Elysium's Multiverse
Chapter 337

Chapter 337

Chapter 337

[Floor 49: The City of Wandering Souls: Did you like all those prizes? All the points you spent here in the Ascended District were well earned, weren’t they?

Well now you’ve got an opportunity to show Elysium that you spent your points well.

Welcome to the hidden Floor 49 HIDDEN Challenge: NIGHT OF TERROR! You must survive 1 night with only a single choice ability from your arsenal to use against a swarm of peak E-grade LEGENDARY tier monsters that will try to hunt you down until you see a red sun rise on the horizon to signify the new day. All other innate abilities will be locked down, auras will be nullified, but finding resources to build pop-up defensive structures and barricades is an option.

Choose your single ability now to start this instance event. 23 of 50 other teams are currently participating in this same instance event, and none of you may directly harm one another. Once 50 teams have been reached, or the mandatory week of stay passes here, you will start your instance event.

Word to the wise: Hiding is probably a better option than fighting, but you ARE able to pick up loot from deceased teams the monster swarm manages to successfully kill.]

***

The room flashed and all the locals were gone. What had once been a splendid market now lay as a wreckage, and time sped up - proven by a flickering candle on one of the walls as more teams were introduced into the instance event over the course of hours. They’d just pop in with flashes of light, probably after having tried to spend their points in the ascended district if all things were the same between teams, and none of them were pushovers.

“ELYSIUM YOU LITTLE COCK-SUCKING SLUT! I THOUGHT WE WERE DONE WITH FIGHTING!” Athela screeched through their mind link since she couldn’t talk out loud, an image of an enraged spider flailing its front legs against the bars of a jail cell flung through the group’s shared mind. “THIS IS BLASPHEMY! A PRINCESS SHANT BE RESTRAINED LIKE THIS!”

“I’d thought it was too easy.” Riven mentally murmured. “I guess this fits the shoe better. But peak E-grade LEGENDARY monster swarms? That’s crazy dangerous, even for us. Peak E-grade is level 350 to 399, isn’t it?”

“Especially if we only get a single ability to use…” Fay agreed, worry obvious in her projected voice.

Riven’s eyes flitted to Retesh and then Kara. Then to Sanguine the blood drake, and to General Caltan the bloodstricken soldier. Eyes were the only thing he COULD move here, and he wished he had some way to contact them too as more teams were pushed back into the instance from the once seemingly safe city.

Azmoth mentally snorted. “At least we don’t fight other team here. That good.”

“Yeah that’s true… it’d suck to be pitted against the other Abyssal Descent’s best.” Riven agreed - eyeing the three-dozen teams now stacked alongside them amidst the wreckage of the market. “But they’re definitely not going to be friends either. It’s obvious that some will just wait around for other teams to die so they can loot their bodies, I think we need to immediately go into hiding after this. Anyone have a good idea of where to go?”

“Agreed.” Genua said.

Athela groaned. “We don’t even know where the monsters are going to spawn from! Will it be right on top of our heads? Or around the city border? Fuck, Iris is still out!”

Indeed, Iris was actually in Genua’s arms right at this very moment. Surprisingly enough - Fish, Brute, and Lizard were all out in the open too. This floor must have different participation rules in it, otherwise they’d have been flung back into Fay’s prison right? Or did it not matter since they’d been out upon initiation of this event?

System shenanigans at their finest.

Wait. Even Zafima was out of the cell! What the hell was she doing here!?

[50 Teams have been reached.

Here is a quick review of the rules for NIGHT OF TERROR!:

10,000 Peak E-grade Legendary Monsters have been unleashed randomly into the city’s interior and surroundings. Hide, fight, or run until the new day begins in 8 hours from now. You may loot the dead, but may not directly harm other teams. Your direct offensive strikes will only affect the monster swarm when concerning other delvers, though friendly fire is still possible between team mates. Picking up spatially compacted defensive structures, bottled spells or miracles, and barricades will be available; and are noted by glowing orbs you can find all over the city.

