The dungeon didn't become a battlefield, not yet. It became a corridor, Rimuru stepped forward once, and the chains binding Rory shattered into fragments of light and iron. Suppression runes fizzled out like dying embers. The clergy scattered without command, pressed to the floor by the crushing weight of a Demon Lord's presence.
Zorzal gritted his teeth, he held the sword he had taken off the wall, he glanced towards Rory who was now free from her own bindings. "You, you think you can just barge in here like you own the place."
Rimuru stopped in their tracks. "You've brought this up on yourself, for executing your own father because you didn't want a peace treaty. Then you took it a step further and kidnapped Rory...."
Zorzal chuckled but his demeanor didn't waver or change. "A peace treaty...yes, that's exactly why I did what I did. A king shouldn't have to make peace with people who crossed the gate into our world and into our homeland."
Rimuru was getting annoyed by how Zorzal was seeing things, but the way Rory looked. It just made Rimuru pissed off. "That's where you're wrong, where I come from. Monsters and humans coexist together. Those who don't want to join a peace treaty with my nation. They do what they want to, they want to seek out war. But I'm always one step ahead."
"One step ahead, ha! If you were one step ahead. Then you would've made sure Rory wasn't taken by me." Zorzal spoke.
Rimuru was silent for a moment, something was wrong. But they couldn't pin point what.
Raphael then spoke from within Rimuru.
<>
Rimuru glanced at Rory who was slowly standing. "Can you fight?"
The Demi-Goddess didn't say anything at first, but didn't know why Rimuru was asking that. "I could try, but I might slow you down."
Rimuru smirked. "Don't worry about slowing me down." Not asking Raphael to materialize the halberd out of inventory. The halberd appeared in Rory's hands.
Zorzal suddenly smirked, he turned his attention towards the priest, giving him a knowing nod. The priest began chanting and speaking in tongue. That's when things took a sudden shift, Raphael spoke again.
<
Rimuru felt it immediately—the drag against their power. Not enough to paralyze. Enough to resist. Enough to slow. Rimuru glared at Zorzal, teeth gritting together, vision unsteady and blurry. "This was a trap, to lure me here."
Zorzal smirked as he threw off his cape. "Indeed, look at what my blacksmiths forged for me, an armor worthy of going toe to toe with you. Foolish of you to come here alone, while the others above are occupied with my men. You, are going to feel what it's like to be on the receiving of my blade."
The magic sigil symbols formed around Zorzal, boosting his strength, speed, and resistance. To attacks from both Rory and Rimuru.
The area tightens around Rimuru, like someone was squeezing the life force right out of their body. Their connection to surrounding magic compresses inward. Their aura dimmed slightly, forcibly folded by the inversion lattice. The chamber had become a sealed domain—one designed specifically to counter beings like them.
The comms were cut, no signal to reach out to Yang or the rest outside. Rimuru stumbled slightly, Rory gripped her halberd. "You're playing with the unknown, you don't know what you're getting yourself into Zorzal."
Zorzal smirked. "Oh, I think I know exactly what I'm doing."
Darkness bled from his armor, pooling around his feet. Not shadow—substance. It crawled along the floor like ink seeking cracks.
<
Rimuru's expression hardened. "Source?"
<
"That really tells me a lot." Rimuru muttered. "Something ancient. Is it of this world?"
<
Hearing that, Rimuru froze. "Grimm? But that's...."
Zorzal spread his arms slightly. "You think, you're the only one who can control and contain beasts and monsters..." He paused for a moment, then spoke. "But I found something far more greater beneath this kingdom....It spoke to me in whispers of power, power to overthrow those weaker than I."
The darkness surged upward around his armor. "Unlike you...I don't hesitate to use it." The inversion field constricted and lurched violently. Rimuru stumbled, they staggered half a step. Not from pain, but from pressure.
Zorzal then lunged forward with inhuman speed, whatever he made a deal with. It played him like a fool, Rimuru was trying to react to this sudden unexpected speed. Zorzal's speed doubled—tripled—darkness warping the air as his blade carved through space itself. Rimuru barely raised a barrier in time; the impact detonated like a collapsing star, sending both combatants skidding across the chamber.
