Chpt. 15) Tier seven dungeon, final boss

Once they completed the and Ford finished using every curse for Tanashi, she could think of Lilly waking Morgan with a curing spell and explaining what had happened. After a good minute of rumbling Dwarvish laughter, Ford later opened her states screen.

Level-up. Eight ability and skill points are available. Ford was too pissed off to be happy about the level up and angrily put all her ability points into endurance. Name: Ford; gender: Female; race: human; Grimoire: wood; class: Ruler/Sin; Level: fifteen. Abilities: STR: thirty plus five; PER: twenty plus ten; END: forty-eight; INT: twenty-eight plus ten; AGI: thirty-seven plus ten; CHR: thirty; LCK: fifteen; WIS: twenty plus ten; SOL: sixteen.

Skills: natural: carry weight: hundred seventy-five kg, quick-witted, resilient, strong-willed, cook. Skills: weapon mastery five/five, crystal heart five/five, blood controller five/five, crystal weapon storage five/five, void storage two/five, crystal battle music two/five, blood weapons five/five, regeneration five/five, embracing pain five/five, psychosis five/five, strategist one/one, party stats five/five, targeted slaughter five/five, self-repair five/five, battle control five/five, essence ball five/five, essence mortar five/five, essence thrower two/five, essence volley three/five, essence manipulation one/one, essence enforcement five/five.

HP: five-hundred twenty-eight; STM: four-thousand eight-hundred ninety-six; MN: fifty-six-thousand five-hundred ninety-eight; EXP: eight-hundred thirty-three/three-thousand seven-hundred ninety-eight. STM recharge: one-hundred fifty-seven per second; MN recharge: one-hundred thirteen per second; Grimoire progression: zero of one-hundred percent.

She then opened up her skill tree and went into the Sin class. Berserker selected. New skills created. Skill: blood salvos: using your blood, you randomly create between one to ten weapons a second that can cause different effects depending on the combination of blood and one other essence; the spell will last as long as you want; requirements: END: fifty, INT: thirty, WIS: thirty, blood essence; cost: ninety-nine present HP, twenty-five percent mana, twenty-five percent stamina; level: zero of five. Warning: HP will not regenerate while active.

Skill: boiling blood: all sources of blood will boil within three meters of you; if the blood is within a living being, the pressure will build enough for them to explode within five minutes; requirements: END: thirty-five, INT: thirty, WIS: thirty, SOL: ten; cost: fifty percent HP; level: zero of five. Warning: HP will not regenerate while active.

Skill: berserkers rage; increase strength by times ten; increase endurance by one-hundred; increase speed by times five; two-hundred HP per second regeneration; spells cost nothing while berserkers rage is in effect; duration: sixty seconds: requirements: END: sixty, STR: fifty, AGI: forty; cost: ninety-nine percent HP, ninety-nine percent mana, ninety-nine-percent stamina; level: zero of one. Warning: HP, MN, and STM will not regenerate for ten minutes after activation.

Quest complete: I need this; you’ve created a new Grimoire; fill the Grimoire with unique and powerful skills; reward: special weapon made by the Gods, required items given by the Gods, five thousand EXP. You can still make more skills and accept the reward whenever you like. Ford accepted and received a level-up notification. She ignored it and didn’t distribute the ability points or skill points, deciding to save them all for later; besides, the berserker skills were too risky right now.

Ford closed her screen and stood, noting the lack of loot bag impact, “Alright, let’s get this dungeon over with and get far away from here.”

“Agreed,” Farah said, “I’d like to get something to eat that isn’t Wolpertinger stew.”

“We could make Wolpertinger roast,” Max suggested.

“I don’t think that would help, Max,” Ford commented.

“Maybe, if we cook the Wolpertinger with some dragon peppers,” Morgan suggested with a chuckle.

“Let’s just go already,” Lilly snapped and made her way to the portal. Ford nodded and followed her through the portal.

***

They entered the last room of the dungeon, ready for a fight. The room bathed in darkness only had four dimly lit crystals on four marble pillars. Casting long shadows within and only lighting the central circle of the room. Ford summoned her six swords and approached the heart of the room, closely followed by everyone else.

“I’ve got a bad feelin’ abou’ this,” Lilly mumbled, clutching her staff.

“Of course, there’s a bad feeling,” Ford hissed, “this is the last room, the last boss. It’s going to be tough. So, of course, there’s a bad feeling.”

“You don’ have to bi’e my bloody head off!” Lilly hissed back.

“Sorry, but I feel it too and not in a good way.”

“Of course, it’s not a good feelin’ because it’s a bad feelin’! A very bad feelin’!”

