Chapter 41: The First Steps

  Blue flames erupted around Lance as Kytus's presence intensified. The ancient Cerberus hadn't physically appeared yet, but his power filled the volcanic canyon, making reality itself bend away from its heat. The air vibrated with accumulated energy, shimmering like fabric caught in a storm wind. Each blue flame carried intricate patterns within its core - ancient symbols that seemed to predate written language itself.

  "YOU SEEK MY ALLEGIANCE," Kytus's voice rippled through superheated air, each word causing rivulets of magma to dance along the canyon walls. The voice didn't come from any specific direction but emanated from the flames themselves, as if fire had learned to speak. "YOU CLAIM TO CARRY THE ECHO OF DEEPER POWERS. OF THE TRUE KINGS WHO ONCE WALKED BETWEEN REALMS."

  Lance's maniacal grin never wavered as blue flames danced around him, testing his defenses. His elemental markings pulsed in response, shadow energy meeting ancient fire in small explosions of purple-black light. Where the two powers touched, reality seemed to thin, creating momentary windows into somewhere older and darker.

  "I don't merely claim it," Lance's laugh carried that edge of deadly amusement. "I demonstrate it with every evolution, every transformation. The Dark Masters know it. The Primordial Gods fear it." His silver hair caught the blue light, transforming it into shadow that writhed with purpose.

  "WORDS," Kytus's flames intensified, turning white-hot at their cores while remaining ice-blue at their edges - a contradiction that shouldn't exist in natural fire. "I HAVE HEARD MANY WORDS FROM WOULD-BE KINGS." The blue fire formed images of previous challengers - powerful figures now reduced to memory. Some wore armor bearing divine sigils, others channeled energies that had been forgotten by modern mages. All had failed.

  "THREE TRIALS WILL PROVE YOUR WORTH. THREE CHALLENGES TO SHOW IF YOU TRULY REMEMBER THE DEEP WAYS." The ground beneath Lance cracked as Kytus's power continued to build, releasing gases that smelled of ancient worlds and older deaths.

  Fenris and the shadow-infused salamander watched intently as Kytus's flames formed a shape in the air - the unmistakable outline of a massive structure. The spectral architecture appeared piece by piece: soaring towers with impossible angles, walls that seemed to breathe, gates designed not to keep enemies out but to ensure nothing escaped from within.

  "YOUR FIRST TRIAL," the ancient beast declared, "CONQUER THE ETERNAL TOMB."

  Lance's elemental markings pulsed with recognition. Even he knew the reputation of that dungeon. Whispered legends spoke of entire armies that had ventured inside, only for their own corpses to join the ranks of its defenders. The structure appeared in no official adventuring guides, mentioned only in forbidden texts and ancient warnings.

  "The SS-rank undead stronghold," he mused, his grin never faltering. "How interesting."

  "NOT MERELY CONQUER IT," Kytus clarified, his blue flames painting images of the dungeon's depths - levels that descended well past where natural law should allow, chambers that existed in multiple dimensions simultaneously. "CLAIM IT AS YOUR DOMAIN. TRANSFORM IT AS YOU HAVE TRANSFORMED OTHERS. PROVE THAT YOUR TOUCH TRULY CHANGES WHAT DIVINE LAW HAS BOUND."

  The shadow-infused salamander responded with ancient words that made reality shiver, its scales rippling with patterns that mirrored Kytus's flames. Fenris's ears pricked forward, the shadow wolf's evolved form growing more substantial as he absorbed the conversation's meaning.

  "The salamander asks why this specific dungeon," the shadow wolf translated, his voice carrying ancient weight. "Kytus says it holds secrets from before the divine restrictions. That its undead nature makes it... resistant to certain changes."

  Lance's laugh echoed through the canyon, causing small avalanches of volcanic stone. "A challenge worthy of a king, then. And the other trials?"

  "COMPLETE THIS FIRST," Kytus's power began to recede, blue flames pulling back into the volcanic rock like water into thirsty ground. "RETURN WHEN THE ETERNAL TOMB BEARS YOUR MARK. THEN WE SHALL SPEAK OF THE NEXT CHALLENGE."

  As the blue flames faded, Lance turned to Fenris, his maniacal grin promising beautiful devastation. "Well, old friend. It seems we have a dungeon to locate."

  The journey to the Eternal Tomb took them away from volcanic terrain into something far different. With each day of travel, the landscape transformed, growing progressively bleaker. Vibrant forests gave way to twisted woodlands where trees stood frozen in silent screams. Even these eventually surrendered to barren plains where vegetation withered until even the hardiest plants refused to grow.

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  The sky itself seemed to lose color, fading from azure to pallid blue, then to a perpetual twilight gray that made shadows stretch in wrong directions. Birds disappeared from the air, insects fell silent, and the very soil beneath their feet became ashen and sterile.

  "The boundary markers should be ahead," Fenris noted as they traveled through a valley where nothing had lived for centuries. The ground was littered with bones - not just of animals, but of creatures that had no classification in modern bestiaries. "Though few approach this place willingly."

  Lance's elemental markings pulsed as the air grew increasingly heavy with accumulated death energy. The atmosphere itself felt thick, like breathing through wet cloth, carrying the scent of ancient decay and something sweeter underneath - the smell of preservation magics working over centuries.

