Chapter 2 - A Warehouse Dngeon

The moment that she stepped inside, Noire immediately got the feeling of being in an Abnormal Dungeon, just like all the other times she had.

Once she had taken her first step into this place, she had instantly got hit with a wave of sickness, a feeling which had set about washing over her like a rush of crashing water whilst the settings around her began to shift and distort. It reminded her of how illusions which manipulated the fabric of reality worked, and she only knew THOSE from reading books which had originated from Lowee. She almost felt like she would both hurl as well as fall over at the same time, everything beginning to twist in on itself to jar her perceptions of life itself.

"Ugh…!"

'Yep, this is DEFINITELY an Abnormal Dungeon alright…' Noire thought, biting back the urge to curse as she held her forehead, a blunt yet powerful pounding sensation erupting within the depths of her Skull. It resembled the full brunt of a bullet train slamming into a building, only that same brunt was repeated throughout her skull's interior with no sign of slowing down one bit, something which Noire really HATED about these Dungeons. She sometimes wondered if it was something about Team RAIL and Nico, but aside from their reports everybody else (including herself) had experienced this feeling all the time, whenever they entered these damned places.

Only one good thing had been recorded about this feeling, and that would have been how it only lasted a couple seconds at most, and a millisecond at best. Unfortunately for Noire, she had to have the worst kind of luck since it took the full 2 seconds for this pain to stop, and her settings to finally solidify themselves. "Ugh.. Ugh… the pain's slowly going down now, must mean I'm in the Dungeon proper." The ancient Goddess remarked to herself, shaking her head to get rid of the cobwebs within her mind. Thanks to having dealt with this feeling for so long, her body had built up a response to clear it the MOMENT that it ended, something of which she had WAY too much gratitude for.

Once it was finally done, Noire blinked several times as she raised her head, lowering her right hand from were it had once been on her forehead to look at her new surroundings. Good thing her jaw had been a part of her body, otherwise she would have lost it when she found herself standing atop a piece of concrete in a warehouse… only, it was NOTHING like any kind of warehouse she had ever seen.

The whole Warehouse was HUGE, as in colossally huge, so huge that Noire could hardly see the top or the bottom. Everything around her felt WRONG, as evident by how she looked around and found herself standing like she was walking up a surface like that orange clad ninja, but to her it felt like normal gravity. Everything slanted upwards, only to where Noire again had no idea. Up above, she could see crates floating about like pieces of garbage, looking like they had been partially crushed by something whilst a rare few looked normal. Two such crates floated before the platform she found herself on. On both the left and right sides, Noire observed uncountable numbers of shelves filled with boxes like a typical warehouse, the sole thing resembling one in this weird place. She could see dozens of signs around her, some dotted around floating crates, others on scattered frames, pipes ect:

Stupidity

Obesity

Drink Virility.

"#scoff# No thank you, I'd rather not get fat…" Noire muttered, a scowl planting itself onto her face whilst tutting her head away from these signs. No way would she do something which would apparently make her look fact, she preferred her current figure thank you very much! "And what's this 'Virility' stuff? Don't think I've heard of THAT brand in Lastation…" she added on, eyeing some of the crates with distaste. Whoever made this place a reality, she really needed to get their heads examined cause the maintenance of this place looked like a scrapyard at best…

Ugh, she sounded SO much like Mundus there, and THAT wasn't a comforting thought.

'Still, if this Dungeon's one big platformer like this, it makes sense why not much progress was made and there were no map attempts in the report… Whelp, time to go exploring…'

Deciding that staying put wasn't the best idea, Noire began walking forwards towards the first crate she seemed to have to climb. Something about this place seemed to be restricting her ability to transform, so HDD wasn't an option anymore. "Well, some cardio isn't so bad, I don't want to gain too much weight…" she mused, though when she thought that the image of Neptune fattening herself up with Pudding came to mind. "Though, Neptune probably would if given the chance…"

Inside of her, the black haired Goddess found herself feeling like she was scaling a tower.

With that in mind, Noire jumped to the first crate, grasping the ledge before hauling herself on top of it, repeating this process with the second crate. Whilst doing that, Noire had indeed noted how there was this 'pressure' in the air, one which felt like gravity itself was pressing down on her. Add in the distortions she could sense all over the place, and one could see how messed up this place looked.

