Dungeon

Rays of sunlight peeped in through the window, an overcasting shadow stood over me.

"Wakey wakey!" An obnoxious voice practically screamed throughout the room, "Rise and shine!"

...Fuck. It's her. Didn't she... "D-didn't we sleep together!?"

"Aha, is that what you're worried about? I was just teasing you. I don't even need sleep," Rin said with a mocking giggle.

Phew... that's a relief. Can't disappoint my future wife by sleeping with another woman... That's if I even live long enough to marry, the fear of dealing with this demon might kill me first!

"Anyways, I made you breakfast!" Rin brought over a plate of burnt eggs, moldy bread, and pink-looking bacon.

...

A disgusted, partly mortified expression formed on my face.

"What?" Rin asked, confused by my expression.

"...Do you not know how to cook?"

"Uh, aha, nope."

Makes sense...

I got out of my bed and headed to the kitchen as a pesky voice called out to me.

"Wait! Where are you going!?"

She trailed behind me, I waddled to the kitchen to show her how to rightly cook eggs, properly toast bread, and cook bacon, making a plate for the both of us. I served the food on the dining table.

"Oh... aha, I don't really even need to eat, since I'm dead," she said without batting an eye at the food I placed.

"Then... why'd you make food?"

"...I thought it'd be nice, especially since you're supposed to go to the trouble of helping me out."

Really? By the looks of it, it almost seems like she was trying to poison me. Hey, at least she put in the effort.

"Um, thank you? That's awfully considerate."

"Well... I never meant for us to be enemies. That being said, I'm not gonna be nice if you try to run away..."

"Ah, okay. Noted. So, you can't eat?"

"Eh... I can. I should," she said as she reached out to grab the plate, "Thank you."

I sat down on my chair in front of her as we both began to eat breakfast.

"M-mmm! Huahhh," weird noises came out her mouth as she chewed on crunchy, buttery bread.

"Ehe... are you okay?"

"A-ah! Shut up, I just haven't had good food in a while!"

"...Okaaaay."

"Anyways, are you ready?" She asked with a piece of bacon in her mouth.

"For what?"

"The dungeon raid, of course!"

"Eh?"

Rin explained to me the details of the meeting last night. Apparently, a bunch of elite soldiers, about 10, were trapped in a nearby demon dungeon to the South of the capital. Captain Zaturna had ordered me, and a few other soldiers to go raid the dungeon and rescue the missing members, as well as combat the demons inside. If we were lucky, we could successfully destroy the dungeon.

The other half of the soldiers were put to establish a safe route between the capital and the closest town nearby.

So... fast forward to now and I'm standing outside the entrance of a dungeon with 12 other people, in the vast grassy open field. A cave stood in front of us as the morning sun shone among us.

"Are we all accounted for?" A matured looking man, black haired with slight wrinkles on his face, asked as he counted for all of the soldiers. He would be the leader of this raid.

"Yes!" A few of the duos shouted in response to the leader, reassuring him it was time to move in. All of the group was wearing the agency's uniform, including me and Rin. A white and black trench coat, black pants, black boots, topped with a sheathe on the hip.

Rin was awfully quiet in front of other people.

With that, the group, including me and Rin moved inside the cave and descended down the dark, stone stairs.

The way the raid was structured was that two soldiers would be matched into pairs in case of an attack. The duo would have to stick together with the rest of the group to ensure total safety. Basically, it was just a partnering system set up for better chances of survival.

The group had reached the end of the staircase. We had entered level 0.

Dungeons were structured in the way that they consisted of descending levels. The farther down you went, the stronger the monsters were. Eventually, the final floor consisted of either a bunch of strong demons, or a ridiculously strong demon boss of the dungeon. Locating the stairs to descend a level was easy, because all a soldier had to do was use his divine energy to pinpoint the location.

The leader passed each of us a torch he kept in his bag saddled to his back. We each used a small fireball spell to ignite the torches.

While we walked to the stairs, a small conversation started as we walked. Flashing lights from the torches flickered on the stone walls.

"So... how far down do you think the other soldiers are?" A curious soldier asked to the group.

"No clue... I think at least close to the dungeon boss," a random soldier of the group responded back.

