Wow, that was tough. Way harder than dealing with those ants. Who woulda known that sorting through decades of repressed emotions would be harder than killing some oversized bugs. Life can be funny like that.

Maddi gives me no quarter, and starts asking me questions immediately. “So, you have a name yet?” Her normal politeness is gone. The typical secretarial demeanor replaced by the behavior of a teenage friend at a slumber party.

“No…” I speak in the same layered voice as usual, except that the choir is now lacking its male components. “I’ve… never really thought about it.” I tried to never think about any part of these feelings, so of course I’d never pick a name for myself. At no point did I ask my mom what she would’ve named me if I had been born a girl. And I certainly did not search through baby name websites looking at the popular names for girls the year I was born.

“...Right.” Maddi says, totally unconvinced. “Well, you should probably pick one. It would be easier than just calling you ma’am, a bit more personal.” A smile flashes over our mental channel.

Name huh? What are girls even called? Lucy? That’s certainly a girl name. I've met a Lucy before. Samantha?

…This is hard. Well… I am a dungeon. Dungeonella? I gag. No, never. What about… Caverna? It’s better than Dungeonella at least. Oh wait, I got it!

I smile as I ask Maddi. “What about Oubliette?”

Maddi audibly groans. “Are you kidding me?”

I pout. “Well, I thought it was clever. It’s like Juliet, but a dungeon!” I smirk at my own wit.

Again the demon woman groans, this time drawing it out much longer. “I thought you just decided you were a girl, why are you making dad jokes?”

I start giggling. “How do you even know about dad jokes?”

She goes silent. “I dunno, I guess however I know all the other junk I know.” She shrugs.

Well that makes sense, she does know way more than what she should.

She pipes up again. “You should also make a new avatar, one that makes you feel happy to be inside of.”

Hmm… “But the one I have now is fine. It’s not like I want to impress anyone.”

Maddi snorts. “Not even a certain tree knight in silver armor?” She smirks at me.

“W-what do you mean?” I squeak. A warm fluttery feeling shoots through my chest, stronger than ever before. “Why would you even think I’d want to impress her?”

Maddi openly laughs at me, her enigmatic creator. “Oubi, you forget that we’re connected by an emotional link. Whenever Azrael or I mention her you get all flustered.” An evil grin floats to me through our link.

To think I considered her a nice demon. I was a fool, she’s true to her race’s reputation. I use my frustration to cover up the warm wiggly feelings that her calling me Oubi made me feel. “That’s an invasion of privacy!” My voice really squeaks good when I’m worked up, huh?

Maddi devolves into another giggle fit. “You literally watch everyone inside of you with an omnipresent view. You can’t really talk about invading privacy.”

Damn this witch, and her logic!

────────────

Brist sits in the passenger seat of his carriage abomination, frowning intensely. “Carl, could you knock it off?” The muscular man’s eyes flash red.

Carl pants heavily in the driver's seat, ignoring his companion. His face is twisted in discomfort, his panting almost desperate.

“Carl!” Brist shouts.

The hyenaman growls at his passenger. “You try driving a metal box through the desert, covered in fur. Let's see how long you last!” Carl snarls.

Brist’s eyes widen at his usually demure friend’s attitude. “Ah… Right.” The man goes quiet for a moment. “I forgot it was hot, this body doesn’t feel temperature much…” His gaze drifts out the window, looking over the endless sea of sand.

“Well, you might not, but I sure as hell do!” The beastkin’s anger continues to smolder. “How much longer until we reach this godforsaken place?” He grumbles.

The larger man momentarily sticks his head out of the hatch in the roof, exposing the cabin to the sandy wind. After a few minutes, he retracts from the hole, sealing the heat back outside.

“The guide says a few more hours at most.” Brist mumbles.

Carl snorts. “That’s what the bastard said three days ago.” He lets out a sigh. “Whatever, I hope this trip is worth it.”

Brist’s eyes flash red. “It better be.”

────────────

“So, what hair color do you want?” Maddi’s cheery voice floats into my mind.

The two of us are in my laboratory. Well, Maddi is, I’m just looking at it currently. We’re brainstorming my new avatar, something that is surprisingly stressful and difficult. But that could be used to describe my entire second life so far.

“Uh… black?” I have no idea. It’s been a long time since I’ve had any sense of… ownership? Over my body. Even before becoming a dungeon, I was so disconnected from things that I can hardly say I was attached to that form at all.

“Well… what was your old hair color?” The demon asks.

