We were currently in Zanyr desert. Why? Well, I wanted the recordings of the Nightmare dungeon. The idols also wanted to see how well they did. Don't they realize that they get a passing mark since they made it out alive?

  Still as sandy as ever. This place never changes.

  It's a desert. Why would it change?

  This place could use more water…

  Absolutely not! This place is perfect!

  Perfectly shitty yeh. There is the village.

  It is called Promise! Indicating a promising future!

  What is so promising about sand…

  “Deca! Your tail!”

  Shit! I forgot to hide it! My life…is over…

  I collapsed into the sand as my morale had hit 0.

  Go on without me. I'm done for…

  I got lifted and Noelle carried me on her back. “Silly brother. We're almost there.”

  My big sister is an angel!

  Haha, I know, right! But… aren't angels in games and movies related to gods? Why are the real-life ones?

  To my knowledge, demi gods have filled that role, but they didn't fit the classical depiction.

  Hehe, what if angels are actually fairies?

  Silence fell in the group.

  “Hey Deca, fairies turn into the winged women stereotype, right? What if some turn into angels…”

  It was a joke but…let's hope that there are real angels and not disguised fairies.

  The dungeon was still intact and we entered.

  “Hey Agnis…were not going to redo this right?”

  Don't be silly Yv. You can move freely between floors when you're with me. Go sister express! That way!

  Getting a ride from Noelle was cool but… she was slow.

  We finally made it and got ported to the boss room. I tweaked the dungeon a bit, replaced the recording crystals and got ready to leave.

  Have any teams cleared the second floor yet?

  As far as I know? Nope.

  This is getting quite sad. I will write a letter to the vice president of the AA.

  “Hey, lil bro. The things we encountered in this dungeon. Can we expect similar things now that we're travelling with you?”

  Uhh not really. Things are going to get crazier as a god or 2 might be really pissed at me also there is the role of you two, who knows what new crazy shit will pop up.

  Yes! This dungeon is like a tutorial! Besides the last boss, he sucks as he's overtuned.

  So you want your ass kicked, eh?

  I pushed Raishin into the active area of the boss room and [Boss Music] started to play.

  Wait sorry! My bad! I don't want to fight this! I'll get rekt and look like a loser in front of Noelle!

  I deactivated the boss room.

  So cruel…

  “Not sure who is at fault here. Lil’ bro, we need to do some music together someday!”

  I directed Noelle to the exit.

  Please go easy on me, I can't read music notes.

  “Then how do you make that music? You don't write it?”

  No? I just simulated it. Some vibrating columns of air here, some vibrating membranes there and some vibrating strings everywhere and there it is!

  “Did…did you just reduce music to vibrating objects?”

  I'm sorry…it's the only way I can get it to work. I know nothing about music. I can only play string instruments because a bard taught me.

  “Deca…is there anything you can't do?”

  Deal with sand…

  We returned to a shitty, sandy hell that often gets called; a desert. Hell is hot? Bullshit! Hell is sandy! If it was just heat it would be a piece of cake to deal with but this sand in your underwear and tails, yuck!

  “Raishin, what is that on your back?” Noelle approached Raishin to take a better look at an 8-legged creature with a pointy tail.

  Thank you for the lift sis, but I'm ok now!

  I jumped off and ran for my life.

  “Ewww a scorpion! We need to save Raishin!” Noelle screamed as her mana spiked.

  Huh what?

  Noelle stomped, and a sand wave washed over Noelle, Raishin and Greg who was walking next to him. “Raishin is mine! I prefer him alive over dead!”

  Noelle kept flinging sand at Raishin's back, trying to eliminate the poor scorpion.

  “I don't see it anywhere…I hear more though.” Yv's ears perked and she turned around. “Uhmm team?”

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  Giana and I turned around and stared at a swarm of scorpions.

  Who wants scorpion for dinner?!

  I got hit by a headlock. “Deca, I'm going to give you a month's worth of charm magic if you even think of feeding us scorpions!”

  It was a joke!

  Charm magic poured into me, indicating it wasn’t enough.

  Ok I'm sorry!

  Giana released me but stuck close to me. How close we've gotten in 2 months! A bit too literal though…

  “If you're going to carry on with that plan, at least feed me ice cream…”

  Why are you so moody?

  “It has been weeks since I got to sleep in your tails!”

