The wall pushed back, the noise the tool created was steady and consistent until it suddenly changed. The hollow retort told me there was something different.
“Yer looking for a side tunnel. This is clearly one. None can hide ferm me,” Benna said proudly. Her work of smacking against the wall completed the door when the hollow thunks stopped.
“Benna, you're a treasure. I hope you enjoy the work. If you don't mind me I’m going to do demi god things. Please step back everyone,” I said, hoisting the pickaxe.
Those around me cleared space so I could swing freely. I went to the middle of the chiseled out door frame. I poured physical superiority into my muscles. My cocked back arm slammed forward. There was a resounding crack from the impact and billowing dust enveloped us.
When the debris cleared the result was stupefying. I had punched a hole in an eighteen inch thick wall. While others wanted to peer down the small opening I went about making it bigger. Five swings around the circle resulted in a hazy mess and a lot of echoing from the impacts.
A few minutes of coughing was fixed when air mages twirled the dusty air out of the dungeon. Oh, glad at least someone thought of that. When my vision cleared, I saw an opening big enough even for me to step through.
“Let me go through first,” a dvaren beside Groz said. I nodded and stepped out of the way. The younger male went down the new tunnel, anchoring a light holder. He was hesitant in his steps, confident but careful. He eyed every surface meticulously until he declared, “Clear.”
Benna pushed by me to step down the twenty foot long tunnel. She smashed her war hammer into the wall on both sides. We waited patiently while she intently listened. When she reached the other end we finally heard the noise that the next wall was in fact another closure ripe for the opening.
She marked out a target for me with her chisel resulting in a big x. When she returned it was my turn to step in.
“General,” a trotting goblin arrived with urgency. “We found five more side tunnels.”
Groz nodded, looking at me. I thumbed into the tunnel, this one was as good as any to start with. Nicole stepped in first, I went second, and Gemini followed behind me with Groz. My eyes were focused on the x at the end of the narrow tunnel when there was a tremor.
I screamed out when my next step never hit the rough floor.
I suddenly plunged into a downward tunnel that hadn’t existed a fraction of a second earlier. My face smacked into the wall as I rapidly descended, causing my eyes to flare white. The downfall turned into a curved slide of sorts that shifted my fall into a slowing jostle.
“We’re coming!” Groz shouted out from above.
His echoing call halted suddenly when a cave-in occurred directly behind where I had been sliding. Perfect, about what I should have expected. My slowing slide deposited me onto a cavern floor so dark I was blind.
I burst forth a healing wave to find little mud golems fleeing at my arrival. My recovery from the rough floor was short and my righteous anger divine. I entered a battle rage with a full throated roar of anger. I’ll show these little shits what they get when they bring a demigod crashing down their tunnel.
The weight of the spear in my hand was perfection as I slew. My weapon was lanced through every golem too slow to flee before my fury. The little mud golem burst apart with a foul odor of shit. How or why mattered little, their deaths were warming my soul.
“I challenge the dungeon master!” I bellowed in the unknown.
My massacre of the little mud golems was finite. About a half dozen escaped, casting a fresh wall between me and the way they fled. I allowed them zero reprieve. Instead of using the pickaxe, I cast heal and used my body to smash through their freshly created block. The goop burst forward as I continued on my rampage.
The green waves of healing emanated from the staff. A half formed wall illuminated in front of me. A golem was desperately trying to finish the job. I punted the knee high being through the opening ahead of me.
There was a shrieking cry of anguish as the golem floundered until it slammed into the wall. A wet thunk sound told me it found a final resting place.
“I challenge the dungeon master!” My cry reverberated off the walls in an endless echo.
I slammed the healing staff into the ground, four little golem scurried behind a wolfman that blocked a tunnel.
The wolf creature howled before saying, “The mistress is mine to -”
I hurled the pickaxe at his torso. The foe tried to catch that weapon, which was a big mistake. The power of the throw was immense and it shredded his hands with ease before it went through his body. The gore of its exit splattered behind the stunned creature. My casual walk to the dying beast sent the surviving golems down the tunnel.
“Flee to your master you little shits,” I said with a cackle.
My eyes burned with desire for violence. There was a whining about some queen saving him from the defiler of this sacred place. I stomped the creature's skull in because its whimpering was grating. I felt a tug on my soul from down below. A draining of sorts, and sure enough my mana was emptying at a trickle. I cast a heal and it halted the exodus.
“I feel you trying to use my mana. Again. I challenge the dungeon master!” I cried out.
I picked up whistling a tune while I walked down the narrow walkway. The tunnel leveled off and a cavern so expansion opened up that I had to be below the spire that the dungeon started in.
How far had I fallen?
It actually mattered little. Deep into the space rested a throne, and upon it sat the most hideous of creatures.
A female ghoul with four arms cackled at my arrival. She was wrinkled with flaps of excessive skin. Her bloat was atrocious, and upon further inspection her bottom arms were not actual arms. They were protruding vaginas, draining men at her side that moaned like zombies getting pleasured. The stench in here was almost as bad as the sewer and I instantly hated this place.
