The Crow's Shadow and the Fallen Angel's Stand
Luna’s Heart Attack, unleashed at the peak of her climax, pierced Vapula’s heart with surgical precision. There was no time to offer him a place in our ranks or negotiate a surrender; Vapula simply died. "Hmm... well, that saves me the trouble!" If Vapula had been a female, I might have considered it, but a dark-skinned male? He wasn't worth the effort of recruitment. I’d already proven that with the former Flauros (Agni), whom I’d bothered to recruit.
'And even if it were just Agni, I wouldn't have recruited him anyway.' The audacity of that bastard to covet my Luna—once wasn't enough; he deserved to die as many times as I had been with her. I was so enraged by the thought of him drooling over Luna that I used her power to finish him off.
"That was easy. Good work, Luna. And you too, Ryun."
"Hehehe. Did I do well?"
I patted Ryun’s head, praising her. She deserved it. Even without my explicit orders, she had systematically slaughtered the enemies. "How did you know what I was thinking without me saying a word?"
"I can tell just by looking at your face and hearing your voice, Master. We’ve conquered dungeons together plenty of times now. You don't need to look so dejected, Luna-unni; there's always a reason when Master gets so worked up."
"......It's not like that."
Luna lay sprawled on the floor. Strangely, after I ejaculated inside her, she refused to get up, claiming she wanted to keep every drop of my essence inside her and didn't want to let it spill.
"I’m not an idiot. Being with you, I could tell what you were doing just by listening. It was just that she was being so noisy."
"You heard it, then?"
"You were thrusting hard from behind every time Ryun fired an arrow."
"As expected of the Elf Queen."
Thanks to the loud sounds I made while hitting her from behind, Vapula hadn't noticed the sound of Ryun’s "wind arrows" sniping his subordinates. The twenty or so winged lions accompanying Vapula had all been blinded by the holy power radiating from Luna.
"It was worth making such a scene."
"Yeah, thanks to that, Vapula didn't notice a thing."
The blinded lions standing in place became easy prey for Ryun, and I kept Vapula’s mind completely occupied so he wouldn't realize his subordinates were being picked off. All while enjoying Luna’s company. 'To think I could experience such bliss while fighting—this is true Wrath.'
I approached Luna and kissed her lower abdomen. Perhaps because it was filled with my seed, the stigmata didn't sting or hurt when my lips touched it. It felt warm, and Luna smirked at me before her expression hardened.
"You're such a child. But listen, no more Wrath during combat from now on."
"Why?!"
Luna had forbidden my small pleasure. It was a crisis that made me jump, and Ryun, equally shocked, grabbed and shook Luna’s breasts. "Unni, what are you saying! Do you know how stable it feels to fire arrows while being filled by Master?"
"You've already tried it? Good heavens."
"I did it when Gremory came to attack our dungeon! It was stable and nice because he was supporting me from behind. I had to stop because Master shot inside me while I was firing arrows, though."
"You shot a white, sticky arrow. I'm going to go insane."
Luna looked at me and Ryun with a weary expression and shook her head. The more confident Ryun was, the more I felt unnecessarily guilty. "Luna, that was a force majeure. It happened because a portal opened suddenly while I was hitting you from behind, just like now."
"Can I try it next time, too? But instead of a real battle, let's do it in a place like a sub-dungeon where we can treat the enemies lightly."
"Isn't it fine even with real enemies as long as we can win easily?"
"No. I was so anxious I couldn't even focus on the tension."
Luna moved the legs she had stretched toward me from side to side with a stern face. The sight of her black stockings moving back and forth under her white two-piece dress made my lower half grow hot all over again.
"It would be better to just go around to all the others in bed and do you last. I can't do this with enemies right in front of me."
"Why?"
"What if I let my guard down because it feels too good? Who knows? Maybe the enemy has a hidden trump card and could strike us while we're busy fucking."
"...Hmm, I see. That makes sense."
