OctupleCompressedNeodymium

  Xajymzia stared at the rogue, grinning. "You ! Damn you !", the man screamed as he unsuccessfuly tried to sever her jugur. She didn't know what was the most amusing part. The man's rage, his sheer tenacity, or the fact that her ck of jugur meant his effort was worthless. All three, Xajymzia decided.

  "Hmph. That brawler woman I fought before was something resembling a threat.", she taunted, sounding distinctly unimpressed, before she grinned. Of course, part of this is that she had been significantly weaker back then.

  "You are not threats. You're don't even anger me through your actions like she did. All you are, are little worms that had the indecency of coming here and wishing to hurt my charge. So I might as well enjoy myself while putting you lot six feet under."

  The daggers screeched, dulling its bde against her neck while he silmutaneously tried to strangle her and ssh her throat. She smiled, and smmed her elbow into the man's stomach, sending him flying. "The futility of your actions amuse me.", Xajymzia said.

  She then teleported a few meters away from the man and turned one of her arms into a machine gun. And then she started shooting, the rogue running to the side to avoid the bullets, trying to get closer to her.

  Xajymzia kept shooting, before suddenly moving her arm to shoot ahead of the rogue, the man doing a messy 180 to avoid running into the bullets. She simply grinned as the man grew more furious, a dagger he had thrown hitting her in the eye and sliding off of it. Good defense is not fshy, but certainly useful.

  Xajymzia swapped her shooting direction again, before doing a fake-out and going for a cone of projectiles. She considered how to add to the humiliation, before turning her back to the rogue and shooting over her shoulder with the same accuracy as before.

  When the rogue got close enough, she jumped backwards over the man's head, forcing him to scramble for cover as injuries appeared on his skin. Time to finish this, Xajymzia thought. He likely wouldn't hold much longer, after all.

  She slowly swung both of her arms behind her in an arc while shooting bullets, creating a dense wall of firepower worthly of a game for lunatics involving girls with hats throwing pattern of bullets at each other.

  A man like him didn't deserve her full attention, or even for Xajymzia to use all of her arsenal against. There was a small gargle as the rogue tried to dodge, noise of flesh being pierced, and silence.

  Xajymzia simply smiled as she started to clean up the remains using the dungeon's abilities. Wasn't worth using any of my real weapons on. Besides, the lot of them wouldn't have stood up to even a second of Xajymzia's true power.

  And that would've just been most unsatisfying.

  Yuulvan stared at the mage. He had essentially won. Now it was time to drive the final nail in the coffin. A snake is most dangerous when cornered. He could have used his magic to end the panicked mage in front of him in many different ways, including at least seventeen schools of forbidden magic, but the man simply wasn't worth the trouble.

  Not a hero, or a great outw, or anyone of major significance for that matter. Merely a mediocre man who got lucky and let it get to his head. Yuulvan had the boulders around him pick up speed again, intercepting a single fireball he allowed the mage to shoot to show the futility of his efforts.

  Then he had the boulders change course and expanded their radius. He couldn't throw them out too far, but that was fine. The mage tried to get away, but he was hit from below. There was fear on the man's eyes, as he wondered why he couldn't feel his legs, as his bisected upper body flew for a short while before falling onto the ground.

  Hmph. Disgusting, Yuulvan thought as the dungeon disposed of the man's remains, turning his head and facing Xajymzia. "Not worth using anything resembling real weaponry on.", she stated.

  "Certainly not the most impressive I've seen.", Yuulvan answered. He had seen heroes, true heroes. He knew them by sight, by aura. Men and women that exuded honor and nobility, true nobility, that you couldn't tear your eyes from. They would charge into the fray for the sake of people they never met and knew nothing about.

  Heroes who would sy Apocalypses for the sake of making the world safer, who would help the helpless and protect the forgotten. And he knew that each and every single one of them would find Rickard and his group nothing but pretenders utterly unworthy of even the title of adventurer, let alone hero.

  They cked the independance for the former, being nothing more than attack dogs of Xvodanian nobility and maybe their temple as well.For Yuulvan,being interested in one's material security for its own sake was no sin, and in fact perfectly understandable.

  But the people who would gdly hurt others with no misgivings for it deserved nothing but his utmost contempt. He knew the heroes, both old and new, would sooner accept Zoemie into their ranks, even if the tter would categorically refuse being referred to as so.

  This amused and satisfied Yuulvan in equal measures.

  Rickard blinked. For a second, the dark fog wasn't here. He could see clearly that he was in a cave of some kind, and that he was being stared at, and just who was watching and cheering for his demise.

  They were here, floating... things he couldn't describe with the face and torso of the women. Shit. What the fuck are they doing here ? And of course, that was disregarding the figure in the middle. A figure of pure shadow, that dripped it from their body like it was oil.

  Piercing red eyes stared him down like he was some kind of ant. It kind of pissed him off. He was a hero, whoever she was ? She was the ant in the fight and should've behaved as so. Maybe he would've spared her.

