by Dakota Krout
The Amazons came running, having been directed by Chandra to get to the meeting at all costs. “What is so important that you are interrupting our baths?” The leader of the Amazonian delegation screeched up at them. Her hair was still wet, and she huffed as she was waved up. She stomped up the stairs, angry and demanding answers. All she got in reply was a pointed finger. Turning, she looked over at the capitol city of the Amazon people. What little remained of it.
A huge plume of black, oily smoke rose as a column from the city. What they could see of the place with their enhanced vision showed that the city had been reduced to rubble. The outer wall was demolished, and though there seemed to be massive amounts of movement going on, no one could tell if the crowds were comprised of invaders or refugees. Looking at the area with sight enhanced by Essence or Mana showed a huge accumulation of infernal Essence gathering over the city. This meant that either an unimaginably massive amount of death had been visited upon the land or there was such a high amount of powerful infernal auras in the area that everything else was hidden from view. The worst possibility… was that both scenarios were true.
“What do we do?” Marie whispered as she clutched the arm of her oldest friend, Henry.
“What can we do?” Henry replied despondently as he watched the smoke continue to rise. “Our Kingdoms have fallen. Our leaders slaughtered like animals. Our allies… gone.”
Tyler turned to the side and puked, making a few of the Mages wince away in disgust. Dale raised his hands helplessly.
“You can’t be saying… Cal, you can’t go to that city!” Dale’s words exploded out of him, making the others look at him cautiously.
“Infuriating dungeon!” Dale shouted into the empty air. “You’re going to get us all killed!”
“Or…” Marie spoke up, eyes alight with calculating intensity, “or this dungeon could be exactly what we needed. Dungeon! I want to make a deal!”
“You can’t be serious!” Dale shouted at her, catching himself after the first words and lowering his voice. “Marie, Your Majesty, you don’t know what making a deal with the dungeon entails. There is no way for you to come out with a better end of the deal! Demons make better deals!”
“If I am stronger, if I am able to take revenge and save my people…” Marie gulped. “Then I don’t care.”
My nonchalant tone seemed to throw Dale into a state of apoplexy.
“Dungeon! I may not be as powerful as you would wish for, but if I reclaim my Kingdom you will have my eternal gratitude. I will work my entire life to repay your help. If you give me the power I need, the troops, the weapons… I will serve you faithfully–second only to my people–for as long as I am able!” Her hand shot to her chest as she was knocked from her feet from the creation of such a powerful oath. The air around her hummed with power, the heavens accepting her words and preparing to enforce them. Mana restricted her soul, and just like that… I had a new dungeon born. This one had true influence as well.
“I… I can. What have I done?” she whispered softly, eyes trembling. The whites around her iris were entirely visible. Obviously, she had made this oath in the heat of the moment and was already regretting it. Time to calm her down; I needed a powerful asset like her.
“What’s a meter?”
~ Chapter Thirty-Eight ~
“What… what is that? Isn’t she an Elf?” She raised a hand and pointed a trembling finger at the golem.
Now, finally, I have a use for her. She was now my guardian, and in return, I provided her with fluffy animals to play with. Her weak constitution in life had made cultivation impossible for her so she had died while in the F-ranks. Now filled with my Mana, she was the epitome of the cultivation paths. Her body was composed of a perfectly balanced amount of minerals, allowing any type of ambient Essence to be used. She was also the only self-sustaining golem here. Since her mind was intact, she was able to cultivate like a living person. I had provided her with my cultivation technique and passed Mana to her when she donated an appropriate amount of Essence to me.
We started talking and she told me about her training, her strengths and weaknesses. She told me of her family, and I commiserated with her over her loss. By the end, she was fully committed to me and overjoyed that she had chosen to align her goals with mine. It seemed I had gained a new priestess for the cult of Cal. We began working on modifications, and while she was unconscious I created a few… contingencies. Just in case she ever tried to sacrifice herself for the ‘greater good’ and get rid of me. It was unlikely; obviously everyone loves me, but… just in case.
An hour later the portal opened in the church with a faint zapping noise. The council had been debating on their course of action the entire time, while Henry had been desperate to get into the dungeon and find Marie. Dale had been able to convince him that Marie was alive, but the fear in the man’s eyes showed how deep his devotion to Marie truly was. The Queen stepped through the curtain of shimmering energy, and the people around the room almost drew their weapons at the sight of her. Her body had been altered subtly, forcing the best portions of her bloodline to surface. Elves would be jealous of her beauty and enemies would fear her. Her features were sharp, designed to draw attention and inspire loyalty. She was a foot taller, and her body was coated with sleek, powerful muscles.
Marie’s form-fitting armor moved with her, a second skin of gleaming mithril interspersed with the most potent combination of materials for her affinities. There was a Core on each of her shoulders, which were absorbing the ambient Essence in the air as she moved. Upon her brow was a tiara mounted upon a helmet, which allowed any who looked upon her to know exactly who she was. Another Core rested in the helmet like a jewel, pretending to be decoration.
;
~ Dale ~
“Battle Tyrant Marie?” Dale repeated aloud, making a few people glare at him. “Are you coated in… mithril?”
