Is It Wrong To Skitter In A Dungeon? Chapter 61: To Reenact a Myth (Patreon)

Chapter 61: To Reenact a Myth

The party with the Xenos wound down, with Taylor imposing a curfew on everyone so they could get to bed and wake up early for the mission the next day. And to give them time to recover from any hangovers. Not even Naaza had found a potion capable of curing those.

Thus, several hours after the party, a loud “COO-COO! COO-COO!” rang out, causing people to grumble and groan as the alarm woke them all up.

“Lili can’t believe your grandfather got you one of these,” the pallum said as she begrudgingly admired the coco clock the older blacksmith had gotten his grandson as a gift after the war with Rakia. It was a big, blocky thing, but beautiful, the clockwork nestled within a handcrafted wooden frame depicting birds and flowers.

It was also the source of the noise that’d woken them up, and had been carried along in Lili’s Hobbit Hole with the other supplies.

“I like it. The gears are giving me some ideas for future creations, too,” Welf claimed as he stood up and stretched.

“Up and at ‘em, folks! It’s time to fight!” Fear chirped, flying about and ‘helping’ some of the other Xenos wake up.

Everyone put on their armor, grabbed their weapons, and had a quick breakfast (picked eggs and slightly stale muffins) before departing the secret spot on the 27th Floor. The combined forces of adventurers and Xenos made it up to the 18th Floor without issue.

Taylor even amassed a large number of regular monsters to aid them, and when she reached Rivira, it was at the head of an army several hundred strong.

“It’s too early in the morning for this, Weaver,” Bors grumbled, rubbing his eyes. He’d come out to meet her when the guards had fearfully reported the legion of monstrous death approaching their settlement.

“Sorry. I’m just here to pick up some friends and eliminate some enemies,” Taylor replied, not really that apologetic.

“You’re a hundred percent sure Evilus is hiding among the town?” the unofficial mayor demanded. She just nodded, and he grumbled before waving a hand. “Fine. Make it quick.”

“ATTENTION, RIVIRA!” Taylor called out, her words carried to every corner of the settlement through her swarm. “THIS IS WEAVER, CAPTAIN OF THE HESTIA FAMILIA! THERE ARE EVILUS MEMBERS HIDING WITHIN YOUR WALLS! BY ORDER OF THE GUILD, THEY ARE TO BE ARRESTED IMMEDIATELY!”

Dozens of monsters supported by Xenos surged forward with her command, and fell upon the shanty town. Smugglers and death cultists were dragged from their beds screaming in terror, and while some adventurers reacted poorly to this, the presence of the Hestia Familia tags the monsters and Xenos wore kept them from trying to do anything stupid. For the most part. Some had to be knocked out and tied up, unwilling to believe their companions and friends were criminals.

It was all over within a few minutes. Taylor’s swarm had snuck inside Rivira well before she’d made her announcement, allowing her to disable the most troublesome elements before sending in the rest. Most of the Evilus members were captured alive, their Deadman switches defused and removed. Some fought to the death or tried to flee, but in ten minutes close to forty people were hogtied in the center of town, guarded by the rest of the adventurers within.

The only reason the attack worked so well was due to an interesting fact: the Xenos had an ability similar to Taylor’s in that they could detect the existence of Falnas on mortals, and even tell them apart based on Familia. Some Xenos could ‘smell’ the divine ichor, others ‘saw’ it, and a few could do as Taylor did and ‘hear’ it.

Every deity’s Falna had a unique signature, and by using this, the Xenos were able to tell who was part of the Ikelos or Thanatos Familia, so long as they’d encountered somebody from one of those Familias in the past.

“Well… that was fast,” Bors grunted, eyes darting from Taylor who hadn’t moved an inch the entire time, to the pile of Evilus spies that’d been captured. “What now?”

“They go to the Guild for punishment,” Taylor replied. “Though give me a moment, my associates are coming.”

She turned her head to the entrance of the settlement, where a group of adventurers were approaching.

“Good morning,” Taylor said politely with a nod to the ten frazzled looking men and women wearing the Dionysus Familia’s uniforms.

“What… how…” a white-haired elf spluttered, looking from the parahuman to the pile. “What is going on?!”

“We found Evilus members hiding in Rivira and captured them,” Taylor replied simply.

The elven spokeswoman of Dionysus’ Familia took a deep breath before deciding to ignore what had just happened and address the terrifying young woman.

“My name is Aura Moriel,” she said in greeting, giving a stiff bow. “Vice-captain of the Dionysus Familia. Our group has come to help you.”

“Though it doesn’t seem like they need any,” one of the others mumbled.

“Quiet, Enol!” Aura hissed, before turning back to Taylor with an apologetic look.

Taylor nodded back politely. The ten adventurers were all Level 2, as they were the only ones who’d be able to descend into the Dungeon and reach the 18th Floor safely. These people represented half of the high-ranked adventurers in the Dionysus Familia, and was a respectable amount of force for a Familia their size.

“What is the plan, Lady Weaver?” another adventurer asked, and Taylor pointed at the Evilus members.

“I want you to take them to the surface and hand them over to the Guild,” she instructed. Aura looked put-off by that and frowned.