After getting onto the second crate, Noire discovered two crates having been crashed together with the one she was on, creating a V shaped crossroads. "Hm, so the paths, or whatever in this place sees as paths, diverge from here, huh?" the blackette mused, glancing between the paths. On the left side, she could see a couple floating crates atop one another, whilst further ahead she could see tis black resin-like material hindering the way forwards. Shifting her gaze to the right, she saw the same thing… only there was no webbing involved.

Whelp, she knew which path she wanted to take.

Shifting her position, Noire strode over to the right side, gazing towards the crates. On both sides, each of them had large gaps which would be difficult to traverse, especially with her lack of jumping ability. 'Why did the devs not give us better jumping? I know they input a plan to improve it later in the game but come on!' the blackette whined in her mind. Afterwards, the Lastation Goddess decided to try something which could help her get across, as an idea had already popped into her head a second into examining the distance she'd need to jump.

'We've so far been able to generate Panels to either slow us down or alter our trajectory, but who says we can't use them in other methods?' Noire commented within herself, taking a few steps back till she had enough space to get a head start. Just before she broke into a mad sprint, she threw a hand out forwards, and as such a panel appeared right by the edge of the Crate which had the size of 6-7 meters in diameter. Once Noire stepped onto this panel, a force propelled her upwards, allowing her to jump higher than she normally would, flip through the air like an acrobat, before landing atop the top Crate.

"Yes, it worked!"

Noire shrieked this in joy, even though nobody would hear her or give a comment. A few seconds passed before she realized this, and a… well, somewhat depressed sigh escaped her lips. "Geez, I spend so much time with other people and now I feel the impact when I go on my first solo quest in a long time… sheesh, if this keeps up, Neptune will never let me live this down." She remarked, already imagining the aggravating voice the preteen had, accompanied by her 'troll face' calling her things like Lonely Heart or the 'friendless Goddess'.

"Shut it Neptune, I'm not lonely!" She shouted… at nothingness.

…

…

…

…

…

This realization dawned on her after a moment of silence where she swore she heard crickets chirping, and her face became flushed crimson in humiliation. She even reflexively gazed downwards to hide her shame, as if someone would be judging her right now. 'Oh goddess, did I REALLY just do that? Ugh, let this secret fall with me when I die, or be it forgotten by history. If someone like that bratty Goddess learns of this, I'll die of shame…' she thought, before looking around to see where she needed to go next.

Looked like she had arrived at a reverse 't' shaped junction, where she could go either straight ahead, or she could go left. Up ahead, Noire spotted another crossroads, causing her to groan to herself and wonder if this was more like a labyrinth than a platforming area. She knew she'd said some cardio would do her some good, but this was indeed ridiculous? Noire REALLY wanted to meet whoever made these places, just so she could show her 'appreciation' for all this stuff they've put her and her people through. As for the left side, she saw some crates which led to the left side of the following crossroads, not much else though.

Part of her wondered if this would be some kind of 'O' shape if she looked at it from a bird's eye view.

In any case, Noire still chose to go straight ahead, still repeating her previous actions with the jumping off panels to get to the next Crate… only, as Noire fell towards it, her eyes widened when she realized she had put a little TOO much power into the Panel, as a result she was falling towards the crate's rear edge. "Whoa, whoa-whoa- whoa-whoaaaaaaa!" she cried out with a surge of panic escaping her chest, landing just before the edge and beginning the struggle to retain her balance. Noire almost fell off right then and there, had she not managed to regain herself at the last minute. Afterwards, she just let herself fall onto her backside, a hand over her pounding heart as she took laboured breaths. "Whew… that was close… I don't want to fall to my death out here…" Noire muttered softly, her eyes closing to attempt to calm her jackhammer of a heart.

Taking a short moment to catch herself again, Noire then eventually stood back up, opening her eyes with a shimmering resolve restored within them. "Right!" she chided herself, patting her cheeks with her hands to try and get rid of any lingering fears. "Onwards we go, Noire. Also, note to self: gauge how much power panels need if I don't want to fall to an early grave." With that said, the black-haired Goddess continued on her way.

It didn't take her long for her to traverse multiple platforms, some way up high and others she had to take time to look around and locate, but eventually she found herself flying through some resin she had cut through with a quick application of Zandatsu combined with her HF Blade, only to fall onto a pretty large platform. A platform made from empty shelves with panels on them to walk on.

