Lilyth

We spent a few hours in the antechamber, huddled together, all four of us. Initially, me and Caei were in the middle, Aki was on my other side, while my Dark Sorceress was flanked by Ren. Then after some time, we swapped places, so that the outer two ended up in the middle. This was my first time to be next to Ren and she turned out to be as nice a hugging partner as my other two partners.

This is pure bliss.

Ren seemed to agree as she simply muttered:

‘I really could get used to that.’

‘Welcome to the family,’ Aki laughed.

I wrapped my hands around Rennie, gave her a peck on the cheek and simply purred:

‘Mine.’

She reciprocated the hug and the kiss.

‘Yours,’ she agreed with deep affection in her voice. ‘And theirs.’

I didn't lose my new family today. In fact… it grew.

Unfortunately, all good things had to come to an end and we would need to get moving. Ren was the one to signal that sad necessity when she, in a shaky voice, said:

‘’Guys? I’ll scout out ahead. You rest up a bit more. Maybe I can find the exit and we can just leave.’

I sat up and started protesting, but Caei cut me off.

‘You’ve done enough for us today, Lilyth.’

‘But…’

‘No buts. We can't keep relying on you ALL the time. You have suffered enough for our sake. Time we repay that debt.’

‘But… what if you get hurt, Rennie?’ I cried.

‘Then I get hurt,’ she responded. ‘Not gonna say I am not terrified, but letting you get hurt for our sake… you will not always be here to save us. Me and Caei, we got Anika and Arcarius to Mer-Cas just fine.’

‘Yup,’ my Dark Sorceress confirmed. ‘We need to learn how to take care of ourselves. Because if you get yourself killed we’ll be fucked. So… let go. Let us take risks. I beg of you.’

Everything inside me screamed against that.

I really view them as mates, don’t I? Is the Huntress giving me some pack leader instincts or is this some more… animalistic reflection of my own protective nature? I didn't use to be like that.

I sighed internally.

The girls are right though. I need to… let go.

‘Just be careful,’ I reluctantly agreed.

‘Will do my best,’ Ren said with a weak smile. ‘If I want that dinner with you, we must live through this.’

That caused all of us to smile.

I gave her a final hug and she was off.

‘Good first step,’ Aki whispered once Rennie left our eyesight and gave me a head pat.

I wanted to scream I wasn’t a pet but something inside of me liked that, and I felt that if I was standing my tail would be wagging.

Ren

I didn't lie when I said that I found the idea of going out on my own terrifying, but since I wanted to become the Ren that would fight her own battles I had to start somewhere.

Why does it have to be a dungeon though?

I remembered how my companions’ journey began and shuddered.

No complaining, Ren. They had it far worse.

I couldn't even begin to imagine the horror of suddenly ending up in another world, and the first experiences there being in the infamous Tower of Trials. I was genuinely surprised it took Lilyth this long to reach a breaking point, though perhaps she was accustomed to horrors a bit. The stories I heard about Terra… that war in Yukrein…

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

By the gods. Living in a society where you can constantly be bombarded by images of horrible events from the entire planet… that would build a certain tolerance, wouldn't it? That and the experience that comes with age. Something that poor Aki lacked.

I wasn’t surprised about Caei lasting this long. I knew that she saw, committed and experienced her share of atrocities throughout the years.

That blood-drinking story did finally answer the question about what was troubling my poor Leera.

Me… I did have a suspicion that I was still processing the events in the Corridors.

The nightmares will probably come later. Probably nothing as bad as Lilyth is going to have… what she already has…

She really didn't need to add “I ate someone” to the list of traumatic events in her life… My brother provided enough. The worst part was… I understood her worries. I didn't share them, but the idea of “if I fuck up I might devour my loved ones”, was a weirdly relatable one. In my case… it was my past coming back to haunt me. Some old enemy hurting the girls…

I guess I have an extra reason to keep stronger.

A morbid thought about feeding some of my old enemies to Lilyth flashed through my mind. I felt really bad about it.

The sight of her clawing at her face…

Yeah. That was so wrong of me to even remotely consider…

I am still a horrible person, aren’t I?

I shook the thoughts away and proceeded down the corridor.

I always had good spatial orientation, probably a remnant from the “bird” branch of the family tree, so couldn't help but notice that we have long since left the theoretical boundaries of the building.

I think we crossed it around the exit from the mortuary.

I was genuinely curious whether there was some deeper meaning behind it. Were we back on the “path”? Was this tied to the mystery here?

In some strange way, this situation was really exciting. The mystery. The danger.

Rennie likes. Maybe I ought to become a dungeon explorer of sorts? Find out the mysteries behind them. Like… that Y-Ram place the girls talked about. Why was it built? Why is it empty? Why are monsters there?

It wasn't like we wouldn't be probably going through dozens of these while looking for that Necromancer or running other errands for Ereshkigal.

Why not find something to enjoy about that?

I would probably be able to get Caei and Lilyth on my side. Both of them liked learning things, I’ve noticed, and they were planning that Lin-Vyme trip. That would give me some… arguments. It was a shame we had to leave this place, but Lilyth's sanity took precedence.

However… if I see something interesting, nobody will blame me for investing, won’t they?

I looked at the radio Aki gave me.

Might discover something useful too. Yeah… as long as I keep checking in it should be fine.

The next room I reached was… different from the others. While the entirety of the basement was made out of featureless concrete, this one was made out of stone blocks. There was also a large brownish one in the centre, almost looking like an altar or a sarcophagus.

There was one like this in the cave! I thought with growing excitement. And this matches the description of where Lilyth was summoned.

I quickly looked around. There were no other exits from the room.

Could this be it? The way out?

I wanted to celebrate but decided to wait.

I need to be sure.

I began closely examining the walls but didn't find the magical script anywhere.

Did the fucking salad destroy it?

One thing occurred to me then. At no point have I seen the hypothesized pile of bones.

What’s going on? I didn’t miss an exit.

I was about to call in when a thin crack in one of the blocks caught my eye. I felt an intense and overwhelming urge to investigate it.

What the hell?

I tried to resist it and retreat, but the urge just kept growing stronger.

Mind control!

It was getting painful to resist it.

I pulled out the radio, activated it and with the rest of my strength painfully moaned:

‘Help me… please.. ‘

The radio then fell out of my hand and all that mattered was investigating the crack in the wall.

Aki

As much as I liked our new cuddle partner, it being just the three of us was so fun. Lying between Caei and Lilyth… felt like the old times.

‘You know…’ Caei said while caressing my stomach. ‘I need to sleep more with just the two of you.’

‘I think that was the plan for this trip,’ Lilyth laughed. ‘But well… leaving Ren behind wouldn't feel right.’

‘Yeah.’ I agreed. ‘Nothing says our trio can't have a night to our own from time to time.’

‘We’ll need to watch out around Ireela, anyway,’ my foxy cuddlebug said. ‘She might not be that… welcoming of her daughter being involved with three women.’

Caei nodded.

‘She had enough trouble accepting her as a lesbian as it is.’

‘We’ll figure something out,’ I said.

Lilyth wanted to say something but was interrupted by the crackle of the radio.

‘Help me… please,’ Rennie cried out, sounding like she was forcing herself to speak.

Lilyth jumped to her feet immediately.

‘Go!’ I told her, realising that every second counted. ‘We’ll follow you!’