Chapter 41

The large boss door loomed in front of us, my hand looked small on the giant ornate handle. "Is everyone ready?"

Everyone took a moment to look over their weapons, Torien checked her arrows, Morrigan prepared some fireballs that orbited around her staff. My other hand gripped around my cursed sword's grip in anticipation.

"Ready..."

"Ready."

"Ready."

"Ready!"

"Alright, here we go!" As I pushed the handle inwards the large doors swept open with ease. The room looked somewhat like a throne room complete with a large red carpet that spilled through the center of the room and under the large chair that dominated it. The ceiling was high up with pillars and supports resembling the inside of a gothic church. Large plain red banners were hanging down and framed the decorated throne.

Seated in the chair was a tall pale woman with blood red eyes. She held a glass of wine, or perhaps blood, and wore a gothic black dress. I hesitated for a moment, unsure if we would have to fight another intelligent monster. We cautiously approached and the woman stared at us with a disinterested look on her face. I was about to attempt speaking to her when she suddenly became enraged as if a sudden switch had been flipped. She threw her glass across the room and made a noise somewhere between a scream and a hiss as she leapt to her feet atop the throne, ripping her dress in the process.

"Demonic Vampire Queen, Level 18. Doesn't look like she can talk either," Mimi said.

Simultaneously Morrigan and Torien shot their projectiles at the woman. She jumped up to the ceiling dodging them with ease. Hanging from the ceiling she screamed again and shot a spear of blood at me. Since I had been tracking her movements I was ready for her attack, I'm not sure what made her single me out but better me than my friends. I leapt to the side and dodged but I didn't have a good way to follow up from this distance.

"Mimi, can you tell me if the Vampire is shadow or dark aligned?"

"Mmm, doesn't look like it. She's... blood aligned?"

"I didn't know that was a thing." Torien yelled.

"Being aligned to advanced magics is possible but it's pretty rare. Unfortunately I have no idea what blood might be weak against!" Morrigan called out.

A vampire with blood magic, figures. Without a better idea I shot a light orb at it anyway. It dodged the attack and shot another spear at me, still attacking at range from the ceiling. Does it know that I'm higher level than it maybe?

It launched itself from pillar to pillar dodging our ranged attacks while throwing spears at me. I threw back more orbs of light but she was fast enough to dodge every projectile we shot its way. It was just too far to accurately draw a bead on it. Fortunately the same seemed be true for the Vampire as well, I wasn't having much trouble dodging its attacks but it didn't feel like we were getting anywhere.

"I'm going to try shooting all of my fireballs at once!" The glow from the fireballs around Morrigan's staff intensified and they flew scattershot at the ceiling, growing in size as they approached.

The vampire finally jumped down from the ceiling and avoided the explosions that lit the ceiling in a blaze of fire and I finally had an opportunity to attack. I tried to close the distance but I since I had the opportunity I wanted to try something else now that I could actually hit the thing.

I charged up a light orb and used [Light Manipulation] to alter it, making it mostly made up of ultra-violet light, thinking that maybe I could deal damage to a vampire using an analog to the sun. Trying to use [Light Manipulation] in this way and while moving felt really unwieldly. I felt really difficult to bend the mana to do what I wanted it to but I think I was able to pull it off.

Right before I was in melee range I shot the light orb at it. It tried to dodge but I still clipped its shoulder. The spot the orb hit had been clothed but her skin lit up and charred the dress away. I was excited that I had found a weakness but the moment I thought that, the skin under the charred spot regrew and sloughed the burnt skin away leaving untouched flawless skin in its place.

I set that plan aside for now and followed through with a long slash using my claymore. The boss room was large enough that my swings weren't impeded the way they had been in the cramped hallways. The vampire was fast, it dodged my slashes, likely having anticipated them. It tried to slash back at me with its large claw like hands but I have quite a bit more range with my sword, letting me step out of her attacks each time.

I saw the exact moment on its face when it decided I would be too hard of a target to kill first. Its eyes scanned my other party members before settling on Bella. When I saw this I tried to charge but it leaped away and clung to one of the pillars.

"Bella! I think it's going to target you next!"

"Okay!" I watched mana swirl around her staff as she prepared something hopefully defensive. Just as the vampire was in the process of leaping from the pillar an arrow shot at lightning speed through the vampire's foot pinning her to the pillar and making her fail her jump, slamming into the pillar face first instead. I started to run towards it but it recovered and violently tore its foot from the arrow leaving a spray of blood on the the once white column.

