"Only a couple dozen goblins…with how big this dungeon is I thought we would encounter more of them…Belius! Are you sure there are no more of them?""I can"t sense any other hostile mental signature"
"Think again, my senses are telling me that there are more things inside this place…."
As they walked deeper into the dungeon, they realized that there were more floors, currently they were on the third floor of the dungeon, going further and further away from the surface.
Using a spell of "Light", with several orbs of light floating nearby, two heroes were guiding the knights.
But of course, the dungeon had many paths, Knight of Ice ordered the troops to take different routes and if they encounter anything then they were to call upon everyone else.
So, in a sense, their groups were split on the paths, with only five or so knights following each hero.
"Ser Belius, isn"t it easier to use the Blessed Stone in order to find the Holy Maidens or perhaps scouting ahead with your power?"
"Blessed Stone can only take us so far, it points to the general location, so they are definitely here, but it doesn"t pin point their exact location. As for my power, well, I can"t sense them very clearly. Since the Blessed Stones are still working I am sure they are still alive, but they most likely are unconscious…There!"
As Livon Clave and Cereb Belius neared a location, guided by Cereb"s blessing, they saw four women with different colored hair, chained to the wall, unclothed; each one seemed to be in unresponsive state.
"What exactly happened here?"
As they walked forward, they felt the ground tremble underneath their feet.
Suddenly, like branches springing out of the dirt, the hands of the dead sprouted towards the surface. Skeletal remains of people were surfacing towards the ground, breaking free of the dirt that hid them.
"Zombies!"
A type of undead that is considered weaker than a lich, but was still very dangerous due to its ability to infect people by biting them.
Unlike liches, they could not cast spells due to not having the mental capacity to do so, in a sense, they were perfect foot soldiers who never tired and had far greater strength than human beings.
Among undead, those that retain their will are the most dangerous, unlike the other undead who are mere feral beasts under someone else control, the ones that have retained their free will have the full mental capacity to use the benefits granted by their bodies.
Undead fed on life force of living beings, which was why they attacked people, draining them of life and turning them into one of them.
There were ten or so zombies, the battle immediately began.
Knight of Mind proceeded to make a quick work of four zombies while the knights behind him each managed to take down a single zombie.
"Well, at the very least, now we know who was behind this" Knight of Mind muttered before heading towards the Holy Maidens.
"I heard a commotion….So, you found them!" Knight of Ice entered the scene.
Hoping that Holy Maidens would respond, Knight of Mind began.
"I am one of the captains of the Holy Order, Knight of Mind, Cereb Belius. We have come to rescue you!"
But none of the Holy Maidens responded to his words.
"They are still alive, but their minds seem so stale…I must reach deeper…."
Knight of Mind put his hand upon the head of the Holy Maiden of Fire.
Using his Mind Takeover, he inserted himself into her mind.
But what he saw there was not her memories, but a single room where a man stood facing him with his back.
"Why is there someone within her mind? Could it be her memories? But there should be more than this….Maybe…"
As the Knight of Mind approached him, the figure moved in response.
Knight of Mind now felt a very familiar presence, the mental signature that made him wake up in terror at night ever since the day he encountered him.
This man"s entire body was covered by a robe made of darkness. His face was not visible, almost as if he was wearing a mask made of shadows.
But his red and white eyes seemed to be staring into his very soul.
As the figure made of darkness approached him, Knight of Mind could not help but back away from fright.
"Dark Lord!"
Knight of Mind cried out, before calming down a little.
"Calm down, these are just her memories; he is not really here…"
"Greetings, Knight of Mind"
The figure"s eyes now focused directly on Cereb Belius, slowly walking closer and closer as the Knight of Mind backed away as far as he could.
Darkness within the room was growing, swallowing everything whole, but the figure kept walking as the Knight of Mind found himself cornered.
He should be the one in control of this mental domain, but how? How was this fiend doing this?
"Did you miss me?" Dark Lord leaned forward as the Knight of Mind found himself forced against a wall.
Dark Lord now proceeded to laugh to his heart"s content, a laughter that shook the mental realm into the smithereens, with the darkness responding in kind.
