Davi's eyes stung, and he nearly vomited.
As it turned out, the way back up was a very, very rough one, and he learned that the hard way. It wasn't simply teleportation, nor did he instantly appear back in Enforcer City. Rather, the pillar of light that Bolem opened up for them was something akin to a large cannon that fired everyone through space and time so fast and hard they shattered past the barriers of infinite distance.
As soon as his hand made contact with the well of glowing light, it latched onto him and roughly pulled him in. Davi felt himself being thrown up so fast his stomach dropped, and he went through the very molecules of the roof above and was sent past the cave roof that blocked off the Underworld city.
He kept going, faster and faster, through stone and matter, and his skin began to burn. The ride up was bumpy, and it felt almost like going down a water slide tube, having no comfort to stretch, and he smacked against the barrier of the light, dragged up and up.
Then he reached the cosmos. Dungeons were different realms, but those realms were still universes, and he saw trillions of stars vanish past him in the blink of an eye before even the universe itself was gone.
That was when he reached the boundary, and his eyes squeezed shut. Not because he wanted them to, but because the boundary was just like what happened back in the dungeon with the Spell Swords. He saw a sea of white and infinite hands that were all infinite in size reaching across realities and space and time, and for a second his brain fried, blood pouring down his face as his eardrums popped, his eyes nearly exploded, and his nose started to leak.
Every cell in his body recoiled in fear of something they couldn't even properly understand, and the very atoms that made up his form screamed.
Thankfully, the pure nightmare fuel that was the flip side barely lasted a nanosecond, and he was shoved back into proper space-time and smashed through the barrier of another universe, going past galaxies and worlds before, finally, at last, the light slammed him into snowy plains directly outside of Enforcer City.
He was back.
"That sucked." Davi wiped the blood away from his face and looked around. Olem and Bolem were both on their feet, Bolem's shattered body healing, but every other human, and Licht-Fulk, including Myth, were down.
Frozen vomit and blood littered the ground as all the guards and knights struggled to stand.
"W-What the fuck was that?" Myth's teeth gritted together, and he shot a glare at Bolem. "You didn't say we'd be going to the other side?"
Bolem shrugged. "Relax. The process does hurt a bit if you're not a monster, but it isn't serious."
"Hurts a bit?" Susie gritted her teeth and stumbled back to her feet. "My head felt like it was about to explode!" She glared at Davi. "Why are you fine?"
"I'm not fine. My face also became all bloody."
"Yeah, but you're still standing and didn't vomit!"
"Oh. Well, maybe I have a mild tolerance for cosmic horrors? I did see them before," Davi noted. "Back then, even seeing a slight glimpse nearly blew my head up, but this time I handled myself a little better. I'd still like to avoid ever doing that again."
"You're so fucking weird." Myth was the first to fully get back on his feet and held his book out. "Row Necromancy Rebirth." He ripped the page out of the book, and it began to grow thicker and longer, stretching out in the space it floated in, and it started to bend and twist, folding itself up and shaping into the image of a white-robed figure. "This was an old healer back in the days when dragons were still running around. She worked under the king and served as part of the Black Hand and was tasked with healing dragon slayers. Her power is only a fraction in my hand, but it should still be enough."
The robed woman grasped her hands together, and the snow around everyone shook. Seconds later, it lifted up and wrapped around them, healing their forms and mending their damaged flesh. In no time at all, everyone was fully healed and back on their feet.
"Nice!" Max pumped his arm up and down. "Back at one hundred percent. Maybe I can do something now?"
"Honestly, I'm kind of fine just hanging back," Sera admitted.
"Well, I'm not! I want some serious action," Max declared.
Myth's summon turned back into a page, and he placed it into his tome and shut it. "Alright. Listen up. I can sense where Whisper is, and it seems like she has most of her guild and all of the members of Phoenix Flight with her. Pock, can you create a portal to them?"
"Yep." Pock did a jig and played with the zippers on his body. "I sense them as well. Looks like they've arrived at that spooky castle! I'll create a portal and get us all over there! Vil Zipper Undone!" Pock brought his arm down as hard as he could, and the air suddenly cracked and unfolded, being zipped down, forming a hole in reality.
Myth gave an approving nod. "The plan is simple. We're going to enter the portal, and I'll take charge of Whisper and the Phoenix Flight group since Laerton isn't here. Pock, you're going to stay behind. Laerton will show up here when she deals with the lung. Once she arrives, teleport yourself and her over to us. With any luck, the threat will be dealt with before you guys even arrive."
"With any luck!" Pock said happily. "You guys do your best!"
Myth gave another nod. "Alright. Let's go."
"Yeah!" High declared. "Let's go-" All eyes turned toward the masked man as he appeared next to Davi and wrapped his arm around the raven-haired man's shoulder. "Oh, but I'm taking Davi, bye!" And then in a flick of light, he was gone, along with Davi, the two vanishing before Susie could launch her orbs or Myth could tear his head off.
