RD 2 Ch 52-56 END (Patreon)

Chapter 52

Decision made, I rushed back into the battle, holding my sword across my chest. I blunted the side pushed against my chest and bodily checked demons aside, using my blade in quick motions to bat away anything coming for my head. I slammed into a demon next to Hercules, my body pressing the whole length of the blade into the demon before I backed off and cut two animated knights away from the Heros.

“I’m getting you to the general.” My momentum was robbed from me as I stopped to clear the space around the Heros.

Hercules barked a laugh, catching another knight’s empty head and crushing it like a soda can. “Too many of these damned things.” He tried to make progress forward, only for them to bodily press him back.

I took two steps back and activated Charge to get some momentum rolling.

My Charge barreled me forward, and I leaned into it, running all-out as soon as I hit a knight. It was far more like trying to push a lineman than fighting, but I had enough increased density that my charge packed a little more punch.

The first animated knight gave way, then the next.

Hercules slammed into me, driving me harder forward as I shoved a line clear through the knights to the spell that was pumping them out.

The golden man shot forward the second he was free of the knights towards the second demon general.

It seemed that it was just in time because the growing pool of darkness on the ground started to shrink.

I bit my thumb and reached down to the shadows that were spilling out the knights and scribbled a quick inscription that glowed red before burning itself up and seeping into the spell.

It was a rush job, but the knights came out missing random pieces of armor, some of which caused them to collapse if they were missing a foot. Others would have a reduced ability to fight.

Hercules was already pushing back the demon general who fought with quick summons. And these were not the powerful ones that he’d fought Hercules off with at the clan.

The demon general pointed a finger that glowed purple before blasting forth.

The Greek roared, and an ornate golden shield protected him from the ability.

I was already moving, coming to the demon general’s side and joining the fight. If he went down, the whole fight was over. My blade caught on his armor but was able to slice deep into his arm before I was forced back by a dark sword slashing at me from above.

As I pulled back, I found my sword was stuck in his armor and with a cast twisted into the thorny vines of Sanguine Locking. It only needed to hold him for a moment before Hercules’ golden fist smashed into that helmet, cracking it and sending the general crashing against the doors to the labyrinth.

The demons working on the door screamed in demon tongue. “We’ve cracked it!” They had drawn inscriptions all over the surface of the door.

I only had a moment of surprise before black jags of energy raced over the door, and a hole in it like broken glass was punched through.

Now that I looked, the door itself was a massive work of enchanting. They had deviated its mechanism to allow them in. Meaning, it wouldn’t open like it was supposed to with the phases of the moon anymore.

The general flashed past both of them, severing their heads from their bodies and raking a hand along their work as the other powerful demon shot past, grabbing him and rushing both of them through the portal.

Persephone was hot on his tail, slipping through a moment later.

I didn’t hesitate, throwing myself through as well, only for a rush of wind to push me farther past the portal as Circe came flying in with Simone and Nyx as the cracked surface healed. The last thing I saw was a furious Hercules.

Luckily, that look wasn’t directed at me. I suspected it was meant for the demon general.

As we appeared on the other side, the general was nowhere to be seen, neither was Persephone. I imagined those three were in a chase somewhere deeper into the labyrinth.

The maze wasn’t that wide. I could stretch out my arms and just touch both sides. Meanwhile, the walls were tall, smooth stone that stretched into the sky for what seemed like forever. It was bright enough to see at least. Any daylight was heavily shaded by the walls, but light could be seen in the scant stretch of sky available.

“I wouldn’t try climbing those,” Circe said, staring up. “If the instance wants us to run the maze, we’re probably going to have to run the maze.”

“Who said anything about running?” Simone dusted herself off. “Thanks for the save, Circe.”

“My pleasure; otherwise, Pers would be stuck in here with just the two demons,” she said as I raised an eyebrow in question. “A few were doggedly trying to get your ladies. I thought about bringing them to help you, but then…” She waved at the sealed door behind us. “That happened.”

I grunted and scanned where we’d come through for access to the inscriptions, but there was none from this side. Figured. “Well then. We’re trapped in here for fifteen days until the other end opens up naturally, or we can find where it should be and pry it open.” I knocked on the wall we’d come through. “However, this isn’t giving me much confidence.”

“What?” Simone tried inspecting the wall.

“Can’t access the inscriptions from the inside. At least this one. If it’s designed to be a trap, then we can assume the other side will be similar,” I said.

“Then we just have to get to the other side and wait.” Nyx nodded sharply.

“If you can keep yourself oriented,” I grumbled. “And if the exit is even directly on the other side.”

Before anyone else could comment, there was a thud that sounded down the hall.

“We should get moving.” I started forward only for a big golden minotaur to appear at the first junction in the hall. It was at a distance but easily towering over me.

There was nowhere else for us to go as it turned towards us.

“That’s not good.” Simone swallowed as the big thing turned towards us.

[Golden Minotaur SSS

Level: --

Status: --

Strength: 34164

Agility: 1600

Vitality: --

Intelligence: 1

Spirit: 1

Skills:

Unstoppable Force SSS

Sharp Horns SSS

Immortal

Invulnerable]

“I’ll distract it. Circe, get them over it!” I shouted and waved my hands, pulling out red paper from my spatial ring and waving the paper around.

I hoped it shared that characteristic of a bull because this thing was insane. I’d never seen a monster with empty levels… well. The leech had that, but the empty vitality indicated to me that the system truly meant that this thing wasn’t going to die.

It wasn’t worth fighting.

Circe shot up above it, flying through the air with the two people I cared about most as the minotaur lumbered forward.

Each step it took was building up speed as it hurtled down the narrow hallway, dipping its head at me.

I took two quick steps and jumped, kicking off the wall to try and get over the monster.

It wasn’t dumb, lifting its head and trying to grab my leg. The fingers touched me and pinched through my calf like it was made of clay, ripping my leg off and crushing my bones.

Yet, it didn’t stop its charge, moving the rest of the way down the hall until it crashed into the wall with a thundering boom.

“Bran!” Simone called out seeing my state and started to cast healing magic on me.

“I’m fine. It’s only a flesh wound. My Regeneration will have me back in a minute.” Summoning a Blood Blade, I used it like a cane and hobbled to catch up.

Nyx scooped me up. “It's about time I carried you for once. Let’s go. Where to?”

“Turn,” Circe said. “Look at it.” She pointed down the hallway at the minotaur that was slowly turning back to face our group, but it moved like a slug when it turned. “We need to make it turn as much as we can.”

“Sounds good. Go right.” I motioned for Nyx to get moving. If I was honest, the minotaur put a touch of fear into me. It was unkillable and would absolutely rip through us if it could get to us.

