Chapter 5: Church of the Demon King
White clouds covered the starry sky like a baby being covered by a sheet by its mother. It was beautiful to see.
The moon illuminated so well the darkness that the night had brought, the strong winds and seas, the glacial cold, Venya couldn't take her eyes off the huge object that disappeared among the clouds.
She ran her hand through the air, trying to catch the icy wind, to no avail.
Lance watched the woman crouch on the pale green lawn, running her hands over the plants and flowers that swayed in the breeze.
They were in a rural field in England. Lance's country. The place where the dungeon they were trapped is.
Venya Fordragon contemplated the size of the dungeon that was more than a thousand meters long above and below ground, with several different floors.
An old architecture, like a ruined building falling apart, gradually decays.
This was her private hell. And even so, she couldn't stop thinking about how beautiful that building was.
Lance agreed with her. It was a spectacular sight.
When dungeons first appeared in the world, historians and scientists dedicated themselves to studying any vestiges of history and technology present in them.
Governments sought the chance to rule the world on their own, each in their daily routine of selfishness and unbridled pursuit of absolute power.
The 360 dungeons that sprang up in the world, half of which were located in the United States and South Korea, were a gift and at the same time an endless nightmare.
Your father could wake up with a system, decide to become a hunter and the next day, just not come home because he died in a dungeon.
The hunters' bodies are reset, as well as the bosses and monsters that inhabit every dungeon in the world after being killed. The difference is that the last ones come back to life and the humans don't.
Lance wondered what the consequences of a dungeon without its boss would be.
Would the monsters escape? No, that had happened on rare occasions, even with the bosses in the dungeons.
Would the ruler come to resolve the matter himself? If that were true, Lance wouldn't have come out of that rotten dungeon, and he certainly wouldn't have saved Venya from her prison.
It was simple and pure fun for the bastards who watched them daily.
Lance clenched his fists in the midst of all his thoughts. He punched the yellow wall surrounded by wine from the dungeon.
Venya could have sworn the dungeon moved a few inches.
If it hadn't been enchanted by magic, it would have definitely fallen.
"Your world... is so beautiful."
Her red eyes were transfixed on a world completely different from hers. Lilac hair flew over Venya's face and neck in the wind, but she didn't seem to mind.
A world without demons. No wars. No darkness or abandonment. That's what she thought at the time.
A big mistake of her, a mistake Lance wouldn't want to fix.
She walked across the field, eyes closed with a small smile on her face. Venya turned to Lance and smiled again. Teeth almost as bright as moonlight.
Lance started to walk away from the woman, who looked confused. He had a plan once more.
"Where are we going?"
He turned to face her briefly.
"You said every boss in a dungeon is someone from another world, correct?"
"As far as I know, yes."
"And do they all have gifts?"
"Yeah."
"So that's what I'm going to do. I'll recruit as many dungeon bosses as I can. "
Fehrman held up a hand, pointing forward.
"See that little black dot down there? It's a dungeon. The lord of the dolls dungeon."
Venya looked uncomfortable.
"So is this the plan? Recruit the bosses? Some of them might not accept the proposal, you know? "
"So I just have to convince them the same way I convinced you." He pointed to his fists.
Venya felt a chill.
"This King of the Kaijus, he happens to..."
Lance covered Venya's mouth quickly. She tried to say something, but he whispered for her to shut up.
He felt something. A very strong magic power, even greater than any monster in the mistress of beasts dungeon. Even bigger than Venya.
She could feel it too. Not one, not two, but five catastrophic magical powers. Lance must have guessed that hunters would show up to explore the dungeon for the millionth time.
Fehrman pulled Venya by the arms, hiding in the bushes.
There were two mages, a man and a woman, with staffs in their hands. A man who was supposed to be the team leader had a sword and a shield. What was supposed to function as the team's tank carried a huge shield that took up almost the entire arm and right behind a girl who from the numerous potions in her waist was certainly the healer.
The five wore clothes with an inverted sword in the middle of their armor.
"Shit! They're from the Church of the Demon King!"
Venya didn't understand.
"Church of the Demon King?"
Lance tried to explain it simply and objectively.
"When people started receiving gifts and pantheons became known figures around the world, new religions sprang up around these idiots."
"The Church of the Ruler of Creatures, the Church of the Gods and the Church of the Demon King. The latter being known to have dubious members. They believe that every person who has been given a system that does not belong to the Demon King is a heretic who deserves to die! They are totally crazy!"
Lance was never part of any church or guild. People like him, without a system, could enter dungeons knowing the risks they would face.
They were given a thirty-page book describing every kind of painful death they could suffer. He never really cared.
His brother, however, was blessed by the gods. A central figure in the Church of the Gods. As much as Lance wouldn't admit it, he was a little envious of Roland.
Fehrman was behind the bushes with Fordragon, who didn't understand. Someone as strong as Lance, hiding behind plants and leaves, afraid of mere humans?
The group of five people continued to walk towards the dungeon when the leader stopped for a moment.
He muttered something to the big man, who whispered something to the other three members. Lance and Venya couldn't hear. Super hearing was not one of Fehrman's powers, unfortunately.
The leader, tall and with long blond hair, started to walk back where he had come from. He stopped once more. He unsheathed his red-bladed sword, and as he whispered something, it began to ignite.
In a swift move that neither Lance and Venya could have predicted, a blast of fire hit them both. Fehrman pushed Venya aside.
The bush was completely destroyed, the flames consuming the surrounding leaves and wood. Smoke began to rise rapidly in the sky.
"Heretics cannot hide from our king's sight!" Said the slender blonde, but completely crazy.
The big man, a black man with black hair, approached holding his big shield. Lance didn't notice that he carried an iron whip around his waist.
"Get out little pigs! Get out so I can save you from this life of sin!"
The magicians and the healer approached. The potions girl was the only one who wasn't comfortable with the whole situation.
"Prepared?" Lance asked Fordragon who was lying on the ground, surrounded by flames.
"Always." She smiled.
Lance Fehrman rose from the lawn. A huge figure with black coloring, blue and yellow stripes, and a bony face filled the eyes of each of the madmen of the Church of the Demon King.
They expected heretics. But they came face to face with the kaiju that was going to kill them.
"Come on, dipshits!"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone