Eli and Bethany had stayed together on the smaller, outside edge platforms pretty much taking turns destroying everything. Each platform they left more and more destruction and spectacular displays of violence, Bethany enjoyed his undivided and completely focused attention when it was her turn to fight, it really got her going, and she would get a little carried away. The one tough monster per platform would give her trouble and she would get hurt, but she was insistent that she prove herself able to fight by his side. When Eli was fighting, something about the way Bethany stared at him, so much greed and lust for him in her eyes, he couldn’t help but show off, leaving monsters turned to mist and massive craters in the ground.

  This last small platform was the same as the others but instead of breaking in and rampaging, he wanted to test himself in a way that would make Bethany blush. He knew it would have to be a fantastical display of destructive power to change her face to be more red than it was with how the heat from this cave had already made her red, but he knew he could do it. He took a second to calm his magic, he didn't have much left but he had enough, he mixed in chaos magic and a tiny taste of order magic into the smash skill. He used it every swing now since it took so little magic to activate and always helped by a minimum percent, but this smash was going to be custom. He wanted to use his free-form gravity magic to make his smash really hit.

  From outside the shield, Eli drew back and swung at the shield horizontally, swinging so that his impact on the shield was facing towards the center platform, where presumably the boss would be. Also, where Bethany was standing. He pulled on all his physical strength and swung the cudgel as hard as he could like a baseball bat and the dome shield was going to be his game-winning homerun hit. Just before it made contact with his target, the shield, time slowed for Eli, he glanced around but couldn’t move his head, just noticed the magic and fed it everything. The move was pulling his magic dry while time was basically stopped, what was strange was it felt like it was pulling out more magic than he had, or could regenerate. Like the time effect was stealing his future magic and regeneration. Finally after what felt like five minutes to Eli, the spell triggered and both of their vision went white.

  The bafflingly quiet move went off in an instant, when their eyes cleared, they saw what he had done, what his newest magical experiment had gotten them. Aside from the slew of system windows that apparently they both got, the damage in front of them was so vast and complete that it took their minds several seconds to process it and they both remembered to breathe again. Starting from the point of impact where his presumably now disintegrated weapon had hit the shield and in a straight line there was nothing, a horizontal 40 foot wide pillar of nothing. It began from where he had hit the shield, then curved out to a cylinder shape and went on for what looked like a mile or more before it apparently came into contact with a system generated barrier that held the dungeon floor they were on. And the barrier did not look like it had held entirely.

  The astronomical amount of destruction that had happened in an instant, faster than an eye blink, was taking its toll on their minds to understand. Eli kept rubbing the back of his neck, where his chaos node was, and then staring at his hands. Bethany was frozen in place, not able to move, she hadn’t even blinked, she had fast enough reflexes and perception to see things and previously blinding speed. She had missed all the destruction with both eyes open and looking right at it, millions of tons of rock gone, the air gone, the empty space was even having trouble having light in it, making the center difficult to perceive. After she was beginning to gather herself enough to take her first breath almost a full minute after it had happened, she could feel the warm liquid running down her leg and evaporating almost immediately in the heat.

  Bethany was going through a bit of a crisis, trying to understand what this meant for how she should treat Eli, and for how their relationship should function, if it could function at all. She noticed him staring at his hands, still processing what had happened and wondered if anything between them should change. She hadn’t let anything affect how she treated him so far, why should this be any different. She tried her best to distract her mind and focus on their relationship, but the whole time the back of her consciousness wouldn’t stop repeating a sentiment that she didn’t know how to handle. It was only through sheer will that she was able to keep it at bay but it was catching up to her and getting louder. In her mind, in her soul, in the core of herself, she could only describe him one way now. He was a god.

  Well he was a demi-god anyways, she quickly qualified to keep her sanity in check. After having the time to ponder what real power looked like and what she thought she could bring to bear on an enemy, she felt slightly smaller as a person, as a being in the universe. Her scope of how big things are was just forced to get bigger, and her image of herself forced smaller as a result. She could feel the tears coming to her eyes and almost stopped them but then a hand, a strong, calloused, comfortable hand wiped away her tears and held her face so gently it was like being held by a cloud. She did not sob, but she let the tears run down her face and when her eyes regained focus she saw Eli's eyes locked with hers.

