As the duo of founders entered the castle grounds, they found themselves instantly under pressure they hadn't expected, like diving deep under the water.

"Whoa. That is some serious pneuma," Zoey said, pointing out the obvious.

"No kidding," Rory agreed. "No shit, I'm pretty sure this could kill lower tiers."

"Yeah. Like… damn. I thought the mountains were oppressive, but that is at least partially because of the volcanic concepts mixed in. This is just raw pneuma."

Taking several moments to adjust, Rory finally nodded, twirling his hands as a knife slowly projected.

"That's an issue," He muttered.

"What?"

"My projection speed is down due to just how dense and heavy this pneuma is. Inversely-" Taking the same knife, Rory whipped it at a nearby castle wall as the knife stabbed through like a hot knife through butter.

"Damn."

"Yeah, projection speed is down, but the projection integrity is massively boosted."

Holding his hand out once more, a pole began to appear, forming a hooked head. Glancing at the weapon, Rory nodded to himself as if it had confirmed something.

"Why the scythe?" Zoey questioned.

"Based on the projection integrity here, I can maintain a stable weapon basically indefinitely. Therefore, I'd rather start with a weapon I don't have in my inventory, which gives me more options."

"Ahh, got it," Zoet nodded. "Ready?"

"Yeah."

Continuing down the courtyard of the castle, they kept their eyes and senses peeled, alert for any sudden attacks. Waiting for something to go amiss, they made it to the castle doors without a single monster attacking, to both of their surprise, as they had been expecting another set of monsters to appear within the courtyard. Exchanging a single look, they pushed open the large castle doors, entering a moment after.

Inside, it looked exactly what one would expect from the main hall of a castle, with high ceilings and fancy candelabras.

Proceeding through the main hall, they mounted a flight of grand stairs, climbing upward until they found themselves faced with another locked door, with the roman numerals XXIX above it.

"All you," Zoey muttered as she saw the clear puzzle indication.

Sighing, Rory pulled out the abacus once more, doing some math in his head before sliding twenty-nine beads over on the first row.

"Explain?"

"Three sequences, except the third sequence, are only ninety percent of the usual three cubed, given that IX denotes it. That gets you twenty-four point three, plus five from the two prior sequences, which gets you twenty-nine point-"

"Never mind," Zoey sighed. "Nerd stuff."

"It's just basic math," Rory muttered before opening the previously locked door.

Entering the next room, they were presented with a grand hall nearly two hundred feet across. Within it were rows of armored statues, holding downward-pointed swords, some test that would likely result in the statues activating if they failed.

Except, for whatever reason, almost every single statue had been shattered.

"Uhh, is this supposed to be like this?" Zoey asked.

"Maybe? Sort of doubt it, honestly." Rory said, deep in thought.

"You don't think someone else is here?" Zoey questioned. "Maybe this place is somehow linked with other entry points?"

"I doubt that," Rory said with a shake of his head. "While the possibility exists, I haven't sensed anything involving weird spatial bridges or whatever, the stairs we descended were ordinary stairs, all things considered."

"Hmm," Zoey mumbled, also shaking her head. "So, something fucky is up?"

"Yeah… And I have an idea of what it could be."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. What level are you?"

"Seventy-five, why?" Zoey asked, eyebrows pinched in confusion.

Rory was silent, letting her consider the question for several moments before realization dawned across her face.

"Ohhhh. Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"Shit…. That's annoying."

"Yeah."

On the same wavelength, they proceeded through the large hall, passing through unmolested as they reached the next door, Rory once more pulling out his abacus and quickly solving the puzzle before moving on.

The third hall appeared to be another puzzle, with even larger statues holding bows perched in the rafters.

Or they had been, as they were also destroyed, almost as if something with a nasty temper hadn't wanted to deal with the statues.

Onward they continued through the eerily silent calls, wanton destruction the only sign of things being amiss. Standing atop a staircase that coiled itself around a tower that descended into the void below, the duo made their way down the steps until they stood before what looked to be the final hall of the castle.

"Ready?" Rory asked, turning to look at Zoey, who was uncharacteristically serious.

"As much as I can be. You?"

"Ditto."

Taking a deep breath, Rory pushed the door open, revealing what lay beyond.

With the door open, the duo entered what appeared to be a massive throne room, a giant stone throne with the most enormous stone gargoyle they had ever seen seated upon it.

Or there had been, except now the same king gargoyle was reduced to shattered chunks upon the ground, two creatures within. The first was one that Rory was well familiar with, his arch-nemesis, the Architect's Bane. Perhaps the strangest thing about its reappearance was that it hadn't changed, for once, still looking like a gangly fusion of a bat and an aye-aye scaled up to monstrous humanoid proportions.

