Of Calamities And Cataclysms

His eyes glittering with a hint of excitement, Isaac gazed at a gigantic monster slumbering in the distance, wholly enveloped by a blackish purple mist. A staircase leading towards the 74th floor could barely be made out in a stalagmite less than a kilometer from the creature, but it wasn't the center of attention because the entire rock formation was dwarfed by the beast's size.

'This is getting a bit ridiculous. How much bigger are these things going to get?'

Even he couldn't help but frown slightly upon laying his eyes upon the nearly three kilometer long Monster Rex. It hadn't even stood up yet, but its body already reached 900 meters in height. Glancing at the less than a meter long sword in his hand, he couldn't help but smirk to himself. He was certain that he could easily wound the specimen, but it would probably take a considerable while to properly research it.

When he had reached the 73rd floor, he had nigh instantly noticed a few changes. Compared to the previous parts of the Precarious Path, there were far fewer paths of floating rocks leading in different directions from the end of the staircase. Before, there had always been at least ten, but now there were only three. Additionally, the purple mist that lingered at the bottom of the cavern had reached a height of one kilometer, and its density had increased.

For no particular reason, he had chosen the path to his south and followed it for around ten minutes at his current maximum speed. Five minutes into that journey, he had observed that the colour of the mist had started to darken, and another four minutes later, it had turned almost entirely black. Still, what he had been looking for hadn't yet appeared, so he had calmly continued onward.

After another minute had passed, he had finally been able to make out the floor boss of this thematic zone in the distance, albeit only due to his Eyes of Hermes. The mist at the bottom of the cavern had turned so dense and dark that, from above, it seemed like the rolling waves of a blackish purple underground ocean. If one only relied on their eyesight, then absolutely nothing could be made out beneath its surface.

No Purple Dragons were anywhere close to the center of this area - it was unknown whether they were frightened away by the Monster Rex, or if they were somehow incompatible with this differently coloured mist.

The floor boss' body, which appeared somewhat like a small mountain from afar, had four legs and its overall shape reminded him of an ox - albeit, one that was overgrown with dark-brown, nearly black stone-like scales. It had a tail that was seemingly made out of the same material as well and the ground around it had merged with it a little, making it appear as if it had naturally grown from the stone over a period of countless years. There were two twisted demonic horns jutting out of the monster's temples, as well as two similar protrusions extending from somewhere underneath its chin, akin to a beard. Even when it had its mouth closed during its slumber, one could easily make out the sharp fangs slightly sticking out of its closed maw. It had two pairs of eyes that were covered by heavy eyelids, but still faintly glowing in a pink-purple light that leaked out from underneath. One of these pairs was a little smaller than the other, and situated right about where the head ends of a human's eyebrows were usually located - just for the record, this creature didn't actually have any eyebrows.

'Young Behemoth… the latter part of the name is quite fitting. But if this is only the fledgeling, then the mature, actual Behemoth of legend had to have been an even more impressive beast. What a shame that it's not around anymore.'

Normally, Isaac would have snorted at the Zeus and Hera Familia members' horrifying naming senses, but he couldn't really criticize them this time - the word 'behemoth' was simply too apt. Also, the entire name was actually of particular significance.

About a millennium ago, the Guild had issued the 'Three Great Quests' to the adventurers of this world. Each one of them was simple to understand, as they only requested the subjugation of a terrifying monstrosity that had escaped from within the dungeon's depths long before most deities had descended, and before the Seal of Babel had been put into place.

Leviathan, Behemoth and the One-Eyed Black Dragon - those were the monikers of the three monsters.

The Leviathan was the ruler of the sea, while the Behemoth reigned over the land. As for the One-Eyed Black Dragon, it was both the sovereign of the sky… as well as the most terrifying out of them all.

For a long time, adventurers had been wondering about where exactly these three had come from, as none of them had been encountered in the dungeon up to that point. But when the Zeus and Hera Familias had reached the 73rd floor, they had finally figured it all out.

All objectives of the Three Great Quests could indeed be fought in the dungeon, but only weaker versions of them. All three of these monsters had originally been Monster Rexes, and after leaving their birthplace, they had managed to evolve further and to become significantly stronger, to varying degrees. The longer that they lived, the more dangerous they became.

What had led to this deduction was that the Monster Rex of the Precarious Path looked just like a 'baby' version of the Behemoth that had still been occasionally wreaking havoc upon parts of the surface. It had travelled from continent to continent and couldn't be bothered to wipe out all eyewitnesses, so many paintings of it had been made over the years. This floor boss was far too similar to the Behemoth for this to be a simple coincidence.

