With the rifts closed and the flow of demons cut off, the complexity of the battle was lessened significantly. Ethan and Savilar raced back into the fight, where Valanor was still holding three Dusk rank beasts in front of them. While the two ten foot simiavus were clearly weaker than the strange spike-faced rhino, they were actually the greater threat. Their reach allowed them to attack the Shield Knight over his defenses, and had him on the back foot.

  Ethan tore into the one on the left, as Sav’s maces crashed into the one on the right. They were unarmored beats with many vulnerable tendons, so Ethan stuck with his short swords. [Mystic Echo] made his attacks all the more damaging, and the creature that looked like a giant baboon with the face of a bird soon slowed, its weakened legs not able to support it. At last it tried to turn and attack him, fury in its beady eyes.

  “Switch!” Ethan shouted, then in a flash of white and blue he was behind the other simiavus, duplicating the debilitating attacks. Savilar responded instantly as well, running to the weakened target, his maces now far more effective as the creature fell to one knee. Bones cracked under Holy power as the Rift Hunter matched the demon’s fury.

  While the two men were occupied, Selina and Cara kept their attention on the rhino. Pepper the pursi was another Familiar that didn’t get up close and personal–at least at Dawn rank. But the adorable purple panda monster could amplify some of the effects of Selina’s Afflictions. As such, while the Rune Mage weakened the rhino to damage over time, Pepper increased that weakness further.

  Cara made excellent use of the effect. Her quillursi gave her the nature Affinity, which included poison attacks. The bracers she’d acquired from the giant crab helped her arrows penetrate the demon’s thick hide, and the affliction quickly built up to a terrible degree. The rhino just hammered uselessly against Valanor’s magic shield, not understanding why its body was pained, and failing.

  With the party unified once again, the battle’s outcome felt inevitable, and soon Ethan felt the rush of vitality that came with [Assassinate]. First one, then both simiavus were transformed into black shards before disappearing into dust. Ethan was about to unleash the attack for the third time, when the rhino let out a rather pitiful wail, then simply collapsed. Its poisoned body was disappearing almost immediately.

  Cara quickly ran to examine the now empty hidden chamber as the rest of the group gathered. “That was the last of my supplies,” Savilar said. “If we encounter another rift, there'll be no way of closing it.”

  Ethan quickly jumped in. “We’re about to enter the Fourth Layer, we have to at least look at it, don’t we? If there’s anything we can’t handle we retreat, shut the door and get the hell out of here.”

  Valanor gave him a curious look, but his eyes were eager. “I’m for moving forward. If the prince has likewise encountered as few demons as we have, he’s no doubt heading toward the final chambers as we speak. Besides, we’ve barely been tested here.”

  “More than that,” Selina cut in, “we still don’t know why something is strange this time. Finding that out could be the most important thing we do here.”

  Savilar looked to be preparing a retort when Cara returned, a large chest in her hands. “Don’t get excited,” she warned, before placing it down between them. “I think it’s just ancient alcohol. So, I guess maybe you should get excited.” She opened the chest, revealing carefully stored rows of liquid, in several different colors.

  “Your system can’t identify them?” Valanor asked, then lifted out a vial of something red. Ethan eyed it suspiciously. “Hmm,” the knight continued, “throw them in your inventory with the rest, we need to move on.”

  Ethan watched the chest disappear with narrowed eyes. Those weren’t stored like alcohol, they were in vials, like something made in a lab. Elixirs of some kind? I haven’t seen any traces of alchemy here before…

  His thoughts were interrupted as Valanor went straight for the nearest door. Savilar marched after him, and they had a heated–if whispered–argument. The rest of the group looked at one another, then only waited a few moments before following. Apparently Savilar had lost the debate, as he threw his hands up and moved to the side, allowing the Shield Knight to grip the latest lever.

  More than used to the process, the team assembled and prepared themselves. This was the fourth, and final explored layer. Traditionally so dangerous and covered in traps that the few groups to make it this far had all turned back, or been killed. As the doors opened, Ethan could immediately see why.