“Did you see anything different than me, Bran?” Circe asked. “Its stats…”

“It had the abilities immortal and invulnerable. That, along with the vitality, tells me that it isn’t supposed to die.”

“Supposed to and can’t are two very different situations,” she urged, a look of hope in her eyes.

“No clue. Ask me when I have all four limbs and a moment to think. This is a first for me, too.” I kept my tone as level as I could while Nyx rushed through the maze, carrying me.

“Here I thought you had all the answers,” Circe said. “Left. Let’s go deeper in but keep turning. If we alternate left and right, we should stay moving away from that entrance.”

“Next right then.” Nyx was moving fast, having gotten very used to her serpent half by now. “Uhh… There’s no right. Only left and straight.”

“Wasn’t going to be that easy. Go straight,” I said. “If we go back left we’ll head towards the minotaur.”

We were still rushing, the minotaur having put quite a bit of speed into our steps. Though, I had to remind myself that this place wasn’t a sprint. It was a marathon. A fifteen-day marathon trapped in here with that minotaur.

I suddenly understood why Persephone said it was difficult to travel to Tartarus.

“How big is this place?” Nyx asked before another boom caused us to stop and look down a path only to see the golden body of a minotaur. “It caught up to us!”

“No way. That’s not the same one.” Circe cursed under her breath. “There are multiple of these things. What kind of sick mind designs a place like this?” She continued running with Nyx.

At this point, my leg had healed, and I jumped free of her back and joined the group. “Let me try some things.” Biting my thumb and pulling out a large tarp, I put it across the middle of the path and scribbled an inscription on the back before I took Simone’s hand and pricked it for blood to draw another layer.

The tarp wavered and became an illusion that matched the rest of the walls around us.

“Let’s see if it goes through that. Let’s move down the hall, though. I don’t want to be right behind that when it comes charging,” I said.

“Please.” Simone pulled my arm. “That first one was terrifyingly strong just…” She pinched her fingers and made a popping noise. “How do we deal with them?”

“We don’t,” I answered simply. “We’re rats in a maze forced to keep moving and hide from them until there’s a way out.”

The minotaur ripped right through the illusion with steady strides, the tarp getting caught up on its horns and flapping around as it continued to pursue us at a quick walk but not speeding up into a charge.

It seemed that it waited until it had a straight shot to build up its charge.

“Then we should keep moving. When we think it's safe, we can take turns resting. This is going to be a long two weeks.” Circe shook her head.

“Can we just fly over them?” Simone asked.

“Trust me. At that strength, they can jump higher than we can fly.” I shook my head. “No, these sorts of situations rarely do well with trying to break too many rules.”

Circe had a look on her face and tried to fly straight up, only to smack into something invisible like a bird hitting a window about fifty feet up. “Flying is not an option.”

“That’s fine. Let’s keep moving. Farther away from this one. Don’t forget those aren’t the only dangers in here. The two demons are in here as well,” I reminded them. It was easy to get distracted by the danger at hand and forget the one lurking around the corners.

Chapter 53

“Mmm?!” Simone started when I woke her up with my hand over her mouth.

“Time to go.” I was staring at the wall. About ten feet up there was a pitch-black spider with a giant eye in its back.

“I had just started to sleep.” Simone was on the verge of tears. “I’m exhausted, Bran.”

Scooping her up into my arms, I gave her another option. “Sleep against me. This place is going to test us.”

“You fall asleep on command and wake up to the slightest rumbling of their passing,” Circe pointed out, sounding a bit bitter.

“Practice.” I shrugged. “Shoot that down for me?” I nodded at the spider.

Circe whipped out a blade of air, slicing through the summon. “Damn things. We haven’t seen Pers yet.”

The spider wasn’t the first we’d encountered lately. The demon general was clearly still alive and using summons to search the labyrinth.

“She might not be around.” Nyx rubbed at her eyes. “If the demon general is still okay…”

“No. She’s incredibly fast,” Circe said. “If those two demons joined forces, she would have run.”

“Perhaps she’s somewhere waiting out the timer,” I said. “She knows this place better than any of us.” We were moving at a steady pace. I looked down, happy when I saw that Simone had fallen back asleep in my arms.

With the roaming minotaurs, we weren’t able to get more than half an hour of sleep. And even those were scant. The grind was clearly starting to get to Simone. However, we had gotten better at sensing the minotaurs coming and avoiding them rather than being forced to flee.

Nyx’s snakes had actually been incredibly valuable for detection. Her Danger Sense had grown several ranks, and she could tell which direction the danger was coming from.

Circe threw another blade of wind that broke me from my thoughts.

“More?” I grunted. “We might be close to the demon general.”

“Or he’s spread those things everywhere,” Circe grumbled. “We have to be careful. He can outmaneuver us here.”

“Fighting in here would be incredibly dangerous. Those minotaurs seem to have a clear view of the maze, and illusions don’t work. I have to assume there are more than we’ve seen, that the others also have some chasing them. If we were to fight, there’s a high chance that there would be multiple minotaurs converging on that location.”

Nyx’s snake shivered at that. “Going to have nightmares after I get out of here.”

“You’re doing very well.” Circe patted her shoulder. “We don’t all have Bran’s inherent ability to deal with everything that comes his way.”

I shrugged, having not told Circe the truth yet.

A dark form moved ahead of me. It was a raptor crouched and stalking something. One of the demon general’s summons.

Its eyes turned and locked onto me.

“Definitely close,” I said as the wind ripped past me, and the blade bounced off the raptor. Its claws slid uselessly against the stone that not even the minotaurs could crack. “Circe, you got this?” I was still holding a sleeping Simone.

“Give her to me.” Nyx held out her arms. “I’d feel more comfortable if you had a sword in your hand.”

I raised an eyebrow. That was a lot of trust in me. Most would feel the confidence in holding their own weapon. Yet, I was happy to arm myself and handed off Simone before a blood blade pooled out of my wrist and into my palm.

The raptor soundlessly opened its mouth as if to shriek as its claws scrabbled on the stone and rushed towards me.

I breathed easy and stepped into a powerful stance only to realize that my swing would be too wide for the narrow hallway. “Fuck.” It came fast, and I switched at the last second to a thrust, catching it in the chest and driving the blade deep even as it tried to latch its big maw onto my shoulder.

Circe’s palm slapped it away at the last moment before injecting a swirling wind down its throat.

The dark form bloated a moment before exploding into ribbons of darkness that faded away as they fell like confetti.

“Nice.” I looked over my shoulder at her.

“If you bled, you’d make a trail,” she said calmly as if the move wasn’t about saving me. “Can’t have that.”

