The chamber erupted the moment Finn gave the order. His voice cut through the silence like a blade, and the Loki Familia moved as one—no hesitation, no wasted motion.
The creature responded with a deep, bone-rattling roar. Its massive crab-like claw—easily the size of Gareth's shield—swung in a wide arc, fast for something so big. It aimed to cut Finn in half.
Finn didn't slow down.
He dropped low, sliding across the gritty stone floor just beneath the swing. Dirt and rubble scattered in his wake.
As he came up inside the creature's reach, his spear shot forward—Hell Finnega flashing toward the joint where the massive claw arm met its body.
*Clang!*
Finn's spear struck the guardian's thick chitin, sparking on impact. The blow reverberated up his arm—it was like hitting solid stone. No penetration. Just resistance.
The guardian moved faster than expected. Barbed tentacles lashed out, sharp and dripping with some corrosive oil that hissed on contact with the stone floor.
Finn dodged back, using his size and speed to stay mobile. He wasn't Gareth—he couldn't trade blows with this thing. He needed to throw it off balance.
A tentacle whipped past his head. He blocked another with the shaft of Hell Finnega, the force nearly ripping it from his hands.
He spun away with the momentum, ducking behind a shattered bone barricade for a split-second of cover.
His mind was already working.
Armor too thick. Tentacles—fast and coated with acid. Legs are jointed backward—maybe a weak point. Eyes all over—no clear blind spot. And it's synced with the crystals. Every time they pulse, it gets stronger. Faster.
He could see the link now—every pulse from the crystals sent a ripple of dark energy through the creature's body, reinforcing its armor and quickening its movements. It wasn't just a guard. It was powered by the crystals.
"Riveria!" he called out, ducking as the claw smashed through the barricade. Splinters flew past. "Break the crystal link if you can! Focus on the wards!"
"On it!" Riveria shouted back, already moving across the chamber. Her staff rose, eyes fixed on the shimmering barriers surrounding the dais.
Finn refocused. The guardian lunged again, tentacles stabbing down like spears.
He sidestepped, letting one slam into the floor where he'd just been. He didn't aim to sever it—he drove Hell Finnega straight through it, pinning it to the ground.
The creature howled in pain, jerking wildly. Finn held on, digging in with his whole weight, using the pinned limb as an anchor.
The beast staggered, its massive claw swinging wide and off-target.
He saw his opening. Not to kill—but to test.
Finn sprinted up the pinned tentacle, using its bulk to shield himself from the flailing claw.
Reaching the shoulder joint, he spotted the layers of thick chitin, but also the glow—the dark pulse from the crystals seemed strongest near the limbs.
He focused, channeled everything into one strike. Hell Finnega drove into the small gap between plates at the top of the joint.
This time, it connected.
A burst of black ichor sprayed out as the spear sank deep. The guardian shrieked—an awful, scraping sound that hit the nerves.
Finn yanked the weapon free and leapt clear as the beast convulsed, tearing its own tentacle loose with a sickening crack of stone and flesh.
It spun, all its red eyes locked on him now—furious and bleeding.
He'd bought time. It was fully focused on him.
Finn braced himself, spear raised, already planning the next move. He needed to lead it away, keep it off the others, and keep it angry.
Keep it hurting—until Riveria was done.
***
While Finn kept the guardian busy, Riveria focused on her job.
She wasn't heading for the crystals just yet. First, she had to deal with any traps. Finn had made that clear. Charging in without disabling them could get someone killed.
She stuck to the edge of the chamber, behind the rest of the Loki Familia who were now locked in battle with Evilus and their monsters.
As she moved, she used her magic senses to scan the area. She wasn't looking for enemies—she was looking for magical traps.
Then she felt something.
Near the base of the western wall, close to a tiered walkway and behind a pile of rubble, she sensed a strange energy.
It wasn't coming from any person—it was coming from the floor. It felt old and dangerous, like it had been there long before Evilus ever arrived.
Riveria walked over carefully. The stone tiles looked normal, but the magic was strong. She lowered her staff, letting the crystal help her read the energy more clearly.
What she found wasn't an explosive or a basic trap.
It was a curse.
Not a weak one either. This thing was designed to hurt someone badly. It didn't just drain magic or health—it went after the person's spirit directly.
If someone triggered it, it could damage their Falna or even destroy their soul entirely.
This wasn't something she could rush. She had to break the trap without setting it off. If she failed, even a high-level adventurer could be taken out instantly.
"Clear this area! Ten meters!" Riveria shouted, her voice cutting through the noise of nearby fighting.
Two nearby Level 4 adventurers immediately broke off their fight with a lizardman hybrid.
