image [https://imgur.com/6LTanhL.png]
Dolcia nuzzled against Fangmore’s head as she watched the swirling display show “The Hero'' navigating the Labyrinth. This was a lovely setup for her and she let out a skill enhanced purr. Fangmore had gone above and beyond what any previous summoner had accomplished with her skills, and he seemed quite happy to let her do whatever mischief she desired. She knew he knew that she was twining her charm skills around him, but he also knew that their goals aligned and seemed to enjoy the skills effect. So if he enjoyed it, and she enjoyed it, wasn’t that good? Maybe even Good! She smirked to herself.
She had existed for a few hundred years now and had some deep thoughts about “Good” and “Evil”, or as some seemed to prefer, “Dark” and “Light”. She understood that by any definition she was firmly in the “Evil” or “Dark” camp, but it all seemed pretty arbitrary to her. Was it evil to want to take the path that best served your own interests? Was it evil to think and move strategically, only the end result being what was important? Was it evil to take a person and put them into an endlessly training death maze while simultaneously wiping their mind of any free will they could manifest so you could use them as a weapon? These kinds of heady philosophical questions just defied easy answers. She did confess that she had no moral qualms about killing, eating, and punting babies so that was probably pretty firmly “evil”. But like, humans put sentient creatures into cages to stop them from forming muscle and then ate them before they could fully mature. And on a purely technical level those animals were entirely without sin, so maybe SHE was the Good one for killing humans before they could get up to more of that nonsense? She giggled to herself, knowing that her little internal argument was silly. She liked being silly.
There sooo many very very SERIOUS monsters and demons and beasts in the world, fighting on the side of Evil. Same with the side of Good. Exhausting! Imagine facing each day with no joy, grimly trudging through your responsibilities because of some perceived GREATER CAUSE. Not Dolcia. She reveled in the joy of what she was, who she was, what she could accomplish. Even failure was fine! If this Leveling Labyrinth succeeded, nice. If it failed, oh well. The likelihood of Fangmore being ripped apart by this rapidly leveling Chosen was very high. Or if not this one, some future speed leveled creation. But there wasn’t much they could do to Dolcia. If her corporeal form was destroyed her mind would simply shunt back to that thin higher dimensional reality that existed on the other side of this one. Yeah it wasn’t as exciting there, but she could have a little vacation and catch up with some other formless entities she hadn’t seen in a while. Still, she did really like Fangmore, and would do her best to help him out. Maybe if he got annoying or boring she would lure him to a gruesome end, but that was at LEAST a few years out.
“Fangy, I’m going to go eat something, do you want me to grab anything for you?” Fangmore smiled, eyes locked on the Chosen. “No thank you dear, see you in a few hours.” She kissed the top of his big scaly head and flew out the open stained glass window. This was a quiet part of the Cursed Continent. Below her the lurching dark shapes of Fangmore’s guards patrolled the castle walls. Spring was firmly moving towards Summer, and warm little updrafts helped keep her flying without much magic expenditure. Songbirds trilled in the Thorn trees, and black and red butterflies flicked about below her among the endless white and gray flowers. It was a lovely day, and Dolcia closed her eyes as she glided. “[Demonic Life Detection]”. The darkness behind her closed eyes lit up with a glittering sea of small stars. She allowed herself to only focus on the larger points. She could spend all day munching on bugs, and had in the past, but she felt a desire for something more substantial. Maybe something that had hopes and dreams. She moved further away from the Castle, knowing Fangmore would be cross with her if she ate a gardener. Again.
Three large glimmers moved in the deeper part of the forest and she focused in. Multiple humanoids, stealthed, and oooh… Good aligned? What were they doing out here?
She opened her eyes. “[Demonic Invisibility]”. She silently soared over the top of trees, barely even rustling the red and purple leaves. Without her skill she doubted she would have seen the Heroes up ahead, but now that she knew their location they stood out clearly. Slowly moving from shadow to shadow in the forest were three Heroes, very likely Chosen. She paused, studying them. “[Lesser Demonic Eye]”. Small silvery screens popped up over their heads, visible only to her.
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-Alec [GrassBow] lvl 23-
-Xanther [SilverBlade] lvl 20-
-Red Kith [MoonBlade] lvl 28.-
“Kind of an unbalanced group, but okay.” Since every person “customized” their own class through their actions, her skill was limited in what it could tell her. However the name of the class often gave away a lot of what they could do, and the level was the most important thing. Usually. These seemed like a ranged class, and two melee classes. Very likely they all specialized in stealth and in killing Wizards, and were attempting to assassinate Fangmore. She was pretty sure the guards and traps could take care of them, after all Fangmore really was competent, but if they had some nice items the damage they could do would be significant. And honestly even mid level Heroes like this had learned some caution so they likely had an ace or two up their sleeves. Maybe some long forgotten back entrance into the castle, or a summon, or a very powerful item. Some unfair nonsense. But that was okay, Dolcia loved “unfair”.
