Chapter 17

"SO THIS IS THE GIRL WHO DEFEATED THE COLOSSUS."

Kaede looked up sharply. Seated atop a jagged obsidian throne was the boss, tall, cloaked in flickering lightning that pulsed outward in slow, steady bursts. Each surge of energy crackled through the air but never struck anything. Controlled. Calculated.

Kaede blinked. "Did… did you just talk?"

The boss leaned forward, lightning crawling along his form like living veins.

"AN ODD QUESTION," he said, his voice a deep rumble that echoed across the chamber. He rested his chin on his gauntleted hand.

"TELL ME… WHY ARE YOU SURPRISED I CAN SPEAK?"

Kaede stepped forward warily. "Well, you guys are monsters, right?"

"Insolence!" one of the guards barked, stepping forward with fury in his eyes.

"To dare call us..."

He stopped as the boss raised a hand, commanding silence without a word.

The boss turned back to Kaede.

"YOU HAVE SOME NERVE, INTRUDER… TO CALL US MONSTERS. YOU ARE EITHER BRAVE… OR VERY FOOLISH. DO ALL YOUR COMPANIONS SHARE THIS... IGNORANCE?"

Kaede's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean by intruder? This dungeon is the one intruding into our world. You're the invaders."

The boss blinked, then leaned back in his throne, considering her words.

"DUNGEON?" he repeated. "WHAT DUNGEON DO YOU SPEAK OF?"

Now it was Kaede's turn to be taken aback. "What do you mean, what dungeon? This whole world of yours is one, a dungeon that spits out monsters if left unchecked."

Murmurs rippled through the gathered creatures.

"Is she insane?"

"As expected... an intruder babbles nonsense."

"Poor creature. She's lost her mind."

The boss, no, the leader, breathed deeply. The air thickened with pressure, his voice now layered with mana that froze the entire chamber in place.

Everyone but Kaede.

"I HAVE TOLERATED MUCH, BUT YOU WILL NOT REFER TO US AS MONSTERS AGAIN."

His voice was cold steel.

"THE COLOSSUS YOU DEFEATED WAS A MONSTER, AN UNCONTROLLED BEING. WE, HOWEVER, ARE VOLTOIDS, BORN OF CHAOS WORLD."

He stood, the throne crackling behind him.

"AND I… AM BECQUEREL."

Kaede's stance shifted slightly. "If you aren't monsters… then why did you attack me and my friends?"

Becquerel tilted his head.

"YOU ENTERED OUR DOMAIN UNINVITED, MERE MOMENTS AFTER THE ANOMALY APPEARED. FOR ALL WE KNOW, YOU'RE INVADERS."

"Anomaly?" Kaede echoed. "You mean the gate?"

Becquerel scoffed. "THAT THING? IT LOOKS NOTHING LIKE ANY GATE WE'VE KNOWN. IT DOESN'T EVEN LOOK LIKE A GATE. WHY WOULD YOU CALL IT THAT? AND WHAT IS THIS 'GATE' YOU SPEAK OF?" He crossed his arms. "THE WAY YOU SPEAK OF IT… IT IS NO ORDINARY DOOR."

'Okay, now I'm confused,' Kaede thought. 'Is this what a Red Gate does?' She focused her gaze on him. "A gate is a tear in space that leads to another dimension. In that dimension are creatures, monsters, that want to destroy humanity. If the dimension isn't cleared of those monsters, or the boss holding it, the gate opens… and they pour out, destroying everything. We call the dimension a dungeon."

Becquerel leaned forward slightly, lightning flickering from his shoulders.

"A DIMENSION THAT TRAPS BEASTS WHILE THEY GROW MORE RAVENOUS… WAITING TO BE UNLEASHED?" He smiled faintly. "DUNGEON IS A FITTING NAME... FOR A PRISON."

"So… this isn't a dungeon?" Kaede asked, her voice uncertain now.

"DOES THIS LOOK LIKE A PRISON TO YOU, GIRL?" Becquerel snapped, irritation threading through his thunderous voice.

Kaede gave a nervous smile. "Well… it could be a really big prison."

"DO NOT TEST MY PATIENCE," Becquerel growled, his tone sharp enough to cut steel. "THE ONLY REASON YOU STILL DRAW BREATH IS BECAUSE I ALLOW IT."

Kaede sighed and muttered under her breath, "Figures."

Becquerel's glowing eyes focused on her. "YOU CLAIM THAT BY DESTROYING EVERY MONSTER IN THE DUNGEON, THE GATE CLOSES? WELL, AS YOU CAN SEE, THIS IS NO DUNGEON. SO TELL ME, HOW DO YOU PLAN TO CLOSE THE GATE THAT BROUGHT YOUR KIND HERE?"

Kaede blinked, processing the question. "Hmm… maybe the anomaly? You said it appeared before we got here. That could be what opened the gate in the first place."

Becquerel fell silent. Then, without warning, his hand flared with electricity. A crack of lightning struck the mountain's peak above them, carving a blazing hole through the stone.

From the shattered summit, a radiant object descended slowly, drawn to hover above Becquerel's outstretched hand. It glowed with an eerie, chaotic light.

Kaede narrowed her eyes, shielding them from the glare until she could make out the object within the radiance. 'An essence stone?'

---

CHAOS SHARD DETECTED.

---

"Chaos Shard?" Kaede echoed aloud. 'Didn't Cinnamon have something called Chaos Shard (Stabilized)?'