"Fuck." Myth growled and closed his eyes. "Where the hell did they go? Shit, I can't sense them at all. Haru damn it."
"You've got to be kidding me." Susie also growled and tried to sense where Davi went, but she couldn't pick anything up. "Fuuuuuuuuuuuck."
"Not to make things sound worse, but I can sense the battle at the castle, and it feels like it isn't going well." Pock winced. "I think our team is losing."
"Seriously?" Sera's eyes went wide. "We have to go help them! What are we standing around here for?"
"What about Davi?" Susie demanded. "We can't just leave him."
"We have to think of the bigger picture." Sera shook her head. "Captain Myth, we can save him later; our guild is in trouble."
Myth sighed but nodded. "I'm sorry, but Davi is just one person. The others are what matter more to me." He admitted.
"So you just want him to die?" Suise glared at the captain.
Myth shook his head. "No. That's why the plan will change. We're going to go through the portal. Pock, you look for Davi and try to find him. With your teleporting, you can get the most ground. He's surely somewhere in this dungeon."
"I want to go with Pock," Olem spoke up.
"I'm going with Olem." Bolem said bluntly and folded his arms.
"Then I'll go as well-" Susie began, but Olem held a hand out.
"No." The golem said softly. "Stay with Myth. You're strong, and those orbs of yours are fast. I believe you're better off helping out in that battle. Bolem and I have good senses and know this dungeon well. With Pock's help, we can get Davi back. Don't worry."
While everyone had been worried about what happened to Davi, the Licht-Fulk queen had remained mostly silent. She bit her lip and looked around, then glanced at the arm Davi had helped reattach. After a few seconds of staring at it, she spoke up.
"I'll go with Mr. Bolem. I am not a fighter, but also, more than that, I think I know where Mr. Davi was taken."
"You do?" Myth raised an eyebrow. "Good. Alright, then that's the plan. We're going on ahead. Let's win this and all make it out of this dungeon alive."
"Yeah!"
Meanwhile, Davi once again felt reality shift and swirl around him. This time, it was a much smoother ride. He still stumbled once his feet touched the ground. The room he was in was extremely dark and hard to see in.
It reminded him of a smaller version of the Underworld city, as he appeared to be in a small cavern. The floor was made out of rough stone, as were the walls and roof. It was also super cold, and there was no light at all, so he had to focus mana into his eyes so he could see.
High stood before him, cloaked as he always was, and threw his arms out. "Hey! Davi! It's good to see you again! Sorry about taking the sword, but don't worry, I gave it to that snow-haired girl! You'll thank me later for it, I swear! Seriously, carrying around that particular blade? Oof, talk about a rookie mistake; you were playing right into their hands. Oh, by the way, what do you think of my place?"
Davi silently stared at the masked figure, and then he looked around the cavern. Now that mana was flowing through his eyes, everything lit up. It was all black and white still, since he wasn't in Enforcer City, and so time was basically frozen. Because of that, even with enhanced sight, he was having a hard time telling where something began and ended as the colors all flowed and swirled around one another.
What he did see showed that this place had been turned into a makeshift home. It lacked any doors or exits, being a single stretch of rocky land, yet there were a few tables and desks that were scattered around, as well as a bed. What stood out the most to him, though, were the statues. There were so many.
Some were destroyed, some covered in mold or cracked so badly it was impossible to tell who they used to be, and others were half caved and deformed, the tools resting next to them. The ones that weren't destroyed, however, were familiar faces.
Han Yuan stood, a smile twisted on her face, and next to her was the stern-looking Sigurd. His eyes then turned to the Ebony Knight, who was next to them, and then he kept going to Haru. She stood completely naked, no detail of her form left out on the stone, and in her hands she raised a sword to the sky, her stony eyes staring into his soul.
There were some statues he also didn't recognize. One was of a clock, another of a woman in a loose dress, and a third one was of a man that had a face eerily similar to his own, but he was dressed in royal garb and wore a crown, clutching a trident in his hands, and he had the lower half of a horse.
The final statue was a badly cracked one, and it had chunks missing from it, but even with all the damage, he could tell that it was of King Sylas, the mad tyrant who nearly ended the world.
"Why did you bring me here?" Davi asked.
"Because I want to kill you," High said casually. "You need to die."
"You're lying."
"Oh? And how would you know?"
Davi kept looking around, but eventually his eyes turned back to High. "Master Hoarder," Davi said softly. "This trait allows me to feel the emotions and souls of elves. I'm assuming you have it as well and can tell how I feel? After all, all elves have that ability, right?"
"Well, not all elves have the Master Hoarder trait." High hummed. "Horde was a trait most had, and it allowed their souls to speak and be controlled by those who had Master Hoarder. The master version belonged only to those who had the royal elven blood in their veins, and it could control any other elf that had the Horde version. That said, I do have Master Hoarder, the same as you."
