125 Complete Victory
"We meet again," Duke Ashburn casually stated as Styx entered the inner sanctum of the barracks holding the dungeon core of the city.
The Duke and Duchess gazed at him in a final defiance, a trace of smugness in the duchess' eyes.
They stood before an enormous dungeon core that dwarfed Styx's own size by a huge margin. The core was around 4.5 meters tall and stood like a goliath in the room, sending out a bright blue hue on everything.
"I am surprised by your resolve. I had expected you to surrender for your children."
"Children and meant to be able to stand on their own feet. We will not betray the kingdom which raised us."
"An admirable quality. A shame most others don't share such values."
"You would be surprised."
"Do you have any final words?"
"…I know I am to die, but I wish to know before I go, why did my son have to die?"
"You are aware he is a regressor, right?"
"Yes. He had explained his experiences to me. It was unbelievable, but there have been more unbelievable things before."
"That was one of the reasons."
"Please explain."
Styx sighed and mentally commanded Therina to bring him a chair over. The duke and duchess looked at the elf who had dominated their son's mind in distaste. They had long viewed her as a poison and wished her nothing but harm.
"First, he knew knowledge that he shouldn't have. It made me insecure and rush to eliminate or disarm the threat. He also had an uncontrollable desire for my woman, which was already a death sentence alone. Third, due to the nature of being a regressor, myself and countless other versions of me had laid the groundwork to eliminate him, which meant I must continue it on."
"I see…"
"Finally… Rebecca, come here."
The beautiful and heavy chested blond duchess' daughter entered the giant room and stood beside Styx before he pulled her onto sitting on his lap.
"You were a poison too…" Duchess Ashburn squinted her eyes at her rival's daughter.
"Rebecca Euklid was already my woman at the time of the marriage, as much as she tried to run from it."
"…Is this true?"
Rebecca nodded her head, not hiding her attachment to Styx at all as she allowed his hands to wantonly roam her body, even sliding into her pants and rubbing her erect clitoris.
"It is."
"Do you not feel guilty."
"Yes, and no. I had done what my duty towards my city and family was, but I wish things had turned out differently."
Styx withdrew his hand and licked his finger, causing Rebecca to blush lightly whilst the sharp nosed Aura was aroused by the erotic scent and let her tail start to sway.
"Are you satisfied, duke?"
"I just have one more question."
"Go ahead, I also have one of my own."
"Well, let me go first. You have powerful monsters and even Monster Lords behind you, but don't you think it is unwise to stand at the very front of the army, considering how weak you yourself are?"
The duke instantly threw a spear that turned into a bolt of crimson lightning aimed directly at Styx's head.
Duchess Ashburn attacked at the same time, insta-casting a barrage of boulder sized flaming meteors in the room and shooting them at Styx like a machine gun.
The floor was torn to pieces and walls blew out from the power behind the blast. The ceiling also collapsed atop everyone in the room at the same time.
The spear exploded upon collision, but Styx still sat there unharmed. The deadly weapon stopped just before his face with Aura's tail wrapped around it. Smoke was emitting from the corner of her lip as she growled in an ominous tone, indicating where the meteors had vanished to.
"Tch, even that wasn't enough. You truly are a Monster Lord. But… Hayleigh…"
The meteors weren't the only things that vanished into Aura's mouth. The duchess' wife only had two legs from below the knees left, her life snuffed out like a candle in the wind.
Duke Ashburn was a hardened warrior with broad shoulders and sharply chiselled features. Seeing his wife's fate, despite both of their resolution in the beginning, caused tears to trickle from his eyes.
"Aura, don't prolong his suffering, kill the duke quickly too."
"…Thank you."
Amongst the rubble of the room, standing before the enormous dungeon core, Duke Gabralter raised his head high before he too was cut into several pieces by phantasmal claws that split space and time itself.
He knew he couldn't resist the attack, so he didn't even bother using his defensive skills. They would have been carved through like a leaf in a tempest all the same.