What ability would you like to keep for this trial? Please choose one from your status page. You have 60 seconds to comply before one is chosen for you.]

Fay’s voice cut through his mind like a knife, terrified. “Riven! It won’t let me select my dungeon ability! I keep trying but it won’t accept it!”

Riven’s heart clenched at the realization of what that meant. Again his eyes flitted to the four up-and-coming thralls. No wonder Zafima had been pushed out, the event was refusing to allow Fay to contain them any longer - and that meant…

That meant Iris was in serious danger, as were they all. A swarm of this magnitude was something Riven probably couldn’t even handle with his entire skill set, and they had to survive for 8 hours?

His heart began to pound as the seconds ticked by and his team began to increase the pitch of their chatter amongst the minion bonds. Genua was becoming frantic for their daughter at the realization, Kara wasn’t included in the mental exchange between minion-master communication links but was visibly sweating already, and even Azmoth seemed nervous by the way he kept starting a sentence only to stumble over his words.

This was not good. At all. For the first time in a long time, Riven was genuinely worried.

[30 seconds remain. Please select a skill to utilize during this 8 hour event.]

Shit.

Cursing his luck, Riven went over his skills.

• Abilities:] Profane Blessing of the Crow (Unholy / Blood / Shadow), Wretched Snare (Unholy), Silvertongue (Unholy), Bloody Razors → Storm Balls / Storm Razors → Gluttonous Storm Razors (Blood / Shadow / Sin), Crimson Ice (Blood), Blood Lance → Sniping Profane Blood Lance → Critical Storm Lance (Blood / Shadow / Sin)(Tier 2), Voodoo Doll (Blood)(Tier 2), Blood Nova (Blood)(Tier 3), Hell’s Armor (Infernal), Blaze of Profane Glory (Infernal)(Tier 3), Riftwalk (Shadow), Gluttonous Sacrifice (Sin)(4999 years until cooldown is complete), Black Lightning (Shadow), Legionaries of the Blood God (Tier 2 Death / Blood), Ravenous Beetle Swarm (Sin), Farsight Banishment (Sin), Soul Clone Projections (Sin), Gluttony’s Aspect of Demonic Heritage (Sin)(Tier 3), Twin Crowns of Flesh (Blood)(Tier 2)

Shit again.

He was torn between three different spells. First and the most obvious was Critical Storm Lance, which he used as his fastest and longest-range ability to pack a punch semi-rapidly. It was a great all around spell and had been developed from his original Blood Lance twice over with evolutions now.

Then there was Crimson Ice. The incredibly versatile skill had even been incorporated into his aura to an extent, but he could use the spell for both individually for both offensive and defensive purposes. He could even use it for utility purposes, but it was only mediocre at straight damage.

Last of the abilities he was considering was Riftwalk. Riftwalk was an amazing spell to help get away and would keep both himself and his daughter safe should he choose it - because he had enough mana to recast the thing for hours on end without stop. He was only inhibited by potential cooldowns afflicting him if he chose to do that, but two more obvious problems were obvious with this choice: First was that he’d be left almost literally defenseless outside of his items and physical strength when it came to combat. Second was that he wasn’t sure he’d be able to teleport the entire team accurately and all at once with their individual portals, and if they all used one portal to flee through then it’d mean a single file line that could either slow them down or let monsters through in the attempt.

[20 seconds remain. Please select a skill to utilize during this 8 hour event.]

“Bloody strings for me.” Athela called through the minion mind link.

Azmoth was next. “Dome of Flames.”

“Dreamwalker Zone for illusions, since I can’t pick the dungeon!” Fay said in a panicked voice. “I can’t believe this is happening! This is so bad!”

“Elysium has disabled my ability to heal through my aura entirely.” Genua said with an audible sneer. “I’ll pick Sanguine Smite then.”

[10 seconds remain. Please select a skill to utilize during this 8 hour event.]

