Chapter 36
I stood outside of Zamrazen’s dungeon, staring up at the sky, my stomach twisting with fear. This was how it ended. Helpless, miles and miles away with no way to do anything. Two saints. Two fucking saints.
The gods were ready to take me down. I had gone too far. I had to be careful from now on. It was dangerous for me to leave my dungeon. Or, at least, to be far away from it without any way to get back swiftly.
“Shit, shit, shit,” I muttered.
“They’ll stop him,” Garnet said. My little sister pressed herself against me. “They’ll stop him. Maya won’t let him hurt you. Nor will Mom.”
I glanced at her. Her crimson eyes shone with such confidence. She believed those words. I wanted to have that hope, but what could I do? I felt so many monster girls dying. So many of them slain, and they accomplished nothing.
“There they are!” Kassie called, pointing to the flying monster girls. Black dots on the horizon were growing bigger and bigger as they soared back.
“I love you, Leo,” Maya whispered to me across the miles. “It’s too late. He’s at the throne room door. He’s about to breach it. We’re not going to hold. I love you so much, Leo.”
“No!” I growled. This was not how it ended. It couldn’t be how it ended. This was intolerable. I need to get there. There had to be a way.
I closed my eyes, thinking. I needed to be calm. I had to figure this out. There had to be a way to get from here to there fast. I had heard something about dungeon builders moving quickly from place to place...
Fuegin.
Fucking Fuegin did he.
He teleported across half the world to visit me. He told me about it once. What did he say? You needed power. It must come at a cost. Mana veins? That made sense. I had access to six of the. That was two more than I needed for Level 3 monster girls and Expert Magic.
I focused on those mana veins. I reached into myself and touched them. The currents flowed through my dungeon. I could unleash the might of Isatu or Agubnamus, but they were flying toward me. No good there. Or ... I could use something else.
I could create a new “river.” One that flowed from where I stood to ... where. The entrance to my dungeon. I needed to appear right before my dungeon. I could feel like where I wanted to be was just around the bend, so to speak. So close that I could just arrive there.
I just had to bend the current of the mana vein. Change where it flowed. It would destroy it, in a way. Focus its power for one purpose to unite two places. I wrenched one and brought one end to me and the other to the front of my dungeon.
I forged a connection and sacrificed a mana vein.
The world surged around me. I flowed down a river for a moment. Turbulent rapids swept around me. I lurched, the feel of the air was different. The aromas different. I opened my eyes to see the familiar cave before me.
“I need to be teleported to the fight!” I sent to the only mage I knew was in the dungeon. “I’ll be at the dungeon entrance teleporter!”
I darted into the dungeon, hope burning through me. It had begun. They were fighting the water saint.
Morana died.
I rushed through the cafe and into the entrance room, the Hellfire Room.
Maya died.
I hurtled down the passageway that led to the various tunnels that connected the far-flung reaches of my dungeon, my flaming body crackling.
Ljosa died.
I reached the teleport pad when a white light flashed. Melin stood there, a cut on his brow that bled. He was young, just learning his magic. But he was in the fight. I rushed onto the teleport pad and touched him.
“Life revitalizes and mend, let the restoration of Lord Dumazid mend!”
He gasped as the healing power sunk into him, mending the cut.
My mother died.
He smiled at me before he shouted “Asud Gu!”
White light engulfed us.
Bjorni died.
I burst off the teleport pad, racing for the throne room.
Crystal died.
Baaghi died.
“Shit, shit, shit!” I roared as I hurtled for the door.
Ms. Trueno’s voice shook the door before me, her roar fierce and proud.
Hagane died.
I crashed through the door into the chaos of the throne room. Ms. Trueno and Paanee fought the slender water saint. Globes of water drowned all the adventures. Bellia. Nomaz. The dwarves. All of them were encased in spheres of slow death.
Ms. Trueno roared, her shout striking the slender elf made of water. His body rippled from the attack while Paanee spat acid at him. He flowed around her attack and swept out a flowing sword. The liquid blade struck off her head.
I raced to him, my body burning bright.
Ms. Trueno screamed again, her coppery body reflecting my flames. Her sonic attack struck the water saint again. He staggered beneath it, his watery body rippling. He swept his hand before him. A wave swept at her. She kept shouting, splitting the wave in half.
No, it flowed apart to dodge her attack then crashed into her from both sides, engulfing her in water. She floated there, her body suspended in the mixture. Fury beat in my heart as I hurtled at this bastard.
I tackled him.
Water and fire roiled together. Steam burst off the water saint. He roared in pain as my burning body clashed with his liquid flesh. We hit the ground. I held him tight as the steam poured over us, the entire throne room vanishing.
“Soothing water sustains, let the love of Lady Ninli engulf!” I cried out, the words to the Breathe Water spell.
The saint of water spread out. He became a globe of water that engulfed me. He tried to drown me. To smother my flames, but I breathed the liquid. I didn’t care that he was around me. The water roared with bubbles as I boiled the saint.
I could hear nothing else but the fury of the boiling water. My body burned hot, but I could feel him putting me out. He wanted to smother my fire. I needed more flames. I needed more heat. I had to finish this bastard off.
I had to keep holding him. In the midst of the water around me, there was something. A substance I held with my burning flesh. He was putting me out, but I was boiling him away. I killed him. I just had to hold him.
Water sloshed around me. Strange currents rippled my flames in the water. Bubbles roared around us as he snarled. I felt his pain. I killed him. The bastard who had made me feel so helpless now knew what it was like.
Pain burst in my side.
He stabbed me with a watery sword that boiled away in the heat of my body, but the pain ... The wound...
I gripped him anyways. I just had to hold on.
He stabbed me in the other side. I grunted at the pain, squeezing my arms tight around his body. I felt his desperation. He plunged his watery blade into my body a third time. Agony consumed me. Weakness bled out of me.
I had to keep holding him. For my women.
The villagers of Astovin.
The drowning adventures.
I squeezed tight, focused on everyone I loved. I had to be strong for them.
My flames guttered. The water smothered me. I bled. My life spilled into the water. A wave of darkness washed over my vision. But I held on. This was not the end. Lord Enki wanted me dead because he knew I would fuck his wife one day.
I would cuckold the Lord of Water.
That thought burned hot through me for a moment. A final flare of defiance burned through me.
The water around me quivered. A scream of pain then the water washed over me and flowed across the stones. Steam fogged the air as I lay here, panting. He was dead. I had boiled the Saint of Water away. The elf was gone.
Other splashes of water crashed around me. My drowning adventurers coughed and spluttered. Shouts echoed as I closed my eyes. The pain to my wounds was intense. I needed to heal myself. I just had to speak the words.
They were so far away.
My fires went out. The spell enchanting me ended.
“Lord Leo!” cried Priestess Lysila. Her face appeared in my dwindling vision. She took my hand. “Lady Ninli, heal this noble hero. He has defended us all. Heal him for he is your champion! He is my champion, Lady Ninli, and he will set us all free!”
Water poured over me. It flowed across my cold body. I shivered beneath it, my eyes closing. It washed over my flesh and found the three wounds stabbed deep into me. The water flowed into my wounds and closed them.
I shuddered at that, my entire body quivering. The pain eased as Lady Ninli healed me. I was her champion. She wanted me to save her from Lord Enki. I would save her. I would rescue the trapped goddess from her bondage in the Blessed Sword of Water.
I would set this world to right.