127 Ancient City
Styx could only move within the area that the dungeon encompassed, which wasn't a particularly large area at the moment.
There were two methods to increase the size of an open dungeon. The first and easiest was to level up the dungeon core, as higher levelled cores spread their domains much further. The second way was to fill the current dungeon with objects and structures, which allowed the dungeons area to expand much like a lake that had boulders pushed into it.
Most dungeon cities utilized a combination of both means. Their dungeon expanded along with their city, whilst the adventurers training in the monster spawn areas below ground would help level up the dungeon core and expand the domain even further.
There was apparently a third method, as Styx was discovering. In an area void of mana, spreading his own mana would spread his domain, endlessly increasing its size, but also endlessly increasing his mana expenditure.
"Space is disordered…" Everest calmly stated whilst plucking her finger in the air and revealing a space spiderweb thread that instead of being in a fixed position, curled and swayed like a loose thread of hair.
"Can't you enter a separate space here?" Styx asked with a raised brow, causing the Monster Lord giantess to shake her head.
"Too damaged. It will break and shatter."
Almost as if to prove her point, Everest ran her finger down in the air and slipped into a crack in space. Moments later, a small pop was heard before she suddenly appeared in the world again, faint crimson crack could be seen around her before they slowly repaired themselves.
"Save your mana, I need you all investigating the surroundings. I will send harpies to fly around and search for anything else, but I can't go too far yet."
Styx was still technically a traditional underground tunnel, so he could tunnel beneath the ground and expand his territory in the way he usually did, but this also took time.
A small expedition team of dungeon residents heralded by Aura departed into the gigantic desert of dust and ash. The ground below their feet was extremely soft and would burst out small clouds of ash with each footstep.
Styx controlled a small squadron of sixteen harpies and four terror wings, assassin like Second Step monsters that had giant wingspans and razor sharp hooked beak that could snip someone's head off whilst they were unaware.
The flying monsters flew up the endless sand dune and up towards the soot stained clouds the lurked not far overhead.
The monsters were having difficulty breathing as even the air was stale, the further up they flew, the more difficult just breathing became.
They managed to make it though and gave Styx a giant panoramic view of the desert.
Ash dunes of a size that defied common sense extended endlessly as far as they eye could see. It was as if they were ants in the world of giants, such was the size and scale of this ash desert.
There was one anomaly though in the opposite direction, which was a semi-buried city of equally enormous scale. The harpies and nightmare wings began flying towards it under Styx's control.
Lagoon Porter city extended to the horizon and was a flat city, so to speak, that could support several million residents with ease. This megalithic construction however encompassed the same area of land but was built chaotically.
Enormous cathredrals and defensive towers were built in a haphazard mess of being stacked on top of one another. Houses were built into walls, whilst steep inclining streets that were closer to staircases were lined with even more.
Styx could even see different districts amongst the pile of buildings, some with wider roads and parks
This city, by Styx's estimate, could support at least 10 million residents, such was its outrageous size.
The harpies and nightmare wings landed on a dusty, eerily quiet street. The street went down on a giant 50 degree slope and caused them to dig their claws into the cracks between bricks on the road.
Houses that were equally lopsided, some as tall as four stories tall, lined this road and gave Styx the impression that this road hadn't always been on this slope.
"What happened here…?" Styx asked himself in confusion before opening his status panel and speaking to it. "Anthea… are you there?"
⠀
[
I am always here.
]
⠀
"So why don't you answer me when I call for you?"
"…"
"Can you tell me what this place is?"
⠀
[
I cannot.
]
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"So, you know, then?"
⠀
[
I cannot say.
]
⠀
"You can't even give me so much as a hint or idea of what happened?"
⠀
[
This is a location where-
]
⠀
[
World ender, this is a place of an ancient past. The empire which once rose to the sky has returned from whence it came and all are destined, dust and ashes.
]
⠀
Styx didn't understand what was going on, but it appeared Anthea had been about to say something she wasn't supposed to and had been cut off by another. His mind wondered to the blurry figures in the alternate reality location where he and Anthea had been pulled into and thought it must be one of them.
They held the same kind of feeling that Anthea did, and he knew they were gods of at least equal standing.
Styx was pulled away from his contemplation as something stirred within the city. It wasn't some obvious sign, but a tremble through the ground and buildings.
"Gaarhhhhhhhh~~"
An uncanny growling noise sounded as corpses stumbled out of old doors that simple fell down, or fell themselves from windows and ledges.
"Zombies?"
Styx raised a brow in surprise at first, but these creatures were different from zombies. They were more like husks of something that was once human. Brown and wrinkled dry skin wrapped their bodies, whilst they no longer had eyes or tongues. Their mouths and eye sockets were hollow, but this didn't stop them from lumbering towards Styx's monsters or growling.
The harpies released a sonic boom from their screech, blowing away the nearby husks, but they didn't receive any experience points even though the enemy had died.