Kara wasn’t the only one sweating, and Riven felt a trickle of it running down his face. Gluttony seemed absent for the moment, either unable or unwilling to give input.

Shit.

Shit.

Shit.

With his heart continuing to race, Riven picked his single ability - and only hoped that he’d chosen correctly. And as the seconds ticked down to zero, in that last instant - a huge clawed hand crashed through the pyramid roof above the destroyed marketplace and smashed into another delver in a splattering of blood. The guy had never stood a chance with a strike that fast. The aura of the titanic fleshy abomination that’d appeared there soared to new heights and began to weigh down on everyone present as everything around them sprang into action, and the 50 teams began to flee or fight as roars from all around the otherwise abandoned city began to reach the sky.

[Riftwalk has been selected. You may begin.]

A different winged creature crashed through the near wall, a mix of eagle and snake, tearing through the streets towards them with wild abandon - and yet another monster that looked like a large floating pufferfish smashed through a different wall to start spewing acid in all directions. An unfortunate necromancer was caught up in the raining acid and let out a yelp before being melted down into goo within seconds.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

A dome of flames roared to life around their team as Azmoth activated his ability, blocking falling chunks of the ceiling as the stone crashed and bounced off the defensive skill. Fay cast a dreamwalker zone to hide them from the eagle-snake beast rapidly closing the distance between them. The beast stuttered to a stop, confused by their sudden disappearance, and whirled to chase another team of delvers who were racing towards the nearest stairwell.

[Level 378 Venomous Guardian, Raptor Serpent. LEGENDARY. EVENT CREATURE.]

Riven meanwhile kept an eye out for other creatures as the madhouse unfolded and Azmoth went to pick up the still convulsing beholder demon, Narg. Riven relaxed slightly when he saw that most of the other 49 fleeing teams were drawing the monsters away and out into different parts of the city, he did a head count and motioned for everyone to remain silent. He was absolutely sure that they’d be unable to stay here forever, but milking it for time wasn’t a bad thing and he’d take what he could get.

“YOU BITCH!”

Riven heard a woman scream as he whirled around, only to see Zefima rushing at Kara’s back with crackling black lightning at her fingertips. Kara was holding her wolf close and had her gaze locked onto a distant battle, so it was doubtless she’d see it in time to react. Zefima the drow enchantress obviously still had a bone to pick with the other dark elf woman, and by the way she wore a crazed look of rage with lips curled back - he had little doubt Zefima intended to kill Kara even if it meant losing her own life in the process.

Riven immediately went for his staff to try and use Jackal’s innate abilities as a way he could optimize his firepower - now that he was down nearly all of his skills, but unfortunately Elysium wasn’t having it. It appeared he really only could use Riftwalk even concerning his items imbued with abilities, as that was the only soul-sigil on his pillars that activated upon command.

A flash of darkness ripped open in front of him and he imposed himself directly inbetween the two dark elves, colliding with the black lightning in an explosion of debris that ripped open a large part of his forehead and right upper cheek where Messenger’s armor didn’t cover. His right eye also got annihilated as Zefima screamed in anger, putting everything into the skill she could in an attempt to kill the other woman, and with Riven’s abilities mostly locked down - all he could do was take the hit.

He was sent sprawling, slamming into Kara as she turned - and the puppy she was holding let out a loud yelp when Kara smashed into the floor.

“WHY WAS SHE THE CHOSEN ONE!?” Zefima shrieked, getting another bolt of black lightning charged up at her fingertips. “SHE IS UNDESERVING OF-”

CRUNCH

Sanguine the blood drake was the fastest to react. It snapped down huge carnivorous jaws onto Zefima’s upper half, ripping her stomach open with huge crimson teeth while the drow enchantress let out muted screams inside its maw. Lifting the kicking and desperately flailing woman into the air as black lightning crackled out from the edges of Sanguine’s mouth in her attempts to make it let go, Sanguine jerked the bitten woman back and forth like a wild animal would do to smaller prey. Opening up to chomp and crunch down again a few times over, squelching noises and garbled cries of pain were accompanied before the drake swallowed her whole with a gulp. Riven watched the bulge of her body travel down the drake’s throat, settling in Sanguine’s stomach moments later.