The second monster was one he was not familiar with, looking like an ankylosaurus and a praying mantis had gotten freaky under some cursed blood moon.

"That's your bane?" Zoey turned to look at Rory, a half-frown on her face. "That's one ugly fuck."

"You think I designed it or something?" Rory responded.

"Still ugly as hell,"

"And yours looks like a Jurassic Park reject."

"I never saw those movies. So, I wouldn't know."

"That's a crime," Rory shook his head before focusing. "I don't think our normal method is going to be the best here."

"No. My bane is pretty good at breaking down armor. Last time I only beat it because of a sucker punch it wasn't expecting, the first time I'd ever changed up my style."

"My bane…. Does a lot." Rory sighed. "Flicker movement, anti-illusions, acid, solar resistance. To name a few."

"Two of those four don't matter to me," Zoey said. "Should we try a swap and go? If it had acid made with you in mind, I'm sure I can withstand it."

"Seems reasonable," Rory agreed. While their standard tactic was for Zoey to take the brunt of the focus as Rory rained down hell from afar, that was unlikely to be feasible when faced with two Banes at once.

Rory did have one reservation, and that was the fact that Zoey hadn't had… the best record against her bane.

As in, she'd only beaten it once. The good news was that it had accrued far fewer adaptations than his.

The bad news was that Rory wasn't sure if Zoey fully understood what that meant regarding his bane.

Ehh, she can figure it out.

Splitting up, Rory began approaching the Vanguard's Bane, as Zoey peeled off to face down the Architect's Bane.

His bow appearing, Rory drew the string back as an arrow materialized, flying through the air and striking the Vanguard's Bane.

Durable like Zoey.

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Rory made no move to draw any closer to the Vanguard Bane, seeing no reason why he ought to, instead forcing the Vanguard Bane to chase after him. Stampeding forward, Rory noted that while it was surprisingly quick, it didn't have the erratic spatial flickers that his bane could utilize. Dodging scythe arms and club tail, Rory was reminded of one of the earlier appearances his bane had taken as he played keep away.

Huh. I wonder if they all had a similar appearance at the start.

Since Zoey's bane hadn't adapted all that much, it was still quite similar to how it first appeared, unlike the Architect Bane.

Another thing that Rory noticed was that as the damage from the arrows began to accrue, the speed at which the Vanguard Bane moved increased, a red sheen slowly radiating from its body.

Some berserker effect?

Whatever it was, it forced Rory to adapt his methodology; slowly inflicting damage would only allow the Vanguard Bane to overtake him eventually.

Nathair or Dragon's Fall were both options for inflicting massive amounts of damage in a single hit. However, even with the incorporation of projecting magic circles to hasten them, they still had enough lead time that it would be unlikely that he could easily manage to get one off.

Sweeping his hand out, his bow vanished, replaced with his War Staff as Rory pointed it skyward, pneuma and energy channeling as a dark cloud suddenly appeared overhead within the massive throne room.

"Thundershock!"

A bolt of lightning cracked down from the black cloud, striking the Vanguard's Bane, momentarily dazing it as it looked wildly overhead.

"Probably not used to a magic caster, eh?" Rory taunted. Lightning magic was quickly becoming one of his most proficient forms of magic, behind his projections, which he'd spent years polishing. Earth magic was extremely taxing as far as raw magical 'muscle' that it took to move that much mass around, something Rory didn't feel all that suited for. Fire magic was relatively impotent given the environment they were within; nearly everything had some level of innate fire resistance, and liquid magic, hydrokinesis, was made more difficult given the heat of the general environment, prompting Rory to largely avoid even attempting to use it.

Lightning magic, though? With all the static buildup from being in a volcanic environment for years? Now that he had been getting practice with.

Like a conductor with an orchestral wand, Rory swept his staff out as the thundercloud expanded, widening until for dozens of meters in any direction, dark clouds hung high overhead within the throne room.

"Fall!"

Swinging his staff downward, lighting crashed down like a visible wall of light, slamming into the Vanguard's Bane, which let out a pained screech.

Not bad.

As the lightning dispersed, the Vanguard's Bane stood where it had been moments before, now blackened by scorch marks marring its natural armor, hate in its eyes.

Oh, someone does not look happy.

Slapping its clubbed tail on the ground, it shot forward, nearly twice as fast as before, as Rory's eyes widened. Activating float gems within his armor, he dodged a flurry of strikes, the bane even attempting to savage him with a bite, its teething terrifyingly blocky like a human's teeth.

