Chapter 32

Note: Thanks to Alex for beta reading this!

I decided to put the salamanders in a trap room I dubbed the Hellfire Room. I placed it on the second floor on one of the paths that bypassed the Frozen Room where the yuki-onna were stationed. Hopefully, at least one of them would be encountered if adventurers managed to penetrate that far into the labyrinth.

The Hellfire Room would be a place of extreme temperatures. The heat would be blistering. Around the room, I added flame vents that erupt fire across the entire room. It was the perfect place for Engana, Malvada, Astuta, Dolor, and Horca to haunt.

I also added smaller flame vent traps around the dungeon. One more hazard that would have to be negotiated.

After two days, Isatu reverted to her human form. I wanted to investigate the dungeon. There should be no other dangers in it, so I took just her and Fara to explore. I wanted the others here in case Anguin returned. We could beat him, but we needed to have overwhelming forces. I had ideas. Feya and Smerta would evacuate the entire first floor and we would hide them in the labyrinth. Feya would come to the throne room. Her light wand would be very useful.

The three of us took the elevator ride down to the dungeon. Isatu stepped in and looked around. She stared at the walls for a long moment then shook her head. “I don’t think I came in here. Even as a hatchling.”

“Did you just stay in that large room?” I asked her as I led the way.

“No. I only started going in there when I got big.” She padded at my side, her wings folded around her. “I would spend most of my time where my parents lay. Just watching them. I must have spent a lot of time sleeping.”

“Three thousand or so years,” said Fara. “You have been absorbing mana for a long time. It’s why you can get so big.”

“I don’t need much in this form,” she said, staring down at her hands. “This is a nice form. It’s fun. It doesn’t make me get all sleepy.”

We moved through the tunnel and eventually came to the room where we fought. It was as far as we had gotten. I hadn’t even explored it properly. The ball of light I conjured floated before us as we moved through it. The evidence of the fight was everywhere. No one had reset the dungeon.

No one was alive down here to do that.

Fara trailed behind us as we moved around. There was a throne at the far end. That explained much. There was another chair beside it and twelve more behind it. I frowned at that, seeing these chairs.

“Did Meskalamdug have all twelve glyphs?” I asked. “I thought he had Death and gained Fire when he tamed Isatu’s mother.”

“I cannot say,” said Fara as she examined them. “There is the death glyph on the chair right behind him. The one beside that has Earth. Here’s Metal. Ice. Fire. Thunder. Water.” She moved back down the line. “Yes, yes, Lightning, Wind, Dark, Life, and Light. If these thrones are for his companions, then he must have had one of each.”

“How did he get other glyphs?” I glanced at her. “Was there a lot of dungeon builders?”

“I don’t know.” Fara tapped her cheek. “It was thought he was unique at the time. That there were none others until after his death.”

“So how did he get the other glyphs. He only tamed one dragon.”

Fara frowned. “There must be other ways to gain them.”

I rubbed at my chin. “When I killed Ziamili, I could tell that he had gotten his Metal glyph by killing another dungeon builder. He had two different level 1 Metal monster girls. But Led did not. Light was his second glyph, but he only had one. I didn’t understand that. I thought he had kept the companion, and she never fought against us. Only I didn’t get to inherit her. But maybe there was something else.”

“Maybe,” Fara said. “What we know about you dungeon builders is scant.”

Isatu opened the door. “This way. The room I hatched in is not far.”

She headed down a hallway. I went after her. It came to a flight of stairs. We descended them in a spiral a floor. She opened another room and it was a sitting room. There were old-fashioned couches and a table. Backgammon was set out on the table. The pieces showed they were in the middle of a game. Black looked to be winning.

“I heard this is the oldest game in my world,” I said. “Backgammon. Played in Ancient Egypt and Sumeria.” I touched the spot of my robe that covered the cuneiform glyphs. “Sumeria is where the cuneiform writing comes from.”

“Interesting,” Fara said. “This is a game that has many variations, but this version is said to be the original. Did dungeon builders bring it to my world? Or is it another of those strange coincidences?”

“Like how our mythological creatures are found here?” I rubbed at the back so my head.

“I hatched in here,” said Isatu. She opened a door that led off.

Curious, I followed her into a bedroom. A narrow bed had two skeletons on it. A man and woman, one in robes, the other unclothed. I swallowed at the sight of Meskalamdug and his wife, Girru. There were dark stains around their bodies.

Ancient blood?

Before the foot of the bed was a heart with old charcoal. Fragments of a red shell were scattered about. Isatu picked one up and smiled, showing me a piece of her egg. Then she glanced at the bed. At the figures.

“I hatched and found them like this,” Isatu said. “They used to have flesh, but every time I slept and woke up, there was less and less of them. I remember hearing them talk while I was in my egg. I was so loved.” She smiled. “We are going to have a hatchling. Isn’t that wonderful?”

I nodded, wondering if she was actually pregnant or however it worked.

Then I noticed the door beyond. A stouter one. A Vault door. I moved around the bed, my heart hammering against my chest. I pushed open the door to find a Void Crystal humming away. It drew in mana. For all these centuries, it had been absorbing energy. I moved towards it, staring at the crystal.

From out of it rose a Soul. Not my Souleen, though similar. This was more like the woman I remember in my dreams. She stared up at me, this sad look on her brown face. She then bowed low to me.

“Finally, a conqueror has arrived to free me from my failure,” she said. It was in perfect English.

“Conqueror, huh? Is that what I am?”

“One must be strong to protect the Soul of the Word.” she smiled. “Are you strong enough to protect your Soul? Meskalamdug was not. He failed.”