Low-Rank Gate - Boss Chamber
The gate had been a C-rank, barely worth the attention of any hunter above C-class. That's what made it so insulting. The Rulers had stuffed the Beast Monarch, one of the most powerful beings in Arthur's new order, into a low-tier dungeon like a common monster.
The boss chamber was a cavernous hall carved from grey stone, its walls lined with torchlight, its floor cracked from centuries of footsteps and blood. A few scattered bones lay near the edges. Arthur and Raven materialized near the chamber's entrance without a sound.
Raven's eyes swept the room, then widened. "This is a dungeon." She tilted her head, listening to something beyond the stone. "There are hunters in here. Mid-raid, moving fast."
Arthur nodded once. "Yes. They're heading this way." He gestured toward the massive iron-bound door at the far end of the hall. "And guess who's chained up behind that door."
Raven's jaw tightened. "Beast Boy."
"In his monarch beast form," Arthur said flatly. "They kept him in it when they teleported him. Locked it in place so he couldn't shift back."
"Bastards."
"The boss room is through that door." Arthur's eyes glowed faintly. "The hunters are behind us, coming up the corridor. They'll be here in about ninety seconds."
Raven exhaled slowly. "I can sense him and them." She glanced at Arthur. "Good thing you knew where he was, this could have gone badly."
"It would have."
Arthur pushed the door open.
The chamber beyond was larger, a natural arena carved into the dungeon's heart, at the center, suspended from the ceiling by chains of dark energy, hung a massive wolfen beast, its eyes blazing with red fire. The chains pulsed with a sickly light, feeding off the creature's power, draining him.
Beast Boy's head snapped up the moment they entered.
"Arthur! Raven!" His voice was rough, strained part from the chains, part from relief. "Boy, am I glad to see you both. Those winged bastards grabbed me off the boardwalk, threw me through some kind of portal, and dumped me here. I only just got here..." He yanked at the chains, "...get me off these things, quick!"
Arthur raised a hand. "Calm down."
A single gesture, and the chains shattered. Beast Boy dropped, catching himself on all fours before collapsing sideways into Raven's waiting arms. She caught him without complaint, steadying him against her shoulder.
"I tried to fight them off," Gar said, breathing hard. "They were too strong. Ivy's captured too. They told me this whole thing was a way of teaching you a lesson, Arthur."
Raven's eyes narrowed. "Something's wrong. They knew you'd find him. They knew you'd come here. This is too easy."
"They also mentioned..." Gar started, then his ears flattened. "Wait, be careful!"
Arthur was already moving.
Five figures burst into the chamber, wings snapping open, light-helberds descending in a synchronized strike aimed at Arthur's skull. He caught the first blade in his bare palm, stopped it dead and swept his other arm in a wide arc, deflecting the remaining four in a single motion. Sparks showered the floor. His eyes blazed violet against the white-hot light of theirs.
Raven's breath caught. "The soldiers of the Rulers."
"That's them!" Gar said. "Those are the bastards that took me!"
Arthur didn't look away from them. "Heavenly soldiers." His voice was calm. "You're one of their strongest."
The lead soldier smiled. "It is an honor to fight you, Monarch of Shadows." He dipped his head, the gesture almost respectful. "Forgive us. But this must be done."
Arthur's spear materialized in his hand a crackling line of violet lightning. "I hope you forgive me, for what I'm about to do to you."
He attacked.
The five soldiers fought like a single organism.
They moved in perfect unison, no hesitation, no gaps, their helberds carving coordinated arcs that left no room for escape. Arthur gave ground at first, letting them push forward, measuring them. He parried one blade, sidestepped another, let a third whistle past his ear close enough to stir his hair.
Raven pulled Gar back toward the entrance. "Why do they look like your Grand Marshal?"
Arthur answered without turning. "Because they're from the same race as Bellion." He blocked a strike aimed at his throat and drove the soldier back with a shove of his spear. "They're almost as strong as him."
Raven's eyes widened. 'Almost as strong as Bellion.' Five of them. That was five Marshals.
She moved to help,
"Take Gar out of here," Arthur said, his tone leaving no room for argument. "Get the hunters out of the dungeon too. I'll handle this."
Raven hesitated for a moment. Then she nodded, pulled Gar's arm across her shoulders, and turned toward the corridor.
They nearly collided with a crowd of hunters.
There were eight of them a mid-tier raid party, armor scratched from the climb down, weapons still smoking from the fights on the way here. The moment they saw the chamber ahead, they stopped dead.
The first hunter, a broad-shouldered man with a shield on his back, squinted. "Is that..."
The second hunter, a young woman with a spear, went pale. "That's the Shadow Monarch. That's Arthur Blackwynd."
A third hunter stared, mouth open. "What is the Monarch of Shadows doing in a C-rank gate?"
"Look." The first hunter pointed. "He's fighting monsters! Five of them!"
