Chapter 27

SHALLTEAR POV:

Having completed her sinister task with Soma, she began her leisurely walk back to the center of the crystalline chamber, her heart ablaze with intense joy. The satisfaction of exacting retribution upon the evil god Soma coursed through her veins, filling her with dark, elated pleasure.

As Shalltear returned to the central point of the room, her eyes sparkled with anticipation. She knew that the stage had been set, and the forthcoming festival of pain and suffering would bring her an abundance of delight.

The Soma Familia members seem stunned, with wide eyes looking at her, they cannot comprehend the situation and what just happened.

"Come, come," Shalltear cooed, beckoning her death knights to gather around the center of the blueish chamber, which boasted numerous support pillars resembling a mystical forest.

The towering figures of death knights moved gracefully through the labyrinthine grove of crystal pillars until they encircled the bound and gagged members of Soma Familia. The captured individuals appeared dumbstruck, their wide eyes filled with incomprehension and terror.

Shalltear approached the captives with an air of triumphant satisfaction, her gaze fixed on each of them in turn. Their eyes radiated the emotion she cherished most—fear.

Paralyzed by terror, they trembled not only in the presence of the imposing death knights but also, above all else, in the presence of Shalltear herself.

Ah~ My heart pounds so hard whenever I see those terrified faces!

Amidst this chilling tableau, she reveled in the pure excitement coursing through her body. Her chest heaved with exhilaration, and a wave of heat flushed through her, her flat chest seeming to swell with fervor. Crossing her arms as if cradling her heart, she closed her eyes and allowed herself to be consumed by the intoxicating sensation.

More, more, more~ I want them to experience more fear, pain, and suffering!

Shalltear extended her arms wide and raised her gaze towards the ceiling, letting out a chilling, echoing cry of "MOOOOOOORE~!!" Her body began to change, contorting and morphing into a grotesque form that struck terror into those who beheld it.

Her once graceful visage became a horrifying caricature of itself. Her face took on a withered and desiccated appearance, resembling that of a mummy. Her lustrous silver hair transformed into something akin to what an old witch might possess. Her mouth stretched impossibly wide, extending up to her ears and taking on a circular shape reminiscent of a leech, with long needle-like teeth lining its interior.

Shalltear's once brilliant scarlet eyes now gleamed with a sickly hue, resembling the color of freshly spilled blood. Her fingers, now resembling dried wood, sprouted sharp claws that reached a menacing four inches in length. Her posture contorted, making her seem hunched and predatory whenever she moved.

Now fully transformed into a True Vampire, Shalltear approached Canoe with slow and deliberate steps. Her blood-red eyes glowed with malevolence as she gripped his chin firmly in her clawed hand.

"Doon yooouuu liiikeee feestiiiivaaals Caaaanooooeeee?" she hissed, her voice dripping with menace.

Canoe's eyes widened further, and though he was gagged, his trembling form communicated his desperate plea for mercy. The air was thick with his palpable fear.

"Oooh, yeeeees! Iiii knoooow whhhhhoooo yooouuuu aaaareeee~" The vampire queen purred as she licked him with her long, lamprey-like tongue, savoring his terror like a predator salivating for its prey.

Unable to contain his terror, Canoe began shaking uncontrollably, to the point where he lost control of his bladder.

"Geeet iiiintooo pooossiiitiiiooon!" Shalltear commanded her death knights, relinquishing her grip on Canoe's chin. One of the death knights swiftly seized him, positioning him for the macabre performance that was about to unfold.

Each death knight held a member of Soma Familia by the neck, forcing them to look upward at the ceiling. The captured members squirmed and struggled, desperately trying to avert their gaze, but they were held in place, their eyes locked onto the looming figures of death knights as if they were forced to stare into the face of death itself.

"Staaart theee blooood-tiiinteeed feeestiiivaaal! Thhhheee maaaaaiiiin shhhhooooow~!" Her voice echoed with sadistic glee as she screamed the command.

With her words, the death knights wasted no time. The unfortunate members of Soma Familia, now captive and helpless, were laid out in a gruesome display of death. The death knights nailed the flambergues down through their throats and through their bodies, impaling them. They moved the flambergue swords forward, opening their chests in a brutal exhibit of strength and a shower of blood. Their rib cages were torn open showing their still beating hearts until the last moment of their life. 

It was a chilling spectacle, signaling the horrifying commencement of Shalltear's macabre festival, and these hapless individuals were the unwitting guests of honor.

Their lifeless bodies were treated as though they were mere piñatas, cruelly cracked open, much like fortune cookies or kagami mochi during a New Year's festival. The Soma Familia members' once-vibrant forms ceased their pitiful struggles one by one, succumbing to the cruel hand of death.

