MAZE - The Endless Quest

“Thank you so much for your help. We don’t know what would’ve happened if that kept going for long,” one of the purifiers bowed to the group.

“Don’t worry, it’s part of the job, but can you just wait one moment?” Skyler turned back to Hera, “I’ve seen you using that combo before, why was that so much stronger?”

“Because I used a legendary grade weapon. The weapon break effect scales with the rarity of the weapon itself. For a legendary one it currently becomes,” Hera paused, calculating what a 2 500 000% increase would actually be, “25 thousand times stronger than the regular effect. And the skill ranked up when I used that attack, it was supposed to be just 10 thousand times.”

“Oh wow, just 10 thousand times stronger. That is much weaker,” Flint rolled his eyes.

“That’s not a hard skill to learn. I checked, the one issue is making the weapons,” Hera turned to the dwarf.

“Not everyone can make legendary weapons out of thin air. I don’t even know if it’s possible to have a blueprint of one,” Flint huffed.

“Yeah, but I know people can make weapons with much better skills and a better scaling than what I did. I mean, I made a legendary weapon, which was supposed to be the strongest weapon anyone can make. But the scaling didn’t even break 100, and that was split into 6 attributes. Also, I spent almost my entire mana core on making that weapon. I can’t do that often.”

“Is there a cooldown for those skills?” Bonnie asked.

“Not a cooldown, but to recover the mana in my core is going to take almost a month. That one attack kind of tapped me out,” Hera explained.

“Why did you use it then?” Alex asked.

“I realized that I never used an attack like that before. And I wanted to try it out,” Hera sighed.

“Wouldn’t it be better to save that mana for something else? Like for a big mission or something?” Elistrae frowned.

“I mean, that’s a fair point and,” Alex turned to the elf and stopped, “Why are you sitting on that man’s lap?”

Elistrae smiled while the purifier that was hugging her just had a stupid smile on his face, “It’s comfortable.”

Alex just shook her head, already used to the elf’s antics, but Hera gave a questioning look. The assassin shrugged, which only made the Empress glance back at Elistrae, who seemed to be enjoying herself.

“What’s the point of waiting for something that might never happen? Anyway. What should we do next?” Hera turned around.

“We need to reach the headquarters and make sure everyone is ok,” one of the purifiers spoke up.

“Are you safe there?” Neria asked.

“Yeah, we have some wards to stop anyone from going inside. Unless they are with us,” she continued.

“Are you really safe there? What if someone tried to do-” Vash pointed to the back of the bus, even if the collapsed building was still hidden by a cloud of dust, “That?”

“I don’t think anyone can do that here.”

Everyone glanced at Hera again, but she pretended not to notice. She knew they were not being serious and just messing around. Even if the attack she threw was stronger than what everyone could do at a short notice, every single member of the Harmony Guardians still had ways of dealing similar damage. Some might just need a bit more time to do so. Around 10 minutes later, they arrived at the headquarters of the purifier organization. A building very familiar to the trio that completed this dungeon before. But this time, they were heading to the underground parking lot.

“Isn’t this where you cured Vanessa?” Elistrae turned to the assassin.

“Yeah. In the penthouse,” Alex nodded.

“So it is you!” the purifier that had Elistrae on his lap gasped, “I thought you looked similar to the paintings,”

“What paintings?” Alex frowned.

“There are a bunch of them in the headquarters. They all show you curing the vampires, including our leader. Vanessa,” Elistrae smiled and started stroking the man’s head, trying to see how much she could distract him during the conversation."

“Vanessa is still around?” Bonnie asked.

The man was just staring at the elven woman in his lap. Only after she was satisfied with his reaction, she pointed back at Bonnie, allowing her to ask again, “Of course. She might not be a vampire anymore, but that doesn’t mean she just died. She’s just older,” the purifier continued.

“How much older?” Hera asked, trying to pinpoint the time frame difference between the two dungeons.

“Oh… it’s been. Around 100 years since the VCP started, and another 53 since Vanessa became an elf again.”

“So, 153 years in total?” Skyler asked, getting a nod in response, “And what does the VCP stand for?”

“Vampiric Cure Project,” the driver said as he parked the bus in front of the elevators, “I think you should go to the penthouse. Things are really weird now and we need all the help we can get. Besides, we don’t even know where the other teams are. Maybe you can help them.”

Everyone nodded, and they walked inside the elevator. They had to split up into groups, but eventually they reached the penthouse. There, they saw the core of the VCP. It looked like a proper business mixed with a war room from a movie. There was a reception and places for people to make calls, cubicles where some were typing away as if they were in a regular nine to five. But also a large map of the city in the center of the area with various markers. In addition, to the left, where Bonnie once set up the fighting ring, were a few beds. Usually those were given to the vampires that came to be cured, but now a few purifiers were there as healers worked to fix some of their wounds.