  Then he blinked again, and he was in the darkness once more. He was not even sure whether what he saw was real or an hallucination. Before he could do anything, however, the ground shaked under body, preventing him from getting back up. Fuuuck... And a voice pierced out of the darkness.

  "WHAT DID YOU DO TO THESE GIRLS, YOU PIECE OF SHIT ?", Zoemie screamed in a rage he didn't know anyone was capable of. And at this moment, he knew it was her who had killed High Priest Kvutar.

  Alright, I need to get out of here. The pn was simple. He needed to get her to agree with her on something, anything. As long as he did that, he could eventually, somehow, worm his way out of this.

  "C..Come on ! I'm a hero ! I get chicks for free !", he shouted back. "It's their own damn fault for insisting !"

  "Are you bullshitting me right now ?", she screeched in answer, enraged, Rickard narrowing his eyes.

  "P...Piss off, dammit ! Do you really wanna kill a hero and get the Heavens pissed off at you ?", he screamed again. A shockwave rocked the ground beneath him again, almost making Rickard bounce.

  "All you bastards ever wanted to do was to hurt me.", Zoemie screeched. "When that High Priest fucker came with his sve colr, and now you piece of shit !" What the fuck ? Sir Kvutar would never have done that !

  "I...I'm sorry, okay !", he screamed instead, trying to buy himself sympathy.

  "You literally said that they should've been honored less than five fucking minutes ago !" Jeez, what the hell ? Rickard thought. Talk about unreasonable ! "You're not fucking sorry at all !"

  Before he could say anything, Zoemie pointed a finger in his direction, channeling more mana in the spirits. "KILL HIM !", she screamed, the spirits dashing towards Rickard, his heart skipping a bit. No. NO !

  "...Co on ! We can talk about this !", Rickard say, trying to defend himself with his hands, that he channeled magic into. The spirits ignored him.

  They charged at him, their ghostly cws and teeth passing through his armor as he futilely tried to punch and kick them away from him.

  They sshed as he got on all fours and tried to run away. I... I ain't dying in this pce ! I'm a hero, dammit ! Another shockwave sent him on the ground.

  They diced, Rickard screaming futilely for any form of assistance from anyone, but nobody came.

  They tore Rickard apart, until nothing remained of him but an empty armor and helmet engraved with the symbol of Xvodane.

  Zoemie sat on the ground, holding her sword with one hand looking at the spirits around her. She clenched her free hand, thinking, before looking away. "...I can't keep you around. It's too expensive, drain my mana too much. But I can't simply send you back like this."

  She turned her head, facing them. "Do any of you... want to go back now now ?". There was no response among the spi... women gathered around Zoemie. I don't even know their names... but it doesn't matter. It pissed her off. How he had used these women then threw them away like trash.

  "You deserved better. All of you. Shit..." Zoemie took a deep breath, looking through her dungeons items. Is there something I can us... Ah. This might work. Zoemie conjured an item, before teleporting another potion from... somewhere and drinking it.

  It was a small, octahedral shard slightly smaller than Zoemie's fist. A Shard of Life, Zoemie's manual told her. The spirits could use them to reconstruct their bodies... and come back. She expined that to them, their faces changing as she did so.

  "But that alone won't do... You'll just end up back where you started.", Zoemie grumbled, before something came to mind. The old man had told her he could see some of the knowledge of the dungeon, that she had inherited from the Before.

  Can I do something like this ? Zoemie closed her eyes, reaching into the fabric of the dungeon. She could see Xajymzia and the old man talking together, both uninjured. She nodded, relieved, and reached further, into the web.

  And she gave each of the women a shard of that knowledge, knowledge from the Before... from Earth. Not even Zoemie knew what it would give them, what they would learn. But it didn't matter to her. Her eyes opened, and she conjured more Shards of Life. One for each.

  The spirits took the shards, still hesitant. "Go.", Zoemie said, as gently as she could. "Someone like me... I ain't getting a second chance. But maybe I can give you one, instead." Make something better from that whole mess.

  Each of the spirits nodded, and left, one by one. Zoemie could feel the drain on her mana lessening with each of them leaving.

  Until, after a moment that seemed like the shortest of eternities, Zoemie was alone again in the cave.

  She teleported to her changing room, switching away from her combat outfit, before going to the living room, entering carefully, Xajymzia and the old man still talking about something. "Ah, superb.", Yuulvan said. "I see you've won."

  "Yep.", Zoemie said. "I'm... a bit out of it, but I'm gd you're okay. Both of you.", she said, fumbling over her words a little. "Now, I... need to rest for a while."

  Both of them nodded as Zoemie teleported to her bedroom and crashed on her bed.

  Xajymzia smiled as her charge took residence on her bed. The day had been tiring for her, after all. She was fresh as daisies, however, and Yuulvan was uninjured.

  In fact, Xajymzia dared to say she was in an excellent mood. It was a complete victory on their part. Their enemies were dead with no survivors, and she had disposed of their bodies using the dungeon's abilities. All they had left behind was loot to investigate at her leisure.