"Eh, really? Hell, I'd reckon those soldiers killed the dungeon boss already!"

"...I don't think so. Unfortunately, I can't sense their divine energy. I wonder what happened..."

Rumor spread throughout the group. Although I did miss most of the speech led by Captain, everyone else was just as confused as me. The lack of information provided worried some, but others were confident that nothing would happen.

We descended to level -1. A few small, impish demons stood at the end of the staircase, but they were quickly dispatched of in just a few slices.

"...Does anybody get the feeling that something bad happened?"

"Nah, not at all. How come?"

"Well, it's just that... it's odd that we can't sense their divine energy. Maybe they're... de-"

"That's enough," the raid leader interrupted, having felt that he let the gossiping go on for long enough, "I can assure you that they're not dead."

We descended to level -2.

"How can you be so sure they're not dead?" A soldier refuted the leader.

"...Do you think 10 Elite warriors would just disappear like that?" The leader refuted back, trying to reason with the soldier.

"Uh... then, what's the point of sending 14 of us as a rescue group?"

"Relax, we're just here to lead them out the cave. They're probably sleeping, or something."

"..."

Tension filled the atmosphere of the group as conflict and disagreement erupted. Some thought something seriously bad occurred and labeled it as their gut instinct. Others argued, saying how could they trust their gut instead of proper reasoning?

We descended into level -3. Weirdly, we encountered no monsters on this level, or barely any at all for that matter.

It had almost slipped out of my mind, but I remembered that Rin was here. She walked besides me; we were completely at the back of the group. Rin's black eyes widened in the light of the fire. She stayed completely silent, which was odd for her.

"Hey, are you alright?" I leaned forward and whispered into her ear.

"Never better, ehehe," she mischievously said with a giggle, her short black hair swayed side to side as she walked.

...How odd.

We descended into level -4. The group stayed mostly silent until we found a bloody sword.

"Hey, chief," a soldier called out to the leader, "Look at what I found."

The group suddenly hovered over a bloodied sword. The leader picked it up and examined it closely.

"They must be close by..." The leader concluded and rushed to the nearby staircase. The rest of the group trailed behind him, suddenly alert and cautious.

We descended to level -5. Instead of being greeted by the sight of almost a labyrinth like hallway, we instead entered a small room with a tall double stone door seemingly shut.

Instantly, an immense burst of divine energy came from out the other side of the door. At the same time... a stressful amount of demonic energy also came from the other side of the door.

The leader stood in front of the door, his sword suddenly in his hand.

"Chief... what do we do?" A soldier asked, a distressed expression on his face.

"...We go in and deal with whatever's on the other side," the leader pushed open the door and revealed the scene on the other side.

Large torches illuminated the open cave space with a reddish, orange light. Around the rocky floor lay swords, pieces of armor, and worst of all, bloodied bodies. In the middle of the open space stood a red giant of a demon. Bloody horns stood on top of its head; half of its face was rotting flesh so half of its skull was visible. It was missing its right eye and its body strangely resembled a human. Red, hairy arms and legs, a hunched back and furry eyebrows.

It might've been the biggest Demon I've seen yet. It had to be over 60 grown men. Regardless, the valiant leader charged ahead, dashing forward to reach the demon. Countless of more inexperienced soldiers stayed still in shock. They had never dealt with a demon with such violent demonic energy. Others charged up ahead with the leader, including me.

The demon spotted and stomped over to us, missing all of the soldiers. Another quick stomp, yet the soldiers managed to dodge it.

The leader jumped up, climbed on the demon's arm, and lunged forward. His blade made contact with the demon's eye. Instead of flinching back in pain or surprise, the sword simply shattered upon contact.

"...That's it?" A deep voice bellowed throughout the cave. It was the first time the group and I heard a demon speak.

Shocked, yet resilient, soldiers jumped up at eyelevel to attack the demon. Suddenly, it thrashed about and knocked all the soldiers on the ground and on the air in a single, swift strike.

I gripped my sword. Bodies fell down to the ground and they didn't get back up.

Rin appeared behind me, suddenly. We were alone. The demon stopped attacking and seemed less hostile. It got down on its knees.

"Hey... long time no see, Xilrathon," Rin said to the demon.

"Mistress... I am at your service."