Rory attempted to interfere and help Rimuru. But the Priest blocked her path, he chanted and spoke in tongue once more. The chains that once restrained her, coiled around her like a snack. Rory gasped as she dropped her halberd.
~~~
Zorzal advanced forward, his boots leaving trails of black fracture across stone. "You've grown weaker..you now see the power balance between you and I."
Rimuru rose smoothly, despite a faint flicker in their golden eyes. "I've fought tougher foes."
"Have you now?" Zorzal asked with a raised eyebrow, the darkness flared like spikes and dancing shadows on the walls. A pulse of raw, corrupted force flooded the chamber, thicker than before. Heavier.
Then, everything took a gut wrenching turn. Rimuru couldn't sense or feel it. But the knowledge from Raphael was all that was needed to be known by the Demon Lord.
<
Rimuru's breath hitched in their throat. "How much?"
<<40% in counting.>>
Rimuru clenched their fists, they cursed under their breath. "Damn it...we need more time before-"
Rimuru was cut off as Zorzal's fist connected with Rimuru's stomach, Rimuru was sent upward and didn't have the time to put up a barrier around themselves, suddenly Zorzal swung his sword upward, which came slashing down upon Rimuru. The blade made contact with them as the Demon Lord came crashing back down with a hard thud. With a smirk, Zorzal slammed his armored boot down on Rimuru.
"Can you feel it? That pull, that gnawing hunger?" Zorzal asked twisting the heel of his booth into Rimuru's back.
Rimuru groaned, they had to turn into their slime form, to get some distance. But with no back up on the way to aid them or help Rory, Rimuru was caught between a rock and a hard place. Zorzal removed his boot from Rimuru's back as he then grabbed Rimuru by the back of their head.
"You are not invincible." Zorzal spoke in a cold tone. "You're just a vessel, and vessels can break." With a mighty throw, Zorzal tossed Rimuru into the brick wall. Crashing through the dungeon wall.
Rory, struggled to break free from the chains that were coiled around her. "R-Rimuru..."
Above them, Yang hurried inside. She jumped and dodged guards who had spears, maces, swords and axes. Her blonde hair ablaze of golden fire. "Get out of my way!" She landed a punch on one guard who blocked her path, cracking the armor that shielded him from attacks. The blonde brawler raced down the steps to the dungeon, the floor caved under pressure. Yang yelped as she fell a few floors down to a ritual room.
Landing on her butt, Yang groaned as she stood up. "Ow! That's gonna leave a mark." Her eyes glanced at the robed monks in the ritual room. And the obvious giant magic sigil on the floor they surrounded. "Okay, so...this is new." She smirked and pounded her fist into her hand. "But I can't complain. If I'm getting closer to the dungeon. I'll have to blast my way through you first!"
The blonde brawler launched herself forward as shotgun shells fired out of her Ember Cecilia. A monk chanted something as the chairs in the ritual room morphed and merged into a wooden monster. Yang turned her gaze to it, her smirk widened. "Oh come on now...Even Weiss can do better!"
Below Yang, a few feet down. The darkness surged towards Rimuru once more, but time seemed to slow down, not for Rimuru. But the entire room, the Raphael spoke.
<
Rimuru's breath hitched once more, they were running out of time. "What are my options? She isn't ready yet.."
<
Rimuru cursed under their breath, Zorzal lifted his blade, void energy condensing into a spearpoint of annihilation. "This ends now!"
Rimuru braced themselves, they had a small gap of time to use a barrier, but was unsure how long it would hold. Eyes closed tight, waiting for the impact. The darkness screamed, then in an instant. Raphael acted, not by command from Rimuru, but on instinct.
~~~
The air shifted, a cold chill of something darker and if pure evil. The space behind Zorzal tore open like splitting glass. And out dropped Scarlet, she knelt there on the floor for a moment. Her appearance had partially returned to what it once was, minus the Grimm arm that had taken its place where her right arm would be.
Scarlet slowly rose to her feet, her crimson red eyes glowing. Her breath came out like a mist, as if the room had grown below 30 degrees. Before Zorzal could react or even finish his fatal blow on Rimuru, he froze mid-attack, no one blinked. no one moved. With a wet squelching sound, Zorzal dropped his sword. It landed on the floor with a clanking thud.
