Ruins (Part 3) - The Final Descent
I'm thinking of putting this story under 'fanfictions', what do y'all think?
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The air was thick with a palpable tension filling it. A group of people marched towards a huge door, behind which lied the place where the master of the ruins dwelled.
The door was adorned with beautiful, golden carvings and inscriptions that shone in the miniscule amount of light in the bounds of the moss-covered stone walls. Made of metal and painted in a dark green color, the door was an entrance to what seemed like hell itself.
Fear was evident on everyone's faces, but none dared to utter a single word. They all knew that this was the only way out, to defeat the creature that lied ahead, or die trying.
In this journey, all of them had faced many challenges, both physical and emotional. The pain of the grave injuries they accumulated, the anguish they felt watching their friends get slaughtered in front of them, the desperation and hopelessness they felt when they ran from the creatures chasing them.
All of that led to this moment, this place. Here would be their final stand, the final battle that would decide their fate.
Resolve could be seen in their eyes despite the fear. Each step they took echoed through the corridor. Leading the group was Silvas, walking with a stoic face and an unyielding spirit.
He had vowed to save as many of his students as he could.
Due to them getting a sneak in of the room beforehand, Silvas, along with some other teachers, was able to formulate a plan for battle. Although there were some inconsistencies here and there, the plan was solid.
He had already distributed all the roles. Five of the students, including Sukuna, were to kill all the weak monsters that would be present in the room.
He had created this team in such a way that all the students with powers that did not work in a group were placed in it. The rest of the students were to aim at the boss, which might just be the most frightening creature they had seen.
The door seemed to grow larger as they approached, its presence almost suffocating. Standing behind the door, everyone could feel cold sweat trickle down their forehead.
"Stay close," Silvas whispered, his voice low, but heard clearly by everyone present there. Everyone steeled their resolves, awaiting the approaching battle.
He, along with 5 more students, pushed the door open. Air filled with a repulsive smell rushed out. The room was dome shaped, to say that the room was colossal would be an understatement.
On the circumference of the room, there were present many little creatures that added to the intimidating presence of the room.
Hovering in the air, there were uncountable, fist-sized beetles. Their green armor shined in the dim light. They moved in swarms, their little wings creating an irritating sound, while their bites could poison the strongest fighters. This poison, though not lethal, would slow down even the most agile ones.
Hanging from the dome shape by almost invisible threads, were venomous spiders. With black bodies and a coating of hard armor, they suddenly dropped on unsuspecting victims and trap them in webs which were excruciatingly difficult to get out of.
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Right in the middle of the room was the master of the ruins, the monster at whom if one glances for even a second, they would feel an overwhelming sense of dread and fear.
The Centipede King - A colossal being with a body reaching a length close to 100 meters. Its exoskeleton shone like polished black gems, with countless spikes throughout it. It had an uncountable number of legs, each so strong yet so sharp that they made little holes in the stone floor.
Its head was a nightmare in physical form, antennae coming out of its head creating a curved shape. Its mouth had sharp teeth which could seemingly tear through anything with ease.
Its whole body seemed to have no weakness. Looking at it, some students immediately lost their will to fight, and tried to retreat back outside to safety. But regrettably, he door behind them had closed without anyone noticing, without making a single sound.
"FORMATION!" Silvas shouted, which marked the beginning of the final battle.
Five students immediately shot off in different directions, Sukuna and 4 fodders, meanwhile, all the other students and instructors surrounded the centipede, who was now awake and ready to battle, which was indicated by the low growling sounds it made.
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I ran around killing everything I came by. From my peripheral vision, I could see the students running to surround the centipede.
The size of my targets is quite small, which makes it slightly more difficult to aim the slashes, but I'm still holding on, almost none of them have missed.
The beetles move in swarms, which makes it easier to use slices in a grid shape, while the spiders are the most problematic.
I have also noticed small centipedes crawling around, which I immediately killed, obviously.
But the problem is that that do not get slashed completely by a single Dismantle, which means that their bodies are quite well-armored. Though they still die afterwards, as the slash goes about 90% of the way through.
If the little ones, which are barely an arm's length long, can withstand Dismantle, then I imagine the boss will just let it off with a scratch.
I could also see the huge size of the soul of the boss, indicating that it had killed many beings in its life.
I was running, my hands and fingers moving at incredible speeds, slashing all that came in my way.
The ones on the circumference were done, and now, I had to move closer to the main fight, as the mobs had begun to strike at the students.
As I ran towards the middle, I could see the dead bodies of a few kids, some crushed, while some impaled. Some were not dead, and were being eaten alive by the creatures present there.
It was surely a gruesome sight to see.
As I, now, ran around closer to the middle, killing the little worthless wastes of space, I was vulnerable to attacks by the boss.
I could see a leg striking towards me, aimed straight at my skull, at an intense speed. I, sensing the danger, ducked and slid on the floor.
I saw a leg, one the size close to that of a human, covered in obsidian-like, shining armor that seemed to be unbreakable at first sight.
As I dodged the kick, I felt a wave of air pass due to the speed and pressure of the kick. I could feel that the centipede was looking at me, as if marking me as a threat.
