~ Chapter 24: Battle of the Leaders ~

[Yandrea’s point of view]

It took the punitive army eight months and two weeks to reach the Lands of Giants, however, to call it an army was an exaggeration. Of almost two million forglore, negvar elves, and reiss combined, only a little over 200000 were left alive. A proud well-equipped force that would not have stained the pride of the royals who led them was now marching through my dungeon like an oversized pack of bandits. Only bits and pieces remained of their original armors and weapons. Most of them were forced to improvise their equipment out of the remains of monsters. The only exception were the princes and the high ranking commanders, who could not afford to appear before the soldiers in rags and patched up armors. It was not pride that made sure they were still well-equipped but rather their cunning use of strategies. Instead of fighting on the front, they preserved their strength and left their soldiers on the front line to handle the monsters and traps on their own.

Since they began their descent, as days turned into weeks and then into months, they quickly went through most of the supplies they had brought with them from the surface. Then, what little they had left, they were forced to give to the royals and their immediate followers. For the rest of their army, with no spare armors and weapons left, no rations to consume, they were forced to scavenge and hunt for their meals.

This turned out to be the perfect opportunity for me to slip in poisonous food and broken items. Thousands fell to this tactic, and hundreds of thousands more to the aftereffects. Being uncomfortable during battle as a result of your bowel movements could easily lead to a mistake that would spell the end of your life.

During the previous Rituals of Suppression, I made sure they had plenty of supplies on the way down, whether it was in the form of treasures and goods or wildlife they could hunt, there was an abundance of everything. This time, however, under Tuby’s guidance, I removed most of the edible wildlife, all the treasure chests they could discover, and I got directly involved in sabotaging them at every step of the way.

Without a Slave contracted to me among them, I was free to observe them, spy on them, even steal from them to instigate fights. I made sure, however, to stay clear of the royals, as they still held the Chains of Submission artifacts. I could handle the Bronze and Silver ones, but I was uncertain about the Gold ones.

Freeing myself of those contracts brought about an unexpected gain. I felt liberated, as if a big weight was lifted off my shoulders, and I could finally stretch as far as I could. I was free to fly up into the sky and move as I pleased. Those Slaves were like spikes that had been stabbed into my Dungeon Territory and made it impossible for me to act. They were like worms digging into my flesh, making it painful for me to move.

I had no worry... no worry about being seen or needing to give answers because they felt me near. It was a sensation that I had long forgotten and was only now remembering. Oh, how sweet and refreshing it was!

A few years ago, when I first heard of all the modifications I should make to my dungeon, all the new traps I could or should install, I felt a bit doubtful about the results. I did not think that they would work too well. It did not seem important to me to create a labyrinth capable of creating optical illusions, or traps that only scared them rather than kill them. Some traps, on the other hand, felt far too complex. Why was it so necessary to add to some a delayed trigger? Why was it important to make a system to automatically reload them? Why could I not add all the new traps to a single floor and instead focus on spreading them out throughout the entire dungeon?

All that doubt was gone the moment I saw my dungeon in action. The adventurers were quick to spot the traps but found it difficult to disarm them. Different trigger mechanisms and construction methods despite offering the same result slowed them down significantly. The traps themselves also worked well with the type of floor they were on. Gas traps worked best in enclosed spaces while area attack traps worked better in open spaces. Every single combination was designed in a way that either crippled or killed as many soldiers of the punitive army as possible.

The more I observed my dungeon in action, the more I understood that the purpose, the ultimate goal was not to train adventurers or act as a lure to make them come again and again like I was taught to do but rather to end their lives. This was a dungeon of death, a one-way path towards their doom. It was meant to handle an army, to whittle it down to but a fraction of its initial size, to consume their supplies and bring the survivors in a weakened state before the might of our defensive army.

If worst came to worst and they reached the Core World, then we had to initiate the evacuation plan.

Initially, we had hoped that they would not reach the Lands of the Giants, but they proved to be more tenacious than expected. Despite their losses, they showed no intention of returning to the surface. I understood why this was so. Without me, without another Slave, it was impossible for them to do so. The way back was pure death for them. Without supplies and already tired from all the fighting they had done, it was easy for them to make a mistake and fall into one of my traps. Not to mention the fact that not all summoning circles had been destroyed, and they were still releasing monsters into the dungeon.

