I formed right in front of the Elder Demon. It looked at me for a few moments, then took a swipe at me. I dodged it narrowly, then rushed in as close as I dared, again narrowly dodging another massive arm. Now, right in front of the Demon’s face, I screamed into its mind.“Trafklasjhegh Dromgklafreltash Grlardiglufrah I demand that you cease your violence against my dungeon and accept my challenge of answering three riddles. Failure to answer a single riddle will banish you from my dungeon for all eternity!” The demon froze and stared at me. I could sense the unbridled fury and hatred it directed in at me, but I did not back down.

The Elder demon flexed its massive arms, as if trying to strain against invisible bonds. But it did not take another swing at me, it couldn’t. “THEN ASK YOUR RIDDLES SO I MIGHT RESUME MY RAMPAGE, PATHETIC WRETCH!” Its voice was like pure hatred, malice and rage packed into a sound. I could not describe it in any other fashion as it assailed my senses just from listening to it. The Duergar and even the other demons now ceased their fighting as I hovered in front of the Elder Demon. Both sides equally interested in seeing how this battle of wits would pan out. I racked my brain; I needed a good riddle here. After a short deliberation, I asked my first one.

“You have me today,

Tomorrow you’ll have more;

As your time passes,

I’m not easy to store;

I don’t take up space,

But I’m only in one place;

I am what you saw,

But not what you see.

What am I?”

The demon looked at me for a moment, its expression one of intrigue, then I sensed something. It was as if a faint gust of wind that blew toward the Elder Demon, so faint as to be nearly undetectable. A moment later it grinned, “MEMORIES!” Damn, one down and yet, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. Ok, no point in focusing on semantics, I asked my second riddle.

“Only one color,

But not one size,

Stuck at the bottom,

Yet easily flies.

Present in sun,

But not in rain,

Doing no harm,

And feeling no pain.

What is it?”

Again the Demon seemed puzzled, this time for longer. Then, once again, the sense of that nearly faint wind. The demon grinned again, “A SHADOW!” it seemed confident now… too confident. Something was decidedly off. That second time it hadn’t really seemed to try that hard to think of the answer. Sure, the riddle was not that hard, but even so that was not normal. Well, nothing to it. I had no choice but to give him the final riddle. However, just as I was about to ask it of him, another sensation hit me. This one was unrelenting, undeniable, as it forced the next riddle out of me with no choice on my end.

“Face like a tree,

Skin like the sea,

A great beast I be,

Yet vermin frighten me.

What am I?”

As soon as it had forced me to ask the riddle, the presence disappeared. What in the blazes was that? . She better had an excellent reason, as that riddle was for children. I answered that one when I was in kindergarten, for crying out loud. And despite this, when the faint gust of wind came next, the Demon seemed frustrated and angry, well, angrier.

OK, now this was confusing. How could the Demon fail such an easy riddle? . What? How can you not have heard of Elephants? Wait, are you telling me Elephants do not exist in this reality? . Neat.

Meanwhile, the Elder Demon’s expression had grown from frustrated to angry. I would not give it an inch, however, “Your answer, Demon. Give it or give up the challenge.” In response, the Demon roared in defiance and lifted its massive arms to attack. Then it roared again, this time in pain as my “Sphinx Curse” activated. I doubted the Curse alone would be enough to work on this massive thing. Luckily, it seemed the use of the Demon’s True Name had helped to circumvent the limitations of the “Sphinx Curse” this time. The Demon was now blinking in and out of existence, screaming profanities and oaths of vengeance for this defeat. Fat chance, big guy. It could never set foot in my dungeon again after this.

With a final massive whooshing noise and a rush of displaced air, the massive Demon vanished in a burst of green-black flames. The other Demons seemed utterly shell-shocked at the sudden disappearance of their champion. Meanwhile, the Duergar recovered far faster and immediately resumed destroying the Demons. The intruders took far too long to respond to the threat, and the renewed rain of arrows and spells quickly dispatched them. The Third floor was clear once more. Hopefully that would slow the intruders down. . That was more than adequate compensation for not gaining anything else for beating it, that was for sure.

That left me with a few questions, though. The most prominent of which was, how did Penumbra interfere. I didn’t mind her help in this, far from it, I would not likely have thought to ask that riddle. But if I had understood things correctly, Deities could just possess mortal beings without permission. . Oh, remind me to thank her later. For now, I had to come up with a way to stop this damnable incursion at its source. Sure, I was gaining income at a rapid clip, but this would exhaust everyone, eventually.

As I pondered this there was a slight rumbling from above. . The Dungeon suddenly shook as something massive went off on the surface. . Hoo boy seems like Mother had finally had enough of Inlas’ and Selba’s bullshit and was taking matters into her own hands. Or tentacles, in this case. I dissolved and went topside. The view that met me was straight out of a nightmare. Bodies everywhere, both Humans and demons alike. Every puppet Inlas had marshalled but not sent into the Dungeon was lying face down on the ground. They were all dead. Just outside my domain was a giant circle of scorched earth and burning grass. The aftermath of a massive fire spell that had incinerated the outskirts, no doubt. The sole surviving Demon was another Elder, and it was being torn apart by the biggest creature I had ever seen.