With these thoughts in mind, the familias had deduced that Leviathan had to be a stronger form of Amphisbaena from the Water City. After all, they hadn't encountered any other sea-based Monster Rexes, so it seemed like a logical conclusion. Additionally, it was commonly believed that the Leviathan had escaped from the dungeon via an underwater passage that was directly linked to the bottom of the massive lake on the 27th floor. So what other Monster Rex could it possibly have been originally?

The only reason for the continued use of the name 'Amphisbaena' after this revelation was that it had already stuck - for hundreds of years, everyone had been calling the floor boss by this moniker, so why change it? Still, there had been no such reservations when it concerned the freshly discovered Young Behemoth, who had still been nameless at the time.

After defeating it, the Zeus and Hera Familias had delved further into the dungeon, at almost a crazed pace. Now that they had been made aware that the escaped Monster Rexes could grow stronger over time, it had felt like a fire had been lit underneath their proverbial butts. They had occasionally rested on their laurels before, because there had been no need to be hasty, but due to the newly obtained knowledge, every second had counted.

They had prided themselves the heroes of the sentient races and had wanted to rid the world of the last remaining dangers. Originally, they had intended to steadily increase their strengths, and to then overcome all of the Three Great Quests with ease, but when they had discovered that their subjugation targets hadn't just been lazing around all day, free time had become a wasteful luxury. After all, what if those Monster Rexes reached an unprecedented Level and destroyed the world before they could slay them? They couldn't allow that to happen!

Two years before their fight with the One-Eyed Black Dragon that had ultimately spelt their doom, they had reached the 85th floor and fought the Young Black Dragon, a Monster Rex that was, quite obviously, the fledgeling-equivalent of the real thing. After having achieved victory, they had been filled with confidence and had failed to properly take a very important factor into account - time.

Drunk on their comparatively easy triumph, and confident in being able to rush through all Three Great Quests in a single bout and create a timeless legend, they had ventured forth and hunted down the Leviathan and the Behemoth in quick succession. Admittedly, those battles had been tough, but aside from a handful of casualties, they had been able to tide through them stably mostly due to the rare Skills of some of their Executives. Convinced that the One-Eyed Black Dragon wouldn't be able to endure their assault, they had tracked down its location… and got annihilated.

6,107 years ago, a Level 5 Amphisbaena had escaped into the seas. 16 years ago, the Level 8 Leviathan had been slain by the Hera Familia.

2,073 years ago, a Level 7 Young Behemoth had left the dungeon. 15 years ago, the Level 8 Behemoth had been slain by the Zeus Familia.

1,000 years ago, a Level 9 Young Black Dragon had descended upon the surface. 14 years ago, the One-Eyed Black Dragon had wiped out almost all of the members of the Zeus and Hera Familias.

From this information, it could be gleaned that it took around 2,000 years for a Monster Rex to advance one Level, so shouldn't the One-Eyed Black Dragon have been far from reaching Level 10? Yes, but even an incredibly strong Level 9 monster had still been more than capable of wiping them out. In their arrogance, the two familias had failed to keep the dragon's growth in mind, because they had been convinced that they could already face 'any monster that is weaker than Level 10'. The reasons for this confidence had been the Hera Familia's Level 9 Captain, as well as the two familias' Executives' extremely powerful Skills that could provide them with ridiculous stat bonuses and other benefits.

But even if they hadn't grown overconfident, this line of reasoning would still have been flawed. What if the One-Eyed Black Dragon had managed to grow stronger even faster than the other two calamities? Relying on a perceived average would work out in most situations, but it was still considerably risky. Due to every single Zeus and Hera Familia member who had fought the beast about one and a half decades ago being dead, nobody could accurately determine just how strong the former Monster Rex had become.

'In any case, this one shouldn't be a threat.'

Quite relaxed, Isaac heaved a sigh and stopped thinking about all of the information that Fels had conveyed to him. Right now, the only thing of importance was to systematically dismantle his specimen.

Taking a deep breath, he once again entered the realm of impeccable focus, his chessboard, and nocked an arrow. In one smooth motion, he pulled back the string and got into the perfect position, then he let go of it. The arrow dived into the ocean of mist, straight into one of the Young Behemoth's nostrils, to get its attention.

An eardrum-shattering roar let him know that he was successful. With a speed that was nearly unimaginable for a being the size of a small mountain, the upper half of a horned head - one that was nearly 300 meters in height on its own - rose above the blackish purple waves of mist, stirring them up as if there was a tempest brewing. The two pairs of eyes opened and glared at him with annoyance and a bit of fury in them, before the Young Behemoth roared at him a second time, opening its terrifying maw widely in the process. The accompanying gusts of wind would have blown Isaac off of the rock that he was standing on if he hadn't been prepared for them beforehand.