Although there were just a little over 200000 of them left, they still had the strength to push forward. If they managed to defeat our army, me and Tuby, then the survivors on the Hidden Floor would have no choice but to face death. Thus, as soon as this unscrupulous army stepped on the 8th Layer, I let everyone know that it was time for them to begin their long march towards a new future.

At the edge of the Hidden Floor, a giant rectangular tunnel connected us to the surface world. The Light Crystals imbedded in the walls illuminated the way towards what we all hoped to be a new life, a chance for their dreams to come true. It would take two days for everyone to move out. Ever since the punitive army arrived on the 7th Layer, the Volcano Paradise, they have prepared for this moment. Thanks to the routine training sessions we did, they were all ready to leave in an orderly fashion. First would be a row of warriors to lead the way in case of danger. Behind them would follow the elderly and children, who would set the pace for the entire convoy. Following them would be those who did not enroll in the army but were healthy and full strength. Then, at their back, guarding the whole convoy would be the warriors and soldiers whose duty would be to keep the punitive army at bay in case the unthinkable ever happened and they would catch up to them.

Initially, I was against this plan of escape... fleeing did not sit right with me. Or rather, it was abandoning my dungeon what did not feel right... I still held hope that it was powerful enough to stop the surface army... I was hopeful... Was this the effect of my own Dungeon instincts or was it just fear of facing the unknown out there? Tuby told me that even if we won and destroyed the army before they reached us, escaping this dungeon was the only choice for our future. The surface kingdoms, after we destroyed their army, killed their princes and princesses, erased their city, they would gather together and force their way to me, to kill me or subjugate me with their Chains of Submission.

He also told me that I should not underestimate those who reached the Supreme rank. They were devastatingly more powerful than any of those in the Godlike Rank. By themselves, they were an army. Together with an army, they were an unfathomable force. This was the truth of this world... the gap in power.

Then, the best way to deal with them was to separate them from their army. This was the plan we made up for the Lands of Giants. Using walls and hidden traps, we would send parts of their armies to different corners of the floor and then bait the Supreme to a lower floor.

The only flaw so far, the only unexpected situation was how quick the Slaves died on the first floor. While they did a lot of damage and destroyed a good part of their supplies, they were ultimately defeated before they could unleash their full might. Inside my dungeon, they could match a Supreme by taking advantage of the terrain, traps, and even with me as their backup, but without this support and while engulfed with the madness caused by my order, they were at best Godlike ranked. They did not care about their own safety. They did not cast sufficient defensive spells or used defensive strategies. They rushed in while casting powerful attacks, forsaking even the smallest opportunity for a synergy among them.

They were weak.

If they were even half as strong as I had pictured them to be... as I thought they were, they would have taken out at least half of the army.

I understood then, when I saw them being cut down one after another, that what Tuby told me was correct. I was the one who made them appear so powerful. I was the one who made them look unbeatable. I was the one who made myself succumb to their orders. It was all me... and this revelation made me feel both disgusted with my own weak self and exhilarated because I finally understood that they were not the monsters I pictured them to be. No, they were weaklings, and I held the leash to their life through that contract.

How foolish of me it was to think it was the other way around.

The remaining army was formed of all those who survived through all of my traps and monster waves. They were the best among the soldiers, commanders, and squad leaders. If they managed to return to the surface, they would end up being promoted from commoner to noble and from a low noble to a high noble. They would be recruited as the best knights and would be granted the best positions in the private armies of the nobles, among which the royal army would be the greediest for such talented individuals.

Alone, they were dangerous... Together, they were a threat to our very existence.

We had to separate them and take them out one by one. To do this, I created four identical paths at the entrance to the Land of Giants. If Prince Kasimir split his army into four, I would lead his own to the lower floors, while the others would face my own army. If he refused to split it, then I would force them to do so by triggering wall traps at the right time.

What they ended up doing was what I had hoped they would. Prince Elderimus Palos Vertino, the commander of the Vespora army took his entire force of 47000 through the left corridor. Prince Kimir Asser Fagorm Despino of the Domeris Republic took a force of 37000 through the right corridor. Prince Regius Artero Gassar took the remaining force of the Zebrasil army of 28000 alongside another 10000 soldiers under Prince Kasimir and went through the right closest corridor.

The remaining army of 78000 went through the last corridor. Of course, these numbers were an estimation based on how many life signs I felt in this area. There were exactly 77645 in Prince Kasimir’s army, but who would bother to precisely count all those souls who were destined to die in this place?

