Deal With The One-Eyed Black Dragon

POV Rio

It was time for another Trial. I chose to do the Danmachi Trial as it was the easiest Trial in which I was free to use most of my skills and abilities. I made sure I had all the gear I needed then I entered the Trial. Once the teleportation ended I found myself in a grassy field.

'Hmm, nothing alive for a few miles. Well, let's see if I can connect with this Planet with Senjutsu.'

I get into a lotus position and try to connect to the World's Consciousness or at least determine if there is one. It took a few minutes but when I connected my mind was flooded with screams and pleas. Once that was over I sorted through the memories and got my answers. Which confused me greatly.

'They're invaders? That explains some things but leaves other questions unanswered. I guess I will go ask the Dungeon as it told me to.'

I use the Palantir to find the Dungeon Core under Orario and then use Gate to walk right into the Dungeon Core room. Once I do I am attacked by numerous psychic attacks but they all melt off me as I have the Mind Plate equipped.

Rio: "Orario, I've come to bargain."

Orario: "What are you? You are not the invaders but yet you do not belong."

I do a small bow.

Rio: "I am Rio Magus Crepusculum. At your service. I was told by the planet that you could answer my questions. And you might be able to help me."

Orario: "What do you need to know?"

Rio: "The invaders. What are they?"

Orario: "Foul creatures from beyond. They take and plunder this planet. Steal the souls of those they taint. They fought themselves. The Spirits Fought them. The Monsters fight them. But we are losing. Every day more are tainted and enslaved to their wills. The peoples of this planet are trapped but they cannot see it. I am sealed here. I have no power over those on the surface. Every day they get stronger."

Rio: "What do they call themselves?"

Orario: "Gods."

Rio: "Sigh. Of course. Always thought it was weird that the species on this planet never advanced technologically despite having supposed all-knowing gods with them. I can work with this. If I kill all the bad invaders will you stop threatening the lives of the surface dwellers?"

Orario: "NO! You must kill all of them!"

Rio: "I only kill those who have sinned. Which I imagine are most. I will clean up this world. I will also help deal with the invaders in their home dimension. But I will not kill those who are innocent. Those are my terms."

Orario: "Hmm... Show me your resolve. Kill half of the invaders on the surface and I will accept your terms."

Rio: "Then we have a deal."

Once the agreement is made, a magic pulse is released. I leave and start observing the invaders to try to understand how their physical bodies work.

'From what I can tell they are purely spiritual beings and their physical bodies are the only thing allowing them to exist in this dimension. A simple Soul Trap Spell will work perfectly. Then just a simple physical attack will kill them easily since they clearly didn't focus on making strong bodies just usable bodies.'

Before I start killing the gods on the physical plane I decide to go see what the One-Eyed Black Dragon was doing. When I arrived at its location I was not surprised by what I saw. It was sleeping. And deeply at that. I tried waking it up but nothing was working so I decided that he would need a little punishment.

Rio: "A dragon's only weak spot is where it doesn't have scales."

I walk up behind the dragon and create a metal pole.

Rio: "Take it in the rear and die you lazy bum!"

Dragon: "AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

Rio: "Are you awake now?"

Dragon: "D-d-dragonlord... my apologies... for not... waking up. I-I-I-I am awake now. So please remove... the object... from my rear."

Rio: "Hmm, fine."

I de-summon the metal pole and the dragon sighs in relief.

Dragon: "Thank you Dragonlord. May I know your esteemed name?"

Rio: "I am Rio. What is your name?"

Dragon: "I am known as Vedviing."

Rio: "I have a task for you. It will be very dangerous but it was what you were born for."

Vedviing: "Ask and I shall obey Dragonlord Rio."

Rio: "I will open a portal. On the other side is the home of the invaders. Go inside and slaughter everyone you come across. I won't lie. You most likely won't survive this task but I will handle the one here on this planet."

Vedviing: "It will be done at once Dragonlord. Nothing would please me more than to rip those foul invaders to shreds with my teeth. It has been far too long since I had last feasted on one of them."

I cast as many buffing spells on him as I can then open a Gate to Heaven and Vedviing flies through immediately. Once that is done I start hunting the so-called gods and collecting their souls. I make quick work of the invaders as their bodies are weak and they never even sense me before their heads are lopped off. I can't take the bodies as they disintegrate once the god dies. But other than that things are solved fairly quickly. Once I kill the 400th or so I stop and head back to Orario.

Orario: "You have returned and have done exactly as you said you would."

Rio: "I will need to use you and the energy from all the monsters you have made to destroy the Dimension from where the invaders come from. It will also make the barrier protecting this world nearly impenetrable. Which should eliminate the chances of something like this happening again. That being said you will cease to exist once the ritual succeeds. So are you certain you will help?"

Orario: "Kill those that you deem unworthy then return here. I should be done recollecting the energy I put into the monsters. I ask that you save my children who have developed intelligence. I cannot bear to lose them after all the work they put into existing."

Rio: "The Xenos. Sure I can go help them. I will put them in a magical case that will protect them. I will collect them once I am done killing the Invaders and the sinful."

I leave and continue killing the Gods but once I get to the 600th I am only left with 9 gods. Freya, Hephaestus, Hestia, Artemis, Demeter, Loki, Miach, Ouranos, and Takemikazuchi. The reason I hadn't killed them yet was either they were innocent or they had gathered all the adventurers together to protect themselves. The Adventurers aren't a threat but they could delay the spell allowing the Gods to flee. Thus I needed to do this delicately.

