Group Dungeon IV

Falling, that's what was happening right now. Sven could hardly believe it, he was falling. Falling into god knows where and for god knows how long, one minute he's charging his enemy and the next he's feeling the slight breeze of the cave system rushing up to meet him. Stalagmites faced him like razors, a stream of magma right beside it flowed, bubbled and roiled noisily as the molten earth snaked its way through darkness.

'I'm dead.' Was all Sven could think of, there's no way a classless adventurer could survive a fall like this alone, never mind the spikes jutting up to meet him nor the pool or red hot **** that slivered right beside it. This was a lose-lose situation, absolutely nothing could save him now.

Unless.

Sven noticed it just in the nick of time, a tangled mass of roots hung motionlessly in the air, just as the rope of roots was about to end, Sven grabbed onto them for dear life, swinging like tarzan through the cave system he screamed for dear life.

Igrasil dusted himself off with his good hand, acting in a careless manner in order to intimidate the remaining 2 party members. Ignis looked on in horror, the thoughts in her head echoing over and over again, telling herself that it was all her fault, that she should have never gotten involved with Sven or Alice, that she should have just stayed as a lone wolf and resigned herself to her fate. Anything but this, anything but letting him hurt anyone else because of her.

Alice was just as stunned, one minute Sven was there, the next he had dropped off the face of the earth, a part of her hoped he was hanging onto the edge - praying internally that he had some how managed to catch himself before he fell, then she heard it. A terror fueled scream that sounded as clear as day throughout the room, bouncing off of the cavernous walls and piercing her core from every direction.

"Like music to my ears." Igrasil began to walk slowly towards Alice, savoring the moment and the power he had over the two women before him, playing with them like a bored house cat would a mouse. "What was it again? You'd sooner die than heal my hand? Maybe you feel differently now, maybe you value your own life more than helping out an enemy, maybe-" As he inched closer and closer the ground began to creak beneath his legs, the tree that was right beside him unrooted itself and fell off the side of the crevice, looking down instinctively Igrasil happened to witness the exact moment a conglomeration of roots tangled itself around his ankles, only for moments later to be swept off of his feet and to join the falling tree in its decent.

Bits of rock crumbled away leaving the fissure opening much more pronounced than it had been before, quickly Alice and Ignis ran to the edge without a care for their own safety, peering over the precipice they watched as the shadow of a figure that must have been Igrasil fell towards the spikes below. If he was falling towards the spikes like he was, then so had Sven...

Sven swung from the roots like a monkey swung from a vine, however in a situation like this it was no way near as fun as he had imagined it to be. However suddenly he was free falling, looking up he saw that the tree the roots were attached to was now also falling!

'Shit!' Sven thought as he gauged his fall now, it looked more manageable now but whether or not he could clear the magma was a whole other story. Then, as if to answer his plight, he felt the roots ripped out of his hands suddenly, and now he was back to free falling. The tree had gotten wedged between the cave walls somehow and had ground to a halt, the sudden pull back had jolted Sven through the air like a bird. Sven covered his head and prepared for a rough landing.

He didn't have to wait long until he felt the ground meet him with a stinging kiss, he rolled and he rolled across the hot ground until he couldn't tell which way was up, finally coming to a stop he could feel the pain shoot across all of his body at once. The fall had all but knocked the wind out of his lungs, the intense heat from the magma nearby only exacerbated the breathing problems further.

Picking himself up onto all fours he coughed and spluttered as he tried desperately to get his breath back, however his opponent wasn't willing to grant him that reprieve. Out of no where Sven was booted through the air by a powerful kick, collapsing several stalagmites on their sides and breaking them in half as he landed. Coughing up more blood, Sven quickly struggled to his feet, his vision was blurry and bloodshot and he couldn't manage to stand straight, feeling the vertigo from the fall all too much.

"God I hate you so much, you're a real piece of shit you know that?" Sven could see through the black smoke and fog of the burnt ground a ball of light that was fast approaching, dodging to the side the ball of light detonated and sent him rolling onto his side. On all fours again, Sven desperately tried to normalize his breathing so he could focus.