“We were instructed to help you take Knossos…”

“And you will only be a hinderance,” Taylor replied curtly. “Ten Level 2 adventurers is somewhat impressive for a D rank Familia to muster, but for the kind of foes we’ll be facing, you will only slow us down. Watching over the Evilus cultists is the best thing you can right now.”

The elf looked affronted, and a few others in her group had mutinous expressions, but Bors just snorted in agreement.

“Weaver’s right, kiddies. Ten more people won’t change anything. Not with the kind of fighting power she already has,” the gruff man stated, gesturing to the hundreds of monsters waiting at attention. He then sighed. “Me and some of my boys will help the Dionysus Familia take those bastards to the Guild. Two of the adventurers you got strung up are Level 3, and we’re the only ones who’d be able to handle ‘em if they get loose.”

“Appreciate it,” Taylor said with a grateful nod, and the eye-patching wear man waved it off.

“Don’t mention it,” he grunted before stomping off to fetch his gear.

Aura still looked disgruntled, so Taylor decided to try and give a softer sell.

“This is an important mission,” she stated. “Dionysus won’t think less of you for it. He might even praise you for taking the initiative to secure valuable sources of intel.”

That caused the elf and her companions to perk up, and they were less disappointed by their new duty when Bors and a dozen other adventurers came up with wheelbarrows and wagons to load the criminals into. However, when they began to leave, Aura remained beside Taylor.

“I was told to stick by your side,” she said stubbornly, daring the parahuman to refuse.

“Fine,” Taylor sighed, seeing she wouldn’t budge on this. “From your staff, I take it you’re a mage. What can you do?”

“I have two spells. Varia Rupture, which is a powerful explosion magic, and Impaling Cannon, which is a homing beam attack,” Aura replied proudly.

“Useful,” Taylor hummed as she led the elf back to the rest of the Hestia Familia, the Xenos falling into rank around her.

“Where are the guys we were supposed to meet with?” Aisha asked when she saw only one other person with her captain.

“There were more Evilus members in the town than expected. The rest of the detachment Dionysus sent here to help us are escorting the captured cultists back to the surface so the Guild can take care of them,” Taylor explained. “Their vice-captain decided to stay behind and help us, though.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Aura said politely.

“Let’s go,” Fels said with a note of impatience in his voice. “The mission is about to start.”

Taylor nodded, and led the group down towards the cave where the door was. Because it was out of the way, there was no way to keep watch over it, but scouting the area with her swarm, Taylor confirmed nobody had been there recently.

Entering the cave, the group next approached the towering doors, and the group was once again struck by the sight of them.

“How many resources were put into building this entrance alone?” Welf muttered in wonder. “How many decades would it take?”

“Too many,” Fels replied. “Even with my long life, I doubt I’d be able to construct something like Knossos on my own.”

Ignoring them, Taylor held up the eyeball orb towards the door, and channeled magic into it, causing it to glow a sinister purple. The sigils on the door flashed in response, and swung open without so much as a squeak or groan.

As the door opened, her swarm surged through the doors, scouting ahead. Moving the army of monsters forward as a screen, Taylor relayed what she’d found.

“As expected,” she murmured. “There are several branching corridors and paths, and the whole place is made of Adamantite bricks and an inch-thick coating of Body Stone taken from Obsidian Soldiers. There is also some sort of spatial warping going on, making certain sections longer or wider than should be possible, but it seems to be a passive effect and not one that is directed.”

“It is likely that Knossos is accidentally redirecting some of the dimensional energies of the Dungeon Seal which creates this warping effect,” Fels mused thoughtfully.

“Whatever the reason, we must enter,” Aura said.

“Indeed. Haruhime, Emma, it’s time,” Taylor instructed, and the two girls nodded.

“…Kokonoe!” Haruhime chanted, and nine tails manifested behind her. Then, Emma repeated the chant, borrowing the renard’s spell using Rein Occult. She then gained nine tails of her own, although they resembled pink ribbons of light rather than actual animal tails.

Emma panted heavily, her own Magic stat significantly lesser compared to Haruhime’s, and she had to down a Mind potion to recover from the creation of so many appendages.

“…Grow!” Haruhime chanted a moment later, and her nine tails glowed as they were infused with the power of Uchide no Kozuchi. She sagged a little, and took a quick pick-me-up Mind potion.

Next to her, Emma repeated the same spell via Rein Occult, and infused her own collection of ribbon-like tails. She fell to one knee, vision swimming as she nearly depleted her entire Mind with that, and only a high-quality Mind potion normally reserved for people with the Mage Development Ability allowed her to stand back up on her own.

It wouldn’t be enough for all of them, though. Only eighteen ‘tails’ for two dozen adventurers meant some wouldn’t be able to get ahold of the all-important temporary Level Up.

To ensure that they had the best chances of surviving, Ryuu would get one in order to act a Level 6 beat stick to contest with the hybrid Creatures and anyone else with a high level that Evilus had up its sleeves. Next, all of the Level 1 adventurers would get one to ensure they could keep up with the rest of the expedition.

That accounted for ten of the available Uchide no Kozuchi, and the remaining eight would be given out as needed. As for the casters in question, Haruhime had trained hard, and she could sustain Kokonoe for up to an hour without having to cast any of the stored spells, while Emma was only able to do so for half an hour.

