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We hid behind the wall as Miel’s voice echoed back and forth. She spoke to herself while I tried to close my eyes and relax for a few minutes before I planned what we should do. I looked down on Killeh, who was smiling and drooling simultaneously.

“Kill He!” he said and pointed to the egg.

“No, you can not eat Rieven when we have to escape with her,” I told him, so he didn’t try to do anything stupid. I didn’t know if he understood what I was saying or that I thought it was a he and not a she.

The pain doesn’t help; I feel so tired and have lost some blood. I…

I opened my eyes, and Sterk looked at me very closely. I got up from the ground, feeling my body much lighter now and with no pain. Turned back to check the cabin, but it was not there; instead, there was a bigger cabin on the other side.

“Did I die?” I asked him.

Sterk was smiling and responded:

“No! You passed out!”

Ah, damn it, it will hurt a lot if my body gets a little bit cold, for once I was hoping that Miel went berserk and put the surrounding in flames so my body is still warm. I bent my head to the side to check what was behind the cabin, but Sterk bent his head simultaneously to meet my eyes.

“Okay! Enough with these weird games we are playing. Why am I here?” I asked.

Sterk smiled when suddenly a black shadowy figure, looking like a human, stepped out behind him. The figure was black, with no eyes, mouth, or even a shadow of any ears on its head. The build was like a human but had no hands or feet. It had circle-shaped hands and feet on its arms and legs. Why do I get a feeling that it looks sticky?

“Okay! You have a big, bulky, sticky black shadow. Get to the point?” I tried getting an answer as quickly as possible to get out of here and let everyone escape from the Dungeon.

Sterk was laughing out loud now, putting his hand over his eyes, which made the situation awkward, as if this were some comedy sketch. His laughter suddenly stopped, and he removed his hands from his eyes, which were completely red now.

“Are you missing something, Zark?” He asked with a much deeper voice, making me wonder if the brat just came into puberty.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

Sterk pointed down on my right fist, and I noticed the chain was gone.

“Where is the chain? Seriously, I won’t even be able to have a chance against a dragon. If it was slim, it is impossible.” I tried explaining to him how serious the situation was.

Sterk tiptoed behind the black figure and peeked his head out behind it with a smile.

“What! Is that my chain?”

The figure moved quickly, and I couldn’t even react before it hit me on the chest. I flew a couple of meters and did a back flip that failed as I lost my balance and fell on the grass on my back.

“Damn it! All this violence, is it that hard for anyone just to talk it out?”

I got up in what felt like ages, as I didn’t have enough energy, even though my body did not feel the pain I had in reality.

“CATCH!” Sterk screamed out in the air.

It was a bottle with three dead skulls on the label, which didn’t give me much confidence.

“Why did you throw a bottle with three dead skulls?”

“It is an energy booster. If you can muster up enough power, you can throw an energy punch. It is not the fastest; the only way to use it is to be close to your enemy.”

That information…was so bad. That explanation has no facts; it is like telling me to punch and everything will be all right.

“Can you give me any useful information?” I asked

“No, I can not! I am not here to show you how you will use your powers. I am only a guide for you to activate the powers that go through your veins with the pumping blood of a Polan.”

It is Van Polan, your prick. So good guidance in letting me get hit by…my Sticky figure human of chain.

“Drink it now! We do not have the whole day!”

I removed the cork from the bottle, and an awful, disgusting smell aired out, making me gag.

“You want me to drink this? What is it?” I asked him and gagged one more time.

“It is elixir, a helper to hasten your improvement on the weak black flames on your right fist. You should try to make the flame stronger. You have the skill to draw enemies and death to yourself for some reason, so you need to protect yourself better.”

A skill to draw enemies and death to me, I wouldn’t call that a skill, it is more like getting killed faster than anyone else, idiot.

“I get that weining brat. What does chaine have to do with me getting stronger?” I asked it as I thought the chain had nothing to do with this.

Sterk’s happy face disappeared as he looked at the figure and then back at me again.

“You had no clue, do you?” He asked.

“Eh, what? I don’t get it!”

“Why is the chain here? That is the question. Have you not realized that you are coming closer to death, you are dying, did you not feel that inside? I hope this is not the last time you see me, because nobody knows if you will survive. I can not sense you moving forward any longer.”

“Yeah, thanks for the pep talk! I ask again why the chain is here?”

“It does not feel that you can protect anyone anymore; this is why the chain is here. It thinks that you won’t be able to protect anyone. The reason why it is here is to challenge you. If you fail, it will release itself from you, and consider you a failure. If you can beat it, then it will stay with you until you die and vanish when you succumb to death. The chain knows you are dying and becoming weaker; it wants you to show that you can still protect everyone.”

Why does this brat piss me of so much, I need to be calm, do not go berserk. I covered my nose and drank the whole bottle in one sweep. My right hand caught on flames instantly, and I felt more energized. The aftertaste, though, was not good. Sterk moved away for a bit, picked up a stick from the ground, and drew a long line not far away.