“We could make a fake trail,” I offered, a new idea popping into my head. “We might just need to do that.” I went into my spatial ring and found some of the fake blood that the leech used for things and dripped a few drops out of the ring and kept moving, dripping it along as we went.

Giving anyone my actual blood was dangerous.

“That’s the bait. What’s going to be the trap?” Circe asked.

“Need you ask?” I chuckled as we led our potential pursuers on a merry chase before I had to use my actual blood and made a single-use inscription on the floor just after a turn.

Then I drew a line up and connected it to three more along the wall. “Inscriptions. The floor is a trigger to unleash these three. Hopefully, one is head-level for whatever is looking for me. Or a minotaur will waste it, and my blood will burn up.” I shrugged.

“Not much more we can do,” Circe agreed. “Let’s keep moving.” Her face cracked into a large yawn, and she cast a slightly jealous glance at Simone.

“If you want, I’ll carry you and let you sleep,” I offered.

Circe set her jaw and shook her head. “I’m not that desperate yet.”

“Then let's move for a while. After that, both of us can take a nap while Nyx watches. It’s our turn next.” I was feeling the drain from struggling to get sleep, but it wasn’t affecting me nearly as much as the others.

***

Circe was in my arms a few days later, the sleep deprivation getting to her. I could carry any of the ladies, though Nyx’s tail tended to cause some difficulty.

Unfortunately, I was large enough that it wasn’t a matter of strength, but there wasn’t really an easy way for me to sleep in their arms. At best I’d have to throw myself over Nyx’s back.

So, at this point, I was feeling the lack of sleep and needing to rest more often.

“Another summon.” I nodded ahead, and Nyx’s arrow took it out a second later.

“How have we not seen the demons yet?” Simone was fresh from her recent nap.

“They are keeping ahead of us because he can likely share the senses of these summons.” I shook my head. “Summoners are usually quite tricky to deal with because their summons give them so many tools. Bet he even has one carry him around so he can nap.” I grumbled and blinked my dry eyes.

“We’re over halfway through this torture,” Nyx said, turning a corner to see a minotaur charging a roaming summon. “This way.” She dropped her voice and hurried through the crossroads.

“At least we haven’t been surprised by the maze shifts. When they happen every night, I’m anxious there’s going to be a minotaur on the other side,” Simone said before Nyx’s head jerked up.

“Shield.”

Crimson Barrier snapped around us, and I tossed Circe to Nyx as Simone made her own barrier an inch below mine.

The cloaked demon smashed into the Crimson Barrier a second later, its gauntlet cracking the surface badly before it swung again and shattered it.

A blast of wind from Circe ripped through Simone’s barrier and blew the demon back.

I was already rushing forward, a blood blade in my hand as I swept down at the cloaked demon. Soul Gaze was being blocked by an item—the cloak I assumed.

The demon managed to block with the gauntlet, but the force blew the cowl off its head. The face was feminine with an open-faced helmet. Not that genders mattered much to demons.

She jumped, her gauntlet glowing purple as the gravity multiplied under me, and she came from above.

I staggered with the change in gravity, but now I knew her field of abilities.

Gravity was a tricky one, but I’d managed it before.

She came over me, and a few feet from my person her fall suddenly accelerated as the demon brought both fists together to smash me.

It was a common tactic for gravity users to make fields that disrupted the flow of fighting. They were prepared for it while their opponents weren’t.

Except, I was.

Already stepping back, my sword was perfectly timed to remove the demon’s head.

She saw the shift and collapsed her entire body to the ground rather than just smash her fist into it. My blade went high over her neck, cutting into the cloak where my blade got stuck on the high-ranking equipment.

I wasn’t so easily dodged, my foot coming up to connect with her face and throwing the demon back against the wall.

At least, that was the goal of my hit. Instead, she flew sideways and far up as she suddenly weighed as much as a balloon, only to recover, kick off against the wall, and drop down on Simone.

Circe stepped up, wind billowing around her dress as it followed her palm.

The demon slowed suddenly and let herself be blown away by the wind.

While I had turned to protect Simone, a giant snake summon had come around the corner, barely fitting in the corridors but making its way to us.

“Damnit.” I growled and raised my sword high over my head as the snake rushed me. “Circe, get ready to run after this!” I shouted over the exertion of bringing my sword down on and severing the snake's snout.

“Why’s that?” Simone asked.

Nyx was quiet for a moment. “There are four minotaurs near us.”

“The demon isn’t committing. She’s trying to keep us here.” I could recognize the tactic. There was one good reason they’d stall.

“Cheats.” Simone spat. “What do we do?”

I wrestled with the serpent, stabbing into the wound and summoning another blood blade to get two points of contact as it tried to push past me.

A giant wind blade went right down the center of the snake, destroying the summon.

“We run, we rest, and when we get out of this thing, I’m going to kill these demons and then wring Persephone's neck!” Circe roared in anger and snatched up Simone.

Apparently, she was the type to wake up angry.

I hoisted Nyx over my shoulder only for her tail to curl around my chest and waist in a familiar carry by now. We rushed to follow Circe as she used the wind to push each stride she made into twenty.

The cloaked demon had fled as several minotaurs appeared and were charging towards us.

I watched them with a faint interest as we ran.

What if I got them to run into each other?

No. No time to play games. We only had a little longer in the maze, and then I was completely on board with Circe’s idea of crushing the demons.

But I might have to stop her from killing Persephone. Hopefully, once Circe got some rest, she rethought that approach.

The woman in front of me with little sleep, though, was showing a rather ferocious side.

Simone, who was currently being carried by Circe, winked at me before sticking her tongue out.

Brat. When this was all over, I was due some extra attention for all the times I had carried her while she slept.

Chapter 54

Circe, Nix, Simone, and I faced two more ambushes from the demons and had yet to find Persephone. The woman must have some trick to hide so well.

Then again, I never saw the second demon general. For all I knew, she could be harassing the demon the whole time.

The labyrinth was absolutely massive, and we were well and truly turned around.

“It’s almost time for the other side to open up.” Circe checked her watch.

“Wake them up. I’m ready to get out of here.” I had been resting against the wall.

“Hmm?” Simone rubbed her eyes. “Is it time? Get any rest, Bran?”

“No.” The answer came out snappier than I meant, and I sighed. “Going to sleep for days after this is over.”

“Weeks for me.” Nyx yawned, and her serpents splayed out, looking around more vibrantly than when she’d been sleeping. “Nothing. If it’s time, how do we find our way out?”

“That’s the hard part.” I took out some coffee beans and chewed them before getting rid of the bitter taste with water. “We need to start searching.”

“Should we split up?” Nyx asked.

