Oh Fluffy! No, he was so hurt! I cried inside, and tried to tell him that I was so sorry that I had allowed this to happen. But he could not understand it, I knew he could feel it though. Leo had helped me understand that, and even with me begging for forgiveness he sent nothing but love and utter belief in me, even now.

I wished I could live up to that believe, that trust, and I tried as hard as I could to do just that. It was hard, the fighting I had joined was so intense, and the Natural Hellhound, Darkhound, and Orthos were so WRONG looking. They were missing chunks of flesh, those not injured, they seemed infected and decaying as well as being a mass of pure Evil within my mind.

So I began doing the best I could to save any and all of the other Orthos within the area that were fighting with Fluffy. I felt how Fluffy wanted it done, and through that understood more about his own abilities.

One of these understandings led to actually condensing the Poison he could exude onto his own claws, and fangs. He seemed personally immune to it. I did my best, but it was hard moving with two heads, seeing double and so much information being processed was very difficult.

But I did manage, spitting boiling water that was so hot it melted fur and flesh in a near instant. I tried to ignore that, but Fluffy seemed insistent I never averted my eyes. I found out why in one instant where I did do so. A Natural Spawned one flew in at me from behind the remains of the sacrificed ally to attack.

It would have taken my/Fluffy’s throat if not for a flash of blue and black that came out of nowhere and hit it from the side. I was confused, wondering if Fluffy had grown an extra paw and somehow taken control of it. But what I felt from him was relief, then anger and an odd warring state between the two emotions.

There were also multiple others with her, just ten, but each was a Dark Hound. They excelled at tactics like these, where as the Orthos tended to be more open terrain fighters. The only reason they had even survived this pitched battle in tight quarters while retreating was because of their bulk and strength as well. The Natural Spawned Puppies liked to sneak around and caused hind damage in open areas, in these close quarters they could not do that easily, if at all.

I glimpsed the blue blur that had saved me/Fluffy, and saw it was the youngest one. I only knew that because she was still so small. I blinked, feeling the warring emotions in Fluffy and knew something had happened to cause this. I had to ignore it when I saw another one flying at me, the body of an old and scarred Orthos lying wounded where it had been. I surged forward, snapping the jaws around its midsection and used my other head to drag the body behind the slowly retreating line of battle.

When I reached behind the lines, the old Orthos was wheezing, and panting in pain. The Wounds that covered his body, old and new were so extensive that he was dying. I felt sadness from Fluffy, and my own joined his. I saw the Old Orthos I did not have a name for raise on of his head, and wipe a blood smeared snout and nose against the side of my/Fluffy’s head before his head fell back, the light going out of his eyes.

I felt like crying, and the fact Fluffy had his own sadness did not help. He knew this Orthos, and underlying the sadness was dislike, but he hated seeing his people die. I knew this, because I knew Fluffy. I had begun to understand more of the emotions of those I controlled as well, with experience and empathy. But it always led to me getting sick when I saw scenes like this. My poor Demons were being slaughtered and I couldn’t do much.

I lowered one of my/Fluffy’s head and licked the dead Orthos gently before turning back toward the fighting. The Natural Spawned Hellhounds numbers were only increasing, the weight of it taking multiple Orthos, and a Dark Hound down here and there. I saw not far away that the Cerberus like creature was also on its way, getting closer and closer.

This massive beast sent out waves of Demonic Energy and Malice. Saliva that seemed to sizzle and melt stone constantly dripped out of its three heads, randomly falling onto one of its underlings only to have them yip in pain and die, then be swarmed by others of its kind. It was truly disgusting to watch.

I growled, trying to convey that they all needed to fall back a degree. Several did, leaving me along to block the wave and from there, with Fluffy’s direction based on emotions, I let loose a massive cloud of poisonous gas that acted like acid. It created a thick wall along the cavern, granting the Orthos, and few Dark Hounds from what I assume was a hunting party or something, to organize and rest a moment.

But the enemy kept throwing bodies at the cloud, and they died in the dozens, flesh, and bone melting into almost nothing. But the wall of Poison was slowly dissipating, the wind blowing it up in small chunks and turning it into nothing.