  She had sensed... something happening in the cave, but as far as she was concerned that was nothing of critical importance. That... Rickard had been sin, and it was all that mattered. Her charge could rest easier knowing her enemy was dead.

  And both she and Yuulvan could focus on much more important tasks. "I do have a field we could use for testing such a device.", Xajymzia said. She wasn't certain how rge the reduction would increase if she fertilized the field properly.

  She hadn't bothered doing so before because it wasn't too necessary, but since he was essentially offering, she would take it. Besides, if the thing failed she'd just reset the area and do it over. It wouldn't take too long either way.

  "I do want to make some refinements to it.", Yuulvan said, and Xajymzia nodded. "Still, I have confidence in the basic idea, it's mostly about making it cheaper, adapting it to work outside of dungeons and ensuring no one can exploit the chemicals involved for nefarious ends."

  Xajymzia nodded in turn. "Reasonable concerns.", she said.

  Zoemie left her room at dinnertime. She had been expecting herself to repy the fight within her mind, but she wasn't, so she had done some gaming. You really need Master of Weapons to do this fast, but the best skillset for it make the AI stupid, and the other ones are unavaible normally.

  "The AI in this game is dumb as rocks in general. Can't trust it to do what you want with it..." Ah, well, that's what the save editor is for !, Zoemie thought as she approached the kitchen, the old man looking at her with a slight smile.

  "So, what have you been working on tely ?", Zoemie asked, her tone casual. "Still on that fertilizer device research ?"

  "Yes.", he answered. "My progress was slowed down by this... incursion, but with it out of the way I should be done before the end of next week." Zoemie nodded.

  "You're mostly done with the radiation research, then ?", she asked. He was working on that first, right ?

  "Mostly. There's one or two more things left to handle, but these can wait a little.", Yuulvan answered. "Are you alright ? I had the impression you... knew this Rickard before.", he asked, Zoemie taking a slow, deep breath.

  Shee looked away. "Yeah... but if there's one of those assholes I'm fine with killing, it's him." She looked at the old man. "When I first arrived it, I thought I would just kill anyone who entered my territory, but... I don't have it in me.", she grumbled.

  He simply smiled. "I for one shall be grateful for it... but you make it sound like a bad thing.", he said, Zoemie folding her arms, unsure. The old man looked up. "I have met people before who were so... decisive. Iron-hearted sughterers who would gdly kill anyone who got in their way. And I can tell you all of them just made everything worse."

  Zoemie sighed. "I don't know.", she answered, shrugging, before the smell of food distracted her. "Burgers, huh... That's nice.", Zoemie smiled as she sat down. "That was what the dungeon summoned for the first evening I spent here. Think it was those exact ones, too.", she said to the old man.

  "Were you not worried it was a trap ?", he asked, and Zoemie blinked.

  "The idea did not even cross my mind, and frankly... even if it had it wouldn't have been that big of a loss either way.", she answered, before picking up her burger and closing her eyes as she bit into it, the taste making her feel slightly better.

  "This food is unknown to me... is it common where you're from ?", the old man asked.

  "Kinda. They're called burgers.", Zoemie said, before talking a little about what she knew of them. Well, what Neth knew of them and told her about.

  It was a quiet, almost sedate dinner. Xajymzia had ended up joining them midway through. "By the way, I teleported some potions during the fight, where did those come from ?", she asked, curious and confused. I doubt the old man has any clue.

  "They're an emergency measure I installed a while ago.", Xajymzia answered, and Zoemie nodded. "This was the exact kind of situations those were here for.".

  "Got it.", Zoemie said, satisfied. She had been a little worried, but clearly it was no problem whatsoever, the conversation meandering away to lighter subject afterwards.

  Zoemie liked this kind of dinner. It reminded her of home, when talking with her father about random computer stuff. Or sometimes on Thursdays when she and Neth could eat together at the canteen. It made the noise tolerable.

  Fourteen spirits rushed away from the cave and the forest, each clenching tightly the shard within their existence.

  One of them rushed to her house, knowing her mother's true ailment and how to fix it.

  One of them decided she would take the hood, and the cowl, and prowl the night to protect those less fortunate than her. Someone had to do it, and it sure as hell wouldn't be the guards. They enjoyed the ability to abuse those women and get away with it far too much.

  One of them returned to her school dorm, having to catch up to her missed assignments. Her knowledge of the stars and the worlds beyond would have to wait a little.

  One of them had to return to her temple. Her mother must be worried sick.

  And one of them... decided to stay in the forest. She could have left, strike it out on her own with her new powers, and make it successfully as duchess or even queen.

  But the boon, the gift of this new life she had been granted, it was to be repaid. And it was by the side of her new liege that the spirit would do so.

  But all of these women, no matter their origin, circumstances, or decision afterwards, would remember her.

  That pale-masked girl.

  OctupleCompressedNeodymium

  I still have no pns for any direct lewd scenes in book 2, but Zoemie's harem will start to form properly.

  [colpse]