Riven’s eye was already reforming through his vampiric regeneration, and he took General Caltan’s hand to pull himself up.

“Are you ok!?” Kara gasped, rushing over to him after making sure the puppy was alright - while the others looked on knowing full well he’d be fine. “I… I can’t thank you enough, again.”

Riven brushed himself off and shrugged. “Don’t mention it. Sucks that Zefima was let out by Elysium, that’s a thrall down the toilet but not much we can do about it now.”

“He’s fine!” Fay said, patting Riven’s shoulder with a wink. “He’s taken a lot worse punishment from a long stronger people before. Those wounds will be healed up in no time.”

Kara still looked worried underneath her archer’s hooded cloak, but nodded with pursed lips and stepped back to give Riven some breathing room.

The tower shook as something huge smashed into the lower levels, and then three more impacts caused Riven to fall to his knees as many of the others did too. A guttural roar from somewhere far below caused Riven’s ears to hurt and was accompanied by a loud snapping sound before the tower started leaning to the left. His eyes went wide, and his team began to slide that way as the tower began to fall.

Genua screamed with a crying Iris clutched tightly in her hands, but Sanguine lurched forward to catch the two in its claws. Crimson strings shot out from Athela in a weblike pattern the next second, rapidly catching their entire group and stopping them from sliding while the tower smashed against another skyscraper - mostly stopping its descent with a resounding BOOM. The pyramid-shaped ceiling buckled at the very pinnacle where it’d connected with another building, sending dust and debris billowing into the large chamber where the shops were located. The tower came to a complete and grinding halt, tilted 45 degrees at an angle seconds later.

Other teams that’d also stayed weren’t so lucky to have someone who could stop their falling, and they quickly found themselves sliding down the sloped streets while being chased by various monsters that continued to appear through holes and cracks around the top floor. Riven saw a screaming orc shaman get swallowed by a giant leech, a ghoul warrior on the opposite side of the floor get impaled by a cross between a spider and a centipede before having his head ripped off, and a frantic dwarf woman get roasted alive with a belch of infernal power out of the mouth of a giant three-headed cerberus.

Riven gave Athela a thankful thumbs up, heart thudding in his chest. “Nice catch!”

The area around them flickered and shattered, and Fay abruptly vomited blood with a backlash of power as her dreamwalker zone’s illusion splintered into a million pieces. The direct cause for this was a probably the large plated scorpion bearing down on them, with mystical glowing eyeball in place of a stinger - and pressure it gave off was absolutely immense. Huge pincers snapped and crackled with gray and red chaos energies, and it nimbly clambered over the buildings with a hiss. Somehow, that eye had annihilated Fay’s own magic - and Riven could feel through their link that she’d also accumulated a very long cooldown due to the backlash she’d received. She wouldn’t be able to use her single ability for quite some time.

[Level 362 Sight Bringer, Ashen Wastelands Scorpion. LEGENDARY. EVENT CREATURE.]

A snap of sound and flash of gray light erupted out from the eye at the end of its tail, and Riven opened a rift to swallow the energy bolt in a split second decision. The other rift’s end opened up behind his party and the scorpion’s bolt completely bypassed his team, smashing into another monster instead and splitting open the other bear-like-beast in a spray of gore and with remnants of shredded space. Buildings were torn asunder under the power of that bolt, and Riven went pale at the thought of what would have happened should it have hit.

A beam of supersonic blood erupted out of Sanguine’s throat in response, blasting the scorpion backwards and causing it to stagger. A follow up from Retesh’s staff sent a huge ball of neon teal flames crashing into the scorpion’s tail-eye, causing it to let out a shriek of pain and rage. The monster’s reaction was so pronounced that Kara followed up a third time when it managed to recover - shooting one of the arrows Riven had made for her directly into its eye with a streak of red and black light.