But . . .
That only makes me more excited.
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The battlefield was covered in the blood of the many fallen fighters, some being gnawed on by monsters, and some alive, trying to run away from danger, limping and breathing heavily.
The remaining fighters were holding on well, the most impressive being, without a doubt, Ryogaku. He was the only one who was able to damage the centipede at all, even though it was just a shallow cut on its shell.
The fighters had realized that the body of the centipede, covered with the armor, is basically impossible to damage, therefore, they were targeting its head, namely, the eyes and mouth.
Ryogaku had tried multiple times to reach the head and stab it, but had succeeded only once.
The fire on his blade was burning brighter and hotter than ever, both due to the desire to survive, and the despair and anger of losing his only two remaining friends in the ruins.
He had found a new way to utilize his flames, he swings the sword in a straight line, and a line of flames shoots out in the same direction.
He had used this exact move many times, burning a large number of the centipede's legs with it.
Many of the students were focused on damaging the centipede's legs, as the joints on them were weak points. The centipede always attacked the place where the most people were concentrated, aiming at reducing the number of fighters quickly.
Lucas was not fighting, but was assisting Silvas in handling the situation and finding new ideas for attacking. His skill helped to find new weak spots on the centipedes body, but unfortunately, none were found up till now that could damage it to a lethal point.
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Silvas was in a bad situation, he had given all his focus to ensure the safety of students, but in the process of doing so, he had been severely injured. Watching his students fall one by one, he felt a sense of helplessness he had never felt before.
There was hardly any damage done to the centipede, and the damage done to them was enormous. The formation had completely collapsed, it was looking impossible to win now, unless a . . . miracle happened.
"THE END OF THE TAIL!"
He heard a loud voice, one which belonged to Lucas.
"IT'S A WEAK POINT!"
Lucas had found a weak point on the centipede, the end of its tail. It opened directly inside into its body due to it being the place from which the centipede excretes, that is, its anus. It did not have armor for the same reason.
Ryogaku, immediately understanding this, changed his strategy from attacking the head, to attacking the tail.
He ran to the end of its tail, which was not too much of a distance away from its head due to the centipede being coiled around, and jumped, aiming to push the sword into its anus.
The centipede could not recognize this threat until it was too late, the sword penetrated the end of its tail, making a sizzling sound as it burned the internal body parts.
A high-pitched, shrieking sound erupted from the mouth of the centipede, and it started to try to flail its tail wildly.
But, before it could do that, Ryogaku chanted, "Release."
A massive flame erupted from his sword, which was embedded inside the centipedes body. The flame engulfed the centipede's body from the inside, burning its organs down one by one.
Loud shrieks filled the room, echoing in the silence. No one else could jump in to help, as the centipede was now flailing around in intense pain.
Its shrieking mouth was open, revealing its sharp mandibles. Looking at this Sukuna had an idea.
Ryogaku was flung off from the centipede's tail due to its violent thrashing. He had used up most of his mana with that move and could not coat his body to protect himself from the fall. He landed on the floor with a loud thump, possibly with a few cracks on his bones.
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Looking at all this, Sukuna had a huge grin on his face. The game was finally open for him to join. He ran to where the centipede's head was and jumped, aiming straight for it.
Seeing this, many students had their hopes rekindled, as Sukuna was said to be the strongest out of them all.
Seeing a foolish human charge towards it, the centipede blasted its head towards the person who was in mid air, opening its mouth wide to eat him whole.
Sukuna, though, did not try to dodge this, and simply accepted being eaten.
He fell into the dark hole of the centipede's mouth, the teeth closing in on him, trying to chew him into blood stew.
Seeing this, the hopeful faces of everyone were replaced with horrified and desperate expressions, the strongest of their army was killed and eaten within moments.
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Inside the centipede's mouth, the teeth snap shut, and blood flew around, Sukuna had been bitten by teeth of size almost as big as him, yet sharper than anything he had ever seen.
But, Sukuna had propelled himself using the teeth before they closed by pushing back on them using his hands, due to which, only his legs were bitten off.
These legs were immediately healed with Reverse Cursed Technique as he fell down the centipede's digestive system.
There were fluids trying to corrode his body as he fell deeper, hence, he had to maintain Reverse Cursed Technique on at all times.
Once he felt that he was far enough deep, he unleashed the blow that he was waiting to for all this time . . .
"Open"
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Outside, the situation was dire, everyone was injured and some could barely even move.
The heavy-hitters, Ryogaku, Eva, and Liam were heavily injured and not fit to fight. The battle seemed to be leading towards their demise.
All the surviving people had horrified expressions on their faces, it was as if they were standing before death. A chilling realization came to the minds of all of them, "I will die today."
As if saving all these people from the clutches of death, Sukuna's technique burst from inside the centipede.
The tail end of its body was already burnt from the inside due to Ryogaku's attack, and now, Sukuna had used his fire attack, which was much stronger than Ryogaku's.
Smoke started coming out of the centipede's mouth, as its shell started to crack.
Suddenly, the centipede burst open, fragments of its armor flying everywhere, and blue liquid raining from above, and oozing out of the separated body.
