My Dungeon Life: Rise of the Slave Harem - My Dungeon Life – Chapter 1037-1039

Chapter 1037

“Nova, you need to listen,” I declared. “He’s the Demon Lord Aberis. After Xin defeated the demon lord, his soul abandoned his body and hid within her. Then, she became pregnant by the Hero King, he took over one of her children. Your current king is that child!”

As I spoke, Demon Lord Aberis’s expression grew increasingly dim. I was revealing more about what I knew from his history. It was probably far more than he could have ever predicted. However, I felt if I didn’t do everything I could now, there wouldn’t be a later. I grew slightly hopefully as Nova stepped back, clearly caught off guard by some of my words. However, a moment later, he regained his momentum and raised his sword.

“You dare slander the name of our King?” He made a face. “To-to make such a ridiculous claim!”

“He is the reincarnation of the demon lord!”

“Who cares about that?” He growled. “To suggest our great lord is half-human… that is appalling! Not only do you say the king is half-human, but so is my wife? Your lies have no limit!”

Given the dark expressions on many of the Osterian’s present, I began to realize that being the demon lord didn’t spook them as much. He was Osterian. Who cared if he was a demon lord? He’d bring the Osterian’s power and glory. The thing about what I said that caused him alarm was the fact he was the child of King Edward Aberis. If they accepted this as true, then it would truly shock the Osterians. While most immediately assumed I was lying, a few looked at each other questioningly.

“His words are a falsehood. My husband was an Osterian general of great renown!” The puppet known as Xin spoke up. “Do not listen to this beast’s lies. He has always confused and led my daughter astray. Now, he attempts to use lies to confuse all of you as well!”

This seemed to be enough to settle them. At this point, I had no means of proving anything. It wasn’t like this world had DNA tests. When Xin had cut her soul, she had also cut away the human aspect. That was why she was a human in the Twilight Dungeon. It wasn’t the dungeon forgetting how she originally looked like I had thought, but the fact that the Xin who went to Alerith cut away the humanity from her children. Perhaps she saw humanity as the weakness that would keep her children from living. The surviving form ended up a human with the human Demon Lord Aberis, while the other side ended up completely Osterian.

“This man is extremely dangerous.” Demon Lord Aberis’s words cut in. “Kill him.”

“Yes, my lord.” General Nova pulled a sword and threw it to my feet. “I won’t fight an unarmed man.”

I considered not picking it up, but I had a feeling that wouldn’t matter. I grabbed the sword and stood up. No sooner had I straightened than he attacked. Gritting my teeth, I went to meet him. I still had the dungeon skills. Their power was fueled by my blessings. That’s what I had hoped, but I found that other than blessings that had a particular cooldown time, they weren’t functioning.

I began to realize that the blessings were sort of like a storage unit for mana. They were an extension of my soul. The reason there were limits on cooldowns was that blessings could only store so many mana reserves used to cast the spell. So, while I could still cast a portal, that would use all of the respective mana stored up in a single powerful burst.

Here was the kicker. I wouldn’t be able to restore it. After my first portal was used, I not only lost the ability of one of my dungeon points, but I wouldn’t regain that ability without consuming a mana potion, as I had no mana regen without a soul. That meant that all of my current skills were on a timer, and once I used up the mana stored in my blessings, even maintaining extra jobs would be impossible.

I managed to fight General Nova for about a minute, but I was quickly growing overwhelmed. On top of that, the growing weakness and pain made it impossible to keep up. He struck me across the chest, and while I wasn’t cut open, I knew from experience it was a grievous blow. I stumbled back and collapsed to the ground.

“Too easy.” Nova grinned, and then his face looked above my shoulder and turned to horror.

I spun around, hoping for a miracle. Alysia had gotten back up. She was bruised and battered, having previously taken several cuts when she jumped out the window, and then further was surprise attacked and thrown against the wall. She had kneeled directly next to the blade that was stabbed into the stone. Her eyes met mine, and in a moment, I knew exactly what she was thinking.

“No!’ I shouted.

“I’m sorry, my love. It’s the only way.”

“Noooo!” This scream came from Aberis as he realized what she was doing.

Before anyone else could react, she slammed herself against the blade. The blade struck at her neck with her full force. Her head came off and then fell down the pedestal, red hair rolling until it stopped at my feet. Alysia had killed herself.

Chapter 1038

Shock… Anger… Fear… these emotions filled me as I looked down at Alysia’s lifeless head. It wasn’t too late. We could have done… something. She killed herself just like that. After everything we had been through, she had thrown her life away.

“You bastard! You’ll die for this!”

“You’re the one who will die!” I shrieked.

With her dead, I held nothing back. I leaped to my legs and attacked him at full force. I slashed rapidly with attack after attack. My tattoos began to glow as power filled me. I began to use special abilities. Mana flowed through me, and I used Quick Attack. Then I used True Strike. I attacked with reckless abandon, and Nova’s cocky expression quickly turned to fear.

“Die! Die!” I screamed, my blade striking faster and faster.

