Chapter 248: Next, Mental Destruction Dungeon

Deep within the subterranean, lightless throne room, Raze slowly turned his hand over, his red eyes locking onto the microscopic cut etched across his palm. A single drop of crimson blood swelled at the edge of the wound before falling to the cold stone floor.

?"Hehehe... He doesn’t have the strength to injure me; those daggers of his did this." he muttered, a low, rumbling chuckle vibrating through the cavern as a dark smirk carved its way across his face.

?He closed his fist, the sheer density of his aura instantly sealing the wound shut.

?"What a guy. He might just be the one I am searching for... When the time is right, we will meet again, Asher Aetheldawn."

____

?[Back To Asher.]

?For a full ten minutes, Asher stood perfectly still upon the rushing surface of the river. The freezing wind whipped at his soaked clothes and tossed his black hair across his forehead, but his golden eyes remained unfocused, staring blankly at the horizon as his mind raced to process the shifted paradigm of the world.

?’There is a half Apex Rank; does that mean Apex Ranks or above are in this world? This is very strange.’ He thought, his brow furrowing. The existence of such untouchable beings completely upended his previous calculations. He moved his piercing gaze across his surroundings—endless stretches of wild forests, jagged canyons, and rushing waterways.

?This was only the second time Asher had ventured beyond the protective borders of the city. The first time, he had been flanked by Marianne and Denise and hadn’t strayed far from the perimeter. But now, after a high-speed, hundred-mile aerial chase...

?"I am lost." Asher muttered, closing his eyes with a quiet, self-deprecating sigh.

?’Luckily, I can locate my wives with Soul Link, so I can easily make my way back to the city... But...’

?He opened his eyes, the golden irises flashing with sudden, cold resolve, and stretched his arm forward over the open water.

?"Use your time wisely. Rather than going back, I can simply enter the Mental Destruction Dungeon and get Juliana’s cure... Also."

?At his mental command, a grotesque, fossilized skull key materialized in the empty air before him, closely followed by a rolled parchment map and an archaic, white key. The artifacts hovered gently above his outstretched palm, radiating a heavy, ancient pressure.

?"The map of the Holy Goddess’s Temple, with its key."

?{Holy Goddess’s Temple’s Map description: The map holds the blood of the Holy Goddess, and once activated, it will summon the pathway to the Holy Goddess’s Temple.}

?"Huh? It’s that easy? If I can get to the temple, I can unlock it with the key... Not bad at all." Asher murmured, weighing the map in his hand before his gaze shifted resolutely to the sinister, skull-shaped dungeon key.

?"Juliana comes first."

?Without another word of hesitation, Asher pulled his phone from his inventory. His thumbs blurred across the screen, sending messages to Kelly, Juliana, Sara, Viper, and Grayson. After setting his affairs in order, he tucked the device away and focused entirely on the grim artifact.

?"System."

?{Activating Dungeon’s key.}

?BOOOOM!!!

?The skull key violently detonated, exploding into a thick, suffocating cloud of blood-red smoke that rapidly expanded across the river’s surface. Five seconds later, the smoke violently condensed, tearing the fabric of reality apart to forge a monolithic, nightmarish gate composed entirely of fused, charred bones directly in front of Asher.

?"....?!"

?He stood his ground, watching as the colossal double doors groaned open. From the stygian depths of the gateway, an ear-splitting chorus of countless, agonizing screams tore out, echoing violently across the water and briefly stunning Asher with the sheer volume of torment.

?"I haven’t even entered yet, and it’s already welcoming me." He smirked, entirely unfazed by the psychological assault.

?With a simple thought, shadows began bleeding directly out of the light around him. A pitch-black cloak woven from absolute darkness materialized over his shoulders, wrapping around his shoulders.

?"With my Supreme-Tier Cloak of Shadows, I am ready to face all challenges."

?He took a decisive step forward, crossing the threshold into the abyssal passage. The twin sentient daggers immediately shot forward, taking up defensive flanking positions behind him just as the massive bone doors violently slammed shut.

?The instant the gate sealed, the massive structure vibrated violently against the water’s surface before shattering into a million pieces of ash.