Another barrage of lightning would have been perfect about now, the issue was that once Rory had dropped a veritable ocean of lightning, it took time for electrical charge to be sustainable once more, as the prior lightning had 'equalized' the electrical charge of the environment. If Rory were higher tier, he didn't doubt that he could offset that with his own energy reserves. Still, for now, that wasn't exactly attainable.

With zero expectations of landing a Dragon's Fall, given the thick pneuma that was slowing the projection and the highly mobile bane darting around, Rory dispersed his staff as it vanished into his inventory.

The scythe he had taken the time to project earlier reappeared, pulled from his inventory, the temporary projection far less temporary in this style of environment. Taking advantage of the scythe's length, Rory kept as far away as possible, attempting to match every tail swipe and rake of its talons. It wasn't easy, but the Vanguard Bane was far from a tactical genius. Trying to overwhelm him head-on, it was simple enough to predict and match its every strike with an offshoot mental thread processing its every move.

Rory wasn't winning in the current state of things. More importantly, neither was he losing either, and that was what mattered, letting the air 'cool' as he prepared for another bombardment of lightning.

Finally, seeing his opportunity, Rory launched the scythe at the Vanguard Bane, heaving it with all his strength possible as it flipped through the air like a spinning hook. The sudden release of the weapon forced the Vanguard Bane back, and taking advantage of the sudden spacing, Rory withdrew his staff once more, sweeping it as clouds again reformed.

The Vanguard Bane batted aside the scythe as it flew through the air, the weapon tumbling to the side before finally breaking down as its integrity failed. In the same moment, it was apparent the bane had noticed Rory armed with his staff once more, an upward glance confirming the lightning clouds gathered. Seeing the clouds, the bane attempted to launch itself forward at Rory, intending to strike out as he was armed with the much less physically imposing war staff.

Tier sevens were fast. Like, really fast. Like, keep up with a speeding vehicle without breaking a sweat, fast, or even dodging bullets fast. That sort of speed. The speed of the average handgun bullet was upwards of a thousand miles per hour. Bullets were fast.

Still, for as fast as bullets were, lightning was faster. The speed of a lightning strike during the slowest phase was around two hundred thousand miles per hour. Basically, the difference between the speed of a bullet and the speed of lightning was the speed of lightning.

All of that was to say, while the Vanguard Bane could have dodged even gunfire, it may as well have been sealed in lead for as good as that was when it came to avoiding the lightning that crashed down once more.

Cackling like any maniacal wizard worth his salt, Rory watched as the lightning eviscerated the Vanguard Bane. Seconds passed before the light faded as Rory took stock of the situation.

Much like the prior lightning bombardment, the Vanguard Bane was not happy, except now it was down an arm.

Hah. How's the durability treating you now?

That was another reason Rory had specialized in lightning as much as he had over the last few years; it was the best element for bypassing durability. It wasn't that Rory was trying to prepare a contingency for Zoey if she ever turned against him; their proximity to one another just made it really easy.

Switching to his bow, Rory began sending arrows downrange, peppering the bane. Even for a bane, taking two all-encompassing thunder shocks nearly back-to-back was going to leave some severe damage. The bane had barely regained its bearings as the arrows began to strike its body.

The problem for the Vanguard Bane ultimately came down to a lack of adaptations. The straightforward 'beat my head in against my foe until their armor crumbles' had worked just fine against Zoey for their few encounters. While it had picked up an adaptation to deal with its first loss to Zoey, that was far and away from being enough to handle Rory. Even if limited by the dense pneuma, preventing him from spamming his signature projections, it wasn't enough to make a difference.

The fight finally came to a close when, having directed arrows into any vulnerable point and joints that Rory could find, the bow vanished. As his spear replaced the bow, chains sprang up from nowhere —a gradual projection that Rory had been secretly building as he overcame the dense pneuma. Lashing out, the chains ensnared the Vanguard Bane in place.

While the Vanguard Bane attempted to struggle free, it had taken too much damage and done essentially none in return, its strength flagging as Rory shot forward. With a single thrust, his spear stabbed through its neck. It wasn't a climactic ending, but it still did the job.

Defeated and well aware of that fact, the Vanguard Bane glared at Rory before its body erupted in orange light, vanishing a moment after.

"Hey Zoey, how are you holding… out?" Rory's words drifted off into silence as he finally turned to see how Zoey's battle with the Architect Bane was going.

It wasn't.

"Shit," Rory muttered.