As their bodies lay motionless, the fresh blood spurting from the severed portions of the body moved as though it had a will of its own, gathering and ripping the hearts from the bodies above Shalltear's head and forming a massive orb of blood.

The macabre transformation continued. The Soma Familia members, who had met their end at the hands of the death knights, were given a cruel twist of fate. They returned to a twisted semblance of life as Squire Zombies, their once-intelligent minds now reduced to a mindless state of unlife.

Her true, dark scheme had been unveiled. She had orchestrated this grotesque transformation not merely to end their lives once, but to subject them to the torment of a second, agonizing death as zombies in her sinister and sadistic festival of pain and suffering.

Shalltear reached into the grotesque orb of blood suspended above her, her fingers plunging into the pulsating mass of gore. What she retrieved was a nightmarish caricature of a heart, dripping with crimson ichor. With an almost nonchalant gesture, she tossed this morbid lump of flesh into one of the Squire Zombies, which promptly underwent a grisly transformation.

The blood-lump writhed like a maggot, then distorted itself as it flowed into the zombie's body. In an instant, the zombie shuddered, its body spasming several times before its exterior slowly changed. It seemed as though all the water had evaporated from its body, given how its skin had turned into something that resembled dried bark. It sprouted sharp claws and its canines jutted out. Before long, the undead creature before her could no longer be considered a Squire Zombie—it was the birth of a Lesser Vampire.

The eerie process continued relentlessly as the vampire queen repeated the sinister ritual with each former member of Soma Familia, systematically converting them into Lesser Vampires. Their once-lifeless eyes now held a glint of intelligence, and they instinctively turned their gaze toward their newfound master—Shalltear.

"Whhhhyyyy doooon yoooouuu looooook aaaat thhhheeee ooothhheeeers?" She taunted with a malevolent smile, her voice filled with sadistic glee. "Thhhhaaat iiiihs thhhheee saaaameeee thhhaaaat hhhaaappeeeeneeed toooo yoooouuu~~ AhahhahahhaaaaAAAHAHAHA!", she hoped to witness the horror and despair on their faces as they realized the grotesque transformation they had undergone. Her laughter rang out maniacally, echoing through the gruesome scene.

However, the reality of the situation differed from Shalltear's expectations. The vampiric conversion process had overwritten their minds, leaving only one recognition intact—the bond of kindredship among the newly created Lesser Vampires. Her twisted hope was for naught, the reality was that she was too drunk on her own sadism to accurately assess the situation.

In the midst of this unholy transformation, the death knights ceased their grip on the newborn vampires and withdrew to a strategic distance, forming a protective circle around the group. They planted their swords into the ground and placed both hands, including the one wielding the tower shield, over the hilts. The dark knights now resembled eerie statues, encircling the center of this nightmarish ritual like silent sentinels guarding an unholy ceremony.

Shalltear's maniacal laughter continued to echo through the chamber, filling the air with an unsettling sense of dread.

"AAHAHAAHA! Noooow! DIIIEEE FOOOOR MEEEE!! BRILLIANT RADIANCE!!" she declared, her voice carrying the weight of impending doom as she chanted a powerful spell. A complex white magic circle materialized in front of her, and an aura of holy light enveloped the newly created vampires.

The divine radiance cascaded upon them like an inverted waterfall, pouring from the very ground to the ceiling. The Lesser Vampires writhed in agonizing pain, a torment unique to undead creatures subjected to the purifying effects of divine holy magic. As the spell reached its zenith, the vampires seemed to disintegrate into ash.

When the spell's devastating effects subsided, it left behind a gaping crater in the chamber's ceiling, pierced by the force of Shalltear's magic. The aftermath was immediate and chaotic.

The ground beneath them shook violently as if the Dungeon itself were moaning or expressing anger. The walls emitted eerie howling sounds, and from the direction of the chamber's exit, the only point not obscured by the forest of blue columns, came the thunderous noise of a rock slide.

It became painfully evident that the Dungeon had trapped her within its depths. The chamber's ceiling began to crack, adding to the growing sense of impending catastrophe that hung heavily in the air.

Fragments of stone and crystal rained down from the ceiling, falling like the patches of skin that break off when the flesh beneath has already succumbed to decay. The once vibrant blue walls seemed to have their color drained away, revealing a stark, red bare rock underneath. Even the crystals on the ceiling dimmed, their light sputtering until the entire area was enveloped in an eerie darkness.

Then, a resounding crack echoed from outside the expansive chamber, jolting Shalltear from her stupefied state. "Eeeehhhh?", her face twisted in a mixture of dark realization and consternation.