  The hall ahead of them was smaller than those they’d passed through previously, in fact it was the first part of the City that actually looked more like a structure than a street. But that just made the warzone ahead all the more intimidating.

  There were spiked chains, pits, and still-burning magical fires of various colors. Hundreds of demons were impaled, crushed under stone, many were little more than ashes. They hung from the ceiling, dangled from the walls by spears, or were otherwise killed in a dozen different ways. But they were uniformly facing away from the far wall, which held a final door. It was bent partly off its hinges, its mechanisms destroyed, and an ominous green glow could be seen on the other side.

  The group saw this in the heartbeat it took to notice the noise of a fierce battle nearby. They moved in, following Valanor as he in turn followed the sounds. Turning to the left, they saw nothing but more dead demons, and a collapsed ceiling blocking the way. But the right led to another door–this one both intact, and the source of the noise, which quickly resolved into the sounds of panicked screaming.

  “The prince!” Valanor roared. The Shield Knight and Rift Hunter broke into a panicked sprint, Ethan following a second after. Selina was right behind, but moved more slowly as she was distracted by the countless Rune Circles covering the area. She was the only one who heard Cara call out, as the other three kept racing toward the source of the screams.

  They dodged around the dead demons as they went, struggling to find a path through the countless traps that had been set off in the desperate retreat that had obviously occurred. Valanor learned the hard way that not all the traps were gone as he was struck first by a blast of lightning, then a stone slab, and finally a hail of arrows.

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  He didn’t slow.

  After shrugging off the lightning, he leaned into his charge. The glowing white warhammer crashed through the stone slab in a single tremendous blow, and the arrows were nothing against his shield and heavy armor. Ethan and Sav had to be more cautious, of course, with the former using a rift, and the latter having to dodge more than one trap of his own.

  Thankfully Valanor retained the presence of mind to go for the lever, and not the door itself. He skidded to a halt, barely stopping as he activated the mechanism. The ancient gears began to turn, rust and debris raining down. Sav and Valanor moved to the door, and the sounds of battle intensified as it began to slowly open.

  Ethan couldn’t see much through the small crack, but there were clearly two knights fighting a losing battle on the other side. One was barely standing, while the other struggled to lift his shield. The more injured knight was turning to look at them when the mechanism ground to a halt, and there was the sound of a large counterweight crashing to the ground.

  Valanor’s good arm shot out, dropping the warhammer as he grasped desperately at an impossibly heavy door that was now closing. Savilar joined him, even forcing his body into the gap. Ethan didn’t know how best to help–recognizing his Dawn rank strength wasn’t enough to make a difference, and so began tossing daggers through the shrinking gap in desperation, hoping to buy moments at best.

  The knight who’d turned only had time to mutter “Prince Calevaro!” before she was impaled from behind by a black claw.

  “No!” Valanor screamed, then tried to wedge his shield into the gap as well. He had barely moved when a long, scaly arm reached through, and grabbed Savilar by the breastplate. The Rift Hunter’s eyes went wide, and though he opened his mouth, his words were lost as he was yanked through the narrow crack.

  Valanor’s strength alone wasn’t enough to hold back the broken mechanism, and the door slammed shut with a crash that echoed through the cavernous room. “No!” the Shield Knight roared again, then he began pounding uselessly against the door in a rage.

  Selina had caught up by then. “Savilar…” she said quietly, and Valanor spun in place.

  “Can you get us through this!?” he practically screamed into her face.

  “What? No, it’s shielded against rune magic. Only the mechanism–”

  “Then we go back! We find a way around!” Valanor was clearly at the very edge of reason, and Selina took a step back reflexively. The shield knight began screaming his brother’s name desperately as he tried to activate his communication rune, but clearly with no success. Ethan tried to put himself between Selina and the enraged knight as Cara’s voice chimed in.

  “We can’t go back. That’s what I was saying: the demons broke the mechanism on this side. Their bodies are piled over the lever, and the chain is snapped.”