?The very next moment, the illusion masking the wilderness fractured. The clear, peaceful blue river Asher had been standing on instantly dissolved, revealing its true, horrifying form—a thick, coagulated sea of boiling blood, choked with the rotting, mangled corpses of thousands of monsters and humans alike.

Deep within the crushing depths of the now-bloody sea, hidden among a mountain of bloated corpses, a massive, grotesque red eye snapped open, staring in sheer terror at the surface where the human had just been.

?’This human... he was caught in my illusion, but the moment that cloak appeared, my illusion shattered; luckily, he didn’t look back... I should keep hiding here.’ The ancient anomaly thought, its massive form trembling in the dark as the red eye quickly squeezed shut, terrified of drawing the attention of whatever monster now wore that supreme artifact.

____

?[A separate, unknown world.]

?WHOOSH!!

?High above a floor of polished, flawless marble, the pristine spatial fabric tore open with a violent shriek. A jagged gateway materialized, and from its chaotic depths, Darion—the former god’s Chosen, the very human Asher had slaughtered in the dungeon—was violently ejected.

?He crashed heavily onto the hard marble, his once-pristine white hair matted with grime and dried blood, his hollow red eyes staring blankly at the floor in a state of absolute, broken despair.

?"What happened to you?!"

?A voice, resonating with a terrifying, melodic authority that shook the very foundations of the hall, boomed from above.

?Darion flinched violently. He forced his head up to see a towering, breathtakingly beautiful giant lady seated upon a colossal, gold-wrought throne. She stared down at him with undisguised disgust.

?"Goddess!! I deserve death!!" Darion wailed, his pride utterly shattered as he scrambled to drop to his knees, pressing his forehead against the cold marble as thick tears of blood rolled down his cheeks.

?The Goddess leaned forward. Her flowing, luminescent white hair cascaded like a waterfall of starlight, and her terrifying silver eyes narrowed, pinning Darion to the floor with physical, crushing pressure.

?"Explain yourself."

?"I lost the God’s Eye, and the Cloak of Shadows!! They both recognized a new master!" Darion screamed into the floor, his body shaking uncontrollably.

?"WHAT!!!!"

?The Goddess shrieked, surging to her feet. Her voice triggered a catastrophic sonic boom that rocked the entire extravagant, temple-like hall, sending massive, jagged spiderweb cracks racing up the pristine marble pillars and across the vaulted ceiling.

?"How dare you lose something so precious!!! Two at that!!!" She screamed.

?Without moving a muscle, an invisible, crushing telekinetic force clamped around Darion’s throat, violently ripping him from the floor and suspending him mid-air. He choked and clawed at his neck as he was levitated upward to meet her furious gaze.

?"As an Ex-Rank in an SSS-RANK Dungeon, who has the power to kill you?!" She yelled, her silver eyes flaring with divine wrath.

?"He is despicable and ambushed me!!" Darion yelled with all his remaining breath, desperately trying to justify his catastrophic failure.

?"He?! Don’t tell me a human killed you!!!" The Goddess’s face twisted in pure, unadulterated disbelief and outrage.

?Darion fell silent, choking on his humiliation. No matter how he framed it, he was still just a human. All of his overwhelming power, his arrogance, and his very will belonged entirely to the Goddess. He had viewed himself as a god among mortals, standing above everything and everyone—yet a lowly human from a backwater world had still completely dismantled and defeated him.

?"Tell me one reason I shouldn’t kill you!!" she demanded, the telekinetic grip tightening until Darion’s neck bones began to groan.

?"I left a mark on him!!" Darion yelled, the desperate confession echoing off the cracked walls of the grand hall.

?The Goddess abruptly paused. The killing intent rolling off her frame halted, and she stared at the dangling human with a small, calculating frown. With a mere thought, Darion was violently yanked forward through the air, hovering just inches in front of her massive, beautiful, and terrifying face.

?Her silver eyes flared, piercing straight through his physical form, diving directly into his soul to rip through his memories of the battle. She witnessed the ambush, the blinding speed of the black-haired human, and the parasitic soul-mark Darion had managed to attach to him upon death.

?She slowly nodded her head, releasing a breath that chilled the air.

?"Alright! Once you fully gain back your powers, my pet in that small world will open a gateway... You must retrieve what belongs to me!"

?Darion gasped for air as the pressure released, bowing his head in absolute, terrified submission.

?"I obey!!"