Mother had said that Rasjjhalka was about the size of a hill. That did not do her sheer size justice. Her serpentine body was extensive enough to coil around my entire domain with and still had enough to reach far inside of it. Many tentacles that were thicker than houses at the base grew all over her, a dozen of which had coiled around the Elder Demon, slowly crushing it. Eyes and mouths grew randomly across its body, eagerly devouring the dead as it competed with my dungeon on cleanup detail. It’s yellow, slitted eyes made sure there were no blind spots either, and the moment I arrived, several of them locked in on my position. She could see me, even though I had dissolved my form, she could see me. There was no doubt in my mind about that. Thousands, no, tens of thousands of centipede legs, each ending in a razor sharp tip carried her body. Each pointed talon that could impale anyone with ease, as the Demon was learning the hard way.

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Rasjjhalka ripped the demon asunder with a sickening grin on her three heads, before she devoured the thing, piece by piece. Meanwhile, I reformed myself and hovered over to her “Thank you for your help, I don’t think I would have been able to deal with it all myself.” Rasjjhalka looked at me for a bit, before she responded. “You are most welcome, Little Sister.” her voice was remarkably soft, not to mention dignified. Then again, Rasjjhalka was Mother’s chosen Avatar. Being able to hold a conversation would probably be a requirement to that.

Rasjjhalka must have realized what was thinking as she gave a good-natured chuckle. “I am guessing you did not expect me to sound like this, did you, Little Sister?” I looked at her for a moment, “I will admit it was surprising, yes, considering how my older brothers sound like.” Rasjjhalka nodded sagely. “I can understand the confusion then, they can be a bit, painful, to listen to.” That was an understatement if I had ever heard one. “Well then, I should probably return to my territory before the locals panic because of my presence. It was nice to meet you, Little Sister” I flew over and gave the third of her heads a light hug. “Same here, we might not share species or stature, but family is still family.” Rasjjhalka chuckled again at my response, before she gave a polite nod and slowly faded away into nothing, no doubt summoned to this location by Mother.

We dealt the remaining intruders over the next few hours; The remaining demons on the second floor met their end at the spines and talons of the Striders and Swarmlings, now that they no longer received reinforcements. I sent 3 squads of Duergar up to the first floor to mop the demons there, and Rael and the others eagerly joined in; We took care to not slay the Puppets, however. Instead, we disabled them and dragged them to the lake where my brothers took care of them. It was a slow, bloody process. Several Duergar were on respawn while the party had become utterly exhausted and some of them had become severely hurt. The remaining puppets had reached some insane bonus levels after Rasjjhalka killed most of them permanently.

The only downside to Rasjjhalka’s help was that the things she had killed had not given me any points. It was probably because she was not a part of this dungeon at all. It made sense, but it also meant that the overall gain from this mess had become significantly lower than it could have been. That being said, the gain had still been significant. However, there was also a downside to all of this. I stood in front of the assembled Kobolds. The demons had killed 4 of their kin in the fighting and desecrated their remains with magic. We could not resurrect them because of this. Among those slain were Sisslkin. The brave little Kobold had intercepted an attack meant for Lienru and paid the ultimate price for his heroism.

They had asked me to say a few words, before the Kobolds cremated their remains, releasing their spirits from their bodies. I bowed my head and nudged the four little ones as a sign of respect, before I cleared my throat. “We have taken losses here this day. These four friends, family and allies have earned their eternal repose as they gave their lives to protect their home and tribe. All witnesses say they stared death in the eye and did not shy away from the ultimate sacrifice when it called for them.”

I paused for a bit, as I tried to find the words to convey how I felt properly. “I… I declare that Sisslkin, Fribbel, Inkra and Wullsh are true protectors of the dungeon. Their bravery in the face of certain death should be an inspiration to us all.” Finding the proper words was more difficult than I thought. I would have hailed them as heroes. But given the meaning of the word for dungeon creatures, that was decidedly not wise.

It seemed however that this was enough for the Tribe. They were weeping openly as they slowly placed the four bodies on top of the prepared funeral pyre. As a sign of respect, Miriam ignited one torch that would set the pyre ablaze. She would have been the one to lie on that pyre, had not Fribbel and Inkra thrown themselves at the demonic beast that had charged at her. I lit another, though through mundane means, since I lacked fire magic. Ssatassha lit the third and Lienru the fourth and final torch.

As we set fire to the pyre, Wullsh’s mate Glandha broke down completely and wailed in sorrow openly. Luckily, she had Mint, and a Kobold named Varrim to support her. The three were hugging each other, crying silently, sharing in their sorrow. Mint had become best friends with Wullsh, Glandha and Varrim during the party and the weight of the loss was obvious. We watched the pyre in silence outside of quiet sobs. The flames soon devoured the small bodies utterly, but we did not leave or speak a word until the fires had died down completely. It was the Kobold custom for funerals such as this, and no one present saw any reason to break with this tradition.

