In a recently constructed room deep within the Kobold City, a group of odd-looking individuals sit around a large table. A black-haired man with cat ears, swimming in an oversized cloak. A muscular blue demoness, half of her face covered by a bone mask. An angel, her feathers dark in contrast with her pale skin, plays with a metal bat. A moving pile of black goo, rapidly changing into different shapes. And seated at the head of the table, me: a woman with large, furry ears sticking out on either side of her head.

I glance around the room, realizing just how strange my new ‘family’ is. With an awkward sigh, I tap the table loudly. Instantly, six eyes lock onto me.

I fake-cough awkwardly. “So, I’ve brought you all here to discuss something.”

Azrael laughs sharply. “What else would you call us here for?”

I glare at the cat, huffing out a reply: “Maybe I wanted to drink, you never know!”

At that, the entire table begins chuckling.

“Anyways!” I say loudly. “I wanted to tell you all… I want to make another Demon General.”

All humor that had been in the room vanishes instantly.

Maddi is the first to speak up. “Why?”

“Well…” I tap my leg nervously. “I always planned on making two more generals after you, Maddi. And while I ended up with Tilly, she doesn’t really fit into either of the roles I wanted generals for.”

“What roles are you talking about?” Tilly asks, tilting her head.

“I wanted a demon general for managing the humans, and one as a personal aide. I have those two. But I also wanted one for monster management and kobold management,” I explain to the angel.

“What? I’d be great at managing the kobolds! I love those little guys!” Tilly retorts.

I shake my head. “And if the kobolds did something bad? Would you actually hurt one of them?” I meet the angel's eyes, trying to look stern.

It doesn’t take long for the woman’s eyes to drop. “Probably not,” she mutters.

“Exactly. So we need at least two more generals, maybe more as the dungeon grows.”

All the generals look at each other, clearly dissatisfied, but having no real reason to argue.

“So can I assume you’re all okay with it?” I ask.

“Yep,” Tilly replies instantly.

I look at my other two generals, who take quite a while to answer.

“I can’t come up with a satisfactory reason to fight it, so I’m fine with it,” Maddi says begrudgingly.

All eyes turn on Azrael, who is slumped into his chair with a childish pout on his face.

“I… Aren’t we enough?” he asks, frustrated.

I shake my head. “Maybe right now you would be, but not for very long. The dungeon is going to keep growing, and eventually things will get to be too much.”

Azrael looks at the ground at my words. “Fine,” he finally says. “Just do it.”

My face brightens. I could’ve just made new generals without their input, but I want to keep them in on the decision making.

“Let’s make a demon, then!”

────────────

I quickly hop out of my body, just to immediately enter it again inside my lab.

The room is no longer the crude cave it had once been, instead being a fully equipped laboratory. Several desks line the outer wall, lights hanging from the distant ceiling. Several bookshelves have been brought in, lined with notebooks filled with kobold scribblings. In the center of the chamber’s wooden floor lies a large circle of heavy, inlaid stones.

I sigh, startling several kobolds that are using the nearby desks. The small lizardfolk are dressed in white tunics and are holding instruments I can’t begin to imagine the purpose of.

My personal lab has been basically co-opted by the new civilization, using it as an actual research center. I supposed I shouldn’t be mad, since I’ve rarely used the thing… But I’m still a bit annoyed.

“Alright, clear the room, I need to use it!” I yell, scaring the hell out of the wide-eyed kobolds. They all immediately drop what they’re doing and scamper out through the massive wooden doors.

Again I let out a sigh. They’re still afraid of me, too. No matter what I do they see me as some sort of deity, from a demigod to creator god depending on the individual. Thankfully they don’t go crazy with their worship, but it's still a bit uncomfortable.

Almost simultaneously a pillar of blue flame, puddle of shadow, and whirling orb of black feathers appear in the space in front of me. A second later and they disperse, leaving my three demon generals behind.

“Here!”

“I’ve arrived.”

“Can we just get this over with?”

Forcing myself not to sigh, I nod silently and open up my system.

The familiar sensation of menus opening in my mind greets me, the words worming their way into my consciousness. I flick through menus and settings until I find what I want.

Random Monster.

I feel like it's been forever since I last used this, but it’s been maybe a few months? I’m not sure. Before I use it I swap to my stats menu and check out my lifeforce, just in case.

Lifeforce: 121,156

I stare in shock at the ridiculously high number. What the hell is with that?

Well… When was the last time I used lifeforce? …Maybe the beach party?

Whatever, I have plenty to use then. With everything ready, I look at the stone circle in the center of the room and fire off Random Monster.

