Dungeon's Story

The Dungeon's first obstacle that one would encounter would be the Blood Seal upon the very doors itself. This Dungeon, which was both currently unexplored and massive in scope, was sealed inside and going past these doors was the only way past. However, there was a serious issue as only two people could hope to open it.

They either had to have the Blood of the Hero, as in the Hero who slayed the Demon King one thousand years ago, or the Blood of the Demon King, whose corpse should already be locked inside. In other words, only one who planned to store a part of Demon King Millen that had been discovered after his death, or the Hero or someone related to her, could enter. And because the identity of the Hero was kept hidden, it was entirely impossible to know who to seek out to open it.

Because of that, Lilith would find herself unable to enter. If she tried to force in, she would be repulsed and sent flying back out by a mysterious unquantifiable field of unknown origin, construct, and makeup. Perhaps the people at the Adventurer's Guild HQ would know how, but otherwise it appeared to be impossible to open this Crypt.

Lillith sighed at this. She knew just enough about branch of magic to be able to barely decipher it's requirements. She momentarily lamented not further studying the art of seals. Having focused more on utility runes such as storage and reinforcement or heating. "Just great. I have to get help from people I don't know" She growled. However out of curiosity took a vial from her cloak and flung some blood from one of the larger beasts to be found in Duskus onto the seal just to see what would happen.

As the blood was soaked into the seal, the doors did not open...but the entire area seemed to shake and rumble as if it was angry, or hungry, or perhaps it was something incomprehensible to humans or any intelligent life. Perhaps it was just some automated system, or perhaps some sort of haywire magic, or perhaps...there was something more.

"They will live. They will suffer. They will fight. They will hunt. They will predict".

"The cycle must continue. The power is necessary. The universe must operate".

"Everything is a lie. Everything is truth. You are not welcome! You must serve!"

"The blood is alive! They are alive! At the place of knowledge, one who wanders, at the place so ancient, and one who watches".

"These individuals hold the requirement. But those are not you! And so you cannot obstruct!"

An array of voices spoke out, as if something had broken inside it. Or perhaps, it was working right, but something that should not have happened did. This Crypt which appeared older then time itself, something was clearly wrong...or perhaps, the legends about it were wrong.

But what it did do was summon several monsters outside of the seal, wretched beasts that were like wolf and bear combined, but far stronger and more terrifying. Whatever Lilith had done, it did not seem to take it well and continued to spoke giberish that made no sense.

Lillith looked at these beasts warily before hastily raising a rectangular barrier between herself and these abominations to hold them off for a moment so she could gather herself and prepare for what was likely to be one hell of a fight. She knew without a doubt that she could not allow these monsters to escape this crypt and cause bloodshed on the streets above. She lowered her center of gravity a little and shifted the surface of her form to a chitinous hide, Leaving only a slit on the face for her eyes and pointed her SMG forward. Preparation finished,she waited for the monsters to make the first move. "Well, it looks like I have made yet another fine mess. Why do I keep doing things like this? Curiosity killed the cat I suppose" She mused to herself before adding with a smirk "But satisfaction brought it back."

The monsters, who already numbered over a dozen, all attack Lilith at once with their fangs and claws, and also their tails which had blades on the end and were threatening in their own right. They moved faster then normal too and hit harder then normal, as if they were enhanced. A strange aura emerged from the door, as if it was angry or something.

"Traitors! Twisted flesh! Kill! Kill everyone for their betrayal! Kill! Kill! Kill!"

It came from the seal, as the noise started to die down, but it felt like every monster Lilith was facing right now was saying it with the seal, even though they lacked the vocal cords to.

Something was clearly abnormal with the situation.

Lillith began to desperately block and parry. Horribly out rusty in the field of close combat she only managed to block half the attacks with her hand blade. her chitinous hide began to crack after the first moment. She knew she had to do something. Getting cut up might not kill her but these beasts could not be allowed to escape. She timed her next parry. Putting extra force into it and forcing the attacker to be off blanced before unloading 5 rounds directly into it's face. hoping to end a few she did this 3 more times before Melting into a pile of goo. SMG disappearing as the puddle she formed shot out tendrils to wrap around the necks of all the still standing beasts. Quickly covering their faces and attempting to force their way inside to devour them all from the inside. a hand formed from the puddle and made a gesture towards the only exit. Casting a strong barrier to hopefully keep these things in there. This is insane! I need to put a stop to this fast! Just then she remembered the seal and one of it's defence mechanisms. The hand summoned the SMG once more. Switching it over to energy bullet mode and aiming directly at the seal BRAZZZT 15 shots were fired at the center of the seal. Hoping it would do something.