The next person to use her magic was Ryuu, and she cast Luminous Winds on everyone: adventurer, Xenos, and monster alike, all had their speed drastically increased. Welf passed around a couple of modified Magic Swords that were powered by a person’s Magic stat, and Taylor loaded a Wind element Magic Blade Cartridge into her golden arm.

Aura looked on, curious, same as Fels, as the Familia made their preparations. The Xenos were also intrigued, and some of them made noises of surprise as Ryuu’s magic settled onto them.

“Ready?” Taylor inquired, looking over the group. There was no dissent, and she nodded, pleased. “My swarm has found another door up ahead. Let’s go.”

They hurried forward, covering a lot of distance in a short amount of time. There was just enough room for Debbie to squeeze through, so she took up the rear, acting as a plug in the corridors to prevent anyone from ambushing them from behind. Taylor also closed the doors to the 18th Floor behind them, to further prevent any escape from Evilus members.

The doors that barred their way were not made of Orichalcum, so she could have someone break it down, but why waste a perfectly good door when she had a key?

It swung open as she raised the orb, revealing a wide-open chamber with a winding staircase leading up to a second-floor balcony that looked out over the whole place. There were two exits in the room, both at the top of the stairs and heading left and right deeper into Knossos.

Within the chamber, there were dozens of massive cages made of Adamantite lining the floor, side by side. It would take a powerful monster on par with Asterios to break them, same with the chains that haphazardly littered the ground.

The cages were empty, their doors open, but traces of dried blood and other fluids stained the floor and the chains. The air was also heavy with lingering traces of misery and magic, and Taylor’s swarm buzzed loudly.

“What is this place?” Aura asked, looking around.

“It’s where the Ikelos Familia kept our kin after stealing them away so they could be sold,” Ray said darkly, her furious expression mirrored by the rest of the Xenos.

Aura gasped and stared at the Siren, trying to figure out what had just happened.

“Th-that monster just talked!” Aura gasped, pointing in disbelief at the Xenos.

“Yes, she did,” Mikoto confirmed.

“How?!” the elf demanded in disbelief.

“Dunno, they just do,” Lili replied with a shrug. “Though Lili suggests not thinking too hard about it.”

“Where did they go?!” Gros shouted angrily as he stopped around the cages. “They should be here!”

“I can smell them,” the Hellhound, Helga, announced, sniffing the air. “They were here recently.”

“Then where are they?” Lyd asked, looking around.

“I don’t know, but there’s a…” Taylor muttered, stopping mid-sentence as a prickling sensation danced across the back of her neck. “We’re being watched.”

“What?” Bell asked, confused, and the others began to look around, trying to find what she’d sense.

“About time you noticed me,” a voice called out, and everyone looked up from the blood-stained cages towards a figure sitting on the edge of the staircase, peering down at them with a smug smirk, the hum of his aura sounding like maddening screams and the rattling of chains. And from the strength of said aura, he was at the upper ends of Level 5.

The man had swept back black hair that gave him a casual appearance at odds with his leather armor, and he wore a pair of goggles over his eyes. He was also decked out in a lot of magical equipment. He had a burnt orange cape that reeked of smoke to her swarm’s senses, while a wicked looking black and red spear he possessed carried the smell of freshly spilled blood. Lastly, a round, silver shield with a remarkably reflective surface was strapped to his left arm.

There were other objects on his person oozing potent magic her swarm could detect, but those three were the most noticeable. And somehow, he’d managed to evade her swarm’s senses.

‘There must be somebody in Evilus who has the Mystery ability,’ Taylor thought to herself.

It was the only thing that made sense. How else could a bunch of rogue adventurers and a criminal Familia get so much high-quality equipment? Some of which seemed to be masking his scent and footsteps. And was that a Hade’s Head helmet hanging on his belt?

“What did you do with the Xenos that were down here?!” Gros demanded, stomping forward angrily.

“Them? Well, I got so bored waiting for ya I just had to do something, and so I decided to cull the merchandise,” he replied with a smirk as he stood up.

Asterios growled and took a threatening step forward, but the man just raised his hands.

“Now, now, they’re ain’t all dead! Can’t make a profit if they’re all damaged, can I?” he exclaimed. “But you’ll have to hurry! Because those crazy spirits love to chow down on Magic Stones, and the fresher they are, the better!”

Taylor narrowed his eyes at him. ‘Crazy spirits’ had to refer to the demi-spirits Evilus had been responsible for. She’d heard of them, but hadn’t encountered any yet.

‘But if they’re anything like the Hybrid Creatures, then they cannot be underestimated,’ she thought with a grimace.

“You’re quite confident to show up alone,” Taylor said, noting that there wasn’t anybody else around him.

“I wasn’t expecting so many of ya,” the strange man admitted, leaping down from the top of the stairs. He landed on the ground, not even looking put off by the drop, and tapped his spear against his shoulder. “And I knew that most of my boys were better off elsewhere. They can handle monsters, but adventurers aren’t their kind of prey.”

He then grinned at her. “Still, I have a contract to fulfill. And you, Miss Buggy, have a price on your head.”

“What do you mean?” the parahuman uttered, voice cold.

