Dungeon Raider System

The atmosphere was filled with nothing but the utter sense of defeat when the realization that their one chance at killing their enemy was gone forever. Not even the brief sunlight breaching through the sky thanks to Luna temporarily driving away the titan was enough to prevent the mental collapse each of the Dungeon Raiders experienced at that moment.

For Uriel it was specially bad since he went as far as let himself be captured and tortured for what felt like an eternity inside an eternity, only to have the chance of slaying the titan taken away from him by his friends. He knew they didn't mean it just as he knew their hearts were in the right place, but that didn't change the facts.

Everything seemed completely still as the darkness returned like a tidal wave in the distance. Was it ten kilometers away or a hundred? They couldn't tell nor did they care. Even if it took the darkness a year to come back, they were completely surrounded by it and it was only a matter of time until the absurd primordial being returned along with the shadows spelling their doom.

If it only meant dying that would have been fine for each and every one of them, but the state in which they found Uriel which was neither alive nor dead was the most horrifying thing that could ever happen to a living person and the worst part was that it had nothing to do with Water warlock's blessing as Uriel only started regenerating when the shadows were driven away, hence it had to be one of the titan's abilities.

"We had a pretty good run, didn't we?" Nika shook like a leaf while trying to look brave.

"Uhm... yes, it was fun." Luna nodded. She was also scared, but judging from her expression no one would have guessed if not for her heavy stutter.

"Well," Uriel posed a hand on his knee to stand up before continuing. "we tried."

The three of them stood still watching as the insurmountable wave of shadows drawing near consuming all light and life in the sky like a ravenous black hole but with sentience, which turned a natural phenomenon into the inner most fear any living creature could ever experience.

But among the Dungeon Raiders there was one who could also wield the power of fear itself. One with the power to mirror the deepest fears of a person with such intensity that the very matter they were made of could be turned into stone.

"What do you mean we tried, get up your asses and get ready. After all we've been through I'm not giving up. We just need a new plan, that's all." Medusa took a few steps forward as if trying to cover her friends from the absurd power coming towards them and despite still being wounded by her attempt to save Uriel from the thorny branches of the black tree, she still looked way stronger than her demoralized friends.

"You're all wrong in the head, I knew it," Mark stuttered, his eyes closed as both him and the cryptid within shivered in fear. The latter then continued using Mark's voice. "what are you going to do, give him the stink eye? Father is the end of existence, you cannot win."

"Not without this we can't." Uriel pulled out a dagger, though it wasn't the one they expected.

"Are you sure you want to use that old thing?" Nika lifted a disbelieving brow at the Red thread of fate since Uriel now had more powerful weapons in his arsenal, including the crystal dagger which was the only weapon known to be capable of killing a titan.

"What's with you and calling my valuable artifacts old things... besides, this one has a story and it's very special meaning to me." Uriel said as he looked up into the skies and just at that moment as if answering to his command, the skies broke into a dense rain just like everywhere else in the world due to his raindance skill.

With that much water at his disposal Uriel was able to regenerate fully in the blink of an eye and would have been able to withstand a thousand deaths. And that was precisely what he intended to do and he proceeded to stab himself in the heart, but not before handing the detachable hilt of the dagger to Luna.

The effects were immediate. Uriel's flux energy and life force flowed from the blade to the hilt through the flux thread that became so dense it almost looked like it had a physical form. The unexpected flow of energy revitalized Luna at the cost of a shock far greater than a direct hit, but she braced through the pain and let out as much energy as she could before she took any damage from it. Channeling someone else's energy was not easy, but if someone was capable of doing it it was Luna whose cold demeanor and focus far surpassed that of any hunter Uriel had ever known.

Luna emerged with a dazzling white light holding on the shadows at a distance so far it was almost like a wall of light had been built and Nika took the chance to form shadows of her own giving them shapes of any weapon she could think of to stall its movement. Contrary to the ones that comprised the Shadowlands which were made of the titan's body, Nika's shadows were cast by Luna's light which meant they held her own flux signature and Luna's as well which allowed them to actually have an effect albeit barely noticeable.

With all of their effort and energy they managed to slow down the descent of the shadows yet nothing was able to stop its inexorable advance. Even if at crawl speed, it still kept coming towards them and they only managed to buy some time.

"You too, Medusa." Luna said through gritted teeth as she was overwhelmed by the energy flowing throughout her body and Medusa joined in just as she was asked.

Rather than channeling the energy out like Luna, Medusa focused it within her body and stored it in her eyes shifting the ever present mild warm sensation in her eyes into a searing pain she could barely endure, then into a mind breaking pain that burned her very soul. It was akin to torture, but just like Uriel's her pain threshold was far out the norm, only it was thanks to her role as a tank in most of their incursions.

"I just have one shot and I don't know how effective it will be, but..." Medusa said as she struggled to keep her eyes closed knowing that opening them would be the same as opening a dam and all the flux energy she had stored would come out at once.

"Hold up!" Uriel said as he grabbed the phone from his trait and fidgeted looking for a song. Choosing one was impossible in those circumstances and maybe it was the gods, but for some reason the one to be played was 'Ride of the valkyries' and thanks to Uriel's flux energy the volume was turned so high it pierced through the shadows just like he intended. Just when he was about to put the smartphone back in his museum, Uriel thought it better and started recording just in case some sentient species found his cellphone in a few million years.

The preparations had been done and the shadow titan drew near, though its shadows were dispelled as he moved closer he had plenty more to spare. From the outside, people would have seen how the shadowlands gave in some territory for the first time in years, but unfortunately no one but the gods were able to witness such events as the deluge caused by Uriel continued world wide.

All of their power and preparation did nothing but stall the inevitable as the shadows soon advanced to swallow all light and things went back to how they were meant to be with the shadows covering half of the planet.

It was one instant, one short instant before the cryptid showed its horrible visage through the shadows when a soft voice that didn't feel mechanical spoke through his mind.

[System notice] Let me out.

When Medusa's petrifying glare made contact with the cosmic eyes of the shadow titan she connected herself and those around her to the ultimate evil sending them to the realm of nightmares too dreadful even for cryptids to withstand.

There, in the depths of the mystical realm Uriel saw something or rather, someone coming off from him. It wasn't Water warlock but Dearest one. For the longest time Uriel assumed she was completely separated from reality due to him breaking the jeweled bracelet that supposedly contained her, but that turned out not to be the case as she just made her appearance from an old smartphone he received as a gift from a friend.

"Dearest one..." A dark voice faded into the emptiness and the shadows dissipated as the two lovers finally reunited inside the artifact.

But they were not alone.