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Chapter 101: Chaos
🕑 Added 2025-07-10 22:04:31 +0000 UTCVivi exited the dungeon, walking only with the power of ether.
The main dungeon had transformed. The hellish castle had turned into an ordinary ancient castle. The lava had turned to water, and the ethereal magma turned to daylight gems, lighting the paths dimly. All monsters, including the Skeleton King, had disappeared, leaving nothing behind. The oppressive ether in the air had calmed down. Vivi barely felt any ether at all.
The dungeon really was cleared. Nothing would be respawning anymore. Zand was done.
The upper levels of the dungeon were dark, having lost their ethereal light. The bricks on the ground were cracked, and the lamps were falling apart. Without ether, the dungeon appeared long abandoned, like an ancient ruin.
There was no time to admire. Vivi and Aang stepped up to the first level. Vivi walked to the shoreline and called, “Eem, are you here? We need to go!”
She received no response. Eem wasn’t anywhere.
“Eem, now is not the time to hide!” Vivi shouted.
She stepped deeper, but Aang placed a hand on her shoulder and stopped her. “We’ll find the fiend later,” Aang said. “Escaping is more serious. If there’s an ambush already outside, frankly, we’re dead.”
Vivi bit her lip, though she agreed with him. She followed him up, back to the hidden dungeon.
“Keep your aura to a minimum,” Aang said.
Vivi tried not to frown. Using less ether would be difficult, considering she was standing only with the power of the wisps in her legs. But she complied, limping after Aang with willpower alone.
The exit of the main dungeon—the one that led to the fang tanker’s arena—was open. Vivi and Aang approached nervously. In an ideal situation, the exit was empty and undiscovered for a swift escape back to the hub. If guards were present, Vivi and Aang would have to fight their way out, killing any witnesses.
If an ambush was already prepared with all Stewards present… Well, Vivi and Aang were likely dead.
As Vivi stepped closer to the exit, voices sounded from outside. Aang clicked his tongue.
“He’s dead!” a shocked man’s voice said. “A guard is dead? The runesword is just left here?”
A woman responded. “Take it. You know how to wield a sword. But don’t show it to anyone.”
Aang paused. “They sound familiar…” He focused on listening.
“We’re dead if they find the sword,” the man said.
“Aang has done shadier business,” the woman said. “I know for certain.”
“That’s Rosa,” Aang said. “From the Union. What is she doing here?”
A nimrod? Vivi thought. Nimrods found the main dungeon?
“Something has gone wrong,” Aang said. “This is serious.”
Aang revealed himself, stepping up the stairs with his usual confidence.
The two Union members froze in place, seeing their leader. Vivi didn’t recognize either one. Rosa was a tall woman whose identity was mostly hidden by a brown cloak. The face underneath her hood was strong and rough.
The boy, judging from looks, was one of the younger nimrods Vivi had seen. He had short hair and a white tunic turned grey. He was shorter than Vivi, though he looked determined to fight.
“Aang!” the woman gushed. “W-what?”
“Rosa,” Aang said calmly. “Why are you here? Is something happening?”
Rosa stood there in shock for a moment. “Yes!” she said. “Zand is being attacked. And it looks like the main dungeon got cleared. It, uh… Did you just defeat the main boss?”
“No, that was someone else,” Aang said. “What do you mean Zand is being attacked?”
“A boss monster breached the walls,” Rosa said. “It’s chaos up there. All guards and Stewards have been called to fight. The hub is being totally overrun. Nimrods were ordered to fight as well. It’s a massacre. Hundreds are dead already. In the dungeon… A bit of a riot happened. The double doors leading to the main path have been breached.”
A boss monster breached the walls… Vivi thought. That must be our Twilight Shaman.
Lucius laughed. “Serves them right.”
Aang stopped to think for a second. “Rosa, Patwyn, pretend like you didn’t see us,” he said. “Zand will never be the same after today. If you stay alive, I’ll reward you greatly. Vivi, let’s go.”
Aang moved past the two baffled Union members, ascending into the fangling lair. The upper dungeon was cleared as well. Webs had disappeared, and Vivi didn’t feel ether in the walls. It was true; monsters stopped respawning when the main boss was cleared.
The further they ascended, the more panicked nimrods they came across. A man in glasses ran past, his eyes wide, as if believing anything he came across would kill him. Aang let him pass.
