Chapter 52: Rising Sun
There were three things that happened after the Battle of Fallen.
One - Pebbles got a new pet.
Two - all the bosses from the fifth floor to the eighth came to visit him.
Three - the adventurers outside became aware of some overwhelming strength within.
Especially Endev, who was the leader of the expedition from the Kroi Kingdom.
The tremor had forced him to run back from the personal business he'd run to take care of.
"Unbelievable..." he gulped chunks of saliva as he looked at his fellow adventurers, who were all dead.
They were in a pile that almost looked like a small hill or a mountain. And when he turned his head the other way, he found another pile which belonged only to limbs of the dead that were severed brutally.
Endev gulped hard a few times as his gaze shifted from one pile to the other. He started sweating profusely.
It was mid-summer, but that was not the reason for his sweat. It was because he heard a few growls and roars...
"Grrr... let me in! You... mother... let me IN!"
The man, in a moment of exasperation, turned his head towards the dungeon. He found the source of the voice...
It was a small rabbit that clung to the barrier erected around the dungeon.
It was common knowledge to adventurers that dungeons came in all sizes and shapes and in every weird place possible. So often, they would spend days, weeks, and even months exploring the terrain around it before even dreaming of entering the place.
The same was done with the Womb of Endings. And the findings?
Well, the entrance of the dungeon was a gigantic immovable gate that was lodged into a supposedly large cave on a plateau.
It was within the Forest of Elm.
Out of the ten largest named territories, it was the only place ruled by no specific monster or race...
It was divided among many, but there was no unified ruler.
This made it somewhat easier for humans to enter the picture, with them carving out a route by killing weaker monsters such as goblins, kobolds, lizardmen, frog-men, and many other non-sentient beings like slimes, roaches, worms, etc.
The road had led to the dungeon, and now Endev wished he'd remained in the kingdom.
He had just stepped aside to take a piss and now encountered everyone dead.
The shopkeepers, the adventurers, and even all the dragonling slaves... everyone was dead.
He couldn't help but stare at the rabbit whose body was painted in blood of different colors, primarily red.
While the being cried and banged at the barrier, Endev thought of only two things. One — to face the monster that had butchered his kin without breaking a sweat. Two — run.
He was the leader for a reason.
He turned around and took a few major steps and then used his skill: Dash Lv.4.
It increased his pace and he ran straight through the path, trying to go as far as possible and hopefully return back to his kingdom.
But he knew it wasn't going to be easy.
He had his longsword drawn as he ran, ready to fight in case the beast tried to chase him...
...he didn't get the chance.
Before he realized, his vision changed.
It was as if his height was decreasing all of a sudden. For just an instant, he thought the outside world was becoming bigger and larger, but he soon realized what had happened.
As he blinked a few times, the world spun.
First, the road was visible, a clear and dusty path, but then came into view the pebbles and stones on the ground.
His head hit the ground and he felt a tiny bit of pain. But the pain increased when someone kicked him high...
His gaze spun again before everything went in reverse. The pebbles, then the path, then the sky, and finally... his own body came into view.
There was the rabbit behind him, far behind, almost at the place where he was first standing...
From there, the rabbit had unleashed waves of slashes drenched in blood...
...the slashes had sliced through his neck, severing his head from his body, which was then kicked like a football by his own legs.
The head almost went back to the body that was approaching him, and then he had taken a bath...
...his head was now red due to the blood that had sprayed from his neck, and now his head sat back on the throat... except, it was upside down with his eyes facing the horrible monster and many more slashes that came...
...and he'd blinked just once more before all the slashes hit him. His limbs were severed from his body just like the others, and the man had died before he could see the rabbit walking leisurely, picking up the severed parts and throwing them into the piles...
The rabbit then walked back to the dungeon and stared at the barrier that had a few cracks on it.
A wry smile fell on his face.
"Is this how it is now, Mother?"
There was silence.
"All the sacrifices I used to give... if it were earlier, you'd accept them graciously, almost instantly..."
There was another pause.
"But now that you have birthed a child, you forsake those you loved?"
"You'd go so far as to protect him by expelling me from the dungeon?"
"..."
There was silence of another kind...
The rabbit gritted his teeth. He had just lost a name, but it was only one of the many names he had.
"Fine."
"Keep him safe. I will come back. One day... for sure... and I will kill him right in front of your eyes..."
Saying this, Ryenar of the Thousand Names turned around and vanished into the night...
...and as a new sunrise came, all that remained was silence, dead bodies, severed limbs, small streams of blood, and a cracked barrier that soon disappeared...
Pebbles was unaware of this massacre that had so casually taken place outside as he stood in the presence of the bosses of the dungeon, all while thinking he'd killed Ryenar.
"..."