My Dungeon Life: Rise of the Slave Harem

Chapter 1421

Looking down at the sick Sapphire, a reluctance in me began to rise up. This wouldn’t do. I wouldn’t allow myself to lose someone else. I immediately grabbed her and picked her up, causing those watching us make noises of surprise. I didn’t wait for permission though as I left my soul world with her, appearing back within the boss room.

“Everyone, to me now!” I gave with Slave Communication.

“Master?”

“He’s back!”

“What’s wrong?”

Voices flooded into my mind as I reconnected with all of the girls. One by one, they started to appear in front of me. I wasn’t quite sure how they arrived so quickly, but each girl had her ways. Celeste’s speed couldn’t be matched, and she moved like the air. Shao seemed to dance through the shadows, rising in a way that reluctantly made me think of Twilight. Elaya simply appeared from nowhere, using some kind of teleportation circle. Miki was probably the slowest, but she arrived from the safe room after only a minute or two.

Shao wore her typical dark robes, but Miki had also started wearing black dresses which made her pale skin even more pronounced until she looked nearly white. Her once pale white hair had black streaks in it down, and it gave her a goth-like appearance. Since being Lady Death, she had drastically changed. Meanwhile, Elaya wore a fine dress fit for a queen, and Celeste wore a simple fairy dress. They hadn’t changed much at all.

Once all of the girls were in front of me, I looked across them. The appearance of Celeste, Miki, and Shao hit me the hardest. Other than Lydia who still had yet to return, all of the other girls were here. These were the five that had been part of my party. We had fought innumerable enemies together and ventured into the darkest part of dungeons. We had experienced life and death together. Yet, I knew that even if Lydia appeared in the next second, our group would never be able to form again. Terra was gone.

Was it possible to replace her? Carmine also had high defense, so from the idea of having a tank, another could be found. However, that wasn’t what mattered. Terra was Terra, and she was a vital part of our formation and our lives. In an instant, she had disappeared, giving her life for gaia. No… she had given her life for me. Had I been strong enough, she wouldn’t have needed to sacrifice herself to ignite that bomb. Even after all the growth, I had achieved, I still wasn’t strong enough.

Just thinking about it was enough that I almost broke down. My body shook, and Sapphire still resting in my arms felt as heavy as a mountain. However, Sapphire had a small dwarf body. She wasn’t particularly large. She wasn’t like Terra, whose heavy golem body was at ends with her small stature. The image of her appeared in my mind again, the last scene of her own a few hours before as her body broke apart. I had already tried to resurrect her and failed. Her soul didn’t come to my call.

“Master, what’s wrong?” It was Miki who seemed to notice the sadness in me first, but the other girls were quick to follow.

As soon as she asked that question, my legs didn’t feel like working anymore. I fell to my knees. The girls all let outcries, and Celeste carefully floated Sapphire out of my arms as I fell to the ground. Miki grabbed me from one side, while Shao grabbed me from the other.

“Why does Master feel despair?” Shao asked, her eyes fearful.

“He’s… lost something,” Miki responded, uncertainly. “I’ve seen that look too many times. It’s the look of someone who has lost a loved one. Master…”

“Where is Terra?” It was Celeste who asked this.

Leave it to her to be the most observant. Celeste quickly dug into the heart of the matter. As soon as the name was said, I felt a tightening in my chest.

“Sh-she’s gone…” I barely managed to get out.

Chapter 1422

It took a bit for me to get back up. Elaya had created a chair for me and I sat down in it, trying to regain my strength. At least I hadn’t broken down crying. There would be time for that later. At the moment, there were more important things. However, the girls had already noticed that things were wrong and were quizzing me frantically with tears in their eyes, so I had to explain everything first.

I gave the simplest version of the story that I could. I explained what happened once I reached the deep. I had explained a rough version of Twilight, freeing Terra and Garnet, and then igniting the core of a dungeon to try to destroy her avatar and delay her ascent. The girls asked questions when applicable. It was Elaya who had the most pointed and clear questions, and perhaps only her who truly understood the potential terror and threat that Twilight posed to the rest of us. When I finished explaining how Terra had sacrificed herself using Gaia, and that this had only happened a short few hours ago, the group had become quiet.

After a few moments, I grew impatient and asked, “Where are the others?”