'All stats are at S-900 / 142,650, as expected.'

With an excited smile, he kicked off of the rock and shot towards the Monster Rex, shattering his previous foothold in the process. Usually, there would have been no need to restrain his stats, because his opponent's stats were a bit higher than his own, but with the stat bonus from his Supreme Archer Development Ability in the mix, he could currently completely outclass this fledgeling. So, like most of the time, he restricted himself to even the playing field.

First things first, he quickly enveloped himself in a wind barrier to keep the mist at bay. Earlier, after chucking in a Purple Dragon from his inventory, he had seen that it had quickly shrivelled up as well as disintegrated. Because he didn't feel any particular desire for engaging in self-mutilation, he decided to protect himself.

Noticing the Young Behemoth's change in posture, he created a foothold of dense air with his Anemoi Steps in less than a fraction of a second and changed his trajectory, evading a swipe of the monster's left foreleg. It looked like he had only barely made it, but his facial muscles were naturally relaxed. He even looped his bow over his shoulder at the same moment.

Unsheathing his sword in mid-air, he casually slashed it across the floor boss' arm to test the durability of its earthen scales, as well as the performance of his new weapon. His eyes lit up a little when he felt barely any resistance at all.

Suddenly, his expression changed, and if the Young Behemoth had been a sentient being, then it would have felt a cold shiver run down its spine. The aura that Isaac gave off was that of a knowledge-hungry unscrupulous scientist wielding an incredibly sharp scalpel… and the floor boss was in the position of the desperate victim that had been strapped to a chair with bloodshot eyes, desperately struggling to escape.

Even the Monster Rex' Magic couldn't pose a threat, as all of the battlefield was in Isaac's field of view. The Young Behemoth grew stone pillars and spears out of the ground under the cover of the mist, trying to take its opponent off guard, but it didn't know that the sea of mist didn't impede his vision at all, so he could account for them easily. When it collapsed stalactites far above them in an effort to crush him underneath, his expression didn't change either - he merely noted down the exact specifics and extent of its abilities within his mental archives.

As for physical attacks? They were even less of a threat. Compared to the battle with the Monochro--- Baihu, this fight went off just like his usual scientific endeavours: without a hitch. He somewhat missed that dance of death, but he enjoyed his research even more. There would surely be other opponents that could pressure him in the future - maybe in Heaven, or in other destinations of his journey - so he didn't need to put himself in too much of an underdog position.

If anyone had observed this bloodbath, then they would have concluded mainly one thing: the Young Behemoth was truly pitiful for having come across Isaac. For close to two hours, it was closely scrutinized and repeatedly harmed in countless ways. Its wounds did recover quite quickly, but it simply couldn't keep up with the innumerable injuries appearing all over its body in rapid succession.

Sometimes, arrows would momentarily rob it of its eyesight, at other times, its limbs would be hacked off by tens of successive attacks. For a period of time, Isaac even entered the Monster Rex' stomach through its maw and sliced it apart from the inside, making it flail on the ground and smash itself against the surroundings in a desperate attempt to kill him and end this suffering somehow.

By the end of the 'battle', there was quite a heap of Young Behemoth limbs, horns, eyeballs, organs and various other body parts littering the surroundings. A blind, limbless and headless floor boss with an eviscerated stomach lay limply on the ground of the cavern. Next to it rested a decapitated head, its wounds only closing a millimeter at a time. As far as the eyes could see, a one meter deep lake of blackish blood stretched into the distance.

A last low gurgling noise escaped the pitiful Monster Rex' snout, then it finally escaped this torment forever. Moments later, Isaac walked out from one of its eye sockets, his entire body untouched by blood or dirt due to his wind barrier's protection.

'Because I didn't use Magic to directly wound or kill it, I earned quite a bit of excelia, unlike last time with Baihu.'

Happily whistling to himself, he picked up the countless body parts strewn around and put them into his inventory, not missing even a single scale. It wasn't that he was lacking money, but he simply couldn't stomach the thought of letting this much precious material go to waste. Had he truly been desperate for wealth, then he would have just kept the floor boss - or any other strong monster with significant regenerative capabilities - alive and harvested the body from time to time.

Making doubly sure that he hadn't forgotten anything, Isaac turned around and entered the staircase leading towards the 74th floor, which should be a Safety Point, if his source of information - Fels - was to be believed.

Right as he descended, he froze in his tracks and a surprised but relieved expression spread on his face. The system had just notified him of something that he had been looking forward to for quite a few days now.

