance, denying her much of her offensive ability. Comparing the two combatants, Belkis had more experience, but Tels had the reach. More importantly, she had backup, as the flying sword came slashing in, attempting to cleave the champion in two.
But the Crusader-Champion was not so easily brought down. Rolling to the side, she avoided the slashing blade. Her own sword slashed out as she rose, aimed at Tels’s ankle. The Blacksoul Protector lifted her foot for a moment, allowing the blade to pass under her heel, before stepping forward, her sword slashing down.
From where I sat, the two were evenly matched. Tels had Soulcleaver, and also had the enhanced attributes from being a Named Boss, and having transcended into Tier 3. On the other hand, Belkis had plenty of experience, and everything she wore was heavily enchanted, as one would expect from someone in her position.
That gear was more than just shiny, it was amplifying her abilities. And those abilities were already far greater than a normal person of her level, as she was a Champion of a Goddess. That was not unlike being a Named Boss, but the power granted went up the more powerful the deity they served was.
And, unless I missed my guess, that gear she was wearing provided bonuses based on percentages of her total abilities, rather than flat increases. I had toyed with such ideas, myself. That feature was more expensive, obviously, but allowed for far more impressive results, as shown by the fact that a Tier 2, Level 50 warrior was able to fight on even ground with a Tier 3, Level 10.
One minute passed into five, and then ten. Ten minutes became thirty, and still they fought. Both warriors were exhausted, the fatigue easy to read on their faces. Both were steadily running low on stamina and mana, after the constant fighting and using their powers to heal themselves. But that could not last forever.
Soulcleaver flashed in the air, slashing Belkis across the back. It wasn’t the first time that Belkis had been wounded and she was already channeling magic to heal her body, but the effects were beginning to show. That was because Soulcleaver lived up to its name. It did not just wound the body, but the soul.
That would be nasty enough on its own. After all, the typical spells one would use to heal flesh didn’t work on wounds to the soul, and it was hard to notice soul wounds when you were in the middle of fighting for your life. But the wounds Soulcleaver made to the soul did more than just layer on wounds that would eventually kill someone, even if their body was fine.
Every time Soulcleaver struck a foe, it stole a portion of that creature’s experience, and transferred it to Tels. This was the secret of how Tels had shot up in levels, despite not having any adventurers to fight, as she trained in my dungeon. With every foe she killed, she gained strength by sapping their XP, while also getting XP for the kill.
Naturally, I considered this far too powerful an ability to use against normal adventurers, who were playing by the rules I laid out in the dungeon contracts. After all, I prided myself in running a ‘fair’ dungeon. Sure, there were deadly tricks and traps, and I was actively looking to wear people down, but that was different from the kind of ability that Soulcleaver had.
Fortuntately, Soulcleaver’s Soulrending Aura could be turned off, allowing the blade to still deal deadly damage, just like any other sword. That way, I could still have Tels fight like she was used to, and still keep the battles from being too lethal. I wanted my ‘guests’ to be ground down, leaving them ripe for conversion, not children tossed into an oversized blender.
Thankfully, Belkis didn’t sign the dungeon contract, so I didn’t have to worry about any of that with her. After all, why would I need to concern myself with the soul of someone who was Anathema to me? The fact that the loss of experience was slowly piling up only made it more delicious I wondered if it would get to the point where she started losing levels.
The Crusader-Champion clearly realized that something was wrong, even if she hadn’t pieced together the true cause. The golden wings spread from her back once again, throwing her up into the air above the arena. As she hung in the air, golden light gathered around her, her golden armor shining like it was made of light itself. The light formed a shield, powerful enough that Soulcleaver could not pierce it.
“Blessed Pofmis, Mother of Freedom, hear my prayer! Blessed Lady, Breaker of Chains, your devoted disciple calls out to you! Blessed Maiden, Slayer of Slavers, your servant cries out from the darkness!”
Seeing her opponent clearly powering up a major attack, Tels did not remain idle. She cast her sword and gun to the side, and called Soulcleaver to her hand. Black light began shining around her, and spread her black wings wide, lifting her into the air in a dark mirror of Belkis’s own pose.
“Blessed Kuronoth, Forger of Chains, hear my prayer! Blessed Master, Lord of Pleasure, your devoted disciple calls out to you! Blessed Lord, Dominator of the Defiant, your servant seeks your aid!”