"A CHAOS SHARD, YOU SAY," Becquerel rumbled, his voice intrigued. "SO THIS HAS THE ABILITY TO OPEN DOORS BETWEEN OUR WORLDS. PERHAPS THIS IS HOW THE MONARCHS ESCAPED DURING THE WAR." He turned the shard over in his palm, the lightning around him dimming as he contemplated.

'I have no idea what he's talking about… but if that shard really is what created the gate, then maybe if I break it, the gate will collapse, and we can leave.'

Kaede stepped forward cautiously. "If we have that, my friends and I can leave your world… since apparently this isn't a dungeon like we thought." She extended a hand toward the shard. "So… may I?"

Becquerel watched her in silence, his gaze unreadable.

Kaede smiled awkwardly, giving a little wave with her outstretched hand. "Pretty please?"

Becquerel smirked, his voice laced with amusement. "AND WHY EXACTLY SHOULD I LEAVE THIS IN YOUR HANDS? WITH THIS, THERE'S NOTHING STOPPING YOU FROM RETURNING HERE, WITH AN EVEN BIGGER FORCE."

"Well yeah, but without it, we can't leave in the first place," Kaede replied quickly.

In that instant, her instincts flared, she tilted to the side just as a massive arc of lightning seared past her, missing by inches. It slammed into the far side of the mountain...

BOOM!

The sky beyond the chamber lit up molten white. In the distance, the lightning struck another mountain, utterly obliterating it in a storm of fire and ash. The shockwave rippled through the air, making the ground beneath her tremble.

"ALLOWING YOU ALL TO LEAVE IS A RISK I'M NOT WILLING TO TAKE," Becquerel said, his voice a blade forged of power.

His eyes glowed like twin suns as the surrounding Voltoids leapt from their ledges above. Hundreds of them dropped into position, encircling Kaede in the blink of an eye, weapons raised and lightning flickering along their bodies.

Kaede exhaled slowly, lowering her stance.

"…Guess we're doing this the hard way."

---

CLANG!

Kanae darted through the ranks of the Voltoids, her sword flashing like lightning. Behind her, a pack of poisonous lions tore into enemies with wild, reckless fury, following her path through the chaos.

She crossed blades with a random Voltoid, just as one of the lions lunged and raked its claws down his back. The force of the blow shoved him forward, straight into Kanae's waiting blade, which severed his neck in a clean arc.

There was no time to breathe.

Two more Voltoids rushed her. One lunged with a spear, its tip glinting as it streaked toward her at breakneck speed. She braced for impact, but it never came. A lion had leapt into the path, taking the hit in her place.

The second Voltoid vaulted over the fallen beast, but Kanae was already moving. With a roar, she unleashed a vertical slash with all her strength. Her blade split him clean in half. The first Voltoid, still alive, had no such mercy, three lions pounced on him, dragging him down with snarls and tearing claws.

It had only been a few minutes since the battle started, and yet Kanae was already feeling the burn.

That shouldn't have been possible.

As an S-Rank hunter, she couldn't remember the last time she'd felt true exhaustion. And yet, here she was, drained, panting, every breath shallow. Each Voltoid felt like facing a veteran S-Rank hunter with blood in their eyes. And there were so many of them.

Even with the lions holding the line, she hadn't had a moment to rest.

Kanae blinked sweat from her eyes and charged again. She sliced through the tendons of a Voltoid sneaking up on Akari while she healed an A-Rank hunter, the creature screeching in pain. That was all the warning Akari needed, she swung her bardiche, cleaving the Voltoid's head clean off.

"I'm running low on mana," Akari muttered through gritted teeth, watching the A-Rank Tank she'd just saved dive back into battle with a pride of lions flanking him.

Kanae held out her arm to her. The Voltoid's tough skin demanded brutal, high-powered strikes, strikes that shattered her sword arm again and again. This was the fourth time her wrist had snapped during the fight.

"You're not gonna tell me how much this is gonna cost, are you?" Kanae asked wryly, joking as Akari laid a glowing hand over the broken joint.

But the strain was showing. Akari's eyes were sunken, her skin pale, her robe streaked with blood from wounds she had deemed too minor to waste energy on. Her hands trembled slightly, her body barely holding together.

"I'm starting to wonder if we'll even make it back alive," Akari admitted, swallowing hard to fight the nausea clawing at her gut from mana overuse.

Kanae rotated her wrist once the healing was done, then turned back toward the battlefield. Kenzo was still locked in a relentless duel with a particularly powerful Voltoid. Twenty minutes, and neither of them had given an inch. It was an even match, but it also meant Kenzo was focused entirely on that single opponent.

Which left Kanae alone to run interference.

Again and again, she'd intercepted Voltoids sneaking past their front lines, targeting healers and A-Rank hunters with surgical precision. Assassins, most of them, stealthy, vicious, and lethal. And it was her job to keep the others alive.

Akari couldn't help. Kenzo was occupied. That left only her, and she was running herself ragged.

The only saving grace was Cinnamon. The beast was a whirlwind of destruction, holding off over three dozen Voltoids at a time. Every time Kanae glanced his way, he was still standing, still slaughtering.

The other bright spot was Korra, who had begun manipulating the lake's poison as if it were an extension of herself. Poison whips lashed out from her hands, spikes of toxic ice rained down like shrapnel, and blades of venomous mist sliced through the air.

Whatever magic allowed her to use the poison in the lake, it was a blessing. Sometimes, a single touch from the poison was enough to kill outright. Those who survived the initial strike suffered worse, flesh boiling, bones melting, until they collapsed in shrieking agony.

And still, the Voltoids kept coming.