I could also see the large form of the Cerberus behind the wall, just out of reach. Each of its massive eyes glowing red. I could actually FEEL its hatred! Which was odd, and shouldn’t be possible. A side effect of being with Fluffy so long? I didn’t know.

Eventually though, the fog went away and the fighting resumed, we fell back. It was an almost constant urge of Fluffy within my mind, urging me to keep retreating and wait. I had no idea what he had planned, but I did what I felt he was telling me to do.

Eventually, after half an hour I learned what he had planned. Suddenly giant boulders suddenly began to rain down around us, three truly massive ones fall down just behind a large chunk of the enemy and blocking in the Cerberus, as well as several dozen of its underlings. That still meant that I, and the others were heavily outnumbered. Even with large boulders falling down into the path.

This was because we were still fighting, the Cerberus had suddenly made one of the first sounds I had heard it make, a long and eerie howl followed by a savage bark that seemed to vibrate the air.

It sent the dozens of livings Natural Spawned ones that had been trapped with it into a frenzy and they surged forward. The initial surge was met with the brute strength and size of the Orthos, but it soon led to us being pushed back as one after another fell under the numbers.

I could feel the exhaustion and countless wounds covering my/Fluffy’s body and that he might flag soon. That I could not let happen, so we kept fighting while boulders rained down around us, forcing us to dodge them and fight. Many did not survive, I understood now that Fluffy had come here to stem the tide and die killing the Natural Ones leader.

That made me angry with him, and I felt when he realized I was mad at him, but he remained calm the entire time. I wanted to huff, he believed I could keep him and his people alive, but I didn't know if I could. That single worm of doubt showed itself, but I tried all the same.

It finally came to be that the wave of enemy Hellhound stopped slowly, leaving a few behind, the Boulders had stopped as well in that time. I huffed, breathing hard and look around me. eight Orthos, and three Dark Hounds, Fluffy’s little girl included, were all that remained. Each of us were covered in wounds, a few limping with broken legs, or other bones.

The Enemy had only the Cerberus left, but he had no wounds, and I would swear he had a smile of malicious glee on each of its heads. It took a step forward, more saliva dripping from its mouth in a wave. It melted the stone beneath his feet, pooling downward slowly.

I gulped, Fluffy was angry, rather than scared. His species did not know the word, or feeling. It was their nature, but I was afraid. It was a very large, and scary three headed monster. This beast was what people thought of when imagining something to fear in the night, something that howled and barked while running you to ground.

But I tried to draw strength from Fluffy, and took a heavy step forward, alone. The great beast Barked once and I felt a surge of anger from Fluffy. The thing was speaking in their language, and I could not really process the animalistic sounds and body language like one of them could. But I got the gist, he had been rude.

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I took one more heavy, painful step forward and built as much of the Energy within Fluffy up, there was so little left. Hours, and hours of constant fighting and retreat, followed by the stone trap had left my/his body exhausted to such a massive point.

The Cerberus Barked again, it’s center head and then it rushed. I let loose a stream of the boiling water within Fluffy, all that I/he had left was in this blast. It struck the Cerberus full on in the chest, shoving him back several feet, but when the steam and water stopped it was still standing.

The only damage that could be seen was a large patch of missing fur with reddened skin all that was seen as damaged. I felt the hope in Fluffy start to shatter. That was everything I/He had left, and we knew it. It was strong but less than what it would have been if we had been fully healed and all of our power available.

The strength literally flew from my body and slowly I fell forward under the weight of my massive body.

“No, NO! Fluffy, help, we need to stand! I won’t let you die!” I was screaming at him, my fear and sadness shining through to him. What I felt in return was a calm acceptance of his fate, and an unending stream of love. I knew I was crying in my real body, I didn’t want to lose my Fluffy! No!

I imagined I felt a soft tongue lick my cheek within his mind, and then I saw the Cerberus charge forward in a rush. The madness and cruelty in its eyes evident while it barked, a sound that reminded me of victory.