  All eyes turned to the final option: the door leading forward. There was just enough room to squeeze through, though Valanor might need to dismiss his armor. The glow coming from the other side both beckoned them and warned them away, and they all shared quick, uneasy looks.

  “Maybe there’s another way,” Selina said.

  “We don’t have time to search!” Valanor shouted “You didn’t see what was on the other side, but Prince Calevaro’s team was dying! Now Sav is stuck in there as well!”

  Cara vocalized the thought none of them could dismiss. “Whatever these demons were running from, whatever was enough to send them into countless traps, and likely even what scared them out of the city, is through that door, Valanor.”

  “But Sal is one of us,” Selina said quietly, clearly gathering her courage.

  “And I didn’t risk my life saving the prince to let him die now,” Ethan added, though truthfully that was only part of the picture for him. There was a mystery here waiting to be solved. Something the Church was hiding, and he was driven toward it as powerfully as he was to the Throne.

  Cara sighed, turning away to shake her head. “Fine. I came here to prove myself. Being the first team to reach the Fifth Layer definitely counts for something.” She paused, grinding her teeth slightly. “And I won’t leave someone behind. Let’s go.”

  Valanor didn’t need to hear another word, again moving at a full sprint toward the broken door. Ethan followed, but his eyes lingered on the walls regretfully as he did so. The writings and symbols weren’t entirely scratched away here, and he noticed Selina glancing at them as well.

  Ethan found it hard to believe it was a coincidence that this was where the groups had ceased progressing, and also where the writings had stopped being erased. There was a story here, and he desperately wished he could justify stopping just for a moment. He could only hope they could get past whatever was waiting on the other side then explore properly.

  The Shield Knight wisely slowed down before reaching the door, and miraculously hadn’t set off any traps this time. Maybe not a miracle? Ethan amended as he caught up. Blocked by the various obstacles, he hadn’t seen the area immediately surrounding the damaged door.

  There was a semicircle of dead demons starting about fifteen paces from the opening, all appearing to have been killed by fire. Even more had been thrown further out, their bodies likely setting off many of the traps the group had managed to walk past. The empty space closer to the door was what truly mattered, the stone itself appeared to have been melted, leaving a two foot deep trench in the floor.

  Again they group exchanged looks, though Valanor was clearly not to be dissuaded.

  “A moment,” Selina called out, then stomped the ground to create a Rune Circle. She immediately began casting spells, layering protections of the group. Against fire primarily, but also some kind of general energy that Ethan couldn’t recognize. At last she nodded. “That’s all I can do until we see what we’re up against.”

  Valanor nodded, then dismissed his armor. His eyes were wild, but his expression was determined as he turned and strode toward the small gap. He paused just long enough to speak. “Stay behind me,” he commanded. He was met with no argument.

  Ethan followed shortly after, though he left a dimensionally charged dagger behind just in case. Valanor was likely to survive any number of ambushes, but a tender Assassin was not.

  He squeezed through the gap created by the bent metal door, marvelling as he did so that anything could bend something that was a foot thick and made of steel. As he emerged, he saw only the silhouette of Valanor’s broad back as heavy armor reappeared on the man, green light cascading around him. Ethan almost pushed him out of the way to see what they were up against, and felt his mind immediately turn to his rift anchor in the previous room.

  Dominating the room was a dragon. Not a wingless drake, or any other derivative, but a true dragon.

  It was massive. Larger even than Revan had been when Ethan first encountered him so long ago. The beast was black, with red highlights to its scales, and it was only twenty or so paces away, seemingly at rest. An enormous wing was folded over most of its body, but a head the size of a wagon was still very much visible, with a mouth large enough to swallow an Assassin whole.

  Ethan heard quiet gasps behind him as the other two team members entered the large, square chamber. He had just enough time to think maybe it won’t wake up, before an enormous green eye opened and looked directly at them. By instinct Ethan’s vision slipped into the Astral, hoping that the obvious was somehow not true. Unfortunately the color of the Spirit before him was something he’d only seen once before. A deep, vibrant shade of purple that barely existed in Viridus.

  It wasn’t just an enormous demonic dragon, it was also Twilight Rank.