-----

Right as the first rays of the sun peeked over the horizon, a brief pillar of light descended from Heaven upon the Beol Mountains, coinciding perfectly with the sunrise and masking itself in this manner. There were barely any people living out here, and only someone within the surrounding few kilometers would have been able to tell that another deity had come to the Lower World.

Deep within a valley nestled between three steep mountains, entirely shielded from the outside, there could be found a massive fortress built out of dark stone. It had sturdy walls, more than one hundred watchtowers, many buildings of varying sizes and a main keep. Deep marks left by the weather of the seasons told of a many thousand years old history. Figures clad in black robes patrolled the surroundings and walls, occasionally killing the few weak monsters that were foolish enough to come close.

On the roof of the keep, seventeen black-robed figures stood at the side, watching a silent and cold young man who had appeared in the center of a magical formation that had been set up here whenever the keep had been built.

The man was topless and only wore a white wrap around skirt that was belted at the waist. It was incredibly plain, and no jewelry could be found on his body. He looked to be around 22 years old, had a healthy olive skin tone and a lean but strong build. Still, anyone that looked at him would be cautious due to the icy and piercing gaze in his black eyes. Hair of the same colour fell unkempt onto his shoulders. While he was undoubtedly beautiful, just like all of his brethren, the god didn't care for luxury or extravagance whatsoever.

"What's your name?"

With a steady but emotionless voice, the man turned to face the one who stood in front of the other sixteen people that had been waiting for him. It was a young woman about twenty years of age, whose above average looks were almost entirely hidden underneath her uniform robe. It was obvious that she was the one in charge here before his arrival, or at least the one that the others had pressured to shoulder the burden of leadership, so it was natural for him to address her first.

"It's Nane, Lord Apophis. All of us are thrilled at your descent! If there is anything you need, just let me know. We prepared a feast for you in advance, would you like to partake?"

Although she seemed a little nervous, the woman still soldiered through her anxiety and properly rattled off the words that she had prepared beforehand.

In response, the god only shook his head slightly and gazed into the distance, towards Orario.

"There is no need. Even in this mortal vessel, I don't need to consume any food. Now then, Nane. You are the strongest of the ones that are left of the Black Blade, am I correct?"

Taken aback, mostly due to Apophis' complete disinterest in what her Lady Petbe had loved to take part in before - opulent parties - Nane paused for a second, blinking in confusion. This invitation had just been a formality. Everyone had expected for him to agree and follow them off the relatively frigid roof.

Noticing Apophis looking at her with no expression whatsoever, she gulped audibly and nodded.

"Alright then. You shall be the Captain of the Apophis Familia. As you already know, I will be taking over the operations here in the Lower World in our Lady's stead. I was already briefed on the situation from her, but I would like to know all of the details."

Luckily, this request wasn't out of Nane's expectations, so she pulled out a handy notebook from her robe and dutifully informed her new leader of all that had happened recently, as well as all of the information that they had gathered. By the time that she was finished, the entirety of the sun was already clearly visible.

"From what we have gathered, in five days, there will be a massive protest at the plaza in front of Babel, where the people will request Isaac Blackshaw's release. We can use the turmoil to our advantage and acquire more resources. The Guild and the peacekeeping familias will be forced to focus on the plaza, so we can pillage some of their warehouses."

Ending her report with a recommendation of her own, Nane looked up at Apophis with a hint of expectation on her face. But all that she got in return was the same deadpan expression as before, as well as a shake of the head.

"If we know about it, then the Guild surely does as well. They will have made preparations already. We don't have enough forces to contend with them at the moment. Pull back everyone and have half of our men focus on the Knossos base and on growing stronger. We are too weak right now and can't afford to do anything. As for the other half, they'll renovate this place and prepare sufficient accommodations. We'll leave all the troubles to the other Blades whose armies will arrive here soon. The earliest group is scheduled to arrive in 11 days. In three days, I will let all of you join my familia to give you back your powers. Until then, only bother me when you have new information. That's all. Dismissed."

After shutting down a flawed suggestion and providing the group with all orders that he deemed necessary, Apophis turned to look in the direction of Orario again, his face growing slightly darker.

Not wanting to disturb him, the slightly disheartened Nane nodded and led the others away in silence, leaving the god to his own devices.

A strong gust of wind blew past, causing him to squint a little, appearing even more hostile than usual. But beneath that facade, bits of melancholy and hatred bubbled within his pupils, having quietly seethed for myriads of years.

"The closer I get to this place, the more I get reminded of the Cataclysms… I hate this."

Muttering these words underneath his steady breath, Apophis clenched his hands into fists subconsciously, the disturbing emotions in his gaze intensifying.