So sorry for the delay, here you guys go

Erebus turned the page in his book, his eyes focused on the faded ink rather than the explosive battle playing out before him. The metallic banging of metal colliding with metal, the sound of magic being dispelled. Yes, all of it was simply background music.

“Assist, Lilian!” Vyne yelled loudly, the beastwoman shifted from attempting to find a weak spot for creating a diversion for Vyne to withdraw for a short while.

This monster was ridiculous.

The suit of armor that Vyne and Tear had faced seemed like a child playing around in comparison to the beetle. Its strength was of such a great amount the incredibly skilled Vyne, Lilian, and Tear were struggling to face it.

No, if anything, they were losing the battle.

The creature wasn’t incredibly fast, but its speed was still astonishing for its massive size. It was also annoyingly nimble and flexible, and to add insult to injury, it was skilled with the lance. It had the movements of someone who had trained for the majority of their life with the weapon.

“Whew.” Tear prepped an arrow and fired it off. Her volley of arrows had proved ineffective the entire duration of the battle, but it was still better than nothing.

Her hits simply bounced off its armored body and dissipated in the air. Nonetheless, they were relatively useful in the aspect of irritating the oversized bug to an even greater extent.

Erebus turned the page in his book, completely unaware (ignoring) the struggles of his companions.

Lilian had attempted to summon some undead to help fight, but they were wiped out in a single hit from the goliath. It was a pitiful thing, truly. The proud undead rose from the ground, ready to fight and destroy, only to be swept aside by a lance and unsummoned within moments.

In essence, it was just a waste of precious mana.

They all knew that they would have to ask Lord Erebus for help, the gap between each ranking was no laughing matter. Demon Lord’s were strong in their own right, but Demon Emperor’s ranking ‘average’ would be the cream of the crop for a Demon Lord.

But still, for them, it was embarrassing. Their strength had practically stagnated, perhaps they would have room to grow. Basically, when facing an opponent lieges beyond in term of strength, for lack of a better word, they were screwed.

Sure, there were three of them, and they had fought together for decades, centuries, but teamwork could only take them so far in the world.

Then to add on the fact that they were exhausted from hours of walking in a seemingly endless desert, it was damn near impossible for them to defeat this monster. If they were in a better-rested state, maybe they would’ve been able to win.

Erebus knew this, they knew this.

So why on Eirlok did Erebus make them fight, they had absolutely no idea as to the reason.

“Lilian, Tear, protect me. I’m going to attempt to launch Myth class magic on it,” Vyne said through gritted teeth as he attempted to withstand a punch from the goliath.

“Understood,” the two women responded, they increased the strength of their blows and successfully drew the monster over to them.

Unlucky for Tear, the monster set her in its sight.

She let out a groan as it charged straight for her. Unlike Vyne, she wasn’t very proficient in close-combat. Tear was good enough to hold her own, even enough to defeat those weaker than her, but something like this was just cruel to make her handle.

The monster kicked up plumes of sand before it finally arrived directly in front of Tear, who, in turn, rolled out of its way in the nick of time before it delivered a powerful blow that shook everything.

“It really wants us dead,” Lilian muttered upon seeing the amount of force put into the attack. “Whatever it’s guarding must be very important, so it’s probably a key part in completing the dungeon.”

She glanced over at Vyne, who was currently seated on the ground, his eyes closed and head tilted back. A huge magic circle was in the beginnings of being created underneath him.

“Tear, handle it yourself. I, too, am going to begin prepping magic.”

“Handle it myself, she says,” Tear muttered under her breath as she ran away from the goliath that was dead set on chasing her. “Sure, Lilian! Do that I’ll just run for my life over here.”

“Thank you, Tear.”

Lilian raised up her staff and began to chant incoherently, the sphere that rested on her staff began to shine and glow brilliantly, rays of light began to burst out of the cracking sphere.

Storm clouds came out of nowhere and began to swirl threatening above, loud claps of thunder sounded along with flashes of lightning.

Erebus looked up from his book when he beheld what Lilian was doing, he slammed it shut and jumped up. Glee filled his eyes.

Was she finally using that jewel?

He had given her it a few decades after she had joined his service, he told her to only use it in times of emergency. To think some random creature in a dungeon had pushed her this far, he could only feel the utmost joy for what else lurked deeper within.

This dungeon easily met the standards for being top-tier.

Erebus continued to watch the spectacle.

The jewel had finally shattered into many pieces which were now twisting and flying in the air in a violent tornado, a distant groaning could be heard. Even Tear and the goliath had stopped moving to see what was happening.

From the storm clouds, a skeletal body descended. It was dressed in a simple robe, a cheap one that could be found anyway, but in its hand it held a book that had a revolting aura.