"Monsters you say..." the spearwoman whispered looking at Arthur fighting the angel-like beings. "He looks like the monster..."
Beast Boy, still leaning against Raven, managed a weak grin.
Raven's voice cut through the chatter, sharp and commanding. "Listen to me. All of you. This fight is far above your level. Leave the dungeon. Now! Through the entrance, straight out, don't look back."
The shield-bearer's jaw tightened. "But.."
"Now," Raven said.
The hunters looked at Arthur one last time at the way he moved through five attackers at once, minimal, unhurried, like a man swatting flies and then they ran. None of them had ever seen him fight in person.
Raven watched them go, then turned back toward the chamber. Gar was staring at the fight with wide eyes.
"They put me as a C-rank boss," he muttered. "Bastards looking down on me.."
Arthur fought the five of them with his left hand mostly, his spear doing most of the work, his right hand kept free. The floor around them had been carved into rubble. Stone columns had cracked. The chandelier of iron chains that had held Beast Boy lay in pieces across the ground.
The lead soldier broke off, hovering back, his voice carrying over the clash. "Monarch of Shadows. There is still time to undo what you have done."
Arthur blocked a strike, spun, and answered him with a flat look. "You say this after chaining a friend of mine in a dungeon."
"The Rulers never wished to fight you," the soldier pressed. "They never wished to raise a sword against you. This was a trap, not to harm you, but to speak with you. We knew you would find this place. We knew you would come. So please..."
Arthur stopped.
The remaining four soldiers pulled back half a step, weapons still raised but no longer swinging. The chamber went quiet except for the drip of water and the settling of dust.
Arthur lowered his spear by an inch. His voice was soft and quieter than anything else in the room.
"You say that after using my friend as bait. You set him up to be butchered by whatever hunter walked through that door first. You call it a trap to speak with me, and you expect me to believe the Rulers wanted conversation."
He took a step forward. The soldiers took one back.
"Someone like Sillad would do this," Arthur continued. "A petty Monarch with a grudge and no spine. I would expect it from him. I did not expect it from the Rulers. But now I understand." His eyes burned brighter. "What they want isn't a conversation. It's control. It always was."
The lead soldier opened his mouth.
Arthur cut him off.
"Understand this very clearly. I'm beyond your control. I'm beyond the Rulers'. I think you underestimate me because I chose to live like an ordinary man, a house, a family, a garden, an afternoon with my daughter. Don't let that fool you."
He straightened to his full height, and the shadow at his feet stretched across the entire chamber floor, swallowing the torchlight.
"I'm still Death."
The words landed like a hammer. Every soldier in the room felt them, not as sound, but as pressure, the temperature itself dropped. The lead soldier's hand shook around his helberd before he forced it still.
For a long moment, none of them moved.
Then the lead soldier raised his weapon.
"Very well."
Arthur nodded once, almost sadly. "Do your duty, and I'll do mine."
They attacked together, all five at once, fast enough that the air cracked.
Arthur met them in the middle.
The first soldier came in low with a thrust aimed at his ribs. Arthur caught the shaft of the helberd under his arm, twisted, and used the man's own momentum to whip him across the chamber. The soldier hit the far wall with a crack that split the stone, and did not get up.
The second and third came high, crossed in a scissor strike. Arthur ducked under the upper arc, planted his spear into the floor, and kicked off it driving both heels into the second soldier's chest. The man folded midair. Arthur caught him by the wing on the way down, spun once, and hurled him into the third. They crashed together into a collapsed column. Neither rose.
The fourth tried to run him through from behind.
Arthur didn't even turn. His shadow lunged up off the floor and seized the soldier by the throat, lifting him off his feet. The man clawed at it uselessly. Arthur flicked two fingers, and the shadow closed. The soldier went limp.
The lead soldier, the only one left stood ten feet away, helberd shaking in his grip.
Arthur walked toward him slowly.
The lead soldier swung anyway a desperate, wild arc. Arthur caught the blade on his spear, turned it aside, and stepped inside the man's guard.
He put his hand flat on the soldier's chest.
"Go," he said. "Before I change my mind."
He let go.
The soldier stumbled backward, gasping. For a heartbeat he stared at Arthur, something like awe and terror mixed together on his face. Then he tore open a portal of pale white light and fled through it without looking back.
The portal lingered for a moment before collapsing.
Arthur watched it close. Then he smiled slowly, and said under his breath:
"That's my gateway to them."
He turned to look at the four bodies on the floor, four almost-Marshal-level soldiers. He'd barely broken a sweat.
"Not bad," he said.
He raised his hand.
"Arise."
The shadows pooled. Four winged figures rose from the ground, heavenly soldiers now clad in violet-black, their eyes burning with the same fire as their new monarch's. They knelt, one knee each, heads bowed.
"Monarch."
Arthur looked down at them for a long moment.
"There will be a lot of questions for you four," he said. "There are things I want to know." He glanced toward the corridor, toward the world outside. "But not here."
/-\
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