What I needed to know was whether or not there were any powerful individuals among those groups that could defeat my own forces. From what I saw, there were none.

Once the armies entered their respective corridors, the path behind them was closed and a poisonous gas was released, forcing them to flee from there. No more than a few hundred fell to this trap. One even got squished by the wall that fell at the back.

I flew ahead of them to the end of the path where my own army was waiting for them.

“They are coming. You will be fighting against the forglore and their leader Prince Elderimus Palso Vertino. They are 47000 in number.” I told them.

Queen Skara raised her head up and flicked out her tongue.

“Let them come. We are ready.”

Her army was formed with warriors from the ornaks, the lion emperors, the ellyarians as well as the many monsters that were under her care. They were all eager to test out the sharpness of their fangs and claws on their new prey.

I left Queen Skara and her army of no more than 6000 and flew towards the ornak army, where Mizu’kra Eyo was saying a prayer for the success of the warriors. I approached them and listened.

Her words were soft but powerful, carrying the courage of her people to face off against the unknown and all the forces hidden behind the endless shadows. Their story was one of constant struggle and boundless courage against the darkness of the world, the storms filled with dark clouds and dangerous lightning that struck the ground and crippled any living being it touched. They spoke of ancient long forgotten gods who were always fighting against the known gods. They held mysterious powers and had no good intentions for those living on these lands. Unfortunately, whether it was due to the summoning process or the passing of years, the names of their gods have been lost. Now they were only aware of the fact that they existed and some of them represented certain elements of nature.

This was a similar situation for any summoned species, although not all of them held tightly on these memories. The ellyarians and lion emperors forsake most of them and adapted to this new world.

With her prayer ending, I appeared before them and said:

“They are coming. You will be fighting against the reiss and their leader Prince Regius Artero Gassar. There are negvar elves and forglore mixed between them. They are a force of 38000.”

The old shaman looked up at me, her age declared by all the wrinkles on her skin, her slow movements, and weakly smile, but her gaze... her eyes... they held the might and fury of any young ornak warrior.

“Let them come. We shall welcome them with axes and spears. We shall gift them with curses and spells. And when they run away, we shall cut off their legs and break their spines! For the Great One! Our mother and creator!” she raised her staff up and then struck it on the ground, releasing a wave of golden magic.

“FOR THE GREAT ONE!” shouted the army of 4000.

“Survive... The young ones need you, respected shaman.” I told her.

Next to her was Pezmo’Va Eyo, her grandson.

Despite the overwhelming number of enemies that were marching towards them, they had no fear or regret in their eyes. This was the moment they had been training for. This was their stage.

Tuby once told me that while numerically we were underwhelming, once on the battlefield, those values will become negligible. If in the training camp an ornak soldier could barely handle an enemy or two, out there, where they had no place to retreat, no moment to relax, where they knew that if they fell their family was next, they would fight like a cornered savage beast and take with them as many enemies as they could.

The numbers told me that we had no choice but to lose. However, the fire in their eyes and the fighting spirit in their chest told me that all those calculations, all those numbers... were wrong. I hoped and wanted for it to be true.

From the ornak camp I flew towards the last one on this floor, the automatons. There were 10000 of them here, currently waiting, preserving their energy in sleeping mode. Their leader, P.A.L. was at the back, looking towards the entry point from where their enemies would come. Unlike the ornaks or the monsters, the automatons were machines created by me. I knew their strengths and weaknesses. I knew how to dismantle them and reassemble them. I knew what made them tick, however, I had no idea how their developed consciousness would make use of their inorganic bodies. Just like the others, the automatons also trained every day together with everyone. They developed new tactics and methods to use their bodies, ones which even I had not predicted. They had even developed unique weapons that worked only for them.

When taking into account all of these things, the results of this battle would become unpredictable. Any side could end up winning, however, I had no intention of just waiting around for our forces to lose.

“Wake up, my children. The army of 37000 led by Prince Kimir Asser Fagorm Despino is coming.” I called out to them.

With a soft mechanical sound, the gears of the automatons were put into motions and they sprung back to life. Their optical sensors focused on me. P.A.L. spread out his arms, two extendable spears appearing in his upper left and upper right hands then struck the floor with their butts. The sound of metal hitting stone announced his full awakening.

