Rage

Typhon reared its head and roared louder than ever, the very air being distorted by the volume of its voice as it felt itself harvest the souls of those it had killed, much like Lyze did whenever he killed something. The remaining adventurers picked themselves up, fear and despair written all over their faces as they looked between their deceased comrades and the place where they had last seen Lyze.

The monster was proving its superiority even over their ace who had up until now been crashing through his limits over and over and ascending higher and higher than was reasonable for his level. A level 3 capable of maiming and even killing a level 5 gave reason for hope to those in dark times. But Typhon so far had shown itself to be little more than annoyed at Lyze for the boy's attacks, and yet did not consider him a real threat.

Typhon gunned the boy down and continued to step on him even when Lyze was down. And even if Lyze retaliated, the beast would just absorb the power from the boy and return the favour. Assuredly more than even, the adventurers knew that their prodigy had met his match, and after the most recent onslaught, they believed that he had also met his end.

Not even Lyze could have survived such a sustained blast attack as per their reasoning. The melted cliff-face was their reasoning for that.

Typhon swung its arms outwards and Udaeus spikes burst out of the ground. The monster then punched the ground behind the spikes with enough force to have them launch out of the earth like missiles in the direction of the adventurers. For the umpteenth time, Riveria cursed the elongated chant she needed to set up her barrier and that she had not learnt by now how to do it wordlessly. Even if she could, right now she felt herself depleted of her magic reserves just up to the point of a Mind Zero. If she even tried to cast a healing spell right now, she would likely just faint.

The adventurers were helplessly bombarded by the spikes as the deadly projectiles rained down upon them. The more agile adventurers ducked or dodged to avoid being impaled, while some used weapons and shields to cushion or divert the trajectory of these spikes. But the less unfortunate were ran right through or were dismembered by the spikes as they were ripped apart.

Finn grit his teeth as he heard his comrades begin dying, and now realized how bad it had become. Now it seemed that Lyze had been their only safeguard their entire journey against the most powerful monsters because of how easily the boy kept coming back all the time and because Lyze always tanked the most critical attacks. He had also been so easy to incorporate into the fighting dynamics of the Familia.

His absence now revealed the stagnation in everyone else's instincts and their complacency because now they had come to rely on him far too much. As soon as the boy was taken out of the picture, the death that had been long overdue in their travel was now blanketing them and taking the adventurers one by one. And with all escape routes closed off, and their strengths at an all time low after repeated losses against Typhon, only one obvious path laid ahead.

The Moira Sands was going to become their tomb.

The dragon heads came around blew a fiery curtain right at them that incinerated everything obstructing its way. Gareth spat out some blood at this sight and lifted someone's else's axe that had been discarded and jumped in the air as he brought the weapon down on the ground with as much strength as he could managed. The impact sent a shockwave ripping towards the blue curtain of dragon fire and negated much of breath attack instantly. What did reach the adventurers though was enough to cause severe burns and blisters as they screamed in agony.

Some considered death preferable to their current situation.

Gareth's strike had more effect though than the initial aftermaths. The ground where the axe had struck cracked before the earth split open to reveal a cavern inside with walls the closed inwards, allowing for a smooth slide in. The dwarf smiled a little in relief, even with the aching in his muscles due to severe exhaustion. He raised his hand and hurriedly beckoned to his comrades.

"In here!" The dwarf yelled. "Take cover!"

The surviving adventurers began to run to the crevice just as Typhon raised its arms and began charging up the Flame in its body, streams of silver electricity covering its body and spilling out of its eyes as the dragon heads opened their mouths and began charging the same electric currents in their mouths. The adventurers just managed to jump, the last being a battered Noir hauling an unconscious Ais over his shoulder who had blood dripping from her face just as the monster detonated the energy outwards.

A shockwave of magical energy blasted throughout the Floor and streams of lightning seared outwards like lasers from the dragon mouths and the holes in Typhon's body as a hurricane of electricity decimated the Moira Sands, canyons being melted into the walls and ceilings from the lightning streams as the skull of the main head began to glow from the amount of energy within. When the storm died down, Typhon shook its body as it regenerated some of the damage it had taken from its own attack, demonstrating a lingering inability to properly use the powers it had stolen.

Its ears picked up a strange noise and then a disturbance as it turned around to be met with a giant boulder flying towards it face. It headbutted the rock, smashing it into thousands of pieces, only to be greeted by two metallic points headed straight towards its eye sockets. It was the sharp points of two fearsome blades on the end of long chains. With perfect precision, the chain blades sunk into the eye sockets and sank deep inwards as blood spurted out and the monster yelled in pain.

