Dungeon King: I Rule

Chap 20: Reel Of Ruin

The Bombay Film Studio’s gates yawned like the rusted jaws of a decaying film reel. Rain-slicked cobblestones reflected fractured neon...pinks, golds, greens...from holographic projectors bolted to crumbling art deco facades. Above the arched entrance, a broken marquee spat static:

WELCOME TO BOMBAY’S DREAM FACTORY

NOW SHOWING: YOUR DEMISE

Reel Reaper’s voice boomed from hidden speakers, overdubbed with theatrical menace:

“Scene 1: Heroes’ Demise! Lights… Camera… Suffering!”

Projectors flared. Spectral dancers materialized...women in glittering saris, men in sharp suits...twirling across a rain-swept courtyard to a tinny 90s pop anthem. Their smiles stretched too wide. Eyes glitched into pixelated voids.

System Alert:

[ DUNGEON: BOMBAY FILM STUDIO ]

[ MECHANIC: AUDIENCE APPROVAL METER (0/100) ]

[ EFFECT: EMPTY METER = ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS ]

[ FILL BY: STYLISH COMBAT / TRAP EVASION ]

Luna spat. “Style? I’ll style my glaive up his...”

A dancer’s holographic hand brushed Selene’s arm.

Sizzle.

Gold veins beneath Selene’s skin erupted in molten light. She staggered, black-cracked frost spreading from her boots.

System Alert:

[ CORRUPTION: 82% → 83% ]

[ REASON: HORROR HOLOGRAM CONTACT (SUBGENRE: TRAGIC ROMANCE) ]

The dancer’s face melted into Linda’s features...pale, pleading, static tears bleeding from hollow eyes.

“Why did you let me die, Kai?”

GUILT PATH AUTO-ACTIVATED: SHATTERED VOWS

[ EFFECT: HOLOGRAM IMMUNITY (5 SEC) ]

[ COST: SANITY -5% (KAI RELIVES HYDERABAD LAB EXPLOSION) ]

Kai’s void-scorched eye bled darkness.

“Not real. She’s not real.”

Nyx whispered: "Aren’t I?"

The dancers attacked.

Saris became razor-edged whips. Drumbeats detonated into concussive blasts. A pop anthem warped into a minor-key dirge.

System Update:

[ AUDIENCE APPROVAL: 5/100 (WEAK APPLAUSE) ]

[ REWARD: ROM-COM HOLOGRAM SPAWNED (HEALING AURA) ]

A bubblegum-pink zone ignited near a snack stall. Luna dragged Selene into it. Gold veins dimmed from nuclear brightness to smoldering embers.

“Temporary fix,” Selene panted, grey frost crusting her lashes. “His holograms are feeding my corruption.”

Kai sliced through a dancer. Legacy Shards tore through its chest, revealing glitching projectors inside.

“Then we break the projectors.”

“Wrong!” Reel Reaper’s laugh echoed. “Break these!”

The courtyard tiles flipped.

Trap Activated: Dance Floor Gambit

- Green Tiles: Safe. Glow with film-clapper icons.

- Red Tiles: Trigger musical mobs. Glow with skulls.

Selene misstepped.

A red tile flashed. From the wet earth erupted drum-grenadiers...skeletal figures beating war drums that launched sonic mines.

BOOM.

Kai tackled Selene behind a popcorn cart. Shrapnel shredded the cart into soggy confetti.

System Alert:

[ AUDIENCE APPROVAL: 15/100 (MILD INTEREST) ]

[ WARNING: METER BELOW 20 = “TRAGEDY BEAM” ACTIVATION ]

Luna flipped over a drum-grenadier, snapping its spine. “Dance or die, kids!”

Kai counted tiles.

Green-green-red-green…

He moved. Not with grace...with desperate precision. Each safe tile lit beneath his boots. Selene followed, frost slowing her steps.

“Left!” Kai yelled.

Selene dodged right.

A red tile ignited.

Dancers materialized, fists wreathed in acid-fire. One punched Selene’s frost shield.

Crack.

Gold veins surged up her neck.