The two forces, light and shadow, grew as the two women completed their prayers, throwing everything into this final attack. Reaching out with my senses, I could feel that Tels was the weaker one, as she was relying only on her own mana, and that of Soulcleaver, as well as what she could draw from the air around her, instead of the conduit to my divinity she normally had, as I had thrown all of that power into creating the Anathema. But she wasn’t entirely outclassed, since Belkis was up against the fact that Pofmis’s power was limited in this place, the heart of a rival’s worship.
“[BLESSED JUDGEMENT!]” “[DARK RECKONING!]”
Light and shadow met as the two warriors clashed in the middle of the arena, and it was like matter and antimatter colliding. In fact, if my readings were correct, it was EXACTLY like a single atom each of hydrogen and antihydrogen annihilating each other. So, just over three and a half tons of TNT, according to the System.
The sands of the arena were turned to glass. The walls were blackened, burnt, and partially melted by the explosion. There was a clear blast pattern on each side of the arena, as the women’s spells partially shielded the arena behind them from the onslaught. The only reason the destruction did not spread beyond the Arena itself, and into the stands, was because I had specifically made it so that the System recognized the stands as a Safe Zone, where outside damaging effects could not penetrate.
The two girls were still alive. Tels was on one knee, supporting her weight with Soulcleaver, which had ben driven into the glass to steady her. Belkis was on her feet, but only barely, as she staggered forward. Both were covered in wounds that were slowly closing, even as they bled, bolstered by the enchantments on their respective armor.
Step after bloody step, Belkis continued on, struggling forward as she attempted to reach her foe, driven on by the madness of the righteous. As she did so, she drew a dagger, which I recognized instantly (due to my dungeon powers) as being a soul-stealer. Well, that certainly wouldn’t do.
In a swirl of black smoke, I manifested my avatar in the arena, in the form that I now took for battles. A mix of hooded robes the color of dried blood and heavy black armor, it was based off the look of a Librarian’s ‘Phobos’ armor from a certain miniatures game. In my hand was a glowing sword, that was specially made to have and keep an edge only a molecule wide. Upon the black pauldron was my symbol in bloody red.
I thought I looked badass as all hell.
Belkis growled as she saw me manifest. “Y-you!” Her words were cut off by her spitting up a bit of blood, but that didn’t stop her. “You were a fool to come before me! [Exorcismus Amplitudo Sacrificalis metuendas Dcemonis violentias Dominus]!”
I recognized the incantation. When one is getting invaded by an army of holy warriors, it pays to do a bit of research. This spell was one of the most powerful ones available to any priest or paladin of the second tier. It allowed them to, with a brief chant, utterly destroy any demon that was within their sight. There were other versions for undead, angels, and so on, while the third-tier version worked on any enemy of the caster’s faith.
With any spell so powerful, there was obviously going to be a catch. The catch, in this case, was that the spell was fueled by the life force of the caster. Once the casting was done, their body would wither and die in under a minute, before their soul passed on to whatever reward awaited them. It was the ultimate sacrifice, for one who wished to go out a martyr, striking down the enemy with their dying breath.
A wave of holy light crashed over me, brighter than even that show before. The look on Belkis’s face when she saw me still standing there, not just alive, but utterly unharmed, was PRICELESS, let me tell you. The look of shock and horror, as her body began to consume itself, was too sweet.
“H-how?”
“That’s simple, my ignorant little child. You made the one mistake that everyone who you could have talked to about me would have warned you against. The one you already learned for yourself when your companion attempted to repel undead that weren’t truly undead.”
I saw the realization dawn in her eyes. “Yes, you see now, too late. I have never once claimed to be a demon. People call me the Demon of the Dungeon, because that’s what I let them see me as, and I allow them to continue, since it suits my purposes. But I have never gone so far as to lie, and call myself a demon. After all, the best lies are the ones we leave unsaid, allowing people to believe what they want to believe, rather than what is true.”
I stepped forward, and the Crusader-Champion did not have the strength to back away, or do anything but fall to her knees before me. “But do not think that I will simply allow you to go running along to your bitch goddess, after all you’ve done. You brought this on yourself, on your forces, and, for that, you will suffer.”
Belkis tried to scream, tried to raise her blade to slit her own throat, tried to do anything to stop what was coming, but it was too late. She was too slow, too weak to stop me, as her body consumed itself. She only had seconds left, but that was enough for me.
Runes of blue flame sprang up in a circle around her. The necromantic power in the runes binding her within it. “After all the trouble you’ve put me through, woman, the last thing I’ll give you is the peace of death.”
“No, you wouldn’t dare!” Belkis’s denial turned into a scream of pain, as the runes ripped the soul from her body, before turning her into something better suited to serving me. Runes of enslavement were burned onto her very soul as she turned from a Riyran, to a Banshee.