The monsters began to spawn, more and more seemed to come after her as a barrier seemed to form at the way she came from, as if to make sure the tunnel back to the surface would not be entered or exited. Of course, unlike the barrier for the seal, this barrier seemed far weaker, but it was still there none the less.

And when she fired at the center of the seal, that was when things really got bad. The seal reacted by reflecting every shot right back at her, showing a level of defense and an ability to target. It was a fearsome and scary defense too, as multiple spikes shot out of the ground to pierce her limbs, attempting to prevent her escape.

"You must become a vessel for the Demon King!"

The Dungeon said something like that as it attacked her, trying its best to prevent her from leaving.

A hail of rounds fly over the woman, splattering dozens of the creatures against the crypt. Jeff would charge in, bearing a chain-gun. Jeff takes careful steps not to hit the woman but shouts at her. "Fall back to me!" He yells out, and the chain-gun barks in response. You would notice that he has heavier power armor, made to take lots of damage and still hold out.

Lillith Shrugged the spikes and bullets off Absorbing the bullets seeing as they had been made by her own magical energies. being a semi solid puddle currently had it's benefits. she reformed as she had been before to retreat towards the Man with the chain-gun. Jumping over a newly spawned monster stabbing it's neck with her Newly reformed hand blade. "A LITTLE OCCUPIED HERE! Clear a path and I'll gladly take refuge at your side Stranger! We Need to find a way to take care of that Seal!" She shouted. twisting her embedded hand blade in the back of the beasts neck to do maximum damage to it's vertebrae. making a sign with her free hand pointed towards the seal, Sending a kinetic wave towards it. Picking up any monsters caught by it and dragging them along for the ride to slam them against the seal with the wave. This feat however took a decent chunk of her mana pool. Chewing through about 1/10 of her remaining reserves due to her having nothing close to mastery over that particular technique. She then planted the casting hand on the head of the hopefully slain beast she had just mounted, Ripping her blade from the back of it's neck and vaulting away from an incoming lunge from another one

Jeff nods at the woman as he smashes the barrel of the chain-gun across one of the creatures. As it fell to the ground, he stomped on it's skull, crushing it. He started clearing a small and narrow path for the woman to make her way to him. He fired a steady stream of rounds into the horde, slowly turning the barrel of the weapon red. He had a load-bearing ammunition pack bolted to his armor, so the chain-gun would not run out of rounds anytime soon.

At that point, sensing the people increasing instead of decreasing, the dungeon began to activate its full and devestating power...the power it had as a defense should someone try to breach the seal improperly, a defense that could be said to be the biggest threat of all.

A black miasma began to emerge from the Crypt, and it came towards them as if it was a giant fog. Notably, aside from the monsters, anything it touched no matter if it was organic, metallic, or such, with the exception of the dungeon itself and the walls and floor and ceiling, began to degrade, corrode, and rot away. A few rats nearby, once this miasma hit them, could be seen dying and dissolving. A miasma that degraded everything it touched.

A power rumored to only be possessed by a Demon King.

Lillith glanced at the miasma in alarm before sprinting towards the stranger with the big gun while staying close to the ground. Stopping beside him. "We need to get out of here! Do you think your gun can take care of that barrier blocking our exit? I'll do my best to keep that corrosive mist at bay with another barrier but we must get out of here!" She exclaimed as she returned her hand blade to the form of a hand. Forming a small portal and reaching her hand into it she withdrew a tiny phial containing holy water in it. "Hopefully this stuff is the real deal or both of us are as good as dead." Raising both hands high above her head and slowly bringing them down in front of her facing the mist A bright yellow barrier forming a quarter bubble butting up against the red barrier blocking their exit. She manipulated the water with her mana. Depleting her reserves by a quarter of her max capacity due to not using a proper spell to do this. She coated the outside of the barrier with a thin film of the water before fully solidifying the barrier. She got a look of intense concentration, Starting to breathe heavily from the strain this feat was putting on her system. "I can only keep this up for about twenty five seconds. Please hurry!"

In the end the AI had sent out a total of fifteen out of the ship's twenty available servitors. Every servitor had once been wanted dead or alive, and after the Captain collected the bounty for their death, if no family came forth to claim it, he bought their bodies. Bezalel had taught him much about necromancy, and he found that by modifying bodies, sometimes even assembling many bodies into one, he could create useful crew members that required little to no upkeep.

The typical servitor had at least two energy weapons and two ballistic weapons grafted into their body, though each was a unique creation indicative of what Integra had on hand at the time, how he felt about the bounty, and what he needed most to round out his crew. The quadrupedal had been a load-bearing bodyguard he had grown to almost love, it had been made out of an intelligent bear almost eight feet tall and over 12 feet long that Omnia had managed to reinforce the muscles and tendons of using sky-metals and nanites.