Corruption: 84%.

System Alert:

[ AUDIENCE APPROVAL: 30/100 (POLITE CLAPPING) ]

[ HOLOGRAM SHIFT: ROM-COM MODE (HEALING AURA EXPANDED) ]

Pink light washed the courtyard. Bhangra dancers paused, offering rose petals instead of fists.

Luna grabbed a rose. It dissolved into code. “Cheap romance.”

Kai stared at a Rom-Com hologram of Linda. She blew him a kiss.

“Come home, Kai.”

GUILT PATH REINFORCED

[ DESIRE TREE LOCKED: “ROMANTIC DISTRACTION” ]

Nyx purred: "Her ghost is a chain. Let me bite it off."

Reel Reaper’s silhouette appeared atop a projector tower.

“Intermission! Let’s raise the stakes.”

He snapped his fingers.

The Rom-Com zone died. Horror-projectors blazed.

Dancers’ skin sloughed off, revealing celluloid skeletons. The pink healing aura curdled into a Tragedy Beam...a searing gold spotlight that chased Selene.

“Run, ice queen!” Reel Reaper cackled. “Audiences love a fall from grace!”

The beam grazed Selene’s heel.

Corruption: 85%.

Her scream was static and rage.

The Matriarch of Melodrama rose from the pit like a wrathful goddess. Thirty feet of glitching hologram-flesh, her sari swirled with living acid, dissolving cobblestones where it touched. Luna’s glaive pulsed in her chest—a silver shard in a heart of gold static.

System Alert:

[ MATRIARCH OF MELODRAMA - PHASE 1 ]

[ ABILITY: TEARJERKER AURA (SANITY DRAIN -2%/SEC) ]

[ VULNERABILITY: AUDIENCE APPROVAL >50 = STUN ]

Selene danced.

Black-veined frost spiraled from her boots, carving intricate patterns on the tiles. Gold light bled from her corrupted shoulder, painting the rain in sickly hues. Every pirouette, every leap, made the Audience Meter climb:

65% → 70% → 75%...

“Pathetic spectacle!” The Matriarch’s voice was a thousand sobbing heroines. She swung a colossal hand—acid-sari whipping toward Selene.

Kai moved.

Legacy Shards met acid-fabric. Hiss-scream! Code-strands in his arm blackened, necrotic.

System Alert:

[ REPLICA INTEGRITY: 59% ]

[ VOID-FROST ECHOES TRIGGERED: RANDOM SURGE ]

Nyx’s power lashed out—uncontrolled. Shadows crawled up the Matriarch’s arm.

“STOP!” Selene screamed. “My meter!”

The Audience Meter plummeted: 75% → 40%.

CLACK!

Reel Reaper’s clapperboard snapped from the shadows.

“Cut! No void hacks! Play fair or die boring!”

The Matriarch’s eyes blazed. Tearjerker Aura intensified.

Kai’s vision swam with memories:

Linda’s corpse in Hyderabad Lab (“You promised…”)

Selene’s frostbitten hands binding his wounds (“Don’t you dare die!”)

Nyx’s tendrils strangling Mumbai (“Embrace me…”)

Sanity: 47% → 42%.

“Focus!” Luna vaulted onto the Matriarch’s acid-sari, climbing toward the glaive. “Distract her, kid! Bollywood style!”

Kai gritted his teeth. No void. No guilt-driven saves.

He stepped onto a green tile—and mirrored Selene’s steps.

A clumsy twirl. A stomp that cracked tiles. The Audience Meter sneered: 40% → 42%.

The Matriarch laughed, swatting at Luna like a fly. “No chemistry! No fire!”

Selene’s eyes met Kai’s. Gold veins pulsed in her neck. “Then let’s give them fire.”

CORRUPTION ACTIVATION: FROSTFIRE WALTZ

[ EFFECT: FUSION MOVE (KAI/SELENE) ]

[ COST: CORRUPTION +3% (PERMANENT GOLD SCARRING) ]

Selene seized Kai’s hand.

Black frost met Legacy energy. A feedback shriek tore through the courtyard—then harmony.

