Chapter Forty-Five
I found Mayor Bevlin thirty minutes later. He was with his villagers gathered out on the roads. My monster girls were around them, a perimeter to keep them safe. Zobens nodded to me and stepped aside. I staggered up to the mayor, weary from the fight, my robes bloody and tattered. Maya and Garnet clutched to my arms. Lana and Feya were comforting Halia.
She was a wreck.
"Lord Leo," Mayor Bevlin said, looking stunned. People had died today. His people. He must know by now who had not gotten out. "The gods... They sent that thing?"
"Gods..." The last words that Anguin had said had refuted that idea. He called them demons. Why? Because of what they did to him, or was there something else at work. "Yeah, the gods are not happy with your people for helping me."
"So they punished us?" Anger flashed in his eyes. He bowed. "We are yours, Lord Leo. We know who has saved us. Who protects us."
I blinked and saw not anger in the eyes of the other villagers. I had brought this destruction on them. Instead, I saw gratitude. Men came up to me and shook my hand. Women hugged me and placed kisses on my cheeks, tears in their eyes. I stood there stunned by the love they gave me. These people had once despised me, and now...
Now they proclaimed me their savior.
I couldn't believe it. My heart broke with the joy of it. I smiled at them, the weariness falling away from me. I felt re-energized by their faith in me. I looked around at these people. They stood with my monster girls, unafraid of the wildhounds, the basilisks, unicorns, and orcs. They didn't flinch from the satyrs or the salamanders.
"I want word sent to Lord Shorvin," I declared. "These are my lands. I will protect Astovin and the surrounding areas. It won't suffer any more attacks. Any more reprisals. I will defend them against adventurers, soldiers, and gods!"
The crowd cheered. They clapped, the men smiling. The women beaming. Mayor Bevlin nodded. He cried out for Gelin, the messenger of the village. The very one who had sent word to the elven library. I smiled at the excitement.
These were my people. Plans tumbled in my head. Ideas. They were radical. Had any dungeon builder ever thought of them? I would. I could feel the influx of power that defeating Anguin had given me. Halia might have dealt the death blow, but she was my retainer. Bound to the Crystal.
I would change this world.
* * / *
"I'm fine," Halia told Lana and Feya. "I just... I need to see someone."
"Are you sure?" Lana Fulmine asked, her blue eyes vivid amid her silvery face. Her golden hair crackled with her lightning.
Halia nodded, her black braid spilling down her back. She had recovered from the emotion of freeing her father. Anger boiled in her. His words about the gods being demons... It resonated with her. And yet Lady Sherida had blessed her. Something was going on.
Halia broke from the monster girls. She marched through the town. The villagers were returning. The wailing had begun over the dead. She marched through them, her back straight. Men nodded to her. Women hugged her and kissed her cheeks.
"We're so proud that you're from our village, Halia," they said.
"Your father would be pleased with you," others said.
They were right. He was pleased with her. They had seen the shadowy form of him, but maybe they had not believed it was Anguin, the Son of Astovin who had won so much honor for his village. He had done so many noble things in his life. He had slain many dungeon builders, including Argian the White and Thunder Hammer Gludhug.
And one day, she would avenge him. One day, Fuegin would reveal his true nature to Leo and their alliance would end. She would ram her blessed blade, her father's sword, through Fuegin's black heart.
She reached the graveyard by the church. The body of Orvain, the Priest of Light, had been taken away, but his blood still stained where he had died. She shook her head against the grief of his death. A good man. She marched down the side of the building and opened the wrought iron gate of the cemetery. She found her father's empty grave next to her mother's.
She knelt before his grave, staring at the tombstone. "Here lies the memory of Anguin Vobria, Hero of Astovin. Beloved Husband and Father. May the Lord and Lady of Light shelter his soul forever."
Tears fell down her cheeks.
"I'm going to make you proud, Father," she said, staring at his grave. "I have an idea. It might be insane, but we need to work with the good dungeon builders and only punish the wicked. Leo is the start, Father. The start of something amazing. I'm going to find more adventurers. I'm going to form bands of them sworn to fight the wicked.
"I am going to recruit an army to serve Lord Leo from all the races. I will show them that there are benefits in serving a worthy dungeon builder."
* * / *
I restored my dungeon to its normal layout. There were many of my monster girls that I left in Astovin to help them care for their dead and to keep watch over the town. The golems were there, but I wanted to have more defenses.
It weakened my dungeon, but I didn't expect an attack any time soon.
I restored the ghosts to life and placed them in the entrance. They would be a nasty surprise to any who entered. Used to dealing with petrification, they would not be ready for the spectral touch of my ghosts. I would have to come up with a way to vary the opening room. Make it so my enemies could not predict what they would need.
I brought Feya into the Vault and then awakened Paanee, Baaghi, Usiku, and Smerta. They were my lesser companions. My spoils of war, in a way. I had won them from their owners. I didn't know them in my other life, but that didn't mean I didn't love them.
"Massster," Paanee said, her armless body arching back, her large breasts jiggling. "I see we won."
"Of course we won," Smerta said, the valkyrie standing tall and strong. "I would have killed him if he didn't open that damn hole beneath me."
"That was messed up," Usiku agreed. "I almost got hit by that."
"It was so brutal," Feya said. The fairy fluttered her wings. I had healed her wounds. Her eyes flicked to me. Led's wife smiled with hunger. It was a thrill cuckolding him. I was glad his women wanted to serve me. Ziamili's two companions were more loyal. That, and I didn't want them. Especially not the gorgon who had petrified my Halia.
Feya threw her arms around me, her small breasts rubbing into me. She had a ballerina's figure. Tall and lithe and gorgeous. She grabbed my cock, stroking me. I groaned, eager to enjoy these girls. They needed more love from me.
"You all have earned some relaxing," I said.
Baaghi licked her chops, her whiskers flicking. Then my rakshasa fell to her knees. "Gladly, Master."