Chapter 54

Note: Thanks to Alex for beta reading this!

“We’re confident in these calculations?” I asked as I stood in the Vault. I had a special teleportation room connected to it. Kassie and Fara were the only ones in here with me.

And Souleen.

“Based on what I observed with the scryer,” said Fara. We had spent an hour moving it around so she could make calculations. “And from my survey of Astovin and its farms.”

“When did you even have time to do that?” I muttered. “You’ve been working on the translation.”

“Once we cracked it, there has been little to work on.” Fara’s ears twitched. “While you were engaged in that endless debauchery of creating your Level 3 monster girls, I kept busy.” Fara didn’t have any bite to her words. It wasn’t an indictment but an observation.

“Mmm, so did I,” Kassie said, this dreamy look on her. “Garnet and I toured the dungeon for three days.”

I smiled. “Okay,” I said and began making the changes. “Tell me the measurements.”

Fara walked me through extending my dungeon out beyond Astovin’s walls, using the tunnels that ran around the perimeter of the city. I brought it up to the point beneath the king’s pavilion. I moved the teleportation room that connected to the one that lay off my Vault and teleported all the combatants there. My companions. Siwang and his. Halia. I created the stairs, but didn’t thrust them up.

I drew in a deep breath. This was it. The attack that would end this madness. It would be simple. I waited for my monster girls to all be in position before I thrust the staircases up through the ground and formed new exits to my dungeon.

I cast my defensive and buff spells.

“We’re ready, Leo,” Hagane reported.

“GO!”

I created the five exits and released the Void Crystal.

Kassie, standing in the doorway to the teleportation room, rushed to it. She stepped on the circle. I joined her and glanced at Fara. She had the scrying device before her, watching it. I glimpsed my forces pouring out.

“Good luck,” Fara said.

“Asud Gu!”

Light flashed and I appeared in the empty room. I rushed to the stairs that led to the king’s pavilion. I charged up them and burst into the tent to find my monster girls taking charge. Maya, Mom, Vilkas, Crystal, Smerta, Halia, and Terra.

“What is the meaning of this!” a young man gasped as he reeled back from my surprise attack. He reached for a sword he wore on his hilt, a golden circlet on his head. “Guards!”

“Behind me, my king,” a hard-faced and gray-haired man in a tunic that fit him like a military uniform. He already had his sword out and thrust himself before the king.

A wizened, old man stumbled back, clutching at his chest with liver-spotted hands. A robed woman stood in the back, her cowl hiding her face. Another woman in a blue dress with a circle of silver woven in her black hair pressed back into the tent.

The old man cried out, “Gu-Dub Hum!”

A burst of deafening sound exploded in the air. My static aura crackled and devoured the sound, but Halia collapsed on her back, her body twitching. Kassie joined her while Maya and Smerta, who were reaching for the man, reeled and stumbled, disoriented by the sound.