“Somebody wants to keep you alive as a pet. The rest? Not so much,” the stranger claimed. “Now, here’s the deal. You and me. One-on-one. Winner takes all, and I won’t try and stop anyone else if they want to pass by me.”

Taylor narrowed her eyes at him while her Familia exploded in protests.

“That’s insane! No way we’re going to do that!” Oriana declared.

“Yeah, you’re three different kinds of shady,” Aisha agreed.

“Lady Hebert shall not spend a moment alone with someone like you,” Tammuz growled.

“Enough!” Taylor snapped, her swarm amplifying her words. When they settled down, she looked back at the smuggler.

“And what happens if I refused?” she inquired.

“Then I give the command to detonate the collars I placed around the necks of your talkative monster friends,” he replied with a wide, toothy grin.

Hearing that, Lyd twitched, recalling what happened to the Xenos he’d tried to save when she’d been ordered to die while wearing a control collar.

As for Taylor herself, she was disgusted, her mind flashing back to Bakuda, and the parahuman could tell this madman was serious. He knew that if he did that, he’d die. But he wasn’t afraid of death. His eyes… even obscured by those goggles, Taylor could recognize the look in them. She’d seen them in the mirror more times than she cared to count while on Earth Bet.

“Everyone… go on,” Taylor finally ordered. “I’ll take care of him.”

The group looked at her in shock, unsure if they’d heard her correctly.

“No! Miss Taylor, you can’t!” Lili protested.

“He’s too strong for you,” Ryuu said. “Let me help!”

“No. You have to find where the other Xenos are, as well as the rest of Evilus,” Taylor replied sharply. “I’ll handle this bastard on my own.”

Her swarm began to buzz, and the monsters around her roared while she put on her terrifying war mask. She then tossed Bell the orb-shaped key, trusting him to keep it safe.

“Understood,” Bell eventually said, giving his sister a nod. There was nothing but trust and faith for her success in his eyes, and he led everyone else towards the staircase where they went down one of the passages, chasing after the trail of the Xenos. Although, before Haruhime and Emma left, they sent one of the tails and ribbons towards the parahuman. Soon, though, they were all gone from the room, and Taylor was left alone with her swarm.

‘Chris is at my side, just as always, Ryuu’s speed boost is still active, and my Level has been boosted twice for fifteen minutes,’ she thought to herself while drawing the Geisteel blade Welf had crafted for her. ‘I can do this.’

“You’re a brave bitch. Crazy, but brave,” the man said, rolling his neck, causing it to pop. “You’re, what? Level 3? And you think you can handle me?”

“Yes,” Taylor replied. He blinked at how easily she answered that, before laughing.

“Hah! What a gal! I’m starting to see why that bastard wants ya for himself,” he said with a leer. He then spun his spear in a menacing display and raised his buckler. “My name is Dix Perdix, captain of the Ikelos Familia. Don’t worry, though. As promised, I won’t kill ya. You’ll just wish you were dead.”

He then shot forward towards her, but Taylor was ready for him. With a thought, she sent a buzzing cloud of insects at his face, yet they never reached him as his cloak suddenly flared up and the swarm ignited, turning into ash as the enemy captain’s body was surrounded by a flaming barrier.

‘He prepped an item designed to counter my swarm?!’ she realized in horror. When the bugs were all gone his cloak settled down, yet faint embers danced around the hem, burning brightly.

Even as her first attack failed, she continued to put distance between herself and him, back pedaling quickly, all for the sake of trying to buy time to think up a new plan now that her usual swarm tactic wouldn’t work.

The Level 5 did not relent, and crossed the distance before she could get far enough away. She just barely saw the attack scream towards her and managed to twist aside, getting out of the way of his spear as he thrust it towards her chest. However, that attack was a feint, and Taylor barely had time to leap back as Dix had drawn his short sword and was holding it in the same hand that his mirror-like buckler was strapped to.

She saw the attack coming, but wasn’t fast enough to avoid this trick, and pain surged through her as the blade cut a thin red thin through her silk sleeve, drawing blood on her left arm.

This wasn’t normal pain, however, as it felt like Bakuda’s pain bomb had just gone off inside of the limb, and she clamped her mouth shut before a cry of agony could escape her lips.

“Interesting,” Dix murmured, intrigued as she retreated. “I was aiming to do a lot worse than that scratch. Ya dodged. That’s not the speed of a Level 3. Or a 4. Did ya Level Up at some point in secret? Did those Familia members boost ya somehow?”

He then shrugged. “Still, it doesn’t matter. Level 3 or Level 4 or even Level 5, ya ain’t good enough to win against me.”

“We’ll see,” Taylor replied through grit teeth. The wound in her arm throbbed painfully, and she could feel the foreign magic twisting within, preventing the cut from healing.

With a mental command, several bugs swarmed up her arm and began to tear into the injury, mandibles chewing apart the tainted flesh in order to clear it away so it’d be able to heal without inference of the curse. She then had some spiders crawl over the limb and bind the jagged wound with Pink Silk bandages.

It was all done in just a few seconds, but during that time she also had to dodge more attacks trying to strike her down.

“Ya know what else? I’m impressed by your pain tolerance,” Dix claimed, impressed as she recovered from another cut, this time on her left shoulder that nearly blinded her from the rush of agony. “Even a tiny scratch should shatter yer mind with raw, overwhelming suffering. And yet yer still standing. Still fighting.”

