“Tyranny has run rampant for too long. For how long will you live in fear? For how long will you live under a system of oppression, where you are treated like nothing but objects by a creature that cares not for any of you? Are you willing to face us, risking your lives for someone who hides away within his castle, unwilling to help you? Will you die for someone that would not even shed a drop of blood for you?” his voice echoed throughout the large room, the many cultists and demons wary but listening.
“I am not asking any of you to lay down your lives for me… all I ask of you is to not take up arms. Allow our passage, and help us only with your prayers and well wishes. We have come to carry out justice, and you are not yet guilty of anything but being oppressed. Stand behind us, and I swear that the Demon Lord will face righteous judgment and his tyrannical reign end.”
Jacob stood atop a golden floating platform summoned by the light mage in his party. Bertrand stood beside him, ready to react should anyone make a move. To his other side, the Knight of Light’s Dawn stood with a smile on his face, the Old Royal Mage also with them. In fact, they had an entire group from the ambiguous “kingdom” these semi-sapient creatures called their homeland.
“He speaks the truth,” one of the people with them said. A woman wearing a cultist robe. One formerly known as the Prime Summoner. “I, too, was fooled, and now I can only try to pay recompense for once more releasing the evil Demon Lord Gubrothas. These heroes have given me a chance to, and I implore you all to join hands with us to create a better future.”
Jacob amplified her words using his own skills as he saw doubt mar the faces of all those below. A few Mistresses had even appeared, though the Prime Consort was yet to be seen. Not that he was worried… he could feel from the crowd the situation was under control. If not, they still had the option to fight – a scenario in which they would always win.
Minaga’s Labyrinth, as this part of Nevermore was called, had truly been a mixed experience for Jacob. On the one hand, it had allowed him to make use of his skills as an Augur and negotiate and create allies, but on the other, it had completely screwed over his abilities as an Augur when it came to navigating the labyrinth itself.
On all of the prior floors, Jacob had easily divined the best way to proceed. This had allowed them to fly through the floors at a record pace, and their party had racked up more points than they expected – even setting a new point Record as they passed the city floor between twenty and twenty-one.
When they had arrived in the labyrinth and were done getting briefed and picking the Archmage difficulty, he began his divination once more. Minaga had looked at Jacob funny during the entire briefing, and Jacob did feel like something was slightly wrong as he divined what way they should go. He had still chosen to believe it… a big mistake in retrospect.
Rather than lead him to the rooms with keys, all his divination had done was lead them straight into traps over and over again until finally, they reached a dead-end, where a giant mural of Minaga laughing revealed itself. The Unique Lifeform naturally adding an audio track to the mural himself.
From there, High Justicar Elevian – the co-leader of their party alongside Jacob – decided that perhaps they should shelve the divination for now. This proved effective, as they stopped relying on purely magical means and shifted to some far more manual ones. Scouts were sent out, light magic was shot in different directions to measure distances, and when they found their first group of natives from the labyrinth, they made use of them. They were pretty easy to convince, and Jacob quickly realized they were almost pre-programmed to want to assist him, making his job far easier than he would have expected.It was certainly easier than what he had been doing before entering Nevermore.
Jacob had never truly left Earth before the invasion of Ell’Hakan. He had briefly been teleported away for events or brief training stints. However, as he left this time, he was tasked with a simple job… go out into the multiverse and see it for yourself. The A-grade Grand Master was assigned as his protector during this time, but Jacob was still allowed to go where he wished… so he followed his Path as an Augur and sought out those he could help.
He visited planets untouched by any factions. Places where D-grades were viewed as demi-gods that could dominate entire kingdoms. Worlds so bereft of Records that a C-grade ever appearing was impossible unless a miracle occurred, such as a random Bloodline being born or an individual with talent allowing the person to elevate themselves above their fates managed to rise.
There were worlds where the humanoid races were barely surviving as beasts dominated. Worlds where war raged, incompetent leaders willing to kill anyone with talent out of fear that they would be surpassed.
Jacob had many doubts about the Holy Church; a brief stint of exploration wouldn’t change that. However… he had long suspected it, but now he knew for sure that the multiverse was far from a kind place to the weak. The lost would falter in the dark endlessly if they did not have any guidance – if they did not have the Records of greater factions lifting them up.
A high tide raises all ships, and the Holy Church was the greatest tide of them all. Yet Jacob was determined not to allow himself to be swept up in it. He would be a lighthouse on solid ground, guiding the ships that would find themselves lost. And, at least for now, he would guide them towards the Church.
Because even if the Holy Church were not the best… for the weak, was there truly a better choice?
“I swear on the Blightfather, my skill said it was this way! It is as if it isn’t working as intended, but… no, I can do this!” Maltrax, the beastkin undead, said as she manipulated some odd ash before sniffing it.