  His shadow-infused salamander seemed uncomfortable, its transformed nature still carrying enough life to find this environment hostile. Its scales had dulled from vibrant obsidian to muted gray, while its movements became increasingly sluggish.

  "Tell me what you know of this dungeon," Lance requested as they passed the skeletal remains of massive beasts - creatures that had died trying to flee something worse than themselves. Some skeletons showed evidence of reanimation attempts that had failed, divine magic burned into bones that had rejected its control.

  "The Eternal Tomb predates modern ranking systems," Fenris's voice carried ancient knowledge, his evolved form somehow growing stronger as they approached while other living things withered. "It was one of the first dungeons to appear after the Primordial Gods established their restrictions. But unlike others, it never fully... conformed."

  "Meaning?" Lance stepped over a line of perfectly preserved adventurer corpses. They formed a neat row, as if they had all died simultaneously while fleeing. Their expressions showed not fear, but revelation - as if death had brought understanding rather than terror.

  "Its undead nature resists certain divine laws. Creatures within continue to evolve beyond their assigned ranks. Space and time function differently inside." The shadow wolf's eyes narrowed as he studied the horizon. "Some believe it holds a fragment of something the Primordial Gods tried to erase from reality itself."

  Lance's maniacal grin widened. "No wonder Kytus chose it as my first trial. Not just a test of power, but of compatibility."

  They crested a ridge and finally beheld their destination. The Eternal Tomb rose from the blighted landscape like a wound in reality - a massive structure of black stone that seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it. Towers curved at impossible angles, defying gravity while maintaining perfect structural integrity. Walls pulsed subtly, like the sides of a breathing beast, while entrance gates stood open in what was clearly a challenge rather than welcome.

  Green flames burned in sconces that lined the approach, casting light that illuminated nothing. The flames moved wrong, flickering in patterns that suggested intelligence and ancient hunger. Between the gates, countless skulls had been arranged in a mosaic that formed a single word in a language that had been forgotten before the first human kingdoms rose.

  "Those are ancient defensive formations," Lance observed, studying the approach. Traps had been laid bare rather than concealed, their mechanisms exposed as if to say they weren't needed. "Designed specifically to channel invaders into killing fields."

  "And yet the gates stand open," Fenris noted, his evolved form casting shadows that moved independently of his body. "They want challengers to enter."

  "Or they're confident none will return," Lance's laugh carried that edge of beautiful devastation. "Let's get closer."

  As they approached, evidence of the dungeon's reputation became increasingly visible. Adventurer encampments lay abandoned, equipment still scattered as if their owners had fled suddenly. Tents stood perfectly preserved despite years of exposure, their fabrics showing no decay. Inside some, meals remained on plates, the food neither rotting nor drying out - suspended in the moment of abandonment.

  Massive siege weapons, now rusted beyond recovery, pointed uselessly at walls that showed no damage from their assaults. Ballistae constructed to launch blessed projectiles stood loaded, their mechanisms frozen by corroded gears. Divine symbols carved into catapult arms had blackened and inverted, suggesting the holy power had been corrupted by mere proximity to the dungeon.

  Scattered notes and journals from previous expeditions revealed consistent patterns:

  - "The undead inside don't follow normal rules... killed a lich three times only to watch it absorb the divine energy from my blessed weapon..."

  - "Killed the same commander three times, each time it came back stronger, as if learning from its defeat..."

  - "Space inside shifts, paths that led to safety suddenly open into ambush chambers... rooms remember who entered them and prepare accordingly..."

  Lance collected these fragments of information, his elemental markings pulsing as he constructed a mental map of what awaited. His shadow-infused salamander explored the perimeter, testing the death energy that poured from the open gates like invisible fog.

  "Interesting," Lance mused as they completed their initial survey. "The adventurers who came closest to success weren't those with the most power, but those who adapted most quickly to the dungeon's irregularities."

  "Because the Eternal Tomb itself evolves," Fenris confirmed, his massive form silhouetted against the perpetual twilight sky. "It learns from those who challenge it."

  Lance's maniacal grin promised beautiful devastation. "Then it should find me particularly educational."

  As night fell, they made camp within sight of the massive structure. Death energy continued to pulse from its depths, but Lance noted how it seemed to respond to his shadow power - not retreating, but almost... recognizing something familiar. When darkness fully claimed the land, the green flames along the dungeon's walls grew brighter, casting their non-illuminating light across the barren plain.

  "I suspect," Lance said as he studied the dungeon's outline against the darkening sky, "that Kytus chose this challenge very specifically."

  "How so?" Fenris settled beside him, ancient eyes fixed on the Eternal Tomb, which somehow seemed larger in darkness than in light.

  "The undead resist divine restriction naturally. Their very nature exists in opposition to the established order." Lance's laugh carried that edge of deadly amusement. "Rather like my own evolution."

  The shadow-infused salamander curled nearby, its transformed nature making it unusually sensitive to the death energy permeating the area. Its discomfort spoke volumes about what awaited inside.

  "Tomorrow," Lance's grin widened as he finalized his preparations, "we'll see exactly how an SS-rank dungeon responds to a king's touch."

  His elemental markings pulsed with anticipation as darkness fell completely, hiding the Eternal Tomb from sight. But even invisible, its presence remained - a weight against reality, a challenge issued across centuries.

  A challenge that Lance Seraphis, heir to the deep ways, was all too happy to accept.