After explaining that I am not a “horror” to the giant woman and her blue companion , he seemed to take it all with a grain of salt. Studying me up and down he made a puzzled facial expression.

  “where are my manners” said the white and blue one

  Shrinking down to match my size I could finally see him in full detail. His friend followed suit , or his twin If I remembered correctly. They looked beautifully crafted, from the gold and black to the white and blue they resembled actual statues given life. Though there was a lot I didn't know about denizens so I opted to keep my mouth shut about their appearance.

  “So dungeon raider are you? I’ve heard about them from the master back when I served it. Savage beast on two legs that kill for power”

  That wasn’t exactly what I expected him to say but that about summed it up .Our reputation was the contributing reason that we’ve always had to fight first and talk after , thinking back to how I destroyed the last floor I couldn't pretend that it was undeserved.

  “Uhh basically but “ - I explained to him all the details of the journey so far making sure to emphasize the part of peace and what not. It took a while but he struck me as the more level headed on in the group , it was rather refreshing to have another not incredibly violent person in front of me.

  “So you’ve just escaped a floor with only birds and now have a few as your citizens , killing the rest who wouldn't comply? In what ways does that sound non violent , you would appear as another figure conquering whatever he pleases” He said with his hand placed on his chin

  “Yes that's how it would appear … but I hope you understand how it is. It seems like the first option is always a battle of some sort , if they were to let me leave without bloodshed i would’ve left”

  After some consideration he nodded his head “I understand . Now tell me what should I make of this situation?”

  I thought for a second, how should I frame the conversation. We had a few options: either we went our separate ways only meeting each other , aided each other if we shared a common goal , or battled each other and option three wasn’t my intention. Maybe I should ask them about themselves first before I make a decision.

  “I don’t know yet right now my summon dragon is searching for food and my summon demon is protecting my citizens. If i could acquire more information about yourselves first before i make a decision i would rather appreciate it”

  Over the days , yes days . My etiquette and conversing skills have boasted a sharp incline. I was getting better at talking to people , not that I was bad to begin with but having your life on the line with every word you spoke , made you much more aware of what message you were trying to project.

  “You wish to know about us? That's a first , ok since you’ve been so generous with your tales i could explain a few things about ourselves It's not like you one of the horrors so why not”

  Horror this horror that i'm going to find a good opportunity to infer what that was exactly.

  “ Our names are Ayred and Tadhiela Hervyre , We were servants of the porcelain descent up until a few days ago.Once one being split into two my sister is the original while I am the split.

  We were given different specialties and personalities in order to tackle different task. At first we served without complaint but our god has become more and more demanding, and it's even starting to grate us his most loyal followers .

  For countless years we’ve been fighting these creatures that come from the thoughts and dreams of the inhabitants of this floor. We thought you were one but that is highly unlikely unless you are an extremely powerful one. You are simply too small and seemingly articulate , usually they come in the big and dumb category. Anyway we’ve been killing every citizen of the floor in order to stop our slavery That’s about it “

  so mass genocide ,why is that always the common denominator? Gabla was by far the most peaceful denizen I've met but is also the weakest.There probably is a correlation somewhere in there . Every other one has had their hands dirtied in some way , myself included. I was for stopping murder but their situation was complicated. So they had no problem with their role before but their benefactor is being more demanding? In what ways I wondered , what were they leaving out or lying about . I wasn’t naive enough to trust them completely .

  As smart as he seemed , he was obviously closed minded to his situation, probably tunnel vision. Then again what did I know.

  It frustrated me how power always led to an abuse of it but i wasn’t the arbiter of truth my perspective was underdeveloped.

  Also who was I to judge though I was in a similar boat. Though I wondered if they thought about the fact that descents could spawn in a physical form , didn’t they ever consider that they themselves would just be hunted down by this porcelain descent?

  “That… uh sucks… have you ever thought that your master may pay you a visit” i asked concerningly

  Nothing would be worse than that avatar of a god destroying this place . In fact with the crisis of rations that might be the worst possible outcome.Why couldn't I just go somewhere , where magical teddy bears and stuffed animals ruled the land and we were offered crumpets and tea .Knowing my luck id be some sick perversion of a paradise so i shrugged off the thought.