“As per our Creator’s wishes, we shall eliminate the enemy.” P.A.L. bowed his head down with an elegant gesture that reminded me of an ornak rather than an automaton.

“Do not die... overwhelm them with your strength.” I told him before I left.

The 8th Layer of my dungeon, the Lands of Giants, was formed of multiple gigantic floors that were interwoven by towering geographical formations to make it seem as though they were just one single floor. There were chasms that spread left and right, which connected the floors between them. Paths that were built by monsters were everywhere, while those designed for explorers were very few in number. When you followed the labyrinth of cliffs and chasms, you did not know whether you went up or down, whether you moved in circles or on the right path. As such, while Prince Kasimir took his 78000 army all the way down to the Core World, the others were spread around with little to no chance of their massive battleground becoming aware of one another.

As soon as they split up their initial army, they tried to clear every corner of my labyrinth. They searched through every corridor and scouted every path like a blind rodent who could not escape its own maze-like burrow. Why they did this, I failed to understand. In my opinion, exploring every single path with their full force one at a time should have been the wise choice. Through union and teamwork their strength increased tremendously, yet the forglore, the reiss, and the negvar elves were separated like bitter foes who refused to work together until their tragic end.

As such, on all the paths, my traps greeted them with a smile. Arrows flew from the walls, lightning descended from the sky, lava poured out of the walls, poison flooded the floors, acid rained from the sky, spells overwhelmed the Magic Armor, and monsters of all sorts creeped up behind them and finished them off. On these corridors, the only monsters left were those who could use stealth skills and sneak up behind the enemies. They picked on the weakest among them, the stragglers who ventured too far from their pack. From within the shadows, with a single strike, their prey’s Magic Armors shattered and their bodies were pierced. Then, like true stealth predators, they would pull away the bodies before the others noticed.

I watched from afar as these... ants... struggled to the bitter end to survive, to make it to the end of this treacherous labyrinth. My only regret was that they did not perish entirely on the floors above. Tuby was right, I should have focused more on making deadlier traps... organics are not as squishy as I initially thought them to be.

By the time the armies met, the punitive force found itself worn out, tired, and suffering from grave injuries. Despite how powerful they each were, my traps still managed to inflict some damage. Only their top leaders managed to survive without a single scratch. Whenever they felt that they were about to suffer an injury or even death, they would pull in a weaker soldier and shove them in front. These actions were not without their repercussions. Their morale plummeted and faith in them grew weak.

From the 3rd Prince’s army, not even half of it remained, most of them were injured, and those few who still carried on unharmed were looked upon with hate and anger, especially by the survivors from another species.

I floated up above them and watched as they encountered P.A.L’s force. They waited until they moved deep into this arena and only then made the doors close behind them and woke up from their slumber. The advantage of the automatons was that they could blend in with the surroundings when they were in idle mode. With a single illusion spell, they could appear as dead tree trunks, boulders, or debris of some ruin.

“It’s an ambush!” shouted one of the commanders.

“Take up your arms and form a defensive circle! Find the enemy leader and push through towards them!” the order of the prince followed.

The soldiers did as told and quickly moved in a formation to stop the onslaught of the automatons, pointing their spears and swords at them. The mages were in the back, focusing on conjuring up their best spells while also taking note of the amount of Magic Energy they still had left.

The automatons were expected to go charging at them like mindless monsters, however, Tuby taught them otherwise. These apparent mindless machines were the ones who trained with the best of the ornak soldiers, the toughest of the ellyarians, the most cunning of the lion emperors. They were the ones meeting them in the training grounds on a daily basis, so preferences for weapons and strategies were developed.

Unlike organics, the automatons had unique ways of communicating with each other. They could rush in, apparently chaotic in their strategies and formation but showing a teamwork that far surpassed the others. Automatons rushing in the front wielded shields and heavy weapons with which they blocked arrows and spells that were cast in a hurry, their purpose being to prevent the attackers at the back from sustaining any damage. In a way, it was a mirror strategy, the difference was that the automatons in the front only needed to move just a little to the left or right at the right moment in order to allow the attack from the back to pass them without harming them.

From my point of view, it appeared as though the automatons at the back were attacking their allies in the front, however, none of those attacks struck them, instead the enemies were taken by surprise and fell one after another.

