Clover Kingdom / Diamond Border (Black Die Underground City / Eastern Support Veins): January 19th, 1016.
It was a violent day for the world. The city above had started whispering, clover knights had started reading things they were not supposed to read and the holy theocracy had started pretending it was not sweating beneath its white banners, yet if you looked closely beneath outlaw city. To be more specific, in the eastern support veins where old cathedral stone sat too close to black die tunnels and buried bones. You could see the moment ariella tepes decided that pressure was no longer enough.
The atmosphere dreadful.
(David's POV)
The first explosion came from the eastern support vein.
*BOOOOOOM*
The entire black mansion shook.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
A wine bottle rolled off jarred's table and shattered.
Jarred stared at it.
The whole room was silent.
Then he stood up with dead eyes.
"Someone dies today." Said jarred with cold eyes.
I stood from my chair slowly.
A runner burst into the office with blood on his cheek and said "Boss. Eastern support vein collapsed. Church knights are inside the old quartermaster route. Weapon magic traces confirmed."
The room went silent.
Nyx's eyes sharpened.
Benjamin's face did not change.
Mine did.
Because I smiled.
Closed eyed.
Ugly.
"Marcel's old route." I said softly.
Benjamin bowed his head slightly.
"Yes master david." Said benjamin.
I looked at the map.
Ariella had moved sooner than expected.
Good.
Bad.
Annoying.
All three.
Very different meanings.
"Evacuate the clinic wards. Seal western sleeping dens. Move children and healers through inner doors only. Jarred, take the wine cellar route and ruin anything white." I said calmly.
Jarred smiled.
It was not funny.
"With pleasure." Said jarred with a wide grin.
"Nyx." I said while glancing towards her.
She looked at me.
I was silent visibly for a long moment and said "Stay near me."
Nyx's eyes narrowed.
"Because you care." She asked.
"Because if you run off and die, I will have to hear about it through the mate mark and that sounds irritating." I said calmly.
Nyx stared at me.
Then grinned.
"That's your version of love. I love you to my big oaf." She said.
"That's my version of logistics. I will decline it." I said calmly with a snicker.
Benjamin opened a silver door.
The sound on the other side was screaming.
I walked through.
…
Black Die Underground City / Eastern Support Veins.
The eastern support veins were burning.
Stone tunnels split open like broken ribs.
Black dice marks had been cut through by silver swords floating in the air.
Church knights pushed through smoke in white armor.
Behind them.
At the center of the collapsing road.
Ariella tepes walked calmly with her spear at her side.
Her pale blue eyes lifted toward me.
"David swallow, we meet again." Said ariella nonchalantly.
I stepped out of benjamin's door with my grimoire floating beside me.
"Smaller titty bitch. Indeed we do." I said calmly.
The church knights froze.
Nyx choked beside me.
Jarred, somewhere far behind, started laughing so loudly it echoed through the tunnel.
Ariella stared at me.
Her expression did not change.
But the air became heavier.
"You have grown vulgar with age." Said ariella with one crazed eye widening.
"I was vulgar when we met. You were just too old to hear it properly, retreat now and I'll be generous enough and give you a good fuck to moisten your haggard pussy." I said calmly.
Ariella's spear lifted slightly.
Hundreds of weapons appeared behind her.
Swords.
Axes.
Spears.
Hooks.
Blades without names.
"Weapon magic: Rain of honor." Said ariella nonchalantly.
The weapons fired.
"Dice creation magic: World of fortune." I said calmly with both of my hands spread.
The black magenta board exploded beneath my feet and spread across the tunnel.
Panels lit.
Dice spun.
The first wave of weapons struck panel five and tilted into the ceiling.
The second wave struck panel three and launched sideways into church knights.
The third wave came straight for my face.
Nyx moved.
Her claws flashed as she said "Pact magic: Oathbound guard."
A silver black mark glowed on her arm as she knocked three blades aside and ducked under the fourth.
"Don't stand there looking handsome and stupid." Said nyx with a bloodthirsty grin.
"I only do one of those naturally." I said calmly.
Ariella moved.
Fast.
Too fast.
Five years had made me stronger.
It had not made her slow.
She appeared in front of me and thrust her spear toward my chest.
"Fortune step" I thought with a wide grin on my face.
I vanished.
The spear tore through the afterimage and split the tunnel wall behind me.
I reappeared above her with black dragon sword in my hand and thought "Critical roll"
A dice locked onto the blade.
Six.
The sword came down toward her shoulder.
Ariella turned and let it cut through her armor and flesh.
Blood splashed.
Her shoulder opened.
Then closed.
Instantly.
Annoying.
Very annoying.
She swung her spear backward.
I blocked with black dragon sword.
*CLAAAAANG*
My arms shook.
The impact sent me through three stone pillars.
*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*
I hit the ground and rolled.
Perfect health stitched cracked bones.
Pain stayed anyway because apparently my body still enjoyed being dramatic.
Suddenly nyx appeared above ariella, claws aimed at her throat.
Ariella did not block with her arm.
She moved.
Not slightly.
Hard.
Her whole body shifted backward.
Nyx's claw missed her neck by a inch and cut across her jaw instead.
The wound closed.
But ariella's eyes changed.
Only for a second.
I saw it.
Nyx landed near me and whispered "Did you see that."
"I did." I said softly.
Ariella looked at us.
Calm.
Too calm.
"Interesting." I said while standing back up.
Ariella's pale blue eyes narrowed faintly.
I smiled.
"Did the old bitch finally blink." I asked calmly.
Ariella raised one hand and said "Weapon magic: Coffin of lost legacy."
A coffin made of blades began forming behind her.
The tunnel screamed.
Not people.
Stone.
The weapons inside the coffin were old.
Wrong.
They carried too much death in them.
Benjamin's silver door opened behind wounded fighters and swallowed them into safety.
Jarred's black wine surged through another tunnel, drowning church knights in a dark wave that smelled like death and cheap taverns.
Nyx's claws dragged along the ground.
I lifted my grimoire and said calmly "Dice creation magic: The joker."
A black magenta dice with a laughing clown face appeared in front of me.
Ariella's coffin opened.
A blade larger than a carriage shot forward.
The hoker laughed.
The world bent wrong.
The blade missed my heart by a impossible inch and instead carved through my side.
Blood splashed.
Perfect health activated.
I grinned through the pain.
Ariella's eyes narrowed.
"You gamble with death too often." Said ariella.
"Death keeps losing." I said calmly.
Then the ceiling above the eastern support veins cracked.
Ariella looked up.
Then smiled.
Small.
Cold.
Inhuman.
"No. It has simply been waiting for a larger table." Said ariella with a wide grin forming on her face.
The entire eastern support vein began collapsing.
Not by accident.
By design.
She had not come to kill a tunnel.
She had come to test where the city broke.
My smile slowly vanished.
The board under my feet flickered.
Ariella raised her spear again and pointed at me and said "Next time, david swallow, I will not descend into your city."
The weapons behind her turned toward the ceiling.
"I will remove the city." Said ariella nonchalantly.
A explosion of weapon magic shattered the upper supports.
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*
Benjamin grabbed my shoulder.
Nyx grabbed my arm.
Jarred screamed something vulgar in the distance.
The silver door swallowed us as half the eastern district collapsed behind us.
The last thing I saw before the door shut was ariella standing calmly inside falling stone.
Watching me.
Smiling faintly.
And the tiny scratch on the side of her neck.
Still open.
…
THE END…