In the cramped streets surrounding the town hall, a large mob has gathered. Distressed voices fill the air, tinged with both worry and anger. Captain Bella stands at the front of the crowd, trying to calm them with her words, to little avail. The energy of the situation rapidly heads towards something much more dangerous.

That’s when a black cat jumps onto Bella’s armored shoulders. Everyone present stares in shock at the suddenly appearing cat, Bella included. Tension still hangs in the air, but it’s noticeably lessened. Before anyone can comment on the randomly appearing feline, the cat itself opens its mouth… and speaks.

“Hello, everyone.” The creature’s voice is smug and arrogant, fitting for a cat. Its red eyes sparkle in amusement as everyone falls silent. “What seems to be the matter? You all seem very troubled.” Words of kindness come from the animal, but are twisted by an underlying tone of boredom.

Bella is the first to regain her composure. “Who are you? What are you?” Her questions are simple, but her expression is severe. Her tone demands an answer, her expression fierce.

The cat jumps from her shoulders, landing on the ground in front of her. It crosses a paw over the front of its chest and does a small bow to the crowd.

“I am Azrael, the demon cat general appointed as your overseer.” He smiles wickedly, fangs bared. “I look forward to working with you all.”

Bella says nothing. Some small instinctual part of her brain is telling her that this being is above her paygrade. Her instincts rarely speak up, and are never wrong.

Unfortunately, a man in the mob has no such instincts. “A cat? You’re gonna rule over us? Yeah, right!” A wall of muscle in the shape of a person pushes his way to the front. He comes to a stop in front of the black furred creature.

Azrael corrects the man, “I am not here to rule, just to oversee. I will make sure that you have a safe place here in the dungeon, and that none of you get any unwise ideas.” He flashes another menacing smile.

The huge man snorts. “Fuck that. I’ll just kill ya now and be done with it.” He raises a foot and swings it downwards. The limb crashes into the cat’s skull, and stops dead. Azrael doesn’t even flinch from the blow, though the wooden boards below him do.

The cat yawns. “How unfortunate. I really was trying to not use violence here, but I am not one to let myself be belittled.” A swirling geyser of shadows erupts around the cat, shooting up to the sky. After a split second, a man stands in the cat’s place.

The mid-twenties man stands next to the aggressive brute. His hair is pitch black, with two cat ears sticking out on top. His eyes are red with slitted pupils. A pair of fangs flash in the smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. Black fur runs down the back of his neck and covers his shoulders. Fur also grows on his hands and feet, stretching a ways up their respective limbs. His fingers are adorned with sharp claws. A black tail flicks behind him in an irritated manner, growing out of his spine. The pair of shorts and shirt that he wears leave very little to the imagination.

Azrael walks up to the much taller man, until they’re almost chest to chest. “Wanna try again, big guy?” A smug grin is plastered on the cat’s handsome face.

The larger man’s face is beet red from his roiling anger. At the cat’s provocation he finally loses control. He pulls back a fist and lets it fly at the smaller man’s head.

Just before the demon is struck, a flash of darkness sweeps over the two combatants. After they both become visible again, the muscular warrior is staring at his now missing arm. The limb is cleanly cut off from the elbow down, without even a drop of blood anywhere. Instead of being a gory stump, black flames slowly cauterize the new bloody end of his arm.

The man starts to scream in pain, which makes Azrael’s ears twitch. A pained expression passes over the young cat’s face. After enduring only a few seconds of the noise, he snaps his fingers dramatically.

Wood creaks beneath the wailing man. The boards that make up the ground crack apart, and electrical cables pour out from between them. Wrapped wires quickly subdue the man and pull him into the gaping maw of planks. The ground’s wound closes up and rapidly heals. In only a few seconds the injured man is swallowed into the floor without a trace.

With the noise gone, Azrael’s ears perk up again. He grins at everyone near. “Isn’t that better? I hope you all learned something from this.” His gaze floats between people in the crowd, lingering on each individual. Many of them flinch when they make eye contact.

A gauntleted hand grabs the cat’s furred shoulder. Azrael is quickly turned to face Bella.

“The dungeon made you?” The tree woman raises an eyebrow.

The cat nods. “Yes, my mistress spoke highly of you.” For the first time since appearing, Azrael gives a genuine smile. Bella’s cheeks shift to a darker shade of green. The cat taps his chin with a clawed finger. “She also said there was an Ave named Taven.”

A figure in the crowd jumps in surprise, and quickly tries to sneak away. Bella sighs heavily. “Taven, get your feathered ass up here before I drag you here by your tail!” the armored woman hollers.

The crowperson slowly trudges up to the two, muttering under his breath the entire way. Once he joins the odd pair at the front of the group, Azrael turns to the crowd again.

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“All of you can leave now. No one was hurt in the tremors earlier, and the town’s new reinforcements can take much more than that. Unless someone has a different complaint. Then they can come speak to me.” His fangs dominate the threatening smile he gives the crowd.

A few moments pass before the first person leaves the crowded square. After that the crowd quickly disperses. Once everyone but the trio in the front is gone, Azrael turns back to the other two.

Bella grimaces. “I believe the three of us need to talk.” She meets the demon’s gaze. “Your mistress too, if she’d be willing.”

The cat’s face goes flat. “She’ll appear if she wishes. After all,” he pauses and glances at a spot in the distance, “she’s always watching.”

