Dungeon Raider System-Chapter 648: The mysterious city Part 1

"We can turn the lights on now." Uriel announced once they finally reached the mountain that would lead them to the sky islands breaking the awkward silence that befell the group after his outburst.

"What about the light seekers?" Luna asked as though nothing had happened.

"Lightseekers?" Medusa echoed.

"That's the name of the creatures that hunt anything that carries a light. They are... uhmmm, they fly." Luna fell short of words to describe the mysterious cryptids wishing she could show Medusa the drawings she made of those creatures.

She, or anyone for that matter, had ever laid their eyes on such cryptids before and the only reason why she knew what they looked like was thanks to one of the dolls Uriel gave her.

"They're pretty annoying, but kind of harmless." Bella butted in. After facing the abyssal being that inhabited the darkest place in the dungeon she wasn't scared of the creatures dwelling in the depths of the second world. Especially since thanks to her wind barrier she was supposed to be protected from any kind of physical damage.

"You're still here?" Uriel asked sounding genuinely surprised after hearing Bella's voice.

"Of course I am! I'm here to contact my family to ask for their help, remember?" Bella replied, hovering in front of Uriel as soon as he lit up his gas lantern. Her pale skin amounted to the angle of the light gave her an uncanny appearance prompting Nika to yelp.

"A ghost!"

"She's not a ghost, she's a witch." Medusa scoffed.

"How is that supposed to make me feel better?" Nika pouted. Because of how normal Bella looked, it was easy for Nika to forget the fact that she came from an ancient lineage of actual witches, but now that she was made aware of it she didn't feel safe in the dark anymore and drew closer to Uriel with the palm of her hand open.

"You didn't give us a lantern, how are we supposed to turn the lights on?"

"Why do I have to solve everything? Those things are expensive. Shouldn't you ask Luna instead?" Uriel turned to see whether or not the tiny huntress had activated her trait, then clicked his tongue when he confirmed she didn't.

"No." Luna said uncaring of the darkness. On the one hand she didn't like her trait and considered it useless, while on the other she also didn't want to draw the attention of the light seekers towards herself. Uriel may have considered them as nothing but pesky creatures, but they posed a real threat to Luna unless she shapeshifted into her werewolf form.

"This is fine." Medusa said as she took the first steps uphill. Due to her hot headed character she was accustomed to being the one who vented her frustrations at her friends, but now that Uriel did it she found herself on the other side.

She didn't like Uriel dealing with such a shady and powerful creature that may as well be a titan for what they knew, but she liked him being mad at them even less.

Contrary to what the rest of the group thought, Uriel wasn't angry but regretful and only remained silent most of the way out of embarrassment after Luna explained the reason why she didn't like facing the Father of horrors.

If speaking to that being was difficult for him who was a heavenly rank hunter, he couldn't fathom how Luna should have felt when facing him while being an ascended rank huntress. In hindsight, Luna's blunder was more than understandable, but speaking about it would only make things more awkward.

The first one to surpass the fog barrier that separated the depths of the abyss from the artificial sunlight above was Bella who thanks to her ability to fly remained unhindered by the uphill way, though she stopped mid flight when she saw the changes that took place inside the dungeon in her absence. Then one after the other, the rest of the party joined her in her astonishment.

"How could they build a castle like this in this short period of time?" Asked Bella with a gaping mouth, unable to take her eyes from the huge building that connected all the different floating islands. It was built with stone and due to its size it was easy to mistake it with a castle, but no castle that ever existed could possibly be that size as it would crumble down by its own weight.

"Are you being serious? Your people recruited all the people with elemental manipulation traits and banished everyone else from the dungeon. I don't know what they built but I bet it thanks to people with earth manipulation traits." Medusa replied. Being the only one unable to see, she was blissfully unaware of the megastructure in front of her.

"You are probably correct. It's just rocks on top of each other." Luna added unfazed by the imposing structure, the magnificence of its craftsmanship and its architectural design.

"That's not a castle, it's actually a city," Uriel spoke as he put on his glasses that allowed him to see flux energy. "and it's filled to the brim with flux energy."

"A temple? Do you guys mind if I take a quick peek to see it?" Medusa asked with curiosity.

"Of course we mind! Or do you think they'll ignore a red light pointing their way and some of their people turning into stone?" Nika replied.

"It doesn't sound so bad." Uriel chuckled.

"I know they can be jerks, but my family must be somewhere inside that place. Without their knowledge I won't be able to save my brother from the curse."

"You keep speaking of a curse, yet there's no evidence to support that claim and Mister Scofield already explained us that he's probably just affected by Sam's energy signature." Uriel coldly replied.

"You're just saying that because he's not your brother, if he was you would be doing anything within your power to save him. It doesn't matter anyway, we're here for different reasons and I just tagged along to exit the city. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓

I don't want anything to do with whatever it is you're trying to pull here just as I didn't want to have anything to do with the thing in the shadows." Bella said and then flew at full speed towards the island that belonged to her family.

"Something isn't right." Uriel clicked his tongue after Bella disappeared from sight.

"You don't say." Nika sarcastically said.

"This place, it resembles the Mesa Verde in Colorado. It's obviously bigger and its design is a bit off, but those are not the reasons why it makes me feel so uneasy." There were too many different reasons to be unsettled by such a structure, which was precisely the reason why Uriel couldn't put his finger on what troubled him the most.

"I can't see it, but I can feel something weird about it too." Medusa put her hand on her chin on a pensive manner.

"Yes, yes, keep telling us how being blind makes you special." Nika mocked Medusa thinking she just agreed to appear mysterious.

"She's not blind. If she was there would be a cure." Luna sentenced.

"Is it because they built this thing inside a building? No, it can't be. Maybe it really is its design, it's off... no, it can't be that either. Then what about..." Uriel went on a rant about architecture, anthropology and even lore.

"I know I'm not actually blind, but my senses did become sharp enough for me to move about without bumping into everything and I'm telling you I feel something odd about what's in front of us too. It's like a gut feeling telling me we shouldn't get any closer." Medusa insisted.

"Is it flux energy? Because I can't feel anything. Perhaps we should take our time and think things through." Nika started taking things seriously when she realized despite Uriel's concerns the group kept moving towards the 'castle'.

"What's the matter? Are you scared?" Uriel chuckled. After speaking face to face with the father of horrors walking towards a weird looking place felt like a stroll in the park.

"Am I scared he asks... of course I'm fucking scared! We're inside a dungeon walking towards a weird place that not even people who lived here knew it existed and worst of all, we know for a fact it's inhabited by witches. Actual witches!

And this time you can't tell me they're not real because we had one in our party a couple minutes ago!" As Nika's voice became loud enough to produce echoes an ominous feeling started climbing all the way up to Uriel's spine.

He didn't know when, he didn't know how, but something wrong was about to happen. He didn't need the system notice to alert him, yet he received one nonetheless. This time, however, it served a purpose apart from warning him of the danger, it also let him know the precise kind of danger that drew near.

[System notice] Dungeon's defensive protocols had been activated.