“Who are… Alex?” a voice came to the side, and the group turned, meeting with Vanessa again. She still looked very much the same, long black hair and almond eyes, with pale skin and a black lipstick. The difference now was in her clothes. Instead of the full black get up, she swapped it for white leather, and the once silver metal spikes and chains were replaced for gold ones. It still gave off a ‘rocker’ feel but in a completely different color palette.

“Vanessa?” the assassin smiled, “Damn, you look great for 150!”

“210, actually, but what are you doing here? I thought I would never see you again. Humans are not supposed to live this long,” Vanessa went over for a hug.

“Do you think she could understand that she’s in a dungeon?” Bonnie whispered to Hera.

“I think so, but I’m not sure it’s a good idea. Not on this version, at least. You mentioned that her dad was the vampire lord, right?” the Empress replied.

Bonnie just stared at her friend for a moment before she finally understood what the Ophidianite meant. If all vampires were affected by the mutation, that would include the vampire lord.

“What is going on here?” Alex asked the former vampire.

“The hunters decided that no one should be saved. They made some weird drug that turned them feral and spread everywhere. And to really fuck us over, they spread rumors that we were the ones doing all that. So everyone ended up coming after us. The hunters, to be able to kill all the other vampires, also jumped in the aggression. It’s us against everyone.”

“What about your dad?” Elistrae asked.

Vanessa lowered her head, “He… is also affected by it. But he is holding on inside the mansion for now. When the mutation advances too much, he will become part of the mob, and that will be a problem.”

“That’s a problem just because of how strong he is, or is there another reason?” Roan asked.

“Being a vampire lord means he can empower other vampires. We don’t know what will happen with that ability once he mutates,” Vanessa explained.

“So, what do you want us to do?” Alex asked.

“Victor made me promise that if he mutated, I should purge the entire city. For now, the whole mutation thing is contained in the city, but if expand to the other vampire communities, we are facing a doomsday scenario.”

“Really? It would be that bad?” Skyler asked.

“Pretty much, vampires makeup for around 20% of the global population. And that is only considering the civilized ones. If we add the ones that don’t like the setup, that should grow to 25 or even 30%.”

“That many?” Neria frowned.

“Yeah, and here. This is something that Victor gave me to find all vampires,” Vanessa passed a small locket to Alex. It was a cross with a red gem in the center, “When you tap the gem you will be able to see if there are any vampires in a 50 meter radius and their direction. If there are none, it will point to the closest vampire within 100 kilometers. It’s something that only vampire lords can get. In addition,” Vanessa pointed to the map, specifically four golden flags in various spots in the city, “I have purifiers out there on these locations. If you can help them, we can start turning this building into a fort. If you manage to bring all of them, we can use a large scale attack.”

“Why don’t you cure them? Or you can’t do that?” Alex asked.

“We can’t do that. Can you?” Vanessa asked.

“I can try. If we can test with someone, maybe I can at least get Victor back,” the Purifying Light replied.

“Alex… If you get close to him, he might be unable to suppress the mutation. But if you can cure him of that, then it will be a big help to us,” Vanessa tried to suppress a smile, but the idea she could save her vampiric father gave her some hope. That things were not as dire as they seemed.

Hera opened her [Treasure Map] and saw the golden marks already there, even if she had yet to unveil those parts of the map.

“Ok then,” Bonnie turned to Hera, “Mind if I try turning Nimbus into a plane?”

The Empress blinked and called the Sentinel, “Let’s see with him.”

“See what?” Nimbus asked.

“I have a skill that can turn a slime into a giant eagle to help her carry people. Can I try that with you too?” Bonnie explained.

“Oh, sure, it might be fun. Is it better if I’m in my mount form or can I be like this?”

“I think the mount will work better, but let’s go outside. You might get really big,” Bonnie nodded.

Nimbus walked out of the balcony and jumped, turning into his griffon form. The Astral Witch added the Aquila constellation to him, covering his body in stars. His wings started to grow, becoming a green nebula cloud. His eyes were now glowing and his entire form became bigger, but not on the same scale as the wings. It took almost two minutes, but the Sentinel eventually became bigger than a bus.

“How are you feeling?” Hera asked.

‘Hungry… My mana is draining fast,’ Nimbus replied, his voice deeper than usual.

“That takes a lot of mana, but I can probably keep that up for ten minutes or so. With Ruby that was enough to get to the mansion on the other side of the city,” Bonnie replied, thinking that Hera was talking to her.

“How about yours, Nimbus?”

‘About the same. And I do feel like I can carry everyone.’

“Ok, Nimbus things we can move, but we have to go now,” Hera warned everyone.

The group didn’t wait long and decided to go with the Sentinel. They didn’t want to waste more time, and flying on a giant griffon sounded a lot of fun. In just a few moments, the group was heading to the first of the golden flags to not just save the purifiers, but also see if Alex was able to heal those vampires.