Between me and her were looping lines of males in dual circles so big I had no idea how many victims she had enthralled. The naked shriveled beings were covered in a foulness only created by filth and time. They all waited a turn to feed the succubus ghoul. One would go up, get serviced, and then rotate to the end of the line. A new mindless being would step forward to fill the lower arms with their soul stealing seed. I wretched at the sight and the thought of the place.
Sure enough, the looping of the thousands of prisoners had two central piles of loot that forced the lines to wrap around. Every adventurer this ghoulish succubus had enslaved had their gear and orbs stacked high in a pile. So this is what the story meant, and this is where the mystery ended.
Mud golems were used to hide this travesty. Deep under the dungeon there was a soul stealing succubus ghoul that enslaved the souls of the unfortunate. How many had fallen prey to her vile ways? Twelve male adventures a year for tens of thousands of years. I gasped at the revelation that these males were all still alive somehow. At least I’d finally shown up to save them.
The ghoul queen herself still laughed madly at my proclamation for her to surrender. I however, was not the slightest bit amused by her cackling.
“You heal my attempts to bend your mind,” she said confidently. “It matters not, you will join my harem. Another measly male I feed myself with.”
“To what end?” I asked mostly out of curiosity. The why was really, really bugging me.
“What all beings crave of course. Power, and an army at my beckon call. Now, if you’re not going to submit to enter my harem at least tell me your name,” the ghoul said from her perch.
“Emperor Gryff,” I said, noticing a few of the zombies in the line shifting to look at me for the first time. I cast a massive area heal. The wave of magic washed around the captured souls. I grumbled when they were unaffected. “Huh, thought that would work.”
“An Emperor, and to think I’m only a lowly queen. I guess I could name myself as Empress Urr,” Urr sa
id with a flippant tone.
“So Urr, I have bad news. I was sent here to remove you from this stinky place you lord over,” I said, slowly approaching her throne.
The cavern floor under my feet was riddled with cracking bones that snapped under my weight. Based on the beaks in the skulls these looked like the remains of harpies. I wonder if that is how she did it. My eyes scoured what they could make out until they found a sacrificial gutting station. A dismembered body was being sliced up by a mindless adventurer. Pieces of harpy body were being handed out for those in the line to snack on.
The trapped zombies like beings down here were certainly alive. Skinny, but alive. Which meant she had been feeding them the dead corpses of her dungeon beings so they could feed her their seed. So flipping gross.
I held my gag in until my boot squished in feces. A mud golem caught my attention. When I saw it I cast another heal. There were hundreds of the little creatures picking up the shit the adventurers were dropping. Suddenly the muddy wall I burst through had a new meaning as to why it was squishy. I was really, really starting to dislike this place.
“Alas, your name means it is my time to go. I am ready,” she said with a new round of mad laughter. I froze, this was clearly unexpected.
“Ready for what exactly?” I opined with a raised brow.
Her madness abated and she stared down at me intently. “I never intended to stay here forever. Actually, I’ve grown far more powerful than I ever intended. I was planning on leaving eons ago but the feeding is so damn yummy. My levels have stagnated even as my harem has grown. My pleasure time is over. I am long overdue for a time of reckoning. It’s not often that an Empress like myself gets to reach such levels.”
“And what level would that be, do tell?” I asked politely, leaning on the staff.
“I’m divine,” she proclaimed. “If you slay me, which I was notified you can, and likely will if I resist, then I reset. Yes, imagine my surprise when one of the peons I command started to talk. Casting an omen that the harbinger was coming and if I wanted true power, to surrender to him once he bested my challenger.”
Hmm… I twisted my face with a grimace at this bit of information. Why would she be warned, unless it was all part of the plan. I guess it mattered little. What was the true question and crux of the issue was still unanswered.
“What challenge must I defeat?” I asked hesitantly.
The skeletal bones beneath my feet shimmied, bouncing as magical energy poured into them. Urr’s magic was collecting the billions of broken bits of harpy. Her fingers splayed as she ejected a stream of yellow energy into the entirety of the cavern.
My initial assessment of the amount of prisoners she had here and the depth of this cavern was woefully short. There were probably half a million donors she fed off of. I watch bones pick up so they could fly over the zombie-like adventurers.
The fragments, shattered pieces, and whole skeleton bodies melted. The combined remnants of the dead started building a giant skeleton in front of Urr.
After a few minutes of the fragments fusing into each other a hundred foot tall, thick boned skeleton, lumbered to life. The hollowed eye sockets gazed down at Urr seeking guidance. She pointed at me and said, “Make him submit.”
There was an ear piercing roar so loud that I had to heal the damage from the noise. Okay, my challenge was clear. There was a bone demon in front of me in the shape of a harpy. The creature was thickly armored with its femur probably ten feet thick. The amount of bones that had gone into creating this monstrosity was nerve racking.
I mulled over my options while I was screamed at with a never ending magical roar. Kor was useless here. My trusty spear would do work. The lightning I had in was garbage probably too. I turned to flee and give myself space as the bone harpy tried to squish me with a clawed triple toed foot.
“So… Can you tell your harem to go to the back of the cavern?” I asked dodging another slow and predictable stomp. “I’d hate to save all these decent folks down here you trapped and have to explain that some of them died from fighting your creation.”
