My Dungeon Life: Rise of the Slave Harem - My Dungeon Life – Chapter 1382-1384

Chapter 1382

The shaking grew worse and worse, and then the ground began to split open. Long vines began to erupt from the various houses. They were black and covered in thorns, and they were quickly crowing out, seemingly pulling the city apart.

“IT’S TOO LATE!” The voice of Twilight boomed out across the courtyard. “YOU MAY HAVE STOLEN SOME OF MY POWER, BUT I HAVE PLENTY TO SPARE! RUN ALL YOU WANT. I WILL CONSUME EVERYTHING!”

As if to punctuate her point, the entire town was being eaten in front of us. Innumerable vines wrapped around and consumed even the rocks. The view of the palace in the distance was quickly consumed by black vines, and more of them came every passing second, heading in our direction. Terra grabbed me, helping me to my feet. After casting Mass Resurrection like that, even refresh wouldn’t be able to absorb the exhaustion I felt. After all, I had been starved and my body left for dead for nearly a week, and then I had to cast a powerful spell that overtaxed my body in an already low-mana regen area.

“I’m sorry, you’re going to have to hold me.” I apologized as I put most of my weight on Terra’s small form.

She smiled back. “I am Master’s shield. I will protect you always. Just leave it to me.”

I nodded and then turned to everyone else. Sapphire was still hugging her mom, while the king was still left in a stunned state.

“We need to get moving now. Can we get past the barrier?”

The king finally closed his mouth and glanced at me, his eyes slightly complicated. “The barrier is down.”

“Okay… then… we just have to head up. We can get to the surface…” I tried to brainstorm.

“You don’t understand, without the barrier, she’d be free to continue consuming. She’ll use this opportunity to head the surface. Her corruption and darkness will begin to spread again.”

“Again?”

“Hell… my boy, the Infernal Dungeon.”

“Hell?” I frowned. “You mean the dungeon under the Demon King’s Castle? Isn’t it just the soul counterpart to the castle?”

“If it were only so simple. Hell was the first place to burrow into her prison.  The Dungeon Master of Hell is Twilight!”

As we were speaking, Terra was mostly carrying me forward. We had fled past the entrance to the former deep dwarf city. The vines had already filled it up, turning the entire place into a realm of darkness. While I passed Ruby, I brought her and her mother into my soul world. I felt that was probably the safest place for them at the moment. That’s when I noticed that King Diorite hadn’t moved. He was still standing right at the entrance, seemingly lost in thought even as the vines broiled closer and closer.

“You can explain it all to me once we’re someplace safe,” I suggested.

“That’s how she bypassed Gaia’s prison. That’s why the corruption spread across the north. My dungeon… my barrier… separated her from the Infernal Dungeon. Once she has control of it, she can slowly reconquer it and within a few months, she’ll be able to reach the surface. I don’t know how the demons are these days, but they’ll renew their invasion of the continent with her behind them. That’s the truth of it.”

“I understand, things are bad.”

“Two weeks.”

“What?”

“I can give you two weeks.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I couldn’t save my daughter or my people. When I found out my daughter had returned here, I was hard broken, I had sent you down as a last-ditch effort, completely expecting you to fail. Yet, instead, you have saved everyone.”

“King Diorite?”

He lifted his hand, and a ball of light appeared in it. I was very familiar with lore at this point.

“You were the one who saved my people, so I’m afraid I’m going to have to leave it to you to protect them from now on.” He declared. “In that time, you must come up with a proper defense. You must block her off from the Infernal dungeon, and keep her locked in her prison. Tell them I love them! Tell… Sapphire… I’m sorry I didn’t see her.”

He waved his hand and the ball slammed into me. Terra let out a cry as the last bit of my energy left me. Connecting with this lore seemed to be all my body could take, and I slipped into unconsciousness.

Chapter 1383

Although I was unconscious, I still seemed to have some kind of awareness. I could see myself as Terra picked me up, and turned to flee.

“Tell him…” a voice came from my mouth, and that’s when I realized that my senses were inside King Diorite. “Tell that boy he must learn to merge with those blessings. He must turn the lore into his lore. As long as it is only connected to him, it can still be severed. Only when he becomes one with it will he unlock his true potential. Tell him he must write his own story now, and make it his. Well, I know he heard.”

I realized as he spoke that his soul was still connected to the lore which he then connected to my soul. Even though I was unconscious, I was experiencing things from his point of view. Terra gave a single sharp nod of affirmation, and then picked me up. She wasn’t just carrying me, but everyone in my soul world too. In her small arms, Terra was carrying everything on her own.