Though, a little something different would happen here.

Upon landing, Noire slid along it for a few seconds, before digging her silver heels in and stopping herself abruptly. "Whew, a bigger platform… I at least won't have to worry about falling as much for now…" Noire mused to herself, before her instincts informed her of danger. It helped that Ashbringer began to glow brightly as if trying to warn her that danger was nearby, and sure enough, both of these made her look around to see several crimson portals open up, spitting out Those 'Lesser Stygians' as well as a couple 'Bathos' creatures. About 20, 10 of the former and 10 of the latter. Each of them glared and hissed at Noire, eager to taste her flesh in their fangs, whilst the Cherub-looking creatures aimed their crossbows at her.

Noire meanwhile, huffed while flicking her ponytails to her side. She readied her HF blade getting into her battle stance which involved her placing her right foot forwards and her left leg sideways. She grasped her HF Blade in both hands and held it so that the hilt was angling the blade downwards from above her shoulder: pretty much the same stance that her mentor Raiden uses on a daily basis. Her eyes focused their crimson gaze upon the Demons before her, and if they had ANY sense at all, they would have noticed her eyes having a faint glow to them. "What took you all so long?" she questioned sarcastically.

All they responded with were a few howls of hatred as they charged at her.

"Um, Mrs Chian?"

"Yeah?"

Whilst she worked on some papers in her office, Chian looked up when she heard the voice of one of her workers. She eyed the worker, who looked to be a man in his mid to late forties, wearing a chef's uniform whilst looking like he had just gotten through a particularly rough time with the rest of the staff. Even though they weren't serving as many customers right now, it didn't mean any of them slacked off on their work. One time she had caught one failing one of her family recipes, and well… nobody wanted to recall how that turned out.

This man was named Jacob, basically he served as her second in command and had been around since her father was still alive. Heck, he had even babysat for her father when she had been a wee lass once or twice, though afterwards he had disappeared for some reason. She didn't know why or what had happened back then, nor did she care about it. All she wanted to do would be to keep this business, which served as the last thing connecting her to her father, up and running. Nothing else apart from that mattered to her… well, aside from the CPU and getting the chance to stick it to those Avenir bastards, but that second one was more of a petty thing and the first would always have an important place here. Especially with what the CPU had done for her.

Still, she did detect the concern within the man's voice, thus she decided to hear him out.

"Do you think that… it was the right idea to tell her? I mean, she must be busy and all…"

Hearing him say his piece so nervously like that, Chian sighed, leaning back on her chair. Honestly, she could understand his worries, as not all her staff members were on board with her idea of bringing their CPU into this mess. Not when she had more important things to attend to like that truce business over in Leanbox. But, this stuff had been going on for a while and aside from this being a possible PR stunt for Avenir, it had been affecting their business partners which would in turn effect Passé.

More than that…

"I thought about it beforehand, but I saw little option, Jacob. I wouldn't have done so otherwise, since she does have a nation to manage. Though it would be best for you not to worry, even if she wasn't a CPU, I'd still rely on her for some assistance. Noire's unlike any other person I know, and that's saying a lot coming from me. Not only is she a strong fighter who won't rest until her enemies can no longer endanger those she considers precious to her, but also someone with great mental strength, able to push through these tough times when people haven't been able to trust her. Someone like that… would definitely be someone my father would have placed his faith in, and thus, so shall I."

"Sir… it appears that SHE has entered the Dungeon…"

"Oh? Interesting… then it appears that all is not lost. What that foolish idiot did before will now come undone, everything shall proceed as planned once more."

"But sir! Should she by chance discover it, won't it…?!"

"Do not worry yourself over matters that do not concern you. This Goddess may be rumoured to be strong, and I will enjoy fighting her when the time comes. But in comparison to myself, she will be nothing. Now, leave me. I must be in seclusion for the time being."

"Yes, sir…"

Back with Noire herself…

"Phew, now THAT was a workout…"

After dealing with the Abnormals, of which she had to suffer extra waves of them which soon reached the hundreds. Noire decided to continue on with her platforming. Apparently, as she ascended up them, she discovered how there would be platforms in which she could rest on… after she had killed the Abnormals which spawned there. It… wasn't exactly somethings he could day she liked, even though she enjoyed a good fight every now and then. But, with everything that's happening around her, she didn't have time to truly enjoy it.