“It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life!” Thaddius and his people had gathered, and after determining that their people hadn’t been attacked, he joined the emergency war council. The other Dwarves nodded, a few unsubtly adjusting their pants or wiping tears from their eyes.
“Thank you,” Marie’s voice echoed through the room. The Dwarves got closer, looking for seams in her armor, but it wasn’t designed in a way they recognized. This armor didn’t come off without my direct help. Good thing Mages didn’t need to use the bathroom... “I didn’t know you would be so worried.”
“Huh?” Thaddius looked up at her blankly. “Oh, yeah, glad you’re safe. Can I look at the inlay on your greaves? Kota! Come look at this.”
A new Dwarf sprinted over and almost drooled on the shiny material.
“Are you sure this is Mithril?” the Dwarf asked as he wiped his mouth.
“Duh, Kota! Look at it!” Thaddius smacked him, and they devolved into a conversation about the benefits and detriments of form-fitting Mithril.
Henry shot a glare at the Dwarves, his bloodshot eyes making the glance far scarier than it should have been. “Marie, we thought you were dead. I thought I lost the last person that I…”
“I told you she was alive.” Dale fell silent when he noticed he was being ignored.
Marie looked sadly at the man before her. “We have a war on our hands, Henry. You know that I love you, but this comes first. As we have always told each other, our people need to be protected, raised out of their troubles. No matter what. I have a chance to do that now, and I hope you’ll join me.”
“You want me to make a pledge to the dungeon?” Henry was aghast at the suggestion.
“Yes. I do,” Marie firmly confirmed. “I’ll tell you right now, it’s worth it.” After a few long seconds, Henry nodded in response. He repeated the oath she had stated earlier, and stepped into the awaiting portal. A few moments passed as the changes to Marie were noted, but then the conversations picked up. The council had heard Henry’s thoughts, though he had been heavily distracted. Marie was able to calmly discuss her ideas, and a rough battle plan was drawn up. Shock and awe would be the order of the day.
An hour after he had stepped through, Henry emerged from the light. Now calm, collected, and in control of himself, he nodded to the others and joined in the planning. His armor was similar to Marie’s, a coat of mithril interspersed with Cores and minerals. His eyes were focused and sharp, and he had a large shield on one arm and a sword for the other that was nearly humming with power.
Around the room, the other people waited to see the downside to the oath that had been made by the royals. The King and Queen, now towering above the others by nearly a foot, started to look uncomfortable as the quiet lengthened. I decided that it was time to get things moving, so I thought I would help out my tyrants at the same time.
“Yes!” Marie barked with relief evident in her voice, startling herself and the onlookers. “I mean… yes, please, send out the troops you are going to loan us.”
“We are ready, Cal. Send out the troops,” Henry ordered sternly.
The portal began to shimmer once again, and the first Goblin, a berserker, stepped through. They weren’t equipped with mithril armor or weapons, but the equipment they were wearing was high quality. I praised the details of the changes in them as well as their usefulness in combat. I needed to enunciate my usefulness and make these people well and truly indebted to me.
There was a pause and the Goblin pointed at a thorn that jutted out of its armor.
The berserker stepped out of the way, allowing a shield-bearing Goblin to step through the portal.
Next out was an archer, and since they were self-explanatory, the conversation moved forward quickly. A standard fighter was next, followed by a Goblin that made the humans recoil in fear. Bob stepped out of the portal, easily as tall as King Henry. His staff tapped imperiously on the floor as he walked, the only noise in the echoing room.
“T-this… you can make warriors like this?” Tyler sputtered incredulously after the descriptions of the Goblins were repeated to those not bound to the dungeon. “Why haven’t you been using them against us?”
“How many of these troops can we expect?” Frank’s direct question was met with trepidation; how many troops could the dungeon really bring to bear in a short time?
There were shouts of disbelief. Father Richard spoke up, “Does this dungeon think we will believe that he can create… uh, that many troops in this short amount of time?”
“Two thousand four hundred fifty Goblins,” Tyler stated quietly. His words made the gathered people shudder. Overdramatic worrywarts.
The final comment sobered up the group, reminding them of what they would soon be facing. “Is there anything else you can do for us?” Amber nearly begged the empty air. Imagine that. A crisis hits and the people who scorned you and called for your death are now begging for help.
There was a bit more discussed, but the general consensus was that everyone was as ready as they could be. “I can’t believe we are doing this.” Dale laughed a bit manically as Goblins began to march in formation out of the dungeon’s portal.
~ Chapter Thirty-Nine ~
The smoke from the city was getting into Dale’s lungs. He coughed dryly in a vain attempt to clear his airway. Why wasn’t the dungeon absorbing the ash? There were only two positive aspects of the smoke. The first was that it was obscuring their location from the people below. Second… it was blocking the view of the carnage. There were areas where so many people had been killed that the ground looked like it was covered in a chunky salsa, and it would have been visible and stomach churning, even from this height. Through the smoke, Dale was still able to see the buildings and walls that they were passing over and had been passing over for over an hour. They were on a flying mountain, and they still didn’t match even a quarter of the size of the city below them. He couldn’t believe that so many people lived in one area. Had lived in one area. Dale shook his head and wiped away a tear, deeply saddened by the purposeless loss of life.