Everyone's eyes was on the silhouette of a person who was standing in the middle of all this.
With blue liquid dripping from his face, it made his figure look even more dangerous than ever before. He had his legs joined together and his hands raised to the sides, parallel to the floor.
One could see a genuine smile on his face, which indicated that he had very much enjoyed what had transpired.
His right hand moved to his hair, which he pushed back, removing the blue liquid from his eyes as a result.
Everyone who looked at the figure standing felt a chilling sensation, one akin to the one they felt when they faced the Centipede King.
The centipede was completely dead, killed in a gruesome and merciless manner. Its flesh was burnt to a crisp and spread out all around the room. Its blood splattered and reached even the dome-shaped roof. Parts of its shell had flown away and impaled some of the dead bodies of the students.
Only its head and the end of its tail remained, while its middle body was decimated into blood soup.
Sukuna started walking towards the group of people, who came out of their daze and started celebrating. He had a shining yellow orb in his left hand, which was the key to leave this dungeon once and for all.
He stopped walking, now at the middle of the room, where a circular pattern was made, with a little hole right in the middle.
He placed the orb in the hole, which made the floor crack.
The cracks spread throughout the room, which looked like it could collapse at any moment.
The floor opened up, revealing a black abyss, so dark that it rivaled even black holes in space. Everyone fell into the hole, including the dead bodies of the fallen fighters.
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Outside the dungeon, the revolt was at an all time high. Blaze, the principal of the Academy, was suffering the most serious consequences. He was sure that he would not be able to hold on for long with the public opinion turning on him as so.
That is when a loud, whirring sound was heard from the gate that covered the academy whole.
The shouts of people stopped, and the atmosphere became so silent that one could hear the flapping wings of a bird.
The whirring sound stopped, and was replaced by the screams of students falling down from the gate.
The crowd standing outside the academy could not restrain themselves any longer. They broke in through the barriers and started frantically searching for their children.
Unfortunately, many of those children were dead, only their bodies seen thrown on the ground like corpse dolls.
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Sukuna landed safely on his feet, walking next to Eva, who looked at him with an expression of worry.
Before Sukuna could say anything, he was tackled into a hug and fell onto the floor due to it.
He knew who it was, but didn't try to dodge it.
He looked down and saw his mother hugging him tightly. He could feel her crying with her face buried in his chest.
His father, too came running to them and pulled them both into a hug.
To the side, he could see Eva looking at them with a little smile and a melancholic look in her eyes as she shed a single tear, looking back at her memories.
Before he knew it, Sukuna started to feel dizzy and fainted while still in the hug.
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Later, it was figured out that Sukuna was poisoned, which he failed to notice during the fight.
It must have been either the centipede's teeth, or the fluids inside its body that did so.
He was given medicines and antidotes, due to which he became as good as ever within a week.
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The aftermath of this event was disastrous. Blaze was completely ruined and was thrown into jail with a life sentence.
The academy itself was completely destroyed, and its name was taken out of all the lists in the world. ITAAS Academy no longer existed.
Many students had died. To honor their unyielding spirit facing even the most ferocious of monsters, they were given a great funeral by the Hunter Union itself.
Silvas, and many other teachers were hired by the Hunter Association, looking at their quick thinking and the ability to stay calm in such situations.
Sukuna, Ryogaku, Eva, and Liam were called heroes and got an award sent to them directly by the Head of the Hunter Association.
They knew of their roles in the fights because Lucas uploaded the whole ordeal unfiltered and unedited.
The fact that Sukuna's name was on the statue, and that he seemingly disappeared for most of the time was not overlooked by people. Some even going as far to say that he orchestrated all this.
Hence, the public opinion of Sukuna was split into two.
The academy students that survived this dungeon were given credit of doing so, as coming out alive of an S-Rank dungeon is a big achievement by itself, they were given the choice of either being trained by the Hunter Association itself, or immediately become a hunter officially.
Most chose the latter, their ranks assigned according to how promising the hunter Association found them.
Sukuna, however, was not concerned about all this, he was currently focusing on the power of the soul. This was the power he found in the dungeon, and now he could see the souls of everyone in his vicinity.
Although it was a little confusing at first, he quickly adapted to the new 'vision' that he had.
He was currently planning on doing some things that would make his image and his relations break down. Did he care? No, it made him get stronger.
But first, he wanted the revenge of Eva to be taken out of the way, so that he can ensure her full loyalty.
Though, he was pretty sure that she had fallen in love with him. He knew that this would happen someday, and he is now in a dilemma.
If he rejects her, then their relationship might get broken, and her loyalty severed, but he is not currently wanting to be in a romantic relationship. Therefore, he thought that he would just go with the flow, and spend time with her as she pleases.
If he gains feelings for her, then its well and good, but if not, then he would have to find another way, or another one.
He had some plans for the future, which he was going to put into work pretty soon.
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Report of the Incident
Total Casualties: 1157, mostly students
Recovered bodies: 68
Alive: 53
Injured: 53
In Critical Condition: 4
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This is a robbery, give me all the Power Stones you have RIGHT NOW.