Those feelings surged through her as she continued on her platforming journey, ascending upwards and fighting hordes of Abnormals all the while. Whilst stamina draining, Noire DID find solace in that it allowed her to get better at using Panels for MORE than what she and the other CPUs used them for, something which she found herself to be getting more proficient at the more she used it. She DID encounter a few more Notable Demons like a bulkier Stygian covered in flames: of which she had decided to call it a 'Hell Knight'. Then there were those bulldozer-like Demons which she could only strike through the openings on their backs that reminded her of the 'Tyrants' which she had heard of thanks to Avenir.

In current times, Noire found herself jogging through a series of corridors, something she found herself more than thankful for since it meant she wouldn't be falling to her death. Although, this DIDN'T mean it wouldn't have its own dangers, something she found herself certain of thanks to Ashbringer. 'These creatures, compared to Demons, are like starter mobs in videogames…' Noire thought to herself. 'I wonder if its because of that platforming section that this Agent couldn't get this far in… I've already gone further that this Agent ever could have.'

Whilst she turned to walk down another corridor, Noire suddenly sensed something amiss which caused her to halt her strides. Instinctively, she drew out her HF blade and got into her battle stance when her instincts told her that danger was nearby. "Looks like this Dungeon has a few surprises left up its sleeve…" she muttered, something which got proven correct when she saw what looked like a yellow orb appear on the opposite side of the corridor… from out of freaking nowhere. Instantly, Noire sensed it was like the rest of the Abnormals she had seen, especially when she noticed how there seemed to be shards of concrete being forcefully yanked from the surroundings, as if the orb's aura of pure malice and hatred was ripping them out down to their very foundations.

A moment later, those shards soon formed spikes after their solid forms got melted by the malice-filled aura, becoming spikes similar to that of blackened blood which rotated around the yellow orb. Faster and faster they spun, so much so that the surrounding space around the orb began to show signs of distortion, pretty much confirming within Noire's mind that it would be best NOT to let that get anywhere near her.

'Since I don't have many ranged attacks right now, I can only do this!'

Bending her legs, Noire pumped them full of energy, thus when she finally broke into a sprint she transformed into nothing but a blur, dashing right towards the rotating orb. However, just as she neared it, Noire's eyes widened as she activated her ZANDATSU, altering her perception of time to a slower extent. This slowed down everything around her, giving Noire plenty of time to pivot herself around the Orb's shards. Instead of just slashing it apart though, Noire just connected the sword to her right foot after raising the foot's leg, before unloading thousands upon THOUSANDS of slashes upon the Orb, not giving it a single second to respond. In essence, in one second did Noire deal over 10,000 Slashes towards this thing, so by the time the ZANDATSU effect deactivated, the entire thing simply shattered into nothingness, leaving no remains.

"Whew, that was easy…" Noire mused as she took a breath to still her nerves. Honestly dealing with these small fries, whilst easy, would soon prove boring to her. A sigh escaped her lips when she thought about this, placing her HF Blade back into its sheathe. Having fought against powerful Demons like the Bloodletters and Bloodthirsters, beings who exuded ACTUAL danger to their surroundings, things like these would HARDLY prove a challenge to her.

Catching herself, Noire quickly shook her head in a scolding manner. "Don't get too cocky, Noire. Abnormals may not pose as much a threat to you as they did in the past, but they still have been threatening your people." She figured this was the price one had to pay, after fighting so many strong opponents one after another, fighting what could be considered common enemies would become more of a chore than anything truly threatening. She hadn't even truly started fighting yet, and Noire had already begun to showcase just how prideful she really was…

Not good.

Not good at all, she thought.

Though, in all fairness, compared to the confidence she had prior to Halo Mountain, this level could hardly be called confidence one bit. Shudders ran down her spine at those memories, they'd definitely leave her a shivering mess no matter how many times she recalled them. Recalling those eyes that Mundus possessed, the way he calmly dispatched each of them and looked to have been about to use them as if they were his playthings… yeah, not something which she would be getting over any time soon.

That probably was the case for the rest of the Party who fought there too, they ALL needed to get stronger, they needed to get stronger REAL fast before they could meet that bastard again. So, they could pay him back for putting them through all this.

