-[Chapter 006]-

Basil was still hard at work in his study when Elnora answered his summons later that evening. A black crystalline sentinel opened the door for the succubus and heralded her arrival in a dry, ethereal voice.

“Lady Elnora,” the guard announced her as the she-demon stepped into the room.

The body of the obsidian construct guarding Basil’s private chambers was a marvelous feat of craftsmanship. Carved in the likeness of a human knight the creature even moved to mimic the restrictive nature of its model’s armor. In reality the folds and edges of his armor were all a part of his own singular body. The only item truly separate from the knight was the scabbard that dangled from a belt around his waist. It served to hold his gilded sword within easy reach.

“I have come as requested, My Lord,” Elnora said and saluted the dungeon keeper. She was dressed in her black and red Guild uniform. The letters ‘G.O.C.’ shimmered in the golden pin of her cap. From the folds of her half-cape down to her polished black leather boots, the Guild uniform embodied the organization’s militant nature.

“Excellent,” Basil grunted without looking up from his work. He gestured towards an armchair on the opposite side of his desk. “Please, take a seat. I will be with you shortly.”

Elnora obliged, removed her hat and took the seat she had been offered. Her curious gaze roamed the room as she patiently waited on her master to conclude his work. Her attention was eventually drawn to the reports and Guild forms that were piled up on his desk. By far the largest stack of paperwork was earmarked for delivery to the Guild of Chaos. It was an ancient organization, founded for a single purpose: to keep the Cycles going in perpetuity. To that end, its bottomless coffers and vast pool of talented servants were fanatically dedicated to the maintenance of a network of thousands of dungeons with countless millions of minions spread between them.

Through the liberal application of violence and subterfuge the Guild had come to dominate the border dimension known as the Astral Sea. From their strategic position in the Nine Hells at the center of the known universe they held reign over all the worlds that it connected. Shored up by a never ending tide of new recruits and resources, pillaged from the worlds that it conquered, the Guild of Chaos was probably the single most powerful organization that ever had, or, their power permitting, ever would exist. Ever consumed in its own bloated bureaucracy and the impossibly large scale of its day-to-day operations, the Guild took a considerable amount of effort to negotiate and coordinate with, even for a dungeon keeper.

Elnora had experienced firsthand the laborious grind of the Guild’s bureaucratic apparatus during her time spent studying in the Academy of Dungeon Management. She had hoped that a field assignment would reduce the amount of time she had to spend writing reports to disinterested superiors and bean counters, but, alas, she had been mistaken. Even here, at the frontlines in their war against the civilized world, the only thing that mattered for the pencil pushers in charge of the Guild was that proper procedure was followed and that all reports were handed in on time. Failure to comply was met with fiendish sanctions in all cases, except for when it came to dungeon keepers, who, while they were subordinated to the Guild in a legal sense, stood apart from it due to their sheer individual power.

As with anything worth pursuing, the climb to the top of this power hierarchy was fraught with dangers and rules galore. To navigate the labyrinthine apparatus of the Guild, where even a single mistake could make or break one’s career, one had to memorize the charters and laws while learning to spin their meaning just enough to give oneself an edge over the other. Clauses within clauses; absolute adherence to laws and regulations to regulate the very borders of the pages upon which the regulations were printed—up until recently Elnora had been willing to accept it as a necessary burden to carry on her path towards glory, but, in light of Basil’s strange remarks before the battle, she chose to interrogate herself about her aspirations. She was beginning to feel a little conflicted about them.

Do I want to bind myself to the Guild? Elnora wondered. Is it their promise of power, pure and simple, that convinced me? What more can they offer me that I could not find here… She shook her head, dismissing the thought. There are many things I would rather have right now. Her eyes briefly glimpsed the shape of the dungeon keeper at his desk, but she was quick to disguise her interest by turning her head to look at something else.