After the fires died down, I jumped into the Menu and unlocked “Stone Decoration” for 3TP. Then I placed four statues in the center of the village, each one depicting one of the dead Kobolds. It was a small expenditure, given what I had gained. With that done, I added small decorative name plaques to the base of each statue. Each plate had the name of whom the statue depicted and the title “Protector of the Dungeon” added to them. I would honor their ultimate sacrifice and make sure we remembered them.

We mainly focused the rest of the day on repairing the damage wrought by the battle. This mainly meant fixing up the Kobold village, which had taken an absolute mauling by the Demons. Though the walls of the Duergar fort were not unscathed by the elder Demon either. It had worried me that the Duergar, who had also suffered losses, might find it insulting that they received no statues for their sacrifice. But it seemed they understood my way of thinking. These four were dead, permanently, and so we should remember their sacrifice. To them, death had been an inconvenience at most, so it was more akin to just taking a quick break. That was a relief, as the last thing I needed was internal strife after all of this. Most of us were busy with repairing the village. Meanwhile, Indella, who had recovered from the potion sickness, was busy over at the statues. She used her druidic powers to call forth several species of subterranean plant life to grow around them as a flowerbed. The effect was actually gorgeous as there were several bioluminescent flowers among them lending an almost mystical feel to the Statues.

______________________________________________________________________________

I knew my sister had been up to something when her pursuit of my daughter failed. But this, this had been beyond my expectations. Thank goodness that Indella had prayed for my aid. The mere thought of the damage that Elder Demon could have wrought sent chills down my back. The upside to all of this was that my daughter had, either knowingly or by accident, created the only scenario that would have banished the Demon without my aid. Sure, she needed a small push to pull out the correct riddle since Selba was feeding her Champion the answers, but that was a minor detail. What mattered was that she had banished it on her own. It really was clever, to combine the Demon’s True Name along with “Sphinx Curse” to do what neither could do alone.

A far worse revelation, however, was that Selba was working with Inlas. That was unexpected. Sure, the two always got along well, since Inlas’ schemes would never be secret to Selba, but I would not have expected this. This complete mess was giving me a nightmare. The worst part was that apparently they had broken no rules worth punishing, since Father had not stopped them.

I looked over at Arudan, who was sitting on my desk. He was talking to my daughter, giving her information that might be useful to his younger sibling. I wonder how little Pearl would react if she knew it was one of my other children that was the voice of her skill. No, telling her that was unnecessary. She had enough to deal with for now. Besides, there was something else that was bothering me. Selba had summoned two of her most powerful champions, that would cost her mortal followers dearly to do such a thing. A dozen lives was the bare minimum for the weakest Elder Demon. Yet Selba had made them summon two, and they had been summoning a third when I warped in Rasjjhalka to deal with them. That was a massive sacrifice for Selba and not one she would undertake lightly. This had to be more than just Inlas wanting my daughter as her Avatar, it had to be. So what was going on?

I could not make heads or tails off of it, but maybe there was someone who could help me find out. Someone who had also become involved in this mess by Inlas’ plotting. I left my Lair and travelled over to Justina’s Hall. If I was to get truthful answers out of my sisters, I would need her help.

______________________________________________________________________________

The reminder of the day was somber, Lienru gave me a tasty, but fittingly modest dinner, this was no time to celebrate our victory. Nor did I have the luxury of mourning the loss of my brave little Kobolds, I needed to expand. Luckily for me, I had hit Dungeon level 6. The few remaining puppets we had subdued and killed pushed me over the edge. This however left me with a conundrum, what to build. On one hand, the Overgrown Fortress was still tempting me. On the other, I had an obligation to my Brothers. I also had the Underworld Maze I could build.

So many choices, so little time. Was there anything else I could make? I looked over my options, there were several interesting ones but nothing that I- wait. What was this? I read through the Biome. This one was interesting, very interesting.

This one had a potent argument for itself. First, it was a coastal biome, which meant that it would fulfill my obligations to my Brothers. That alone was a powerful incentive, given the circumstances. However, it also had something that would be very useful. A literal Port. I could get fish from that, not to mention coral and other materials that would be useful for crafting Magic Items. I read through the things this place would give some more, then took a deep breath. Three candidates, Underground Sea, Overgrown Fortress, or this. The Underworld Maze was nice and all, but this just outclassed it. Wait, this place could fulfill the one need I had the Fortress for, If in a rather unintended manner. A port would have ships. Ships had a brig inside them, and those were used to detain prisoners, like the four adventurers from before.

But this was an important choice. If I chose wrong, then I could get in serious trouble down the line. I postponed the decision for now; it was late and it would be better if I could think about it when I was more awake. With that in mind, both me and Indella travelled back to the Core Room for the night, I would decide on the biome when I woke up.