Darkness now proceeded to swallow Knight of Mind whole.
"AAAAAHHH….!!!"
In the real word, Knight of Mind was screaming.
"Belius! What is wrong?!"
Knight of Ice was unusually worried as he saw Knight of Mind screaming in anguish.
Suddenly, Knight of Mind brandished his sword and lunged at the Knight of Ice.
"Get away from me! Laughing Devil!"
Blocking his strike, Knight of Ice tried to reason with him.
"Belius, have you completely lost it? It is me! No matter how much you may hate me, that is no reason to attack me!"
"Stay away! Stay away!" Knight of Mind completely lost it, relentlessly attacking the Knight of Ice.
"Chill out, you fool!"
"I will not let you haunt me ever again! I will finish you, once and for all!"
"Calm…" Knight of Ice kicked Belius, sending him crashing into a wall.
"…Down!" Using his power, Knight of Ice encased Knight of Mind in a large ice cube below his neck.
"Ser Rison, what is happening to him?" Livon asked, seeing two heroes fighting each other was a very disturbing sight to see. The knights led by heroes were not sure what to do.
"I don"t know….But let me try this…"
Knight of Ice, Creos Rison proceeded to place his palm on Knight of Mind"s forehead, and now with a forceful command he cast two spells.
"Calm!"
"Dispel!"
First spell was to cool down Knight of Mind"s overheated brain and the second one was to stop the spell that was likely affecting him.
Breathing heavily, Knight of Mind slowly regained his sanity.
"Owww…What happened?"
"You went berserk, completely cuckoo even for you"
"I remember…Her mind; there is a trap on it"
"Ya think?" Knight of Ice responded sarcastically.
"This is bad…Whoever did this predicted that I would use my power on her mind to inspect her memories, so he implanted a magic trap within her mind, fully knowing someone like me would fall into it…"
"Do you know, at the very least, who it is?"
"Unfortunately, I do. And if he is with the undead, then we have a very big problem on our hands"
"Why is that? If it is an enemy, we can just find and finish him, right?"
"I am afraid it is not going to be that simple. The one who set this trap up was none other than the one who came to rescue the imprisoned Demon Lord and succeeded in beating me. And if this is his doing… and with the presence of undead here, that could only mean one thing- Demons and Undead are conspiring!"
All of the knights and Knight of Ice"s expressions turned bitter. If the two enemies of humanity had formed an alliance, then their threat towards them had effectively doubled.
Separately, dealing with either Undead or Demons required a lot of forces, and each victory cost countless lives.
If their enemies were to unite against them, then the humanity was in big danger.
"So the undead and demons are working together now, just great!" Knight of Ice sighed in indignation; everything just seems to be heading in bad direction.
"Uhm, Rison, do you mind letting me go free?" the ice cube was encasing the Knight of Ice all the way below his neck, preventing him from moving.
Creos Rison proceeded to snap his fingers, causing the ice to fall into countless pieces, leaving the Knight of Mind shivering but free.
"So cold…"
"There!"
Right after hearing the sound of movement, Knight of Ice proceeded to unleash a full blast of frost in the direction of the sound.
His slash encased everyone coming in ice, but strangely, the ice did not stop them.
Instead, the ice cracked, revealing the undead underneath. The remains of their flesh cracked away, their bare bones visible, but like any undead, they were immune to ice based attacks.
"Well, well, a rather bad match for me, are they not? This is why I prefer dealing with demons!"
At least demons had a decency to crumble into frozen pieces after he used his power on them, but undead had very low bodily fluid content, making his attacks practically useless against them.
"Old fashioned way it is then!"
Another fight broke out between the knights and the undead.
Meanwhile, the other knights who split up to look for Holy Maidens in different directions ended up stepping upon marked locations on the ground.
They did not know that this dungeon had traps within it, designed to teleport the ones who activated them into the other dungeons in separate locations, in each of which, a Shadow Lord was waiting.
As their bodies were enveloped by the light of the magical structure, these unfortunate fellows found themselves transported away to places where they would find their doom….