“Told ya we were walking in circles” Casper shrugged unbothered.
“I… it may be that way? Yeah, it definitely is that way!” Maltrax insisted.
“If by “it” you mean more traps, then yes, it is that way,” he sighed.
They had been on the thirty-first floor of Nevermore for nearly twelve hours already and had spent all that time getting fucking nowhere. At first, they had used the ghost summoned from the banshee in their party, but that quickly proved ineffective as they got disoriented and lost their way within the fog. Some of them even ended up fading as they failed to find their way back to the banshee.
After that, Maltrax, the beastkin, took charge and used her tracking. She was filled with confidence initially, but after leading them through over a hundred traps – that Casper forewarned them all of – she seemed to be at her breaking point. Casper did come with input here and there, but she was too stubborn, so he didn’t bother arguing.
Azal finally glanced at Casper as he also sighed. “You’re certain you can actually find the way?”
“Pretty certain, yep,” Casper nodded. He placed a hand on the wall and closed his eyes briefly before quickly opening them again. “Gotta head back from where we came; we have been walking in the exact opposite direction of any keys for the last two hours.”
“I… he is lying!” Maltrax said, frustrated.
Casper didn’t even bother arguing as Azal nodded and motioned for them to follow him. Three hours and a lot of complaining from Maltrax later, they stood in front of the second room they had encountered on this floor. The first one did not have a key.
“He… he just got lucky… there probably isn’t even a key here…”
There was a key there.
Finally, Maltrax had to surrender and agree the dungeon engineer was indeed correct. Casper had to admit that things were far easier than he had expected. In fact, he would say his knowledge of dungeons was more valuable on this floor than the thirtieth, which made him wonder…
“Hey, Minaga?”
He got a few glances from his party members. They had discussed and agreed on engaging with the dungeon master as little as possible, but Casper felt like it was worth asking.
“What’s up? Or down. I guess it depends on your perspective.”
“I don’t mean to accuse you of anything… but did you make your labyrinth incredibly favorable for people with dungeon-related skills?”
More glances at him, one of them quite stern, very clearly telling him not to piss off the Unique Lifeform. Casper still felt like it was fine, though.
“Are you saying that I am purposefully making the dungeon easier for other aspiring dungeon masters?” Minaga said in an angry voice. “Are you insinuating that I would be so biased just because we both make dungeons!?”
“Yes?” Casper answered with a deadpan face.
“Good, because you would be absolutely correct!” Minaga said in a gleeful voice. “Man, you know how rare proper dungeon masters are these days? They all tend to suck or only pick up dungeon engineering in the later grades. True, it is difficult to do much while still weak... but that only makes those who succeed young more admirable! It is only natural that as a Progenitor Dungeon Master, I think you are a pretty swell guy.”
“Dungeon engineers are actually that rare?” Casper asked with some genuine confusion. “Why? It’s awesome.”
“That’s what I always say! The problem is that you have to study a lot to learn proper dungeon engineering, and higher stats just makes studying easier. Dungeon engineers also have the problem that they are pretty limited in what they can do when not in dungeons, and nurturing one is pretty damn expensive. If you have a talented engineer, why not just convince him to be a formation master instead, as the required competencies overlap? At least that is what all those damn fools think, not realizing being a dungeon master is the greatest.”
“Their loss, I guess,” Casper shrugged.
“True that.”
Casper felt a bit better after talking to Minaga, and the rest of his party members also looked at him differently, their wariness replaced with relief and recognition. Azal even spoke through their telepathic link.
“For this labyrinth, you should take the lead. Good call on getting the Unique Lifeform on our side.”
Yeah, that hadn’t really been a plan. It was more him just being curious. But if he had permission…
“Say, you mentioned other groups when you talked earlier... would you happen to know if others from my home planet also did your labyrinth?”
“A few, yeah.”
“How about the Chosen of the Malefic Viper?” Casper asked curiously. Jake had to have come through already with their head start, right?
“Casper, rather than answer that, let me ask you something: do you respect my work and the work of all dungeon engineers who try and create proper labyrinths?”
“I would say so? Labyrinths are a pretty standard design form of dungeons, and this one is greatly designed and far more complex than I can even imagine. So, yeah, I do respect it and dungeon engineers in general,” Casper answered, unsure why Minaga had even asked that.
“Well…” Minaga said, his voice full of exasperation. “Let’s just say some people can’t appreciate good craftsmanship.”
Nevermore City had calmed down for a while after the influx of pinnacle geniuses that seemed to arrive one after another petered out. All of the major factions had sent in their bids for the peak of the Leaderboards, and all hoped to claim the spot. The longer one waited, the harder it was after all.
