Owyn was not used to closeness. He was not used to ‘cuddling’. It was an entirely foreign concept to him. Truth be told, the way Abby had curled up against him might not even be described as cuddling, and yet simultaneously, it seemed there was no other word to describe it.

Abby, the tall, muscular not-human was resting her head on Owyn’s chest, and holding his hand that rested on his stomach. They sat in silence, simply watching Lucid and his monsters mill about aimlessly in front of them. Most of the monsters were harvesting the meat and materials from the conquered dungeon’s monsters. Bones and sinew were being brought to the mimic crabs with hands made for crafting, and armor was being made for the fish monsters.

“I’m sorry.” Abby whispered.

“Shh.” Owyn hushed her. He knew what she was apologizing for. Each specific thing, although Abby almost certainly apologized for it all at once. The loss of the kids. Becoming a monster. Maybe she was even apologizing for not coming back to rescue Owyn. To him though, it didn’t matter. She was here now, and Owyn had his purpose back.

“Krr…” Mycroft cooed, prodding Abby’s leg with her free claw. Her other one was trapped as Owyn’s backrest.

Abby winced, pulling her leg over Owyn’s in the attempt to escape the crab monster.

Owyn’s mind parsed through the information he could assume at a glance. Abby was a monster. She was unenthralled. But how far gone was she? How much had she changed? What happened to Barry and Isabelle? Were they monsters too? Or were they dead?

“We have a lot to talk about it seems.” Owyn observed.

Abby winced again, curling tighter against Owyn. “Yeah.”

“Try not to move so much,” Owyn cautioned. “Your wounds are going to open. I mean, wider than before.”

Abby relaxed slightly. Disappointed. Of course Owyn would see this practically. Her, lying here, so close to him. To him, it was probably nothing more than his attempt to keep her still while Lucid’s monsters tend to each other first before they could get to her. Her traitorous heart skipped a beat at the thought of being enthralled once more. Rather than bandages and sponges and medicine, she wanted to be healed by a dungeon's powers. Which would involve becoming a thrall once more. What would Owyn think of her then?

Owyn’s warm hand left her back as he gestured behind them. “This is Mycroft. She’s one of Mimi and Rab’s children.”

“What about-” Abby bit her tongue. She knew what happened to the parents.

“They’re dead.” Owyn said.

Abby nodded.

“Barry? Isabelle?”

“Dead.” Abby could barely whisper that. It was only by being next to Owyn that she was able to hold herself together enough to keep from crying. Again.

Owyn’s hand returned to Abby’s back. “How bad is it? How long have you been…?”

Of course Owyn would want to know about her monsterization. She almost smiled, thinking about how right Isabelle was about that. “Bad. I can’t…” Oh goddess, should she even confess this? “I want Lucid to enthrall me. So, so badly.”

Owyn nodded. “Lucid!”

Abby flinched. His voice was too loud.

The Baroness walked over, hands serenely folded in front of her. “Yes?”

“Bring Lucid’s core over. Abby needs to be enthralled.”

The Baroness nodded, but didn’t move. Her eyes flicked to Abby, who couldn’t meet her gaze. Owyn subtly shook his head.

“I see.” The Baronesses voice hitched, but her demeanor didn’t change. She cleared her throat. “Was she… how did…”

Abby quickly thought of the close enough truth. Only enough detail to make the Baroness happy. “She protected me. Sacrificed herself against an army to buy me enough time to escape.”

The Baroness nodded, lifting her trembling chin high. She tried her best to not let Abby see her tears, but she could still hear them. “Yes, well… thank you. It sounds like she truly became an adventurer like she wanted.”

Abby nodded into Owyn’s chest. Her ears flicked as the Baroness rustled some leaves in her retreat.

Owyn’s check vibrated as he chuckled. “I felt that.”

Abby blushed, and buried her face even more, making sure to take her ear away from his beating heart.

Owyn’s hand let go of hers, but returned soon enough with the smooth core that was Lucid.

I don’t want to intrude. Lucid said, a little sheepishly.

“Abby needs to be enthralled.” Owyn said. Was his voice always this deep?

‘Needs’ being a key word here, I’m assuming?

“She’s missing key features that make her fully human.” Owyn said, keeping his voice even. “Plus, I’d rather she was enthralled to you than someone else.”

Lucid hesitated, turning his attention to Abby. Are you alright with this? I mean, it is kind of irreversible.

Please… Abby whispered in her head to Lucid. She didn’t want to sound desperate.

But still, Lucid hesitated. Are you sure this is your choice? I mean, if this is a result of being enthralled to a dungeon before, and your will being messed with-

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Enthrall her, or I’ll kill you.” Owyn growled with a ferocity that surprised both Abby and Lucid.

Abby felt a nod from Lucid’s core. And just like that, a pleasant warmth rolled over Abby, filling her with new life. She hadn’t known exactly how uncomfortable she had been up until just this moment. It was bliss.

“Thank you…” She whispered. Both to Owyn and to Lucid.

Owyn nodded, briefly touching his chin to the top of Abby’s head. His attention returned to Lucid. “Now me.”

Lucid seemed surprised. You!? But… you were so adamant about not-

“Lucid?”

Shutting up.

Abby looked at the swirling core on Owyn’s stomach with confusion. What was he saying? “Owyn, you… you didn’t let yourself become enthralled?”