"You're such an annoying NPC, just let me kill you already!" Sven narrowly escaped a fire fueled punch aimed right at his face, then stumbling back to dodge another, however the third landed squarely in his jaw with a savage upper cut - sending his burnt and bruised body soaring across the sulfuric floor, landing only meters away from an active magma stream. The heat from the liquid red was beginning to singe the hair off of his head, painfully Sven crawled away from the stream as best as he could, feeling the presence of his attacker looming over him.

"Finally, it's all come to this." Igrasil took a moment to look around at the desolation that surrounded the pair, black steam rose from caustic vents and cracks around them, filling their lungs with foulness. The tree that had lodged into the cave wall finally dropped into the magma below, causing a wave of fire to pour over the burnt cave floor the two were currently standing on.

"This is the first fight I've had that felt like an actual video game boss battle. Truly, you were worth the wait, Sven Gate." Sven could feel the flames wreathing around Igrasil's hands even though his eyes were blinded by blood and soot, he could feel the power coursing though him. Was this how it all ends? What about the others? What about Ignis, what about Alice? What about Elise... How could he call himself a man if he allowed himself to fall here?!

Suddenly the earth tumbled beneath their feet, Igrasil canceled his spell as he tried to stay upright, but during the earthquake Sven had extended his hand - the hand that bore his green ring. The ring he had obtained after killing the Devouring Lumbricus in the Carious Swamp, it came with a messily +5 strength, but that wasn't what Sven was interested in at all. The ring glowed momentarily before a gust of wind knocked Igrasil back with tremendous ****, Igrasil flew only a short distance but it was enough.

Landing with a searing *plop* Igrasil found himself submurged in the pool of magma, the skin around him began to blacken and flake right before Sven's bloodied, blackened eyes.

"AAHHHHHHHH! IT BURNNNS! HELP ME SVEN!" Igrasil roared as he tried desperately to swim out of the flame river that was now carrying him down stream. Sven struggled to his feet and watched as the flames began to engulf him, his skin reddened and then melted, his eyes turned to naught but coals inside of his skull, his pleading screams soon replaced with a croaky, maddened laughter.

"Ahahahahahaaaa haa haaa haahaha! It's all a game! I will..." He began to helplessly sink into the fiery depths, his body now blackening into an unrecognizable husk of what he once was. "Respawn...! Hahahahaaa~! See Sven! You're just... Like... ME!" He muttered as his last words, Sven dropped to one knee as he panted, coughing up a dark red ball of congealed blood.

"I'm... Nothing like you, Igrasil." Sven picked himself up steadily, his body was beginning to shut down, some of his limbs were starting to feel numb and the smoke he was breathing in was making him feel sleepy. Looking around he scanned the room for a way out, a rock formation he could scale to a higher level of the cave, anything. The smoke was so thick and prominent in the room it was hard to make much out, and every breath he took was weakening his body more and more. Stumbling through the room Sven traversed the pools of magma and sulfuric geysers, the black smoke clouding the way, but through the fire and the flames he carried on.

After a while of walking finding no end to this hell on earth, Sven considered that this would be the end for him, he found it a cruel irony that he would overcome so much only to be done in by environmental causes. How pathetic would that be, at least that's what Sven morbidly though to himself as he climbed up onto a pile of burnt rocks. Looking around he found yet more nothing spanning on for as far as his injured and clouded eyes could see.

But then, off into the distance Sven could make something out. Something strange, yet ordinary. Something that didn't quite belong in this setting, could it be that what he is seeing is real and not a dehydrated illusion of the mind? Sven hadn't the time to second guess, every movement right now was crucial. Sven jumped down from the rocks and ran towards the strange entity he had spied, putting all of his chips on black he marched towards what could only be described as...

...

...

...

A wooden door, with a muddied lock.

Authors notes: Just to jog your memories, the green ring was acquired back in chapter 23.1 when Sven and Ignis defeated the worm boss thing.