In her sadistic fervor, she had made a grave mistake—she had unleashed a High Tier Divine AOE Spell within the confines of the Dungeon, effectively attacking the Dungeon itself with divine power. It was an action that carried dire consequences, and she had let her inner sadistic tendencies guide her actions, leading to this catastrophic result.

"Shhhhiiiiiit!!" Shalltear exclaimed in realization, fully aware that once again, her impulsive actions had thrown everything into disarray.

o-O-o

OURANOS POV:

At the room's center, the revered deity Ouranos, seated regally upon his stone throne, gazed down at his own feet. Four torches encircling him bathed him in a flickering, golden aura, yet his usually serene countenance was marred by a disconcerting unease.

Fels, a figure cloaked in darkness and mystique, stood vigil beside the god, addressing him with concern. "What is it, Ouranos?" they inquired, prompting the ancient god's revelation.

In response, Ouranos uttered words that struck like thunder in the cavernous chamber. "My voice no longer reaches the Dungeon."

Fels recoiled, the obsidian robes they wore quivering in response to the sudden proclamation. "You don't mean... the prayers have been cut off?!"

"Indeed. The Dungeon is...unstable," Ouranos confirmed, visibly rattled. His brine-colored eyes locked grimly onto the ground, his thoughts seemingly descending into the abyss below—the intricate and unfathomable labyrinthine depths of the Dungeon.

"I can only guess that another god has entered its halls, and the Dungeon has taken notice. Yet that would mean..." he began saying, motionless, before letting his own thoughts die.

A heavy silence weighed down on him, suffocating, almost as though the fears gripping his heart were simply too much to bear. The air seemed laden with the weight of their fears as if they were standing on the precipice of something unimaginable.

Fels, sensing the gravity of the situation, tentatively ventured, "Ouranos... could this mean...?"

"Yes…" The aged god nodded slowly, his voice carrying a somber resonance, "With Zeus gone, it seems to be... mutating."

With those words, the implications hung in the air, unspoken yet keenly understood. The Dungeon was shifting, changing in ways unforeseen. 

He turned his eyes toward the ceiling, shrouded in darkness, his gaze somewhere far, far away.

Then, as if resigned, his eyelids descended, closing in profound silence.

o-O-o

??? POV:

It was quite simple what was happening, really, if one thought of the Dungeon as a living creature. When a foreign organism attacks a human internally, the immune system acts to kill the invading pathogen. This is the natural self-defensive instinct of all living creatures.

The same holds true for the Dungeon. As the adventurers say, 'The Dungeon is alive'.

In other words, she had different processes against different stimuli, like any other living organism. 

For starters, when she detected a god in the dungeon, the first thing that happened was that Ouranos' prayers stopped having an effect.

The second thing that happened was that she spawned a black monster—usually a Monster Rex, going as far as to ignore its spawning interval—specifically to assassinate the god that had gone too deep. 

But if the deity was related to death or the underworld, she ended up spawning black dragons, the stronger monster archetype at her disposal.

And if the womb of all monsters was attacked too fiercely, the living underground maze activates its defensive instincts and spawns a being that serves as its immune response. This being that kills foreign organisms can be thought of as the Dungeon's Apostle. And it shakes off even the will of Ouranos, whose role is to hold the Dungeon in check

Each of these processes had a different trigger, and Shalltear had used a high-tier divine spell powered by the faith in the patron god of vampires, Cainabel, to attack the Dungeon.

This caused all those processes to happen at the same time—in the same spot—inside the Dungeon.

o-O-o

A fissure spread through the cavern on the 27th floor. It was a long, wide, deep fissure, running vertically opposite the Great Fall.

The first thing to spring from the fissure was liquid. The purple serum spewed out like blood, steam rising from it. The emerald-blue water clouded as if it had been soiled with sewer sludge.

The crack widened, scattering fragments of crystal as if the Dungeon were splitting open its own womb. 

Finally, a scarlet iris glinted from the depths of the fissure, and despair let out its newborn cry.

As the sound of shattering crystal rocks rang out, it silently appeared from within the fissure. Spawned from the wall of the cavern, it fell into the plunge pool with a tremendous splash.

Its newborn cry was an unpleasantly warm sigh. As the crashing sound of the Great Fall beat against its skin, the white mist veiled its silhouette. It neither howled nor roared a battle cry but instead swished its long tail and moved its twelve arms and four clawed wings, sending ripples across the water's surface.

Deep in its eye socket, a sinister crimson light glinted. At the edge of the plunge pool as broad as a lake, it bent its joints, and its elbows creaked. The next instant, it disappeared.

Leaving behind a trail that formed a red and black aurora that danced in the air.

The sinister aurora trace leading down below.

It had burst from the water's surface and into the floor's internal maze.