It was the skeleton of a human, its eyes were purple pits of fire.

The name and gender of it were lost in legend, constantly debated by historians. But what it had done was forever remembered. It was the first human to ever reach the power held by a Demon Emperor, it was considered one of the most powerful Demon Emperors to ever exist, in fact. But that was only a part of its fame, the rest came when it betrayed humanity in the Second Great War.

For now, we will call it Untitled.

Its legacy was turned into an infamous tale.

“You have summoned me, Master,” Untitled spoke in a soft, rasping voice. Despite this, it still had a certain strength to it, a proudness that was hard to find anywhere else.

Lilian gestured to the goliath. “Kill it.”

The skeleton tilted its head, gazing straight at the other creature before nodding slightly. “It is a feasible action, however, with the might of that thing, it will take me some time. For that, I apologize.”

“It is fine, go.” She jerked her head in Vyne’s direction. “He will be providing you some support in a short while.”

“Understood.”

The summoned minion stalked forward, unfurling its aura. Smoky tendrils twisted around its body as it raised one skeletal hand, chanting incantations rapidly.

Erebus sat back down, a satisfied smile on his face. When he had given her the crystal, her magical power was not great enough to use it. But now, she was able to summon it, meaning she had undoubtedly grown stronger in the time she had been in his service.

The goliath opened its mouth and let out a high-pitched shriek that didn’t fit the roar it had made earlier, then the beast charged forward. It had completely forgotten about Tear, rather, it had found a far superior and dangerous opponent. As it ran for Untitled, its speed continued to increase.

“It can do that?” Tear wondered out loud.

Lilian’s eyes bugged (no pun intended) out a little. “Lord Erebus expected us to defeat that beast in this condition...”

The goliath attacked, it did so with such speed and force that the mana flow around it twitched in response.

Only a few Demon Emperor’s were able to cause such a reaction, and of course, dragons with immense ability.

Erebus let out a low whistle, whoever had created this dungeon was incredibly talented. He hoped they were still alive, it’d be such a pity for such strength to fall to the curse of mortality.

Not to be outdone, Untitled raised up a shield within the blink of an eye that took nearly the entirety of the goliath’s attack only to be shattered, but it had given Untitled enough time to raise up another barrier, nearly taking all of the hit.

The collision created a loud sonic clap and dull ringing that made the others have to cover their ears.

Untitled took some damage, but it wasn’t enough to cause it anything potentially ‘fatal’ like it would have been if it hadn’t blocked.

The skeleton instantly counterattacked and sent a barrage of purple missiles that assaulted the goliath. The creature screeched again and swung its lance wildly.

“What you summoned certainly is amazing,” Tear told Lilian. “We were barely able to cause that thing any damage, but, well, just that minion is able to turn the tables so quickly.”

Hints of a proud smile appeared on Lilian’s normally stoic face. “So it would seem,” she said blandly. “I am eternally grateful towards Lord Erebus for giving it to me.”

Tear blinked. “Lord Erebus gave it to you?”

“Indeed, when I first became one of his subordinates.”

The High Human smiled fakely. “Isn’t that glorious?”

Erebus hadn’t gotten her any gifts, this was favoritism, clear favoritism.

“Get back!” Vyne’s voice suddenly shouted out.

Tear, Lilian, and Untitled leaped out of way just as a pit of darkness opened up under the goliath.

Bone-white vines reached up from the tar-like substance, wrapping around the beast. It tried to fight the pull, but the sheer number of them overpowered its colossal strength.

Soon enough, the entire body of the creature was swallowed up.

“When you say support,” Untitled began, “I was not expecting that much support.”

“Nevermind that,” Tear spoke in an annoyed voice. “What about the key? The key!”

Vyne’s eyes opened in remembrance. “I forgot about that. I was focused on winning...”

Tear buried her face in her hands and began making pained groaning noises. “The key... the key,” she sobbed.

“Ah, that much I can handle,” Erebus said while standing up.

The others, including Untitled, turned to Erebus with a confused expression.

“If it’s opening the door, I can do that much,” he rephrased his words. “Watch.”

A long pole appeared, but it was obviously created by Erebus. The pole slid into the lock, then there was a loud clicking and the chain lock fell to the ground with a resounding thud.

“My magic has multiple uses other than killing,” he proclaimed.

Who would’ve thought, the expressions on his subordinates faces said. Well, except for Untitled, he couldn’t emote very well.

Slowly, the door creaked open as if it hadn’t been used in decades.

“Here we go,” Erebus said, taking a step forward.

The others began to follow in pursuit.

Then it happened.

At first, one more goliath walked through the door, then a second, then another.

Soon enough there were a dozen more goliaths standing there, they were somewhat smaller than the first, though.

A single voice could be heard saying, “Is this for real?”