Chapter 6: Dimensional Rifts

The remnant group of the hunting party of five continued to venture deeper into the Den. Along the way, they encountered and slayed even more Elder Gods, those of an even different type.

The various appearances of various Elder Gods were of a mutation between the compliance of cells when humanity still tried to synthetically and genetically re-create Elder God cells years back.

But that was only to a varies number of few. Elder Gods were generally known to come in all shapes and sizes, as these creatures could affect and control their physical metabolism and hence influence their appearance and form.

So to say; they can casually grow an extra limb if the need arises.

But Elder Gods, as sentient as they might yet be, were still sub-mindless creatures raved by ravaging hunger and thirst for chaos; it wasn't always that many of them would actively think to make youse of this ability of theirs.

John struck down another of the scorpion-spider-like Elder God and panted grimly.

'We're going to die here.' he instantly realized.

Why?

Because it was another wave.

Another ambush.

They had arrived dangerously close to the Heart.

The deeper they went into a Den...the closer they reached to the Heart of the Den, the more substantial increase in the strength and amount of Elder Gods. 

And since the moment they entered, this Den had already proven to be way beyond a Lower B-rank. 

'This is on the level of a Peak B-rank Den. How can the scout team be so foolish with the Intel? I didn't sign up for this shit!' John thought apprehensively as he leaned forward to dodge an approaching attack to his head from behind.

He was injured, his movements were slowed and he was running out of "Manna". Not to mention the increase in density of the "Mana" this close to the Heart affecting his already disarrayed senses.

His last massive attack on the last hall from before had exhausted a great amount of "Mana" than a knight of his low level could afford. Even with the help and support of gears and gadgets. Now he was paying for it.

The Party members were even worse off than John.

"Huaaarrgh!!" The large man with the giant war hammer roared in a battle cry as he descended his weapon against the head of the Elder God before him.

The creature stumbled, nevertheless, unfazed, then proceeded to smack the human 100 meters off to one side with one of its limbs.

The large man's body torpedoed through the air and deep into a wall at the far end.

He coughed up blood on the inside of his visor helmet, the force of impact forcing his eyes to roll back into his head shortly.

His left shoulder was already brutally injured by a different wound. His body armor was torn though and his flesh was shredded into a maimed mess. It was a miracle he could even still lift that heavy hammer with both hands in a state like that.

Regardless, he was already dying. 

His body suit was fractured, and the contaminated air leaked into his bare wounds. It was slow...painful... but sure.

The other man with the massive shield already had his weapon shattered and broken to pieces and had to result in low-level daggers which he wielded awkwardly against his opponent. 

He had broken ribs which pierced deeper into his lungs the more he moved, flooding and clothing his airway with blood. He took a blow too, and was sent flying equally.

The lady with the spear had a few broken bones and bruises even underneath her armor but still held a little bit stronger and tenacious than the two. Her spear however has taken far too many blows than it could and was on the verge of collapsing anytime soon.

Lyra...

...

[ ⟨ Strength: +20 ⟩

 ⟨ Speed: +20 ⟩

 ⟨Defense: +20 ⟩

 ⟨Gear Durability: 3/100⟩

 ⟨"Mana" Capacity: 5/100⟩ 

 ⟨....⟩ ]

...

She was out of "Mana" to spare and could only run around, trying to avoid fatal blows.

Trying, was the word.

She already received various broken bones, concussions and even more bruises as the durability of her gear was very clearly in the red.

John observed his group and clicked his tongue before shouting out an order.

"Regroup and retreat deeper into the Den. I'll clear them off with the same attack as earlier."

At the declaration, the remnant of the party held sparks of hope. John was a Magic Knight, and they had seen how destructive and powerful one of his attacks was.

The Lady with the spear quickly reaches to get the big man with the maimed shoulder to wake him up and the rest quickly abandoned their opponents and retreated deeper into the Den.

Closer to the...

No.

Till they reached the heart.

"This is...!" 

Once they arrived, they could all tell.

The "Mana" radiation was incredible. Stones of pure gardens and condensed Mana formed in the ground and walls. Streams of "Mana" cut across the room on various sides.

But most incredible of all...was the giant boulder of "Mana" stone at the very end, from which the most oppressive radiation came.

All. of those who went magic nights instantly fell to their knees, heavy.

The big man coughed up far more blood as pale blue veins spread across his whitening face. His eyes were quickly losing color, greying out. Then he started gasping for air sharply.

He bled from his whitened eyes. Deep red crimson flowed from his ears mouth and nose. He gargled then he died on the spot.

The others suffered under the heavy radiation despite their body armor. They felt their blood dry underneath their whitening skin 

They were graced by a rupturing headache, their eyes burning and threatening to expand under their sockets. Their insides rocked, organs slowly swelling up.

