The sight we met on the 100th floor greeted us again as we descended onto it a week later.
Yue and I strolled forward at a calm pace, the fingers of her right hand interlaced with those of my left and the darksword clutched in my right.
Her recently gained telepathy allowed us to share impressions, sentiments, and thoughts, making our silent advance to the upcoming battle anything but.
About halfway through the deathly silent but well lit hall, a circle of red light manifested on the ground dozens of meters ahead of us and widened to a size that nearly filled the hall's width.
We sent a mental nod to each other and separated, Yue taking to the air aboard a gold disk to the tippy top of the room while I sucked in a huge breath, exhaled, and roused my cursed energy.
Around the pulsing red circle, multiple runes arranged in a ring rose out of the ground and suddenly, I got reminded of the Treasure Trove.
Unlike the storage artifact on my index finger though, the monsters didn't rise out of the portal. Instead, it exploded like a giant flashbang, pure blinding white obscuring everything for a good few seconds.
My plan to attack with Yue as soon as the monsters' heads popped out had been routed. I should've seen this coming. The creators of this dungeon would obviously have taken something like this into account.
It didn't matter though. I was determined to leave this dreary place and so was Yue.
While the portal kept us at bay and summoned the boss monster, I strained the limits of my control to summon untold amounts of cursed energy, reinforcing my whole body with it, and then reversing all of it.
By the time the light died down, my whole being was stretched taut like a bowstring.
Six pairs of eyes met mine as soon my vision returned. Six gigantic snakes, all of them sharing a lower body that lay on the ground and each of them so long their heads almost touched the ceiling.
'Hurricane Buzzsaw.' Yue's voice echoed in through our connection as a wave of spinning gold disks rushed towards the hydra.
The eyes focused on me shifted away and I moved, a giant circular dent appearing in the yellow snake's lower body as I impacted it with both feet, an explosive boom going off.
The darksword's weight shifting abilities now putty in my practiced hands, the drastic change in its gravitational pull at the last second embedded the sword halfway into the serpent's body, going past its ultra durable scales.
Loud hisses filled the hall as the yellow snake coiled back from the pain.
Intending to inflict more than just agony on it however, I held the sword handle tight and launched myself upward, the world shifting and bringing me face to face with the formerly distant ceiling.
Below me the yellow snake hissed and writhed about violently, copious amounts of blood rushing out of the line I'd carved from the point of the first impact all the way through its jaw with my sudden burst of speed.
Reorienting myself and pushing off the ceiling, I saw the head of the white snake fall off its neck once Yue's magical saw made short work of its scales.
My descent timed with a particular purpose in mind, the push downward brought me near the head of the writhing yellow snake in a near instant.
The darksword came down with relentless force and cleaved through its head, cutting though its brain and taking it out of the fight permanently.
Right as my feet touched the ground, Yue sent forth a message. 'The black and green ones are mine.'
I could sense some anger toward the black snake, but I didn't press for answers. They could come later.
There were six snakes; a red one that shot fireballs, a blue one that shot freezing blasts, a yellow one that could amplify its defenses, a green that spat storms of wind blades, a white one that could heal and resurrect the others, and finally a black one that could cast mental debuffs.
The yellow and white ones were dead and the black and green ones would soon join them with the help of Yue's new favorite spell.
Dashing a few meters to the left, I dodged a red ball of fire that exploded into a wave of heat and black smoke.
I stared at the offending monster for a moment and launched myself at it.
I reappeared below its jaw, a resounding boom going off as my feet found purchase within a circular dent on its body, the darksword embedded hilt deep.
Grabbing it with both hands, I turned around and gave the serpent the treatment I gave its yellow friend. Its body became a race track as I sprinted down its length in a single moment, my feet touching the ground inches away from the blue snake.
A screeching, pained hiss went off behind me and joined that of the black and green snakes', but I paid it no heed and descended into a furious slashing frenzy.
The cursed energy reinforced darksword waved about in a blur and carved up the ice snake, sending blood, pieces of flesh, and scales flying, the carnage bathing me head to toe in gore.
As though I were chopping down a stubborn tree, I didn't stop until a good chunk of where I focused the slashes were gone and the snake could no longer remain upright.
The ground shook as the ice slinging monster could no longer support its weight and fell. I rushed through the dust that obscured its form and stopped near its head.