Feathers fluttered and a violent onslaught ensued as the bumbling army of husks attacked en masse. One harpy swooped down and fell into their clutched before the humanoid monsters sunk their teeth into it.
Styx watched in astonishment as the harpy was rapidly drained of its mana, invigorating the husks greatly as if they had found an oasis in the desert.
A more powerful husk covered in old violet armor of an unknown metal held a similar spear and charged at a nightmare wing whilst howling. Styx tried to control the monster to retreat, but the husk knight threw his spear, accurately impaling it and causing it to fall to the ground before it too was drained of mana.
The moment their mana had dried up, the husks directly sucked out his monster's lifeforce, resulting in an agonizing yet helpless death.
Once they had mana, the enemy husks became ten times more dangerous, so Styx had his monsters flee the location before they became overrun.
The husks became helpless as the monsters flew up into the sky, but that didn't mean there weren't other husk monsters that could fly.
The remaining harpies and nightmare wings flew over the city and perched themselves on the end of a series of giant buttresses of a grand cathedral in the heart of the city.
~~~~~
⠀
Aura and the raid team were much stronger than the monsters, which had been turned into an observatory force for Styx.
They reached the city several days later, Aura staying back and being low key amongst the group as much as possible unless she had to make a move. Styx had also send an entire battalion of monsters to support them and be cannon fodder.
Styx had rapidly created an isolation barrier at the entrance of the bridge to restrict mana from seeping across into this dead world. Some did still escape, but it was only one percent of what it was previously.
Similar arrays were installed into special bracelets and handed out to everyone in the expedition force. Aura's bracelet was made from a soulium-manasteel alloy to accommodate for her incredible mana force, but it would still shatter if she went all out.
"These monsters can smell your mana, and will do anything to get it," Styx's voice rang out in everyone's mind at the same time. "Do not use any skills or anything that required mana unless absolutely necessary."
The main reason why Aura was taking such a passive approach was that she felt a strong sense of danger from within the city, although whatever was causing it completely escaped her perception.
The group entered what appeared to be a slum, everything broken and falling apart. Old crates and signboards lay rotted and scatter on the ground, just the fact that they still remained being astonishing enough.
"Split up into ten groups," Therina, the dungeon wife who used the least mana when fighting and leader of this expedition force, directed everyone quickly and accurately. "Make sure nobody gets left behind. Styx has already said that once these monsters absorb your mana, they become highly invigorated and ten times as dangerous."
The expedition force began exploring the decrepit slums, killing any husks they came across with cold steel.
There was nothing of value within this area, but it gave Styx an idea on the kind of lives of the people who once lived here.
They then began heading in the direction of the heart of the city, scaling walls with towers and houses jutting out of it, shops which had been completely looted in the ancient past, and grand public chapels filled with rubble.
Vawww~ Vawww~ Vawww~
Several dozen undead crow-like birds flew out of a chapel tower as the bell rung all by itself, the giant resonating sound causing countless husks to stop and face it before falling down prostrate on hands and knees.
"@$&&#$%!@#$%^#$"
The husks let out guttural sounds that made no sense, but soon several figures covered in golden armor walked out the front door of a cathedral and stared down at the expedition force.
Even Styx could feel their emotions, which was an endless, overflowing hunger, one which could never be satiated.
Each golden armored figure was the same size as Everest and held giant glaives and tower shields covered in countless engravings. They had no mana though, so all their equipment remained inactive.
"Do not let them absorb your mana!" Therina declared whilst directing everyone to destroy these defenders.
Therina charged first, her soulium sword poised and striking at the joints in the giant's armor with needle-like precision. The giant was highly experienced though and instantly brought its giant shield forth to defend itself.
As sharp as her weapon was, it only did a small nick of damage in the shield before being deflected away.
Other expedition forces used spears, swords, or even their fists to pummel the giants. As powerful and skilled as they were, they only had one shield to defend with.
The monsters struck from unexpected angles and targeted heads and ankles, mostly being used to distract the defenders and create lapses in their defense.
No matter how dire the situation though, the giant soldiers never hesitated nor showed any fear.
"Everyone back off!" Vivy, one of the most powerful members of the expedition, called everyone back in a panic as she followed their movements.
The giants raised their glaives up high before they began to release a faint red mist and the arrays lit up on them. Styx was completely unaware how they did it, but the monsters seemed to have burned their own lifeforce, or what little of it remained, in order to power their equipment.
"How… are they even alive, let alone standing…" Styx mused to himself.
The fact that the husks had lifeforce meant they were indeed alive and not dead, as lifeforce was something no undead had. How they managed to use it to supplement mana was another mystery he couldn't understand as well.
The husk giants swung their enormous weapons down and create a seismic shockwaves that sent stone and rubble flying everywhere alongside anyone close enough to be dragged into it.
"Regroup and reform the lines!" Therina called out whilst managing to pierce into the arm of one giant.