Scarlet had crept up from behind Zorzal, her Grimm hand was raised up before coming down in a slashing motion. A clean, precise line split him from shoulder to hip. His body was sliced in half. Falling to the floor in a pool of his own blood, blood splattered on Rimuru as Scarlet stood there, her eyes filled not by a burning passion, not one of focus. But one of murder and a feral look.
The priest however panics, turning his attention away from Rory. Holding up a crucifix, shaking slightly like a leaf, in his other hand was a rosary as it dangled from his hand. Scarlet turned her gaze to the priest. "The devil....is real..." The priest muttered. "The day of reckoning has come...we will all be enslaved by the darkness..."
Scarlet didn't say a word. She took one step forward, the priest blinked. One moment Scarlet was there, the next she was gone, the priest glanced around. Looking for any traces of her, the shadows behind him moved and shifted as Scarlet reached out from behind, her Grimm hand clasping over his mouth as she pulled him into the darkness.
The inversion field collapsed instantly, light had returned to the dungeon in a violent rush. The chains that were coiled around Rory stopped and fell to the floor.
Rimuru stared at the dead body of Zorzal before them. The way his body was turning into ash was something. Then Raphael spoke.
<
Rimuru groaned, but still had the barrier up around their body. "What is it now?"
Raphael didn't answer, instead a tear in space and time opened. Queen stepped out, hands slowly clapping. "Congrats on a...successful rescue, if I do say so myself." She grins a little. "Red looks good on you though."
At the sound of Queen's voice, Scarlet suddenly lunged forward at her from the darkness, her Grimm arm dripped with the crimson red blood from Zorzal and whatever was left of the priest.
Queen blocked the sudden attack, putting all the weight into her feet. "And speaking of which." She rammed her knee into Scarlet's stomach. "Be a good dog and stay down."
Scarlet didn't say a word she didn't even flinch at the attack, her eyes still filled with murder. Her breathing was steady, Rory watched with bated breath. Then the ceiling gave in over their heads as Yang came falling down. "Look out below!"
Scarlet reacted in time as she rolled out of the way. Rimuru jumped back as the debris fell onto the spot Queen was at, Yang coughed and waved the smoke and dust away from her. "Okay, that was fun and all. But talk about a rough landing."
Scarlet glared at the blonde for a moment before she spoke. "Dumbass." She took a slow steady breath as she gathered herself. Still, that look of murder filled her eyes.
Raphael then spoke.
<
Rimuru didn't see any traces or signs of Queen anywhere, but spoke. "We have to leave, this may be our only chance to return to our homes."
Rory wanted to say something, but didn't. She knew Rimuru was right. She stepped forward just a little as she bowed lightly. "Thank you all...."
Yang saluted and smirked. "Don't mention it." She jumped through first as Rimuru glanced at Scarlet for a moment.
"I know you still have a job to do...but wherever you end up next, whether it be back home or some other place. Know that, no one else would've done what I did for you." Rimuru spoke softly.
Scarlet stood there, the look in her eyes spoke not of thank you or praise. But something more of a silent acknowledgement of Rimuru's words, The demon lord chuckled under their breath. Watching as Scarlet went through next.
Rory noticed Rimuru hadn't left yet, she raised an eyebrow up. "What is it?"
Rimuru was silent for a moment, but spoke." Raphael."
<
"Be honest with me, is Scarlet fully recovered? Or is there any chance of her surviving to the very end of her travels?" Rimuru asked.
There was a pause for a brief moment.
<
Rimuru nodded lightly, but didn't say anything else for the moment. "So in terms...it depends."
<
Rimuru let out a shaky sigh, taking one step forward. They turned their gaze to Rory, before waving bye to the Demi-Goddess, the Demon Lord full stepped into the rift as it closed up. All three of them were gone, Yang, Scarlet and Rimuru had left. But only two of them would return home while one didn't.
Outside and unaware of the scene that happened below their feet, the war stopped. Not because of a surrender or strategy. Because the darkness anchoring it had just been severed at the root, but in the ruins of the throne room. A new balance stood in the emptiness as this was just the start to something more for the people of this world and the JSDF.