As Ford took a step into the center of the room, a childish female voice came from the darkness, “Don’t argue! It’s not very nice!”

“It’s not nice because it’s an argument, you idiot!” a second female voice said.

“ENOUGH!!” a third male voice yelled.

“Why are they here?” a fourth rumbling male voice asked.

“Ask them not me,” a fifth high female voice said.

“We know why they’re here,” a sixth whispering voice said, “we have to kill them.”

“But we just met them,” the first voice countered, “it wouldn’t be very friendly or pleasant if we kill everyone we meet. That’s why you don’t have any friends.”

“You don’t have any friends either,” the second voice jabbed.

“I do too!”

“Quite,” a seventh weary powerful voice whispered. The one word cut through the argument as though it were a tidal wave crashing over a pebble.

Ford’s hands started to shake as she searched for the voices. A knot in her stomach formed, and she couldn’t help but clench her fist over it. “Wh-who are you?” Ford stammered, unable to keep the fear out of her voice.

Six of the voices answered in incomprehensible chores. Then the six voices started to argue over each other again. “Quite,” the seventh voice said again, and again the room went silent to the point Ford could hear her heartbeat pounding away in her ears. “One at a time,” the voice clarified.

“I’m Ruby,” the first voice said.

“Chandra,” the second voice said.

“Felix,” the third voice said.

“Krieg,” the fourth voice said.

“Hana,” the fifth voice said.

“Sam,” the sixth voice whispered.

“Collectively, we are subject number seven eight one six,” the seventh voice spoke so coldly that Ford felt a chill run through her bones.

“You can call yourself that for as long as you want,” Ruby said, “but I want to go home!”

“We can’t go home till we kill them,” Felix growled.

“But I don’t want to kill them.”

“You have to,” Krieg said, “else we won’t get our wish.”

“I never agreed to wish for our deaths!” Ruby yelled, sadness evident in her voice.

“It is what we want,” the other five voices said in unison, “an end to our suffering. If you can’t join us, then you must be purged.”

“No, no, you-you can’t! No, STOP! STOP IT!! AHHHHHHHHH!!!!” Ruby screamed in pain, and the horrible sound of tearing flesh echoed through the room, and the sound stopped and went quiet. Then from their right, they heard a loud spat hit the ground, and Ford turned to see a trickle of blood creep into the light.

“What is that?” Max whispered in a quivering voice and pointed to where the blood’s origin should be.

Ford’s breathing grew heavier, and she tried to keep herself under control. “You need to let me take care of this,” Wrath said in a tone even Ford didn’t recognize right away, “You need me to help you right now!”

‘Are you afraid?’ Ford thought, still looking for the origin of the voices.

“YES, now let me help !” Wrath exclaimed.

Ford shook her head and yelled, “Show yourself, let us fight face to face! None of this hiding shit!”

An HP bar came into view overhead with the name subject number seven eight one six, and the seventh voice spoke in its cold, detached voice, “You will live to regret having challenged us. I am sorry to say that it will not end when you die.” Then six pairs of lights, like eyes, shone in the darkness in front of them. White, blue, yellow, green, red, purple.

Then with a squelching sound like stepping on a rotting carcass, a spider-like being came into view. Ford took a few steps back and fell as she saw the monster they faced. Its body consisted of hundreds of individual scraps of skin stitched together, and eyes moved wildly along its body, looking at everything. The tips of its eight legs were made of hands and feet, and where its face should be, six faces stared back in different states of decay. A hole trickled blood at the bottom of the faces quickly made a puddle beneath the creature. ‘That must have been where Ruby was before,’ she didn’t finish the thought as it horrified her.

“What are you?” Ford asked, fear quivering in her voice.

“We,” the head in the center spoke with the seventh voice, “are what will happen to you if you fail the Gods game,” Subject number seven eight one six said in his robotic emotionless voice.

Ford said nothing, did nothing, and stared at the monster as it walked over with its Frankenstein body and lifted one of its horrendous legs to stab Ford through the head using a spike of bone that it made protrude from the bottom of its leg. ‘I’m…I’m going to die,’ Ford thought to herself, and even Wrath was too afraid to say anything contrary. Ford’s warning skill flared to life, making her entire body feel the need to move. She did nothing and just stared as the bone spike rose higher until it finally stopped at the highest point.

Just before the spike came down, Ruby yelled from where she lay, “RUUUNNN!!”

That snapped Ford out of her stooper, and she reacted. Dashing forward, she summoned her spear and made four minor cuts on the spider’s joints, and used her swords to sever them from the spider. The collection of six voices screamed in pain, and Ford nearly collapsed out of fear again by the horrible sound. She shook her head and stood hastily talking over comms, “IS EVERYONE ALRIGHT!”