I shook my head immediately. “Absolutely not. You two are too vulnerable alone, and if the two demons are going to get out of here first, we’ll be walking into a fight.”

Circe had a grim look on her face. “With all of his summons scouting this place, they will likely find it first. Worse, it will give the summoner a chance to prepare.”

My eyes flashed, and I smiled, an inscription I hadn’t used in forever percolating up through my tired mind. “Can you catch one of those summons?” I asked.

“Whatever you’re thinking, I like the way you're smiling.” Circe’s became a vicious smile matching my own. “I’ll catch one.”

I sat down immediately and started going through my spatial ring for what I’d need, making a quick few tools. “Thank you. I’ll be ready when you’re back.”

Simone crouched down to watch what I was doing.

Using a few paper clips, I made a cross with a hook on one end. Then I took ranked paper and made four strips before starting on the inscriptions.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“Nyx, are you keeping watch?” I made sure someone was paying attention before I got too far into the process.

“Yup.” One of her serpents watched what I was doing.

“This one is for fixing the bottom part in place and grounding it to this plane. This one is for binding and blinding the summon. This one is to track back to the source of the summon. And finally, this one is counterbalanced to push away from the source of the summoner so that when you hold it by a string, it points true,” I explained.

“The one to track the summoner won’t work on its own, and what about planes?” Nyx asked but kept vigilance.

“Simply put, we are somewhere in space. However, once he stepped out into Tartarus, it might point to the relative direction from where we are rather than to the exit,” I explained. “Yes, it’s complicated, but tracking straight to the summoner would have this thing essentially trying to fly out of my hand rather than just rotating and pointing in the correct direction. Really, it’s just to make it easier to manage.”

“I should learn a craft. You can do so much,” Simone said.

Chuckling, I finished up the talismans. “There's a lot of time that went into this expertise. Plus, I’m absolutely cheating with this Blood Ink ability.”

Circe landed next to me in a swirl of wind. “Here you go.” She held a little lizard-shaped summon that was trying to bite at her hand.

“Perfect.” I slapped a talisman to the lizard, causing it to freeze up before sticking several more to it and curling the cross of paper clips around it to hold it level.

The summon turned and pointed its nose in a direction before slowly drifting to the side.

“Alright, let's head this way.” I pointed in the direction that the lizard looked like it was slowly turning. Then, I handed the lizard to Nyx and started making another talisman.

“What’s that?” Circe asked.

“Something for Persephone.” In my focus on inscription work, I remembered we were related, though it was fairly thin. I wasn’t even sure if my idea would work, but I could make one to try and tug her to me. Hopefully, the pull would be enough to get her attention.

With our thin relation, it was unlikely to be very strong. Hopefully, she’d notice.

“We’ll worry about ourselves.” Circe huffed.

I finished my work and tucked it into my pocket, following Nyx who had been given the makeshift demon general compass.

“Danger.” She slithered back around the corner we’d just passed, and I could hear the heavy thudding of another golden minotaur.

The compass continued to rotate until I pointed straight down the path with the minotaur.

I winced. “Use a snake and peek around the corner?”

She nodded and got close enough that one was able to turn the corner for a brief moment before snapping back to her side. “It’s facing the other way.” She looked down at the compass.

“Might be going after our ticket out of here,” Circe added.

The minotaur clearly started to charge as the floor rumbled from its movements.

“Or they could be luring them to the portal.” I bit the inside of my cheek. That’s what I’d do. Bring all the minotaurs to the exit to make it harder for anyone else.

Those things were a better trap than anything I could come up with on my own.

Her serpent peered around the corner again. “It’s gone.”

“Hurry.” I urged her forward, and we began moving again.

After several turns, it became quite clear that the minotaur was heading in the same direction that we were going.

So much so, that I wasn’t even surprised when a second one joined it and led us down to a dead end, where there was a massive door that I’d never seen in the labyrinth before. The door was open, with summons plastered all over it just above the reach of the minotaurs.

“What do we do?” Nyx hissed.

There were eight minotaurs, even one with a tarp still stuck on its horns, milling about in a straightaway before the door, trying to grab the summons. A few succeeded, only for more summons to crawl off the door and keep their attention.

I couldn’t see past their big golden bodies to what was happening on the other side of the door.

“We have to get past them.” I rolled my eyes, my patience already at fraying ends. “Circe, can you bring these two through?”

She glanced at me. “If you’re going to do something stupid, perhaps we should do it together. After all, as soon as we go through that portal, we’ll likely be locked in a battle with two powerful demons. I’m not confident in my ability to take both of them at the same time.”

I frowned. She had a point.

“Alright. Let’s map out this space a little then.” I glanced around the corner at the minotaurs. It was all a single straight shot that ended in the gate out of this stupid maze. This intersection was a T, and behind us was a four-way intersection. “We just have to figure out how to draw them back down this way and circle around to that side.” I pointed to the other side of the T junction.

“Makes sense. Then I assume you’ll volunteer to be the runner?” Simone frowned at me.

I shrugged. “Makes sense for it to be me or Circe, and technically, she’s higher up on the clan hierarchy, probably well above being bait.”

The sorceress shrugged. “He’s got a point. However, I am probably faster than him.”

“Speed isn’t the concern. It’s getting all eight of them in one go and running the route correctly. Also, if the demons were to attack, you’d be better equipped to fend them off while I got back. As much as I hate to admit it, I’m really not good for defense,” I argued.

Circe sighed. “Men. Go ahead. You do it. We’ll cross here, and you go that way. We’ll meet up in a minute.” She stormed across the T junction as Nyx and Simone hesitated to leave my side.

“Go. We’ll both solve half this puzzle, and it’ll be faster.” I turned and went back the way we’d come trying to make turns to roll back around to the other side of the junction we’d been at.

Five minutes later, I nearly ran into Circe.

“Good.” She handed me a piece of paper she’d been drawing on. “Finish your half and then use it while you escape.”

It didn’t take long for me to get back and ready myself to lead the most recent running of the bulls.

I twirled two Blood Blades in my hands as I walked up behind the minotaurs. The hallway was a little longer than I’d like, but I was as ready as I was ever going to be. “Hey! Yeah you, ugly one! No, don’t all point at yourselves!” I started shouting.

Several of the line of minotaurs turned to regard me before shuffling in the slow turn that they did.

The back half, however, ignored me and continued to try and squish the summons.

I hefted a Blood Blade, testing the weight before throwing it end over end like a throwing axe.

It whirled perfectly through the air, and then the second in line shifted to catch it on its horns rather than making it to the first one.

Now, I had seven of the eight minotaurs shuffling to come after me.

I threw bloodbolts, trying to get the one closest to the door, but it was difficult to weave anything through the other bulky bodies.