'It's probably way worse for Vert and Neptune, still… Well, I believe they'll get over it, that moron has a lot of friends, not like I'm jealous or anything, and Vert has her allies in her Basilicom… the rest should be fine…' Even as she thought that, the worry which bubbled inside of her didn't cease. Though, wasn't that natural? Isn't worrying for others something a decent person would do? Well, those were her feelings on the matter, as Noire continued on her journey through this Dungeon.

A short moment of jumping atop strange items later, Noire came to another warehouse-like storage section which would require platforming, causing her to groan internally but otherwise no other methods of complaining escaped her. Platforming had quickly begun to be viewed by her as one of her least favourite activities, quite close to letting Avenir roam free when she was obviously aware of their crimes.

The section consisted of a couple tall shelves, one leaning on its side whilst the other pointed forwards like some sort of perpendicular angle. There was a Crate before her which she could use to get a running head start, though she'd have to be careful of the pipe protruding out between her and the shelf. Afterwards, were a set of floating crates leaning on their sides and forming a curving segmented pathway which went beneath the vertical shelf and connected to another set of crates which lead to the other side. In any case, it simply had to be another complex platforming section. '#SIGH# at least I have my panel trick to get through this…' she thought after bisecting a couple Bathos which had appeared above her to try and hinder her progress.

Once they had dispersed, Noire took a few steps back before breaking into a sprint, a panel appearing before the edge and propelling Noire up into the air. The faint rush of air pressing against her face and making her twin tails flap in the breeze didn't diminish her eyesight, allowing her to notice that at the back of this platforming section would be the way forwards. She soon landed on another platform, sliding to a halt before making another panel and jumping onto the next crate. She repeated this process again and again, traversing along the curving path of crates in order to make it to the other side. Though, she had ended up on a walkway made from Crates meshed together, so she had to walk along them and then hop down to solid ground again.

Soon, she managed to get it done, and at long last she found herself looking at another corridor. This kind of surprised her, yet not so much at the same time. 'These Abnormal Dungeons definitely surpass the normal ones in Gamindustri on size alone…' she thought. Whilst some Dungeons had multiple floors, they had NOTHING in terms of the sheer size that these Abnormal variants possessed. Even if she compared their complexities, these Abnormal Dungeons had them beat… Not a thought she liked to entertain at least. Still, it wasn't something she couldn't handle, a fact which she used as encouragement to press on here. Whatever this place was, HAD to have SOMETHING worthwhile in it, this thought process had been born just before Noire had entered this place, but had strengthened over time.

(Play OST - Empyre One And Enerdizer - My Radio Phillerz Remix)

Taking a few steps forwards towards the corridor, Noire soon saw her way barred by a Hell Knight, and… wow, another Stygian this time made from ice, huh? Both these Stygian variants howled and shrieked as they bonked their swords against their secondary pieces of equipment, shields, although that didn't really concern the black-haired CPU. Actually, this reminded said CPU of Raven for some reason… oh yeah, the whole ice manipulation thing…

'Well, it'll be nothing for me, but at least these guys are being a bit more creative…' Noire mused mentally, deciding to give her HF Blade a break and instead drew Ashbringer from her back. The holy-based weapon thrummed with power as she drew it, almost trembling excitedly within her grasp at being able to fight the enemies of humanity. Once she held its shaft in both hands, the woman got into her battle stance, and that served as a trigger. A trigger for the two Stygians of fire and ice, to screech in malice before sprinting towards her.

However, the first attack landed on Noire's corner of the football field, when she recalled one of the powers Stefan wielded in his final battle. She got into the appropriate stance as Ashbringer began to glow with Holy energies which covered the blade. Only, unlike when Stefan had used it, these energies violently crackled like erratic snakes made from lightning, concealing the blade in an aura which mimicked its shape as she charged forwards with a battle cry.

Her fist target, became the ice clad Stygian, which quickly recognized the danger it had found itself in. Everything in its body screamed at it that the energy within that sword would be chaotically fatal to its well-being, like the energy itself had been the exact opposite of its own. As a result, the creature reacted like its life was on the line (admittingly, it kinda was), as it swung its blade upwards. What followed, was a trail of rising Ice spikes which shot up from the ground, easily reaching the size of a fully grown human. Each Spike looked like they could fulfil their purpose, what they were made to do… to pierce, to stab and utterly shred to pieces.