"I figured. So I guess what the queen said was right?" Davi asked. "You're Himvel the hero."
"Close."
"Close?"
"I'm half of Himvel."
Davi frowned. "No..."
"Yeah. There used to be a Licht-Fulk named High. He was never important, but he did exist. The reason I know that Marriage won't stop a person from being infected by radiation... How do you think I figured that out?"
Throughout history, one concept has existed that outweighed everything.
Absolute destruction.
Humanity always had a strange and unhealthy fascination with the concept of annihilation. They annihilated the elves, annihilated the giants, annihilated the dragons, and now they annihilate each other, sending their armies marching on their own kind, all in some vain attempt to gain more land, money, or power. This destruction and focus on death even spilled into their stories and the way they taught their children.
Angry Gods, which would wipe all life out, natural disasters that would result in the planet's destruction, or movies about the sun exploding. They even had tales for ancient humans, such as stories of floods and storms that forever altered the planet, or tales of a mighty asteroid that wiped all previous life on the surface of the planet out.
Self-annihilation was a strange topic that humans seemed to love deep down, even if they themselves could not admit it.
And yet, even after battling each other and wiping out various other species, humanity lived on through all of it, and it was because of a single concept.
Perseverance.
Yes. Perseverance was the perfect way to describe humans. Disaster after disaster, humanity somehow clung to life. They rebuilt when cities were torn down, formed societies when everything crumbled to ash, and when they were knocked over, they stood back up. Humans were amazing, and their greatest achievement of all was giving birth to the various beings who would all walk a path of absolute power. And it was each of these beings who all achieved great power in their own ways.
The one who is bathed in twilight, who created the moons and the cosmos of the sky, and brought about a world of salvation.
The great and mighty Sea God, who created a kingdom in the depths of the ocean's abyss.
The Lord of Threads, the man who walked to the other side of the universe, created an army of puppets and managed to see the face of the Almighty.
The Unholy Parasite, the one who steals faces, they who go by many shapes, the one of Red.
The Changed One, Queen of the Dark, the Lord of the Vampires.
The Murder Machine, the weapon of a trillion disasters, the planetary destroyer, and the sun eater.
The Adopted Son, the younger brother, the master of fate, the holder of Sigurd's Wrath.
The second coming of the Phoenix of Black, the rebirthed one, the lord of the Sun and Cosmos, and the one who stood at the end of time.
The Author, the {REDACTED}.
The King of Hell, the first Man, the killer of-
Perseverance. It was the thing each of these divine beings carried with them when they marched past the gates of reality and saw the truth. Some of them were Saints, others Kings or Queens, and some of them did their best. In the end, perseverance was strong with them all, but none of them could follow the path of the strongest.
The Lightforged, the being of White, the woman of seven lives, she who slumbers, the one who walked past the gates of Rome.
Human perseverance was one of the greatest things in the universe.
That said… It wasn't just humans who could persevere.
Himvel took his mask off along with his hat. "Hello."
He had purple eyes. Ones with heavy bags under them. His hair was now all gray, and his face was that of an elderly man. He suddenly seemed a lot smaller, frail even. Had his arms and legs always looked so frail?
Davi felt nothing but an ocean of sorrow. He was staring into the face of a man who was the last of his kind. A man who had watched his species die. A man who had likely done good and bad and lived far, far longer than any being should have.
He was looking at a man who was alone.
Himvel the hero. And High the nobody. An act of Marriage. Himvel had devoured the being known as High in order to hold off the effects and the hindrance of old age.
"I'll ask again, why did you take me here?" Davi questioned.
"And, I'll tell you the same answer. I'm here to kill you." Himvel gave a weak smile.
"I can tell you're lying."
"No, you can't." The old man shook his head slowly. "You can feel my emotions, and it might be true, I don't want to harm you or hurt you, but I very much will, so you should do your best to fight me. Or else." He took his coat off and began to undo the many buttons on his shirt. "This won't be easy for either of us."
Davi's eyes widened when he saw Himvel's body. The elf was indeed frail with only a bit of muscle left on him, but more than that, his flesh had changed, or rather, it was in the process of changing. Red flesh crept over his skin.
"Nearly one thousand years being in this place, surrounded by that damn radiation," Himvel grunted. "Protection or not, it was bound to catch up to me." He let out a dark chuckle. "I wonder if you're the one. Haru saw something. I don't fully understand why she did what she did, but I'm sure she knows what is best, and so, I will follow her lead. Someone will come to this dungeon and be the one who saves it." He glared at Davi. "Either be that person or die. Time is running out."
The red flesh started to spread quicker and quicker, and blood dripped down Himvel's face as the top of his skull began to crack open, and a horn started to push out.
"Davi Hawker, you who were made to suffer, you who were born in hell, you who were made as the ultimate weapon. Let us rip each other apart to our heart's content."