As they got closer to the stairs that led down to level five, the dungeon itself seemed to shake. Greg felt a wave of dark energy pulse through the stone, and his communication crystal got very cold all of a sudden.

Elias's head snapped up in the throne room on level five. His heightened senses, which had been tainted by the dark being that gave him power, had noticed the disturbance. "This is fucking unbelievable... they're getting rid of levels too quickly even though I've already enhanced the monsters."

A woman with scars all over her face, one of his friends, stepped forward. "Should we get ready for a welcome?"

"No," Elias said as he stood up and walked over to where Marina was chained. She was barely aware of what was going on, and her body was covered in cuts and bruises from weeks of torture. "We're going to the next level."

"What?" One of his friends, a huge guy with a war axe, looked confused. "We made this trap for Greyson. Why run now?"

Elias snapped, "Because I'm not an idiot."

"I fucking knew that he's getting through four levels in less than an hour with farming tools and cookware."

"That means he's changed, learned, and is angrier than I've ever seen him. It would be suicide to fight him here, where he has the upper hand."

He pulled on Marina's hair to make her head go up. Her eyes opened and closed quickly, but they weren't focused. "Don't worry, love. We're moving this party to a more private place."

"Level six and higher. Let's see if your blacksmith's tools work when the dungeon wants him dead."

Elias lifted his sword, and dark energy flowed from it. The energy moved through the room, touching the walls, the floor, and even the air. His friends felt it too, as their dark powers connected with the ancient evil that lay dormant in the Citadel's depths.

"Mind Control: Abyssal Covenant," Elias said.

The dark energy went through the stone to levels six, seven, eight, nine, and ten. The monsters that lived in those depths, things that had never seen the sun and only existed to kill, suddenly found their simple minds bound to Elias's will.

"That's it," he said with a smile. "Every monster from level six to the bottom now listens to me."

"They won't pay any attention to us at all. They'll just kill anyone else who comes in."

"How can you do that...?" One of his friends asked.

Elias answered, "I got it from someone I've relied on, and I can finally use it now to end that motherfucker."

He looked at his party. "Get the prisoners who can still walk, and finish off the rest."

"We're going deep."

His friends moved with brutal efficiency. People who were too hurt to move were killed right away, and their screams stopped. People who could barely walk were set free and led to the stairs that led to level six.

Marina tried to fight back, but her body let her down because it was too weak from weeks of torture. Someone was carrying Kael, who was out cold.

Denna could hardly stand because the cell was too small for her to be strong. Ryn was still locked up, and her magic was being held back by barriers that she couldn't break.

"Get the fuck up, you bitch!" Elias's friend pushed Marina forward.

She tripped but caught herself, her instinct to survive was taking over everything else. They were being taken deeper into darkness that even the first expedition had been afraid to explore, far away from help.

Marina took one last look at level five as they went down. She could tell that Greg was coming. But would he get there on time? Or would he only find dead bodies and a path that led straight to hell?

Greg's team got to the stairs that led to level five, and right away they knew something was wrong. The air was thicker here, and there was something in it that made Greg's skin crawl. The light from his lantern looked dimmer as it fought against a darkness that was more than just the lack of light.

"Boss," Bork said in a low voice. "Do you feel that?"

"Yeah..." Greg's hand went to the weapon he had made the night before and was carrying at his waist. "Be on the lookout, seems like things have changed because that bastard knew we're here."

They carefully went down the stairs, ready with the tools. Greg's heart sank as the door to the throne room opened.

He was shocked seeing something that shouldn't have been seen without a proper mental. There were dozens of bodies on the floor, like broken dolls.

Adventurers who had gone on the expedition and trusted Greg's tools to keep them safe. Their faces were frozen in terror and pain, and their bodies showed signs of being tortured for a long time.

Felix whispered, "Oh gods," and his face went pale.

Seraphine's analytical mind kept track of the destruction, but even she seemed shaken. "This is planned... on purpose... he didn't rush through them..."

Mira floated close to Greg, and her usual happiness was gone. "Master-forger-darling, this is scary... he's far gone as a human..."

Greg walked among the dead, searching for people he knew. There, a wizard had given him a compass. There was a warrior who had made fun of the singing lamp. A man's sick revenge turned real people with families and dreams into corpses.

And then he saw it. Chains that hang down from the pillars are empty.

There were blood trails that led to the stairs that went down to level six. This indicates that people have been moved recently, within the last hour.

"Thank god, they're alive," Greg said in a hollow voice. "Some of them are still alive, and the bastard took them deeper."

Bork's fists tightened. "That son of a bitch. He ran away when he saw us coming."

"Not run," Seraphine said as she knelt down to look at the magical residue in the room. "Check out these patterns."

"He threw something... something big... a spell that controlled monsters' minds and spread down through many levels."

Felix's eyes got bigger. There's no way...!"

Greg said slowly, "Which means that if we go down there, we'll have to fight every monster in the Citadel at once. And they won't stop until we die or reach level ten."

The group stopped talking, and the weight of that realization was too much to bear. It wasn't just a rescue anymore. The feeling was like walking into a meat grinder that was made just for them.

Greg looked down at the weapon on his belt, the one he had promised himself he would never make. He made it anyway, because sometimes you have to bend your principles when faced with pure evil.

He finally said, "We keep going."

"Marina's down there. The Crimson Falcons are down there. We didn't come this far to quit now."

"Even if it means going up against an army?" Bork asked.

"Yeah..."

Greg held up his lantern, and the light pushed the dark away. His family got ready for what was coming next behind him.

Tools for farming that had cleared four levels in an hour. Cookware that had beaten warriors from long ago. Months of study have made ice magic perfect.

And one weapon, made out of rage and desperation, was ready for the time when peace could no longer be kept. They went down the stairs to level six, where the real fight started.

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