Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

--- Colossal Dungeon, the Castle---

The cathedral floors shook under their feet as they heard what sounded like the roaring of a flood.

"Is the dungeon collapsing?! Grab what you can and run!" Monique shouted.

Link grabbed the spear and the crown of the king before he jumped on the back of the dragonfly golem and joined the others in the air on their escape. They flew into the hallway outside, only to see inky black fog already covering the ground.

"The black fog from the lower floors rising up!?" Alison exclaimed surprised.

"Doesn't this look a lot darker than the stuff we left behind..." Jonah commented ponderingly, staring at the dark soup rising quickly.

"I don't think it's a good idea to enter that..." Lynri advised against a bath in the murky mist.

"That only leaves up then;" Duhu implied that they probably had to go further up and face the optional boss to escape the miasma.

Monique and Jonah nodded, taking the lead back to the entrance to the tower. At least they had already taken care of most of the guard, was what they thought. Halfway back to the spiral staircase, they faced a terrifying sight.

In the place where guards stood and were subsequently defeated by them undead knights rose from the dark fog that now filled the hallway to colossal hip height. Despite there being no bodies, undead spawned from the fog. Instead of an empty hallway, they now face undead colossi wading through an ocean of darkness.

They had been distracted for just a moment when a knight rose from the fog behind them and his massive gauntlet slap came in their direction. Ellen's' golem was almost hit out of the air like a real insect, but she managed to recover before she and the golem entered the soupy fog.

"Be careful, these guys are faster and stronger than before," she warned them as she rejoined their flight formation without a problem.

The golem was a lot tougher than she expected. Looking back at the knight that hat hit them, she actually found the colossus was now missing two fingers. At the moment it was slapped, the aerial striker hat counter-attacked, leaving the undead with only two bony stumps instead of a ring and pinky finger. The gauntlet did little to stop the sharp pair of sickles.

Staying closer to the ceiling, the party avoided the fog and attacks of the undead until they reached the entrance to the spiral staircase. They barely squeezed through, as the fog had almost reached the upper edge of the archway.

They didn't know whether the whole castle would fill with miasma, they could only hope to escape as long as possible in case it didn't.

"We will reach the door soon!" Archer shouted.

"Look out!" Monique answered from the front as she and Jonah evaded a massive lightning strike, that continued to crash into Tekar's barrier.

"What have you done!?" a voice thundered.

Stranding on the narrow staircase and blocking their path was a colossus wearing precious robes. With his long beard and wand in his hand, he was immediately recognizable as a magician. Even if he had not just thrown a spell at them.

"Oh no, the miasma has already risen this high! That means... it's all over."

When the optional boss saw the flood of dark fog behind them, he suddenly lost the light and anger in his eyes.

"Quick, we have no time to fight, him, get past him!"

Using the chance, Team 1 and 4 passed by him, flying up to the top of the tower. The door to the room stood wide open so they simply flew in.

"This is a laboratory!" Alison exclaimed surprised.

Even when everything was supersized, the alchemist easily recognized the laboratory and den of a wizard like herself. Various glass devices, stacks of books, shelves of powder vials, and drying herbs and ingredients were strewn across the room. There was a massive book propped up on a stand that was obviously the centerpiece of the room.

"Everyone, let's try and close the door. It should buy us some time;" Ellen suggested.

Although the door was massive and heavy, their combined strength was just enough to move the door. Once it got into motion, they managed to swing it shut. With Wolfram's help, they managed to close the latch bolt and lock the door.

"What should we do now? Do you think Seth and the others are okay?" Ray asked worried.

"If there is something you don't have to worry about, it is the Lord," Wolfram gave a rare comment. Although the golem was with them to protect them, so far he had little reason to intervene.

"We should seal the door to stop the fog from entering. Maybe Shay and Alison could fill the lock and slits with ice or earth magic," Jonah suggested

"Alison, what are you doing?" Monique asked, seeing that the alchemist had left the group, standing on the massive book.

"Hmm? What? Oh, yeah, great idea. Shay can definitely seal the wall with ice. Maybe Wolfram could turn it to metal to reinforce the ice and door?" she shouted back rather distracted. The others halted for a moment.