The battle was bloody, with casualties on both sides. My automatons were unrelenting, pushing forward as long as they still had a limb intact. As long as their cores remained intact, I could revive them, and so I did. Most of those who fell soon returned to battle with a new body.

P.A.L. did not stand aside while this battle was unfolding, he was aiming for the commanders and their leader, the prince. From afar, he used his powerful arms and launched boulders at them with the intent not to kill them but distract them. It worked. They were far too focused on stopping his attacks and found it difficult to continue giving out commands. Their battlefield awareness dropped considerably.

When more than half of their soldiers fell and one of the commanders got struck by a flying boulder, the 3rd Prince finally took up arms and launched himself at P.A.L, fury in his eyes. Swords clashed, releasing a rain of sparks. Both of them used spells that reinforced their bodies and amplified the damage done by their weapons.

The battlefield was covered in broken automaton parts and the organic remains of the soldiers who dared to follow the prince. Their blood staining the ground and the sky filling with their screams of agony, fear, anger, and fury.

Their numbers dwindled and soon there were very few organics left besides the prince and his loyal commanders, who tried to keep PAL’s army away from their fight. The outcome, even if by some twist of fate, the leader of the automatons fell in battle, was unchangeable. It was clear to all of us who the winner was. At this point, there was no more valiant courage or the greed for victory in their eyes, only the desperate need for survival and the madness of their impending end. Even if it was just one more, they tried to take down as many automatons as they could before they perished.

I floated above these few survivors and, while they focused on defense, I replaced the floor underneath their feet with a half meter gap covered with thin metallic spikes. More than half of them screamed in pain, and in this moment of distraction, they were struck down. The others, while they were unaffected by the spikes, lost their footing and still fell prey to the blows of their foes. It was an overwhelming surprise attack from my side.

The prince was now surrounded. Breathing hard, with bloodshot eyes from anger and madness, with a broken armor and damaged clothes, a chipped blade, and suffering from bleeding from a wound on his forehead and right shoulder, he was glaring at PAL.

“I will have my revenge!” he screamed in anger, the words that followed were muffled curses that made sense only to him.

Like a cornered animal, all he could do was bark and growl. He was aware that he had no way out. A powerful foe in front of him who barely sustained any damage from all his attacks, and an army of automatons keeping him at arm’s length, staring at him with cold emotionless optics.

Before he died, I made myself visible. PAL stopped and bowed his head to me. The prince turned around and looked up at me, confusion in his eyes.

“I once had a friend... she belonged to your Despino family. It was a long time ago, before you became a Republic. Your family hated the idea of a child of theirs carrying the attributes of kindness and love... They killed her. They were merciless with their own kin, their own blood. So tell me, prince... Why are you angry now when your just deserves are being served on a silver platter?” my voice was calm.

I looked at PAL and nodded once. The sharp two-handed sword of the automaton pierced the prince’s back.

He fell on his knees as blood pooled at his feet. His eyes moved from the tip of the blade towards me. His lips parted but no sound escaped his mouth. Light faded from his eyes and with him, they were now all dead.

“Separate your force in two and send half of them to the Queen Skara and the others to Mizu’kra Eyo.”

“We understand and will obey.” PAL replied with a bow of his head.

Before they moved, I fixed them up and retrieved the parts of the destroyed automatons. As for the bodies of the dead organics, I left them to rot. The wild beasts and monsters would feast upon them.

Far from here, on the floor above them, past a maze of canyons and jagged cliffs, across several monster nests, the ornaks were engaged in a brutal battle against the mixed army of reiss, negvar elves, and forglore. The later acted as the shield wall for the others, who were physically smaller but not weaker. The rodents were keeping their distance from the main area of conflict, casting spells from afar or employing hit and run attacks.

The shaman leader of the ornaks, Mizu’kra Eyo, was casting buff after buff, while also tending to those who were suffering from various injuries. Unlike before, when I was forbidden to teach them proper spells, in these past seven years, both me and Tuby helped them learn as much as possible. The old woman had a knack for healing spells and was both a support and healer for the army. Meanwhile, her grandson, Pezmo’Va Eyo, was among the leaders of the army, giving out orders all across the battlefield.

The enemy leader, the 3rd Prince of the Zebrasil Kingdom, Prince Regius Artero Gassar, was wiser than the Despino prince. He carefully weighed the advantages and disadvantages of his mixed troops and employed their strengths while covering for their weaknesses. Thus, this battle turned into one of attrition, where both sides were struggling to gain even the smallest advantage while keeping their losses to a minimum.