The vampire's bloody foot snapped back in place a moment later completely regenerating the foot as if nothing had happened. I thought it had looked pissed before but the amount of malice aimed at Torien now was unreal. Torien tried to pull another arrow for a shot but wasn't going to make it in time as the monster sailed across the room towards her.

Torien's eyes went wide at the speed the vampire hurtled right at her but before those sharp monstrous claws reached her a wall of soft clay ripped through the tiles of the floor and intercepted the attack. The impact didn't seem to injure the vampire at all but it was hard stuck in the clay and struggled to get out.

Morrigan took the opportunity to douse the monster in all of the fire she had been collecting since she had lit the ceiling up earlier. The monster screamed with rage as it burned. For a moment I thought we had won but it freed itself from the clay and jumped away from us. Magic swelled around it and the fire that clung to it was extinguished with its own blood.

Even at this distance I could see the charred flesh slough off her, leaving the creature standing naked with the dark blood contrasting her milky white skin. The blood slowly melted away as it reabsorbed into her skin, leaving the naked vampire standing with her claws outstretched. She looked warily at our group, likely unsure of who to attack next.

Its eyes darted back up to the ceiling whose flames were extinguished now. It jumped backwards towards the nearest pillar before extinguishing the flames of the torch there and jumping to the next. It was systematically jumping around the room trying to avoid us while it put out all of the fire. I could understand what it was trying to do but I knew it wouldn't work.

"Tori! Mori! How's your night vision? It's putting out all of the torches!"

"With a little light we can see fine in the dark!" Morrigan yelled back.

"Good!" I casted [Fireflies] I didn't want to bother with [Light Manipulation] so I just snapped up the largest range of it I could to make sure we could all see clearly. Luckily, our group was entirely made up of Beastfolk and Demi-Beasts so all of us would be able to see fine in low-light. The fact that the vampire was trying this at all led me to believe the enemy was acting on a script like some sort of video game boss. Why does this dungeon seem so unnatural?

My thoughts had me distracted and I wasn't ready to dodge when a spear of blood rocketed towards me, ripping through the flesh of my calf and knocking me on my back.

"Lilith!" I could hear Bella yelling in the distance and I felt my blood run cold. I sat up and lifted my sword just in time to block a claw attack from the Vampire Queen. I think I was in shock because all I could focus on in that moment was swinging wildly at the monster. I fumbled an attack and she knocked the sword from my hand and it slid away. She then pinned my arms to the ground with her claws skewering them to the floor. I cried out as all the pain hit me at once, I felt light headed, my calf and bicep muscles were burning.

The Vampire Queen's face opened unnaturally revealing a dark hole surrounded by countless teeth. I stared at it in horror sure of my own death.

In that short moment before I died the false sword that had been on my waist the entire fight grew in size, opened its own large mouth of teeth and snapped around the Vampire's head in a split second.

I stared at the ceiling where the vampire's mouth had once been in shock as Mimi returned to the form of my sword. The decapitated body of the vampire fell onto my chest before turning into a pool of blood and soaking me and my clothes. I shivered as I laid in the pool of blood, both my own and the dead vampire's. I felt light headed, the blood loss was starting to hit me and I truly realized in that moment that all of this was very real.

This wasn't a game, even if the monsters acted like it. This wasn't just happy go lucky fun adventuring. These wounds weren't scrapes that a healer can just shove off with no consequences. This was real. When we were out here, in a dungeon like this one, my life was at risk and a small mistake could cost me or any of my friends our lives.

[Your party has defeated a Demon Vampire Queen][Your party has defeated the final boss of the Midnight Castle Dungeon]

[Your level has increased from level 24 to Level 25][Black Cat has increased from level 6 to level 10]

[Swordsmanship has increased from level 34 to level 35][Mana Sense has increased from level 3 to level 4][Light Magic has increased from level 2 to level 5][Light Manipulation has increased from level 1 to level 3][Soultouched Connection has increased from level 1 to level 2]

[Learned passive skill Double Down][Learned Luck Magic Spell Coinflip][Learned Luck Magic Spell Die Nudge]*[Learned Luck Magic Spell Blackjack]

[Learned Light Magic Spell Light Beam][Learned Light Magic Spell Light Signal]

I was feeling faint and before long my consciousness faded. My world falling into the black around me.

I woke up slumped over in a chair in a circular room with black walls. There in front of me was a bored looking man in a grey robe, his head rested against his hand and his legs were crossed in front of him. Once he noticed me looking at him he sat up a bit straighter and leaned back in his chair. However he looked no less bored than before.

"Hello Lilith, I am the god of death and change. It is fortunate we are able to have this conversation before your companion wakes you up. And before you ask, no, you are not dead."