"You guys do that, I will talk with her," Monique said and came over to Alison, who was standing on the pages of the giant book.

"Alison, what Is this for you to be so distracted by it? You do get what situation we are in, right?"

"This is the log of the mage we just met on the way up. His research, his day, it seems like he wrote down everything like it was a diary." the alchemist explained to her, not taking her eyes off the page.

"I know you are obsessed with reading, but we could really use your help with the door."

"I'm sure Shay will manage. I just took a glance but it seems like there is more to this dungeon than we thought. This might help us understand this dungeon and what is happening," she explained

"...Fine, you see what you can find out. We will take care of the door," Monique gave in.

"Oh, and could you send me Asterion? I can hardly turn these pages myself."

The chosen of Athena only grunted as she left. The Minotaur joined Alison a few moments later.

The team was not a moment too late, when Shay finished sealing the gap under the door, the black fog was already splashing over the last step of the spiral staircase.

Half an hour after they arrived in the room, the gaps were sealed with ice while the ice and wooden door had been transmuted to metal by Wolfram. The last time they looked outside from the keyhole, the soup had already risen to a quarter of the height of the door.

"Alison, did you find out anything, yet?" Monique came over after the door was properly sealed and seemed to hold.

"Yeah, and we might have fucked up," Alison informed them.

"What do you mean?" Monique asked confused.

"It's best if you get everyone to listen, so I don't have to explain it several times."

Still unsure, Monique gathered everyone. The door was sealed, for now, they could only wait and think about what to do. Alison's information was their best bet to get out of there.

"Everyone is here, Alison. Can you tell us what is going on now?"

"This dungeon is a bet with the fate of a world at stake and we might have skewed the scales for the bad guys," she started dryly, before explaining what she gleaned from the book.

"A force called miasma appeared in their world, which is that black fog out there. It makes all living things sick and turns those dead into undead. Since it was just a natural phenomenon, they were able to contain it at the beginning, but one of their own, in his fear of death, was tempted by the power of the miasma and became a Lich King.

What exactly happened isn't described in the book, but it seemed the struggle came to the point that the two sides made a bet with the help of the Dungeon God. Since neither side could get the upper hand, they bet on who could hold their own inside a shared dungeon.

But Marcus and this Wizard, Lemar, had fooled the Lich King. Once inside the dungeon, King Marcus seized the dungeon core and use it together with his power to seal the undead boss below. It seemed like they were ready to spend the rest of their life, holding the evil in this place.

However, we killed Marcus. So, the Lich King was probably unsealed and the rising miasma means it has seized control of the dungeon."

"...Thanks for the exposition, but what are we supposed to do now?" Jonah asked

"Wait for Seth and the others to kill the lich?" Alison asked with a shrug.

"but what about their world?" Lynri asked worried.

"I guess if they both die it's a tie? I don't know everything. This is all I was able to summarize from a geezer's diary, okay?"

"Can't we go down and help Seth and the others?" Lynri asked, getting weird looks from everyone around.

"The miasma comes with a status effect that grows stronger the longer one is exposed to it and needs high-level healing magic to cure. If we exhaust all your mana, we might be able to make it to the lower levels. But the most important question is, do you really think Seth needs our help?" Alison asked her calmly.

The other just nodded. Seeing their reaction, Lynri took a moment to think about it. It had been a while so she had forgotten, but now that she concentrated she remembered her travel with the blacksmith. "...I guess you are right."

"That's right, so the best option is to stay here and wait until Seth-"

Crash! Alison was interrupted by a powerful impact on the door. In one crash the transmuted ice was broken apart, only the lock and latch bolt held the door closed. Another impact, miasma came spewing in through the unsealed gaps.

"Change of plans! On your positions!" Monique called out as another impact bent the metal door.

"It's all your fault!" they heard the muffled accusations from outside the door only a moment before it was suddenly ripped apart in an explosion.

"Aw, shit..." Link cursed.

"We should have done the optional boss first..." Shay lamented.

Everyone agreed, looking up at the figure that had just charged into the room with a tsunami of black miasma.

<Colossal Lich, Lemar lv.--->