Chapter 31 #2
Samson was right that the Forgotten One would make a powerful ally in my fight against Abaddon, but what bitterness was all this honey attempting to hide?
I thought for a long while before speaking. “As you said before, I am hesitant.”
“You believe I intend to mislead you.”
“Yes.”
“I am deserving of your ire,” Samson replied.
“I passed through Grubiit on my way here to gift you a free dungeon chapter as a show of good faith, but I know that were I in your place, that would not be enough to win my trust. That is why I offer you this: If you meet with the Forgotten One, I will offer the Flowst dungeon core as collateral, a guarantee of your safety. If the Forgotten One attempts to harm you, I will bend the knee in my own dungeon and put the core in your hands.”
That was quite the gesture. He was hedging by not including both of his dungeon cores as collateral, but that didn’t make the Flowst core any less valuable.
If he lost that core, everything he built and enjoyed in Flowst would be lost to him as well.
Sure, he had his castle in Lopav, but a little mountain town was infinitely more boring than the entertainment he could find in a major city.
And if he truly worried I would turn against him, a second dungeon core would all but guarantee his defeat.
“You’re that certain you can convince the Forgotten One to come to Sanctuary?” I asked.
“The Forgotten One does not leave their dungeon,” Samson replied, “but I have secured a promise of peace for your visit.”
“I have to enter the Capital dungeon for the meeting?”
Samson nodded.
“You just explained how powerful they were, and you wish for me to walk into a mousetrap of their making?”
“Such is the reason I offer the Flowst core as a guarantee.”
Be wary of your own greed, Byron. Anything that is too good to be true is a lie. The Frozen Fiend has proven time and time again that they are a selfish being who looks down on you.
You already have your plan to defeat Abaddon, and that plan does not require this risk to succeed.
…but powerful allies could keep you alive long enough to fully realize that plan, and if the plan should fail, such allies could become the makings of a new strategy.
“I will think about your offer,” I said.
“Very well. Then I shall await your answer, Lord Byron.” Samson dipped his head and exited my office.
Meeting with Samson left my mind in a swirl of doubt and confusion. I needed a point of reference, a constant, to help me find my way. Seeking out the least busy members of my harem, I ended up on our private beach in Zaglis.
In addition to the dozen or so followers enjoying the sun–splashing in the ocean water, lying out to tan, or playing a game of volleyball–Purity, Podni, and Ashley lounged on towels in the sand. Purity and Ashley read while Podni lay on her stomach with her swimsuit top undone and her eyes closed.
“Our beach day keeps getting better,” Purity said with a grin when she saw me. “It’s good to see you taking some time to relax.”
“I came here to get your thoughts on something, actually.”
Ashley closed her book. “How can we help?”
“I need lotion,” Podni announced, rolling onto her back. Squinting from the sunlight, she opened one eye and pushed out her lower lip. “Please, Father?”
I knelt in the sand next to my saboteur and poured a generous amount of lotion into my hands and rubbed it into Podni’s hot skin, feeling every detail of her toned stomach, working my way up.
“Samson visited me today,” I said and summarized everything we discussed, which included my concern that the Frozen Fiend’s offer was a trap.
“Do we know anything else about the Forgotten One?” Podni asked.
“Not at this time,” I answered.
“If we were discussing humans, a meeting like this would happen on neutral ground, perhaps hosted by a third party that everyone trusts. Insisting on meeting in the den of the most powerful Dungeon Lord in known history is more than suspicious.”
“I agree,” Purity said.
“If the Forgotten One is as strong as we think, this might not be as simple as not going,” Ashley countered. “Demons left the Lopav dungeon to attack Byron, remember? And Samson isn’t in his dungeon anymore either.”
Purity hooked her bottoms with her thumb to check her tan line. She knew I liked those.
“We do live in unprecedented times,” Purity added. “The system seems bent on ensuring that.”
+9 to Progress to Your Fall.
Progress to Your Fall: 56 / 100 (Abaddon, King of the Abyss)
I sighed.
+11 to Progress to Your Fall.
Progress to Your Fall: 67 / 100 (Abaddon, King of the Abyss)
For fucks sake.
“I agree with Podni that this is suspicious,” Ashley said. “But I also agree with Purity that we can’t count on the status quo.”