Failing miserably, I took my second Blood Blade and threw it in an arch over the bulls, hoping to hit the last one whose attention I needed, but my time was up.

The first minotaur roared, and heavy footsteps thundered as it picked up steam like a train leaving the station.

Time to go.

I turned and booked it down the hallway, taking the corner at a slide that smashed my shoulder into the stone wall only for the first minotaur to barrel horns-first into the wall and bounce off as a second ran into the back of the first.

Both wobbled for a moment before starting another shuffling turn towards me.

I didn’t want to lose any of the eight, so I ran to the next junction and waited for the charge to begin before ducking down the next turn.

Time was of the essence. I rushed around the several turns we’d outlined to get back to the ladies.

They were still waiting at their corner, glancing back to spot me. “There’s still one there.”

“Shit. Let’s go. Like we did the first one when we came in, only I won’t lose a leg,” I promised.

Circe squinted at me but nodded, picking up both of the other ladies and gathering wind magic around her to rush off with me.

I ran down the hallway, seeing the last minotaur still stomping around and trying to squish the multitude of summons by the door. This time, I didn’t want to get its attention until I was closer.

It glanced over at me, starting to turn.

Circe saw it lock onto me and shot over its head to the door.

I didn’t slow down, rushing towards it, watching its hoofed feet. This time I was going to dive under it, rather than try to go over.

It shuffled, and there was a big enough gap that I took one last big stride before diving feet first, sliding underneath it.

But as I slid, a shield of darkness materialized under the minotaur, my body slamming into it.

“Seriously?!” I shouted, wanting to curse the demon general and also acknowledging that it was a great plan.

The minotaur raised a hoof high over me.

There was nowhere to go. I had no time, and while it might turn slow, a single stomp was going to be incredibly fast.

The golden hoof crashed down, growing larger by the beat of my heart. Everything slowed down to the last few thumps of my heart that I was going to hear.

Chapter 55

I jerked forward as the minotaur’s hoof came down, a blast of wind at my back as someone dragged me by a foot.

Blinking, I stared down at Persephone, who had dragged me through by my leg.

“What? Did it get your head? On your feet. It’s time to fight!” She threw me forward, and I twisted and curled in on myself enough to come to a sliding landing on my feet.

The second demon general was standing on a cool stone bluff, surrounded by an army of summons. At the moment, he was still working on another big summon.

Down below, the cave stretched out for what seemed like miles. There was some sort of daylight down here and a farming village in the middle of it.

Tartarus was nicer than I expected.

The demon general’s laugh echoed off the stone. “They haven’t noticed yet. That they are all already dead.” He stood on a giant black stone disk covered in red runes that shifted along grooves cut into it to make different patterns.

“That’s not good,” I growled. “I thought you were tied to that thing?”

Persephone shrugged. “It might as well be a computer. I know how to log in and what a few buttons do, but I don’t understand how it works.”

“Ugh. Computers.” I made a puking sound. “I hate them.”

“Really? Me, too. I figured with how young you were, you’d be a wiz.”

“Nope. Can barely log in.” I pulled out my phone with a talisman on the back of it. “Half the time I have to cheat.”

Simone put her face in her hand. “Old people, can you stop being… old people?”

Circe was staring at me like I’d grown two more heads.

“What, just because I’m not wrinkly, I can’t hate computers?” I stared back at her. “Anyway, we should probably do something about that.” I pointed with my chin at the second demon general and avoided the topic further.

“Yes, let's solve this problem. How bad is it that he’s using the disk?” Persephone asked.

“A big problem. That thing has plenty of functions, I don’t even know them all. Right now, it looks like he’s using it to anchor some of his summons, likely so he can keep making whatever that big one is.” I nodded to a roiling pool of darkness in the back.

It seemed familiar somehow.

Persephone took out a hollowed-out horn and put it to her lips. A clear note rang across the cavern and carried down to the farming village. The sound of steel rang out as the farmers dropped their plows and pulled out weapons. The doors opened to the buildings as people rushed out to fight.

She blew a second note, and the warriors down below looked up at the bluff. They must have now seen the demon and his summons against the dark stone because they took up a shout and rushed a slope.

“Fly!” the demon shouted, and the ceiling above us came to life with gargoyle-like summons separating themselves from the stone and opening their wings to descend on the warriors of Tartarus.

I hadn’t even noticed those summons.

Persephone shot forward like a whisper of smoke before smashing into one of the summoner’s shields. A hulking troll summon swung to knock her off the bluff.

The gauntleted demon came for Circe, while I had two large minotaurs coming for me.

Thankfully, they weren’t nearly the strength of the ones in the labyrinth. If the demon general thought he could scare me with them, he was deeply mistaken.

The ceiling continued to pour out gargoyles for the battle on the slope; however, I had to focus on my opponent for the moment.

Ducking a swing from one, I came up smashing into its leg with a Blood Blade. The blade broke up inside the leg as I twirled out of the way of the other minotaur summon and remade my blade.

Sanguine Locking activated, and thorns wrapped up the side of the first summon as I engaged the second, cutting deep into its chest after dodging a few swings and breaking that blade off there.

Both were slowed, and rather than completely destroy them, I split the summoner’s focus. Most summoners had to work to maintain multiple summons. That’s why their spirit was so high. Leaving these two wounded would keep that weight on the demon general’s abilities while they lost their functionality.

Nyx made them even slower with several arrows.

I charged the demon general—the real problem between the two. Blood Boil rolled through my veins, pumping them up and making my muscles swell.

He was able to hold Persephone at bay, her element not doing her any favors.

Yet, she jumped back just in time for me to rush through the demon general’s defenses.

He was caught off guard, and I lifted him up before smashing him down on the Hell Gate Anchor—not that I could easily damage the thing with my current strength. “Too late.” He spat, and several dark tendrils swept from behind him and forced me off before I could bring my sword down on him.

The summon he’d been working on as we arrived was the same one he’d tried to use to end the fight before we’d entered the labyrinth.

This time, I got to see what he was summoning.

A pair of goat horns bigger than the head curled around the ornate helmet, along with a pair of eyes that felt like they each contained a fire that burned entire cities to ash rose from the pool of darkness.

“Fuck me.” I knew that head.

A sweeping wave of despair blew out from just the figure’s head as it emerged from the portal with broad shoulders in heavy armor and continued to rise on a powerful chest. Being in this demon’s presence was stifling.

This was the demon lord.

No. I shook my head. It was a copy, a clone of sorts. Yet, it made my skin prickle all the same.

It started to talk in garbled demonic or perhaps an older tongue than I knew.