A sharp thrust forward sent the darksword into its slitted red eye and buried it all the way down to the hilt.
Certain of my victory, I pulled out the blade and looked at Yue, who floated toward me on her golden disk. I told to ready her strongest spell while I darted around the battlefield and confirmed the deaths of the red snake.
As soon as I finished my checks, I zipped back to where we triggered the portal and looked up.
A roiling blue sun of barely restrained heat burned above me, the ball of bone-melting flames restrained by nothing but the will of my partner.
Joy and pride came over from the invisible communication line between us, my admiration for her prowess clearly having had an effect. Amidst all this however, I could sense her serious mirroring my own.
She'd hadn't let her guard down for even a second.
So when a silver snake, larger than all the others, suddenly burst out of the fat, immobile lower body of the hydra, she pointed at it and sent the prepared gift forward.
"Azure Blaze."
The sphere of scorching flames crossed the distance in an instant and hit the giant monster head on, detonating with a resounding boom.
A column of pale blue light and blistering heat consumed the snake's gigantic form and expanded, subsuming a good chunk of the dead snakes and even more of the surrounding floor into its radius.
It persisted for nearly half a minute before retracting into itself and fizzling into non-existence, a rain of ash, smoke and dust left in its wake.
No longer standing tall, the silver snake lay in a wide, blackened circle rapidly filling with the ash of its predecessors, the silvery luster of its scales robbed by Yue's attack.
The taste of victory at the tip of my tongue, I flashed forward and reappeared next to its lowered head, the darksword rebounding of its scaled eyelids.
My lungs burned from the residual heat, the gore covering me and the pelt obscuring my innocence wilting away under the same effect.
Reverse cursed energy did its job however and kept regrowing my hair and skin, giving me the confidence to press on the attack.
Tapping into the full limits of my speed, I brought down the darksword in a persistent flurry of slashes, carving through the immobile snake's impenetrable defense little by little.
A few hundred slashes later, I stuck the sword halfway through a small gap atop the monster's head, unable to push it in any further.
Quickly coming up with a plan, I darted back to the farthest point that put a straight line between me and sword and rushed forward at my fastest speed, slamming my fist into the hilt while outputting cursed energy.
A resounding boom and clang went off as the sword dove into the snake's head and lifted it off the ground, the force pulling its body along before dissipating and dropping it back down shortly.
Ugh. That's going to be a bitch and a half to remove.
"I'll get it for you," Yue said out loud and landed beside me, right arm stretched forward.
Twin ropes of honey gold mana came to life and dove into the gap I made, wriggling about within the dead snake's body before retracting, the blood covered darksword wrapped in their radiance.
Yue and I turned to each other at the same time and smiled, hers laced a touch of mischief and lust. Our connection told me exactly what I needed to know and I looked down at my nakedness.
"Thirsty ass woman," I said, shaking my head subtly while I summoned a fresh pelt and looked back up to find a thoroughly unapologetic, content and eager Yue.
Before both of us could say anything, a loud and heavy dragging sound drew our attention, our heads whipping toward the source. The pair of large double doors at the end of the hall were opening.
Joy radiated both ways as we looked at each other, the significance of this development sinking in. We had cleared the labyrinth. Our days of darkness were over.
Tempered by our own experiences, we didn't charge for the waiting exit. Yue looked to me while my eyes darted about the room at the corpses.
"Keep holding onto the sword. I'll clean it later," I said through our connection while retrieving multiple items from the Treasure Trove. "Take these and harvest the meat. You take the silver and blue ones, I deal with the rest."
Manifesting multiple gold hands composed of solid air, Yue caught the jars and knives I gave her and rode a disk of the same substance towards the silver snake.
The harvest didn't take long, Yue dropping the filled jars into the Treasure's Trove's summoned portals five minutes after we shared the tasks.
As soon as our bounties disappeared, I swept her up in a princess carry and bounded for the massive doors. "You know, you never said what the black snake did to make you angry," I said as we crossed the finish line, looking down at her for an answer.
A momentary frown crossed her features, but gave way immediately to a light dusting on her cheeks and a look I recognized.
"It hit me with a mental spell that made me think I was back in the dark room. Except this time, it was you that put me there."
It was my turn to frown and quickly change my expression, Yue's next words and sudden shift in tone the reason.
"But then I remembered what we did this morning, what we did yesterday, and the way you spread me open during our first time. That's what broke me out of it."
