Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

"There will be no mercy for you people. Every single person who has intruded this dungeon, on orders of our master will die. Nobody will be spared".

There was not even the slightest emotional disturbance in the maid's voice when talking about killing them all. It was cold and emotionless as if it was not human lives she was talking about, but some insignificant things.

Brutus and a few other guild leaders who were still alive, trembled. They could vaguely hear the sounds of scream and cry coming from the distance telling them that the killing had already started.

The lifeless eyes of the guild leaders became even dimmer as they silently lay on the ground waiting for their inevitable end.

Their death came to them in the form of two beautiful maids who had reverted back to their normal forms.

With Brutus, Dalton, Cassius and everybody being killed one after the other, it was only one person that was still left alive.

"Heok!!…p-p-please sp-spare me"

Layton Sea begged, all of his limbs were missing, making him look very miserable. He begged the maids to spare him however, how could Annette and Bianca forgive this person?

The reason why they didn't kill him yet, was because they had something far worse planned for him. The two Valkyries were extremely furious at the comment this person made towards them and their master.

Layton Sea had questioned the very faith of Annette and Bianca by asking them to desert to their side and betray their master. For them, Simon wasn't only their master, but their creator. Questioning their loyalty to him was like the greatest humiliation they could ever suffer.

Not only that, but by doing so Layton Sea had also slighted their master, an offence that was unforgivable. Getting all of his limbs chopped was just the start of his suffering, his fate was bound to be so miserable that the death of the other guild leaders would look like salvation compared to his.

No matter how much he would beg for death, it would be the only thing that wouldn't be granted to him. Tormented and excruciating every day, his future was full of suffering.

----

Finished with their task, the two Valkyries joined up with Alice and headed towards the centre of the floor where powerful fluctuations of energy was still wreaking havoc.

On their way, they noticed almost all of the other subordinates of their master, have also finished their battle. The expedition force was on the verge of suffering a full wipe out, it was an overwhelming victory on their side.

The Diluvian High Orcs led by Berigard, the former three overlords of the north and the Ogoraths have completely wiped the floor with their enemy.  Although they did suffer some loss on their side, it was negligible if you look at what they managed to achieve and earn in return.

Now the only element remaining in this dungeon defence was the battle going on at the centre of the floor between the master of this dungeon and the leader of the expedition force.

After checking on the subordinates and the overall situation across the floor, the Valkyries hurried towards their master. Powerful shockwaves besieged them the more closer they got, evidence of the fierce battle that was going on.

Although they had full faith in Simon, they nevertheless were a little worried. After all, their master was facing the strongest adventurer among the intruders. He was fighting someone that was hundreds of levels above him.

Centre of the floor, inside an enormous crater, two figures could be seen tightly locked in a fight. One of the figures had a peculiar appearance, more appropriately no appearance and a greyish body, while the other was a human.

The two figures were none other than the finger of Ozymandias and Davis. Their battle was very intense, every move and attack from them was powerful enough to even fracture space itself.

Davis used his mastery over the Holy magic, his numerous skills and his years of battle experience to fight the finger of Ozymandias. And although the fight looked even from the third perspective, when in fact it was not.

Davis was a mage, his class [Arcane BattlePriest] did allow him to fight on the frontlines; however, in the end he wasn't a pure warrior. In a direct confrontation against the finger of Ozymandias, he was severely suppressed.

The being he was facing, did not show any life, nor did it take any damage from his Holy attribute. Just like a lifeless puppet, it was immune to most attacks.

Davis could have still managed the situation if it was just this; however, there was more to the puppets than what meets the eye. It was capable of using some kind of peculiar energy that eroded his own every time their attacks collided.

As time went on, it burdened his mana reserves and weakened him slowly. The more he fought with the greyish puppet, the more he realised how dreadful that energy it was using was.

That purple-black miasma was now being released by his body, eating and spreading inside him like an infection. He tried to stop its spread but that further increased his mana consumption. And after several failed attempts, he finally realised that he cannot suppress the energy on his own, he had been exposed to that energy far too much.

Davis needed the help of another ranker to suppress this energy but on the orders of the demon, the popped was relentless. It attacked him again and again without giving him any time to even compose his breath.

Slowly, he was pushed into a backfoot and suffered numerous injuries. His clothes were torn, his body covered in blood and purple-black miasma continuously corroded him from the inside.

His current appearance no longer had its previous haughtiness and nobility that he used to carry himself with. It was instead masked with a look of uncertainty and loss.

No matter how much Davis wanted to deny this possibility, his instincts were telling him that he would lose. He, an officer of the Adventurer's Association and a powerful Ranker from the Mainland was going to lose?

"Don't fuck with me... [Astral Prison]"

Davis gave a loud shout, conjured a powerful magic and trapped the finger of Ozymandias inside. After that, he stormed towards the demon who had been controlling that puppet.

Since he couldn't defeat the puppet, it was an understandable choice of option that he would target its caster, the demon. Unlike the puppet, the demon himself wasn't very strong. As long as he took him out, the finger should stop naturally.

Thinking so, Davis sped towards the demon, he was current in thinking that. However, he had underestimated the power of the finger of Ozymandias and overestimated his power.

Using his increased understanding of the curse energy and the [Dominator's control] technique, Simon shapeshifted one of its arms into a huge hammer and slammed it onto the barrier.

CRACK... the barrier easily fell apart from a few swings of the hammer and the finger of Ozymandias regained its freedom once again.

Even the powerful barrier that was cast around Yela's tomb on the fourth trial was unable to stop the finger much less a barrier that was cast by Davis in his weakened state.

The moment the [Astral Prison] collapsed, Simon recalled the finger back towards him and made it stand in front of him lie a shield.

"Dammit..." seeing the puppet break out of barrier and block his path, Davis couldn't help but curse in frustration. He then looked at the demon and bellowed loudly "Stop hiding behind that thing and face me demon".

A desperate attempt to rile his enemy into making a mistake. It was obvious to Simon that Davis was unable to defeat his finger of Ozymandias and hence was trying to irk him into coming out because that was the only way he could win.

Knowing that, why would he even give his enemy the chance to turn the table? He was just about to command the finger to press forward when he saw a couple of familiar figures approach him from the distance.

They stopped beside him and bowed their heads in respect.

"Master" the figures were none other the Valkyrie sisters.

Simon nodded his head in acknowledgement towards them before asking "Are you guys done with your tasks?"

Alice was the first one to respond, she flashed a wide smile and showed a V sign of victory.

"Hehe, master... I have already taken care of the intruders. The adventurers calling themselves guild leaders of what not guild. They weren't much. You see.. you see.. I used the bow that master gave me and bang I shot them like that. after that they ran and I chased before they all... ouch"

"Enough, you are not making any sense. Master does not need to worry, the intruders on this floor are almost but wiped out" Annette gave a chop on the head of her little sister who to side tracked before explaining things calmly to Simon.

"Un, good job you all. I also received a transmission from Bea a few moments ago saying that they are also done over there. Which leaves only this guy" Simon turned his attention towards davis who had a shocked look on his face.

"Whya are you guys here? Shouldn't you be fighting..." Davis whined, his sentence stuck got stuck in his throat when he saw it wasn't only the maids that rushed here, all of the subordinates of the demon also approached this place one after the other.

This made him realise that the battle on the other fronts are already over, and since its only the subordinates of the demon that showed their faces here, it meant that the expedition force he brought along with him, had already died.