The chilling feeling of getting blood drawn fills me as my lifeforce drops. Small black and white motes of light start to pop into existence inside the circle, moving around erratically. As more and more appear, they bump into one another, merging into larger and larger blobs of light. Once there’s about four basketball sized blobs of each shade, they all rush towards each other and collide into a massive gray ball of energy. The sphere slowly condenses, becoming darker and darker as the light rapidly dims. Until finally, there’s just a small, perfectly spherical orb of total darkness.

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I just stare at what looks like a small black hole, lost as to what went wrong. Or did it go wrong? I activate Monster Status Screen, and sure enough, words start appearing in my mind.

〘〜〜〜〜〜〜〙 Nameless Shadeling (Dungeon) Infant Dungeon Monster Space and Shapeshifting Affinities. High Speed, High Strength, Low Vitality, Low Intelligence, Low Temperance, Otherwise Average. 〘〜〜〜〜〜〜〙

A… Shadeling? I glance at the thing floating in front of me.

It just looks like a ball of black glass, if I’m being honest. It doesn’t move, or make any real indication it's alive.

…Guess I’ll pump it full of lifeforce, just to see what happens?

Focusing on channeling energy into the creature, I feel the chill of losing energy again, this time at a much more rapid pace. If the earlier chill had been an ice pack, this is liquid nitrogen. I try to cut the stream of energy into the monster, but it just keeps being pulled out of me, even with my ability shut off.

“Shit!” I mutter, trying to keep on my feet. My head starts to get light and the room begins to spin.

And then it stops. With no warning, the drainage just… stops.

Regaining my balance, and the room steady again, I look at the orb.

It's right where it was before, floating silently.

“What the hell was that?!” Azrael screams.

I shrug, shooting him a weak smile. “Dunno,” I mumble.

CRACK!

Everyone’s focus turns back to the orb, which just made a horrible sound.

The smooth surface of the ball has a jagged fracture growing across its surface.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

The four of us watch as the crack spiderwebs out, chunks of blackness shooting off before fizzling into nothing. More and more of the sphere is rapidly covered in fractures, until finally…

It bursts.

The smooth shell of the object explodes outwards, dark nothingness shooting out like an angry fire. What looks like pure emptiness rapidly pours into the room, exploding outwards like a supernova, until it’s four times its original size. At that point the shadows stop expanding and fold in on themselves, condensing again. When it finally stops, it ends up looking like a floating sun, if the flames were made of differing levels of darkness.

It’s easily twice my size.

“He— Hello?” a small voice calls out, sounding like a child speaking through an old ham radio.

Everyone else looks at me, their faces with different levels of confusion.

“Hi!” I call with a cheeriness I’m not really feeling.

The outermost layer of the dark star pulses at my voice.

“Are… are you mother?” it asks hopefully.

I stare at the thing, and then back at the demon generals. Tilly is covering her face, holding back laughter, while Azrael is scowling furiously. Maddi just has her good eyebrow raised, like she’s curious to see how I answer.

A sigh escapes me. “Yeah, I guess, kinda,” I answer noncommittally.

Huge arcs of fire shoot from the creature’s body before crashing back into it, whistling the whole way.

“I’m glad! So glad!” it says happily, the static getting worse.

I pinch the bridge of my nose. “So… what's your name?” I ask.

I hear a snort from the peanut gallery, but gracefully ignore it.

The star… shrinks? Its flames get weaker, moving slower.

“I don’t have one… I thought… I thought Mother might give me one?” it asks nervously.

Oh, right, I named the other two, didn’t I? No wonder they laughed.

“Well, uh… what’s your gender?” I ask.

The star flickers silently for a while before answering.

“What's a gender?”

I sigh. Right… Of course it wouldn’t… Whatever!

Shifting through my mind, I bundle up a bunch of info on the dungeon, on myself, some of my memories… and the concept of gender. Squishing them all together, I shoot them through a hastily made mental link with the newly created monster.

It shudders, the flames of its body becoming erratic for a moment. But it eventually stabilizes, becoming even once again.

“Oh…” it says simply, its voice slightly older, but still very much a child. “I think I’m a boy.”

I nod. “Alright, then… your name will be…” My eyebrows scrunch up as I desperately think of a name for this strange kid. Shadow, star, boy, radio, darkness… “Sine!”

The star pulses… happily, I think. “My name is Sine! Thank you, Mother!” he says joyfully.

I glance over at the others. The two I created have mostly neutral expressions, while Tilly… Tilly has a ‘You really named him that?’ face.

Averting my eyes in shame, I look back at Sine.

“So… Sine… What can you do?” I ask.

The star child flickers quietly for a moment.

“What do you mean?” he asks, confused.

“Well…” I pause, thinking of how to word it. “How would you… attack? Like what magic can you use?”