King Diorite turned away from her, and then looked into the vines, which had seemingly turned into an abyss of darkness writhing forward. Vines were already wrapping themselves around the archway but had seemingly stopped in front of the king. A face slowly came out of the darkness, seemingly disembodied and floating within a mass of shadows.

“You cannot delay me any longer.” She responded coldly.

“I know…” He responded, looking down. “I know.”

“You’re not going to ignite your soul? You could bide them enough time to escape my clutches?”

“That will only delay you a few hours at best. I promised them two weeks. The way I see it, there is only one way I can delay you two weeks. I need to finish the unity.”

“You chopped your soul in two, and abandoned your karmic destiny.”

“And you collected it, and still hold it, I’m sure. I reckon it’ll take at least two weeks to merge my soul back together, and then to complete unity with you.”

“Hehe… and why would I take this offer? You’ve already rejected me. Besides, the other one’s soul would be far better. He’s young, and his soul would make a powerful avatar. Plus, he possesses knowledge of my original form. I was only able to get a glimpse, but I believe he can help me reunify with the twilight princess.”

“He will also fight you, and then there is Gaia…”

“I can take care of Gaia!” She snarled. “But you are right, a willing host will be much quicker than an unwilling one. Very well, I will take you on your offer. However, once unity is finished, don’t expect me to show any mercy for your family or loved ones. They will all be consumed and become a part of me again. I won’t give them the chance to abandon me once more.”

“I have faith that he’ll come up with something.”

“Then you have faith in a fool!”

As she said that, several shadowy vines of darkness reached out and grabbed the king. He didn’t resist as he was pulled back into darkness. Even as my senses were plunged into nothingness, a familiar voice whispered in my ear.

“You would be better off running to the surface and living your last few months in peace, Deek. If you stay, I will take everything.”

With that, the connection between his soul and the lore snapped, and my mind finally fell into darkness.

Chapter 1384

Some time had passed before I started to wake up again. I could feel Terra carrying me, and we were moving somewhere quickly. I reached out and grabbed Terra’s arm.

“Stop…”

“Master… we need to keep going…”

“No, stop!”

Terra complied, finally kneeling and lowering me to my feet. My head was throbbing and my body still felt as weak as a kitten, but I quickly cast a few refreshes and heal spells and forced myself to my feet.

“We can rest for a moment, but that thing might still be after us.”

I shook my head. “No, she’s not following us.”

“Can you be sure?”

I nodded. “Yeah, she’ll be trying to finish her unity with King Diorite. Until that is completed, she won’t be moving forward.”

It was hard to say how I knew that so certainly. Part of it might have come from me already accepting some of Twilight’s lore and then her trying to engulf me forcefully. Then, there was what the king had given me as well. Whatever it was, I was almost certain that his ploy had worked, and that we’d have a least two weeks before she’d start trying to move up and connect with hell. I also had a rough idea of where the dungeon was compared to us.

King Diorite’s position had been very specific. That spiral-like pattern was a shield. He had somehow managed to break the dungeon in two, with the lower sections being abandoned to Twilight and the upper sections be blocked from continued growth.

“Excuse me… Mr. um… Deek?” A gentle voice came from within my soul world. “Did you say that my husband is gone?”

Hearing the words of his wife, I stiffened slightly. I gave Terra a look to guard me and then I entered my soul world. There, I appeared into a once peaceful place that now looked crowded full of a youthful-looking group of redheads. They were the deep dwarves I had resurrected. At their head was a beautiful woman who resembled an older Sapphire. She stepped forward, although she still was holding Sapphire’s hand.

I tried to give her what I felt was a brave look. “I’m sorry, but he did what he had to so that we had the chance to escape.”

She bit her lip and lowered her head. “I understand. In truth, many of us had been captured early on. We saw him as a traitor.”

I shook my head. “He gave up everything to protect the surface and the fleeing deep dwarves. In the end, he gave it all to save his daughter.”

“Yes… S-sapphire was just filling me in on what she knew. I understand.” She nodded. “Then the next question I want to ask… what is your plan?”

“He’s given us enough time to escape, but if we just flee, then it’ll all be for nothing. Twilight will come to the surface, and the people on the surface will barely have any time to prepare.” I explained. “That’s why… I plan to finish what he started. I need to build a dungeon that can give us more time. I need to rebuild the shield that he created.”

“Then, it’s time to get started.”

“Hmm?” I looked up at Lapis, her face filled with determination.

“Did you think we’d do nothing? The last time we encountered the darkness, our people fled and died. This time, we’re going to fight back. Do you want to build something on a time crunch? Just give the deep dwarves the go-ahead; we’ll show you building!”