They pushed the enemy back and set up a perimeter, trusting Riveria without question.
Their job was now to keep her safe while she worked.
Riveria knelt down just outside what she judged to be the trap's activation zone. She placed her hand on the cold floor and closed her eyes, focusing.
She could sense it clearly now. The trap was complex—an old structure made from Dungeon magic, modified by Evilus.
At its center was a mechanism meant to attack the soul directly. If someone triggered it, it would drain their spirit and feed that energy into the corrupted systems around them—most likely the regeneration crystals.
The Evilus changes had made it worse. The trap had a larger range now, and it was unstable. If someone triggered it, they wouldn't just die—it might blow apart part of the chamber with them.
Disabling it wasn't something she could do with a normal spell. The defenses were too strong, and trying to brute-force it would likely make things worse.
She had to take it apart piece by piece, starting from the center and working outward, carefully undoing both the Dungeon's original spellwork and Evilus's additions at the same time.
Riveria started speaking in Elvish, her voice low. As she chanted, glowing white symbols began swirling up from her staff.
Normally her spells were green, but this time the light was a clean, sharp white.
The air around her felt heavy—charged with magic.
She wasn't just using a normal spell. This one was meant to shut the trap down completely, and she had to get it exactly right.
"Ljos Alf Heimdallr," she said clearly.
A thin beam of white light shot out from her staff and hit the center of the trap.
There was no loud blast—just a sharp cracking sound, like glass breaking, and something that sounded almost like a scream.
The white light quickly spread across the floor, outlining the hidden trap's shape.
Then the trap fought back.
Dark purple and sick green energy started twisting and lashing out, pushing against the white light. The ground under her shook.
Riveria could feel the magic trying to grab onto her—trying to suck out her strength.
But she didn't back down.
She kept her focus, didn't even blink. She pushed more power into the spell, raised her voice a little, and the white light grew brighter.
Slowly, it started to overwhelm the dark energy, pushing it back and eating away at the trap, bit by bit.
It turned into a silent battle of magic and willpower, with only Riveria's steady chanting and the crackle of clashing energy breaking the quiet.
Sweat rolled down her forehead. The effort to analyze, break down, and overpower the trap while keeping her control tight was pushing her to her limit.
Even with her massive reserves of magic, this was no easy task.
The Evilus side of the trap gave out first. Their modifications were strong, but sloppy—no match for her refined Elvish magic.
They burned away with a hiss, like acid hitting water. But the original Dungeon core wasn't so easy. Its tendrils of cursed energy tightened, digging in and resisting her spell.
Riveria's eyes snapped open. She raised her staff and slammed it into the ground.
"Purge!" she shouted.
The magic exploded in a bright white flash. The last of the trap's energy screamed and then disappeared. Charred runes scorched into the stone glowed briefly before fading to black.
The pressure in the air vanished. The trap wasn't just turned off—it was destroyed, wiped out completely.
Riveria let out a slow, steady breath as the white runes around her staff dimmed and disappeared.
The trap was gone. One problem solved. Now it was time to deal with the crystals.
***
Throughout all this, Gareth Landrock didn't just hold the line—he was the line.
His shield was less a tool and more a barrier, pushing Evilus forces back. Positioned at the center of their formation, Gareth was the anchor holding the rest of the team steady.
Hybrids, monsters, and corrupted soldiers came at him hard, but none made it through. His axe didn't waste movement—every swing dropped something.
A boar-headed hybrid with rocky skin barreled straight at him. Gareth braced, absorbed the hit, then brought his axe down hard, splitting its skull.
Black blood splattered across the floor.
"Hold the line! Push with me!" he shouted, his voice cutting through the noise.
Spear Two's team shifted left, moving in clean and fast. Their weapons found gaps in enemy formations before those fighters could surround Gareth.
Up above, archers on broken platforms rained down arrows at Evilus mages hiding on the eastern ledge. The return fire stopped once they hit cover or lost their aim.
"Acid spitter! Left flank, upper level!" a swordsman yelled mid-block.
"Got it!" came the quick response. A javelin sailed up and hit the swollen frog-like hybrid mid-charge. It burst in midair, spraying acid harmlessly over stone.
The floor rumbled beneath them. Not just from the guardian's roars, but from the weight of battle itself.
Gareth advanced step by step, his shield knocking aside bolts, blades, and claws. He was a wall in motion, giving his allies a steady pocket to work from.
Behind him, he glimpsed Finn darting in and out around the giant guardian, every move precise and dangerous. Riveria was nearby too, casting spells.