The second demon general started cackling. “Fear! Fear the Lord, mere cattle.” It wasn’t just me feeling the effects of my previous life. Everyone felt the presence of the demon lord, even if a weaker version of the powerful enemy. It suddenly felt like all was lost.

Warriors’ grip on their weapons loosened. Focus waned, and many died the next moment as the gargoyle summons didn’t hesitate.

A barrier snapped in place around my mind, and Simone’s image flashed as I glanced back to see her kneeling in prayer towards me.

I smiled, staring at my love. Bastion of Athena was providing a wonderful shield against mental attacks, which was what the demon lord’s aura was.

Exhausted already from the labyrinth, the abilities had punched through my defenses and tried to wring me out with despair.

I shook it off and stood again, rushing the demon general. The summons would disappear with his death.

He backpedaled, and the barrier was slow to come up. My sword severed his arm before a massive force came up behind me and forced me away.

The demon lord had moved, rushing me with a simple gauntleted fist that created incredible wind pressure before shifting to get between me and the second demon general.

“Run for your life,” the demon general advised me.

I snorted and blocked two more of the demon lord’s strikes before my Blood Blade shattered, and I was forced to make another.

This summon might have a good portion of the demon lord’s might and a fraction of his aura, but it didn’t have all his abilities.

For that, I was thankful. I splashed my blood on the summon and tried to tie it down with Sanguine Locking.

The demon general focused on breaking my locking, but then Persephone smashed into him and nearly threw him off the cliff. A group of gargoyles dropped down on her to prevent her from finishing the job.

I had the demon lord copy to deal with and juked to the side before glancing at the Hell Gate Anchor. Different inscriptions were rippling across its heavily carved surface. I scanned quickly, soon realizing how he’d made a summon more powerful than himself. The summon was being fed energy from the anchor.

“Mimi! You have to turn off his access!” I shouted at her as she smashed and dodged the pack of gargoyles doggedly pursuing her.

“And I told you, it all makes no sense. You do it!”

“You’re the one tethered to this. You need to be the one to make the changes.” Unfortunately, there were controls built in to prevent tampering.

Persephone smashed into the demon lord, only for the summon to take a single step back and nearly get a hold on her.

When its hand collapsed around thin air, there was a palpable blast of wind.

“That thing.” She landed by me.

“It’s an imperfect copy of the demon lord,” I told her. “Yes, it’s terrifying. I’m not going to be able to kill it. Which is why we need to disconnect him from the disk.”

“I don’t know how to use it!” Persephone shouted at me again as she was forced back, again and again, by the demon lord.

Nyx shouted from across the bluff. “Oh, my god, you two. Just freaking reboot it or something.” She fired arrows at the two slowed minotaurs leading them on a merry chase while Circe flew near the ceiling dodging the gauntleted demon while helping the warriors of Tartarus recover from the entrance to the demon lord.

“Can we do that?” Persephone asked.

I paused. Just reboot it… That might actually work. “Make this in the center of the disk.” I wiped a little blood off my cheek and tore part of my shirt before making a simple inscription. It wasn’t so much a reboot as a cycle indicator. You put in an inscription you wanted to perform a number of things and then start back at the beginning. It was a small component of much larger projects.

However, it might just work.

“Make it?” she asked.

“Trace the grooves. The whole thing is a lattice of grooves that different enchantments can play across. Just push your will on the thing and make the shape if it doesn’t work. Just keep drawing it all over until it becomes a part of whatever he’s done to it. I’ll buy us more time.” I smashed into the demon lord before bouncing off and pulling its attention towards me.

The summon caught my blade as the trailing part of my figure and smashed it with a single squeeze.

This was just a clone and already so tough.

I grit my teeth, knowing that I’d come a long way, but I still had so much further to be able to swiftly end the First Demon War.

Persephone was glancing at the piece of cloth and then at the anchor tracing a shape with her finger while biting her cheek.

It was a simple component! Why was it taking her so long?

I continued to avoid the demon lord, shifting towards the edge of the bluff where the demon general was positioned.

Suddenly, the demon lord winked out. At the same time, the minotaurs, the troll, and a huge chunk of the gargoyles also vanished.

There was a pause in the air as the demon general looked stunned, and everyone who’d been fighting became confused.

I had already activated Charge, throwing myself at the demon general, a fresh Blood Blade in my hands as I hit him, and we both went off the bluff, soaring over the winding river below.

“No!” the demon general screamed.

Several dark swords appeared to skewer my back while I held him and rode him down, pressing my new blade into his chest before we hit.

The impact drove the blade straight through his chest and stitched him to the ground while I made a second and a third, stabbing them into him as his summons flickered back on, and chaos ensued once again on the bluff above us.

“Sturdy fucker.” I growled and started punching him, again and again, cracking his face plate and blowing it off as I caved in his face and chest until the system claimed him.

His body disappeared from underneath me, leaving behind a few items including a spatial ring that I pocketed immediately.

The gargoyles faded, and the sound of battle died off, except there should have been…

The gauntleted demon crashed into me, her body already swelling with mania painted across her face. “The demon lord deems your death worthy of my sacrifice.” There was a burning fire in her eyes like someone else was looking through them.

I poked her in the forehead, plenty of blood on me as I traced a quick inscription.

Rather than explode in every direction, most of the force went straight up as I was slammed to the stone roughly but certainly not something fatal.

She was gone. The demon general was gone. And I was going to lie where I was for a minute, maybe twenty.

Chapter 56

“You okay, Bran?” Simone had crawled down the bluff and hopped over the river.

“Tired. Think I’ll get to take a nap?” I yawned and grabbed her arm to pull her down for said nap.

She relented and lay down with me while she used several of her abilities to heal me.

Members of Tartarus cheered in the background, proud of their victory.

Another set of feet landed next to me. Judging by the blue heels, it was Circe, or Hercules had grown some new interests.

“Are you dead?” she asked.

“Nope. I thought we agreed to take a multi-day nap after this was done.” I cracked open an eye to see Nyx trying to get down the bluff with her tail and struggling.

That was the reason I got up.

“We aren’t done yet,” she said as I walked past her just in time to catch a fumbling Nyx. “I would like it if we could get that disk out of here. If the demon lord is so interested in it, we have to move it. Two days for you to nap is two days too long.”

“Fine, fine,” I grumbled. “Where are we putting the disk?”

“Honestly? I have no fucking clue,” Circe spat. “This whole thing is a problem of epic proportions. I’d like to drop it into the deepest hole I can find and hope the demons coming out of it get crushed and die, but if like you said this thing will eventually spawn demons, it can’t be stored in the clan. Can we break it?”