Nothing will change if they continue like this... maybe my troops will win since they are physically stronger, but we don’t have the time to spare. I thought and then looked up at the ceiling.

Right above their army, I built a pool of lava and connected it with reinforced tubes to small holes in the ceiling. Drop after drop, the molten lava rained down like rain. Initially, no one noticed it; prince Regius was merely puzzled by this strange change; however, the screams of his army would soon give birth to chaos. Small fires popped up here and there, while those who had their Magic Armor shattered fell to the ground in pain and agony.

The status quo was broken. The ornaks advanced and struck them down with fury. Blood flooded this battlefield as the remains of sapient beings were scattered everywhere.

Seeing this, I felt... numb on the inside. I felt no pity nor remorse. I wished to offer no mercy or a chance of survival for these villains, despite the fact that I knew that many of them had families and children waiting for them up there, on the surface.

They had no idea, but the proud Koin city they built in order to establish their dominance on my dungeon was now in complete ruins. Monsters lurked on the Endless Plains, the paths leading to the surface were blocked off by armed guards who wished to prevent civilians from going in while hoping the punitive army would soon return with good news. Those paths were tempered with to be destroyed the moment I pulled back my Dungeon Territory. Once I was gone... their path to the surface was completely cut off.

Only the survivors of the punitive army remained in my dungeon.

“We fight for freedom! We fight for the Great One!” shouted Pezmo’Va Eyo as he raised his sword up, causing the ornaks to shout up in unison.

“FOR FREEDOM!”

I looked to the other side and saw uncertainty forming in the hearts of the reiss, forglore, and the negvar elves. The later were already looking back for a way to flee from this battle, but the sharp swords of the rodents kept them here. There was no way they would retreat and had no way of doing so either, the passageway that led them here was closed off by giant doors that would not open unless I ordered them to do so. This entire room was going to become their tomb one way or another.

The lava shower I gave them broke their formation and resulted in over a thousand deaths among them. The floor was littered with bodies, blood was flowing in rivers, and as soon as Pezmo’Va roared out his call, the song of sword and savage growls returned. I found it ecstatic how easy it was to change the minds of these organics from one of unity and peace to a bloodthirsty warmongering rampage.

They picked up their weapons and went for the kill. Their song was different from that of wild animals who were careful, predatory, deadly in a single bite, they were aiming to do as much harm to the enemy as possible. The ornaks, when excited, when triggered by the scent of sweat and blood, by the sounds of battle, and the knowledge that they had to protect their young, they would turn into savage brutes who pushed their bodies through fire and steel without so much as batting an eye. The fragile elves were crushed under their might, ripped apart by their fury. The forglore were challenged to a battle of strength and lost... lost terribly so. They broke their arms, twisted them out of their sockets. Their swords fueled with their Magic Energy was cutting through the Magic Armor of a soldier with an unnatural ease.

The ornak were born for battle, for war. Magic was only a way to amplify their innate abilities, while armors and weapons only made their fangs sharper. Most of them were boosters, as Tuby called them. They used Magic Energy to increase the abilities of their own body, allowing them to surpass their own limits. They cast spells that increased the damage of their weapons and the resistance of their armors, they even used spells that acted directly upon their Magic Armor.

“For the Great One!” shouted Pezmo’Va Eyo at the top of his lung as he crushed the head of a commander under the reiss prince.

In my eyes, I could not help but appreciate these killing machines... this savage, brutal, yet precious hulking warmongering towering warriors.

The ornak surrounded Regius, the 3rd Prince of the Zebrasil Kingdom. He was missing his left arm and suffered from a deep cut across his snout that blinded him in his right eye. His snout was pulled back in a snarl, baring his teeth at them.

“You will pay for this! The Zebrasil Kingdom will take you all down!” he shouted.

Pezmo’Va rushed forward and stabbed him in the heart.

“We will be waiting for them.” he told him and then kicked him back.

The reiss died.

The survivors who saw this were filled with dread and tried to flee, but there was nowhere to go. They abandoned any thought of winning this hopeless battle and tried desperately to find a way to survive. They begged for mercy, they surrendered, they made promises of riches and power, anything that crossed their mind.

Mizu’kra looked up at me, her tired eyes asking for a resolution.