“Xin is out on patrol,” Elaya reported dutifully. “As for Astria, she went to investigate a matter in the wilderness. This is something we should discuss…”

“Not right now,” I responded shortly, not meaning to cut her off, but also not willing to handle another issue right now. “No one else has returned.”

The girls all looked at each other and then shook their heads. Over a month had passed since I had been back. Assuredly, the girls would have heard that I was alive and returned by now. Miki had been kidnapped, and in a way so had Terra and Sapphire. Shao was in a situation where she couldn’t have received news one way or another. However, Raissa, Salicia, Lydia, and Carmine all should have been able to come back. At least I knew where Carmine was, but the rest were a mystery to me.

“I’m still confused.” Celeste declared, causing Shao and Miki to groan.

I wasn’t in the mood to try to explain things more clearly to Celeste, but I didn’t want to cut her off either. “What is it?”

“Why are you saying Terra is dead?” She asked.

Miki shot her a look. “Celeste!”

I blinked. “Because I watched her die?”

“How can that be?” Celeste asked. “Isn’t Terra nearby?”

“Nearby?” I blinked. “What are you saying? I’ve already tried to resurrect her, but it failed. Her soul was burned away in the explosion. I saw it happen.”

“What about you slave bond?” Celeste asked.

“Celeste, it’s not the time…” Shao tried to intervene.

I looked at her incredulously. “My slave bond is… wait, what? It’s intact!”

I had been so distraught over her death, I hadn’t even been paying attention. I had lost consciousness just as Terra died, so I had assumed I missed the announcement of our slave bond being broken. However, in my distraught state, I hadn’t even noticed it was still attached! It was like when a person was holding their keys while asking everyone where their keys were. I suddenly felt foolish.

“How could you know?” Miki asked in disbelief.

“Eh? I smell her… but I can’t see her…” Celeste frowned, looking around. “I wonder where she is.”

She started sniffing around, even sniffing Miki as she passed, causing her to take a step back. I began to follow my slave bond too, and the both of us didn’t take more than a half dozen steps before we stopped at the same time in front of a certain person lying on a small cot conjured by Elaya. It was Sapphire.

“W-wake her up.” I barely managed to get out.

Chapter 1423

It was Miki who put her hand on Sapphire’s head and began to work her magic. Her spirit tails flickered in and out of existence. She wasn’t doing anything particularly strenuous. There might have been a time where she would have had to summon all nine tails to do something like this, but she was far more spiritually entuned now since being Lady Death. After a few moments of prodding, Sapphire’s eyes fluttered open.

“Hmm? I… where am I? Master?” Her eyes seemed to land on me.

I immediately crouched down next to her bed. “Terra?”

“N-no… I’m Sapphire?” She reached down and grabbed her body. “I am Sapphire, right?”

I let out a breath, feeling just a bit uneasy. “Yes, you are.”

“I thought she was Garnet?” Celeste declared.

“I’m Sapphire now!” She responded defiantly.

“I see… then… Terra really is dead.”

Sapphire looked away. “I’m sorry, Master. I tried to tell you. Terra started acting weird right before we left.”

“Weird?”

“Mmm, she suddenly cornered me in a room, and then she… well…” She looked away.

“What?” I frowned.

“Sh-she kissed me!”

“Terra finally had her sexual awakening?” Celeste asked excitedly, only to get swatted on the back of the head by Miki. “Owie… I was just saying…”

“Stop talking and listen!” Miki chastised.

“She kissed you?” I frowned.

Not every girl I was with went both ways. Lydia would happily lay with any woman as long as Master was involved, and Celeste had opened her sexually. Miki was hesitant, and only Lydia could get her to play with girls. Elaya and Astria were both bisexual, while Xin was gay with me being the one exception. Salicia only loved her sister and me and had a sadomasochistic relationship with Carmine, who was disgusted by it even while participating in it. Shao would do anything I asked, but only had an interest in me. As far as I knew, Terra was straight, not liking being with other girls but tolerating it. So, why would she suddenly kiss Sapphire?

While I was considering this, Miki still had her hand on Sapphire and was concentrating. After a brief moment, she pulled away and nodded to herself.

“Master, I know what is wrong with Sapphire.”

“There is something wrong with me? I feel really weak and tired, now that you mention it.” Sapphire frowned. “Did I pass out?”

“You did… you nearly died,” I explained, before turning to Miki. “What’s wrong.”