Silence pervaded the room that was quickly filled with the stench of blood.
His boots clacked against the rubble as he stepped on broken sections of ceiling. The dungeon core had dimmed greatly, currently shifting to automatic mode now that the dungeon lord controlling it had been killed.
Styx stood before it and placed his hand on the core, a window opening up in front of him.
⠀
[
Unbound core detected. Do you wish to bind this core to yourself?
⠀
Yes/No
]
⠀
Styx already understood everything about dungeon cores, not because he was one, but he had fully studied the public knowledge of the city thanks to Hilda and all the other citizens who became his.
The only way to win a dungeon war was to either shatter the opposing dungeon core or take control of it. Controlling it was harder as one first had to kill the dungeon lord, who could be hiding anywhere in the city.
The barrier in between the two dungeons could also be restored, but that would cause harm to both dungeons.
Styx straightforwardly selected 'Yes' and the core shone with a blinding white light and multiple information windows opened and overlapped in front of him.
⠀
[
Dungeon core <Lv. 78> has been bound to dungeon core 'Styx'.
Dungeon conflict has been won by the invading party with capture of the enemy core.
]
⠀
[
Multiple cores detected.
Multiple independent dungeons cannot exist within the same dungeon.
Please choose from the following options…
]
⠀
[
1. Destruction: Dungeon core is destroyed and 10% of its experience will be acquired
2. Sublimination: Dungeon core is sublimated as a sub core to the main core. All skills of sub core will be lost, but core traits will remain.
3. Bridge: Core is imploded and forms a permanent channel to a random area of the world. Random location must support natural generation of a dungeon core. PERMANENT.
]
⠀
Styx looked at the three options, which were something he had contemplated for a long time.
In the first option, he would get 10 percent of the total experience used to have the dungeon core reach <Lv. 78>, which was 9.95 million experience points, an astronomical amount that could instantly level him up to <Lv. 54> without including his enormous experience storage from the previous war and the current dungeon conflict.
The second option, sublimination, would be like turning himself into an extremely powerful dual core processor. Just as he could partition parts of his own core into various automatic function, this would be an entire core he can program and automate countless procedures.
As it kept its traits, he would also throw away his weakness of not being able to summon monsters. He couldn't summon them with his core, but this one could.
The third option was a gamble and forbidden in most kingdoms.
Bridge caused the dungeon core be used to implode on itself and form a permanent channel to a new region where a new branch of the dungeon reached into. It was a gamble because it couldn't be controlled.
Whilst there was a chance it could open into an underground treasure trove of spiritual plants or an undiscovered pocket dimension full of treasure, there was a far higher chance it would simply open in another kingdom or empire.
This channel was permanent and couldn't simply be closed if it opened into a kingdom with a far superior army. It had been the downfall of kingdoms before and was only used commonly by intergalactic empires to create space channels to pioneer new regions.
Styx contemplated his choices, which was ultimately between the second and third option.
"What will you do, darling?" Therina asked tenderly as her dream tails stroked his back.
"Bring the core back to the main dungeon, I will form a bridge deep underground."
"You don't want to be able to summon monsters?"
Therina was also aware of the options from her own learning and had assumed Styx would address his main weaknesses first.
"There is no need. We hunt in the Abyssal Forest now that the Monster Lords are on our side. The amount of prey in there is populates fast enough to support a population ten times the size of the dungeon and this dungeon city combined. The current automatic summoning arrays will continue operating too, and I can study them to replicate them manually."
"Are you not worried about the risks of opening in a new, random area?" Rebecca was nervous over Styx's choice. She viewed him as the ticket to a safe and prosperous life for her dungeon city's residents and didn't want to see him or her city placed in danger.
"We may be unable to use the Monster Lords to attack due to the Treaty of Gods, depending on where it opens, but they won't be able to invade us due to them. You must take a risk in order to get the greatest rewards."