"Hah, as if such an obvious attack would it ME!"

Unfortunately for it, Noire didn't let that happen as the moment she saw the spike trail manifest a spike which would have pierced her otherwise, she raised a foot and smashed it, using the destroyed spike as a medium whilst forming a panel under that foot, one which allowed her to leap right on over the Spike Trail and allow her to land at the creature's right flank.

Not giving it any time to react, Noire swiftly thrusted the blade forwards, like she would her CPU Sword in what could only be described as a trillion stabbing motions. Dozens upon dozens of thrusts descended upon the Ice-clad Stygian, so fast that they actually created the illusions of many thousands of blades piercing through the ice-enhanced hide. This happened all within a couple seconds to the blackette, before she finished off the Abnormal by twirling on her left heel, spinning around the creature and swiftly swinging Ashbringer in a reverse horizontal slash, beheading the beast and ending the combo.

As the Abnormal vanished, Noire quickly turned her attention to the other enemy, which had already impaled the ground with its sword. Memories of what had happened during the last one she fought that did this played in her mind, and Noire reflexively responded. Without waiting for her feet to feel like they were on top of a BBQ stand, she bent her legs and jumped high into the air, flipping forwards multiple times. This ended up working, as a second later the entire ground around the creature became a molten mess, at least 10 meters of ground in every direction being converted this way thanks to the infernal heat radiating from its blade.

'The flames of Hell… this Hell Knight's flames may not be weak, but compared to HIS, they are nothing…' Noire thought as she landed atop the Abnormal's head, then jumping off it and flipping backwards so she could swing at the back of its neck like she had done to its buddy. Unluckily for her, the creature did not have the intelligence of a 2-year-old toddler, learning from the mistake of its brethren to angle its flaming shield and block the strike before it could land.

Fortunately, this meant that the ground lost the heat which had converted it, so Noire didn't feel too much when she landed on it, sliding to a halt. However, instincts kicked in as she raised Ashbringer and parried a horizontal slash which had been aimed for her eyes. Gritting her teeth at the force she had been exerted upon, Noire swiftly pushed the Abnormal back, jumping towards it to begin her own offensive.

If this thing thought it could rely on that shield forever, it had another thing coming, she thought as she pointed Ashbringer at her opponent with another technique in mind. "HAMER OF JUSTICE!" She called out, drawing out and condensing holy energy above the blade into a massive golden Hammer, one she swung the mighty blade to launch towards her opponent. The Hammer flew true, spinning like a wheel and with a loud BONK, struck the beast on the head and leaving it dazed when it dissipated right after. Noire wasted no time after this, knowing that this state would only last for 4 seconds at most, thus she sped towards her enemy and began visualizing another technique. "CRUSADER STRIKE!" She called out again, coating Ashbringer heavily in holy energy as she dashed right by the stunned Hell Knight with a gash having appeared at the base of its neck before it could regain itself. By the time it had done so, it had already been too late, for the gash erupted and took its head with it, leaving the headless corpse to fall to the ground and disappear into Particles.

(OST End)

"Like I would have any trouble…" Noire haughtily commented, flicking one of her ponytails with her free hand, huffing right afterward as she glanced down at the Blade in her weapon hand. "Well, its been a while since I last used you and Balmung in battle at least since I haven't found anyone worthy of you two, but I guess now would be a good time. After all, it looks like you're not satisfied yet, eh kiddo?" She commented, smirking when she felt the restlessness of the blade whilst it rattled like a serpent's tail within her grasp.

It had always perplexed her that these two swords, as massive as they were, indeed used her Divine energy to empower themselves. Balmung stored it within its crystal which glowed when it could be used to discharge an army-destroying wave (at full power, she restrained it usually), and Ashbringer channelled Holy Energy, but it also empowered itself further with her own Divine Share Energy, pretty much stacking it on top of its own energy source for greater destructive efficiency. This SOUNDED quite cool on paper, but in actual practicality… Noire found her situation to be similar to a short-term Battery. She could surely dish out a lot of damage at high percentages, but she could burn through her energy rapidly.

Hence why she usually stuck to her HF Blade since it provided excellent cutting power, but with no energy drainage.