“She’s carrying two,” Miki announced.

“I’m pregnant!” Sapphire’s drowsy appearance ended in a second.

Everyone turned to me. “Wh-what? I didn’t touch her! It’s not my baby!”

“That’s not what I mean!” Miki replied with a straight face, but a mischievous look in her eyes suggested she had intentionally worded things badly to create such a misunderstanding.

Perhaps the Miki I remembered before Lady Death was still around after all. I’d normally be happy, but at this moment I was done having my emotions played with and just wanted the truth.

“What did you mean then!” I demanded.

“She has the same illness I had, although where I grew gradually, hers is sudden.” As we all looked at her blankly, she continued. “She has too much soul power for her body! She’s dying from excessive soul energy!”

“How can that be…” Sapphire asked. “Is it… is it because I tried to merge all of my soul fragments back together?”

“No…” Miki shook her head. “It’s because your body has two souls!”

“Two souls!”

“Terra’s soul is inside you.”

“What?” I nearly jumped up.

“I can only guess, but I believe Terra used that kiss to abandon her body. She attached it to Sapphire before you left.”

“How? I saw her moving… speaking…”

“She’s a golem! You saw a golem moving, speaking… She was controlling it remotely!”

“That… clever…” My vision blurred, and I realized my eyes teared up as I thought about her.

I had a lot of things I wanted to say. I was angry, overjoyed, ecstatic, worried… Terra had pulled one over on Twilight and me! She did to herself what King Diorite did to me. He had pulled my soul out of my body and then had me control it remotely. I could still function, but my lore was only being read at a distance. She did the same thing, hiding in Sapphire while she sacrificed her body.

“Then, her body is just stuck to Sapphire, we can cut it out and I can resurrect her!”

“That will be impossible,” Miki said. “Her body was destroyed.”

“What? Her body has been destroyed before.”

“Yes, but not in this way. She’s not a human anymore. She has no human body. She instead had a connection to the golem body. That connection was destroyed when that golem died. You could say the lore of the golem’s physical body was obliterated in the explosion. That’s why she’s seemingly fallen into a slumber.”

“So, what can we do?”

“I’d need a new body… an unoccupied body to move her into,” Miki explained.

“How do we find that?”

“Master…” Sapphire spoke up. “We build it.”

“Build it?”

“You have the collective strength of the deep dwarves and the finest metals of the deep dwarf empire. We can rebuild her. We have the capability. We can make her better than she was. Stronger… Faster…”

“The six million gold golem…”

“What?”

I coughed. “Never mind. Let’s go talk to your uncle then.”

“Ah, Master, building a new body will take time,” Miki spoke up. “She’s dying now. They both are.”

“Oh!” In my excitement, I had nearly forgotten.

Just the last few hours I had been through so many emotions that my mind had turned dumb. I took a deep breath and focused. We had to protect Sapphire’s body, for both of them.

“What do we do?”

Miki looked away. “There is a solution… but only Master can do it.”

“What solution?”

“To sustain Terra’s soul, Master must inject life energy into Sapphire’s body. You must touch your soul to hers, and your soul will reinforce her soul and strengthen her body. As long as this is done regularly, then she will be fine.”

I closed my eyes. “I understand. This is for Terra and Sapphire.”

I reached down and grabbed Sapphire, picking her up.

“Eh? Huh? What’s going on?” Sapphire asked.

“Sapphire… I’m going to need to have sex with you!”

“What? Now?”

“Immediately! Don’t worry, I will be gentle.”

“Now? Now, now! I know I always tease you, but I’m just a little girl! I’m not emotionally read-”

I stopped her talking by putting a finger on her lips. “I’m sorry, but you heard Miki. This is for your life and hers. I won’t treat this casually. I’m going to fill you full of my life.”

“Ah… ah…ah…” With her mouth open, her face turning red, Sapphire had lost all ability to formulate sentences.

I carefully brought her back into my bedroom behind the boss room and closed the door.

Elaya leaned over to Miki. “You know, there are like a hundred ways you could have extended her life. That potion you used to take, your spiritualist job, even Deek has some skills that would work.”

“Hmm?” Miki looked up innocently, a fangtooth showing as she gave a grin. “Why would I ruin Master’s fun?”

Suffice it to say the mischievous fox girl was back to her old tricks.