The closer I get to understanding Lord Basil, the more distant he seems. What would I do if I had the kind of power that Basil does; what would it feel like? What does he dream of? What does he desire? He has so much influence and power, yet he seems to care so little for wielding it…

The more time she spent pondering the issue, the more disheartened Elnora became as she realized how much paperwork her master had handled since his crushing victory over the intruders. A feeling of shame overcame her as the succubus came to consider that while she had been resting in the bathhouse, Basil had been hard at work drawing up his reports to the Guild. It was not her duty to assist him in this task, but she still felt uneasy about the very idea of remaining idle while others worked.

Worse still, it now dawned on her that her own performance report to the Guild was probably buried somewhere amidst all of these pages. The thought of what Basil might have written about her made Elnora blush and visibly shrink in her seat. She then spent the next five minutes slowly suffocating under the burden of her growing anxiety, nervously rubbing the pitch black nail of her cap, waiting on the dungeon keeper as he went about signing the last reports for the day.

“Well then,” Basil said as he finally put down the pen. “Can you guess as to the reason why I have summoned you?”

“Do you require my assistance with something, Master?” Elnora asked.

“Not this time,” Basil answered. “In fact, I believe it is my turn to help you.”

“Help me?” Elnora asked. The succubus managed a confused smile. “I don’t think it is necessary, Master. I can handle my current duties just­ fine—”

“Oh, but I insist,” Basil persisted. “You did such an exemplary job coordinating the daily routine of the dungeon over these past months. Your dedication calls for a fitting reward.”

Basil took a deep breath and held it in for a while, setting up his next sentence to be the true reason behind his summons. “But I also wanted to take the opportunity to apologize for the earlier… distraction.”

Elnora was taken aback by the implication. “Apologize, for what? There is no need to apologize, Master!”

“I allowed myself to get carried away with exploring my own doubts and contemplations,” Basil explained. “At the very least I should not have passed them onto you. It was not the right time or place, so if my words distracted you from the battle, I apologize.”

“Our conversation had nothing to do with how the battle unfolded,” Elnora reassured him. “From the moment the heroes entered the throne room my mind was focused on the fight!”

The dungeon keeper nodded in appreciation of her sentiment. “At any rate,” Basil continued, “I have summoned you here because I have a proposition to make. Consider it a reward for your dutiful service, if you will.”

Fresh from her heart-rattling conversation with Scarlet, Elnora tempered her expectations in decency as she waited on Basil to elaborate on his offer. Still, an ember of passion yet smoldered in her chest and the succubus couldn’t help but to wonder what kind of a reward Basil was about to bestow upon her.

Basil cleared his throat before continuing. “As you probably know, the capture of Maiden Solar marks the final days of Empire Solar. The destruction of this civilization is nearing competition. Under Guild rules your apprenticeship will be concluded once my dungeon departs for the next assignment. You will be returned to the Academy for evaluation and to continue with advanced management training under Guild supervision.”

Elnora felt the bitter taste of fear creeping up her throat. With great effort she forced it back down only to find the hollowing sensation now swirling about her belly like a dragon of despair, seeking to wreak havoc on her hopes and dreams from within.

“Given your imminent departure, I figured that our partnership should be concluded on a high note,” Basil said. “Here is my offer to you: how would you like to take command of my forces for the final push on the imperial capital?” he asked.

The dungeon keeper paused to allow the succubus to consider his offer before elaborating on it further. “It is something that I have been considering for a while now. The task of delivering the finishing blow to Empire Solar could serve as one last test of your abilities under my command. That should serve to conclude your apprenticeship with a worthy challenge. That is, if you manage to survive it…”

Elnora felt a great sense of relief wash over her. She had been granted one last chance at impressing Basil—a challenge delivered by the great dungeon keeper himself. She was quick to affirm her willingness to undertake the task. “I would be honored to lead the assault on the capital, Master!”