The agony was further augmented by the chains suddenly conducting lightning that coursed right through Typhon's armoured defences and sank into its soft insides as it was dealt real pain through the chain blades as channelling points. The dragon heads followed the chains to the hole in the wall where Lyze was last seen. The chains extended from within the dark entrance, and out of it appeared Lyze with both arms holding a chain each.

The metal links held taut but seemed to originate from openings in the skin of the boy's arms, as if his flesh had been woven into these chains. But that was not nearly as surprising as the boy's current state. Even having his arms regenerated, Lyze was still a state to be observed. Angry burns and several deep cuts and lacerations covered the boy's body from head to toe as he was left with little to cover his modesty besides his ruined pants which had been burned right onto his skin, no doubt causing much unwanted pain in sensitive regions.

The entire left side of his face was bruised and swollen, slowly turning purple and one of his cheek had been torn, making his teeth visible. His nails were charred black, his hair crisped and ruined and a patch of skin above his right shoulder was missing, revealing the muscle underneath. It was a wonder why the boy was not unconscious from the pain he should been feeling at that moment. But Lyze had an immensely high pain tolerance. He'd been through much more than this in the past, and it wasn't going to stop him now.

Not with the emotions running through him at the moment.

The {Cratus} skill burned with life as deep, unfathomable anger and hatred scorched Lyze's skin and mind in ways where he couldn't even notice his physical pain. His eyes were sunken and wide with madness, his eyes streaked red with manic fury as he looked down momentarily to see the bodies of his dead comrades lying on the ground in the wake of devastation so obviously caused by Typhon.

Without another word, Lyze shot out of the hole and began flying toward the abomination at speeds indecipherable even to the strongest adventurers around. His body created so much air pressure in his flight that the atmosphere distorted around him, almost creating a shield like projection of air in front of him as he drew back a fist.

The dragon heads clumped together and opened their mouth to block him from reaching the main head, but a sudden burst of speed from his end caught them off guard as he flew straight through them and connected his fist with the middle of Typhon's face. His punch sent ripples throughout the monsters body and the skull helmet shattered into smithereens and the Udaeus horns blew off.

Typhon's body flipped from the force of Lyze's superman punch, and the head painfully bashed against the floor of the Dungeon as the entire body spasmed from the attack. The long dragon tail flicked in the air before slamming down on the ground where the adventurers where hiding. The strike made the plate of ground their were hiding under flip, revealing their location as the earth shattered under the impact of Typhon's body slamming into it it.

The dragon heads fought to stay upright even as the main body flipped, and chased after Lyze as he stared back at them, not forgetting them for a moment. He looked down at his right arm to see it completely mangled and deformed with bone and metal fragments sticking out of the skin, damage all caused by his own punch. Typhon was still durable enough to break his limbs even when he was the one attacking it.

Lyze concentrated energy from his soul into the arm and watched it regenerate in a second before he pulled on his chains and brought his blades back to him instantly. He spied the dragon heads reaching for him in anger, screaming all the way throughout as they made a desperate bid to reach him. Looking up, he saw the horns of the Udaeus helmet still in the air from having being punted off of Typhon's head.

Lyze threw a blade towards one of the horns, lodging the sharp blade in the bone protrusion and yanked it with the pointy end facing downwards. The horn came down at the pull of the chain blade and skewered three of the dragon heads at once through the necks holding them together as they shrieked and started wriggling to free themselves from the trap and one another.

Lyze then braced himself as another head came right towards him and he threw the other blade at its eye socket just as he swerved to the side and it rushed by him. His blade pierced its eyeball and lodged itself in the back of it skull as it scream and pulled on the chain, making it taut. Lyze grit his teeth as he pulled with all his might as he flew backwards and dragged the dragon head along with him just as three more snapped at the places where he should have been, instead sinking their fangs into the neck of the dragon head he'd caught, making the captured head squeal with equal measures of pain and rage.

Lyze pulled that blade out again and threw it towards the other horn which had begun descending now and yanked on it to impale the necks of all those dragon heads as well, allowing him to have captured 7 of the dragon heads as he landed on the snout of the last one. He stared into its angry eyes before his own eye sockets glowed brightly and he fired his heat vision at its forehead and pierced its brain with the white hot rays, killing the head instantly.

He then filled the chains with lethal amounts of unstable Origin energy before he flicked the chains and sent the energy bundles travelling on the wave that the chain links created. As both blades were fastened to a horn each, the energy bundles smashed right into the horns and exploded, taking out the dragon heads into other explosions of flesh and bones as he simultaneously destroyed all of them. He leapt off the dragon head he was standing on and pulled on the chains as his blades came back to him.

He paused for a breather as Typhon moaned and frolicked about. Lyze looked down at his blades and blinked as their forms trembled for a moment before they disassembled into liquid metal against his own will. He sighed as he sank to his knees for a moment, having lost the immense concentration he needed to help keep the metal in shape.

