Dungeon Builder's Harem Book 03 Ch. 25

Chapter Twenty-Five

Leo's words echoed through Lana Fulmine's mind. Almost there...

The door to the throne room burst open and the thing represented by the red dot entered. Flying above the others, Lana had her first glimpse of him.

It was a man with black hair and a grizzled face. Black blood dripped from a cut across his forehead and ran down his right cheek. He had a burned scar across the left side of his face, the skin puckered and raw.

And that wasn't the only thing wrong with his skin. It was gray. Like ash. Almost as if shadows had poisoned him. He wore black armor, heavy plate that clad him from neck to foot. Gouges, scrapes, and rents marred it. It had weathered the damage of an army of monster girls. In his hand, he held an inky sword that bled darkness, but it wasn't a straight sword. It was malformed. Bent in strange ways.

Mrs. Baldwin's roots surged in at him as Lana gathered her lightning and unleashed it. The arcs of white-blue plasma fired from her wings and shot down at the man. A void ripped open before him. A tear in reality that led to pure darkness. It swallowed her blast of electricity.

"What?" Lana gasped.

A heartbeat later, the lightning fired back out of the void at Crystal. The ice sprite dove to the side, the electricity blast arcing through the mist she left behind. She rolled and threw her ice daggers. They hissed through the air.

Only for the void to swallow them.

Baaghi charged in, the rakshasa's striped body almost a blur. A feline roar exploded from her lips. The shadowy man slashed his deformed blade. An arc of shadow hissed out at Baaghi. She leaped over it with the nimble grace of a catgirl. She landed while the dark blade slashed through Leo's throne, cutting it in half.

Lana's wings crackled with lightning. They had to stop him. Leo believed in her. She would not let down her number one fan.

* * / *

Crystal threw another ice dagger at the shadowy figure as lightning crackled down. The void swallowed the electricity attack and spat it out at Mrs. Baldwin. Crystal's mother gasped and barely dodged it, her roots, creeping at the intruder, snapping from the motion. The broken ends vanished.

"Damn it!" Crystal hissed and formed an ice dagger in her hand.

All her fury transformed into an icy blizzard inside of her. She rushed at the enemy just as Baaghi bounced. The rakshasa hurtled in at the shadowy knight. His blade flicked out before him and cut Baaghi in half.

She barely screamed out her pain before she vanished into motes that sprayed over the enemy.

Crystal reached the enemy, hissing her fury. Mist spilled off of her body as she stabbed her dagger at his neck. He moved in a blur, leaving behind a streak of darkness. Then something hot slammed through Crystal's guts.

She looked down to see that his sword had buried into her frozen guts. The ice sprite gasped in pain and then she vanished into a burst of motes. Her soul flowed to the darkness of the Void Crystal to slumber in the arms of Souleen.

Will I ever wake up? floated through Crystal's mind before she fell into her dreams.

* * / *

"NOOOOO!" screamed Mrs. Baldwin. "That's my daughter!"

Fury shot through the dryad at the death of her eldest daughter. She rose from her tumble and sent her roots growing fast across the floor. More lightning shot down while Terra rushed in to hit him with her hammer fist. Already, their defense had been cut nearly in half. She had to stop this.

Her roots seized the shadowy knight's armored feet. As he drew back to slash at Terra, Mrs. Baldwin yanked hard on her tendrils with all her rage. The loving satyrs and motherly werebears had died. All the other monster girls had perished. Now her daughter!

The man crashed to the ground in a clatter of metal.

He snapped his gaze to her and then slashed his weapon. She grew her vines up his body as death hurtled at her. She snapped her roots and turned to dodge, but it was too late. She wasn't a warrior, so she didn't have the reaction speed.

Lana swooped down and snagged her.

The shadow cut beneath Mrs. Baldwin and hit the wall. Lana's wings crackled as she carried them up into the vaulted ceiling of the throne room. The man snarled and shadows chased them. Blades of darkness flashed up at them. Lana banked and turned and swooped to avoid them.

"Drop me!" Mrs. Baldwin shouted. "You can't dodge these forever carrying me."

"He'll kill you!" Lana shouted.

"I know!" The dryad squirmed hard, breaking out of Lana's grasp. She fell twenty feet and landed in a crouch, breasts bouncing.

She turned to see Terra slamming her hammer fist into a raised arm, doing nothing to the armor. The knight slashed his blade at Mrs. Baldwin, his eyes intent on her. She dodged it to the right, rolling and darting into a spring.

Lightning arced down only to be swallowed by that rip in space. Mrs. Baldwin changed direction, knowing where the lightning blast would fire. It shot at her, but she was already moving to get clear. She ran two steps only to realize her mistake.

He had anticipated her dodge and slashed his sword to strike her where she had turned. The shadow cut her body in half. She hardly felt the pain. Something cold washed through her body and then she felt herself falling to the ground. She hit and then...

Fell into the dream.

* * / *

I jumped into the water of the flooded bridge room and swam to it. The bridge lay just above the water level with a spot to climb up in the middle. Behind me, monster girls jumped into the water. Garnet, Isatu, and Mrs. Lucina soared overhead and landed on the bridge. Garnet fell to her knees, thrusting out her hand to me.

I swam with power, Strength of the Mountain giving me the prowess to swim in the heavy plate. I reached the bridge and climbed up, Garnet helping me. Isatu watched on with worry on her face while Mrs. Lucina stared at the concealed door that had been burst open. A corridor lay beyond, pit traps triggered, arrows lying broken on the ground.