“We are,” the Twins said, “but everyone else is scared stiff.”

“Wake them up while I keep its attention.”

“You will have to try harder to keep our attention than cutting off a few legs,” subject eight seven one six said in unison.

Ford cursed that it could hear them using comms, then watched as the four legs Ford had severed came to life and reattached themselves to the main body. Letting out another curse, she ran forward and made thirty quick slashes at the monster’s back. It screamed again, and a metal blade appeared from within its rear right leg. It slashed at Ford. She dodged and made four more cuts. The frost-bite cuts were starting to accumulate ice, and Ford jumped up and over the bladed leg as it came back around, then lunged forward as the monster brought its front spike swinging at her.

She used one end o give it another cut, its body, and the attacking leg. Then using a spear, she vaulted herself up and her blade down on the back of the spider’s heads. One of the heads screamed. It sounded like Chandra. The head fell to the ground and stopped screaming. Ford didn’t dare to look back at the HP bar as she went over the screaming spider. It stomped its eight legs in frustration and pain, turning toward her.

“Now,” the seventh voice said, revealing no emotion other than the increase in volume, “You have our full attention.”

“Oh, shit,” Ford said as she jumped back into the room’s darkness. Subject seven eight one six followed, and although it was right in front of Ford, it disappeared as soon as it entered the shadows. Not even a silhouette for her to see. Ford quickly created a fireball using a hundred fifty mana to see where it might have gone.

When it did, a wheezing voice Ford didn’t recognize from the spider spoke behind her, “Help us.”

Ford froze and slowly turned to see a wall of still-living faces, limbs, and body parts in the form of a spider's web reaching out for her. She reacted and threw the ball at the web without thinking; the ball went too high and struck an invisible line of crystals. For just a moment, the entire room lit up. Showing the extent of the web.

From floor to ceiling on all four walls, the people the web was created of screamed for help, revenge, death, an end to their suffering. Then the light went out, and the room fell into silence again. She jumped back into the room’s heart and bumped into Max and Gimble.

“What are those things?” Max asked, fear in her voice.

“Past failures,” the seventh voice said, “We were the first successful creation of this form Tanashi created. He said if we win one battle against a new group of champions, we can have a wish. You can imagine how much we want to win.”

“Lilly,” Ford said, scanning the shadows for any sign of subject seven eight one six, “we need some light.”

“H-h-how m-m-much?”

“A lot. Hit the crystal strip with a light spell or destruction spell that creates light.”

“W-where is it?”

“Two meters from the ground.”

“It won’t be that simple,” Hana said, as the monstrous form of subject eight seven one six dropped down from above and landed on top of Ford, crushing her. She didn’t die from the fall because of her essence enforcement and the fact that the spider didn’t weigh two tons.

“FORD!” everyone yelled as they collectively snapped out of their stooper and attacked the immovable spider. Ford pushed against the spider and slowly lifted it off the ground.

“WHAT!!” subject seven eight one six yelled collectively as they rose from the ground.

“What…is…her…HP…at?” Ford asked through gritted teeth as she raised the massive monster.

“Eighty-three percent!” the Twins yelled.

“Our attacks aren’t doing anything to it,” Farah added.

Ford thought as fast as she could under the literal and figurative pressure, “Aim for their-”

“No, you don’t,” subject seven eight one six said as a split opened underneath it. Ford began to try and force it closed, only barely succeeding. The split was open wide enough that she could see the inside of the monster; rows and rows of rotating fangs sat waiting eagerly for their next meal, and hands extended from a hole in the center reaching for her.

The hands began to grab her body and slowly pull her toward the maw. Ford struggled to get out from under the monster, and she tried to remember her skills. Then she remembered her skill embracing pain and blood weapons, and she bit her tongue off.

Her blood filled her mouth, and she spat it out, creating a dagger and activating embracing pain; five seconds. She willed the dagger to cut the hands at the base and, with the seven-point three tons of force, if her math was correct, threw the spider off her and into the shadows; four, three, two, one. Ford dispelled her blood weapon and regenerated her HP instantly.

“LILLY! LIGHTS!” Ford yelled; with a quick nod, she threw light spells at the area where the crystals should be. Once she hit it, she focused the light volley on that spotlighting up the whole room. Subject seven eight one six rolled itself back to its feet. “AIM FOR THE FACES! IT’S THE ONLY WAY!”

She then used her swords to attack the spider from different angles and willed them to keep doing so. Subject seven eight one six brought its front two legs up in front of its faces to defend itself. “What’s the plan,” Benet asked over comms.