The mindless drones couldn't think for themselves, but obeyed most commands pretty well and more often than not they were the only company Blackheart had. The small platoon of undead monstrosities sat out front of the crypt with their various gear, deathly still. They all looked at least mostly humanoid in form, and had been dressed in layers of loose flowing robes, bandages, and protective armor as to obscure their frightening visage from passer-bys; though five of them had too many arms. They stood in three lines of five, outside the passageway leading down to the crypt; most carried cumbersome loads of supplies and awaited their Captain's arrival, though they were outfitted with cameras and microphones to allow the AI to direct and speak through them when necessary.

Minsu's opinion was fair enough, if a bit too reserved for Blackheart. He had only asked because he had qualms about Necromancy himself, it just proved too efficient. I told you it would be, the shadowy demon's thoughts played across his mind as he prepared for this dungeon dive.

The Captain couldn't help but notice the malice present in Rivian's voice when they boy gave his short answer on the Servitors. Not that I blame him what with the bounty on him and the rest of his biomass or whatever. The thought idly played cross his mind, What would happen if he was whole..?"

Rivian brought him out of his thoughts with a question about whether or not he still had shopping to do. The Captain could think of a few consumable magic effects that might prove useful, but he had also figured the rest of the servitors could go out, buy, and bring them down to him if push came to shove. He almost chuckled at the thought of a lengthy showdown with local law enforcement and the servitors trying to prove their legality with Omnia's help.

A sharp click of Blackheart's boot heels caused the servitors to salute, some holding chain guns to their head with the belt awkwardly swaying from the dramatic movement. "Alright ye scalawags dredged up from the depths of society to serve as my crew. This here be me friends Rivian and Minsu, and you are ensure they come to NO harm. Have ye got it?" Omnia emulated their assent in the form of vigorous nodding and synthesized cheering as they got into formation and started down the passage into the crypt.

"Darling, there's already two people down here," the AI pouted in his ear as the first servitor's echolocation blasted down the corridor. "Whoa, what?" He said half to himself, half to Minsu and Rivian. "There's a barrier erected down there, and... people?" Darling those are people right? He asked her mentally while he sprinted to catch up with the servitors who had gotten away from them by the sheer space fifteen technologically enhanced ghouls took up.

"It appears to be a standard issue Spartan, and... another biomass?" The servitor stared blankly at the slightly red barrier in front of it, holding the two captive. The ghoul's four power swords hung loosely by it's side awaiting it's Captain's orders. Though Blackheart said nothing, the servitor received the acknowledgement it was "waiting" for and began to tear wildly at the barrier with each sword at once. Simultaneously, the undead with a Gauss "rifle" unloaded three rapid shots at the top of the barrier, ensuring they wouldn't hit anyone if the shots exceeded the barrier's tolerance.

Lillith Turned her head sharply at the sound of something pounding on the barrier from the other side. Seeing so many...Wait were those things with guns on their arms actually people? Then she remembered that she was supposed to be doing something and turned back to her barrier in alarm as it rippled and was beginning to destabilize from her lack of focus. She let shouted in slight distress as she turned her attention to maintaining the barrier and keeping the mist at bay. Sighing with relief when she realized her lack of concentration hadn't left any open spots in the holy water film.

"Dammit! That probably cost me five seconds." She cursed under her breath before turning her gaze behind her. "You can start working on that barrier any time you like mister armored guy with a chaingun! I can't do this all day and if my barrier fails while the red one still stands we are as good as dead!Get on it!"

Jeff would nod and shift his fire towards the barrier, starting to chip away at the barrier. He would fire into the barrier until finally, his gun would run dry. He chucked the chain-gun at the barrier. He pulled out a plastic explosive and attached it to the barrier. Jeff stepped directly behind Lilith, meaning to cover her. He pulled the trigger, causing the explosive to detonate. Jeff would absorb the full blunt of the blast, his shields and armor eating the fragments.

The fragments and the blast caused Lillith's barrier to crack a bit. Though the cracks quickly faded this put extra strain on her and she was quickly reaching her limit. "If you have any other ideas then go ahead and try them because once my barrier fails we will likely only have a few seconds before that mist gets to us. I can only keep it up for another 20 seconds without risking losing consciousness." She told the spartan through grit teeth. Her legs and arms starting to shake a tiny bit. Her skin beginning to discolor as she kept it up, gradually gaining a darker shade until it was a mill-scale black. She decreased the size of the half dome to save energy and reduce the strain. Breathing heavily as she did her best to keep both of them alive.

Jeff punched the barrier and shattered it."Run."

Lillith turned to observe the red barrier breaking

Jeff grabs Lilith and sprints out of the tomb with ease