Odyssey To Dominion

A Few Moments Earlier.

Paxius is on the 117th floor. He shrinks down and hides behind a rock as Zareth is approaching that floor. His thoughts, "I just have to make it past him, then Nytri can teleport before me and run. I will do anything for my friend" He feels a powerful suffocating pressure on him as he holds his breathe.

*TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP* he hears the tap of feet. He knows he stands no chance. The only way this ends well for Nytri is to help her escape.

The tapping gets louder then dimmer meaning Zareth has passed. Paxius raises his head to check and he goes pale immediately. Zareth is only a meter before him staring into his eyes. Paxius tries to run but Zareth waves his hand as Paxius' right arm is separated from his body and a force hits him into the wall. He is pulled from the wall and floats before Zareth.

"A monster candidate for godhood? No matter, you'll never be a god anyway." He wavs him off as Paxius is slammed with another force and he coughs up blood as his bones are shattered in his body. He activates a skill and starts to heal himself as Zareth leaves him.

Paxius manages to repair his hands and starts to crawl back to the 128th floor. "Nytri…I…I'm…..coming to save….you." he keeps crawling. By the time he has reached 30meters he could walk. He started off with a walk and slowly increased into a sprint, he still couldn't regenerate his lost arm.

He reaches the 128th floor to see the entire place covered in ice as Nytri fights with everything she's got. Paxius watches, "There's really no way for us to win. Then…..then that can save her." He ran to the 129th floor which is very wide as he avoids the fight between Nytri and Zareth. At full speed in a few seconds, he arrives at the 129th floor. He starts to dig out the shrine embedded in the floor. This shrine would let the one who conquers this dungeon to enter the divine realm to become a champion of the gods as some do become gods but a slim chance.

Paxius digs as tears flow down his face. He feels it, every wound on Nytri, every bone broken. He feels it all, but he's weak. He couldn't face Zareth an elder god, not even a demi-god. As he dig the shrine out, his claws/nails scratched the rune inscribed on it. He unknowingly changed the destination of the teleport shrine. He finishes digging it up as he lifts it and carries it out of the 129th floor.

He sneaks around the battlefield with the shrine, hoping for a chance to give it to Nytri so Zareth does not intercept him. He looks and sees Nytri covered in blood on her feet. He eyes burst into tears at the sight, his heart filled with hate, but he's still rational. He notice how Zareth is tossing and blowing Nytri around, so he sneaks behind her.

Present Moment

Nytri forces the words out of her mouth as she stares at Zareth. "If I was that important to you, you would have helped me when I was abandoned. Not when I can stand on my own feet." She kept firing as she tries to walk to Zareth.

"Hah! Important?! You are a tool for me to use." He descends to the ground, only 5 meters from Nytri as she still fires at him.

"Being told that to my face is really harsh. That's why I'll never serve you, I finally had a home. I'm not giving it up for some jerk." All her words made Zareth's face crumble with anger. She makes a finger at him, "DIE YOU BASTARD."

 "HOW DARE YOU! I'LL BREAK YOU AND MAKE YOU SUBMIT. NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS. YOU WILL SERVE ME!" He raises his hand at Nytri and an explosion hits her as she falls on her back. Her vision looks blurry as she tries to regenerate. Zareth picks her up by the neck, stares deep into her unfocused eyes and throws her over his shoulders. *THUD* Nytri lies on the ground, unable to even feel pain as her vision dims. But her body still moves, she tries to get up on her feet.

Nytri fell right before Paxius as he hides behind a rock with the shrine in his shoulder. Zareth blows Nytri again and Paxius tosses the shrine behind Nytri as she falls on it. A bright light fills the floor but Paxius could see. He is the final boss of the dungeon after all. He sees Nytri teleport then he takes to his heels while the light blocks Zareth vision. Paxius glows blue multiple times and red as he doesn't stop until he reaches the 115th floor.

The light dim to an empty room, Zareth is baffled by the scene. "AARRGGHH!!" he roars in rage as he releases skills and spells across the large floor changing the place entirely. He then teleports out of the dungeon to wherever he went.

Paxius stops after reaching the 115th floor and collapses on the ground. "She's gone, I hope she's okay." He rests a bit and starts heading towards the surface, he wants to find anything that shows Nytri survived. After walking for days, he comes across a Variant with a cat beast appearance that was split in 2 from head to toe but was actually trying to heal. It seems the Variant is able to send its soul from the DATA LAKE into its corpse as it tries to heal the body. It wasn't that damaged as it managed to fuse the head and stayed in the soul space as it used EP to maintain and heal the body.

Paxius sees this scene and rushes over as he holds the body together, he didn't have any healing skills except regeneration ones only used on himself. He leaves and gathers materials to help heal the Variant, because he thought. "If this Variant is alive, then so is Nytri." He spends his time doing everything he could to heal the Variant.

A Few Days Later.

The Variant is healed, Paxius stays and guards it. The Variant stands on her feet before Paxius. Paxius asked about its condition, "Have you fully recovered?"

The Variant nods, though sad.

"Do you have a name?" Paxius asked the Variant as it looks at him.

"Lyra" She looks sadden as she stares at the ground.

"Are you worried about Nytri?" Paxius asked.

"Yes. I've lost contact with her."

"I'm certain she'll be fine." Paxius speaks, "The shrine teleported her to the divine realm, with her talents she'll find a god to take care of her." Paxius sighs as he looks at the ceiling

"Why? *Sobs* Why do you think Mama will be alright living with the monsters who tried to kill her?" She starts to weep trying to hold it in.

"A god built this dungeon. As far as I know, I can say he's a good person. That shrine will take Nytri to him, we can only hope he can keep her safe and help her become a god." The Variant sobs as Paxius hugs her trying to comfort her. "It's not over, I know it. Nytri managed to reach the final floor of a dungeon no human has even reached the 10th floor in thousands of years. Wherever she goes, I know she'll come back."