They moved as one:

Kai’s shield flared cobalt.

Selene’s frost ignited into gold fire.

A dual spin kicked up a whirlwind of burning ice.

Audience Meter: 42% → 80%.

The Matriarch staggered. Stunned.

“NOW, LUNA!” Kai roared.

Luna wrenched her glaive free—halfway. The blade stayed embedded in holographic flesh.

“Souvenir!” Reel Reaper taunted. CLACK!

The Matriarch’s tears became acidic rain. Her mouth split into a grin of broken film reels.

“… for DEATH!” She lunged.

New Ability: Dance of Ruin - Shockwave stomps (must be countered with matching dance steps).

Weakness: Projectors in her spine (exposed when stunned).

Selene’s frostfire guttered. Corruption: 89% → 92%. Gold scars cracked across her collarbone. “Can’t… hold…”

Kai counted stomps. Stomp-stomp-PAUSE-stomp.

“Follow my lead! Stomp left, slide right, jump!”

They moved:

Left stomp: Legacy shield shivered.

Slide: Acid-rain grazed Kai’s leg.

JUMP: The shockwave passed under them.

Audience Meter: 85%.

“Encore!” Reel Reaper hissed. CLACK! CLACK!

Double Stomp. No pause.

No time to dodge.

Kai shoved Selene aside—taking the full blast.

CRUNCH.

His replica flickered. Code-strands burst through his chest like black roots.

System Alert:

[ REPLICA INTEGRITY: 33% ]

[ ASSIMILATION RISK: CRITICAL (NYX OVERRIDE IMMINENT) ]

Nyx screamed: "LET ME OUT!"

The Matriarch raised a foot to crush him—

Luna struck.

Her glaive’s jagged half-blade plunged into the Matriarch’s spine—piercing a projector.

SCREECH!

The kaiju hologram glitched. Spine projectors sparked, exposed.

“Projectors!” Luna yelled. “Break them!”

Selene rose, gold fire blazing in her eyes. “My turn.”

CORRUPTION OVERDRIVE: STATIC NOVA

[ EFFECT: 100m RADIUS HOLOGRAM DISRUPTION ]

[ COST: CORRUPTION +3% → 95% (HEART-BEAM UNLOCKED) ]

She slammed her palms into the ground.

Gold lightning erupted—shattering the Matriarch’s spine projectors.

The kaiju dissolved into static confetti.

Luna’s glaive clattered to the ground—blade still missing.

System Alert:

[ MATRIARCH DEFEATED ]

[ AUDIENCE APPROVAL: 100% (STANDING OVATION) ]

[ REWARD: EMPATHY DAMPENER UPGRADE (CORRUPTION GROWTH -50%) ]

Reel Reaper materialized, applauding slowly.

“Bravo! But every show… needs a sequel.”

He vanished—taking the glaive’s blade with him.

Luna clutched the glaive’s broken haft. “He’s dead.”

Selene collapsed, gold scars now snaking toward her heart. Corruption: 95%.

Kai’s chest wound leaked void and static. Assimilation: 54%.

System Alert:

[ SHARD #1 STABILITY: 0.3% ]

[ ECLIPSE PRIME COORDINATES CONFIRMED ]

[ WARNING: BEAUTY RANK #3 (ECLIPSE PRIME) - TERRITORY LOCKED ]

Rain washed acid and static away. On the broken marquee, new words flickered:

The Matriarch’s static confetti rained down as Reel Reaper’s laugh crackled through collapsing speakers:

“Bravo! But the blade stays with me! Sequel guaranteed!”

He flickered at the studio gates—Luna’s glaive blade gleaming in his grip. Before Luna could charge, he plunged the blade into the courtyard tiles.

CRACK-THOOOM!

The ground split. Not into a pit—into a fusion reactor. The glaive blade pulsed like a dying star, syphoning power from Luna’s connection to it.

System Alert:

[ GLAIVE OVERLOAD DETECTED ]

[ CORE BREACH IN: 90 SECONDS ]

[ EFFECT: DISTRICT-WIDE ANNIHILATION ]

Luna gasped, clutching her chest as veins of light drained toward the blade. “He’s… burning my life-force… to power it!”