Which was bullshit in Riven’s opinion, because why would her arrows work and not his staff? Was it just channeled abilities but not enchantments that were nullified?

He tapped his staff on the ground in a moment of realization just to see for himself, and felt slightly better about the situation when he managed to activate Jackal’s on-hit explosion in a puff of hellfire.

Thankfully the beast didn’t seem to have any more than one ability either, and every time it opened its tail-end eye it was blasted - causing the armored scorpion to retreat. But despite this, their attacks were doing minimal damage to the monster and there were more enemies coming their way. Riven and party couldn’t stay here or they’d die, and it was precisely why he’d picked Riftwalk as his sole ability to get him through.

***

1 hour into the event:

Lizard hadn’t felt this alive in… Well, he couldn’t remember. But it’d been a very long time. His white scales were drenched in sweat and part of his tail was missing after it’d been chomped down on, but he only barely felt the pain through the flood of adrenaline.

Sparks lit up as claws met his blade, and his sword accelerated through sheer force of will to meet an opposite strike as the beast attacking him was held off so the rest of his team could go ahead. He’d even volunteered for this, and his draconic teeth gleamed in the dim light of the strange city as sounds of battle echoed throughout the landscape.

Rushing through the hallways of a large keep and following the rest of his team through the next rift portal Riven had conjured for them, Lizard side-stepped another claw strike from the six-legged cat. ‘Rupturing Parry’, his best and currently sole ability, connected with the far stronger cat’s claws and created a moment in time where rebounding Chaos would replace the enemy’s momentum and explode backwards. It had to be timed to the millisecond, not too soon or too late, but Lizard’s past life had given him ample enough experience to do so almost effortlessly despite his memories still being fuzzy. It was akin to muscle memory, and he grew more proud of his own prowess with the skill every time he successfully landed it. But if he made even a single wrong move and triggered at the wrong time - he was done for.

The thrill of it was invigorating and exciting. He couldn’t hope to kill the monster by himself but so what? The fact that he was even successfully defending against such a beast who was both far faster and physically superior to him in every way was enough to get his entire team’s heads turning his way in astonishment with every successful parry he achieved - sending off the sharp claws of the monster with a rebuffing splash of Chaos stamina directly back into the cat’s snarling face.

“LIZARD!” Riven yelled over the angry yowling of the large cat while holding the portal open with his right hand - extending his left hand out to where Lizard was batting aside the cat’s attacks. “THROUGH! NOW!”

Another rift in space sliced cleanly through the air right behind Lizard’s position, and Lizard didn’t hesitate to fling himself through. He rolled to the floor right before the next portal where the rest of the team had already vanished, and barely came up to parry yet another claw strike from the cat as it too tried to go through the rift in space.

A splash of guts and blood with a startled cry caused Lizard to snap his head backwards over the backlash of Chaos energy in his sword-arm, and his eyes widened in surprise when he saw Riven’s shadow portal trying to close over the half-through six-legged cat. Only the single paw it’d swung at Lizard with was all the way out this side, along with part of its chest, its neck, and its head. The portal had attempted to snap shut but due to the endurance of the beast, was having a hard time doing so and was instead sawing away at the innards of the monster as it tried to cut the cat cleanly through. The portal was flickering however, and Lizard wasn’t sure whether or not the portal would give out first and force the cat through one side - or if it would succeed in Riven’s attempt to decapitate the beast.

“I’ve always hated cats.” Riven said, twirling his staff around in one hand and grinning under Messenger’s mask where it covered everything under the bridge of his nose. “I’ve always been more of a dog person!”

BOOM

Riven swung Jackal directly into the cat’s face with an explosion of hellfire, ripping off part of the cat’s face. Blood sprayed out of the screeching, struggling creature as the portal continued to close down on its body like a razor-sharp vice grip - and Riven swung again.