  “No i haven't “ the quiet golden haired one said from beside her twin her facial expression was speaking for her. It was changing throughout our conversation with her “other half” as she put it. spoke

  “On many occasions and I'm surprised we’ve gotten this far but what did it matter? Believe me when i say this but slavery was worse than death” Ayred said

  I could sympathize , thinking back to when I was powerless , I could gauge what they were going through. But I wouldn't help them slaughter an entire floor , even though hypocritically I’ve done that a number of times.

  “You know I want to help you, but I don't want to kill everyone on this floor. Isn’t there another way?” I asked them with a pained expression , why was it always this

  “Another way? No, are you stupid or something?” Tadhiela asked me not out of mockery but genuine interest

  “Look around you bud things are constantly dying over and over and over and over and over again. Trust me on this one i’ve seen it so many times. I'm sick of it , that's the whole reason we’re breaking out of our bondage in the first place. Most sane things don't enjoy killing even if they are predators or superior beings .What we want above all else is just to spend eternity with each other , .. and if it takes death that's what we’ll deal“ that last part said without emotion

  My mind flashed back from the highs I got from destroying the denizens of the prior floor but i shaked it out of my mind. That was the statue's work… it had to be. I didn’t have a lot of resentment in my heart but there was a special bit of hatred reserved for the dungeon master for subjecting me to this life. Lets just let the thought go and continue I said to myself.

  “For once my sister is right, in this life you needed strength however you may have gotten it. “

  He took one look at my scythe and said “That obviously doesn't need to be explained to you, and but you know … i'm open to suggestions , perhaps we’ve been trapped here so long that our minds are trapped as well “

  “Mhh do you really believe so brother? I suppose if you think so” she asked placing full trust in her younger sibling

  To me she seemed hot headed but perhaps i didn’t know her as well as i imagined. First impressions were the worst impressions , so it's better not to assume her character.

  “Thank you… well “ I paused

  Fuck i dind’t actually have an answer , wait… i think i did

  “Do these “horrors” hunt you ?” i asked questioning their motives

  “They don't “ Tadhiela responded

  “So why not just ignore them and let the denizens deal with them on their own and you just have to find a way to the next floor”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “Are you telling us to run? “ Tadhiela asked not very receptive to the idea

  “Thats… mhh… how would it work as you know monsters can't leave the floor” Ayred asked intrigued

  “WAIT! I see exactly what you mean now, you said earlier that you have moved citizens of your kingdom from the last floor to this one and obviously the one beside you is proof.Are you saying that you would move us?” he said in a eureka moment

  I wasn’t saying that but that was a better idea than mine. I'm all for taking the credit though.

  “Precisely My kingdom is in another dimension , My demon and friend Lethero can spawn the portal inside the gate making the denizens able to pass through. Normally yes monsters cannot just leave the floor but with a little spatial manipulation they can.”

  Looking back and forth between the gray creature that i was and the bird that clearly shouldn't be here Ayred said “ very well take us back to this kingdom of yours”

  “What?! You really trust these strangers, brother?” Tadhiela said now standing over us who were crouching

  Calmly Ayred replied “trust is a strong word but how else can you explain their presence? It's more than likely true “

  This guy was a lot smarter than he looked, the scary part is that he made it look easy. As someone with experience making decisions I know firsthand that it wasn’t easy.

  “Ok it would be simple enough i can teleport us back to base camp”

  “Teleport? “ he said with an raised eyebrow , that actually seemed to interest him.

  “????????? “ A ghastly voice said from behind me

  “Yes teleport” I responded back without a care .

  Feeling a hand grab me from my waist all that I knew was I was in the air. Oolia landed with me by the side of our newly acquired temporary teammates. Oh shit it was an enemy.

  A portal of orange black and fluorescent colors as big as the sky itself filled the land. From this portal showed a deity clad in dull green armor, it had a helmet attached with a black ponytail , though this wasn’t smooth but spiky. It had four eyes shining white along with four arms each pair holding a spear. The very air around it contorted and I could feel its power from here. If this was a horror then I could see why they were so concerned about it.

  “Are these the creatures that you were talking about ?” I asked Tadhiela and ayred

  “No this is not… no clue what it is “ Tadhiela said back “ no clue what it is

  “ ????? ????? ??? ??? ????????? ??? ?? ???? ???? ? ?? ?? ?????? ?? ??? ??? ???????? ??? ???? ?? ???????? ???? ?????. ????????? ???? ??? ?? ?????? ??? ????? ???????? “

  “??????? ?? ???”