Several monsters charged in while she reeled from the pain, but they were no match for Dix. He pierced the chest of a Mad Beetle, destroying its Magic Stone in a single blow, before spinning aside and cutting a Deadly Hornet in half with his sword when it tried to pierce through his chest. A trio of Gun Libellula tried to shoot him, but his flaming cloak deflected them, turning the projectiles to ash. Dix then leapt into the air and dispatched them with swift thrusts of his spear.

‘What’s going on now?’ she wondered in bewilderment. Every time Dix’s spear killed one of her Tamed monsters, she could feel something being torn from the monster’s body before it collapsed into ash.

Concerned, she sent a trio of Mad Beetles after him. Two were killed by spear thrusts, but the third got close enough to try and punch the smuggler. Its fist immediately ignited in flames as the fiery cloak sprang to life to protect its owner, charring the exoskeleton badly.

Yet the monster was merely a smokescreen, as behind it, Chris had been hiding, and when it was up close and personal with Dix, it lunged forward, using the Mad Beetle as cover.

Chris’s left scythe blade pierced through the chest of the Mad Beetle, quickly igniting as it passed through the flame cloak, but the Crystal Mantis still managed to get close enough to the Ikelos Familia’s captain to successfully score a hit on Dix, slicing a large chunk out of his chin.

The blow would have carved a bloody chunk out of his neck had he not twisted his head to the side at the last moment.

Dix thrust his spear towards Chris in retaliation, though the weapon was slowly down by half a second as it pierced through the Mad Beetle, allowing the Crystal Mantis to retreat before being injured.

“Huh,” Dix muttered, a hand rising to the cut on his chin as the Mad Beetle crumbled away. “Didn’t expect that.”

He seemed more impressed that he’d been hurt than angry, and gave Chris a closer look. “You sure you don’t want to work for me? There’s a lot of valis to be made in the monster selling business.”

“No,” Taylor said curtly, her mind racing as she tried to come up with a plan.

‘At least I know that attacks can get through that odd flame cloak effect if I don’t mind trying to sacrifice whatever does so,’ Taylor noted, side-eying the charred remains of Chris’s left scythe blade.

It was still a hefty price to pay. Chris was her strongest monster, and his effectiveness had just been halved after losing one of his primary weapons. But she wouldn’t win without some sacrifice. He was a Level 5 after all.

However, things immediately became more difficult when the wound Chris had just made suddenly began to steam, before healing itself.

“What?” she gasped, unable to contain her disbelief.

“That’s better,” Dix chuckled.

“The spear,” Taylor hissed, realizing what it was that Dix had been draining from her monsters every time he killed one of them. It was their energy! She had felt a brief flicker of magic emanate from it before his wounds healed, too. Everything made sense!

“Figured it out pretty quick,” he hummed, before flashing a smirk her way. “Behold, Kazikli Bey, a Vampire Weapon. It drains the lifeforce from those it wounds, boosting my Endurance stat and letting me stockpile energy I can use later to heal myself. Also able to inflict unhealable wounds.”

Cursing, Taylor fired a windblast at him, partly to see if he had any counter to magic. Dix did, in fact, have a counter, as he raised his shield and blocked the blade of magically compressed air with it. Yet when he did, the reflective surface glowed silver and the wind blade came flying back at her, forcing her to tilt her head to the side as it flew past.

“Damn it, just as I expected: a Magic Reflection ability,” she grunted. He really did prepare for her.

“If you knew, why’d you even try?” he wondered, tilting his head to the side.

“Because I didn’t know for sure. And now I do know how it works,” Taylor replied. She then punched the ground and tore up one of the flagstones, chucking it at him.

He prepared to avoid the piece of rubble by stepping aside, but Taylor hit it with another wind burst, accelerating the chunk of stone so it was like a bullet, forcing Dix to destroy it with a strike from his spear instead of dodging.

At the same time, while his attention was focused on the tile Taylor had thrown at him, several monsters charged forward and hurled themselves at him.

“Shit!” he uttered, before raising a hand. “Fine! Let me show you my own magic! Phobetor Daedalus!”

A wave of red light pulsed outwards centered on him, enveloping the whole room. The monsters immediately stopped trying to attack him and instead began to tear at each other, yet only for a few seconds before they turned back against him.

“Huh?!” Dix exclaimed as he cut down the monsters. “They shouldn’t be under your control anymore! And you! Why aren’t you being affect?!”

“I cannot be harmed by mental influencing effects,” Taylor mocked. “And my control over the swarm is absolute. You disrupted it for a moment, but I regained it almost immediately. I was ready for that trick of yours, after all.”

“You… shit, the puppy must have passed on what he experienced,” Dix muttered.

Behind her mask, Taylor’s eyes narrowed. “Yes. Bete Logia informed us all about your tricks from when he faced you last time.”

“Won’t help you,” he vowed darkly.

“Really? Because it seems like casting that Spell took a lot out of you,” Taylor noted. Dix’s hum had dropped in pitch. He was no longer Level 5. For a brief window, her opponent was now Level 4. Weaker than her.

“Geas Immulatio!” she shouted, chanting her Curse as she saw the chance to finish the fight. She sacrificed the ability to move from herself, collapsing like a puppet with cut strings.