Cold, emotionless, I looked back at her and nodded.

Mizu’kra closed her eyes and then gave her order “Leave no survivors.”

There were still thousands left and now, after hearing that their fate was sealed, they fought more savagely than ever. Unfortunately, PAL’s army arrived and opened the huge doors. Instead of seeing salvation in this change, they saw their doom.

As their screams faded in the far distance, I flew towards the final battlefield, where an army of 6000 was up against the Vespora army of over 40000. A lot of the forglore met their end in the tricky corridors on the way here. Their remains could be seen sticking out from the traps they triggered by accident or... crazy enough, blocking them with their own bodies to help their brethren advance.

I may have missed the beginning of this battle, but I could see that the air was different from the other two. These ones were neither haughty nor brash, they were careful and steady. With mighty shields in front, range attackers in the back and ordered in a semicircle formation. They pushed back the monsters with their shield and staved off the ranged attacks with the shields above their heads.

Unlike the other armies, they were the most organized and most experienced of them all, I could clearly see this. Queen Skara had yet to join, but she was flicking her tongue in the air, waiting for the perfect opportunity. With her huge body, it was difficult to accommodate her with a large army like the others, but while hers was the smallest in numbers, they were not to be underestimated.

Ornaks could use their powerful muscles to defend the line. Ellyarians were adept at casting spells and using blades to cut down their enemies. Lion Emperors were expert martial artists with nimble and elastic bodies. The monsters, on the other hand, were designed to be tough from birth. They excelled in one or two things, but they did them well. Some were fast, others were like shadows in the darkness. Others developed blades that could outshine any sword. Others were so strong and powerful it made the augmented strength of automatons look like a joke through comparison.

As such, an army of monsters that were trained to fight in a war was a weapon that I could not have even thought of decades ago. Tuby was the one who suggested this absurd combination.

The status quo of this battle was soon going to be broken as the automatons were arriving. They were the first wave of reinforcements. After them came the ornaks alongside the other group of automatons. Even if the 3rd Prince of the Vespora Kigndom, Elderimus Palos Vertino was a genius commander on the battlefield, a powerful forglore with the entire kingdom’s pride resting on his shoulder, today would be the day when he would fall on his knees in front of the Queen of Monsters Skara.

“Tell me, prince, was this the glory that you were expecting when you sent your army into my dungeon?” I asked after floating close enough so he could hear me.

“Yandrea? You conniving wretch! How dare you show yourself!” he spat and cursed as he glared towards me.

“This is my dungeon; I can appear whenever and wherever I want to.” I giggled.

“This is not the Ritual of Suppression we were promised!” he roared at me, showing me the teeth of his four jaws and an insurmountable rage in his three eyes.

I giggled and flew around him. “It’s not, isn’t it?”

“You will pay for this! For all this death!” he shouted.

I stopped in front of him. All this death... these words almost made me laugh on the inside and cry on the outside.

“Prince... do you know that I am the reason why Vespora Kingdom right now is on the brink of war with the other kingdoms?” I asked.

“What?” he stopped and looked up at me dumbfounded.

“I orchestrated all of this... starting more than 7 years ago... and... I am happy... All that death you talked about, is sweet... sweet revenge for me.” I smiled as I felt something in me relishing the confused and furious look on this forglore’s face. I wanted to see more... to see him falling apart, to see him despair like the other princes... to see him begging.

“Do you have any idea how much that action cost our kingdom?!” he roared at me.

“Too little...” I pulled back. “Far too little... that’s why I want to destroy them all... both your kingdom and the others... Koin was just the first step.” I revealed the truth of my intentions, and... among this carnage, among all this death... it felt good.

“Wha-What?” he was disturbed as confusion could be read in his three eyes, now unfocused from the chaos on the battlefield, the desperate calls of his allies falling on deaf ears.

The forglores were slipping...

“Koin was destroyed not long after your army stepped into the Endless Labyrinth. Rejoice, you are probably the only one among your allies who knows this... As for why I told you this...” I smiled “Isn’t it obvious?”

At this point the massive doors that sealed this room opened and through them the army of automatons stepped in.

There was a mark of horror in the eyes of the vesporians. They were barely hanging on against this army when another powerful force made their appearance. The battlefield was covered in desperate attacks of both magic and physical nature. Swords that clashed against swords and spells that were cast to counter other spells.

