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n—–

nOnce I was done with my preparations, I gathered with everybody else, we’ve been preparing all for this day. Holding the powerful Dimensional Ring in one of my fingers, I greeted everyone.

n“The Ring’s done.” I said. “Is everybody ready?”

n“Yeah, more than ready.” Lucifer nodded. “Brunhild said she’ll come here if there’s any danger everyone in here can’t handle.”

n“As long as we don’t take too long, it should be doable.” I said, looking into the horizon.

nOur team was composed of Lucifer, Partner, Emeraldine, Jonathan, and Arachne, everybody else would have to stay in here, protecting the city. My daughter Nyx and the twins, will stay, with Root too, and all the other Undead.

nArachne’s army will also remain in the city protecting everybody if possible, her army has grown much stronger now, and they average at minimum of Rank B in power, with several “generals” at A Rank.

nWe’re bringing Arachne because she’s mostly our trump card, her stats are simply ridiculously higher than all of us, and she’ll be the heavy hitter of our team. However, she has a flaw, because of her smaller body and young age, she gets tired quickly, at most, she can’t fight constantly for fifteen minutes before needing to rest, so we can’t employ her right away.

nFor now, she’ll stay inside of my Shadows and wait for the moment we confront the Frost Queen, we don’t want her to waste her strength fighting the lackeys the Queen’s going to throw at us.

n“Mama I’m ready!” Arachne said.

n“Alright dear, did you wear the equipment I gave to you?” I asked.

n“Nn, the dress and the accessories.” Arachne nodded.

nI gave her several items I had prepared to give her as much of a boost as possible, a special Spectral Dress to help her move faster, as she was rather slow, and rings that helped her stabilize her crazy amounts of Mana.

n“Mama, not fair!” Nyx said. “Nyx wants to go too! Muuuhh!” Little Nyx started pouting.

n“No, it is too dangerous, Nyx.” Lucifer said. “Arachne is much stronger and reliable, you have to know and admit your own limits, dear.”

n“Buhhh… But papaaaaa!” Nyx began crying.

n“I know that you want to help mama and papa, Nyx.” I said, giving her a hug and kissing her puffy cheeks. “But you have to stay here, okay? You have a very important mission, I want your strength to be used to help and protect our friends here. Can you do this for us? Can you protect our friends and family?”

nNyx suddenly gasped, finally realizing what I meant. We weren’t just leaving her here because she was weaker, well, yeah, but there was another reason. She was the strongest below us, so we wanted her to better protect this place instead.

n“O-Okay…” She nodded, as I cleansed her tears. “Nyx will protect home!”

n“Gyuh! Me too!” Root said. “I’ll take care of the defenses!”

n“Don’t worry, we’ll take care of it.” Laura said.

n“We’ve grown much stronger, even if not enough, we’ll do everything we can!” Takeshi nodded.

n“Leave it to us, my queen.” Darkbound said.

n“We’ll take care of things.” Said Claw. “It is kind of frustrating I won’t get to see her death, but fine, do your worst against her, Maria!”

n“Guguuuuguuh!” Mercury bounced around.

n“Meereooow!” Kuro roared, cheering me up.

n“Alright you guys, take care of things in here while we’ll be off.” I said with a smile. “Hermes, you too, if things go to the worse, you can always escape with everybody else… I am already prepared for it.”

n“Do not worry, it is not as if we won’t fight if necessary.” Hermes smiled.

n“Yeah!” Gustaf roared.

n“Leave it to us.” Cecilia nodded.

n“Fine, alright.” I nodded, as I glanced back at my team. “Are you ready?”

n“More than ready!” Partner said, raising her two sharp spears.

n“I am as well; I am prepared for anything.” Emeraldine nodded. “The Frost Queen must be stopped quickly, before things become much worse.”

n“I agree, and I am ready as well.” Lucifer nodded.

n“Me too!” Arachne said, as she melded into my shadows.

n“I have prepared well enough… I know you don’t want to kill her, but we’ll make sure to take her down and stop her wicked ways.” Jonathan said. “I’ll offer you my utmost help, with my very life on the line.”

n“Alright… You don’t need to be so dramatic, Jonathan.” I nodded, channeling Mana into the Dimensional Ring. “Anyways… Dungeon Gates Open!”

nFLUOOOOSH!

nSuddenly, space started to distort outside of the city where we were standing, as a large portal opened. Big enough that even Lucifer on his dragon form could fit inside.

nDing!

nYou have opened a Portal leading to the Skadi’s Abandoned Tower Dungeon!

nIt will automatically close in 5 minutes, unless you will it to close.

nCooldown: 24 Hours.

nSo it has a cooldown as well, huh? Well, makes sense.

nWhat greeted us in the other side was a snow-covered landscape, with several pine tree forests, mountains in the background, and one gigantic tower made of ice in the middle of all, the sky was covered by white clouds, and a snowstorm was raging on.

nI could sense the presence of the Frost Queen within this tower, and a few other powerful S Rank entities, probably her last Frost Generals…

n“Let’s go.” I stepped forward first, and then Lucifer, Partner, Emeraldine, and Jonathan came afterwards, while Arachne hidden inside of my shadows.

nOnce we stepped inside the dungeon, I looked back at the portal and waved my hand.

n“Be right back~! Close Dungeon Gates!”

nFLUOOSH!

nAnd the gates instantly closed after that command. We stood there in silence, glancing around our surroundings, this Dungeon felt much different than the others we’ve visited before. It seemed filled with more than just Mana, it had a lot of Divine Power.

n“This is an Ancient Dungeon made by the Goddess Skadi long ago, made as a way to store her treasures.” Said Emeraldine. “This might be the reason why it is so overflowing with Divine Power everywhere…”

n“Welcome!” And then, a voice that we have never heard before, yet felt oddly familiar echoed within the dungeon’s interior. “I’ve been waiting to see you for a long while… What took you so long, Maria?”

n—–

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