Then slowly it was hard to breathe...Then excruciatingly painful. The man with the daggers felt his skull split open as his brain swelled.

He cried in pain then brought the daggers to his neck...

And slit himself open.

He died.

John could handle the radiation a little better than the others, but still felt it bearing on him regardless. But this was no time to falter.

He raised his great sword and took a stance. The blade charged with power...with everything he had.

Then he swung forward.

Ghostly blue flames surged once more devouring all in its part.

Everything.

The flames, however, this time weaker didn't surge far or last too long. But wreaked havoc however, it did still.

A vast most of the Elder Gods were burnt to ashes by the flame, bringing the mighty horde to dwindling numbers, finally.

John gave a bloody smile. Deep crimson flowed from his eyes, nose, and ears from overexertion.

"Serves you right."

He had used all of his "Mana".

He fell to the ground, limp.

Barely alive. However unable to do anything before the approaching creatures.

None of them could.

But something happened.

Before John's fading eyes, he watched the remnant Elder Gods burst into blood and flesh and die.

Then a voice reached his eyes...no...all three of them.

"Well, this is certainly a heart-wrenching scene." Soon three shadowed figures emerged from where they had come.

Three men donning high-level Advanced-rank gear and equipment showed themselves with smiles and grins.

'Re-reinforcements..?' Lyra weakly thought.

Reinforcements had arrived; high-level Magic Knights by the looks of their pieces of equipment; they would be safe now.

Except...they weren't.

One of the men with blonde hair walked forward into the Heart and over the body of the slit open-throat man, flashing a very unsettling smile.

Then he said to them all.

"I'll have to admit; you lot had done far better than I would have expected from a low-level hunting team like yourselves. Yes, yes. Especially you, old man. For a low-level knight, you sure outdid yourself." He laughed.

The two other men chuckled as well.

Then one among them, with green hair, nodded and said:

"Really. I wasn't even sure how we were going to clear this Den and retrieve this massive Mana Stone when we found it and just barely managed to return alive."

Then the last man nodded and added.

"Indeed. It was a brilliant plan to place wrong information about the Dens' danger ranking, so we could get lower teams to hunt the way for us, while we just follow from behind and take the spoils for ourselves."

Lyra's eyes widened.

'They tricked us.'

"I .i-t... can't be.." John stuttered as he tried to get up but couldn't.

Then the blonde from before spoke.

"Yes, it is. Now you've done all the work, we'll excavate this here Mana Stone submit it to the guild, and receive wondrous rewards. We won't have to ever lift a finger again in life!" He spread his arms apart in ecstasy.

The information about a low-level Den was a trap set up by the last scouts who discovered a massive treasure trove like this but came with ghastly dangers. They used the lower teams who picked the job as fodder to clear their way through the Den, to arrive at the end of it to claim the reward.

"Fact remains, we hadn't expected much from a low-level team though. But you've surprised us pleasantly today. It's a shame we'll have to get rid of you now. It is also surprising there are actually survivors who came this far." The third man laughed and then pulled out a green saber, a "Mana" weapon.

The spear lady grits her teeth and forces herself up.

"Y-you bastards! You're supposed to be Magic Knights; protectors of humanity, and here you are leading a whole group of people into aimless death!" She couldn't accept it, that was why she picked a sharp rock off the ground and charged for the blond up front.

But...what was a simple rock going to do against a high-level Advanced-rank Body armor? 

Nothing.

The blond smiled and then uttered.

"Indeed." A blue saber flashed, and the lady's head flew across the air, severed off her neck cleanly. His decapitated body fell to the ground limply.

Lyra shuddered. She was going to die, she instinctively judged at that very moment.

"You bast-" Before John could fully protest, the third man stabbed his head with his green saber and commented somberly.

"You're too loud old man."

It was decided, Lyra was going to play dead. But then the man with green hair turned to her and smiled. Suddenly she felt so cold.

But all of the knights froze all of a sudden.

Their expressions shifted sharply.

The blond at the front turned towards the giant boulder and scowled warily before speaking about what bothered all three present.

"The "Mana"—!"

Except he couldn't complete the thought as the whole world seemed to rock.

A giant vertical pillar of light tore through the old ruined hospital and crashed directly into the Heart of the Den.

An implausible amount of "Mana" radiation pulsed out from the impact and rippled through literal space, casually sending all of those present flying meters away. The blond who was up in front flew the furthest with the most velocity and crashed hundreds of meters away from the hospital.

The entire ceiling of the Den was ripped off cleanly revealing the dark spiralling sky.

And from its very epicenter, the vast pillar fell like a massive staff from heaven.

It was a Dimensional Rift.

***

Authors' Note: 

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 Two chapters till MC's introduction.