Perhaps if he were of calm mind in sound settings right now, he would have been able to find the mental strength needed to keep the metal in a fixed state. Because the metal was now a part of him, he brain was divided between several limbs all at once now instead of the normal four. Poor concentration turned the metal constructs into puddles of liquid metals that pooled around him, though they came in like waterfalls from the opening in his arms.

How was he going to adjust to life now?

That was if he managed to survive all of this. He lifted his arms and watched as the liquid metal poured out of his skin like a sort of slimy sludge. He bristled as he was faced with yet another disastrous consequence of this abomination's doing. He looked towards Typhon as it weakly tried to get up, having been disorientated so badly. Anger coursed through the boy again as the metal suddenly took the shape of chained blades again and he flew up, hooking a very large boulder, almost as big as Twilight Manor and pulled it up in the air with him.

Knowing he didn't have the strength on the efforts of his arms alone, he flew around in circles and used the giant boulder's own weight to create propulsion and to pick up speed as it span around in the air. With a giant heave, he flung it at the face of the main head, and Typhon's skull was smashed by the giant rock, coating the surroundings in blood and brain matter as some of the flood flushed into the crevice where the adventurers were hiding and forced them to come out into the open again as they ran as far away as possible from Typhon's downed body and met up with Lyze.

He descended towards them and looked them over, guilt and despair washing over him as he saw their states. They'd all been injured so badly, to say that perhaps they were better off dead was a legitimate argument in itself. Riveria for example had a large hole in her chest near her heart. It was a wonder she wasn't bleeding out yet. Still, there were those who tried to keep up the humour even amidst all the carnage.

Tsubaki smiled as she patted him on the shoulder, even though her apparel was in tatters and the blade of her naginata missing.

"You could have popped out those new toys of yours earlier you know." She gestured to the chains coming out of his arms. "We could have done with them a lot sooner."

"I just got them." Lyze mumbled. "Man, you all look like shit."

"Not much of an oil painting yourself." Bara spat as she kicked dust in his direction before looking around.

The 49th Floor was unrecognisable now, and any sign of their spoils from this expedition all long gone. But most heart-wrenching of all were the bodies of other adventurers that were strewn around everywhere, those that had not survived the terrible attacks from before. Lyze dropped his arms sorrowfully as he walked over to one corpse in particular and kneeled down besides it.

It was that of a female elf, purple hair and eyes with white streaks in the hair. Her mage clothes were burned and shredded, and blood pooled underneath where her head lay as it also dripped out of her mouth. Still tears were settled on her eyes as they looked lifelessly onwards, no doubt having perished while being filled with immense pain. One of her ears looked to have been torn off somehow amidst the chaos.

Lyze felt tears prick at his own eyes as he reached out for her body, and picked her up, crying out on the inside as instead of supporting herself in his grip like a normal person would do, Vira's body just went limp in his arms, even so far as her tongue hitting the roof of her mouth as it opened from the weight of her head hanging back.

What he was holding...just did not have life anymore. It was no longer Vira, just an empty vessel that once housed the soul and consciousness of the person he knew as Vira, the one elf besides Riveria amongst the Loki Familia that had genuinely liked him. The only elf he'd called a friend, and an aspiring mage whom he was sure would have become powerful in her own right even if he wasn't exactly sure what her skills were. He'd suspected that Riveria had had a mind for grooming Vira into becoming her successor. But that was no longer to be.

His friend was dead...and there'd been nothing he could do to stop it.

His jaw trembled as hot streams of tears ran down his cheeks, his ears picking up cries and sobs from other people as they also knelt besides the bodies of comrades they knew personally. He cradled Vira's head, and gently reach over her face as he closed her eyes with his hand. He then touched his forehead to hers as he breathed in her scent, his soul crying out in pain and despair as he apologized over and over to her corpse under his breath.

"I wasn't strong enough." He kept saying to her. "I'm sorry. I failed you...I failed everyone."

He heard footsteps come up behind him and a delicate hand gripped his shoulder while green robes fluttered into his vision. He didn't need to look back to know who was trying to comfort him.

"It wasn't your fault." Riveria said, though she too looked plenty disturbed. "You did all the best you could to fight against that monster. What happened to Vira...is something that not even you could have stopped."

"How do you know that?!" Lyze asked hotly as he looked up at her. "Don't you even know why that thing is here in the first place?"

Riveria just kept silent, though her expression held a questioning trait to it.

"Because of me!" Lyze said as he looked back down at Vira. "I egged the Dungeon on by releasing Chaos...and that freak was spawned as a result. I incited its birth just because I wanted to prove a point."