Yet, the looming sense of doubt quickly returned as she further considered the offer. “But… won’t such a high responsibility breach the Guild mentorship contract?” she asked. “The Guild has not yet authorized me to command such a large military force out in the field, let alone during a siege. I have not yet passed the required exams…”

Basil dismissed her concerns with the wave of his hand. “Nonsense,” he proclaimed, “I have never needed the Guild’s approval to take on a challenge before. And neither should you restrain yourself for their sake now. What was the point of sending you here if I cannot teach you leadership skills through firsthand experience? I know that the Academy would prefer to test your abilities in a controlled environment, but what I can offer you is true peril—a life or death struggle for the glory and accolades that you crave.

“Ultimately the glory of this achievement will be mine,” Basil noted, “but the experience of conducting such a large scale operation could be yours. The finishing blow is yet to be delivered and I would learn nothing new from it. Likewise, the honor of personally leading the attack would be wasted on me.”

The succubus was beginning to feel a little queasy as she considered the consequences of invalidating her contract with the Guild. “We would be breaking the rules of the Academy and… I still need to, you know, return there?” Her voice tuned to a whisper. “I want to do this, but I am not sure that I can afford to risk it.”

“The Guild of Chaos has its uses,” Basil noted, “but a time will come in your life when their rules and regulations will begin to seem more like guidelines and suggestions, which is exactly how a proper dungeon keeper should perceive them. Frankly, I know not of a reason why you should miss out on a great opportunity like this.”

The dungeon keeper clenched his fist and examined it as if staring at an invisible source of power hidden within. “The ruling civilization of this world will fall tomorrow and the equilibrium will be restored. With the destruction of their capital city the races of kith will scatter to the four winds and the cycle will begin anew. All that I am offering you is the chance to command the battle, as my designated representative, of course.” He winked. “If legal consequences are what concern you, then rest assured that I and my House can keep a secret.

“So, what do you think, Elnora?” he asked. “Are you up for the task?”

The succubus jumped to her feet, straightened her back, raised her chin and saluted the dungeon keeper ecstatically. “Yes, Master!”

“Good,” Basil replied. “Then I will send word to the commander in charge of the siege camp to prepare my forces for an all-out assault. Don’t worry about subordination—she will be made aware of my decision to place you firmly in charge of the overall operation. At dawn’s first light I expect you to lead a successful assault on the capital city. Do it by the books: desecrate their temples, storm the imperial palace and burn the rest.”

Elnora felt her knees grow weak as the full weight of her new assignment began to dawn on her. She was eager to carry out the task, but, just as Basil had implicated, the scale of the battle ahead presented a real challenge for his aspiring apprentice.

Basil pushed aside a few of the reports that had been lying on his desk awaiting review. “I will forward you all the relevant data on the disposition of friendly and enemy forces, as well as any other intelligence you might require for planning the assault. Our numbers are overwhelming, so your main objective will be to keep the losses down to a minimum and unit cohesion as high as possible so that the assault keeps up the momentum. A victory accomplished through sheer attrition, although inevitable, will not earn you my respect, so strive to deliver the best result you can.”

The dungeon keeper settled back into his chair and pulled up a new pile of reports. “Now, if there was nothing else you wished to discuss with me, you can consider yourself dismissed for the evening. Go and make your preparations for the battle ahead.”

At first Elnora nodded and was about to turn around to leave the room, but then she decided to venture a question that had been bothering her since their conversation from before the battle for the dungeon core.

“Master, if I may…”

Basil looked up from his work. “Yes?”

Elnora hesitated for a moment before speaking her mind. “Back in the throne room, when you asked me why I wanted to become a dungeon keeper, was that a question really directed at me or…”

Basil’s put down his pen and gave the young apprentice his undivided attention. There was a hint of displeasure in his expression, but he was quick to suppress it.

“­—were you speaking on your own doubts?” Elnora continued. “I don’t mean to pry, but… is there something troubling you? Is there any way that I could be of assistance, perhaps?”

