The Beasts of Betrayal (2)

"Wicked... beasts... who betrayed... their master..."

Huh?

Malice dripped from every word. While I'd been zoning out, his hymn of praise to the god must have come to an end. More importantly — beasts? Plural?

So there were more of them? More monsters like Uroboros?

Don't tell me it's those guys.

The plural was what did it. The first thing that came to mind was the boss monsters from the Relay Dungeon, one of the modes in Fairy Masters. That dungeon threw a different themed boss at you after every clear — Uroboros of Greed, the Minotaur of Madness, Pestilence, and so on. I had a feeling the beasts Gigaesingwan was talking about were those same bastards.

"Beasts, plural. You're saying there are more monsters besides Uroboros that betrayed their master?"

"That is so..."

"Who are they?"

"The... sick... rat... the mad... ox... the blood... tiger..."

Ah, for fuck's sake.

Gigaesingwan dragged every syllable out like he was reciting a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠funeral rite. I wanted to reach into his skull and yank the words out myself. I held my patience anyway, and because I did, I got ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the full list.

The Sick Rat, the Mad Ox, the Blood Tiger, the Horrifying Rabbit, the Dragon of Calamity... what is this, the zodiac?

Every beast he named was uncomfortably familiar. They were all boss monsters built on the animals of the twelve zodiac. Four of them had shown up in Fairy Masters under different names — the three I'd already thought of, plus the Iron-Blooded Tyrant.

I'd actually taken vacation days just to theorycraft strategies for those bastards. Failed so many times I got stubborn about it. I did manage to put down Pestilence, the poison-themed one, but the other three wiped me. Granted, I'd always been more of a PVP player than a raider — that didn't change how strong and unorthodox they were.

Different names. Same bastards.

This wasn't mythology. Uroboros was real — I'd seen her with my own eyes. Which meant the other boss monsters existed in this world too. And if they existed here, I was going to run into them eventually. Which meant I needed their weaknesses on file before that happened. Conveniently, someone who knew about them — or rather, a head that knew about them — was sitting right in front of me.

"What's their weakness?"

"Their... weakness... you say...?"

"Yeah. Weakness."

"That... I do not... know..."

"What?"

This bastard was doing so well, and now he takes ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a detour? What good are you if you don't know?

"Have I been treating you too nicely? You gonna talk if I actually rip your eyeballs out?"

"Ghhhk... even if you... tear out... my eyes... I cannot speak... what I do not... know..."

I pressed down hard on his eye sockets. Gigaesingwan still wouldn't give me the bosses' weaknesses. He really didn't know.

Ah, fuck. That's a dead end.

I'd thought I might get a lead on how to take down Uroboros. Disappointing didn't begin to cover it.

"If... the Sword of Divine Blood... were to exist... it might... be possible..."

"What? The Sword of Divine Blood?"

He'd been watching me stew, and now he tossed me a scrap.

"The god... slew the beasts... with a sword... forged from... his own blood... That sword... may be... the beasts' weakness..."

"And where do I get that?"

"That... I do not... know..."

"Goddammit."

A lead was a lead, at least.

The Sword of Divine Blood, huh.

I'd better not forget that.

"However..."

Gigaesingwan opened his mouth again. I gave him my attention, wondering if he'd remembered something else.

"What? Something else coming back to you?"

"You are... the serpent's... avatar... so why... do you seek... to kill... the serpent..."

"Why else? Because that bastard's a monster."

"Because it is... a monster...?"

"Yeah. A monster's entire reason for existing is experience points. That's it. And I don't like some monster that's nothing but walking XP playing lord and master over me. I'm going to get stronger than I am now, and then I'm going to tear that fucker Uroboros apart."

Gigaesingwan stared up at me, eyes wide.

"Truly... you intend... to kill... your own master...?"

"Master? Who the hell is whose master? This arrangement only exists because I'm still weak. The only master I have is myself. Nobody gets to own me. And that goes double if they're a monster."

"Can you... swear it...?"

"What?"

"If you truly... intend to kill... the Serpent of Greed... then take... this..."

"Huh? Ah, fuck—!"

I spun around and nearly jumped out of my skin. Gigaesingwan's headless torso was standing right behind me.

"What's wrong... Alan?!"

"It's dangerous, Master!"

The others heard me shout and came running.

"Wait! Don't come over — stay right there!"

"What? But..."

"I'm fine, just wait!"

"...Alright."

I threw a hand up and stopped them in their tracks. If Gigaesingwan had meant to attack me, he would have done it already. Embarrassing as it was to admit, I'd let my guard down — I'd already filed this fight under won. But the torso just stood there.

"Take what?"

"This..."

The torso pointed at its own wrist. A bracelet sat there.

"What is it?"

"This is... a Corrupted Blessing..."

"A Corrupted Blessing?"

I pulled the bracelet off his wrist to check it properly. He didn't so much as twitch, even as I stripped it from him. No intention of attacking, then. I pulled up the item info at once.

Oh, hell yes. Jackpot.

"Originally... that bracelet... suppressed... a practitioner's desires... But it was... contaminated... by the dungeon's mana... and took on... the opposite effect..."

