Chapter Ten
Siwang arrived in Leo's council room with everyone else. He had been summoned to his friend's meeting. Something had happened today. Guang, Siwang's lampetia companion, and all of his choirs had felt something.
Siwang wasn't sure what it was, but he had a feeling this council was behind it.
Siwang sat down with his three companions at the table. Leo's companions dominated. He had twelve monster girls plus a collection of companions from other builders. Even the ambassadors like Usiku were present at the meeting, summoned from Sharithin.
Did something happen with the dwarves?
wondered Siwang. He knew that Leo had gone to meet with them today to finish the negotiations, or so the rumor buzzed.
His monster girls gossiped with Leo's. They even met up at the boundaries of their two dungeons to have orgies. Siwang would love to watch that. He would never touch one of Leo's monster girls--not that they would let him--just as Leo would never touch his.
That just wasn't done. He might be Leo's vassal, but there were limits.
Halia was here, of course, as were Kassie, Fara, and some of the adventurers Leo was gathering. Plus Mayor Bevlin representing the Astovinians.
It was a major meeting.
"Leo," Siwang said when Leo entered last. He could move people around with his Void Crystal in his dungeon, Siwang included, but he couldn't move himself. "Did something happen today at the Light Shrine?"
Leo shot Siwang a questioning look. "How did you know?"
"A guess," said Siwang. "All my Light monster girls felt something tingling, and you were at the dwarves, right? The Light Shrine by them."
"Well, the dwarves were yesterday," Leo said.
So I'm a day behind on the rumors,
Siwang thought.
"But that's why we're here." Leo frowned. "I wonder if any of the other dungeon builders' Light monster girls felt what happened, or if only yours did since you got your power from the Shrine itself."
"I felt it," said Ljosa, Leo's lampetia companion. She and Guang looked a lot alike, both made of shining light with blue eyes and hair that looked like sunbeams piercing through clouds. "All of Leo's Light monster girls
really
felt it."
"But we made some great progress toward achieving the goal of why we are here," Leo said, smiling at Siwang. "We have done something that has never been done before. Something unprecedented in the history of this world."
"Or so we think," Fara said, the elf staring down at her papers. "We don't know what happened to all the Blades."
"It's never been done before," Leo said. "I got that distinct impression from her."
From who?
wondered Siwang.
"Lord Leo, what is this miracle?" asked the mayor.
"So naughty," squealed Garnet. "Dark Lord Big Bro is awesome! He has conquered the Light!"
"And cuckolded it," added Morana. The pale-faced banshee quivered in excitement. "The Dark Lord's reach grows ever stronger."
"Yeah, but what really did happen?" asked Akiz, a dwarven adventurer. "Not the coal dust those two are farting."
"It's unprecedented because it required a hero and a dungeon builder to work together," Halia said. "The Shrine was meant to combine with my Blessed Blade. The Goddesses are slaves to the Gods, and we have to save them, too. That is how we protect the Incarnation."
Siwang listened as Halia explained what happened after she thrust her sword into the slot in the Light Shrine and freeing Lady Sherida. Awe fell on him as he stared at his friend.
He fucked a Goddess?
A smile spread on Siwang's lips. His friend was amazing. He felt like giving him a high-five. Maybe if they weren't at such a serious council, he would have.
But he refrained himself.
Instead, he asked, "So what happened to the other swords?"
Everyone looked to Fara. The elf sat there unperturbed. Her ears twitched and her breasts rose and fell as she met their gazes. She rose, clad only in her black hair that fell all the way to her butt-cheeks, unconcerned that men other than Leo could see her.
"They have all been lost," said Fara. "When the dungeon builders first appeared over four thousand years ago, the Gods came to us. They created twelve swords, the Blessed Blades, and gave them each to a champion from the four races. The Chosen Bloodlines would be charged with slaying the dungeon builders and keeping the world safe."
"It's so evil of those Gods," Nina Naughty hissed. The devil slapped her hand down on the table. "See, they gave the very thing the dungeon builders need to their enemies. They tell all the world the builders are evil, give them these keys, and tell them to kill the dungeon builders with them. And if a hero dies, well, the sword just teleports onto the next in his bloodline. That's fucked up. No dungeon builder can ever get their hands on a sword. Not without convincing the hero to help them. They're set up to be adversaries so what happened today should never have happened."
"But it did," Siwang said, his respect for Lord Leo swelling.
Leo squirmed beneath the attention. "I just did the right thing. That's all."
"Okay, okay," said Ms. Trueno, if the swords always return to the next in the bloodline, how can they ever be lost?"
"Bloodlines die out," said Mrs. Baldwin. Leo's mother glanced at Fara. The dryad arched a green eyebrow. "That's what happened."
"Yes. The heroes died with no heirs for whatever reason. They never had children, or their children died before their time. Over four thousand years, the swords were lost one after the other. The first was three thousand years ago when Naz Nightslayer was killed by the Metalborn, losing the Blessed Blade of Dark. And the most recent was the Blessed Blade of Metal, lost fifty years ago when Kagzi died defending the city of Kelias when it was razed by Fuegin."
Halia growled through clenched teeth, her hand clamping tight.
"So does Fuegin have the Metal blade?" asked Leo. "Did Kagzi's weapon just drop to the ground where she died? Is it in his dungeon?"
"We know swords teleport away on the hero's death," said Fara. "Even the swords of heroes with no heirs. You see, not all died to dungeon builders. The Blessed Blade of Ice was lost when Mil-Shaz's ship sank in Torkan Strait on her way to fight the Volcano about twenty-five hundred years ago. The Blessed Blade of Water vanished with Kaliaminirianaia in the Great Spinel Mountains. She was returning home after defeating the Mountain. No one knows what happened to her."
"That doesn't prove anything," said Ms. Trueno. "Those swords could be at the bottom of the ocean or in those mountains just lying lost."
"Ah," Fara said, "you did not let me finish. We do have accounts of what happened when Makarza died of old age. She had many attendants with her, and when she passed, they all swore the Blessed Blade of Earth vanished with her, but she had no children who had survived. They and her grandchildren were killed in a plague."