Basil observed the succubus for a while in quiet deliberation over his response. The longer his inquisitive gaze lingered on her, the more Elnora became convinced that she had overstepped her boundaries. The working relationship of a master and an apprentice existed well outside the typical hierarchy of a dungeon, so it was mostly dictated by the temper of the senior party. Basil had been a most accommodating dungeon keeper, but emboldened by their past conversations—and whatever was in the drink that Chronos had mixed for her—Elnora had grown rather daring in her approach to Lord Doom when compared to her prior conduct over the past six months.

“A bold suggestion,” Basil said, breaking the uncomfortable tension. “Few minions would dare to question the motivations of their superiors so openly. Beneath that professional demeanor of yours hides a rebellious spirit. No wonder they were so eager to assign you to me…”

“I beg your pardon?” Elnora said.

“I see no harm in sharing this information with you now, seeing as how the apprenticeship is almost over,” Basil said. “Did you know that the Guild was pressuring me into accepting your application over the other candidates?”

The confusion in the she-demon’s eyes said ‘no’.

Basil once more gestured for the succubus to take a seat. “Please, if you wish to discuss personal matters then you better make yourself comfortable.

“The labyrinthine apparatus of the Guild works in mysterious ways, but they are not always fruitless in their endeavors. A lot can be learned by studying a person in such a frustrating environment—that is how they separate the talented managers from the simple grunts that grease the gears of their administrative machine.

“Which one do you consider yourself to be?” he asked. “How much do you think your life is worth?”

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Her heart was beating fast. Elnora could not decide if she should apologize for overstepping her boundaries or accept the dungeon keeper’s offer and risk learning some unpleasant truths. Her mind was torn between two equally powerful emotions: primal fear and burning curiosity.

“Please, be at ease, Elnora. I am not trying to intimidate you,” Basil said. “I am offering you a rare chance to talk openly with me. I promise that there will be no ill-consequences for anything that you would wish to discuss.”

Timidly, Elnora took her seat. Her arms crossed over her knees; her shoulders slumped forward—the succubus was being crushed beneath the weight of the circumstances she herself had just crafted.

She remembered Scarlet’s parting words—that she and the dungeon keeper were ‘worlds apart’. Of course, she knew that. Yet, she had tempted fate and flown too close to the sun nonetheless.

Any creature, demon or not, could feel the timeless power of a dungeon keeper when they stood in their presence. There was a force raging deep within such legendary creatures, a force that at once pushed and pulled at the world around them. Their charisma, strength and intelligence were amplified by the arcane power of their dungeon cores to a point where minions would willingly throw their lives away in service to their masters just for the glory of it. Dungeon keepers gave purpose to others by the sheer force of their nature—leaders, commanders and masters to thousands; idols and shining examples to millions.

There was no comparison between normal monsters and these would-be demigods. And yet, she had deigned to ask one a personal question. Stranger still, he had agreed to answer…

“You were born outside of the Nine Hells, were you not?” Basil asked.

“I was,” Elnora answered. “I come from a temperate world in its mid-to-late stage of development. We were just on the verge of witnessing our first major kith empire being formed when the Guild’s scouts drafted me.”

Basil nodded in appreciation. “Then you are as much an outsider to the Guild as I was when I first drew up my contract with them. The only meaningful difference between us is that I had a venerable name and a powerful household to aid me, while you came from nothing and, as you said earlier, had everything to gain. It sounds like much, but when it comes to the Guild, our origins really don’t matter in the grand scheme of things. It is who we are that makes the differences—our goals and aspirations, not the means by which we seek to accomplish them. The means, as they say, the Guild will provide.

“Now, to answer your question: I don’t know.” Basil shook his head in dismissal. “We share a common path, but the questions that trouble me are still far beyond your reach. You do not possess the answers that I seek. My earlier questions were ill-advised; given voice merely to better organize my own thoughts. They were not really intended for you.”

