Chapter 8

Note: Thanks to Alex for beta reading this!

I shook the sleep from my vision and I marched out of the bedroom. My mom hurried up from the kitchen, a look of concern on her woody face. Her leafy hair fluttered behind her. She swallowed as she saw me marching forward.

“Leo?”

“Get ready,” I growled and went to my armor and weapons.

“Ooh, some bad boys are breaching the dungeon,” Garnet said. She wore a white apron over her slender form. My little sister struck a dramatic pose. “Let’s show them the folly of their ways. Kweh, heh, heh!”

Our mother glanced at her in shock. “This isn’t a game, young lady.”

Garnet deflated and muttered, “It’s like a game.”

“Leo,” Lana said as she held open my gray robes for me to slip into.

As I thrust my arms in, I thought, “Who’s seen the intruders?”

I was connected telepathically to everyone in the dungeon. Halia blinked and glanced at me. It looked like even she was in the network. By vowing to serve me, she had linked herself to the Void Crystal.

“I got eyes on them,” Hela reported. My wildhound’s thoughts reverberated in my mind. “We’re about to pounce on them. Looks like a barbarian, a rogue, a mage, and a cleric.”

“I know that cleric,” added Nos. “And the rogue. They attacked us with Halia.”

Halia groaned. “Norso and Milies?”

“I guess they got unbamboozled,” I muttered.

“Well, my sexiness can only last so long,” Garnet said with a shrug. “I’m amazing, but no one’s that good.”

Mom gave Garnet a curious look.

“Later,” I said, belting on my gray robe while Lana lifted my breastplate. She helped to strap it on me.

A monster girl died. Seeng, one of my satyrs, just perished. I swallowed. Her soul was returned to the Void Crystal. When the battle was over, if we survived, I could revive her. It would be like she slept. But so long as the intruders were in the dungeon, I could do nothing to restore their flesh.

“I want them captured,” I said. “Deal nonlethal damage.”

“But they just killed Seeng, Lord Leo,” Havas answered, sounding angry.

“And she’ll be rewarded for her sacrifice,” I said as Lana strapped the last one on. “I don’t want them killed if we can avoid it.”

“Will do, Lord Leo,” Sviesos answered. The first-ever monster girl I made. Not a companion like Lana or my mother, but a true one birthed from the Void Crystal and my own will.

Kibir died as I took my lightning spear from Lana. It crackled with electricity. I had trained hard on it. I shook my head. I hadn’t even had a chance to practice my new spells. Well, hopefully I wouldn’t need them.

I marched out of the living room, my companions and Halia with me.

“I’m glad that you’re trying to capture them,” Mom said. “You shouldn’t hurt people.”

“I don’t want to,” I said. “But I will if I have to. I won’t let them kill us all.”

“He’ll protect us,” Garnet said. My little sister sounded so thrilled. “He’s so gallant. Kweh, heh, heh, that’s how he won this naughty succubus’s heart.”

“You loved your brother before coming here,” Mom said. “Your crush was plain as day.”

“Yep,” Maya said. “Why do you think we got along so well.”

“I know,” Garnet said. “I’m glad we both got him. There are things we have to do.”

“Now’s not the time,” I growled, feeling Havas dying. I swallowed. Was I getting my monster girls killed for nothing?

I threw open the door to the throne room. It was one of the largest rooms in the dungeon, shaped like the home plate in baseball, it was widest at my end. My throne sat on a raised dais with smaller chairs flanking it for my companions and Halia. I mounted my throne and gazed down at why I came here.

The dungeon map lay in here, a large section of the floor that showed off every bit of my domain. Dots glowed on it. I was a white dot surrounded by golden dots, my companions. Even Halia was a gold dot now, not a green dot like she used to be. My monster girls were blue dots. They were all converging on the attackers, who were red dots. They were in the opening labyrinth of the dungeon, fighting in a corridor. The dots moved about in staccato movements as the map updated only every second. The only monster girls not surging in that way were the mermaids.

The oozes were on the move. They were the ones with the farthest to travel. Most of the monster girls were at the fight. I swallowed. Should I send in Usiku, Baaghi, and Paanee? They were stationed in a room beyond my throne room, three dots in the center, the last line of defense before my throne room.

Nos died.

I swallowed. She had taken pain. She had suffered for me because of these damned adventurers. Halia, wearing her armor, gripped the pommel of her father’s magic sword sheathed at her side. She paced back and forth, looking tense. She had broken into my dungeon a few weeks back with Norso and Milies. I had spared them and captured her to try to reason with adventurers.

I had shown Halia the depths of my conviction and won her to my cause. I didn’t feel like that was possible.

The blue dots were all over the red. The four of them were getting mobbed. I swallowed, watching the fight and wishing that I could be there. I only had one life. I didn’t get to come back. Halia and I were the only ones who could truly die. The others were made of my magic, vessels animated by my will. They had souls, though. They were unique beings who deserved to live. Who didn’t deserve the pain they suffered for me.