Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

"What is it, Natalie?" Since running into the Beskir and Ellia, the maid had been staring at him from behind. Her steely gaze had grown somewhat unsettling over time. Now that they were on the 10th floor, Lucius felt the need to confront it.

"Why did you help them?"

"I wanted to."

"Okay."

Mar'Eeyen momentarily lost her footing at Natalie's sudden acceptance. "Just like that? You've basically bored a hole in the back of his head and all it took to resolve it was him saying he wanted to? You don't have any other questions?"

Lucius could almost hear Natali tilt her head in confusion. "It is what my Lord wished to do? Is that not enough of an explanation?"

An unsuspecting goblin wandered around a bend in the cave. It barely had time to open its mouth before a dagger severed its spinal column by way of its open mouth. The dagger pinged on the rock wall behind the creature before vanishing in a small flash of light.

Based on its armor, it was likely a scout, meaning that it was operating alone. Lucius could not smell or hear any creatures in the immediate vicinity, not that any had come close to a threat. He bent down to retrieve a small, rusty dagger that the dungeon left behind as a reward for their kill. The crude design of the weapon reminded him of the goblins he fought alongside Rena's cousin. Good times.

"If the answer was that simple, then why didn't you ask sooner?" The tattooed half-elf did not want to let it go.

"I was my Lady's maid for my entire life. It is improper for me to question the ones I serve. And since my Lady has released me from her service and into the retinue of Lord Kane, he is my new lord. As such, to question him would be paramount to betrayal." Natali explained as if she was speaking to a child. "However, if he asks me a question, then I am bound by my oath to him to answer in truth and totality."

"You're kind of crazy." Helena added. She had been quiet for some time. "I know of many servants. None are as… ironclad in their beliefs as you."

"I know my purpose and it fills me with pride to follow it." The maid answered with an uncomfortable amount of reverence. "To do anything else would burden Lord Kane."

"Lucius." The uncomfortable subject of the conversation interjected. "I told you to call me Lucius. If we step out of this place with you calling me 'my lord' or 'Lord Kane', I'm sure Rena will skin me alive for going back on my promise."

Natali paled. "Rena would never!"

Lucius chuckled. "She would at least try. So, Natali." He swiveled around on a single foot, placing his face within inches of the maid's own. Her pale skin nearly glowed in the strange light of the dungeon. Her ice-blue eyes widened. "Who am I?"

"L-Lucius." She whimpered.

He smiled and placed a gentle hand atop her head before turning back around to follow their not-so-humble guide. Berk grumbled something under his breath before he took a small drink of water from a leather pouch on his belt. Though he was self-admitted to be a poor fighter, it was clear his years in the dungeon did not leave him. It wasn't clear when the guide would reach his limits on what he could fight, but it wouldn't be soon.

After a few more minutes of walking through the twisted caverns, another set of stairs appeared. Berk held up his hand, bringing them all to a stop. Lucius strained his hearing to detect what was down the steps, but like all other floors, some sort of barrier prevented him from hearing or smelling anything beyond the steps.

"Alright, so playtime is over kiddies. Beyond this point is the eleventh floor. The dungeon proper." Their guide removed a small notebook from one of his many pockets. "Seems that right now, this section is the Undead Fields. A nasty rotation to start off with undead first. We could find more caves, or an open plain. You guys can break this up however you want, but as guide, I reserve the right to remain in the center of any formation you do."

Lucius took point with Mar'Eeyen, while Natali took middle-rear and Helena pulled up the far back with her bow. Berk settled in comfortably between the maid and the front line. Settled on their formation, the group descended the steps.

Breaking through the doorway to the next floor, Lucius felt his breath almost ripped away from him in awe. The door to the stairs seemed to exist in the middle of an open field. Instead of a cavern roof above them, stars twinkled in the night sky. Their brightness seeming dim in comparison to the heavy glow of a full moon.

Moonlight cast an eerie light across the open landscape, stretching the shadows of trees and ruined buildings into menacing masses of darkness. The air reeked of death and decay. Lucius bent down to touch the grass beneath their feet, only to be shocked by the fact it was as real as they were. Lightning sparked in his hand as he created some additional light to try and determine if his hunch was correct.

The blades of grass dancing in his palms from the sourceless gusts of wind were revealed to be a dull gray with only a whisper of green. "Thematic." He mumbled.

"Aye," Mar'Eeyen grumbled. "Undead floors give me the creeps. It's like the dungeon takes any ounce of color from the landscapes it creates, and twists them into drab, dull versions of themselves. Doesn't serve a purpose."

"Well, it is freaking you out, so maybe that's why?" Helena added, somewhat unhelpfully."

Their conversation was cut short by the sound of shuffling feet. Slowly approaching them were shambling corpses wearing tattered village clothing. Some had pieces of rusted armor on their chests or legs, but most looked like they had been raised from a gaggle of farmers.

Testing the waters, Lucius gathered Mana in his hands and lazily sent out a bolt of lightning. It arced between any zombies that wore or held something metallic, turning each one into a pile of dust that quickly sank into the grass, returned to the dungeon.

"Any concerns for a vampire showing up this early?"

Berk shook his head. "Running into the Undead Plains first is a bad sign of a difficult run, but the Demon's Stomach still follows its own set of rules. Weaker things first. Vampire will likely be a problem before we hit the next section, but till then we will likely only run into unattached undead."

Lucius nodded. Undead only existed as a result of a Vampire being born from environmental Mana corrupting corpses. 'Unattached undead' just wasn't a thing. Lucius felt an itch at the back of his hand after remembering the fight he had with one before Aedrider. He found himself almost thankful that he'd run into a Vampire in the first section. Much better than running into a much more powerful one on lower floors.