  You sound like an addict in withdrawal…

  “Hey, shouldn't we help them out?” Yv pointed at Noelle, who had used [Crystal Fortress] and trapped themselves. The scorpions were crawling over the fortress, and we could hear Noelle screaming and stomping.

  What do you want me to do about it? I'm not the scorpion king…

  The scorpions suddenly stopped and ran off before digging themselves into the sand.

  “Hey, Deca. Do we run? I have a bad feeling.”

  Yeh, me too…

  Ha! Take that, scorpions! Run! For I'm the mighty Raishin!

  Noelle embraced Raishin like he was a hero.

  I was about to tell my friends that we needed to get out of here when an ancient building rose out of the sand. It had some familiar primal runes on it reading; Warning, Demon, Danger.

  Guys we need to…

  An enormous mana pressure came out of the building and pushed us into the ground. It made me eat sand. This is unacceptable!

  I went 9t mode and countered the pressure.

  Nilah come out! More mana!

  Mana came in and I could make the pressure bearable.

  Raishin, take everyone and teleport to Zanyr and tell that idiot Dimitri, we have a huge demon problem!

  What about you?

  I'm going to suppress it and try to reseal it.

  “Wait Deca, let me stay with you!”

  Raishin, please take everyone I'm counting on you. Please also take Deca. She means a lot to me.

  Wait isn't this my role?

  Do you know how to handle this?

  The building shook and the pressure increased. A strange growling came from it. “Quim Asti?!”

  Abghare-hadi!

  Raishin please!

  “Deca wait!”

  Raishin teleport-grabbed everyone and ported away.

  The mana pressure was slowly overwhelming me. How much mana does this thing have?

  It kept asking for my identity and I had to continuously counter it.

  Nilah turned into her true form and helped me push back on the pressure. It gave me time to start stacking seals on the building.

  This demon was still sealed, but enough seals had broken for it to exert his bullshit and talk.

  “Quim asti?”

  Abghare-hadi!

  First up a soundproof seal. It will only take this long before he will start showing off his vocabulary. An exchange I will probably lose.

  A clone went out and carved runes in the building.

  Silenam!

  That should shut him up until this seal is finished. The demon didn't like getting silenced, and the pressure spiked and launched me away. My focus dropped, and I was getting crushed by the pressure again.

  This is stupid. I'm no match even in 9t mode? Nilah was still holding on, but she was expending an enormous amount of mana to make sure I wouldn't kick the bucket and that demon wouldn't get out.

  Nilah, come here! We might have to do something risky.

  I crawled to Nilah, and she slowly moved to me. It was a long, sandy and painful crawl.

  Nilah, do we have enough mana to send this thing through a dimensional teleport with no set [Dimensional Anchor]?

  Nilah conveyed that we barely have mana for it.

  Ok. I will handle the pressure. Can you set up a dimensional teleport and port this area into the black hole of the Event Horizon?

  Nilah didn't like this idea, but the alternative was letting this thing out and rampaging on the continent.

  My arm stretched and I wrote runes in the sand.

  Nilah, we swap when I start the primal rune cast!

  Sand runes were stupidly difficult. It didn't help that the pressure was shifting the sand. The air was getting distorted, so that was out. What other option was there? The sand runes kept failing, and I was running out of time and mana.

  I looked at my hands. This…might not end well. I wrote the runes on my arm. It was difficult, but not shifting sand tier difficult.

  Yire paro, yire paro. Mali agaccede adpe me. Mali agaccede adpe me necha pagrediku idac rekhea. Reverhitum, yire paro. Manesa durabs

  My body hurt and glowed, but the pressure was getting pushed back. Nilah had difficulties setting the destination as it was a spatiotemporal mess.

  I repeated the protective/counter cast, and it felt as if my body was getting torn apart.

  Nilah please!

  Nilah finished the teleport and the area distorted. A brief flash went out and an enormous black object took up our view.

  Nilah had shrunk to her smallest size due to the mana expenditure.

  I managed to grab her, as the tidal forces were too strong even for me in 9t mode. The black hole had swallowed the ancient building and its contents. Nilah and I were lucky as we don't obey gravity like other beings, but we were still stuck.

  Hey Nilah…I'm sorry for continuously dragging you into these things… if…if we ever get out of this. You can be a free fox.

  Nilah clawed at me and the arm I wrote the runes on, disintegrated. Nilah made an unfamiliar cry.

  That's not your fault…

  My 9t mode dropped as I had run out of mana. I curled up with my tails around Nilah, waiting for oblivion.