And gain.

And again.

[Jackal (Legendary Weapon, Vampiric Artifact, Sin Artifact - Gluttony Aspect, Sorcerer’s Staff)(Evolving Symbiote): 1812 average damage on strike with each physical strike dealing additional explosive Infernal Damage.]

Lizard watched his master bash the skull of the trapped cat into smithereens through repeated explosions of hellfire, until there was nothing left of the cat’s head but a roasted, smoldering hunk of meat at the base of its neck.

Grinning and pushing himself up to his feet, he raced through the portal with Riven in tow - closing it behind them as a huge armored centipede spotted them and raced down the hall in their direction with clicking mandibles and flaring red eyes.

***

2 hours into the event:

The wall crumbled like a ruptured balloon under the titanic humanoid that giggled and laughed while chasing them down.

Fish was flung off her feet and to the left, being yanked by Athela’s red strings just in time to avoid the falling body of the cyclops reached out a hand her way. She felt her blood run cold as the splot she’d just been in was eradicated under the sheer weight of the giant creature, but she managed to finish casting another draining hex on the cyclops to slow it down significantly before Azmoth’s equally enormous form barrelled into the one-eyed monster.

Flaming wings and armored claws dug into fleshy skin, trying to find a grip as the far stronger and over-levered cyclops rolled around on the cathedral’s outer grounds. A dome of fire burst out from Azmoth’s body and collided with the titanic beast, sending the cyclops backwards through another wall only for their opponent to smash a meaty fist into Azmoth’s armored face. The natural armor coating the brutalisk buckled and gave way, splashing molten blood all over the ground as Athela screamed at Fish to wake up.

“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU WOULD-BE THRALLS!? STOP STOPPING AND MOVE!” Athela roared, slapping Fish across the face and pointing to where Riven was missing an arm and holding up another portal to span the length over a river of souls winding through the city’s center. “AND DO IT NOW!”

Another skyscraper fell as an explosion from further up caused Fish to startle, and she scrambled to her feet when a tiefling delver’s corpse splat onto the nearby stone road. “What about Azmoth!?”

Athela yanked and then shoved Fish towards the portal with a huff. “Azmoth is staying behind.”

“But he’ll die!”

The level 390 cyclops ripped one of Azmoth’s wings off and tackled the brutalisk to the ground, taking a bite out of the screaming archdemon before Azmoth managed to rake his claws over the exposed eye of the cyclops and caused it to scream. Even with the slowing hex applied, a portal trying to sever the cyclops’ lower right ankle, and the barrage of death globes from Retesh, it was obvious the cyclops was going to come out victorious on this one as Azmoth was ravaged.

“And he’ll be sent back to the nether realms in a day, what of it?” Athela whirled and jabbed a finger into Fish’s sternum. “You on the other hand, can’t respawn. Don’t be the one who holds us back, Fish! I don’t want to have to tell you again!”

3 hours into the event:

There wasn’t enough time, and the defensive treasure spawned by the system that’d been meant to create a defensive bunker had been snatched by another team moments before arriving.

They weren’t going to make it through the hive-mind of wraiths swooping down onto his master’s location, and even now - the team that’d gotten to the treasure first was literally laughing at their efforts to flee again.

But Sanguine was built for speed, and the knowing look the blood drake exchanged with Riven was more than enough. Sanguine, with Genua and Iris on his back, took to the skies in a burst of power as Riven and the rest of their group rushed through the portal to close it behind them.

Genua screamed: blasted one of the swarming wraiths from the sky in a flash of red, then another - and another, as Sanguine picked up speed and pumped his wings to accelerate at blinding speed through the air. Rising up into the dark sky above them and with a swarm of wraiths at their back, Sanguine let out a defiant roar while unleashing a stream of hypersonic blood that sliced through a number of the wraiths before racing into the distance. Leaving a trail of crimson in their wake, Sanguine rushed into the clouds like a red comet to leave his pursuers in the dust.

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