Very slowly and quietly Dolcia descended through the dense leaves to float right behind Xanther. Red Kith would be the strongest, but level often correlated with the chance to resist abilities. And it was never a good idea to get greedy. “[Demonic Whisper][Demonic Resist Break] [Demonic Paranoia][Demonic Paranoia]”. Dolcia’s whisper was fast, low, and targeted, her skills burning through about a third of her Infernal energy. Through her first skill the rest would only be heard by Xanther, and each skill would soften him up for the finale and most important skill, [Demonic Paranoia]. This was not a skill she could directly control, but out here among his friends it was perfect. She resisted a very strong urge to giggle, and gently glided back as Xanther suddenly stopped moving, his head whipping around to look at Alec.
“Alec?” Xanther’s voice shook, and his hand gripped the hilt of his sword firmly. “Alec… Who are… Not my brother?!” Alec turned to look at Xanther. “Shh! What are you doing?” A blade of glittering silver leapt out of his sheath and Xanther held it in trembling hands, the point wavering in front of his brother’s face. “What… WHAT… what did you do with my brother??” Xanther’s eyes were wide open and bloodshot, and tears began to streak down his handsome clean shaven face.
Red Kith stepped forward, his large hands making slow calming motions. He glanced between Alec and Xanther. “What is this friend, please tell us what you suspect.” Xanther sharply motioned his head towards Alec. “That THING is NOT my brother. The way he holds himself, breathes… I know my BROTHER. Something dark and horrible has taken him, REPLACED HIM.” Xanther’s voice was rising, fear and rage bubbling up. Red Kith frowned at Alec, his head turning. “[True Eye]”. Red Kith’s eyes flashed and he frowned. “Friend Xanther I do not-”.
“[SILVER SWORD LIGHT FLASH]!” Xanther’s silver sword slashed through the air, opening up the side of Red Kith’s neck. Red Kith blinked, touching his hand to his neck. “ .” Blood fountained out as he collapsed, choking. Alec leapt forward, tugging a silvery bottle from a leather pouch. “XANTHER FOR THE LOVE OF”. Xanther turned in a beautiful fluid movement. “[SILVER WALTZ][SILVER SWORD LIGHT FLASH]!!” Sliding around his brother he sheathed his sword. Alec stopped. He turned to look at Xanther, tears slowly falling down his cheeks. “Brother… little brother…”. Lines of red crossed his head, neck, and arms. He separated into meaty chunks. Xanther stood there, panting, eyes darting around. “Demons… demons… my brother and friend must still be alive… I will I will…” Dolcia laughed out loud, she couldn’t help herself.
Xanther flicked his sword up towards her. “[SILVER SWORD LIGHT FLASH]!!”. Dolcia let out a little yelp and darted to the side, but the slash still caught her across a batlike wing. The delicate membrane parted and she tumbled out of the air, hitting the ground hard. Xanther’s sword raised immediately, shining a brilliant silver light. “DISMISS [DEMONIC PARANOIA!]” Dolcia cried out, scrambling back. Xanther shivered, silver sword still upraised. “Demon? What nightmare did you plague…” His eyes darted to the side, to his brother, to his friend. His eyes kept widening, his whole body beginning to tremble and shake. Dolcia could hear his teeth chattering. “A nightmare a nightmare a nightmare”. Dolcia smiled in spite of possible decapitation. “Think but this, and all is mended, that you have but slumbered here, while these visions did appear.”. His eyes darted to her again, a look of hope on his face. Dolcia pointed a finger at him. “Haha, nah you really killed them. [DEMONIC NAIL].” One of her crimson nails suddenly grew out to be four cubits long, neatly entering his eye. Xanther screamed and stumbled back slashing wildly with his sword. Dolcia scrambled back, trying to contain her mirth. She slipped away while Xanther tore apart the forest around him.
A bit later she sat on a mossy rock near a gently bubbling stream. She inspected her wing. “Beh. At least he didn’t get any bone or muscle.” She smoothed at the cut with her fingers as the membrane slowly grew back. “Oh I am so hungry! I really can’t wait to eat that chunked one.” She smiled beatifically. “Ah well, hunger can feel nice too, if you’re in the right mood.” Humming gently she splashed her feet into the stream. “Hee hee, Fangmore owes me a nice reward.” She opened up a small portal of swirling energy. “Faannngyyy guess what I juuuuust did.” The Warlock on the other side smiled at her. The sun set gently, the clouds overhead turning purple and gold as the distant sound of a man screaming drifted through the air.