Yet as her Curse struck Dix, he did not suddenly drop to the ground, and stayed standing. He lunged at her, spear aimed to pierce her legs while she was immobile, and only by sacrificing dozens of monsters was she able to avoid being skewered. Chris swooped in for the rescue, picking her up and creating distance between her and the enemy captain.

As Chris helped her to her feet again, Taylor stared at as Dix just stood there, unaffected. ‘Impossible! That should have done something! Why didn’t my Curse work?’

Even Phyrne, the Level 5 Amazon who’d served as Ishtar’s captain, had been affected by Geas Immulatio, albeit for just a few moments. But Dix didn’t even budge! It was like her Curse hadn’t even touched him.

“Hmm? Did ya try and do something just now?” Dix asked, his smirk revealing to her he knew exactly what she’d just tried to use. She tensed up and he shook his head, acting disappointed.

“Don’t you know? You can’t curse somebody who’s already cursed, not unless it’s stronger than the one currently afflicting the target,” Dix laughed darkly, his mirth tinged with madness. “And as neat as your little parlor trick is, it cannot compare to the sheer wretchedness of being born with Daedalus’ Legacy!”

He tapped the side of his head near his red eye. Which, now that Taylor was looking, was eerily similar to the eye used to create the keys for Knossos’ doors.

“I was born because Daedalus wanted somebody to carry on his legacy, and to ensure that, he Cursed his entire bloodline. Every day, I am forced to hear that damned voice in the back of my head, telling me to dig, build, and expand this place. I hate it! It takes every ounce of willpower I have not to succumb! Your pathetic Curse is nothing in comparison!”

“Then if Curses won’t work, then what about this?!” Taylor shouted. ‘If magic and physical attacks can’t harm him, then I’ll attack him indirectly!’

She raised her golden arm and pointed her palm at Dix, magical power thrumming loudly as the Magic Blade Cartridge within began to charge up. The smuggler smirked and raised his shield, ready to block whatever blast would come his way. However, Taylor didn’t plan on going after him with such an obvious attack. Instead, she created a vortex of swirling air around Dix.

Soon, a miniature tornado formed around Dix, the wind tugging and tearing at his clothes as he stood in the eye. He frowned and opened his mouth to say something, likely mocking, but froze when his breath was ripped from his throat before he could utter a word. Immediately realizing the danger he was in he rushed forward, but dozens of monsters piled in, forming a wall of living bodies between him and their mistress.

Taylor continued to maintain the vortex around Dix, cutting off the air around him in an attempt to suffocate the weakened Level 5 as he struggled against her swarm. The monsters burned and bled and died, but they continued to push against him, trying to keep him away from the parahuman.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t survive against the frenzied butchery of the smuggler-captain, and through her swarm’s eyes, Taylor beheld Dix point his spear towards her, the tip glowing ominously.

Yet instead of firing a beam at her like she expected, Dix directed the spear downwards, jabbing it into the flagstones beneath his feet, shattering them and sending a shockwave blasting outwards that tore apart dozens of monsters and knocked the survivors back.

This explosion disrupted the tornado trap the adventurer had been stuck inside, the whirlwind ceasing to be. Before the spell could finish fading, Dix was already on the move, lunging towards Taylor.

She parried the blood-red spear with her golden arm, deflecting it away from her, but Dix didn’t stop there, lashing out with his long knife. This, Taylor had to block with her Geisteel blade, and spark flew as the two weapons collided.

The veteran adventurer didn’t let up, and pushed forward, kicking the parahuman in the right leg. It didn’t break the bone in her ankle, but it was a close thing, and it certainly unbalanced her, causing Taylor to collapse onto her back as Dix’s superior weight and height gave him more leverage over her.

The moment she fell, Dix did not hesitate to capitalize on this, stomping onto Taylor’s stomach with an armored boot. She let out a grunt as he drove the air from her lungs and bruised her ribs, but kept trying to fight by angling her fake hand towards him, but he retaliated by ripping her entire golden arm off of her body, tossing it aside with a sneer.

“That… was too close,” Dix breathed out, taking large gasps of air as he did so, before extracting a silver collar from a pocket, the red ruby embedded in it glowing brightly.

Fear ran through her at the sight of the collar, and something told her it was far more dangerous than it seemed. Summoning Chris, her last loyal monster shrieked and lunged at Dix, but he countered, his spear shattering the Crystal Mantis's scythe blade and used a short sword to sever a few legs, which disabled the monster. A punch sent Chris flying, and the heavily injured monster tried to stand, but failed, the wounds and burns making it impossible.

Debbie roared furiously, but the worm was too big. If she attacked, she'd crush Dix and Taylor. All she could do was coil protectively around Chris.

Disarmed in a very literal sense, Taylor desperately tried to use her Geisteel combat knife to stop him from collaring her as he nearly killed Chris, and she managed to ram it into the thigh of the leg that was still pressing down on her stomach. Unfortunately, the boot did not budge, and Dix ripped the knife out before healing the wound with the stockpile of lifeforce left in his spear.

“You… have been a real pain in my ass,” Dix growled. “Barca wants you in one piece… but before I hand you over to him, I’m gonna make you regret everything.”

Taylor just sneered up at him and prepared to unleash her swarm on him again.