I hummed in thought. “Probably not. Maybe I could spend like six months trying to unwind all of the inscriptions on it to make it vulnerable enough for Hercules’ current strength to break it. But the whole thing is made of SSS rank materials from top to bottom.” I tapped my chin. “The idea of putting it in a hole is kind of nice.”

“What do you mean?” Circe asked as I put Nyx down and started up the slope to the top of the bluff where Persephone was talking to her people and helping them bind what wounds they had.

“Simone, do me a favor and help them out?” I looked over my shoulder to make sure she’d come with me.

“Of course.” She dipped her head and went to help heal the warriors.

“This disk provides something that I’m missing… a giant stack of experience.” I grinned.

“You think you can kill an army?” She scoffed. “Now you’re acting your age. Hubris.”

I shook my head. “No, what if we made a… container for it that put any demons coming through at a massive disadvantage. Like high-grade poisons, a massive storm, or fire. Turn the anchor into a giant trap. Hopefully, they'll come through and get slaughtered.”

She squinted. “That’s a lot of risk to take on.”

“I have no clue what else we can do with it. If we drop it in the Mariana Trench, some demons might actually survive that, but in the best case, we just make it non-functional. This way we could actually turn this thing into a resource.” I liked the idea the more I thought about it.

“This assumes demons will come through it.” She eyed me.

“Oh, they absolutely will.” I remembered the first days and the sheer number of demons that marched on Vein City after only a day. “It would just be a matter of making a place big enough to contain the flow and kill them.”

“Well, I need to get rid of it. But I won’t give it to you until you prove to me that you can handle it. Telling me more of what’s going on with you might be a start.” She narrowed her eyes as she watched me.

I flashed her a smile. “Later. Not now, but later.”

She gave a soft snort and dropped the topic as we reached the top of the bluff and the giant black disk.

Without all the fighting going on, I got a better look at the disk. It was about fifty paces long, perfectly circular, and absolutely covered with groves and ridges. Red lines glowed briefly before moving and taking on another shape. Some of them were easy to recognize, but others wrapped around the thing to the bottom, and I couldn’t decipher their full use.

“How hard is it to pick it up?” I asked, coming over to the side and reaching down below where the disk had bitten into the stone it was resting on.

Straining, it barely budged before Circe added her help only to lift it a few feet.

“Going to need some help.” She grunted and turned to see Persephone storming over.

“Are you going to work on it?” The leader of Tartarus had a fairly demanding tone.

I did my best to take the statement as if she were my grandmother. “That’s the idea. The underside seems to be active too. I’ll need to see that to make sure I’m doing this right.”

She nodded and motioned over to the warriors. “We’ll get a few more hands. It’s heavy. Everyone, we are propping it up against the cave wall.”

The warriors of Tartarus were no slouches. In fact, they would be elites among the clan.

“How have you all leveled to this extent?” I asked.

The warriors glanced at each other and said nothing before looking to Persephone.

“There’s a place back there. It isn’t quite an instance, because it doesn’t have charges, but there are a lot of monsters that spawn in there, along with some other challenges.” She pointed to the far end.

I noticed now that there was a big stone door that I’d missed in my first assessment of the cavern. It was cracked open with several heroic sculptures guarding it.

I blinked. “What? No.” I turned back to Persephone. “Inside there are statues that come to life? A room with a mirror and a copy of you walks out to duel?” I asked. “Has anyone gotten to the chess game? The Hall of Kings?”

Her eyes narrowed dangerously. “You know what’s back there.”

“Of course I know.” I turned back and took in the cavern once again, comparing it with a view from my past life. The bluff hadn’t been there then. In fact, the cavern was cleared out but scarred from some battle.

This place held plenty of memories for me. It also meant that Tartarus didn’t hide in my past life. They had been wiped out. With the Hell Gate Anchor, I had assumed that, but now, I was absolutely sure.

What they were using to practice was the entrance to the Trial of Kings. A quest that some of the strongest discovered in about two hundred years. It’s where I got the power of The Wandering King.

Fuck me. Tartarus has been farming those stupid statues in the rooms that led up to the actual trial.

“Has anyone completed it?” I asked again.

She shook her head. “My father and his two brothers were the only ones to try and push farther. We never heard from them again.”

I fought to hold back a snort. No, they would have been far too weak for the trial. I wouldn’t even consider it yet. Even if they tried to pass the chess game, those golems didn’t just stand there when you tried to take a piece.

A little relieved that no one had completed the trial yet, I let out a sigh. “Shame.” I hid my thoughts. “That place is dangerous. Too dangerous for anyone right now.”

The warriors managed to get the disk set up against the wall and braced with a shallow divot in the rock. It was leaning enough that I could access both sides.

Rolling up my sleeves, I got to work, examining all the flashing inscriptions going back and forth between the two sides to see the whole of some of them.

This thing was simply a marvel.

As much as I hated demons, I had to take my hat off to them. There were no doubt thousands of inscriptions baked into the center of this thing to give it all of the different properties it was exhibiting and to program the patterns I was seeing now.

“How do you know about Tartarus’ training grounds?” Circe asked. “There are too many unanswered questions when it comes to you.”

“Leave him, Circe.” Persephone stepped in. “He’s working on the disk, and afterward, we’re leaving here to rejoin the clan. Some of my people will remain here as lookouts, but the rest will come with us.”

Circe huffed again and wandered off, Persephone staying by my side.

“Thanks,” I mumbled distractedly.

“No problem. After all, if you are going to keep calling me your Mimi, I’d better toss some help your way every now and then. So… what’s at the end?” she asked.

“It’s been killing you, hasn’t it?” I chuckled.

“Only stuck down here for thousands of years unable to get to the end. Yes, please, I’m begging you to spoil me on whatever’s there. Because it looked like you knew.” She watched me. “If we’re honest, you knowing some of the details of that place is more convincing than anything else that you’ve lived this before.” She kept her voice low, and all of Tartarus seemed to give her a wide berth.

The only person close was Nyx who was pretending not to listen while her snakes were clearly focused on me.

“It is called the Trial of Kings. Long story short, a quest appears, and hundreds of powerful people gather and fight each other and their way through the trials. At the end, there are nine ‘Kings’ that you can choose from.” I focused on an inscription for a moment.

“Go on. What do these do?” Persephone asked.

“Incredibly powerful skills,” I said.

“You got one,” she said, sounding excited.

“Yes, I did. The Wandering King. I had to keep moving to retain the power. That was part of the abilities, too. They all had something you had to keep doing to grow the power of the ability.” I shrugged.

“Was that the last one?” she asked.

“No. I was the third person to choose. Wouldn’t have mattered the others… they were all about building something huge. I was content to wander the world and help where I was needed most during the wars.” Glancing towards the trial, I wondered what I should pick this time.