Reel Reaper bowed. “Final scene! Choose your ending!”

Kai’s HUD flashed:

[ CRITICAL CHOICE ]

VOID GAZE (Nyx Path): Destroy reactor (Assimilation +7%)

FUSION BLAST (Selene Sync): Contain explosion (Corruption +5%)

Selene staggered, gold scars now cracking toward her heart. “Don’t… let Nyx out…”

“She’s right,” Nyx whispered. "Burn with her. I’ll rebuild you cleaner."

Kai grabbed Selene’s hand. “We contain it. Together.”

Her corrupted frost met his Legacy energy—not harmony this time, but desperation.

FUSION BLAST ACTIVATED

[ MECHANIC: STATIC-VOID CONTAINMENT FIELD ]

[ COST: CORRUPTION +5% (SELENE) ]

Gold fire and void shadows spiraled around the reactor. The ground screamed. Tiles vaporized. Projector towers folded like cardboard.

“Pathetic!” Reel Reaper mocked. “No chemistry! No flair!”

The containment field wavered. The reactor swelled—brighter, hungrier.

System Alert:

[ CORE BREACH: 15 SECONDS ]

[ FIELD INTEGRITY: 42% ]

Selene’s eyes met Kai’s. Gold blood trickled from her nose. “Stop… holding back.”

He was. Shielding her from Nyx’s full power. Shielding himself from her corruption.

“Do it,” she rasped. “Or Bombay dies twice.”

Kai stopped resisting.

Nyx’s void flooded the fusion. Selene’s corruption answered—a wildfire of gold agony.

The containment field ignited.

Not a shield—a black hole wreathed in solar fire. It swallowed the reactor’s light, the glaive’s drain, the very sound of destruction.

SILENCE.

Then—implosion.

The reactor crumpled. Luna’s glaive blade clattered to the ground—scorched but intact.

The shockwave hit.

Kai and Selene were thrown apart. Gold scars shattered across Selene’s collarbone. Kai’s replica flickered—transparent from waist down.

System Alert:

[ REACTOR NEUTRALIZED ]

[ SELENE CORRUPTION: 95% → 100% (DAMPENER HOLDING AT 99.8%) ]

[ KAI ASSIMILATION: 54% → 59% (VOID CORRUPTION: LEGS) ]

[ PERMANENT SCARS: GOLD FISSURE (SELENE) / VOID-WISP LEGS (KAI) ]

Reel Reaper applauded from the rubble. “That’s* a finale! Until next time, stars!”* He vanished into static.

Curtain Call (500 words)

The studio gates lay in ruins. Luna clutched her glaive—blade reattached but scarred with void-gold cracks. Rain hissed on hot debris.

System Alert:

[ EMPATHY DAMPENER UPGRADE: CORRUPTION GROWTH -50% ]

[ SHARD #1 STABILITY: 0.3% → 0.1% ]

[ HARVEST WINDOW: 8 HOURS ]

Selene touched her chest. A gold fissure split her sternum, pulsing with trapped light. “He used us… for a better show.”

Kai’s void-wisp legs dissipated in the rain. He forced replica stability. “We got the blade. We live.”

“Barely,” Luna spat, testing her glaive’s balance. “And he still has my backup monomolecular edge.”

Linda’s shard pulsed on the horizon—a dying ember.

“Eclipse Prime,” Selene whispered. “It’s a fortress. We need…” She flexed her hand. Black frost sparked, then guttered. “…a key.”

System Analysis:

[ ECLIPSE PRIME (BEAUTY RANK #3) - DEFENSES ]

- BIOMECHANICAL WALLS (REGENERATING)

- BLOOD LOCK (REQUIRES CORRUPTED FROST)

- ARCHITECT-CONTROLLED GOLEM GUARDIANS

Kai’s void-eye fixed on Selene’s gold fissure. “You’re the key.”

She flinched. “This corruption? It’ll kill me to open it.”

“Not if we’re fast,” Luna said, sharpening her glaive. “In, shard, out. No encores.”

