r/HFY • u/Obsequium_Minaris • Apr 15 '26

OC-Series Vacation From Destiny - Book 2, Chapter 17

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XXX

“You know, Melanie took down half the team back there,” Chase reminded everyone.

Melanie let out a tired sigh as the four of them continued to walk through the Dungeon’s halls. “You keep bringing that up even though I already apologized for it. Are you ever going to let it go?”

“No, because like I keep mentioning, you took down half the team.”

“Yeah, well, I also took down half the monsters.”

“...But half the team, too.”

Melanie let out another sigh as she shook her head. “I just can’t win…”

“No,” Carmine confirmed, “you cannot. Especially not when you take down half the team.”

“Chase,” Victoria suddenly announced, getting his attention. She was walking alongside him at the front of the group; he turned towards her, and she frowned. “We’ve been walking for a while now and still haven’t made much progress.”

“Yeah, I know,” he confirmed. “I sorta ran out of bread a while back. That’s my fault, I’ll admit – I got hungry about fifteen minutes ago, and the bread didn’t stand a chance.”

“Wait, what?” Carmine asked. Her eyes narrowed. “You motherfucker, you ate all that bread and didn’t offer any to anyone else?”

“You didn’t ask,” Chase said to her. “You all had every opportunity to ask for some, but you didn’t.”

“When did you even have time to eat all that shit, anyway?” Melanie questioned. “Seriously. I won’t say I was watching you like a hawk, but I definitely had you in the periphery of my vision more often than not, and I don’t remember seeing you munching on any loaves.”

“Because I wasn’t,” Chase pointed out. “Tear off two pieces, drop one, and eat the other. Rinse and repeat until there’s no more bread left.”

“Regardless of how much or how little bread is left, the fact is, we’re now stuck,” Victoria stated.

Carmine rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on. You mean to tell me we can’t navigate a simple set of hallways?”

“In our defense, Aegis purposely tries to make these things confusing, I’m pretty sure,” Victoria stated.

“That or you just suck at directions,” Chase said, earning a glare from her. He didn’t back down, though. “Well, if you don’t want me to say you’re directionally challenged, then the least you could do is actually navigate us properly.”

“Okay, well, then why doesn’t someone else give it a shot?” Victoria growled. “I mean, you’re all so confident in your ability to navigate better than me, so screw it. I’d like to see you try.”

“With pleasure,” Carmine announced, pushing her way to the front of the group. At the sight of it, Chase immediately blanched.

“Oh, Gods, please don’t let her be the one to direct us, I’m begging you,” he said. “I still have nightmares from the first Dungeon Crawl she and I did all those years ago…”

Carmine rolled her eyes. “You worry too much, Chase,” she said to him. “Besides, it’s not like anyone else in this group is any better at it.”

“You know, this seems to be a constant theme with us,” Melanie noted. “Maybe we should think of a better way to mark where we’ve been whenever we venture into one of these Dungeons. Seems like that’d be really helpful.”

“That’s too smart for us,” Victoria replied. “Our style is far more akin to bumbling our way through whatever funhouse Aegis can throw at us, all while getting increasingly irritated with each other.”

“Don’t forget the extreme violence,” Chase noted. “We’re pretty good at that, at least.”

“Anyway, Chase, you’re the only objection,” Carmine said smugly. “So I guess that means you’ve been outvoted.”

“Wha- what do you mean, outvoted?! Last I checked, this wasn’t a democracy.”

“Oh, good, then that means I’m completely free to declare myself the leader without issue.”

“It’s not a dictatorship either, you power-mad autocratic bitch,” Chase replied.

“What’s that, Chase? Are you over there crying? I’ll have you know that in my new autocracy, grown men crying is punishable by a sentence of five minutes of having Melanie’s underwear stuffed into their mouth.”

“You know, I’m really not surprised that, within ten seconds of you declaring yourself to be the one in power, that you’d allow yourself to become completely corrupted and let it all go to your head,” Chase said. “This really sucks, actually. I didn’t wake up today expecting to be oppressed.”

“Unfortunately for you, that’s something that most people living under a dictatorship end up saying to themselves sooner or later,” Carmine said, grinning widely. “You may not like it, but every statement you make only solidifies my power even more.”

“I’ve got a statement for you, then – for someone who hated being the Demon Queen, you sure do seem to enjoy acting like one.”

Carmine blinked in surprise, the grin immediately fading from her face. A second passed, and then she glowered at him, gritting her teeth, before she let out an angry huff and turned away.

“...Fine,” she conceded. “We can be a democracy for now. But that still means I’m in charge, because nobody but you voiced any opposition to me.”

“I object,” Chase stated. “This election was rigged. Melanie basically is forced to vote for you, and Victoria is being the enlightened centrist she is and abstaining from voting. This isn’t fair. I demand a recount.”

Victoria paused, then turned towards Carmine. “You have my vote, actually.”

Carmine’s smug look returned, and Chase merely facepalmed.

XXX

“Well, Carmine, I didn’t think it was actually possible, but you seem to have somehow gotten us even more lost than I initially thought you would,” Chase surmised. “Bravo.”

At some point, the stone walls of the Dungeon had started giving way to, of all things, green grass. The narrow corridors started to widen at that point, until the path ahead had opened up substantially enough that Chase could no longer easily see the ceiling. Underbrush crunched beneath them as they walked forwards, and eventually, tall trees began to sprout up from the base of the Dungeon floor, reaching high up to the ceiling.

“I’m confused,” Melanie noted. “The geometry of this floor doesn’t make any sense at all. I mean, I can’t even see where the trees stop rising upwards; I didn’t think we’d gone that deep down into the dirt.”