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The discussions went well. All parties involved left satisfied. Well, at least pacified. Because it went so well, I was unable to stay away from my looming identity crisis for very long. The last wall between my mind and the quickly rising tide of repressed emotions is a distraught demon girl.

“Ma’am, do you want to talk about your memory?” Well, so much for that. It seems she’s actually attempting to build a channel to help the feelings flow directly into my core. “It’s alright if you don’t, but I’m not sure if-”

I cut her off. “Maddi.” She goes silent. “I appreciate it, but…” What’s my excuse, how will I dodge this? I have no more barriers, my memories are popping up one by one, the floodgates inside me have burst open. Why am I still avoiding confronting this?

The answer is simple. “I’m… scared, and it hurts.” Two basic and simple feelings that are keeping me from dealing with my problems. Keeping me from opening up to anyone.

Why would I though? Maddi is just some random demon I made not long ago, why should I open up to her? The only other option is Bella, and she’s not a much better choice. Some mercenary knight come to plunder my body… Alright that sounds worse than it was. She came to exploit me, is the point! Why should I trust these people, these strangers?

My brain answers that, easily. I shouldn’t, not really. These people are pretty much strangers to me, and opening myself up could be disastrous with my immobile position… But I want to. I want to trust people, and… make friends.

A deepset feeling bubbles to the surface of the ocean of repressed feelings inside my glowing core. Grey and cold, the feeling of isolation, of loneliness, quickly smothers out all the others.

Nights alone as a child, being ostracized by my classmates and unwanted by my parents. Days of eating alone at lunch in high school, my only interaction an occasional milk carton thrown against my head. The liquid emotion becomes much colder, a much more vicious shade of gray.

The metal walls of my cell, the only pieces of furniture being my bed and a toilet. Months of sitting alone in the cell blur past, food and water falling from a chute in the one wall. The memories fade for a moment, coming back with the same image, except the walls of the room are now padded. Images of that space flash past, faster and faster. Years pass, and the isolation just keeps growing. I feel the sanity of the me in the memory begin to fray.

A bright flash, and my memories are inside the dungeon. The early days when I was alone, figuring out how to see and interact. These memories flash past quickly too. They hold the same feeling of isolation as the previous ones, just on a much weaker scale. Novelty of being a dungeon dulled the pain.

And then the feeling is burned away, by something warm. An attachment, something I’d not experienced before. My fuzzy memory of Mama Silk floats in my mind, calming the boiling emotions some, and causing the cold of loneliness to be bearable.

“-an you hear me? You okay?” Maddi’s voice breaks through my flashbacks. She must’ve been trying to speak with me that whole time.

“I’m, okay…” Am I? “I was remembering more things.”

I hear a mental tut from Maddi. “At least there was no shaking this time, and no more cracks.”

“Are you near my core?” Why would she be there? Shouldn’t she be exploring the dungeon? Having fun?

She chuckles. “Of course I’m near your core! You cracked recently! I’m keeping an eye on you, to make sure it doesn’t get worse.”

Why does she care? I’m really starting to think that the generals have some kind of built in loyalty. I hope that isn’t the case, at least not on a large scale. I don’t want my strongest pieces being bound to me by only flimsy brainwashing.

“I can hear you stewing on something.” Maddi’s voice startles me out of my thought coma.

I mentally cough. “Yeah, I was.” Should I just ask? Maybe I can, indirectly. “Maddi, why do you care so much about my wellbeing?”

Waves of confusion, disbelief, and amusement flood through our mental connection. “What are you even asking?” Her usual politeness is gone, lost to her incredulity.

“Well, I just made you recently, Azrael too, and you both seem so… attached.” My confusion at their behavior is clear through the link.

Maddi doesn’t answer immediately, instead staying silent for a few minutes. “Ma’am, did someone make you?” Her question is hesitant, like she’s afraid of the answer.

Images of my parents flash into my mind. “Yes.”

Maddi waits for more, but eventually realizes that none is coming. “Well, did you have affection for them?”

I go to immediately say no, but my heart stops me. Memories of looking up at my mom from way below her, awed by her, fill my head. “Yes, there was a time like that…”

I feel Maddi smile. “It’s like that. I don’t have a reason to, I just do. And… I’d like to show you my worth too.”

Handing a graded test to my mom, who doesn’t even look at it before throwing it away. “Yes, I understand now.”

Maddi giggles. “Were you really worried about that, ma’am?”

Let’s not admit to my anxieties any further, at least not that one.

“So, have you decided if you want to talk about things?” Her gentle prying brings me back to our original topic. After an endless pause, I nod.

Just as Maddi and I are about to start our emotional, heart to heart discussion, an annoying message streams into my head.

Class Rank Up Available! Do you wish to proceed?

Excitement floods the mental link between me and my psuedo-child. “Ma’am, do it! We can talk after!” She’s way more amped about this than me…

I decline.

The message disappears, just to be replaced with another.

Rank Up Confirmed, Rank Test Beginning.

What? I said no! I want to deal with my deep seated emotional issues! Not some videogame nonsense!

Whoever controls the system seems to take my complaints as a challenge, judging the next message.

As an Alluring Grotto dungeon, you’ve attracted too much attention! A colony of ants have picked up on your trail and are here to steal your core! Survive the formic assault to rank up.

“Ma’am, what’s an ant?” Maddi’s voice carries weakly to me.

I sigh. “From what that said, you’ll know soon enough.”