“What questions do you mean?” Elnora asked. “If you shared them with me, then maybe I could be of help,” she suggested. “Two minds are better than one. Maybe you just need a different perspective?”

Basil sighed. “Very well,” he said. “At the risk of passing my doubts onto you, I will try to elaborate.”

The dungeon keeper stood up from his desk and walked over to the window on the wall behind him. The view outside was that of a vast garden with a dark purple sky hanging over it. It was the pocket dimension referred to as the Doom Mansion—or Mansion in short—and it reached out as far as the horizon. In this magical realm the sky and ground did, in fact, meet at the edge of the word.

“I have been following in my father’s footsteps for over seventy years now,” Basil reminisced as he cast his distant gaze out into the nightly scene. “I have spent the better part of my youth trying to fill his shoes, so to say. I used to think that this was my destiny—to prove myself a worthy successor to his legend. But now I am not at all convinced that it is a path worth traveling.”

Basil flexed his arm and examined his powerful claws. “I have come to dread the coming centuries,” he revealed. “Too often have I stumbled upon questions the answers to which either elude me or leave me unsatisfied; too often have I fallen to second guessing my own life choices and the future that I pursue.

“Is this all that I am destined for?” he asked. “A thousand years wasted on meager conquests of middling words in pursuit of vapid glories?” The dungeon keeper shook his head in dismissal of the very idea.

“You see, I have long since struggled with the fact that dungeon keeping has been much reduced from the grand pursuit that it once was. Now it is viewed as almost an administrative duty—performed out of necessity rather than in pursuit of glory. Dungeon keeping has changed; the Guild has changed, and I no longer find my work as… rewarding as it was when I first took up my father’s mantle as the head of this household. When I was like you—when I knew little of the world around me—I was content to explore this opportunity, but now that I have done it for so long…”

There was a stone bust of Doom Senior propped up on a pedestal in the corner of the room. A fearsome demon, much like Basil, his father managed to look even more imposing with his stark facial lines and wicked horns that curved forward and up like two pikes upon which to impale his enemies. There was less charm and more anger in his stone expression, compared to Basil, but that was the case with most of the self-made dungeon keepers of his generation.

“I conquered my first world on the eve of my twenty fifth birthday.” Basil pressed his hands together as if strangling an invisible foe. “I still remember the thrill of my first victory; the feeling of raw power coursing through me; the sound of my heart rumbling in my ears. There I stood, holding my hands around the throat of the mage-tyrant who had burned away his domain in futile resistance to my invasion. I had overcome an entire civilization—become a god of death and destruction; feared by my enemies and worshiped by my servants. It was intoxicating.”

He grinned. “Truth be told, with the power of House Doom behind me, in that moment I felt like the whole universe was at my feet; that I could do anything. Regrettably, I must also confess that it was the last time I would feel such a rush of emotion.

“After concluding my first world conquest, I moved on to the next assignment; then the next and just like that, four conquered worlds and twenty power levels later it no longer felt the same. My passion for battle began to falter and the fire in my soul began to wane. As my power grew the glory that I saw in defeating my enemies dwindled. It became almost trivial to take a life, no matter how worthy the foe was. It became… mundane.”

The sharp gaze of the dungeon keeper suddenly fixated on the stone bust of his father in the corner. His mind seemed to wander for a moment. “I was bred, born and raised for this…” he mumbled.

Basil snapped out of his contemplation and turned back to addressing Elnora. “Now, I would never deny you that first and most intoxicating taste of glory,” he said. “It is not my intention to suggest that you take a different path in life. I merely wish to say that for me it did not lead to a lasting satisfaction. If anything, in my own strange way, I wish for you to succeed just so that I could experience some measure of pride through you.”

Having listened to Basil elaborating on his concerns, Elnora ventured a further question. “What is it that you seek, Lord Basil?”