  -At the same time - ( Valentia pov )

  -Surrounded by crystalline flowers I woke up from my slumber . My head was throbbing last. I remembered Eric and I were back to back fighting some type of creature. The creature had four arms and green armor and it was ridiculously powerful. The team stood absolutely no chance of beating it. It was terrifying to be so overwhelmingly crushed.Flashes of the battle went through my mind , my head was throbbing and my arms hurt . I was still laying down when I pushed myself off the ground that was surprisingly soft.

  Clank

  This might have been due to the fact of me lying in a field of crystalline flowers.They iridescent shimmer shine beautifully making this almost like a dream scape.The only thing that made me frown was the fact that in the perfect starry sky there exists a blemish too huge to ignore. There was a huge hole or portal whichever you would like to describe it , that same portal is where the beast that called itself an avatar of the porcelain god came through.

  BOOM

  I saw my spear somewhere in the distance, I could barely make it out due to the colors of my spear and the flowers matching so well together. Honestly my whole body ached from getting thrashed around , i wanted to just lay down and enjoy the peace if only for once in my life. Laying my head back down, that's exactly what I did. My left leg was injured so it's not like I could be of use to my team and realistically either they lived or they died.

  Clank

  Ugh… what was making those awful sounds CLank clank BOOM FWOOSH

  Whipping my head back up I recognized those sounds anywhere those were the sounds of combat.

  Combat!? Calling my spear towards me , I used it as a support beam and slowly limped towards the sound of fighting. Ht ht i moved slowly , feeling a pain in my leg the grew worse whenever I put a little pressure on it.

  Were Eric , Yona and the rest still fighting? I wouldn't let that creature kill my only friends in this world, I would help them however I could.

  Hiding behind one of the crystal pillars I peered over and saw something I never would’ve expected. Creatures lots of them, one was a white bird , the other was an armored red skeleton? Then there were snakes, both beautifully colored. One black and gold , while the other white and blue. All four of these beings were battling with the avatar we fought earlier. Did that mean that … it was finished with my party?

  “Alioth! Somethings behind that pillar , Its power level is way to fucking high to hide itself”” The bird by the skeletons side screeched

  Eeek i was discovered!? I hid behind the pillar removing my face from view.

  As I hid the skeleton creature appeared in front of me .

  “...... no way …. Valentina??? … is that you? What are you doing on the fourth floor ” the talking skelton said to me

  WHAT THE FUCK my face contorted in fear , the thing in front of my was insanely powerful. To even be trading blows with that thing that wiped my squad single handedly , showed that it was on a level that I just wasn’t on. Fear filled my entire being and I almost dropped my weapon. Until a hallucination of Yona's voice whispered in my ear “stand and FIGHT!”

  Gripping my weapon, my eyes narrowed , I wouldn't die like a worm regardless of how powerful this creature was. I knew i had no strength but i supposed all of it and slapped the creature in front of me hurting my arm.

  “... relax Valentina .. it's me … remember that F ranker? Alioth”

  Huh? F ranker? The fact that this thing knew my name was more disturbing than anything .

  “Remember you betrayed me at the beginning of the dungeon? , the F ranker Alioth” It said

  … WHAT, looking at the thing in front of me , this could-, this couldn’t be true. That pathetic piece of garbage? Distasteful lies made me frown but what could I expect from a monster, was it playing with its food? Did this thing think it would make a fool out of the sacred spear?

  “You’re not even human like that twerp was, just kill me i won't be manipulated “ I said resolutely

  BOOM something came barreling into the pillar next to the skeleton. It was the bird monster that gave away my position. That bird was more powerful than me as well. This was floor 546 and the monsters were more powerful than I could even comprehend . My squad and I pushed my luck and now we were doomed to die and the hands of an

  “Horror” i said softly

  “Ugh melodramatic? Valentina it's me , don't worry my friends are coming to save you when we defeat this thing you can tell me what happened . ok? “

  With that the skeleton creature whose power level that was far beyond SSS level went to the bird like creature

  “Oolia hold my hand “ the skeleton said

  That voice… it did remind me of Alioth NO… it had to be a form of mimicry , it's only been 3 weeks since we entered the dungeon… right? F rank to beyond SSS rank in that short amount of time simply wasn’t possible . Who cares for now I was spared , I guess if this thing didn’t want to kill me but keep me as a pet or something it would be better than death. Would it though?

