Dungeon Annihilation 2 - 27

Good morning. 

Regan/Earle

This night had turned out even better than I had hoped. I had planned for the magic involved to be flashy, but this was superior to even my imagination. With the countess having used one of her own slaves to prove the magic truly worked, my plans would require even less authenticating to move ahead.

The fact that the commander and countess were already looking ahead to resisting the church and other nobles were only side benefits that I’d hoped for but hadn’t planned to see. At least not on the first night. It looked like there was more dissatisfaction with Lelune than I had first thought.

“I see everything went according to plan,” I said as Raven moved up next to me.

“Yes. The monster has been dealt with,” she replied with a large grin that made me proud.

“Good.” I turned to one of the devout. “Please help them through the process. I shall see off our guests.” The woman nodded and I moved over to the Countess’ group. “I feel this night has wore on a bit longer than we all expected.”

“Yes. I was just thinking the same,” the countess replied though I felt she wanted to stay longer. Though whether it was the enchantment or what she had witnessed tonight, I wasn’t sure. Probably a bit of both. She still followed along as I led them from the room and eventually from the cathedral itself.

“Countess, a moment,” I called as the others moved down the path. She hesitated for a second but nodded and came back. “Its done. If you should need another head. Please let me know.”

“For a person starting to spread a religion, that’s not very holy of you,” she commented, and I couldn’t help smirking.

“That is true, but my goddess told me my blade would be dyed red long before I could join her. No matter how benevolent my goddess is, this world is still very much survival of the fittest.”

“I see. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Nodding without losing my grin, I slowly closed the doors behind them. Once shut, I teleported to my core room just as I burst out laughing. It was almost to the point that I was going to start rolling on the floor. If I wasn’t made of shadows, I was sure my stomach would be hurting from my mirth.

“Master?”

“Ah. Set. Sorry about that. I just can’t believe the night has gone so well. The fools don’t even realize that I’ll be their destruction.”

“Yes. They are truly foolish.”

“Well, enough about them for now.”

Mentally rubbing my hands, I moved to where the necromancers were being held. I finally had some time to deal with the lower ranked ones that attacked the dungeon a few weeks ago. They had attempted to flee, but they were sealed in a box of a room where the only way out is to mine through the walls.

When I appeared, Julie dropped to her knees instantly. Her ability to see souls was unique in that no one else had even heard of it. Even the necromancers only had a semi-similar ability and it only worked after they themselves summoned the souls. Either way, it was something that I was looking into replicating while making it hard for me to sneak up on her not matter what form I was taking. “My lord!”

Just to make it easier, I formed my host avatar. “Julie. How are your former colleges?”

She grew noticeably displeased. “As you can assume, they are less than willing to submit to you.”

I chuckled at her expression. “It wouldn’t be as fun if it was any other way.”

Waving my hand, a hallway appeared on the other side of the wall. We moved down until we came to the cell of Wrakras. He was the other leader assigned to the group alongside Julie. If anything, the necromancers were good at making sure their terrorists’ cells were well organized. From what Julie says, even if the leaders were lost on assignment, the lower ranked necromancers were still able to make any calls for the area themselves.

With another wave, the door to the cell appeared in the wall allowing light in for the first time in close to a week. I might have had a tendency to forgot about them and Julie was only allowed to converse with them. I wasn’t allowing her to actually see them in person yet. That might give them hope after all.

The man was in rough shape. I hadn’t tortured him or anything, but only getting the bare minimum food and water to survive while in a pitch-black room took its toll on a person. No matter how in touch with the evil side of things they claimed to be, few people dwelled in the dark for long.

“How’s the room?”

The man looked up apparently just realizing that there was light in the room along with a person. “What do you care?”

“Well. We had such a nice spar before that I felt it would be a waste to let you rot in this room. Unlike your compatriot, your face hasn’t been seen by the locals.”

“So I’m useful. That’s the only reason you’ve been keeping me alive?”

“No. I just plain forgot about you.”

Surprise crossed his face. Whether it was from my honesty or that he might not be as needed as he thought, I didn’t very much care. “What?”

I placed my shadowy arms behind my back like a teacher about to lecture. “I’m very busy, you see. I have several plans all working at the same time. Many require a delicate hand and I just didn’t have the time to spare needed to make the call on whether to put you to work or just simply kill you, especially when dear Julie here has been more than cooperative.” I paused raising a shadowy finger into the air. “Your only saving grace was that you generate a sizable amount of mana from my dungeon to eat.”

