*SWISH* *SLASH* *SWOOSH*

"Ya know, I honestly forgot what it felt like to do a proper dungeon dive." Akagi said as she slashed a group of large dog-like monsters to ribbons, covering the walls with red blood. She and Yumi had slowly but steadily been descending the floors of the Mausoleum and were, by this point, at floor 94. They'd come across great beasts and monsters that Akagi figured would give most adventurers a challenge, though naturally, nothing in here was up to the task of making her even give it a second thought. "I'm definitely getting a rush of nostalgia. Though the lack of the level-up sound effect really takes away that dopamine hit man." She chuckled.

{Could have a lot of fun with sound effects if I wanted.} (Akagi)

"You spent far too much time playing with that menu thing." Yumi sighed as the two continued onward before descending down a large stone staircase. NPCs weren't able to see in game menus like players could, though by this point Yumi was well aware of what such things were. "To this day I still don't understand how you can get so much enjoyment out of playing with numbers. Is it really that fun to do math?"

"Building a perfectly optimal build that crushes anything is joy in and of itself!" Akagi laughed. "Hence why I forced certain equipment and training methods on the Clansmen. Doing math for other boring things is awful though, so outside of that stuff it can take a hike.”

"Ah, so those strange hats weren't your stupid sense of humor?" Yumi asked with a heavy dose of sarcasm in her voice. “Coulda fooled me.”

"No! Those were absolutely necessary for your builds I assure you." Akagi snickered as Yumi rolled her eyes. "Each provided carefully crafted stat boosts that suited each of you perfectly. I would never make you wear silly things for my amusement!"

"Suuuuuure..." Yumi shook her head as they reached the bottom of the staircase, finding a massive set of doors that indicated a boss room. "Looks like someone's already here." She said as she tried to push the door open, which wouldn't budge. The two of them could sense life energy within the room, and it seemed that a total of five people were engaging whatever creature lay within.

"Hm... I'm surprised that a party could get this far down." Akagi said as she pulled out her Kiseru and lit it. "That last boss' bullshit invulnerability would've thrown us for a loop in FWO, so it's safe to say whoever these guys are they're pretty good."

{Sadly for that stupid goat it was just resistant to attacks under a certain threshold rather than completely immune.} (Akagi)

"Not going to intrude?" Yumi nudged her, figuring that Akagi would simply kick down the sealed door and handle the boss herself.

"Oi, I've got enough tact to let a prior party do their thing without interference. Gamer code of honor and all that." Akagi rolled her eyes as she took a puff. “I'm not a barbarian.”

"And if they managed to get through and find whatever it is you want at the bottom of this place first?" Yumi asked.

"Then they shall tragically fall at the hands of the final

boss. Make sure to send a ham to their widows if that happens." Akagi laughed as they continued to banter back and forth until about thirty minutes later the large doors creaked and opened.

"Go! Go! Go! Run out the door!" A male adventurer yelled as he led the other four out of the boss room, closing it behind them as a massive white blast struck the door with a loud thud. They were all badly injured, though Akagi noted that none of their wounds were life-threatening. "Fucking hell man!"

"I thought we were goners." A female Demonkin said as the party collapsed to the floor. Her outfit led Akagi to believe she was a healer, and soon after she began to tend to the other party member's wounds with her magic.

"No wonder nobody's gotten to the final five floors." A large muscular male dogkin laughed as his wounds were healed slowly. “How in the Hells are we supposed to kill that thing? You'd need an army to put a dent in it.”

"An Ancient Platinum Dragon is quite the formidable final guard." A white-skinned woman with a large blade on her back grumbled. "We knew what we were expecting, but damn... I never imagined my attacks would just bounce off its scales!"

"Hey we at least managed to put a few wounds on it before turning tail. I'm certain with additional preparation we can bring it down." An older wizard man said as he pushed up his cracked glasses.

"Well, we got the whole TTRPG party down here, huh?" Akagi said to Yumi, who was happily resting her head on the Demon's lap as they sat on a blanket on the ground.

"Who the hell?" The first man, who Akagi assumed was the leader, jumped in surprise at the Demon's words, pulling his twin blades off his belt as he turned to face her. "There's someone else down here?!?"

"What? I thought we were the only party granted permission?" The white-skinned woman was just as confused as he was.

"We were." The old wizard confirmed as he analyzed Akagi. “Curious.”

"Are they dungeon monsters?" The healer woman asked as she tended to their leader's wounds. “I've heard of mimics taking the form of people to catch them off guard.”

"Doubtful, they don't approach boss floors." The dogkin man said with a snort. "Hey lady, you a monster?"

"Yes." Akagi nodded with a smile that made Yumi chuckle. "A spooky monster here to eat your souls! Grrr!" She said while making a cute clawing motion like she'd seen in a slice of life anime.

"Well, we're all doomed." The leader of the party sighed as he put his weapons away. "We weren't expecting to see anyone else down here, and I don't recall sensing anyone coming behind us. When did you depart from the surface?"

"Like three hours ago?" Akagi thought for a moment. “Yeah, about three hours. Didn't take long once we got the hang of the layouts.”

"T-Three hours?" The old wizard nearly choked on his own spit as he heard Akagi's words. "That's impossible! It takes weeks to get even partway to the bottom!"

"I would've done it faster but I wanted to check this place out a bit. It's been a while since I was in a proper dungeon so I wanted to sight see a bit." Akagi said as Yumi sat up. "That and this one had a tantrum that she hadn't gotten to pet the kitty in a while." She snickered.