Sine shrinks slightly. “I… I cannot do magic,” he says, ashamed.

“Oh! That’s okay!” I quickly assure him. “We’ll just keep you out of combat, then.”

The flames on Sine’s body flare up happily. “I can fight, though! See?”

I stare at the child, wondering what he’s going to do.

Then an infinite void opens before me.

────────────

I can’t help but flinch as Sine’s surface begins to split open.

A fracture in reality runs along the surface of black flames, cracking apart like breaking glass. Inside is an infinite expanse of pure darkness dotted with pinpricks of light…

Space.

I jump back as the crack’s view is blocked out by a massive green eye, which floats into view from the bottom of the crack. It’s much larger than the splintering fissure itself, so the eye can only peek out through it, unable to exit.

“Hello Mother!” Sine says, the static gone.

I blink in confusion. “Is that… you, Sine? The giant eye?”

The flames of the black star pulse happily. “Yes! That’s me… Or at least part of me!”

My mouth hangs open a bit. The eye in question is easily taller than my avatar, since the crack its eclipsing is almost exactly my height. If Sine’s eye is that big, how big is the rest of him?

“Sine… What exactly are you?” I ask.

Sine’s flames flicker for a few moments.

“I’m a shadeling.” He says, sounding unsure.

“And what’s a shadeling?” I prod.

The fire dancing across the child’s surface squirms.

“Well, it's a baby… I’m not sure what to call it.” He starts. “I’ve seen a few move past me, but they just act like I’m not even there.”

My heart stops. “What have you seen move past? You’re right in front of me.”

Sine wiggles in place. “No no no. That star isn’t really me! It’s just a part of me. The rest of me is here!” He says, the giant eye bouncing on the other side of the crack.

“So… This is just a small part of you?” I ask.

“Yes! I’m much bigger than that small thing, it’s barely bigger than my eye!” He says, giggling.

I sigh. “Okay, but back to my original question. What has been moving past you?”

“Uhh… I’m not sure how to explain it.” He frets. “They’re, they’re like… Big masses of things. Some are made of legs and arms and eyes and mouths, and others are all spheres and cubes jumbled together. And they’re really big, way bigger than the planet you’re on.” He rambles.

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I look towards my feet. So this random monster I made, is some kind of… eldritch being? So like… Cthulhu? Or Kirby?

Wanting more details, I open up his status again.

〘〜〜〜〜〜〜〙 Sine Umbra Shadeling (Dungeon), Infant, Male Dungeon Monster Space and Shapeshifting Affinities High Speed, High Strength, Low Vitality, Low Temperance, Otherwise Average. 〘〜〜〜〜〜〜〙

I feel the beginning of a migraine.

“Okay, I won’t ask you anything else.” I say placatingly.

“Oh…” Sine says sadly. “Does that mean no more talking?”

I can’t help but laugh. “You can always talk to me, Sine. You’re one of my demon generals, so you can contact and talk to me telepathically.” …Well I’m actually not sure if it's telepathy, but close enough.

“Ooooh! What’s a demon general?” He asks, his pupil dilating.

“Well…” I start, putting my thoughts together. “It’s a dungeon monster much stronger than the others, who is in charge of running a part of the dungeon.” I try and explain.

“What am I going to run, Mother?” He asks excitedly.

I glance over at the other demons, who all seem to be bored at this point, only Maddi trying to even look like she’s paying attention.

“Well you could take care of the kobolds or manage the other monsters, the demon generals not included.”

His eye looks at the ground, the child clearly in thought.

“What’s a kobold?”

I snort in amusement. “They’re a race of small lizard monsters, they have a city near my core.”

“Ah… I don’t wanna take care of them.” He says flatly. “I’ll do the other option.”

“Okay, you think you can handle it?” I ask, unsure if putting someone who’s mentally a child to work is the best idea.

“Leave it to me, Mother!” Sine says firmly. “I won’t disappoint you!”

I nod, but feel a bit worried. “Alright, but if you need help, you can always ask one of the others or me for help or advice. Okay?”

The fiery sphere bounces in what I think is a nod.

“Okaaaay!” He says with a cheer.

My goal completed, I’m unsure what to do. Thankfully Maddi seems to notice my indecisiveness, and speaks up.

“Why don’t we all go back to the meeting chamber?” She offers. “I can teleport you with us, Sine, since you’ve yet to be there.”

“Okay!” Sine says, the crack in space slowly knitting itself together. After it seals completely, the boy speaks again, the static muffling his voice. “Thank you, Aunt Maddi.”

Maddi’s face becomes a darker shade of blue as she blushes.

“Don’t mention it, Sine.”