Podni lifted her chin so I could rub the lotion into her shoulders and neck.
“I debated sending a messenger to be safe,” I shared. “That could be seen as declining the invitation, however, and the Forgotten One could be the type to feel insulted.”
“We’re all just guessing about-Mmm.” Stealing a boob squeeze for my own enjoyment distracted Podni, it seemed. She recovered. “We’re all just guessing about what might happen because we don’t know anything about the Forgotten One.”
“She’s right,” Purity said. “We can talk around this forever because of how much we don’t know. What can we do to make this about what they don’t know?”
“We’re listening,” I replied.
“Could we enter the dungeon with Podni bombs and Byron bots? What about preparing for a dungeon surge? What could we do there that would surprise the Forgotten One?”
I wobbled my head, thinking. “The Gol-Gol brothers were beyond us. Way beyond us. That fight was us exploiting a lucky break, and we had as much time as we wanted to prepare. If the Forgotten One never leaves the dungeon, we would have to reveal our army to fight them. Who knows how much we’ll lose in that kind of fight, but I imagine it would be substantial. ”
“The Capital would need years to recover if it spilled to the surface,” Ashley observed. “Sanctuary South would be safe from danger, but we’d lose all of our trade.”
Podni lifted her leg into the air to give me easier lotion access. Damn, her thighs and calves were strong.
“I could lose on purpose,” I suggested, but was thinking out loud for the most part.
“What does that mean?” Podni asked, shading her eyes with one hand to look at me when she spoke.
“If the Forgotten One's attempts to harm me, I get the Flowst dungeon core. That could be the real bait, but if I get away from the Forgotten One, Samson has to honor the deal. Reneging on business terms is bad for a demon’s reputation, catastrophically so. We could beat anyone if we had two dungeon cores pumping out Byron bots and silk soldiers. When the dust settled, we could have a third dungeon core, one with a crazy high level.”
I didn’t need to win a fight with the Forgotten One, though. I just needed to get away if they attacked me.
Purity smirked at me when I started on Podni’s other leg. She caught me grazing my fingers over Podni’s bikini bottom when I ran my hands up and down the saboteur’s thigh.
She didn’t comment, though. Instead, she kept the discussion going. “How do you escape a Dungeon Lord’s dungeon? Is that possible? If you were setting the trap, you would be certain that it worked.”
“Like a teleporter trap that dumps me into a box with no doors or windows and miles of dirt and rock between me and freedom.”
Articulating that fate was chilling. I had known from the start of this that the Forgotten One had an extreme advantage, but I hadn’t considered an eternity locked in a dungeon prison. I was undead, after all.
What if I brought Podni and she used Silk Passenger to warp me back to the entrance if we got into trouble?
No. Silk Step had a range limit.
What if I brought a massive arsenal of Podni bombs with me?
Those were only useful if the Forgotten One came to me in person. Sticking me in the box negated that as well.
Ashley rolled off her towel, coating her skin with grains of sand.
I had seen her do this before, so I knew her next move was to go down to the water and rinse off in the ocean.
The first time I witnessed the ritual, she said that she liked the changes in temperature and texture, from sun to sand to water.
I watched her sandy butt cheeks jiggle as she walked away.
Not long ago, she and I were on the run from her kidnappers, and now she was a queen who proudly wore gold silk around her neck. That silk was about where the executioner’s axe had fallen to kill her, but the blade ended up passing through my neck instead because of the Noble Sacrifice enchantment.
When Ashley returned, she used both hands to pull her short, wet hair away from her face. Then she was back on her towel. This time, face down. I was just finishing rubbing lotion into Podni’s feet.
“How much do you know about the prisoners in the Capital?” I asked her.
“Criminals serving time, you mean?”
“Yes.”
“I know that our kingdom’s incarceration rates are on track to be the lowest in the world.”
“Right, but there are murderers and rapists and such still locked up.”
“There are.”
I stood and brushed the sand off my legs. “I need you to get me one of those, someone who won’t be missed but is still fairly healthy. I’ll tell you the rest when I have everything we need.”
+2 Progress to your fall.
Progress to Your Fall: 69 / 100 (Abaddon, King of the Abyss)
I dismissed the notification and continued my walk back to the Water Temple. Enjoy the progress, Abaddon. It will change soon enough.