"...But you did that to save us from another monster that would have taken our lives." Riveria said gently, even though her own heart ached for her lost student. "There was no telling what would have happened. You didn't know Lyze."

"But I should have." He said as Riveria saw him suddenly start creeping right back into that shell she and the others had tried so hard to bring him out of. "And I should have held onto Chaos just for a bit longer so I could have finished that freak off the moment it appeared. Now I can't..."

The way he said that had the high elf puzzled.

"What's wrong?" She asked. "Do you mean you can't right now?"

"No." He shook his head. "It's not responding to me at all. I just can't summon it no matter what I do." He looked towards Typhon who was once again starting to regenerate, much to the chagrin and dwindling spirits of the remaining adventurers. "I think this thing was created...to fight me specifically. I'm the only one it's stealing power from."

"We don't know that for sure." Riveria said as she leaned by him and put a hand on Vira's body. "She wouldn't have blamed you the way you're blaming yourself Lyze. Don't tear yourself up over it."

"She was my friend Riveria!" Lyze snapped as he continued to cradle the elf. "And I failed to protect her! She was the only one out of that whole group of snobs to accept me for what I was and who I am. The least I owed her was to make sure she didn't die...and I couldn't even do that." Lyze snorted as he turned on himself now. "Some powerhouse I am...when it really mattered, I couldn't save even one person."

Riveria just sighed and looked down at Lyze pityingly. For all his power and prodigal talent, Lyze was still a stranger to this type of grief. The pain of losing a comrade, a person who would fight to death besides you. Riveria had lost plenty in the past, so she had some experience of dealing with it...but the pain was fresh to Lyze, a new experience altogether. 

No amount of power could have prepared him for sensations like these.

...

Lyze happened to look over and saw Noir shaking Ais's limp body as the old man was desperately trying to wake her up. A new wave of cold panic came over Lyze as he hurriedly laid Vira's body on the ground and he rushed over to see what was happening to her.

"She's not breathing." Noir said as he even tried chest compressions on the girl to get her to wake up.

"Let me!" Lyze said as he shoved the old man out of the way and laid a hand on the girl's chest as he closed his eyes and braced himself. "Forgive me for this Ais." He said before he put a hand right on her chest and shocked her with normal lightning magic. He tried again, with a bit more power this time, and then again in a desperate attempt to get her heart pumping again.

But nothing worked, even as Lyze tried all the resuscitation methods he knew to get her moving again. Lyze scrambled desperately for a solution as a new from of dread and hopelessness washed over him as he picked up the girl's body and cried over it as he tried pour in his own life-force into her to wake her up as well. But her body rejected the offering...because for some reason he found nothing inside that could hold the spiritual energy.

The reality hit him like a meteor as he numbly laid Ais's battered body down and walked backwards a little, his eyes wide and his face void of any fathomable expression as the truth stared him in the face. Slowly, even against his wishes to deny the truth, he activated his Soul Vision and looked at Ais's body.

...

There was nothing inside. 

...

The brilliant golden coloured soul he'd loved so much was nowhere to be seen. That left only one conclusion...the girl he loved...was dead.

Ais Wallenstein had died...and again because of his failures. He'd saved her so many times already...she'd probably been expecting him to do it again...and he'd failed.

HE'D FAILED AGAIN!

And this time, this particular person's demise tore his heart and soul apart in ways which hurt even worse that his longing to reunite with his mother from a past life. Because there was another undeniable truth to all of this...he was the reason Typhon had appeared. He was the reason it had gone on such a fatal rampage. He had been the true target, and Ais had been collateral.

He killed her...he was her murderer...

...

The executives grew increasingly concerned at the emotions jumping across Lyze's face as his eyes became focused and unfocused. Still using his soul vision, he cast a glance towards Typhon who had fully regenerated by now and was picking itself up.

Lyze saw inside of it the wretched soul of the monster who had stolen his power...but something else. There were also a bunch of other souls within, of colours that he'd recognised to belong to the souls of the fallen adventurers. The monster didn't know how to use the Flame properly, and so therefore had not yet figured out how to assimilate the powers of the souls it had consumed, only being able to harvest them.

Lyze looked around amongst the souls it had stolen and was trying to devour...and saw amongst them one that shone a bright gold...

...

 From the cesspits of his being, from the darkest parts of his mind and his own soul, poured out anger, rage, hatred and loathing so black and putrid, even the Darkness of Chaos would have been swept aside as evil emotions welled up within the boy at the sight of the girl's soul swirling around inside Typhon's body, ready to be devoured and lost forever from the cycle of reincarnation at any moment now. All this monster now deserved, was to have its retribution fit its crime.

Devour...Devour...DEVOUR...

...

And then the Dungeon began to shake in fear.

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