The dungeon keeper donned a bitter smile. “Once I would have answered with accomplishment,” Basil said. “Glory and fame… but those prizes have all come and gone. Their value in my eyes has dwindled.”

He raised his finger to mark a point. “Again, you should strive for it, but I suspect that you too will not end up satisfied. Not for long, anyway. It is the climb that beckons us, but when we reach the top of the mountain we find only the howls of frigid winds to keep us company—that, or a plunge from the top of the world straight into oblivion and obscurity.”

Basil’s expression lightened. “In a strange twist of fate, I suspect that for a dungeon keeper a timely and glorious death is our greatest reward. To be plucked from this existence at our prime; to be preserved in history with a single page of dedication to tell of our rise to power, not the hundreds of years of stagnation that followed. But we are not supposed to throw our lives away easily. And when your minions are stronger than even the greatest of your enemies… death becomes a distant possibility.

“What value; what glory is there in a crushing victory if the enemy never stood a chance to begin with?” he asked.

“Is that why Miss Scarlet and Mister Schwartz don’t fight out in the open, together with your armies?” Elnora asked. “The minions that dwell within your Mansion could have easily overrun the entirety of Empire Solar in a month or two.”

“That they could have,” Basil agreed, “but much like me, they no longer take any pleasure in battling inferior foes. For them only the act of serving House Doom remains to give a semblance of purpose to their existence. And, honestly, knowing the true extent of their power, if I threw them at kith heroes like Aidan and Nadia I would be insulting one party while completely erasing the life-long accomplishments of the other.

“Or was I wrong to do that; to spare them the humiliation of realizing their own insignificance?” he asked. “Are we not supposed to respect our enemies for their dedication more than their power? I am sure that most of my servants would quietly disagree with me, but while I understand their reasons for thinking so, I do not share them.”

Elnora nodded in agreement. “You wanted to preserve their dignity,” she said. “I think you did the right thing with the twins. They remained defiant to the end, believing that their sacrifice would somehow help their doomed civilization. It was an honorable death for them.”

Basil agreed with her assessment. “I take pride in the rise and fall of others,” he explained. “I even celebrate the accomplishments of my enemies, as to be petty in my position would require more effort than not to be. For what it’s worth, Aidan and Nadia were the best that this world had to offer. I will remember them—for a while at least—but they truly were no more than grains of sand on a beach; insignificant in the grand scheme of things; washed back and forth by the cruel tides of fate as they came and went.

“So, I came and I swept them aside. It was my mission to crush them, but I always held out hope that they would somehow present me with a worthy challenge. Unfortunately, just like the other monsters and kith that I have had the honor of facing in battle, they failed to measure up.” There was a genuine sense of disappointment in his words.

The succubus considered her mentor’s predicament. “If worthy foes are what you seek, then maybe the Guild could find a more difficult mission for you?” Elnora suggested. “I spoke with Lady Scarlet a little while ago and she mentioned that there were stronger opponents still out there that could provide your house with a proper challenge. Surely, you could take on the conquest of a primal world or…” She noted the hint of bitterness in Basil’s expression and stopped mid-sentence.

“That is not what concerns me so,” Basil said. “In spite of my thirst for glory, I am at peace with my lot in life. It is the very function of life itself that bothers me—the nature of our existence.

“Are you really sure that you wish to hear me out?” he asked. “Once planted in your mind, doubt is like a weed—it defies your attempts at removing it, no matter how hard you try.”

After a moment of deliberation, Elnora nodded.

“So be it,” Basil said. He drew a bitter breath of air before elaborating on his contemplations. “As far as I can tell, there is no meaning to our existence; no purpose to it. No grand design but what we ourselves make.”

Elnora furrowed her eyebrows at the suddenly grim turn of their conversation.