I don’t usually use this Spell. Be honored,” Dix spat out, yanking her mask off and staring into her eyes with his own, the singular red orb starting to glow sinisterly. “Visio Nocturna!”

Before she could react, Taylor felt a sensation of vertigo and everything suddenly went black around her.

The darkness was all-consuming, and her other senses had become numb as well. Touch, scent, taste, and hearing, all were nearly gone, with only a faint sloshing sound audible in her ears and a clammy wetness caressing her skin.

However, above all this was a major problem that had the parahuman absolutely terrified.

‘I can’t feel my swarm!’ Taylor realized in horror. Her connection with Queen Administrator was gone!

Before she could process what was happening, a bright flash of light distracted her, and suddenly the darkness was banished.

‘What is going on?’ Taylor couldn’t help but wonder, before she felt herself being yanked forward and brough in the light.

The wetness was replaced by an unpleasant coolness, and a shrill cry yanked itself from her mouth against Taylor’s will. Trying to move, she found herself weak and unable to do anything.

‘I’m… a baby?!’ she realized with a gasp as finally understood what was happening upon catching sight of one of her tiny limbs.

The next moment, rough, calloused hands touched her, lifting her up, and Taylor continued to cry, feeling like a passenger in her own body, a sensation she did not like at all. She was laid down onto cold, hard stone, and was forced to look up into the face of a madman.

Beard tangled and stained with dust and grey with age, his skin pallid like he’d not seen the sun in years, with wide, mad eyes, one of which glowed an ominous red.

“You… shall be known as Dix!” the crazy-looking man declared, spittle dripping from his lips as he spoke. “You shall continue the Legacy of Daedalus!”

He then pulled out a filthy book, paper stained with blood, ink, and other substances Taylor had no interest in learning the origins of. The insane hermit began to flip the pages in front of Taylor/Dix’s eyes, some sort of magic imbedded within the book allowing the information within to be forcibly embedded into their mind.

‘I’m being forced to experience Dix’s life!’ Taylor realized, even as blueprints and schematics for Knossos flooded into her. Even if it was just a vision born of a Spell, the knowledge was burned into her, though without any of the compulsions or Curses as she'd first feared.

The next few minutes were unpleasant in the extreme. Taylor was forced to relive Dix’s entire life. At times it skipped ahead or seemed to move at extreme speeds, but bit by bit, she suffered just as Dix had.

She was forced to witness what Dix’s ‘father’ had done to captured women in order to try and create more children, and then watch as Dix and his brother, Barca, were pitted against their own siblings in a twisted parody of Telyskura’s blood-matches, forced to kill each other in order to live.

The winners would consume the cursed eyes of the fallen, the madness and curses contained within growing stronger, until only two were left out of a dozen. Dix and Barca grew up, but where the latter fully gave in to Daedalus’ Legacy, Dix resisted, his willpower suppressing the corruption.

‘Disgusting,’ Taylor thought to herself.

She could understand how Dix had turned out so twisted if this was how he’d grown up. Alone in the dark, with only a rapist father and a demented brother for company… it would drive weak-willed souls to despair and beg for death.

She still hated the smuggler, but Taylor couldn’t help but be impressed by Dix’s fortitude.

“Had enough, yet?” a slimy voice asked, and the scene – where Taylor watched Dix kill rats for food as his father often forgot to care for his own progeny, too obsessed with building Knossos – froze.

The parahuman turned to face Dix, who had appeared in the mindscape with her. Taylor looked down, and found she was back in her body, though it was different from the one in the waking world. She was missing her right arm, but it was replaced by writhing shadows. Scars littered her, along with bloodstains coating her head to toe. And, of course, there was her outfit: the same one she’d worn on the night she’d confronted Lung, and everything had begun.

“Ready to admit defeat?” Dix demanded, sneering at her. “All you have to do is surrender, and we can leave.”

“I’ll admit, your life would certainly shatter the heart of a kinder person,” Taylor admitted, giving the memory of young Dix a pitying look. “However, you’ve made two major mistakes.”

“And what would that be?” Dix demanded, glaring at her.

“The first is that you tried to engage in a mental battle with me,” she retorted, and she raised her shadowy limb. “The second… is that I don’t give a fuck about your sad backstory!”

The world started to crack, and then it shattered, and Dix and Taylor were now somewhere else. It was cramped, dark, and reeked, and the smuggler began to look around wildly.

“What is this?! What am I feeling?!” he demanded, a note of panic entering his voice. “Wh-what did you do to me?!”

“Your memories were dreadful, but they lacked any emotional impact. I could feel the sensations you felt. Hear, see, smell, and taste what you did… but nothing else. You’re a high-functioning psychopath. You yourself lack emotions and an ability to connect empathically with others. That’s probably why you were able to reject Daedalus’ Curse, not just your willpower,” Taylor explained. She waved a hand around the enclosed space. “I’ve hijacked your Spell, and are forcing you to experience my own life. Well, a portion of it.”

“HOW?!” Dix demanded, even as his eye flashed frantically, trying to cancel his magic.

“I had help,” she replied, and a golden glow suffused her.

‘Hey, welcome back,’ Taylor thought, sending gratitude towards Queen Administrator as her reassuringly familiar presence returned.