She knows about that? I wasn’t sure, but how else am I supposed to take that? None of my avatars have had hair.

“Maddi… How much do you know about my past?” The woman shrinks back while avoiding looking at my point of view.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Well… I know you had a very different life, but not much else.” She kicks some rubble with her foot.

Hmm… Maybe I should just tell her? What harm could it do? I — I also really want to tell someone. To have someone know. Screw it.

“Do you want to know about it?” I ask cautiously.

Maddi perks up, her eyes gleaming with excitement. Her thick tail wags behind her slowly. “Please?” She says with a grin. A smile of my own creeps over my face.

“Alright… Where do I even start…”

I tell Maddi about Earth. About high school, how money and jobs work there, the culture of the town I grew up in. How I wanted to become an astronaut when I was a kid, what space was. We talked for quite a while, just me explaining how my old world functioned, and the differences between my old and new homes.

“So… A lot of this world would be considered fantasy on Earth then?” She sounds a bit shocked.

I giggle. “Yeah, it's all a bit crazy to me still. Although not much can top waking up as a building.”

She grins. “Yeah, I can imagine… So, what did you look like?”

The joy I’m feeling evaporates. “Um…” I pause. “I was… I had a... male... body. Pale skin, darker hair. I… don’t remember much else. Can’t even remember the actual color of my hair. I always avoided looking in the mirror growing up, and after I was kidnapped my head was always shaved.”

Maddi’s smile is gone, wiped from her face. “Kidnapped?” Small motes of blue flame flicker into existence around the demon briefly before vanishing.

I mentally nod. “Yeah, some quacks captured me as I was walking home one day. Just hit me over the head. I woke up in a room with no windows, and I stayed there until I woke up here. They… tested things on me.” A shiver runs through me, shaking the tunnels.

The motes reappear and burst into full flames. A wreath of fire quickly spreads around Maddi. Her eyes burn with anger. “What did they test on you?” Her voice isn’t reflecting her obvious emotions, instead being deathly calm.

Her anger is starting to intimidate me. “I-I uh, don’t know… really. They’d zap me with electricity every so often, then write things down and leave. Never spoke to me.” I feel myself tremble slightly as the horrible memories fill me with a deep chill.

Just as Maddi’s fires start to burn out of control, the room shakes. Not because of me this time either. The seismic activity is localized to just the laboratory, causing a sensation like when my stomach growled in my last life. As the vibrating reaches a fever pitch, it stops, and I feel a small pain. Like a papercut.

In the lab, just in front of Maddi, a thin slit appears in the air. Space splits slightly and black ooze starts to drip from the floating wound. The gash widens as something comes tumbling out of it. The object falls into the lab, not losing much momentum until coming into contact with the far wall. With a loud splat, the thing stops.

A figure lays in a heap at the bottom of the cave wall, crumpled after colliding with it. A large orange poncho covers the person, obscuring most of their features. After a few moments of stunned silence, the pile moans in pain and stirs.

“Owie, why is it always such a rough landing.”

────────────

The person stumbles to their feet, head still covered by the oversized poncho.

“Hmm… Why’s it so dark?” A moment passes as they try to fumble their way around. “Oh…” With a quick tug, and a loud popping sound, a head appears from the depths of the coat.

The newcomer is… not what I was expecting. I don’t know what I was expecting, but she is not it. And it’s pretty clear she’s a she, with her almost comically squeaky voice and pigtails. Said pigtails are part of what I wasn’t expecting, as they’re made of slime.

The girl looks like one of the slime girls from porn games my pals in school would put on the school computers. Except… not really, besides from being made of slime. The material making up her body ranges from hues of green to purple mixed with shades of black. Her head is the vague shape of the top half of a bowling pin, if a bowling pin had a beartrap for a mouth. One large pink eye sits in the center of her face, with two smaller eyes sitting where a cartoonist would draw little cheek spots.

Her hair is made of three thick tendrils of goo, two making pigtails behind her while the third rests on top, forming her bangs. Even with the massive poncho covering the rest of her, she’s still easily the strangest looking person I’ve seen since coming here. Not that that’s… bad.

The girl clicks her mouth together nervously, making sounds not dissimilar to pipes banging into each other. “Hmm…” She glances around the room, completely skimming over Maddi, who is still speechless. “Hmm… Hmmmm?!” Her head turns around to look behind her, leaving her body facing the other way. She stares at Maddi with her mouth wide.