My life was taking a very different path, and The Wandering King wouldn’t work quite as well as it had in my past life.

As if reading my thoughts, she asked. “What will you pick?”

“Not sure. But I will be back here when I think I’m strong enough,” I said, glancing at her. “The demons likely don’t know what’s back there. If we can hide it before we leave we should.”

She shrugged and pointed at me. “If you’re this good with inscriptions, I’ll get what you need to do it. It sounds like something we should keep away from the demons and save for ourselves.” She glanced to the side. “I’ll be back. Fix this. I want out of here.” She hurried off to deal with something else.

Persephone was going to be busy dealing with migrating her branch out of Tartarus.

The Hell Gate Anchor was fascinating, but I had work to do, untangling the inscriptions that it was currently pulsing through. So many of them were… crude at best.

On top of it all was the labyrinth. Somehow, they had made that place, fueling it off something inside, and then the rules of the labyrinth were written here in the stone.

It was easy enough to collapse parts of it and work it backward, even if I had to stop myself from fixing it as I went along.

The gate to the labyrinth closed for a moment before the whole thing collapsed. “Nyx, do me a favor and go see what’s in there. It should be an item of decent power.”

She shot into the opened-up space before anyone else.

Next was to work on Persephone’s connection to this powerful rock. She was absolutely tethered to it, and if I understood this correctly, her life was being sapped every time she went too far away.

It would be a careful thing to unwind, but I started working slowly.

“Bran.” My mother’s voice caused me to look up from my work either a minute or an hour later. I wasn’t really sure, but I’d made good progress.

“Hi, Mom. Busy working some things out for Mimi.” I pointed to the slab.

“I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “I’m sorry about what happened in your past life. The apathy, the… everything. I’m just sorry.”

Glancing over my shoulder, I judged her apology to be genuine.

Grudges were easy to hold onto, something to fuel yourself in hard times. Yet, this one, I could let go. “You don’t get to go back to being my mother so easily. However, if you call, I’ll pick up. Oh, and I’m going to kill whoever tried to poison you. I got an image from Mimi’s soul.”

“It’s the Borrson Clan. It will lead back that way without a doubt. Whoever did the actual poisoning is more likely to be a spare weapon rather than the hand wielding it.” My mother pursed her lips and looked uncomfortable talking about it. “You shouldn’t challenge the clan. I don’t need it.”

I snorted. “It isn’t about you. It is what they put me through. Think of it this way. If you’d like if I don’t blame you, then I have to blame someone. Though…” I tapped my chin. “I assume they are killing you because of your relation to Thorin? Why would they leave me alive?”

My mother fidgeted. “Well… because they think you’re dead.”

“It can’t be that hard to look me up…” I trailed off, pausing at her expression.

“Your birth certificate is fake. So are all your legal documents. On paper, my child died in labor. All the doctors are dead, too, so no information could get out. We moved to a shitty area that didn’t have many cameras, and you’re not on any documentation. Remember how I let you sleep in the back of the car everywhere we went when you were little?”

I blinked. “So that no one would spot a kid in your car?”

“Everything.” She cut her hand across the air between us. “You don’t exist. Remember how you kept having someone else’s name on your school stuff? How they got you ‘wrong’ in the system. Actually, I had them correct it. You can add nicknames in the school system so you don't have to show up every time with a confused teacher. There was a special note next to your name on all of their seating charts.”

I had to sit down. “Wait, wait. Then if you died?”

“The last connection The Borrson Clan would have to track you down would be severed.” She nodded. “I was never brave enough to give you up to protect you.”

“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?” I nearly throttled her. This whole time she’d been hiding me?

“Because you were a teenager. Smart for a teenager, but that isn’t really saying much. Simply for all the work I’d done, I refused to let it be undone by something so stupid as a teenager’s loud mouth.” She was still fidgeting.

I squinted at her. “Is there more?”

“There’s a lot,” she admitted. “You have no idea how hard it is to do everything with cash.”

I squinted at her as I rubbed my forehead at the incoming headache. “That doctor I used to visit was absolutely a vet.”

“Yeah. She was. Nice lady. Did work for people who wanted to stay quiet. Technically, you have a medical record as a dog named Buddy.” My mother shrugged. “Now you know. You’re mature enough to not ruin all my work. In fact, if you started to hate me and kept a little distance it might help you.”

I rubbed my forehead. “I hate you, but thank you.” Getting up, I gave her a giant hug before picking her up and putting her back down. “When I was in the labyrinth, my sword style was useless. Later when we return to Vein City, maybe you’ll spend some time showing me some other styles.”

A brilliant smile flashed across her face as some tears leaked out of the normally stoic woman. “I’d love that.”

“Now, shoo. I have to work on this. Suddenly, I feel like it needs my full focus.” And it would make a really nice distraction to put some distance between these revelations and my emotions.

***

Simone sat down in my lap as the plane engines warmed up. “You and your mom are doing better.”

“How could you tell?” I teased.

“She’s not dead for starters.” Simone glanced at the other two important guests joining us.

Circe and Nyx were joining the flight back to Vein City. The leader of the Odyssey branch insisted on coming back with us to prepare for her teams when they arrived.

Finally, my three servants stepped on, and I watched them cautiously, knowing they were still watching over me, but I had an idea to fix that problem.

The item that Nyx had found in the center of the labyrinth had been a bone that crumbled as soon as she touched it, leaving behind a drop of Golden Bull Blood Essence SS.

The three ‘Golden’ bloodlines I held in my spatial ring almost felt meant for turning my servants to my team.

But that would be for later.

Right now, I just wanted to get home and see Gloria.

Nyx wrapped herself around my chair and leaned on the back. “What’s next?”

“I think we’ll spend some time in the city. Soon Vincent is going to be breaking down my door for me to open up that damned door.” I rubbed my forehead at that problem.

“We’ll come with?” Nyx asked.

“Absolutely. Maybe we should get you and Simone a little stronger, though.”

“Hey. I’m plenty strong.” Simone wiggled in my lap. “However, I understand the desire to make sure I’m as formidable as I can be to keep me safe.”

I pressed the woman dressed like a sexy nun into my lap before giving Nyx a small kiss. “We’ll keep preparing for what is to come. And that includes you two.”

AN - Surprise! Lots of chapters. I decided to get this all out to you guys so I could get feedback and do any last minute edits this weekend. My beta readers have already given me a few, no this doesn't mean I'm opening the floodgates for you to shit on the book, I tend to not read those comments anyway.

Anyway. This is the end of the book, I'm going to take a few days off Patreon posting and will be back with Dungeon Diving 203 on the 10th.

Almost done with Dragon's Justice bonus chapters so the KS printing can move forward.