One just had to hold the record for a single second to get the associated reward. Of course, one also had to pass a certain threshold of minimum points to even get the reward in the first place, but all of these top parties would reach that threshold. That meant they were truly competing with one another, and any record set by a group would result in it being harder to set a new one. As expected of a Leaderboard.
However, one day, more than two weeks after everyone believed all the top parties had already entered, a new one appeared. To see the Dao Sect send a group vying for the top spot had already been a massive surprise to most information brokers, but it faded in comparison to this group. Because this group was not a faction… it was five individuals who all had one thing in common - one thing making them all uniquely outstanding simply due to that shared trait.
One was a more than three-meter tall, muscular, hunched-over cyclops-looking creature with an entirely black eye. Pitch-black chains hung from its body, rattling as it walked, yet these chains did not hit the ground but simply phased through it like they didn’t truly exist. Its skin was entirely gray, and many would likely confuse it for an undead creature, except it didn’t give off any death affinity energy. In fact, it barely gave off any energy, period. Even its aura was barely detectable, but those who could feel it were instantly put on edge.
A second creature was simply a tattered cloak floating through the air, the hood an endless pit of nothingness. There were no limbs to speak of, and the entire ghost-like creature – that was distinctly not undead - looked like it barely existed in the physical plane. Save for a few moments where an arm seemed to glimpse into existence floating beside it, holding a staff of some kind, it displayed no moments as it floated through the air together with the cyclops and the three other people in his auspicious party.
The third was at least recognizable as a known race of the multiverse. Or at least she had been one at some point. She looked like an elf of some kind, but not one anyone could quite place. Her skin was entirely white, to an almost frightening level, with black lines running through her in a pattern that acted like a mental attack whenever one laid eyes on it. Luckily she wore a robe covering her body, but a few weaker D-grades did puke simply upon seeing her hand briefly. She had no hair but had a head covered in odd silky threads that extended toward the sky while dancing in an eerie pattern. Most of her face was obscured as she wore a blindfold over her eyes, and her pale lips made her look almost like a walking frozen corpse. Ultimately, the only real reason people guessed she had once been an elf was her ears. As with the two prior, she could not be properly Identified. Something the next creature could not be either.
Fourth was a humanoid-looking creature, but not one anyone could quite place. Partly because the head – the only thing visible – seemed to be in a constant flux of change. The head was far larger than any regular creature and had four faces on it, one looking in each direction. All of these faces shifted at every second, from female to male, elf to human, and sometimes even non-humanoid-looking races. The rest of the body was covered in a black robe, but one could faintly see the rustling of more than two arms beneath, and for a brief second, a long metallic limb showed from beneath the robe.
These four all gave off the presence of otherworldly creatures, and all could not be correctly Identified. Like none of them truly belonged in the world, which partly made sense due to what they all had in common:
They were all touched and blessed by Void Gods. They were beings corrupted by the void. Creatures that had stared too deep into something mortals should stay far away from and they had found themselves forever changed from the experience. Yet they had survived, proving they were extraordinary just for that feat alone. It was common knowledge that those who delved into the powers of the void would be forever warped… yet…
Somehow the fifth member of this party was the one that stood out the most. Walking in the center of all these monstrous-looking creatures was a completely ordinary-looking human – something he could even be Identified as. He wore glasses as he seemed to be reading something from the object he was holding, and his carefree demeanor made it clear he was entirely unbothered by the creatures surrounding him. His eyes – the thing that usually was the most obvious sign of corruption – were normal, and he did not seem to hide anything under his clothes. Clothes that also did not fit the theme of black robes, as he had on pants with far too many pockets for someone with a spatial storage, along with a coat and apron and work boots. The only extraordinary piece of equipment he seemed to wear was his glasses.
His normal appearance almost made him the most eerie of the group. Especially as he walked in the middle, indicating he was either the leader or the most prominent member of the party. Or maybe it had no meaning, as these were creatures of the void… and trying to understand the void was the Path of the mad.
This group entered Nevermore without making any stops, uncaring about the many observers. Yet none dared approach them, fearing they could antagonize one of them.
Void Gods had no factions. They had no headquarters, no domains, no areas they controlled, or even buildings they owned. It was simply impossible for them to. Yet none questioned their power, for the Void Gods were known and feared. Every single Void God was a being at the pinnacle – a creature that not even Primordials would dare call themselves superior to.
Those touched by the void were few and far between, and seeing five gathered in one spot was already extraordinary… much less for it to be five individuals all blessed by Void Gods. This meant they had likely interacted with the void by laying eyes on their Patrons without averting their gazes. A truly foolish endeavor, where one could only expect madness or death to follow. Yet these people had managed to retain their egos.
One thing was for sure… the top factions had just gotten themselves another party to compete with. This party being “late” was no comfort to them either because if there was one type of magic that could break a scenario and allow a party to advance fast, it was magic with its Origin in the void.