He was retreating, but I didn’t care. I’d cut him down, and then I’d cut Aberis down as well. Alysia had given everything for me. This was all I had left. He let out a scream, trying to use his abilities, but he was quickly accumulating more and more wounds. As for me, I was unstoppable now. They would all die. Even Aberis started to look alarmed. Xin was getting ready to jump in and defend her new master. I decided that once I killed Nova, I would use Return. Then, I would bring an army directly into the Ost Republic and lay waste to it. I no longer cared. There clearly could be no peace as long as the demon lord was on the throne. I had to kill him while he was still weak.

Nova stumbled back to the ground. He was looking up at me with terror. It was exactly the kind of terror I wanted to see. I raised my sword and our eyes met. At that moment, the tattoos flickered out. Extreme weakness and exhaustion overtook me. All of my abilities shut off, and I barely managed to keep from collapsing to the ground unconscious. Xin leaped forward and struck me. I went flying. I didn’t understand what happened, and for a moment I blacked out.

My shoulder struck the sword in the ground, it cut into the flesh, nearly severing my arm. My sword was gone, flying off somewhere. I desperately tried to stand, but I found myself no longer able to. I just managed to raise my head, only to see that hateful Aberis walking cautiously toward me while Xin helped the embarrassed Nova up.

“It looks like you’re out of energy,” Aberis said, and then laughed. “Looks like your soul didn’t return to you when she died, huh?”

I wanted to deny it, but he was right. After Alysia died, my soul was still gone. I had drained all the mana still in my blessings and initiated my skills. I suppose I could call it something like overdrafting. If done in conjunction with a soul, it was a way to expand my power to execute amazing feats. Without it, it was enough to allow me to fight, but only for a brief period. Now, those blessings were as empty as my soul.

“I’ve been denied your soul.” Demon Lord Aberis said bitterly. “But, so have you. Alysia is dead, destroyed by the ancient soul reaving sword, and so was your soul. It’s game over.”

Chapter 1039

“At… at least, we stopped you…” I spoke, weakly, feeling the last bit of my life leaving me.

“Stopped?” He raised his eyebrows and then chuckled. “You delayed me at best. You haven’t stopped anything.”

“…”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, you’ve been a major pain in my ass. I never would have thought Alysia would be so determined as to end her own life, even if it meant destroying the two of you.”

She thought she’d be saving me. My soul should have survived. I didn’t know what happened. However, it was too late to worry about that now. I should have escaped when I had a chance. With mana potions, I could have lasted a bit longer. With Elaya and Astria’s help, I’m sure they could have come up with some way to keep me alive. Elaya had a karmic soul created by a dungeon. There had to be a way to replace mine, even if it left me bound to a dungeon for the rest of my life.

“I really hate you…” I muttered, glaring at that irritating grin.

“Heh, well, I haven’t even gotten to the best part.”

“What?” I asked dryly.

“When I made my move on you, my troops were also ordered to move on your so-called embassy. That ridiculous general’s family fled, but I managed to capture the princess and the elf. Your other woman managed to escape, but it’ll only be a matter of time before I find her too.”

My eyes widened. “You… bastard, don’t touch them!”

I tried to reach out, but my arm wouldn’t move. He let out a piercing laugh.

“You set me back. I lost not just your god soul, but my incubator too. I’ll be needing to create a new incubator. Thankfully, you’ve given me the perfect opportunity.”

“Wh-what?”

“I think I’ll have fun turning that baby of yours into my new incubator. It’ll take a while, and Eliana may not survive the birth, but your child will serve me well.”

“I-I’ll kill you!” I cursed, my body shaking, but still unable to move.

“Don’t worry… I’ll raise your child like it was my own… until the day I use her as I used Alysia. She’ll fetch me the god soul you took away from me. Isn’t that justice? Oh… as for the elf… she might be fun to play with. She’ll serve me well.”

He grinned one last time before turning away. Showing his back to me was his last insult. He was telling me that there was nothing I could do against him. Anger continued to boil within me. I had to do something. If I could use the last of my life to cut him down, I should try. I noticed the headless body of Alysia lying only a foot from me. I grabbed the ring off her hand and using the last bit of power I pulled out a mana potion and began to drink it.

As I had hoped, mana began to flow back into the blessings. I ignited them again, accessing the store and switching everything to strength. I used all of my strength to pull myself off of the sword and stand up. With a roar, I grabbed the hand of the sword and lifted myself to standing. This caused the king to spin around in shock. I would pull out a sword from my inventory, strike him down, and kill him with the last bit of strength if I had to die trying. That was the only thing in my mind. That’s when a voice suddenly spoke up.

“You have met the requirements for the Soul Trial. Initiating entry in 3…2…1…”

“What?”

I let out a cry as my body broke away. It started at my hands, and then covered my entire body. In only ten seconds, I turned to ash and was no more. The ring I was holding, Alysia’s ring, fell to the floor with a ting.

From that moment on, a story spread like fire, hitting the borders of Aberis and even reaching Chalm. Deek Deekson was dead. He kidnapped the princess, attacked a general, and spread rebellion to instigate war. After killing the princess, he was defeated by General Nova in the middle of a square, his soul destroyed, as witnessed by hundreds of soldiers and citizens.  Both the Ost Republic and Aberis began to prepare for war, the cease-fire now broken.

Somewhere, in a place that transcended time and space, my eyes snapped open.

{You have entered the Illusory Sword Dungeon. Complete the trial or die. There is no other option.}