I had only been thinking about how to distract the enemy, and I hadn't considered the point Luna raised. 'That was actually incredibly dangerous.' It had been fine on the walls of Las Vegas and just now, under the assumption that the enemy was in shock and unable to react, but if an enemy were to regain their senses and snipe my partner or my 'junior,' it would be a disaster.
"I'll have to cast a protective barrier next time."
"Don't even think about doing it in front of enemies, you idiot. Do you really have to do it in front of them? Just kill them quickly and go back to bed."
"But...!" I slumped over Luna’s chest. "If I don't do that, I can't show the whole world that you're mine!"
"Don't give me that crap. If you want to show off, just end it with a kiss, okay?"
"But it's such a waste."
"...Fine, I'll persuade your lust-filled brain so you can understand. Listen."
Luna shuddered, pointing at Vapula’s corpse. "I was nervous that something might go wrong because of the enemies, right? That's why I couldn't fully feel your cock even while being filled."
"......Is that so?"
If that was the case, I had to change my perspective. To think she couldn't fully focus on me while we were having sex—that wasn't true Wrath. In a gesture of self-reflection, I bowed my head to Luna’s chest and apologized. "I'm sorry. If I had known you were worried about that, I would have beaten Vapula to a pulp and fucked you on top of him."
"It's okay. We can just do better next time."
Luna smiled gently, stroking my head as I sucked on her nipple. 'She says she couldn't feel it, but she seemed to enjoy it immensely—I'll just let that slide.' If I picked a fight now, I might end up in a leg-lock, forced to kiss her lower lips for an hour. If we fought seriously, the reality was that I would lose due to her holy power buffs and level difference. 'I'll see about that once the Avalon Project is a success.' As soon as Ryun’s 4-star evolution was complete, I would concentrate all the magic stones gathered by the Avalon Project on myself and hit level 90 immediately. It would be quite difficult, though.
"Aigoo. We have a long way to go. Luna, let's get up."
"You can suck more, you know?"
"We need to clean up and head back. Think of how many others are waiting for us at home."
I rose from Luna’s body and approached the pile of lion monster corpses. "These guys are worth farming. Hehe." The ones that looked like Vapula’s kin had quite desirable manes and hides, and each had a pair of ivory-colored griffin wings on their backs. Every one of them had a hole in their heart, and Vapula’s was heart-shaped, leaving his form relatively intact.
"I can pull the wings to extract thread, and the hides are usable too. Above all, this mane—it would be perfect for decorations."
Since the hair was blood-red, it was fine to just pull it and use it, and if I needed other colors, I could dye them for decorative purposes. 'I can't just end it by getting these materials here.' I opened the system window to settle the score of the uprising.
'Pahou Kumcheoku Cheok' has seized 'Vapula's' dungeon.
# Register as a subordinate dungeon - Registers as a separate dungeon. You can dispatch subordinates to operate it as a second dungeon.
# Absorb as a sub-dungeon - Collects the dungeon's essence into a Dimension Stone to merge it. You can create a new sub-dungeon within your own.
# Register as 'Vapula' - Relocates all existing facilities to the dungeon and registers it as Solomon's 60th dungeon.
"Obviously, it's a sub-dungeon."
I didn't need Vapula’s name, and the Flauros dungeon was enough for a multi-dungeon setup. As soon as I made my choice, Vapula and the twenty lion monsters scattered into purple mist, and they gathered in my hand to form a small orb.
'Vapula's Dungeon' absorbed as a sub-dungeon.
# Reward: Dimension Stone - Winged Lion x1.
"Ryun, what do you think about wearing our lion-head pelts as helmets?"
"Hmm, I think the enemies would be terrified!"
"Good. Let's catch the lions from the sub-dungeon and milk them for all they're worth."
The winged lion species, the Winged Lion, would be a major resource for our dungeon from now on. Since Andras was our legion's main force, I couldn't bring myself to eat them, but if I made it a point to use the species entirely for resources, I wouldn't have any qualms. The domestication of lions. If their levels were high enough, it would become a proper farming dungeon after the Andras sub-dungeon.