Staring him down with what Rory understood was a monstrous version of a malicious smirk –Rory had come to understand the Architect Bane's personality– the Architect Bane was perched atop Zoey. Standing atop her, its foot kept her pressed to the ground as its overly long talons were pushed a quarter of an inch into her neck. She was still breathing, and looking pissed off, but the claws punched a quarter inch into her neck made it clear who the victor had been.

Raising its other hand, the Architect Bane waved its talons at him, looking all the more sinister for it, before vanishing.

"Christ above, how damn petty can you be?" Rory grumbled as he jogged over to Zoey's prone form.

"So," Zoey choked out, her voice sounding rough after having claws pushed into her neck. "That didn't go well."

"I can see that,"

"Your bane is a Grade A demon and a menace," Zoey added.

"Yeah, I'm aware."

"It can teleport."

"Yeah, I did mention that."

"I couldn't figure out the pattern."

"I can see that."

They were silent for several minutes as they gave Zoey time for her neck to stitch itself back together again, the woman pushing herself up to a seated position shortly after.

"How did you beat that thing again?"

"First time it kicked my ass," Rory said. "The next time, an exploding sun was involved and a three-way team-up."

"Exploding sun?"

"Technically, the exploding sun wasn't used against it directly." Rory amended. "After that, I tricked it, made it think it was winning, the entire time it was under an illusion. That was how tier six panned out. Our first fight in tier seven, it got the jump on me, screamed in my face, and then left."

"Paralyzing scream. It tried that, but it wasn't all that effective in truth." Zoey sighed. "Which, when that didn't work, it switched up to jumping all over the place, appearing and disappearing like a graphical glitch. Every time I thought I had it figured out, it suddenly switched up again. I was able to hold out for a while, but…"

"But without being able to predict what or where it was going to appear, just holding out wasn't good enough."

"It didn't even give me a chance to invert my attributes; the way it could disappear and reappear at a moment's notice made it too risky, not without figuring out the pattern first. There was a pattern, right?"

"Yeah," Rory confirmed. "While it can stop mid-pattern, it will always resume from the same 'spot' within the pattern."

"Damn," Zoey sighed. "I was hoping I could hold out long enough to figure it out, but I think it realized what I was doing, and so it took advantage of my reluctance to go on the offensive. As good as my durability is, it's not infinite."

"I'm aware," Rory said.

"Fuck," Zoey grunted. "I'm not that competitive, you know that, but it still feels bad that you managed to beat my bane, and what seems like without too much difficulty, but your bane kicked my ass."

Rory frowned, but he didn't have much to say to that. The problem with being a big ole block of durability was that if all you could do were take hits, then eventually you'd be worn down. His bane, as tricky and slippery as it was, was just about as terrible a match-up as that type could be.

In a way, his bane was better at handling her than her own bane.

"If I could have just seen through its teleporting," Zoey muttered, more to herself than anyone else. "I could have found an opportunity to retaliate."

"Maybe," Rory started, deciding to voice his own opinion. "But I think you're chasing a dead end."

"What do you mean?"

"The only reason I could figure it out was I've got a lot more cognition investment than is normal, and I can split my mental threads in three."

"I can split my mental threads, too," Zoey said defensively, before frowning. "Well, okay, only been able to do that since this tier… and calling the second thread 'capable' might be pushing it…. Alright, maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree," Zoey said with a sigh.

"Maybe try to find your own solution, something that fits you more." Rory offered.

Frowning, Zoey was silent for several moments before her shoulders sagged.

"Yeah, I guess that's for the best." Still frowning, the frown only deepened as she glanced down at her hand, noticing something.

"Uh, Rory?"

"Yeah?"

"What do you make of this?"

Uncertain of what she was referring to, she quickly raised her hand before flipping it so that the back of her hand was facing him.

There, directly in the middle of the back of her hand, was a black spot.

"That's not good," Rory said after a moment.

"Why do you say that?"

"When has a black spot like that ever been a good sign?"

"Point," Zoey conceded. Lowering her hand, she glanced at the spot once again as her gaze took on a more intense expression, the look Rory had recognized as someone analyzing something.

"Shit," She muttered after a moment of reading whatever interface had appeared.

Raising his eyebrows, Zoey responded by flicking the screen over to him as he gave his implicit permission for the screen to appear.

Marked for Death- Black Mark

A mark that appears only upon those who have been rightfully marked for death. Such marks, while rare, remove ALL protections involved with events and similar circumstances.

TREAD WITH CAUTION FOR THE ABYSS STARES BACK

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