Gareth didn't have the time to watch them—his job was to keep them safe. Keep the way clear. So he held, swung, and moved forward, the collapsed section Finn had pointed out getting closer.
The guardian had locked onto him completely. Its many red eyes tracked every move, its wounded shoulder slowing it just enough to give Finn options—but not safety.
He ran a loop around broken rubble near the wall, using debris and claw marks as cover and footholds.
One of the guardian's claws smashed down where he'd just been. Rock burst apart.
Finn jumped from a falling slab onto the creature's back and rammed Hell Finnega between two armor plates.
The spear sank deep. The guardian shrieked. Finn yanked it free and jumped down just as barbed tentacles whipped past his head.
He hit the ground running, sprinting for a half-crumbled archway. The guardian charged after him, ignoring an archer's shot that bounced off its armor.
As it closed in, Finn planted himself and suddenly dropped flat. The claw crashed into the arch above him.
*CRUNCH.*
The already cracked stone gave way. Chunks of it collapsed onto the guardian's head and shoulder, pinning it. It screamed, stunned.
Finn didn't back off. He moved in, fast and low. There was a gap near the wounded joint—maybe enough to cripple the whole limb.
He closed in for a clean strike, but a tentacle, still free, lashed out. He saw it too late. Twisting, he let it hit his vambrace instead of his ribs.
Hiss. The acid burned through the metal and into his arm. He grit his teeth and stumbled back. The guardian began pushing itself out from under the rubble, still dangerous.
Riveria saw Finn get hit. She didn't hesitate.
She moved directly toward the raised dais where the regeneration crystals pulsed. The magic was stronger here—hotter, thicker. The power in the air made her teeth itch.
A mage on the western tier noticed her. "Stop her! Focus fire!"
Bolts and fireballs came flying. Riveria raised a hand.
"Lefiya Viridis."
A barrier of green hexagonal shields snapped into place around her. Attacks hit it and broke apart. She kept walking.
The crystal cluster was just ahead, protected by glowing wards. They shimmered and pulsed, more alive than inert. These weren't simple defenses—they were reinforced by the Dungeon itself.
Riveria stopped about thirty meters out. She planted her staff and began her chant, voice calm and firm. Frost gathered at her feet.
Magic circles bloomed in the air around her, spinning tighter with each word.
"Alf Lyngvig."
A white-blue beam of cold burst from her staff. It hit the first barrier head-on.
The ward resisted, glowing deep purple, but cracks appeared quickly. Riveria held steady, pouring in more power. With a loud snap, the ward shattered.
She didn't stop. The beam hit the second, denser ward. The air went still. The crystals pulsed harder, trying to fight back. Riveria kept going.
The beam narrowed and brightened.
*BOOM*
The second ward broke apart in a violent burst, blowing debris and magic outward. Fighters nearby dove for cover. Riveria's shield held.
Nothing was left between her and the crystals.
Finn staggered back from the guardian, clutching his burned arm. It lunged again, still moving but slower.
He dodged the claw, sliding under it. As he passed its leg, he rammed Hell Finnega into the joint behind the knee.
The monster's leg buckled. It fell again, pinned by injury and debris. Still dangerous, but weakened.
Then it happened.
Riveria's beam struck the crystals.
A sound like shattering ice filled the room. The green light flared, then went out. The pulsing stopped. The entire chamber dimmed for a second, like someone had pulled the plug.
The crystals cracked and broke apart. A sharp, echoing crack rang through Knossos.
The chamber dimmed for a brief second, as if the light had been sucked out. Riveria didn't know why, but she felt the change immediately.
Shards flew. A wave of cold and force knocked several people off their feet. Evilus fighters fell back. Some didn't get up. The pressure vanished. The unnatural warmth faded.
The guardian twitched.
The red glow in its body flickered out. Its eyes went dark. The corrupted magic was gone.
Finn didn't wait. He ran in. The guardian tried to lift a claw, but the damaged arm didn't respond. He jumped from rubble to shoulder, aiming for the center eye.
Hell Finnega sank in deep. The creature convulsed once, then dropped.
Finn pulled the spear free and dropped to the ground beside the body. His arm burned, his breath heavy.
It was quiet.
The crystal was destroyed. The guardian was dead.
Evilus fighters froze, their momentum broken. The magic that had kept Knossos regenerating was diminished.
"Status!" Finn shouted, voice rough but clear. "Secure the area! Now!"
People moved. The fight wasn't over, but some of the hardest part of the raid had just ended.
Chapter 40 end
I know that if the other crystals aren't destroyed simultaneously then it's gonna come back but who gives a shit lol. Amma does what I want. It's an AU