"Anything else to pack..."
I carefully tucked the Dimension Stone into my robe and inspected the inside of Vapula’s dungeon. Since the conquest was already over, I could take my time gathering the dungeon's resources.
"Hehe, it's a 60th-ranked dungeon, so they must have plenty of magic stones stored up, right? Let's take as much as we can as loot!"
[Master! Please, a signal... Master! Ah, never mind! Master!]
I had been thinking too complacently. Shaitan appeared in the system window with a desperate face. The screen began to flicker, as if there were interference.
"Shaitan?"
[A portal... in Gremory's! Gremory is currently engaging! And... more have opened in... the dungeon! It's the basement...!]
"What?"
A chill ran down my spine. "Which bastard is it?!"
[......Halphas, the master of the 38th dungeon!]
Somewhere, it felt as though the nightmarish cawing of a crow was echoing.
* 1 hour and 43 minutes after the portal opened. *
"Should I call this a misfortune within a blessing....?"
Gremory watched the battlefield with a stiff face, moving her troops. Gremory’s dungeon, which was essentially a rear-guard training facility, was quite vulnerable to attack. To prevent this, portals were connected so that troops could be dispatched from Pahou’s dungeon, but there were almost no reinforcements available.
"Mei, the succubi, and the fairy units are doing business in Spica Castle. That girl, the two elves, and the priest duo went to raid another dungeon. Not only did a portal open in my dungeon, but that one opened too...."
Gremory bit her lip, smiling. Considering that portals didn't open during a conquest, it was certain that Pahou had won his battle against Vapula. It was just an unfortunate coincidence that as soon as he won, someone launched a surprise attack on Andras’s dungeon.
'Who is it?'
If there was one entity with the highest probability, it would be Halphas, but who knows? It was entirely possible for that perverted crow, who had cast a curse to take Andras and tried to recruit Gremory to get his hands on her, to do this.
'He must have been impatient since I cut off contact after joining the legion. He probably doesn't care about honor; he just wants to open a portal and check the situation.'
Gremory knew better than anyone how desperate a being driven by lust could get. Pahou was one such being, and Gremory herself possessed similar traits. She couldn't confirm who had opened it. Powerful magic waves had begun to spread just a moment ago, cutting off the connection through the system.
Ultimately, Gremory was in a position where she had to defend against the enemy's attack on her own, using only the troops within the dungeon.
"Interesting."
Although Gremory had been humiliated by Pahou’s surprise attack, she was the master of the 56th dungeon. She was an "excellent dungeon master," having served as a mentor to Pahou and being someone he could trust with his rear guard.
'The quality of the available troops is quite low, but the numbers are huge.'
Breeding harpy units. Breeding Andras units. Human soldiers captured as prisoners, adventurers who refused to become fairies, and some orc units. The total sum would easily exceed 400. Most of them weren't even 3-star, let alone 2-star, but Gremory wasn't worried at all.
"I can just cover it with equipment."
Gremory lifted her skirt and took off her stockings. She then stuffed slime jelly, hardened like stone, inside them.
"Now, who dared to set foot on my land....?"
Gremory shared the senses of the clone she had sent to the portal entrance the enemy had opened. The opponent had used the extreme tactic of the dungeon master crossing over personally, and Gremory let out a groan as a bad memory surfaced.
- Nice to meet you.
The opposing dungeon master, a human male with the appearance of flames, pointed the spear in his left hand at Gremory.
- I am the 58th, Amy. I have come to claim Gremory’s name.
Whoosh. The clone was burned to nothing by the spear Amy thrust forward. Gremory realized the enemy was someone who had committed an uprising, and irritation surged within her.
"Haa... I need to finish this quickly."
Gremory picked up her staff and rose to her feet. "When this fight is over, I'll have to ask him to reincarnate me."
Amy’s army began to dash toward the center of the dungeon.