Across The Realms

Chapter 14 (Holly Vendetta Chapter 1)

Finally, after taking a chance upon the rumors of the World's End Dungeon, I'm at wits ends.

After what felt like years of clearing every obstacle in my way, be it traps or monsters, I finally struck down what I assumed to be the final boss and watched it burst into particles of nothingness. I threw my face up to the ceiling as I dropped to my knees and caught my breath, all the tension in my arm muscles released itself all at once with my arms swinging down to waist and my sword landing on the ground with a loud clunk. Now, I can claim my reward and save the world.

Then, the world's voice pinged "Final Boss, Keres, defeated! Moving to the next stage!"

Suddenly, the floor of the dungeon boss began to rumble.

Oh no! I'm not ready for another fight! I've exhausted almost everything I had to beat Keres.

The walls are spinning. No. The ground is, and it's ascending too.

As the movement continued, I recalled a time before this. Before I was thrown into this insane idea of taking a huge gamble on this dungeon.

My life was nothing short of dull. I was born into a loving family amongst a small group of survivors of a dystopian world. Raising a child was no easy feat when at every turn you could be hunted for sport. By the time I was old enough to think for myself, I could see that we were living underground. I suppose you could say it was much more of a colony, there were over fifty of us living in a secluded underground maze, where it was nothing but tunnels within tunnels. Our infrastructure was mainly made of dirt and metal scraps. It had all the essentials to survive our day to day routines, apart from food and water.

Those were something only the males of the colony were allowed to hunt for. It was mandatory for any males above the age of eighteen to join the scavenging group to hunt for resources. Although, no one questions the fact that the food brought back was always meat.

Throughout the entire maze-like shelter, there was only one entrance to get in and out from. It was a single long metal ladder leading upwards, it would stretch up so high that you just could not see the top, but at the end of it was accompanied by a circular gray hatch.

Still unclear of the why, but no one kept watch of who goes up. I guess it was just a given that only the scavengers would use it. Everyone else living underground obediently heeded the warnings that it was dangerous and that no one should step outside without permission. I never really knew what our colony was so afraid of above ground. I had tried to ask those amongst the scavenger group before, but apparently they were all prohibited to say.

Before I knew it, I turned eighteen. I guess this would be the point in time of my life that my parents would have called my rebellious stage. Naturally, the oblivious me decided to venture outside. What was I going to keep doing cooped up underground? It was so frustrating! It was not fair that only the guys got to go out and stretch their legs. So, I snuck away from my parents one day, telling them that I was going to spend the day with the other girls in the colony. I packed a bag with water, food, a self made slingshot and some pebbles acting as ammo.

Climbing up the ladder into the depths of darkness encumbering me above, I reached the top. Unlocking it, I opened the hatch and climbed outside with white light blinding me to no end.