That, and well, it was given to her by a special someone, so…

Shaking her head so she didn't think any further and fluster up a storm, Noire continued forwards. Her previous thoughts about this Warehouse-like Dungeon being big had definitely been validated in her mind by this point, but how big was it really? Not even she could guess that one.

"Ewwww, these things look gross as heck…" Noire groaned in disgust, feeling within her gut the nasty urge to vomit her lunch she had a few hours ago. The reason? Whelp, not long after she had finished those two Stygians off, and then found herself cornered in a room full of them alongside those spinning Shard-like things, she had found herself walking along a corridor which had these… well, these ugly, yellowish pulsating Tentacle-like things which wriggled and writhed along the walls they were restrained to. Almost like there was something running through them like blood within one's veins.

Not exactly a very nice thing to look at.

If Noire had thought THEY were bad when compared to the other ugly, grotesque and abominable sights she had seen from the Northmen, the forces of the Chaos Gods, and the vulgarity Mundus commonly bragged about, then the sights she saw when approaching what could only be described as a Mixing Room took the cake. She REALLY had to focus on not barfing when she saw that this 'Mixing Room' which, in a normal world would have had huge canisters of water which came out in taps for people to seek refreshments from… instead had these organ-like deformed beings within them, beings whose features she couldn't even recognize due to how severe the deformations looked. That, and how the yellowish liquid the Tentacles she'd seen earlier had been carrying seemed to distort and conceal them from a proper view. Though, Noire found that to be more of a blessing than a curse right now.

Even Ashbringer in her grasp trembled with similar emotions to its wielder, the sheer and utter contempt that it radiated for these beings which descended upon humanity with malicious intent could be felt by even comatose people. Shaking her head to try and focus on something else, Noire looked up when she noticed more Tentacle-like tubes running up the ceiling, soon locating the large… fleshy something which dangled in the room's centre. "Looks like whatever this stuff is, comes from this thing in the centre… looks like this Dungeon goes deeper too, judging by how I can't seem to see the bottom from up here." Noire muttered as she stepped towards a circular piece of railing and leaned over, looking down to see if she could find the source of this ugliness, only to find darkness.

Still, part of her couldn't help but wonder about what lay at the end of this Dungeon. With all these navigational areas, these enemies and grotesque designs, it made her think that whatever lay at the end would be both difficult, probably ugly, yet also satisfying to deal with. Not only that… 'I get the feeling this Dungeon's meant to represent something, like I dunno, maybe how corporations are instilling fear into people and making them by their products… sounds like Avenir in a nutshell, possibly the 4 Basilicoms and any corporations in Lastation in a nutshell.' She thought whilst looking around and taking in the overall steam punky features this 'Mixing Room' provided.

Her eyes soon caught sight of another doorway which lead out of the Mixing room. Noire's eyes sparkled at this, not only for the chance to get out of this freakazoid place but also to get to the bottom of this Dungeon in order to end it once and for all. "This place makes me want to take a whole day long shower… ugh." Shudders travelled down her spine as some of the grotesque sights she'd seen so far reared their ugly heads within her mind's eye again, prompting Noire to hurriedly stride towards the door in hopes of distracting her. Though, just before she could reach for the handle and push past it, some blackened resin suddenly erupted from above, as well as below it to conceal the door from view, barring her passageway.

(Play OST: Thunderbolt fantasty)

Immediately, this made her realize she was about to have company, which caused Noire to hold Ashbringer into a defensive stance. "Ugh, as if I didn't have ENOUGH annoyances on my mind already… its like having to deal with a bunch of annoying Neptunes all the damn time…" she whined to herself, just as soon as a whole load of Stygians and Bathos enemies appeared around her… as well as 2 of those Tyrant like things as well. Great, looked like she would be in for the long one here.

Oh well, better get this done with so she could move on already.

"Let's get this over with." She sneered, holding Ashbringer at the ready before the enemies charged at her. Noire, seeing as those bulky Tyrant-like things would be the most annoying to deal with when there were other Abnormals around, swiftly stunned them both with two HAMMER OF JUSTICE strikes, giving her a total of 4 seconds to take out the rest of the wave. That was fine with her though, since Noire had a few things she could do about that. One of them, she did next which had been to activate her ZANDATSU, slowing time around her by increasing her own perception. In this state, her attackers' movements occurred in slow motion, giving her the chance to activate her LIGHT DRIVE and ELECTRIC CHARGE in tandem, in order to blast towards them, launching one CRUSADER STRIKE after another at the Stygians. Afterwards, Noire wasted no time as she unloaded a bunch of VACUUM SLASHES at the aerial Bathos, slicing through them with just the air blasts born from her slash attacks.