My mother died.

"Fuck!" I growled. Only Lana and Terra were left. "Almost there!" I shouted as I ran dripping wet down the bridge. "Just hold for one more minute! Lana, Terra, one minute!

* * / *

One minute...

Lana didn't know how she could do that. Terra swung her hammer-fist at the enemy. Now that Mrs. Baldwin was dead, the enemy just turned and slashed his sword. Terra jumped back, the blade missing her, but not the arc of darkness that shot out. It slashed through her chest. She blinked in shock before she fell apart, vanishing before she reached the floor.

It was all on Lana Fulmine.

She soared through the throne room, lightning bursting from her wings and arcing down at him. She twisted and dodged. Arcs of shadow hurtled up at her, nearly clipping her wings. She couldn't stay predictable. She had to keep moving.

How is Leo defeating this monster?

She didn't see how much longer she could keep this up. How she could stop this bastard? She fired another blast of lightning from her wings. The static discharge shot down at the shadowy man. He ripped open a void and caught it. She twisted and banked. Lightning fired out before her. She dove down. A blade of shadow hissed over her.

Please, please, please, get here, Lord Leo, she thought.

She soared through the throne room, doing all she could to stay alive. Twists. Turns. She danced in the air. She climbed to the vaulted ceiling. She skimmed over the ground. He tracked her, firing blades of shadow at her.

He could be hurt. She knew that. The orcs had done it. She just had to find a way to distract him. But her lightning couldn't be fired rapidly. The static electricity took several seconds to build up to another discharge. She couldn't rapid-fire it.

Could she trick him?

She soared at him. He slashed his sword. She twisted past the shadow blade. Her wings crackled. She flared them to fire. His void ripped open. But she didn't discharge. She held that energy dancing over the plasma wing bones. She banked hard right and then fired to shoot past his rift.

He dove to the side. Her lightning struck the ground. Sparks flared. He came up at her and slashed her sword. She immediately dodged to the right as she saw his blade start to fall.

Only it didn't complete the swing. It was a feint. A heartbeat later, he slashed his weapon, changing where the blade of shadow went. Just as she had tricked him, he used it on her. She couldn't dodge it, her momentum slowed by her sudden change of direction.

Death hurtled at her.

Leo burst into the throne room, his silver spear in hand, his armored body dripping wet, his skin like granite. He had come for the fight.

The shadow blade struck Lana Fulmine.

Sorry, was the last thing she thought before her soul was claimed by Souleen. In the Void Crystal, Lana Fulmine slumbered with so many other monster girls. In the depths of her heart, she felt only despair.

How could Leo win against this monster?

* * / *

The blade of night struck Lana Fulmine just as I burst into my throne room with the last of my monster girls. It was such a small force compared to what had just been destroyed by this one man. This shadow bastard who stood before me. Rage burst inside of me.

A new spell blazed in my mind. The words to Fireburst whispered through my thoughts.

"Fire explodes, let the rage of Lord Gibil erupt!"

The fire exploded where the man stood. And I mean stood. He jumped out of the way just as the flames erupted. He came up in a crouch facing me. He rose to his full height, a terrifying figure dripping in shadows.

"Blight on the World," he snarled, leveling his sword at me, "The Gods of Darkness have sent me to slay you!"

"Really?" I snarled. "The thick night falls, let the enmity of Lord Zuen smother!"

Shadows engulfed the figure. A crushing, choking darkness that would smother any who engulfed. He didn't have a chance to dodge it. I stared at it, gripping my spear in my hand. There was no way it could be this easy, but I hoped.

I fucking prayed.

The figure stepped out of them. "Really," he said, a mocking smile on his lips. "Can you survive their power?"

He raised his sword

* * / *

"Father!" Halia Vobria shouted in shock. She moved up beside Leo, staring at the shadowy form. There was no mistaking her father's visage. That man whom she had last seen heading off to Fuegin's dungeon when she was a girl. Strong and loving. It was him, but there was something twisted about him. "How are you alive?"

He glanced at her. Then at the sword that hummed in her hand. "You have my sword. Are you with him, daughter?"

She hesitated for a moment. Her father had been the greatest adventurer of his generation. He had slain Argian the White and Thunder Hammer Gludhug before his death in Fuegin's dungeon. Now he stood before her to kill another dungeon builder.

Her dungeon builder.

"I am, Father," she answered with a resolve that surprised her. "He's not the--"

"Then die," her father said without a hint of regret.

He slashed his sword upward. A blade of night rushed at her.

Halia couldn't believe it. Such profound shock rooted her that her beloved father could ever hurt her. And yet the very attack that had just dispatched Lana Fulmine now rushed at her to cleave her in twain.

Someone crashed into Halia. The blow flung her forward. She crashed to her hands and knees, gasping. The blade of night flashed past her. She threw her gaze over her shoulder to witness Slepkavi getting cut in half by the blade.

The orc didn't stand a chance. She just vanished into glittering motes, a smile on her green lips.

Halia's spirit broke. Tears spilled down her cheeks from the horror that her father would murder her. It didn't make sense. How could the man who had loved her, cared for her, cherished her whenever he had returned from his adventures be this same cold monster.

Her mind retreated from the horror, shock gripping her in its deadly talons.