Dungeon Raider System
Chapter 671 - 671: I won't back down

Before the Red thread of fate even made contact with Mason who as a last resort had sealed himself in what could be described as a stone egg, the nameless creature emitted a roar along with a beam of condensed flux energy above its head.

It blasted through the ceiling of the castle, the artificial sky of the dungeon, hundreds of meters of stone, gravel, densely packed dirt and lastly it also made its way through the lost city of San Antonio.

The power behind the blast was so immense it caused a pressure differential which immediately pulled the few remaining people inside the throne chamber and left behind a gaping hole in the shape of a cone that grew wider the closest it came to the exterior.

Some of the remaining cultists had remained close to the creature since they were relatively safe as long as they continued their unholy chant, but that didn't remain true as being close to the creature also meant being the first in line to get pulled outside the chamber.

With the beam still ongoing, they were disintegrated before even taking notice of what happened which actually could have been considered being lucky since that meant they didn't suffer any pain.

With Dash still active, Uriel watched helplessly as Mason's egg became more distant as it remained in place while he instead was getting sucked up by the powerful wind current.

Uriel swirled the detachable pommel of the Red thread of fate in a last ditch attempt to anchor himself, but in the end decided to change the pommel's trajectory as he noticed his jaguar spirit was also getting pulled outside.

'Keeping Bella alive should come first.' Uriel reminded himself the reason why he was fighting against the cultists in the first place. He would have preferred to get out of the place as soon as the situation got out of hand, but when Mason and Neve hurt Bella he had no choice but to fight until the bitter end. It wasn't a hot headed decision, but a cold rational calculative one.

Uriel proceeded to hurl the pommel at his summoned beast who caught it with a snap of its maw allowing Uriel to pull himself closer in mid air and saving the cryptid from getting engulfed in the powerful beam that faded into nothingness leaving a gap in the ceiling that revealed the night sky above their heads.

"Good boy." Uriel commended the jaguar spirit for his efforts to protect Bella, though it didn't show any joy. Once more the jaguar spirit had been summoned in the most dangerous of places, only this time the creature they were facing was even more fearsome than anything it could remember.

Uriel, the jaguar and a wounded Bella were among the only ones who made it out of the hole created by the beast alive, though they were ejected with such force they surpassed ground level and even the height from which any heavenly rank hunter could survive falling from. It could be considered a certain death if not for Uriel having a contingency plan for such occasions.

It was precisely on the dungeon he was expelled from where he vowed to always have enough trites to at least summon a parachute in case he found himself in a situation similar to the one he was on right now.

Though after putting it on he realized it couldn't possibly support their weight which meant he needed to cancel the summon of the jaguar, but he only did so after pulling it close to him and taking Bella in his arms.

She felt cold to the touch and covered in blood, but she kept her eyes nailed on him as they made their descent and with the last of her strength she summoned an air cushion that allowed them to touch ground with the grace of a feather.

By the time Uriel and Bella landed, Nika, Luna and Medusa were already waiting for him outside the dungeon. "Sorry boss, we failed." Nika informed with a pained grimace on her face.

Luna was hurried to treat Bella uncaring of the state of her hands which remained broken even after she shifted back into her human form. Bella's condition was much worse as she lost a great amount of blood due to her injuries and after her last effort to break the fall she had fallen unconscious which also meant she couldn't use her trait to breath anymore.

Among field doctors it was usually said that as long as the patient had a heartbeat they could probably save their lives, unless...

"She's completely out of flux energy... Uhm... she will die unless we get her to a med bay." Luna informed as she performed CPR on Bella.

"What are your orders, boss? Where should we retreat to?" Nika asked as she didn't know her way around the lost city like Uriel did, not that there was much of it.

"We are not retreating." Uriel sentenced without ever taking his eyes from the hole in the ground expecting the nameless creature to emerge from it any moment.

"Didn't you say we should do our best, but that we should retreat if things went wrong. What could be more wrong that all this?" Nika pointed her hands at her surroundings.

"Not everything is lost, I bet people noticed this explosion and they'll come. I know 'he' will come." Medusa declared thinking of Jon who in her mind remained as the most powerful hunter in the world.

It was obvious that after an explosion of that magnitude someone was bound to show up, be it Jon, Mister Scofield or even Sam. It was also possible that the army, the government or private corporations took charge of the situation, but no one present even thought they could do something against a creature that was akin to a natural disaster.

"Whatever, it's not our problem anymore." Nika shrugged.

"We are not retreating." Uriel gritted his teeth.

"Idiot, she will die." Luna said, still pressing her messed hands against Bella's chest.

"You might not like her much, but she's still one of us. We can't just leave her to die, she even saved you with the last drop of flux she had." Nika insisted as she noticed Uriel acting more weird than usual. It wasn't his apparent disregard for Bella's life what shook her, but the fact that he was willing to risk his own safety and that of his friends without anything to gain.

"It's precisely because of it that we can't retreat. Not after what they did to Bella, not after what happened to Atsa. We lost too much to return with the tail between our legs," being forced to kill so many cultists had also taken a toll on Uriel, but he decided to keep that to himself as he readied for his next move.

After Uriel's attempt to kill Mason his foot was bent in an awkward angle and he took the chance to snap it back into its position while he spoke without so much as grimacing. "after so long you should know better. No one will show up, no one cares about what happens to other cities, they don't even care about what happens to their neighbors unless they have something to gain.

Even in her condition, Bella did her best to save me. I'll take that as payment for what I'm about to do."

What remained of the lost city of San Antonio was dark, but when the creature crawled out of the pit of its own making it became even darker. To most it remained unseen, but Nika was able to witness the shadows quivering in every corner and Medusa listened to the sounds of cryptids running away in despair as Uriel spoke the following words.

"Luna, do you know how to kill a nephilim?" Uriel asked at the same time he handed gas lanterns to everyone and a thermal blanket for Bella, then he shot a flare at the middle of the pit revealing the unholy sight of the nameless creature who now seemed bigger and stronger than before.

It was as though its previous form was nothing but the skin and bones, despite it already looking intimidatingly powerful to begin with.

"That is... uhm..., two horns, six eyes...," Luna fumbled to herself before answering. "That is not a nephilim, it's a demon. Try holy water, sacred ground, salt, religious artifacts..."

"Religious artifacts!" Medusa's hopeful voice at the thought of Conrado's cross being of use was a faint light in a dark world, but it was a dark world indeed and all the light died down once Luna corrected herself.

"It doesn't have wings or stumps where there should be wings, it's not a demon," The last statement should have been one of relief as fighting such dreadful creatures was hunter's nightmare, yet facing a demon would have been way easier than the thing in front of them. "uhm... good luck."

Of all the words Luna could have possibly put together in a sentence, those were among the scariest. It meant she had nothing to offer, it meant that not even her vast knowledge in cryptids and folklore could provide any answers.

"It was worth the shot." Uriel said as he jumped down the hole using the slope as a slide that led directly into the senseless beast of overwhelming power.