By the time this had all happened, ZANDATSU deactivated and everything save for the two Tyrant—like Abnormals got eviscerated in spectacular explosions of light and Lightning. 'Whew, now its time for the big boys!' Noire thought to herself, holding Ashbringer at the ready for the last two Abnormals. Good thing too, cause the first one charged at her almost immediately after her time-altering technique finished, intending to shoulder tackle her like one of those rugby player's she'd sometimes hear some of her Basilicom staff rave on when they should be doing their work.

Unfortunately for it, Noire did NOT want to be piled on and possibly have her organs escape her mouth from all that weight it threw around, no she quite LIKED her organs where they were, thank you. Therefore, just before it could hit her with this shoulder tackle, Noire bent her legs and formed a panel, one which allowed her to jump and flip right over the creature, then she angled herself and delivered a spinning drill kick diagonally right into the back of its head, knocking it down to the ground whilst sliding to a halt. This exposed the opening on its back, and with a few quick strikes from Ashbringer's JUDGEMENT technique, pretty much a wide strike targeting multiple foes with the Holy Share-enhanced energy of Ashbringer, it got defeated rather quickly.

Right when Noire made to strike at the second one, a shadow had already darkened her surroundings, and it had only been a mere MILLISECOND in which Noire had the time to jump sideways to avoid an overhead smash from her last opponent. Unfortunately, this didn't give her enough time to avoid the shockwave generated by this strike, which resulted in her flying across the room.

"Gah!"

A loud gasp escaped her as pain exploded from within her back. The impact with the wall, despite the intensity behind it, Noire would have preferred THAT rather than making contact with the canisters, she did NOT want any of that gooey stuff to ruin her clothes. Hey, clothes were EXTREMELY important for a girl, just like their first kiss so no judging! With those thoughts passing through her mind, Noire landed in a crouch and looked up, seeing the final enemy stomping towards her whilst making a sound she could only describe as a distorted chuckling. A chuckle which carried immense amusement and satisfaction upon making her suffer.

'Why that little…!' A furious gaze erupted within Noire's eyes as she got up, holding Ashbringer as she applied one of its healing techniques: the LIGHT FLASH, restoring some of her power as well as healing her back. It wasn't a complete recovery, but it would be enough for her. With resolve burning within her being, the Goddess charged towards the last enemy, jumping over it and bringing Ashbringer down vertically in a CRUSADER STRIKE, cutting straight through the opening there and resulting in the entire creature exploding from how much energy she had put in.

(OST end)

'Whew! There, finally those annoyances are gone!' Noire thought whilst strapping Ashbringer to her back. After having used it to defeat more than a dozen Abnormals so far, she felt like it had become satisfied with the bloodshed, thus didn't have the same excitement as it did before. 'Well, that kiddo's earned some rest, thus I think the next time I fight I'll use Balmung. It may be overkill, but I just want to get this Dungeon cleared already so I can go home…' She thought, seeing the resin break apart to expose the door, which she used to continue on her way.

Chapter end!

Second chapter complete, everyone.

For those who haven't guessed or played it, this Dungeon is a direct reference to the Warehouse level in DMC: Devil May Cry. I know its not as popular as the other titles in the series, but many of the level designs feel like they could fit in Lastation as Dungeons, which is why I'm using them. Thus, to those who've played the game, I think you all can tell which Demon will be the final boss, though how Noire will react to it will be anyone's guess. Please bear in mind though, that these following chapters may not involve as much talking as normal ones, since she's infiltrating a Dungeon solo. I'll also try my best to describe the level design of this piece from the game, but it'll be better for you to have played DMMC Devil May Cry for a better understanding of the landscapes.

Whelp, that's it for now, oh yeah please leave reviews and tell me what you think. Not just of the side story but the main one, it really helps me out and lets me know what you're all thinking. Reviews are quite nice to read after all.

Anyways, Peace out!