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  His eyes had changed again, he still had purple on the outside edges but the center of his eyes were now almost his entire eye now with the purple barely visible on the edges. The large pupils weren’t black but now resembled the night sky with stars and galaxies in an endless expanse. She completely lost herself in his eyes for several moments not hearing anything he was saying, again she felt small, but then she looked at other parts of his face trying to fight off more tears, not knowing that they were still pouring out of her eyes. He had small crinkles at the edge of his now alien looking eyes, like when he had a genuine smile, his lips were slightly pursed with one side quirked up in a playful smirk.

  All of it together, when taken with his eyebrows being slightly furrowed, he was genuinely concerned and loving towards her. She could see that to him, in his eyes, she was just as tall as he was, just as powerful, and just as deserving as he was. Very suddenly, with a glance of care and affection from Eli, she now felt big again, strong, destined for great and wondrous things. The feeling was indescribable, she felt like her whole body was so full of love she could explode. She had spent her adult life chasing power, shallow vain power that when real danger came, meant nothing. Right now, in this moment, she didn’t have to chase power, it was wrapped around her like a mother swaddles her child.

  This was all a lot for Bethany to take in and she was still processing. Eli had been staring at his hands, then saw how difficult a time Bethany was having dealing with it, which he understood since he was delaying processing it himself, so he went to her and wiped away a tear. Then more tears came so he held a hand to each side of her face and softly kept wiping them, telling her that she was ok and that everything was fine. That isn’t how he felt, he could feel that he was different, he didn’t understand it, but he could feel it. And now that he was holding her, Bethany was different as well, stronger, and vastly more connected to him. The connection was different as well, more like she would be able to feel him better, know his soul more intimately.

  He took his hands from her face and wrapped them around her in a hug, just letting his feelings for her flow through his soul so she could feel them. He had so much gratitude for her, keeping him sane when he was first losing it. She made him feel more human even though he seemed to be drifting away from humans everyday. They stayed like that for a while, neither of them aware of the passage of time while they were dealing with what had happened. Finally, a system window pinged in his head so loud that he felt like his brain was vibrating and they separated, still holding each other but not as close and he opened it feeling he would get brain damage if he didn’t open it soon enough.

  “The dungeon you are in has sustained critical damage”

  “Since the damage came from a participant, the dungeon is now considered cleared”

  “You must leave the dungeon before it collapses entirely”

  “Reach the pillar at the center of the center platform and leave”

  They looked toward where the rest of their group was and could see them already running toward the center, Eli grabbed her close again, giving her butt a squeeze just to be cheeky, and blinked them to the center pillar. Before Eli had to think about how using blink with her felt like he was just doing a normal blink by himself. They all reached out to the pillar and touched it, instantly transporting to a small 10 by 10 by 10 white room that was lit but without a discernible light source. While they were there the system windows popped up from the dungeon completion, including loot, levels, and how they did on time and damage. Eli had windows he wanted to check but could feel that they were going to change things for him again so he was holding off. Instead he pulled up his stats screen and took a look.

  “Magic Level 94”

  “Stats: Strength 55, Reaction 60, Vitality 60, Intellect 55, Wisdom 60, Resistance 60, Will”

  “Free stats: 39 Free stats for int, wis, res: 26”

  While the others were reading the windows, including Bethany who was still holding his hand, and gripping it quite tightly with a shocked look on her face, he applied his free stats. He had entered the dungeon at 83 but he hadn’t put stat points in since 81. It might seem reckless but he just really had forgotten about those 2 levels before they came into this raid dungeon. It felt like they had been in this place forever and he was excited to finally be getting out. His new stats looked like this:

  “Magic Level 94”

  “Stats: Strength 65, Reaction 70, Vitality 70, Intellect 70, Wisdom 70, Resistance 70, Will”

  “Free stats: 0”

  He really did prefer the even numbers of it all, he didn’t feel like he was lacking in any area so he just kept it all even. When he looked back up at Bethany she was smiling very mischievously, and upon noticing that he wasn’t, she got an impatient look on her face. Instead of responding he just let himself feel the hesitation as to what it was, she felt it with a shock and then was looking at him with soft understanding eyes. He absolutely loved it when she gave him that look. It was like all of his actions were to receive that comforting and approving look. They were in that room for a few minutes then moved outside to the dungeon entrance.

  Cody went to look at the entrance plaque which he read allowed. “Raid dungeon closed due to catastrophic damage, time until repaired: Error.”