Watching him go, Vivi had a bad taste in her mouth. Where’s Eem? They didn’t find her on the way up, and they didn’t encounter a single guard. There was no need to use crawl spaces. The only people they came across were nimrods, all running from something.
As Rosa had said, the double doors connecting the dungeon entrance and the main dungeon were open. The guards protecting the doors had been knocked unconscious, their runeswords stolen. Nobody was watching over the doors, giving nimrods free access to the hidden dungeon.
The screams were loud enough to make Vivi’s head hurt. Everyone was shouting all at once. It was hard to pick up sentences. Vivi heard multiple instances of, “Twilight Shaman!” and “Get out of the way!”
Vivi and Aang stepped past into the dungeon’s entrance room, which was packed with nimrods. Everyone was rushing deeper into the dungeon, as if running from something. More nimrods were trying to get inside from the hub, but two men wielding runeswords blocked the entrance. Those two didn’t seem to be guards.
Squeezing past the crowd toward the hub, Vivi felt as if she was stepping into another dungeon. Hostile ether oozed out from all around the hub.
After clearing the crowd and stepping into the hub, Vivi finally had a clear view of the hundreds of monsters enveloping Zand’s hub in total warfare. Vivi paused. Ahead of her was the most gruesome battlefield of monsters and blood she had ever seen.
Hundreds of reanimated monsters filled the hub. Death rabbits destroyed buildings, crushing stalls to bits. Merchandise and rubble were scattered everywhere. Ether sticks walked around, lazily attacking anything nearby. Surge hounds chased nimrods in packs, killing stragglers. Clawed spiders pillaged anything left behind.
Some nimrods fought back in a futile attempt to stay afoot, but with less than three hundred ether, they didn’t stand a chance against anything but the ether sticks.
Guards with runeswords were the only ones who could truly fight back. Four guards surrounded a death rabbit. One of them poked the monster in the back, enraging it. The rabbit swung wide, landing a clean hit on one of the guards, blowing him back and sending his sword clattering away.
He collapsed and didn’t get up. An ether stick crushed his head.
Ordinary death rabbits wouldn’t have posed a problem to someone with a runesword. The monsters wielded a lot more ether now, clearly powered up by the presence of their leader.
The Twilight Shaman commanded its army from the very center of the hub while fighting five Stewards at once. The green flames of its ethereal robe were blindingly bright. The Twilight Shaman seemed to suck all light from its surroundings, turning Zand into a dark facility of rubble. The boss didn’t seem even slightly concerned as it defended against the Stewards.
They were all lesser Stewards, wielding runeswords and bows. They didn’t stand a chance. Any attempt they made at attacking was immediately pushed back by the green flames. Getting close to the monster with swords was impossible.
Ranged attacks weren’t much better. The archer Steward shot an ethereal arrow. The Twilight Shaman grabbed the arrow mid-air, then threw it back at the Steward. He attempted to dodge but wasn’t fast enough—the arrow pierced his left shoulder, leaving a gaping hole behind.
The Stewards stood no chance, and they seemed to be realizing this. One of them picked up the injured archer and jumped to safety. The rest of the Stewards dispersed as well.
The Twilight Shaman didn’t chase. It calmly floated in the middle of the hub as its monsters destroyed buildings, reaping nimrods and guards alike. Anything that fought back was destroyed.
Vivi stepped out of the way, letting nimrods escape into the dungeon. Two nimrods with stolen runeswords protected the entrance, killing any monsters that tried to enter. Their reserves were growing as they cut monsters down.
Vivi stood with Aang, hoping that the Union leader would have ideas, but he seemed just as baffled. “I don’t see Uundref,” he remarked. “And none of the Hollows are here. I need to check on the Union. Feel free to come with me.”
Aang waited for a moment, but when Vivi didn’t follow, he left. She had completed what she came to Zand for. Her debts were almost paid, and Zand’s facility was cleared. Vivi had taken the main boss’s drops.
Now she just had to get out—she wouldn’t get a better opportunity. She took one step out into the hub when someone spoke behind her.
“There she is,” a commanding man’s voice said. “Hey, murderer girl!”
Vivi turned. Three demons in black cloaks faced her. One of them was the tall demon from Bwern’s gang, the one whose chest was covered in gauze. To the right was a bulky, red-skinned demon.
In the middle was Bwern himself. He held Eem by her hair with a disgusting grin on his face as the fiend struggled and cried for help.