There were many assurances I wanted to give her that such a thing would never happen, but our connection made how I felt on the matter much clearer and sincere than words could ever be.
On another subject matter though. "You know, you don't have to go so far to rile me up. Any second I'm out of you has me itching to return."
Yue stuck out her tongue and licked lips ever so slowly. "Mmm… I know. But making you more excited means I get to enjoy you more when we finally do it."
Enjoy me more. Ha! We both knew what that really meant. Slow and passionate lovemaking was no less enjoyable for the both of us, but Yue much preferred it when I pulled out all the stops and pounded her into oblivion.
Intuited with help from some of the sex perks and my overall understanding of her as a person, I'd come to realise that it wasn't the mere roughness of it that she enjoyed.
It was my recognition and acknowledgement of her true age and maturity in spite of her condition and my resultant treatment of her like I would any normal woman.
Well, not any normal woman. I'm pretty certain if I thrusted into a regular one the way the little succubus liked it, there'd be some very loud cracks and moans of a very different kind.
Once we walked past the doors and followed the path beyond it, we ended up in an area the size of multiple football fields filled with multiple tall trees and a serene atmosphere, a stark contrast with my experience these past weeks.
Yue got down on her volition and joined me in taking in the neatly paved paths, the waterfall flowing into a river, neat patches of freshly trimmed grass, and the pretty white mansion in the center of all this.
A quick look upwards revealed a ceiling even higher than that of the final floor and the source of the warmth caressing us and pervading the room.
Attached to the ceiling by an unknown mechanism, a bright yellow sun shone down upon the entire place and took away most of the discomfort that naturally came with being underground.
I wanted to just stop, lie down in the grass and sleep, but the question burning in the back of my mind wouldn't let me. So I looked at the mansion then at Yue and she nodded, "Mmm…"
Sweeping her off the ground again, I crossed the distance to the mansion with four leaps and walked up to the door, letting Yue down once more.
"Leave the sword here…" I told her and checked the door.
We found it unlocked so we invited ourselves in and explored the place, going from floor to floor and Yue using mana to unlock certain rooms until we found what I was looking for.
The first thing we both noticed was the wide magical formation engraved in the room's center. It was both beautiful and complicated, even more so than the runes around the Treasure Trove's portals.
North of the formation however, we found a robed skeleton seated on what could only be a throne, its head hung low and arm leaning on one side.
"Yue, here…"
Confirming that this was indeed the right place, I grabbed her hand and stepped onto the formation.
A flash of white followed by crimson filled the room and robbed me of sight as memories of my time on the first floor up to the hundredth replayed themselves in my mind.
When the light faded and the replay of events stopped, I opened my eyes to find Yue looking at me in worry and a person staring at both of us, his clothes similar to the skeleton's.
"Congratulations. You have overcome the trials and arrived here. My name is Oscar Orcus. The creator of this dungeon…"
The deceased Liberator settled into a lengthy talk about his status as a traitor, Tortus' history, Ehit, the various races and the games they unknowingly played… basically confirming what I already knew.
However, he also reminded me of things I'd forgotten and shed light on dark spots of the lore I didn't know existed.
We both listened to him until he finished, right after which he smiled and said, "I don't know who you are or how you ended up here, and I will not force you to kill god. However, I want you to know what we stood for.
Take my powers and use them as you will, but please don't use them to satisfy the evil in your heart.
Our conversation will have to end here. Thank you for listening to me. Now your freedom will no longer be supervised."
Oscar's hologram disappeared and I grit my teeth, a sudden searing sensation in my head. I endured it quietly and resisted the urge to rouse my cursed energy, hoping that the agony would be worth it.
Soon the pain faded and the glow of the formation beneath us with it. Yue's eyes were still closed however, her face set in a quiet grimace.
Putting more force in our interlocked fingers, I clenched my right fist and triggered the Treasure Trove, praying, hoping and wishing that the inkling I got from the formation's effects meant something.
Grabbing the status plate, I skipped the unchanged attribute section and stopped right on skills, smiling like a loon at the new addition right behind Reversed Cursed Technique and the rush of info that came with it.
: Rick-Updated SkillsSkillsReverse Cursed TechniqueCursed Tool CreationLightning ResistanceNight VisionPoison ResistanceParalysis ResistancePetrification ResistanceFear ResistanceAll Elemental Resistance