And then Maddi regains her composure. She launches herself, burning the ground behind her as she goes. With a knee to the gut, she pushes down the intruder and pins her to the ground. She glares down at the slimegirl, almost certainly misplacing her fury from earlier.

“Who the hell are you?” She hisses at the slime.

Ms. Slime’s face stretches into a smile. “Wow! You’re really pretty!” She looks at the limb holding her down. “And strong.” Her eyes narrow. “Are you single?”

Even from my dungeon form, I can feel the heat in the room rise dramatically. If this keeps up I’m going to have to block up the tunnel so that my core isn’t flooded with molten rock.

“No.” Maddi hisses. I jump. She’s not single? When did she meet someone, she’s been… oh… right, lying. “Now tell me who you are!” The demon growls out.

The slimegirl nods good naturedly, even as her face is boiling from the heat. “Sure, sure! I’m Wem!” She tries to smile, but her large teeth are too melted to hold it. “Nice to meetcha!”

I think it’s time to reign this in. “Maddi, leave the girl alone.” My friend scowls, but complies. She stands up and does a heel turn to face away from the cheery newcomer.

Wem doesn’t take the hint and immediately tries to talk to the fuming woman. “Y’know, I’ve never met someone with fire that can hurt me! That’s really impressive, how’d ya do that?” She scans Maddi up and down, who desperately ignores her.

The girl’s three eyes light with realization. “Oh! You’re a demon too! Were you using magic when I showed up?” She tilts her head.

Maddi’s curiosity gets the better of her. “Yes, I was, and what do you mean ‘a demon too’.” She turns and glares down at Wem, who is at least two feet shorter than her.

“Oh, oh, oh! I’m sooooo happy!” The slimegirl spins in place with glee. Her poncho twirls, revealing two thin legs the color of molten tar. “I’ve never met another demon before! I thought I was the only one left here.” Her already large grin stretches even further, pulling the sides of her face like a cartoon. “I’ve been feeling big demon energy from somewhere, so I chanced it and jumped. And it worked!” Wem jumps in place, completely lost to her excitement.

At this point Maddi has the bridge of her nose pinched in frustration. “Okay, hold up for a moment. You’re a demon?” At the sound of the word demon, Wem stops celebrating and looks at Maddi.

“Yep yep! Sure am!” She clicks her jaws in a strangely endearing way.

Maddi sighs. “How —”

Wem cuts her off. “Well… My mom, she was a very lonely woman, and was scared of people. So she found some spooky old books. The books told her how to summon a demon. So she did!” The girl loudly inhales before continuing. “Mom said, ‘I’ll give you my soul for love!’” Wem does a deep, comedically heroic, voice for her mother. “So the demon, my dad, said, "Sure, wanna go out?” And the rest was history!”

Maddi’s tired eyes slowly drift from the girl to me. Silently she mouths the word ‘help’. Guess it’s my time to step in then. Before Maddi really blows a fuse.

I latch onto Wem’s mind with my ability, creating a one way connection. “Hello, Miss Wem!” I say cheerfully.

The girl jumps in place, her head wobbling even after she lands. “Who said that?” She glances around nervously. “Y-ya better show yourself! I have a knife!” The girl fumbles inside her poncho, eventually poking holes in it trying to threaten me with said knife.

Anyhow, I ignore her threats. “So, what happened to your mom? Did your dad eat her soul?”

Instantly the girl loses all traces of fear and breaks into an excited smile. “Nah! My dad just caught her soul when she died so she could live with him as a demon…” She frowns. “I guess that means I have two demon parents… even though I’m only half demon.” Her face furrows in worry over this fact.

This girl needs ADHD meds, bad. “So… How long have you been feeling demon magic?”

She spins to face me, but since I’m speaking into her mind she just keeps looking around confusedly as she talks. “About… well, at least six months.” She nods confidently.

“Well, that means that Maddi can’t have been the source, she’s not nearly that old.”

My words make Wem’s eyes go wide. She spins to Maddi, her jaw gaped open. “What!? Do demon children always have huge racks?” She motions to Maddi’s chest in bewilderment. My friend’s cheeks flush a deep purple.

I giggle over the mental link. “No, Maddi was created as an adult.”

Wem starts nodding sagely. “Ah, of course.” Then she freezes. “Wait, who made her?”

Again I laugh. “That would be me.”

“And who are you?” she asks, her eyes narrowing.

A small thrill runs through my chest.

“I’m Oubliette.”