"You..." Yumi sighed as she bonked Akagi on the head. "Don't try and blame that on me..."

{Am I lying?}

(Akagi)

{Hush!} (Yumi)

"What's your name?" The leader asked as he walked over as he wiped off his dirty hand on his pants and put it out for a handshake. "Mine's Jacob. That's Herman, Gelfia, Munts and the old man's name is Merkel." He said, pointing to the dogkin, white-skinned woman, healer, and wizard in that order. "I'm the leader of Butterfly."

{The party's name is Butterfly?} (Yumi x Akagi)

"Akagi, nice to meet you." Akagi said as the two shook hands. "No party name here, just two people who wanted to check this place out."

"Akagi..." Jacob paused. "Not a name type I'm familiar with. Are you from the Eastern Continent? I think the people over there use names with that kind of pronunciation."

{My bingo card got another entry!} (Akagi)

"Careful, Jacob. That's a Demon." Merkel said, surprising the others with his words. “I'd advise keeping your guard up.” His stance was loose but Akagi could tell the old wizard was ready to throw down at a moment's notice if it came to it.

"W-Wait, like an actual Demon?!?" Gelfia yelped. "Or do you mean like the tanned skin kind of Demons like Munts?"

"The kind that comes from the Hells and torments people. That kind." Merkel sighed. "Which would explain how she got down here so easily."

"Is the cute little Priestess one too?" Herman asked with a snort.

"Doesn't look like it, but one can never be certain with Demons." Merkel said, noting that he'd dealt with shape shifting Demons that could hide their true nature quite well.

"Yumi is Yumi." Akagi said with a shrug. "She's my squishy, but technically probably not entirely Human anymore." She said as she pulled her into a hug. "We're like this. So no touchie."

"You're just trying to embarrass me now, aren't you?" Yumi sighed but did not resist the hug.

"Only a bit." Akagi winked.

"So what brought you down this far? A Dungeon like this is really more of a test of power than one to claim rewards." Jacob asked, deciding not to allow Merkel's tension to spread.

"I want to see what's at the bottom of this place, I've got business with the power source in the final room." Akagi replied. "It may or may not have a connection to a good friend of mine, so I'd like to examine it."

"The Dwarves aren't going to like it if you go poking around it," Jacob replied. "They put it down here to keep it safe since it powers the entire city, so I doubt they'd appreciate you messing with it too much."

"I don't intend on causing any problems." Akagi replied. "Like I said, I only want to analyze it. Once I'm done with that I'll head back home."

"Good luck with that." Herman said as he pointed to the door. "The Dragon in there has never been beaten by anyone. We put all our strength into taking it down and barely scratched it so good luck getting past."

"Meh, one of my good friends is a Dragon far more powerful than that thing and I can easily defeat her." Akagi said as she slowly stood up. "Shouldn't take me too long to handle it. Just gimme a second to stretch and get the mojo flowing." She said while over dramatically stretching and doing warm ups.

"R-Really?" Jacob stammered.

"Hey, Merkel. Do you think she could do it?" Gelfia asked in a hushed voice, nervous as Akagi approached the boss door.

"Demons are far more powerful than we are, so I'd say it's possible." Merkel replied in a whisper. "Either way we should prepare for our departure. It took us three months to get down here and will take us around half that to get back. We should get moving once we've rested. This place is not kind to those who linger to long."

"If you want a quicker way back up, then feel free to come with." Akagi said as she pushed open the door, revealing the sight of the massive Platinum Dragon coiled around a central pillar. It was a Western style Dragon, thoug it had long horns and whiskers like an Eastern one. "Look at that!" She laughed as it examined her. "Hishya is a hell of a lot bigger, but it's definitely one of the bigger Dragons I've seen in a long time!" She laughed as the Dragon slowly dropped to the center of the room, white fire springing up from the various cauldrons to illuminate the room in a strange white light.

{I'll give high marks for the atmosphere.} (Akagi)

"Be careful of that thing's fire! It melts anything lower than the absolute best equipment to slag!" Jacob warned Akagi as she summoned the Black Sunrise to her hand.

"Yo... That blade..." Herman said, backing away. His natural instincts told him that it was not something to mess with.

"A Hell Blade? No... It's something far, far worse..." Merkel said, sweating nervously. He'd seen weapons from the darkest pits of the Hells, but Akagi's blade was something else entirely.

"Alright, you big lizard! Its time to put your ass to bed, and there's no staying up extra late to watch anime!" Akagi said as she flashed forward, vanishing before reappearing on the tip of the Dragon's tail that was pointing straight into the air. "Nighty-Night." She said as dark slash marks ran all along the Dragon's body, covering it in a spider web of attacks that ended just below the Demon's feet. It was a clean and instant kill, the Dragon didn't even live long enough to scream in pain or understand what had just happened to it, and a moment later the wounds began to gush with red blood as its body collapsed to the floor, dead. "You think Hishya would've wanted it as a pet or something?" The Demon asked Yumi as she reappeared in front of her. "I could've probably captured it and gave it to her all wrapped up with a bow on its little head."

"Giving it to Mika would've been funnier." Yumi chuckled as Akagi looked over her shoulder at the absolutely gobsmacked Butterfly.

"You five ready? I'll be heading down to the final floor now and I'll teleport you all out as a reward for being so nice to me." Akagi smiled, though the five of them saw it less as a happy gesture and more as a veiled threat to keep quiet.

{WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!?} (Butterfly)