“The kith are quick to adopt pretty monsters as gods, because the desire for a master or a creator to serve is too great,” Basil said. “We all want to make sense of this universe, to find out place in it, but very few are actually willing to contend with the hard questions we must ask ourselves. Most creatures just want to cling to simple answers to make their lives easier, so a divine being like Maiden Solar makes for a perfect fit—a loving, warm goddess to cradle up against in the darkness of a newborn civilization.

“Furthermore, everyone is guilty of grossly over exaggerating their own value, not to mention the value of what they hold dear. I trample entire civilizations beneath my feet—the incredible effort and countless lifetimes spent on building castles and paving roads; painting, composing and researching, all of it rendered meaningless in a few short months following my arrival. And yet, I can look upon a bed of roses and find them pretty; notice an insect beneath my feet and feel the urge not to step on it… What strange universe is this that I can dispense with death and destruction so easily? It can only mean one thing: that life has no value—mine or yours, it does not matter.”

Basil sighed. “The truth makes for a bitter cup indeed,” he asserted. “In spite of how much we tend to value our own existence, to the universe at large we don’t matter, Elnora. None of us do. The monsters, the kith—we are all just pawns of greater forces at work, entirely random and loveless in their nature. We think that we have figured out the rules of this game that we all play, this… cycle of death and rebirth, but in reality even the Guild of Chaos operates without an end-goal. The largest organization to ever have existed in the universe focuses its immense efforts on staving off change—its own and that of others. Worse still, it is stagnant because it was designed to be such; intended to feed the endless Cycles of Ruin and make them last forever, because we all dread the possibility that nothing that we ever did will matter in the end. So… we postpone the end. Indefinately.

“You see, we are all just playing our parts in this ritual of destruction because it seems to make the most sense in absence of better solutions; it truly brings about the best results for all parties involved. But the outcome of purging a world has consistently been the same. For over three thousand years now: nothing has changed. Civilizations rise and we burn them to the ground before they can cause their own extinction and the death of their worlds. If we fail to do our job then we fail them. And that is the only thing left that still makes me feel any sort of emotion—I feel anger at the justified utility of our brutality. I’m not sorry for it, but I can’t help but to feel disappointed in it.

“The Guild’s solution is almost perfect in function and form, but what bothers me is that it leaves no room for change. Nothing new can be discovered, lest it upsets the delicate balance we now operate in. To the machine we have crafted we are all replaceable. If the purpose of our existence is to simply propagate the Cycles of Ruin, then my life is meaningless in the grand scheme of things and so are you. Nothing matters, so long as nothing changes.”

Elnora sighed in disappointment. “If that is how you view the universe, then what is my place in all of this?” she asked. “Am I just another minion to you and if so, then why did you bother with mentoring me all this time? Are we all just pawns of the Guild?”

Basil nodded in agreement with her assessment. “Yes, you are indeed just a cog in the machine that the Guild has built,” he said. “So is every dungeon that they operate; every ship in their fleets and every minion in their ledgers. Even I, with all of my power, am insignificant in the grand scheme of things.”

Basil took measure of Elnora’s growing disappointment before continuing. “Does that knowledge make you feel hollow? Does your place in the universe not satisfy you? Does your destiny seem mundane, now that I have cast bare my doubts before you? Well, then there is only one thing left to do…”

Basil crumped up a piece of paper into a ball and threw it at Elnora. Caught off guard by this action, the succubus only managed to grab it once the ball had bounced off her head. Having examined the crumpled piece of paper she gave the dungeon keeper an inquisitive look.

Basil gestured for her to pass it back. “We play games to keep sane in this crazy world,” he explained as he caught the crumpled piece of paper when the succubus threw it back at him. “Kith play at civilization, monsters play at conquest and I, as a dungeon keeper, play my part in the greatest game of them all—a leading role in the Cycles of Ruin.

“Is there a reason for our existence that goes beyond self-preservation? Truth be told, I don’t know… But I do intend to find out eventually.”