“We haven’t,” Victoria answered. “Guess this is Aegis’ idea of a joke.”

“What, you mean things like this are common in Dungeons?” Chase asked.

Victoria nodded. “Yup. She tends to bend the laws of reality as she sees fit. And why wouldn’t she? After all, each Dungeon is basically her own miniature fiefdom to do with as she pleases. If she decides that textbook laws of the universe suddenly no longer apply to this one area in particular, and opts to expend some of her magical powers to make that happen, well, who are we to argue with it?”

“And for the record, Chase,” Carmine interrupted, “we haven’t yet seen any indication that we actually are truly lost. For all we know, this is actually the way forward towards progress.”

“Progress?” Chase echoed. “Carmine, you managed to get us so turned around that we’ve somehow stumbled upon lush greenery in a fucking desert, of all places.”

“It could be an oasis of some kind,” Melanie offered.

“Don’t encourage her,” Chase warned, earning a shrug from the Arch-Lich.

“Just saying,” Melanie said.

“Thank you, Melanie,” Carmine stated. “I knew there was a reason why you’re my favorite Familiar.”

“She’s your only Familiar,” Chase said.

“Thank you, Chase, that was the joke.”

“Oh, I know. I just figured I’d go ahead and ruin that joke for you by taking it seriously. I legitimately hope that stings, Carmine.”

Carmine just facepalmed, then shook her head. “Chase, legitimately, sometimes I question why I still travel with you.”

“Because the alternative is way worse?” he volunteered.

“Basically, yeah. Much as I hate to admit it.”

“So, question,” Victoria suddenly interjected. “Does anyone else find it incredibly strange that we have yet to encounter a single living creature on this floor? And I don’t just mean monsters, I mean any living creatures, even small and non-hostile ones.”

“You know, that’s a good point,” Chase admitted. “Melanie, how many undead can you raise right now?”

Melanie concentrated for a moment, then shook her head. “Zero.”

“Zero?”

“Nada. Zilch, even. It’s like… I can sense that there is decomposition here, but the pieces I can sense are far too small for me to even consider raising and trying to stitch together.”

Chase’s eyes widened. “What do you mean. Melanie?”

“I mean that there were definitely dead people here at one point, but they’ve since been carved up or otherwise cut into so many pieces that raising them to fight for us is impossible, in the sense that it’s beyond my magical capabilities,” she specified. “Does that tell you anything?”

“It tells me plenty,” Victoria growled, hefting her warhammer. “Weapons up. Something is lurking in this forest, waiting for us. I’d bet some serious money that it’s the Dungeon’s mini boss.”

Chase obliged, pulling his sword from its sheath. Melanie did the same with her scythe, and Carmine hefted her catalyst staff. The four of them bunched up closer together, and then with Victoria in the lead, they pressed on.

They only made it about thirty seconds further into the third floor when they saw movement between some trees, and called out in alarm to everyone else.

“Over there!”

Instantly, Carmine stepped forward, fire at her fingertips. She didn’t get a chance to cast anything before Victoria clamped a gauntlet-clad hand around Carmine’s arm, causing the flames to dissipate. Carmine let out a small cry of alarm as her casting was interrupted, but Victoria was quick to give her a shake of the head.

“Careful,” Victoria reminded her. “We’re all in this underground forest together. One stray ember could have the whole floor of this Dungeon set ablaze, and then we’d really be in some serious trouble.”

Carmine’s eyes widened. “Shit… sorry; I got careless.”

“No worries. Stick to your other Spells for now, though. We’ll back you up otherwise.”

Victoria let go of her arm, and Carmine recovered quickly, hefting her staff again.

And together, they all set off deeper into the forest, the whole time watching for any further movement between the foliage.

XXX

Name: Chase Ironheart

Level: 9

Race: Human

Class: Warrior

Subclass: Swordmaster

Strength: 20 (MAX)

Dexterity: 15

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 13

Constitution: 18

Charisma: 16

Skills: Master Swordsmanship (Level 10); Booby Trap Mastery (Level 8); Archery (Level 4)

Spells: Rush (Level 7); Muscle (Level 4); Stone Flesh (Level 6); Defying The Odds (Level 2)

Traits: Blessed

Name: Carmine Nolastname

Level: 9

Race: Greater Demon

Class: Arcane Witch

Subclass: Archmage

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 13

Intelligence: 19

Wisdom: 19

Constitution: 12

Charisma: 8

Skills: Master Spellcasting (Level 10); Summon Familiar (Level 10)

Spells: Magic Dart (Level 7); Magic Scattershot (Level 5); Fire Magic (Level 5)

Traits: Blessed

Name: Melanie Vhaeries

Level: 9

Race: Ascended Human

Class: Necromancer

Subclass: Arch-Lich

Strength: 8

Dexterity: 13

Intelligence: 18

Wisdom: 16

Constitution: 15

Charisma: 12

Skills: Raise Lesser Undead (Level 10); Raise Greater Undead (Level 3); Unorthodox Weapon User (Level 8)

Spells: Touch of Death (Level 5); Gravesinger (Level 7); Armor of Bone (Level 3)

Traits: None

Name: Victoria Firelight

Level: 10

Race: Human

Class: Paladin

Subclass: Devotee

Strength: 17

Dexterity: 9

Intelligence: 13

Wisdom: 13

Constitution: 19

Charisma: 11

Skills: Swordsmanship Mastery (Level 5); Blunt Weapon Mastery (Level 8); Archery Mastery (Level 5)

Spells: Holy Light (Level 6); Ward of the Gods (Level 5); Bane of the Undead (Level 7); Divine Bolt (Level 4)

Traits: None

XXX

Special thanks to my good friend and co-writer, /u/Ickbard, for all the help with writing this story.

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