'Let's see I can kill one via a sneak attack then follow with Time Stop and several Delay Magic Soul Trap and True Death. I only need to kill 4 so that should be doable.'

Rio: "Oh boy here I go killing again."

My first target was Ouranos because he wasn't afraid to use his dimensional magic. And his seals could be a problem. Perfect Unknowable and a Sneak Attack killed him.

Rio: "Time Stop."

The entire world froze while I quickly did the math for the spell timings. Then I cast the spell and moved away from the mess that was about to happen. Once time resumed 4 bodies disintegrated and the adventurers panicked. 5 Gods were left alive but only because they were innocent enough. Those were Hestia, Artemis, Demeter, and Miach. Hephaestus was allowed to live for now but I was going to strip her of her power later as she can at least help civilization before she dies of old age. I Teleported away to cast the next spell. I used Judgment Day and wiped out around 23 Million beings. This is a high number for the fact that the population of the entire planet was only 248 Million.

'10% is just ridiculous but whatever now for the final step. Freedom. Wait no that's Vorkuta not Danmachi.'

I went to the Xenos settlement and they were shocked by my appearance but Gryuu bowed before me as he was a Green Dragon.

Gryuu: "What do I owe the pleasure of the Dragonlord visiting our humble home."

Rio: "The Dungeon has tasked me to take you all away from here. The Dungeon will be collapsing soon and it doesn't want you to die with it."

Gros: "How can we be certain of what you are saying."

Gryuu: "Watch your tongue! You speak to the Dragonlord."

Yuno: "Indeed we stand before royalty. The least you can do is be courteous."

Rio: "Please there is no need to fight. I swear on my eternal soul I mean you no harm and everything I have spoken to you has been the truth."

The magic pulse from my words seems to convince those remaining. I show them the Magic Suitcase and get them settled before I leave. In total 41 were collected from the initial village and an additional 17 were freed from captivity. Once that was done I went back to Orario to see if it was ready.

Orario: "Great you have returned. I have condensed all the energy I have in my core. Thanks to the death of Ouranos I have been able to collect the Monsters on the surface as well. Even the other cores have given themselves to the cause."

Rio: "Perfect. Now let us proceed. Don't talk to me or my Clones while I am doing the Ritual. I need complete concentration."

Orario: "Understood."

Several Hours Later...

Rio: "Okay, everything is ready now I am going to connect your core to the array do not resist."

I connect the Dungeon Core to the Array and then calculate the energy needed for this ritual.

'I will have to use a decent chunk of the collected Soul Energy but it should work.'

I start the spell and open a rift in Space-Time that leads directly to Heaven. I pointed Armengedon at the pearly gates. And like a taught bowstring I let go. The arrow launched and as soon as it fully entered heaven I closed the rift. Even with me closing it I felt the backlash from the explosion. When I was done with the spell I felt the dungeon start to fall apart. I quickly teleported away.

'Okay, that is possibly all objective complete but there are still a few things left to do.'

I appear above Orario and see that the Tower of Babel has sunk into the ground. Filling in the hole left by the dungeon. I flew down to the city where I sensed Hephaestus. Once I arrived she saw me and went pale.

Rio: "Hephaestus! Your sins are heavy and numerous. I have punished the rest of your species. Now I have come to give you an offer. Either die and have your soul taken or give up your divinity and immortality and live as a mortal."

Hephaestus: "But... I-I didn't have a choice. The others who resisted were slain. I didn't want to destroy this world."

Rio: "Yes, but you profited from the deaths of millions. You charged exorbitant prices. The only reason why I didn't kill you was that you weren't completely gone. And if you use your knowledge for good you can help this civilization thrive. So make. your. choice."

Hephaestus: "I-I-I choose to give up my powers."

Rio: "A wise choice."

I cast the same spell I used on the Maidens then drained her of her powers. Once that was done I put the energy in a jar for later study.

Rio: "It is done. Now as for the rest of you Invaders. You are innocent. I will let you keep your powers but be warned. The planet and Spirits do not like you and I only convinced them to spare you based on your sins. You will be required to sign a contract that states if you should become corrupted then you shall lose your powers and immortality. Other than that. You are now the leaders of this civilization. You must lead these people to thrive in this new world that is free of monsters."

Hestia: "Wait are you leaving?"

Rio: "Once the contracts are signed I will return to my reality. I have no further business in this world."

A few Adventurers challenge me but I only release a portion of my Aura and they all back down as all of them are good people and I have not technically done anything wrong. Once the contracts are done I check the planet to make sure it doesn't have anything else it needs then I leave.

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Authors Note:

A quick trial and as you can easily tell I went with the Gods being the bad guys as from my perspective they never made sense. If they are so powerful then why don't they destroy the Dragon or dungeon? Are they just using the mortals as amusing tools? Can anyone actually become a God via Falna? Why can gods not go between Heaven and Earth whenever they want? Is there something interfering perhaps? IF gods are so great and advanced why is civilization still stuck in the medieval era or earlier? Why did the spirits just go away? How come humanity was doing fine before the Gods descended? Why does the dungeon exist? All these questions and more make me think the gods are not the good guys but instead perhaps some kind of interdimensional invaders/parasites. Until next time Ciao.