He raised the paper ball for the throw. “Now, smile my apprentice, because right now you are playing catch with a dungeon keeper. Tomorrow you will be leading an army into a bloody assault upon the final bastion of a crumbling, stagnant and deeply misguided civilization. In a few days’ time this world will be conquered and we will be celebrating your victory within these halls… or you will be dead. Who knows what happens after that? Maybe fate will intervene to make our lives a bit more exciting. We just don’t know it yet.”

Elnora’s expression lightened and the succubus went on throwing the paper ball back and forth with Basil a few more times.

“Have you ever wondered why?” Elnora asked. “Why are we here? What’s the point of it all?”

The dungeon keeper shrugged. “If I was feeling cynical, I would say that it’s all just the result of a game of chance,” he answered. “Maybe some all-powerful mage has set up an ant colony to see what happens when you throw an ant lion like me on top of it. It depends on how far you want to run with the question, really. Our lives might be chaotic and our burdens meaningless, but right now I feel very much in control of this thing.” He showed Elnora the crumpled piece of paper in his hand. “Your control over the universe extends only as far you can throw things. Everything else depends on your ability to convince or intimidate others into serving your cause.”

“Loyalty, power and fame,” Elnora said. “The three pillars of dungeon keeping.”

The dungeon keeper nodded. “Any functional society needs three things: a common ethos to follow, a leader to rule and guide them and a goal to work towards. Right now we are sitting in the heart of my domain. My servants sleep and train in the rooms and halls of the surrounding Mansion—a self-sufficient world exists within this tiny pocket dimension, orderly and full of purpose. My commanders study and strategize in war-rooms above, while beer ferments in the cellars and delicious food is prepared in the kitchens below.

“We all play our parts in the game of life while struggling with the occasional bout of despair as we await the sweet embrace of the oblivion. It’s not that we play this game because our lives don’t matter, but because without playing along there is no meaning to be had at all. Without the decision to throw the ball there is no purpose for it; no reason for it to exist other than to be observed and static objects are boring. Life is about motion, about moving forward.

“The only definite answer that I have glimpsed from my studies of our existence so far is that the chaotic nature of the universe does not conspire to make our lives meaningless. Rather, it is its lack of direction that gives us the chance to pursue a meaning on our own terms; to have free will. Sometimes we have many paths to choose from while at other times we are presented with a single viable one.” Basil shrugged. “You just have to keep on walking to find out where yours will lead to, be it glory or ruin. And I will keep on looking for the answers that I seek, no matter how dangerous the proposition might seem at times. The only mistake would be to give up half-way there.

“Now, if there was one piece of advice that I would have to give, then it would be to make the best of the time you have. Don’t waste your life waiting for answers or permissions from someone else. You have eyes and ears—find out for yourself. And if you desire anything, never give up. Let that desire drive you towards improvement. Motivation is the most powerful force in existence—entire armies stand and fall by it.”

“Is that a challenge?” Elnora asked. Emboldened by her master’s words, the succubus gave him a seductive look and bit down on the corner of her lip.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. In response to the intrusion, Basil threw the paper ball into the wastebasket under his table and straightened his back to appear more dignified—as a dungeon keeper should.

“Enter!” he ordered.

An obsidian knight stepped into the room. “Lord Doom,” he addressed his master in a cold, ethereal voice. “Mister Schwartz has humbly asked for your presence in the throne room. A cargo delivery from Cabal Co. has just arrived in the dungeon’s main teleportation chamber.”

Basil’s expression lit up with excitement. “Excellent!” he said and dismissed the sentry with a wave of his hand. “I have been waiting for this moment for so long!”

“That’s what I was—” Elnora mumbled, frustrated that her attempts at flirting with the dungeon keeper had once again been foiled by happenstance. “Never mind…”

The knight nodded, spun around and marched out of the room where he took up position holding the door open for his master.

Lord Doom looked to the succubus and gestured towards the open door. “Let’s take a walk, shall we? I have something exciting to show you.”