Floating above the battlefield, I sensed the final wave approaching this place at a quick pace.

This time, I had no plans to intervene. Queen Skara had not moved an inch since the battle begun, which could only mean that it was not yet time for her to act. With her enormous body and tough scales, she could easily break the lines of the enemy. What was she waiting for?

As the battle continued, I saw the right flank of the forglore being pushed back. This was when the prince barked some orders and the mages at the back changed their formation and gathered in groups to cast a composite spell. Sensing the gathering of a powerful Magic Energy, Queen Skara flicked her tongue in the air and moved. Her body shifted, and her army moved to the side, breaking their formations. Initially, the forglore thought that this was a weakness in their attack, however, they soon came to realize the horror of their mistake.

Without bothering to focus on any of them, Queen Skara slithered her way through the enemy, pushing them back and trampling them under her weight. Their screams could be heard all the way to the back. She separated the enemies into two separate groups and even stopped their spellcasters from finishing their composite spells. Her Magic Armor was one of the most powerful and despite all the attacks she received from the angry forglores, it had not shattered yet.

Prince Elderimus was shouting with anger and finally unsheathed his sword. The two mighty leaders looked at each other, measuring their strength with a gaze before they attacked.

A single beam of light energy formed between Queen Skara’s fangs and was shot at the forglore with extreme accuracy. The prince blocked it with his shield but was effortlessly tossed back into the wall. He landed on his feet and jumped back at her. The sword clashing against her Magic Armor, stopping him in midair. She swiped at him with her tail while taking out entire platoons that were too unfortunate to be around her at that time.

Her army was not sitting out this battle, they switching from melee attacks to long range. Arrows and spells flew past her, aimed either at the enemy soldiers or the prince himself.

Queen Skara cast a flurry of lightning and fire attacks that engulfed the entire army. Without their Magic Armors, they fell prey to her attacks. The entire battlefield caught fire and the sickening stench of burnt flesh flowed up in the air.

The vesporians were losing. Their numbers were falling by the dozens.

Then, the doors opened again... the third wave of reinforcements arrived marked by the powerful healing and buff spells of Mizu’kra Eyo.

Feeling empowered, Queen Skara showed her fangs and released a powerful roar that sent the prince flying back into the wall, again. His Magic Armor, although cracked, was holding out.

On the ground, around her, the forglore soldiers were engaged in a fierce battle against the lion emperors, ornaks, ellyarians, and now automatons. They were losing.

Feeling the battle shifting in their favor, they began to use bolder moves, specific to their unique builds. Thus, the lion emperors jumped on the enemies, slicing them with their claws or used their nimble bodies to stab them from the sides. There was a reason why they were my guards. Each one of them was a true predator who marked their prey and never let go until they were dead. They took advantage of their feline forms and danced around with movements the ornaks could never have hoped to make and with a precision that only the automatons could match them. Their main fangs and sharp claws were covered in special alloys that formed in their bodies.

When I first discovered the Lion Emperor species, they were no different from the other species of monsters in the labyrinth, however, I later learned that they had a rich diet of metals that over time was added to their bones and claws in the form of an alloy sensitive to Magic Energy. They could enhance their bodies far beyond what the ornaks ever hoped to, while their claws and teeth could match even the most powerful blades in our arsenal. Their only weakness was a low Magic Energy pool. This strengthening factor also only worked if they focused on it, meaning that they could be easily taken out when they were taken by surprise.

Next to them, the ornaks released their fury and used their mighty bodies to crush the enemies with bashing and slashing attacks. The automatons followed close behind them; they made sure to stand out of their way and launched attacks that were aimed at their blind spots. They made a perfect team, while the ellyarians were staying in the back, casting spell after spell at the enemy forces.

From a mighty army of 47000, the vesporians were quickly reduced to mere scraps. Their morale broken, their faith in their leader shattered.

Queen Skara launched another wave of magic attacks on the prince, then finished with a lounge attack. His scream of pain announced the end of their futile struggle. With a single bite, he was slashed in half and then eaten. Then, her attention fell on the surviving forces, her cold eyes declaring their defeat and with a flick of her tongue, said:

“Kill them all. Leave no survivors.”

This was how Prince Kasimir Azafassar Teruk Despino, the Crown Prince of the Domeris Republic, lost his powerful backup armies. Now, alone with his troops, was heading to the Core World, where I was waiting for him.