  I could still off myself to die a dignified death.

  Standing up the bird walked over to me . she was very tall “:Alioth isn't that the bitch who backstabbed you? Kill her! Oh yea - you aren't like that “

  Bending over and putting her face directly in front of mine she looked through my elfhood and put her claws to graze my neck drawing blue blood. The type of anger in her eyes was unnatural but i was a full fledged warrior things like dirty gazes didn’t scare me… completely.

  “Don't think i don't know who you are , oooh you are sooooooo lucky Alioth is so generous and such a good person my god i would-

  “Enough Oolia with antagonizing Valentina , we have more pressing concerns . I'm sure she has had her own share of struggles. Besides it’s the past Assist me and the twins to destroy this fiend , Zhil should be here soon”

  Balling her fist she just let it go. Her whole tone and posture change into a more cheerful one

  “Of course Ali! “ She responded cheerfully

  Giving me the side eye she spat on me. What an ingrate I thought , but its not like I had the strength to oppose the monsters here anyway.

  Walking towards her skeleton lover? Who knows really but he chanted “empower” a few times and she joined the fray. Her power was staggering , punching and kicking. I could recognize that she was using high level martial techniques. What a ferocious fighter , every time the avatar swung its weapon she would parry it bare handed. Even our monk failed to do that. Appearing next to me the skeleton put its hands on my shoulders. Did the thing plan to violate me? Shuddering when I looked into its cold pitch black eyes , I saw something more than nothing but a void darker than black.

  “Do your worst creature, i cannot be broken “ i said

  “Ehh… “ sighing the skeleton shook its head

  I felt something enter into my body. Was it absorbing my life essence? No it was healing me?

  After a few minutes my leg stopped hurting and my strength returned. This thing truly was a monster , this level of power as akin to a demigod

  “You healed me creature… why? “

  “It's me Alioth , a lot of things happened but I'm not a human anymore. I can explain after we kill this thing “ he said nonchalantly

  This voice , hearing it up close there was no doubt in my mind it was Alioth . That runt that i tried to bamboozle a few weeks ago , no fucking way . Thinking about how i betrayed him earlier fear entered my being , why would he keep me alive to torture me? I had my strength back should i go for a sneak attack.

  Suddenly a black shadow appeared above us and a massive dragon came meteoring down, almost crushing me.

  “Zhil finally god, Is leto safe and the villagers”

  “They are , is that really your main concern here .If you allow those 3 to die we will be overwhelmed by that avatar of the porcelain descent , come let us join them”

  “Yea i know “ Alioth said while hopping on the dragons back and bam they vanished

  Peaking my head from behind the pillar again I saw that they were already in the battle . Was that speed or teleportation? Watching the team of 5 assault the porcelain avatar It was almost mind boggling. I considered myself to be at the pinnacle of power in this world but seeing what was in front of me showed me I was nothing. The dragon was especially intimidating. The fire breath could be felt just by looking at it , if I stared too long i felt like i would lose my mind .

  “ ???? ????! ??“ the being that demolished my team said

  “ ?? ??? ?????? ????? ??? ???? ??? ??? , ???? ??“ it whined like a child

  “????? ??? ????? ???? ? ????? ??? ??? ????!?? ????? ??? ????? ??????? ?????”

  “Shut up bitch! LEARN YOUR PLACE” the all white shining bird creature screamed back dropping a kick to the bruised avatar in the back of its head sending it barreling towards the ground

  “HAH nice one Harpy , i'm starting to like YOU! '' the black and gold snake said while knocking the avatar into the white snake which then proceeded to knock it to the dragon .

  The dragon's horns glew and the sky darkened , next a beam of dark flames pummeled the avatar.

  “????!” the four armed enemy said

  Shrugging off the beam that looked powerful enough to incinerate anything , it placed both sets of its hand together and fused all its weapons into one super massive glaive .

  “ ???'V? ????? ??? ?????? ????? ??????? ???? ??? ?????????? ?? ????? ??????? ? ??? ??? ? ????? “

  -Bonus content

  (I have an animation in the works!!)