“Benet, you’re on healing duty. Gimble, protect Lilly, and keep that light going. Max, Morgan, do what you can to slow it down and keep it still. Farah, you and I will take out the limbs. Kii, Mizu,” Ford turned to lock eyes with the Twins, “take them out,” she said while tossing Kii the versatile launcher MKII in its ball form.

An evil smile spread across their faces as they said, “Heard,” and climbed up either pillar in the front of the room. Ford let her spear float next to her as she summoned Smite and cut her left hand off with it, allowing the blood to pool and creating ten spears using two hundred HP, then healing herself for an additional twenty.

When she was ready, she nodded to Farah with a grin, and they charged, joining the fight with the other two. Ford ran right and Farah to the left, and together they severed the spider's eight legs. Before the legs could put themselves back together, Max made two high slabs of granite that Morgan hit with his hammer, knocking them down on the legs and crushing them.

With no way of defending themselves, the monster screamed, and within two seconds, Kii and Mizu fired into four of the monster’s faces killing them. Before they could take the last shot, Ford stepped into the line of fire and stared the central head in the eyes. “This is your last chance to be remembered as a human and not as a monster,” She whispered only loud enough for it to hear, “What is your name?”

The seventh face looked up at the HP bar, which was at fifteen percent, then at Ford, “My name…my name is…my name?!” For the first time, fear crept into the seventh voice, “I don’t remember my name!” tears began to roll down his cheeks out of fear and realization that he would always be remembered as a monster. “I need a name! I-I don’t want to die a monster! I NEED A NAME!!”

Ford placed a gentle hand on his cheek and wiped away one of his tears. “Then I will give you one. How about John? I think that suits you,” she said in a gentle tone.

“John. Yeah, John. That’s my name!” John grew more excited and happy as he yelled his name, “I’M JOHN! I HAVE A NAME! I’M-” Ford’s swords came down, decapitating the final head of the spider.

Ford de-summoned her weapons, much to the disappointment of Kii, and said, “Goodbye, John, I’ll remember you.”

Hearing the entire conversation, Farah walked up to Ford and asked, “Why? Why give him a name if you’re just going to kill him?”

Ford sniffed and wiped her nose and eyes, then turned to her and said, “There was a quote from my world that I enjoyed. I think it was JFK, but I’m not sure. It goes, ‘You may defeat your enemies, but never, ever, forget their names’,” Ford said solemnly.

“What does that mean?”

“It means that even if you win and your enemies lose, it will always be your job never to forget them because they will never forget you.” After that, Ford got hit on the back of the head with a loot bag and received a notification. Level-up.

***

Ford threw the bag into her void storage and looked at the time. It was fourteen thirty-five or two thirty-five. According to Ford, the chances of there being an ambush outside the dungeon were high. She turned to address everyone, “Let’s get going.”

“What about the question we get to ask the gods?” Mizu asked, anger slowly creeping into his voice.

“We have the coins. We can ask when we’re safe,” she then looked around the webbed room, “Besides, we need to put these people to rest.”

“True,” Lilly agreed. As soon as she said this, a portal opened as the corpse of seven eight one six dissolved.

“Everyone goes through, Lilly, and I will clean up here,” Ford said. Everyone agreed, and as Max walked by, she gave Ford a reassuring nod. Once everyone was through the portal, Ford walked over to the glob of meat on the ground that would be Ruby. She knelt and said, “Thanks for trying to help. You won’t be forgotten.”

She stood and was about to cast essence thrower when Ruby gasped for air, “Wait, I need…to tell you.”

Ford stopped, “What is it?”

“The way we all… died was from a betrayal. Be…careful of those closest…to you.”

“What do you mean betrayal? Who betrayed you?” For asked hastily, and Lilly ran up next to her.

“It was… always someone…that wasn’t an…original…champion.”

Ford froze at this, and Lilly stumbled back, “No. No, it can’t be Max. No, she wouldn’.”

Ruby gasped for air again, “If she’s…the odd one out…then keep…an eye out…I don’t want you to die…you all seem nice.”

Ford summoned a fireball to incinerate Ruby and said, “We don’t intend to die just yet.”

“Will it hurt?” Ruby asked, fear clear in her voice.

“Not at all,” Ford said as she made the fireball big enough to kill her quickly. Bringing her hand down and turned Ruby to ash. Then she turned to the walls and cast essence thrower on the walls as Lilly did the same to the other wall.

As the walls burned, Ford and Lilly made their way to the portal; Lilly asked, “Will Max really betray us?”

“I don’t know. But we should keep an eye on her. Just to be safe,” Ford shrugged.

“I don’ know if I’m comfor’able with tha’.”

“I know I’m not,” Ford confessed as she walked through the portal, a sick feeling deep in her gut.