That was when a flash of blue streaked by again, and I felt fear, something foreign to him as his youngest charged forward at the Cerberus. Fluffy was upset, and he didn’t have the will to die now, he was fighting, urging me to try and stand. I did as well, but we couldn’t put any weight on our legs.

I/He watched in horror as the youngest of his Children jumped, and time seemed to slow around us. I heard her bark once, a savage sound, and the a single Cerberus Head lashed out, snatching her out of thin air. A yip of pain, and then nothing. Her head went flying forward and her body was swallowed.

I froze, screaming ‘No!’ within my mind, a sound that was drowned out by a very sudden and savage anger that I had never felt from Fluffy before, he was so angry. There was no sadness, only an overwhelming and powerful urge to stand and kill, to rend things with his fangs and claws, to melt them with his boiling water. He seemed dark, and I was afraid of him, for one brief second I was afraid of what I felt inside Fluffy.

That was when the Orb he found suddenly appeared before him, I got confused, and then the connection was severed. I blinked, throwing the Glassed from my head.

“Leo! What happened? Why was I disconnected? Is Fluffy OK!?”

Sidnie, I do not know. My internal Systems are experiencing a malfunction, errors are occurring within my runtime programs all over. *Static ensues* kno….What is….

“Leo! Leo, are you alright!” I was screaming at him, what on earth was happening? No Dungeon A.I should be able to undergo errors like this. The System had failsafes for things like this that helped protect the A.I and the Owner. It left some points open to allow the Dungeon and its Races to grow on its own naturally, but this was not something that should happen!

I brought up my watch and looked at the internal system. What I saw made me very worried, and afraid fro Fluffy.

SYSTEM ERROR!

Attention, a forced evolution is taking place. The System cannot handle the data being processed from the creature in question. Your A.I has entered a hibernative state, and we have severed your connection to the creature in question for the safety of you both. You must wait until the process has completed and we run a system check to ensure all is well. We apologize for the inconvenience this has placed upon you.

Sincerely~

Dungeon Inc.

I looked at the Dungeon World, in Fluffy’s territory where I knew he was. But I could not enlarge it without Leo, and saw only small figures in the Gorge, to small to make out. I simply had to wait, and hope everything was alright.

Fluffy POV -

Anger, so much anger. It was all I felt. I knew somewhere that it had chased Mother away, but I did not care right now.

All I saw was the image of the Three Headed Beast that had taken my youngest, my Shura and I felt pure hatred. A Hatred that went back to the old days, before we were uplifted by Mothers actions in saving me.

That was when I heard a voice, asking if I wanted power. The Power to kill this imposter to the glory that was ‘Cerberus’ and I accepted, my anger blinding me. That was when the Orb, my artifact found in my lands went into my body, in the space between my two heads.

I felt a surge of power, so much POWER! It threatened to burn me up from the inside out. I felt immense pain as well, as if my body was on fire as well. My wounds burned and healed in the pain of the fire. My exhaustion slowly went away, overridden by my anger.

I stood, and looked at the great beast before me who seemed confused, it faltered before me, and I felt that I grew to its own size, easily a third of the way up the great chasm of this Gorge, but I also grew wider, thicker in muscle and bone density.

I grew a third head, but I felt that I was still smaller than I should be, and that voice, that ancient voice of so much power whispered into my mind, fading slowly as it spoke.

‘You shall take my Mantle upon yourself, and become THE Cerberus of old, grow into your power, young Cerberus, and protect...the...Gates’

The Voice faded, and I ignored it, rushing at the shocked beast before me in my anger, throwing my entire body into the mass of cruelty and malice, and I crushed a throat with one of my heads, driving it into the left wall of the Gorge, the wall shook and dust went around while I savaged the now struggling and fighting Dark One.

I would avenge my Youngest, and the Injuries of my Eldest now. I would kill this Monster and then drive its kind to extinction!

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Here you are my Lovelies! I know it is a bit late, but my Injury from work is making typing out everything I lose, as I stated, a far slower process than I care to admit.  I will have more later today, at least two more I hope, and then more throughout the weak with a VERY late Christmas special that has something everyone has been looking forward to, I think.

As always, much love and Cookies. I shall see you in four hours or so with another.