Gigaesingwan volunteered the item's history without being asked. The doctrine of the Nameless Religion, which worshipped the Nameless God, was that you found peace by casting off the afflictions of the heart. For a faith like that, they collected an awful lot of money under the name of tithes — though supposedly they never spent it on themselves, and gave it all away. Whether that was actually true, I couldn't say. I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.

According to Gigaesingwan, the bracelet called Corrupted Blessing had originally been made to suppress human desire. Dungeon mana had poisoned it, and now it did the exact opposite. From where I was standing, that was nothing but upside. I'd been frustrated I couldn't use the same tactic as before — surrendering my body to instinct the way I had in the Catacomb. And now I had an item that let me cast Gigaesingwan's own curse. Rain on parched earth, nothing less.

"Why give this to me, though? I'm your enemy."

"You... are an enemy... But you said... you would kill... the serpent... Your tactic... of turning the curse... against itself... was excellent... This... will help you..."

"Hmph."

Gigaesingwan harbored even more of a grudge against the beasts that had betrayed the Nameless God than I'd expected. Holding that kind of hatred for someone he'd never even met, monster or not... fanatics really weren't right in the head.

"I'll take it, then. Thanks. Anything else about those beasts you haven't told me?"

"No..."

"Then let's wrap this up."

If he had nothing left to say, there was no reason to keep him alive. The item was a nice gift, but the dungeon wouldn't clear until he was dead.

"I have... one request..."

"What is it?"

"If you become... stronger than you are... now... grant me... grant us... rest..."

"Rest?"

"We... are already... dead... But we are... bound to this dungeon... repeating death... and life... for eternity... That is not... life... It is not... beautiful... We who have died... wish to go... to our god's side..."

In other words, he wanted me to find a way to bring this dungeon down and free them from what they had become.

"Is that even possible?"

Fairy Masters had never shown a way to destroy a dungeon. But maybe reality played by different rules.

"That... I do not... know..."

"For fuck's sake. Are you messing with me?"

"But... if it is you... it seems... possible... This is... nothing more... than the request... of a dead man... who cannot die... If it is too difficult... you need not... do it..."

"...Fine. If I find a way, I'll destroy the dungeon and give you your rest."

"You have... my thanks... Now... kill me..."

With that, Gigaesingwan closed his eyes. Behind me, the torso lay itself down on the floor as if settling in to sleep.

I looked from the head to the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠body and back again. Then I brought my fist down.

Windows bloomed in front of my eyes. The Catacomb dungeon was cleared.

We'd hit the final boss room early, so we made it back to Littleberry before the day was out. But my work wasn't done. I still had to split the gold from selling the Growth Stones and byproducts we'd pulled out of the Catacomb.

Ordinarily, fairies don't get a cut. The master takes everything, because a fairy is the master's property. The fairies themselves never minded. They were happy their beloved masters got to keep it — happy, even, that they'd been useful. I still split what we'd earned right down the middle and handed Kanisia her half. She tried to take only forty percent, arguing that Aquaril and Oralisa had worked just as hard, but I forced the rest on her. However much our party felt like a family, you had to keep business and personal separate if you wanted the party to last.

Kanisia has to stay with me till the end.

I'd already poured a fortune into Kanisia and Abraham. There was no way I was letting the two of them walk.

"Hmph. Thirty million gold..."

My share, not counting the Growth Stones, came to thirty million. The Catacomb dropped jewelry and gemstones, so we'd made a decent haul. Twenty-three days to clear it — less than a month to pull in sixty million gold between us. That was why masters took their fairies dungeon-crawling. One clear and you were suddenly holding serious money.

"That's it?"

Thirty million was not a small number. It just wasn't enough. I owed Uroboros three thousand Gems a month in tribute, and I intended to keep pumping my stats with Molt. I'd gotten a taste for it this time around.

Raising stats with money was just paying to win. Watching yourself get stronger because you threw gold at the problem was as addictive as any drug — and this wasn't even a game character. It was me. On top of that, every stat I bought with gold was a Growth Stone I could spend on my fairies instead.

"And I picked up a damn good trait, too."

Dying once to Gigaesingwan and triggering Molt had pushed the skill up a level. A new effect had unlocked.

Dying Radiance was a hell of a trait. The all-stats bump was nice, but the real prize was that fifty percent damage increase. When I came back through Molt, I'd felt enormously stronger — strong enough to rip Gigaesingwan's head clean off. That had all been Dying Radiance.

"Still. I need to pick up a new standing trait, not just something like this..."

The catch was that it only triggered when I used Molt. My actual traits were still just the two I'd started with: Fairy Master and Avatar of the Greedy Serpent.

"Money. I need to make money..."

Pumping stats with Molt meant burning through gold, and thirty million wasn't going to cut it. I still had a decent reserve thanks to what I'd stolen — or rather, what had been donated — from the rulers of Indigo and Chinnimoni. But I wasn't going to keep collecting "donations" from city lords. I needed a real way to make serious money.

"Hrm..."

The door creaked open.

"Hm?"

I was still turning over ways to get rich when it swung in.

"I... have arrived, Master."

"Master! Oralisa's here!"

The late-night visitors to my room were none other than my lovely fairies, Aquaril and Oralisa. Both women wore negligees so sheer you could see right through them, and they came in wearing completely opposite expressions.

"Come in. I've been waiting."

The thinking could wait.