Owyn smirked. “Ah, don’t worry about it. I want to hear about what happened to you. What happened to your- I mean, what evolutions do you have?”

Abby wanted to worry about it. She wanted to think about anything else than what she did to herself. Now that she was here, back with Owyn, everything she could use to justify her choices just sounded like excuses.

Hold your breath. Lucid muttered.

Mycroft broke the arrows in Abby’s shoulder and leg, gently pulling them out in the least painful way possible. As soon as they were out though, she could feel Lucid’s healing magic work through her. It was slow, but it was there.

“I’m almost jealous.” Owyn said. “I’ve always wondered what dungeon healing felt like. Is it different from human magic? Actually, is Lucid’s different from other dungeons?”

Doubtful. Lucid said. I know a lot of stuff. A bit of biology, but not enough to actually understand it. Especially in a… you know.

“That’s fair.” Owyn agreed, petting Lucid’s core.

Abby watched his hand with jealousy. She reached up to interlock fingers again, and Owyn let them. Lucid made some choking noises, like he was holding himself back for some reason.

Owyn took a deep breath. “Most of the people of Setterton are safe. Or, were safe, when we left them. We had a good thing going for a while, where Lucid was building up a nice place for us to stay while the church occupied Setterton. The food was terrible, but at least nobody starved. And right up until the end, we… well, we lost a few people, but none of them were human. Which makes me sound like such an ass, but I mean, everyone has their own priorities, right?”

“What happened?” Abby asked, glad that Owyn was talking and not her.

“The… there’s this thing, called the God Core-”

“I know.”

“It chased us out.”

“It chased out all these other dungeons too.” Abby said.

The mood settled down to something more serious. Lucid began the questions. Why?

“To incite chaos, and force villagers to run to the capital. The church is working with the God Core. They’re sacrificing the refugees to the core for it to gain enough mana to fight the goddess?”

“The surface.” Owyn nodded grimly.

The surface is the goddess, supposedly. Lucid said. It’s why I can’t have any territory up here.

“And what, the God Core is jealous?” Abby scoffed.

Or greedy.

“The church’s motivation is to supposedly enthrall everyone to the God Core so that there’s no war any more. But it doesn’t explain why they weren’t enthralled.”

“It’s a disguise.” Abby told them. “They were pretending to be normal humans while following along with the God Core’s orders. But now the King is investigating the disappearance of some of the refugees that were being used as sacrifices. Apparently the God Core is using that as an excuse to enthrall the church members now, so I’m thinking a war is coming.”

Us versus the church, the King versus dungeons, and the God Core against the world.

“It’s really us versus the God Core, isn’t it?”

Potato, tomato. Lucid waved Owyn off.

“That doesn’t give us a lot of time.” Owyn was deep in thought. “Assuming the God Core wants to evolve the church members before actually engaging with the King's army, we could have anywhere between a few hours to a couple days before it makes its move, assuming nothing changes.”

We don’t have to fight. We could run away. Lucid snickers. Well, we could have. But now you suckers are enthralled to me! And I’m choosing the exciting option!

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.” Owyn said.

So the sooner the better? We just got out of a fight, we need time to recuperate. Make some armor, heal up, maybe recruit more monsters?

Abby spotted some members of the church wandering around the previous battlefield, but they all looked dead eyed and slack jawed. Undead? Her mana vision didn’t indicate they were enthralled. “No, we need to go now. The God Core is huge. And with as many willing thralls that it has, it won’t take long for their evolutions to complete. Our only advantage is that it takes time, but the church has been collecting cores for years now. I’m sure that whatever preparations we attempt to make, none of it will matter if we go late.”

Owyn shuffled, sitting up straighter. Abby took Lucid’s core into her lap while they properly discussed.

“So what? Do we just have to charge in, guns blazing?”

“Guns?”

We only have the one. Lucid reminded Owyn. But the good news is, unlike before, we actually have some information about our enemy. Abby? Would you mind sharing with me some of your memories?

“How do I do that?”

I dunno, just try? Works for me. I’ll spread the word about what we’re going to expect. Oi! Everyone! Gather close!

Abby closed her eyes. Maybe it was something like trying to turn a dungeon core into a magic core? She thought about her intent, and her time in the God Core’s dungeon. She thought about giving all that information over to Lucid.

Jesus fuck, that’s a big core. Lucid muttered. Right. Guess we’re doing this. The surface looks and sounds like it’s going to be a bad idea. We’re going to have to punch through the tunnels. Ideally, the closer to the core, the better. Less obstacles that way.

“That would mean going through the main church building.” Abby said. “It wasn’t that far from the surface.”

“The core can just move.” Owyn pointed out. “It was probably only near the surface for convenience's sake. Now that things are getting hairy…”

You saw how big that thing was. It’s not moving very quickly, if at all. And even if it does move, that’s just all the more reason to get going ASAP!

“After we catch our breath at least?” Mr. Mayflower huffed, still leaning on a stolen sword.

We’ll heal up first. Maybe wait to see what the deal is with the capital and the King and whatnot.

We may not have that luxury. A gurgling thought joined the discussion. Angler was gazing out across the farm fields between them and Everlast.

A small army of human knights and monsters in impressive armor brazenly marched towards them. They easily matched Lucid’s numbers, and clearly had better equipment.

Abby cringed. “Oh yeah, did I mention that the church was paying special attention to you?”