Memory Fragment (Tier 3 Simulation):

Architect’s voice: “Love makes the best keys, Subject: Kai. It unlocks... and destroys.”

Sanity: 42% → 39%.

Selene’s frost touched Kai’s fading leg. Not healing—anchoring.

“After this… we’re done. No more fused powers. No more… us.”

DESIRE TREE FLICKER:

[ SKILL UNLOCK ATTEMPTED: FROSTBOUND HEART ]

[ BLOCKED BY VOID CORRUPTION ]

Kai pulled away. “We were never ‘us.’ We’re a system glitch.”

He limped toward Bombay’s corpse-city skyline. Delhi’s coordinates burned crimson in his HUD.

System Alert:

[ NEW DUNGEON UNLOCKED: ECLIPSE PRIME (DELHI SECTOR) ]

[ PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: SHARD #1 RECOVERY ]

[ SECONDARY: SURVIVE RANK #3 ]

Luna shouldered her glaive. “Moving out. Try not to die before payback.”

Selene watched them go. Rain sluiced gold sludge from her scars. Linda’s ghost-shard whispered:

“He’s lying. He still chooses you.”

“Then he’s a fool,” Selene said, frost crackling over her heart-fissure. “Like me.”

She followed—a living key to a dead ghost’s salvation.

System Alert:

[ CHAPTER 20 END: REEL OF RUIN ]

[ CORRUPTION: 99.8% (SELENE) / ASSIMILATION: 59% (KAI) ]

On the ruins of the studio gate, a hologram flickered—Reel Reaper winking, Luna’s monomolecular edge spinning on his finger.

The Bollywood Kaiju’s corpse dissolved into static ash. Rain hissed on the scorched studio tiles where Kai and Selene knelt, their fusion blast leaving smoldering gold-and-void scars across the courtyard. Luna snatched her glaive from the rubble – intact but steaming with residual energy.

System Alert:

[ EMPATHY DAMPENER UPGRADED ]

[ EFFECT: CORRUPTION GROWTH -50% ]

[ SHARD #1 STABILITY: 0.9% → 0.5% ]

Reel Reaper’s laughter echoed from collapsing projector towers:

“Sequel confirmed! Until Delhi, stars!”

He vanished into static, leaving only the drum of rain.

Selene stared at the gold veins now cracked like porcelain across her palms – permanent scars from channeling corruption. Her voice was raw frost:

“You used my corruption like a power cell.”

Kai’s void-scorched hand trembled. The Desire skill tree flickered – a brief image of shielding her – before Nyx’s whisper snuffed it out.

“And you used my guilt as a lever.”

Linda’s ghost-shard pulsed over the northern horizon, weaker but insistent:

“Stop carving each other up. Or I’ll haunt you both forever.”

Luna slammed her glaive’s butt on the tiles. “Save the drama for Eclipse Prime. We move.”

Kai forced himself upright. The studio ruins blurred – not from rain, but a Sanity alert:

[ 42% → 40% (MEMORY: ARCHITECT’S SIMULATION OF LINDA’S RESURRECTION) ]

Why save me? the false Linda had whispered. Don’t you love her?

Selene followed his gaze to the fading holograms. “Still seeing her?”

“Always,” Kai admitted.

System Alert:

[ ECLIPSE PRIME COORDINATES CONFIRMED ]

[ BEAUTY RANK #3 (TERRITORY LOCKED) ]

[ SHARD #1 HARVEST WINDOW: 12 HOURS ]

A blood-red fortress icon burned in Kai’s HUD – Delhi’s skyline under Rank #3’s control. The path there was a graveyard of System-skyscrapers.

“Blood Lock at the gate,” Luna grunted, reading the same alert. “Needs corrupted frost to open.”

Her eyes flicked to Selene’s scarred hands.

Selene clenched her fists. Gold light seeped from the cracks. “One more key. One more dungeon.”

Kai turned north. “Then we stop talking and run.”

As they abandoned the studio, the rain washed grey frost and static from Selene’s cheeks. Kai didn’t look back.