APOLOGIES. LATE, the Shard replied, feeling annoyed at Dix’s trick.

‘Thank you,’ she thought silently. ‘Now… let us teach this bastard what true terror and suffering is!’

AGREEMENT, Queen Administrator declared vindictively, and Dix was forced to relive the moment Taylor experienced her Trigger Event.

“What… what is this!?” he screamed as images assailed his mind, and the emotions Taylor had felt during those dark moments slammed into him, causing Dix to feel fear, sorrow, betrayal and so much more for the first time in his life.

“Turnabout his fair play,” Taylor sneered. “You force me to experience your life… now witness mine!”

Dix was nearly twice her age, and had lived an unpleasant life in the darkness beneath Orario. Yet he had never truly faced anything like what Earth Bet had had. On a good day, Taylor’s home and last few years of life were unpleasant. On a bad day, they were mind-shatteringly terrible.

It felt like months as Taylor relived it all alongside him. The Locker. Lung. Leviathan. Echidna and the Slaughter House 9. And then, finally… Gold Morning.

Dix… he could not handle it. witnessing the death of a world would break even normal people. To witness and feel millions of people vanish instantly before they could even comprehend it, to see continents sundered and clouds of ash that had once been cities engulf the world from pole to pole…

It hurt. Taylor had suppressed everything from this time, partly thanks to not remembering much of it due to becoming Khepri, and having to experience it once more without filters hurt more than she cared to admit. Tears poured down her face as she watched everything she’d once known burn in golden flames.

Dix fared no better. Worse, actually. How cruel and terrible must it have been to never know emotions, only to experience all of them in such a short timeframe while also witnessing the obliteration of multiple worlds?

Mind broken by experiencing the eldritch horror that was Scion and the Entities, Dix slumped to his knees, eyes staring at nothing. His Spell soon ended as he experienced Mind Down, allowing Taylor to stagger back to her feet. She glared at the captain of the Ikelos Familia, and picked up her Geisteel blade in her left hand.

Without hesitation she swung it at his neck, and the pale white metal parted flesh and bone like a hot knife through butter. Dix Perdix’s head rolled across the floor, staining the ground red. He was finally dead.

Taylor panted heavily, even as some of her swarm fetched healing potions from Debbie’s saddlebags.

She drained a Double Potion, then poured several Healing potions over her wounds while spiders crawled over her and bandaged her up with Pink Silk. She also had to pick up her arm from where Dix had tossed it.

“Bastard tore it out of the socket and messed up the nerve connections,” Taylor grunted in annoyance as she tried and failed to stick her prosthetic arm back into the ruined mount. “Welf is going to have to fix this before I can use it again.”

Taylor spared a glance towards Dix before approaching his head, nudging it with her foot so his face stared up at hers. She bent down and yanked the goggles off, before plucking the dead smuggler’s red eye out of its socket.

“Might come in useful,” she muttered. It was gruesome, but the doors throughout Knossos had been opened with eyes as well, and if this man was really Daedalus’ descendant, then it was likely that his eye could also control them.

After a moment, Taylor also looted Dix’s body of magic items. Waste not, want not, after all. She came away with a bounty of treasures that even Welf would be hard pressed to create.

The big things were Kazikli Bey, the life-stealing spear, the Spell reflecting shield, the flaming cloak, and the pain-inflicting short sword. Lesser items included a ring that muffled footsteps and erased scents, a Hades’ Head helmet, an Elixir, and the silver collar set with a red gem of some sort.

All in all, a mighty haul that would greatly assist the Hestia Familia in their future endeavors.

‘Oriana probably will find the spear useful, and Karen or Lucia can use the shield since their own weapons are one-handed,’ Taylor thought to herself as she stuffed the loot into one of Debbie’s bags. ‘Welf can take advantage of the cloak with Vulcan Drive, the knife can be my or Bell's backup weapon, Lili can make the best use of the ring, and the spare helmet can be used by Ryuu to take advantage of her expertise as an assassin. As for the collar… Probably better to destroy it. Nobody should have an artifact that can force obedience.’

Even though she felt that way, Taylor wasn’t able to destroy it. A moment later, she grunted and, feeling like a hypocrite, stuffed it into the bottom of one of the bags.

She didn’t leave anything else, either. The discarded Adamantite chains were gathered up, while the Magic Stones and Drop Items were collected as well, the former fed to Chris to help him heal up. She didn’t know if he’d regenerate his lost limbs in time, but it couldn’t hurt to try.

Packing done, she leaned against her loyal Crystal Mantis and Dungeon Worm for support as she climbed the stairs, heading up towards the branching pathways that led deeper into Knossos.

After looking between the two options, Taylor decided to go down the path that her group had not taken.

‘Sorry, Bell, but I’ll catch up later,’ she thought to herself as she limped along the corridor, her swarm surrounding her. ‘I need to find out what the hell it is that my power is sensing that’s over here.’

It crackled and brushed against her mind, feeling like static electricity. Whatever it was, it was surrounded by a bunch of Virgas and Violas. Not all of which she could control. Taylor had a feeling she’d discovered the Demi-Spirit, and something compelled her to find it.

Shuffling deeper into the labyrinth, the parahuman couldn’t help but feel like something was calling to her.