She peeled out a belly laugh that was so thorough she had to cover her folded fat. “You’re not saving anyone. My creation will make you submit. And he won't harm a single member of my harem.”
While she talked I was trying to find the central point to this creation to no avail. Another stomp tried to crush me, missing horribly. My saving grace to this situation was my opponent was big and slow.
The creation decided to try a new tactic. A wing swept down to kill me and missed; it tore into the line of adventurers waiting to serve Urr. The poor lads were smashed and splattered across the cavern floor.
The bone demon spun when its master shrieked in horror. The glistening point on its neck hundreds of feet up gave me a hint of hope that I’d found the weak spot.
“My harem!” Urr shouted out in horror. “How dare you? You insolent tool. Kneel before me.” Her command was followed and the bone harpy gave me its back and more importantly, a potential weak spot.
Uh… this was unexpected. I think Urr had realized a long fight would result in us reducing her power as her harem was destroyed. I ingested a deep breath as I mulled over the situation. I came to the resounding conclusion to take the easy win.
My spear magically arrived in my palm. I bunched my muscles while aiming for the shiny area on the back of the neck. The throw left my hand with such power I came off my feet. The snap echoed blaringly loud as the spear zoomed for the bone harpy.
There was a resounding pop, snap, and then the head tore free of the shattered neck. The bone harpy’s body tumbled down, squishing more of Urr’s harem that she wailed about.
“Surrender!” I demanded.
She sniffled, cried, and wailed. I hurled a spear cutting off her left vagina tube.
“Surrender or perish!” I cried out and finally got her attention. She clutched at the detached arm that squirted blood. There was a look of initial disbelief. She eyed me with hatred and then understanding.
Urr stared down at me with disdain. “Take me to Warg, as it has been ordained,” she said before kneeling.
There was a magic so bright it blinded me. “Shit.”
Wonder why she is going to Warg. I really hated being a pawn. I cursed until the staff healed me of my ailment. When I could see again I groaned. I was alone. Fuck…
I scream for minutes at this turn of events. Why!? Why had all the innocents gone with her?
All those adventurers I figured I’d be saving vanished without me even getting a chance to rescue them. Simply vanished and erased from existence. There would be no stumbling out of a nightmare to try to find loved ones. Were they ghouls in an orb now? Probably. I couldn’t really think of what else they would be. Not like you spawned an army of sex slaves for any real reason.
With heavy legs I walked to a rocking orb where Urr had previously knelt. It was black and I gasped. A necromancy orb. In the little circle that showed the quality it was divine. By the creator. There was going to be a very, very happy Warg when I handed this baby off.
Now if only I could find a way out of here.
A final glance in the cavern showed even the golems were gone, only the piles of the defeated adventurer’s loot remained. I sighed with a heavy heart as I headed back up the way I came. I decided if the others were going to start trying to rescue me, well, they would begin at the cave-in that cut me off. And if that was where they were going to work, then I should probably help from my end. The walk back was eerily quiet.
When I neared the landing room I had arrived in after my fall I heard dvaren singing. They were clearly working to free me. I stared down at the orb that rested in my palm. A more evil ball of magic had never been seen or held. I set it into a pouch in my robe and went to work. The other team was probably having to haul dirt up to the tunnel entrance.
With a pick in hand I set about my task. There was a driving thought as I cleared m
y path back to my army. I sure hoped the Wyverns of the Wilds or the Ogres of Orginia did not end up in me sacrificing so many souls. Something told me those would be a whole different kind of adventure.
CHAPTER 15
We arrived on the TruthSayer’s home world called Irvinia and were immediately surrounded. There were thousands of ships hovering over Warg’s headquarters with thousands more roaming the skies for sudden arrivals. We allowed ourselves to be escorted to a small town in the middle of nowhere where we were told to wait patiently.
Warg himself was out of town and we were informed he would be back shortly; his return was guaranteed to be no more than a day or two. Since we were in no hurry, and my delivery extremely valuable, I decided we could wait.
The good news was all the garbage loot we pilfered from the ghoul dungeon was easy to offload. A portion sold right here on Irvinia and the rest was portal jumped to a trading planet. The bad news was, the loot didn’t add up to a whole lot. We had enough to pay next week's wages and that was it. Which had me on edge, last thing I needed was a crew upset from a lack of funds.
During the down time we had thorough briefings on both dungeons. When the TruthSayer boss did show up I was ready to move onto the next adventure. I was also excited to offload this necromancy army orb.
The tainted feeling of it was undeniable and if something could exude evil, well, it was this orb. The fact Warg was getting the powerful spell was only further reinforcing my concept he was the actual harbinger. Hopefully his damage would happen long after I was gone.
I found myself alone watching the skyline zoom by with important people flying their blimps around the planet. Nicole arrived at my side when a small dirigible deviated off the flight paths above to head to our ship. My fighters intercepted the craft to escort it to the top deck.
When it settled and was latched down, a dozen TruthSayer exited the rear in matching armor and capes of yellow and blue. A big rhinorc stomped forward with a smile.
“Gryff!” Warg said enthusiastically with welcoming open arms.
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