She was absolutely right; a quick trip back to the Sand Sea and some advice from Nyx – or rather, her pointing at exactly what I want and me disgorging ennis from my dimensional storage – and I’m back in my throne room, waiting for Rose to finish installing a trap door system in the middle of the audience hall where I can stick this projector. I chose one large enough to project an image large enough for a good view from my throne, with the side benefit of being visible for anyone else in the throne room.

I also had to get something called a ‘sender’, which Tathra needs to carry. Although… I suppose I could rig one of my kin to carry it, if I project a feeler or maybe telekinesis through it, but that would defeat the whole purpose of technological solutions that are supposed to replace me expending mana.

Although…

My castle maids have teleportation Skills… or at least the nightwalkers do.

So I call for them. Or rather, I tell Rose to call for them, since they’re named dungeon monsters and she’s the core. She has a much tighter link with them, though I do think I could summon them myself with Prophet’s Voice if I really wanted to.

…

While I’m waiting for them to arrive, I decide to test it.

Nula.

Yes, my queen, the head maid replies telepathically. I continue to have zero regret making them so ridiculously strong, considering how useful they are as a result.

Excellent, I continue. I simply wanted to verify that this communication Skill can reach you and the others. Do be aware that I will be making use of it in the future.

I feel her project the equivalent of a formal curtsey…

A split second before they appear before my throne and silently kneel.

“I have a proposal for you all.”

“We serve. What is your bidding, my queen?” the head maid demurely answers.

I can’t help but smile. Loyal subjects are the best, and the ones spawned by my own dungeon are unquestionably loyal.

“I seek a volunteer, and by that I mean one who chooses to take this role. If none of you do, that is also acceptable. Do you understand?”

All four of the nightwalkers before me say in unison, “Yes, my queen.”

…

Yeah, they’re all going to volunteer, but somehow I still manage to swallow my sigh.

Well, whatever I guess.

“Tathra has been assigned the role of creatively terminating the True Hero Dipshit when he invades my territory. To this end and to verify his success, I have installed a projection system. Unfortunately, for it to serve its purpose, I require someone to carry the sender. If one of you is interested in the role, I will provide you with the sender and instruct Tathra to inform you as soon as the target arrives, so that you may use a teleportation Skill, stealthily pursue him, and project his actions. Who, if any of you, is interested in taking on this task? Step forward if you are.”

***

Sure enough, every single one stepped forward, even head maid Nula. Fortunately, as soon as I’d begun addressing them, I’d already been formulating a rotation for them; that way they’d all have a chance to take a turn.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Not like Dipshit isn’t already here practically every other day as it is. They’ll have plenty of opportunities.

…Like right now.

As I watch through the holoprojector thing, the True Hero deftly navigates between a complicated series of pitfalls and crushing traps within the outer wall of my castle – Tathra had promptly set up teleportation traps all over the plane keyed to Dipshit’s mana signature that would immediately send him here – a place that I refer to as the obstacle course. I modified the space so that even if he uses his shiny new Past Progress Skill to appear as far as he had before when teleporting in, he’d always end up outside the castle. Basically it doesn’t apply here.

…Which is great, because it means I get to watch him fail from the beginning every time.

And he’s certainly working toward it now… as he inadvertently steps on a trigger and hops backwards to avoid the swinging blades, and lands directly in a fresh pitfall behind him… depositing him directly into the moat, where level 1000 water beasts are waiting to chew him to pieces.

Welp, guess that’s the end of the most recent run. I’ll need to think of another suitable prize for his host.

The maid bearing the transmitter promptly appears in my throne room and curtseys with a flourish.

I’m so glad I arranged this, it was such a good idea!

(Sure,) Nyx chimes in, (but you’d never have thought to use a runic projector if I hadn’t mentioned it. You’d still be doing the dot matrix thing in ash.)

Details, details.

***

My thoughts are jumbled.

Which isn’t particularly anything new… They’re always jumbled. As far as I can tell, it’s simply my nature as a beast-type monster. I’m always overly aware of the things around me, much too aware to have clear thoughts between the sights, smells, sounds…

Prey.

Prey is always all around me.

But I need to restrain myself. I’m not a monster, after all. Not entirely. Not anymore.

Divinity comes with strange expectations and responsibilities. Life was easier when all I needed was to protect the pack, the tribe. The young.

I suppose that’s why I follow her now. My mate. She’s given me something else to protect, something far simpler and more primal than the mortals scurrying about my subdomain. Many of the other divines don’t even allow mortals in theirs, but I find it hard to care. I wasn’t even the one who instituted the arena, they did that on their own, but I was bored enough of watching them that I went along with it.

Until I met her. That foolish little gremlin of a gorgon, wandering directly into the maw of a hungry monster for the hundredth time. Why? Why did I do it? I don’t know. Maybe she was exactly what I needed… another pet to protect, but different somehow. I still don’t know what drew me to her.

Maybe it was the strange mix of simple and complex in her thinking, or the smell of ancient chaos and death that hung about her. I could tell she was different somehow.

And then she picked me up, in my smallest and least threatening form, and brought me into her burrow without question, and I thought ‘this is fine. I needed something different.’

Imagine my surprise, and her own as well, when an ascendency contract unexpectedly triggered between us. I wasn’t sure if it was even possible for a god to be a System Assistant… but I was bored, and curious.

Of course, it did in fact work, and I spent the next thousand years with her. She was even more surprised when she reached the level for apotheosis, since no one around her told her that was how it worked.

She didn’t even realize I was the one who initiated her rise to divinity, but she certainly didn’t expect me to take a humanoid form. But she was almost as poor at communicating as I was… the next few hundred years were spent learning to talk to each other, as well as building her plane. It wasn’t originally hers, of course… it was mine, one of my many hunting grounds.

But I don’t mind. I gave it to her, as if it had always been hers.

Maybe it always was. Fate is strange, I never understood how exactly their prophecies worked.

I thought I’d never see her again. I was satisfied letting myself wither… satisfied enough. She made me promise to wait for her.

I promised I would wait, and so I waited.

What came to retrieve me… wasn’t entirely what I hoped for.

It wasn’t her. Not entirely. But it’s enough of her. It’s enough, and she is inside it, and growing stronger every day.

I promised I would wait. And so, I will continue to wait until she fully returns.

Hm? The other mate is saying something again… probably complaining.

Yes, she’s complaining again. I don’t understand. This is a position of strength… one she was given. She should accept it. Why doesn’t she?

I don’t understand. But my mate accepts her, so I do as well.

It doesn’t matter. I’m her senior – her superior. I’m one of the strongest among the pantheon for a reason. But my strength doesn’t need proving, it was never in question.

But I will happily reestablish it if she ever does. I offered to take a lesser role once for her benefit, and again she complained.

My mate should eat her.

I should eat her.

…But I won’t.

I need to restrain myself.

For my mate.

For her.

…

If she should become a threat, I will be ready. And I will not hesitate.

No one will take my mate from me, not again.

NOBODY.