“I’m… we’re your food?” he asked bewildered. “Why don’t you just kill us then?”

“Ah. Well, then you’d stop said mana production.”

“Then why bother talking to me at this point? What’s changed?”

“Like I said. I have various plans in the works. One of them requires more people topside doing my bidding. You are already good at keeping secrets and managing covert operations. That means I can put you to work quickly and move on to other topics.”

His face soon took on the expression one got when biting a lemon. “I don’t believe it. You could never trust me.”

“What part of this requires me to trust you?” I created an image on the wall of what the inside of his chest would look like. A metal ring wrapped around his heart like the members of the penial colony I sent back to the surface. “While you were asleep, I placed a nice little present around your heart. For now, its set to let you say whatever you want, but I can send a code at any time and you’ll be stuck being my parrot. Understand?”

“So… I’m a slave?”

“More or less.” I patted his shoulder. “But don’t worry! Stick with me and you’ll gain more power than you’ll know what to do with.”

“Doesn’t sound like I have much say in the matter,” Wrakras said with a tight smirk.

“That’s the spirit!” I turned to Julie. “Any of the others going to be useful?”

“Depends on what you want them to do, my lord.”

“Basic blending in.” I just needed some more feet on the ground. Thankfully, they all were captured before the locals got a look at their faces. If Julie could move as part of a group, it would make it easier for her to blend in and do some actual work.

“Then yeah, they all have training in that area.”

“Then I want to get everyone that you can use to make a trip.”

“Trip, my lord?”

“You’re going to Jade Wind.”

~~

“How are they doing?”

Nedali looked at me with a blank stare. I sighed in some annoyance. While her change and sequential binding to the dungeon recovered a large amount of her mental facilities. The dryad still struggled at times. Mainly with questions or orders that were vague. I wasn’t sure how long it would take for her to completely recover or if she would at all in the first place.

“How are the mortals that have recently taken up living in the dungeon?” I clarified and understanding washed over her.

“They are well. Eating, sleeping, fornicating. They are little different from the animals they descend from at this point.”

“Have they tried to leave the dungeon?”

“Other than explore the immediate area around the spot you made for them. They have done little more. Even when the food magically appeared for them, after the initial bestial fear, they made no attempts to figure out why it was appearing.”

“I see.” Much like Nedali explained the beastkin had made camp in the area cleared of crystal but had done little more. Even at this moment, most were sleeping.

Studying the mana patterns from them, I found that there was more than just adaption and corruption going on. There mental patterns appeared to have been manipulated in various ways. Given where we were, I was sure that a necromancer or someone along those lines attempted to turn them into better soldiers. If these were the result, I wouldn’t be surprised if the individual responsible gave up.

“They are giving the core mana so leave them. What about threats? How are our surroundings?”

“Zombie is bringing more of the wild undead into the dungeon daily. The crystals absorbing them have begun to exhibit changes. Denser unholy mana. I am keeping an eye on it as master wanted.” She pointed to a section of the crystal fields. There was a horde of undead and a few of the large tree monsters pressed together surrounded by the crystal. I guess even the undead could tell the structure would kill them if they touched it. “I have been placing them there. The treants are the most dangerous due to their mixed unholy and nature mana, but nothing Zombie and her band can’t deal with one at a time.”

“Good. I’m hoping for a few mutations in a number of the participants. It would be best if Zombie evolved further, but the crystal showing changes are also an interesting turn. What about you?” I asked eyeing her over. She was essentially the hive mind of the crystal growth. While the various larger outcroppings were acting as nodes, she was the mind behind it all.

“While there is influence from the unholy mana being felt in the main body of my tree, I have begun channeling it up into the storm after deciding that it would be detrimental me.”

“Very good.” I stared off into the distance overlooking the forest surrounding us. We were nearly two or three hundred kilometers from the next dryad, but I wanted to capture her as well. Not only were the dryads linked to the dungeon core in the north that I would likely have to fight, but they had ties to the necromancers. It would be in my best interest to pull as many of their weapons into my own court before dealing with them.

“Master.”

I raised an eyebrow at the call. It was Set. She usually only called on me when it was important. “What is it?”

“Wrath was just defeated.”

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