“IF YOU MANAGE TO PASS THE LINE YOU WIN, IF YOU CAN NOT PASS THE LINE AND GIVE UP…THE CHAIN WIN.”

“WHAT EXACTLY DID YOU PUT IN THE BOTTLE?” I asked.

“IT IS ELIXIR…I THINK! FOUND IT IN THE CABIN BEHIND ME SO I JUST MADE A GUESS IT WOULD ENERGIZE YOU,” Sterk responded.

I stared at him, realizing this crazy brat gave me a bottle with three dead skulls and thought it was some energy drink. I am not coming back to this place.

“OKAY! I AM READY!”

I moved to the right in a hasty move, but the sticky figure followed every step without even trying. I moved towards it and made a fly kick, which grabbed my leg and swung around, tossing me further away as I rolled on the ground. I got up and didn’t run this time because I wanted to take the fight close up to check the skills, because it was faster than me. I tried a high kick, and it responded by blocking it with a high kick. I tried a quick jab, and it bent its head slightly to the side. Sticky responded with a jab at my nose, making me back away a few steps. Wh…What! Why is it responding with the same movements? How will I beat it when it is faster than me, and I can not run past it?

“Do not move!” I told Killeh

The Daemon stared on the ground, not moving, it was even shaking. Flames of fire came out from the nostrils of the Dragon as it stared at us.

“WE DO NOT MEAN ANY HARM!” I yelled to the Dragon.

I looked at Killeh, but the Daemon was gone. Turned around and saw it running uphill on all the treasures, but the portal door was not there, and it jumped over the hill and disappeared. Great bonding. I feel it has bonded with me, and I escaped when I was yelling at the Dragon. When I turned back again, the Dragon was close to me. It just have to put a little flame to freaking kill me.

“I smell human, are you human?” The Dragon said.

I just nodded up and down.

“Interesting, I have not seen a human in a long time. How did you enter? My fellow dragons should have stopped you. Entering my Den with a filthy demon should not be possible, as the Demon’s stench should have covered our whole kingdom, and we would have stopped you at the gate.” She explained.

I have to think off something quickly so it doesnt get pissed of.

“OH! Holy red Dragon. My name is Zark, of the Van Polan Clan, belonging to the Uzza Clan. I am here to give you a present in the form of a princess.”

A wind blew through me when the Dragon breathed out through its nostrils. It closed in on me, pulled its tongue out, and swept up my blood from the ground before answering:

“Interesting! You came here to give a present to the queen of the Red Dragon clan?”

I heard someone whisper ‘Kill her’ or something sounding like that in a repeat mode. The Dragon lifted its head and blew fire towards the hill of gold, and someone was stamping around on the treasures escaping from the area, and it went completely silent. I tried thinking of the Red Dragon Queen and Rieven was a princess, ah shit! Rieven’s mother. Where the Hell is the blue volleyball when we need her?

The Dragon came down again, facing me close up.

“Where is my present then, human?” It uttered.

“I never got your name?” I asked it cautiously.

She moved her head back and forth before stopping and answering:

“Miel, I am Queen Miel of The Red Dragon Clan.”

Okay, this is good. Rieven’s mother, why should she kill us? Rieven is…sort of safe with us.

“My humble Queen, I came here to deliver the princess of the Red Dragon clan. She is the daughter of Miel, the Queen. We must look for her here in the Den so I can deliver your princess back to you.” I tried explaining.

She got up and looked down on the three eggs she was protecting.

“My children are not born. I have three eggs, two of which are princes and one of which is a princess.” Miel said.

I looked at the eggs and felt like I had discovered the biggest treasure in my life. No wonder Rieven disappeared when we entered here; she had to be inside one of the eggs. It has to be why she is not here, we are in the past of Rieven’s life. That may be why Killeh was in the army, breaking the ties to the big dog with three heads and connecting with another clan…or person. Why am I speculating for? I need to keep moving as I have no clue how much time has passed in the sleeping state. I am alive here, I should be alive in the dungeon. Of course, my back needs a bandage to try and stop the bleeding at least. We took Killeh, finishing the bonding except for the coward shit ran away. Okay, we must find the portal and escape with one of the eggs with Rieven, but which one has her?

“Oh…My Queen! I am so happy for your children. Is it possible for me to watch them closer to see the beauty?”

Miel was quiet momentarily, and it looked like she was thinking.

“Yes, only once will I allow you to watch before I eat you!” She explained.

Great, need to think of something quickly then. Miel moved slightly, exposing the eggs close to a wall, but I noticed several small exits from this area. The problem is that I didn’t know where the exits ended up. I moved with my hands behind my back to reassure Miel of no ill will and loosened the chain from my wrist. When Miel watched the eggs momentarily, I put the chain around my waist and pulled it down the end of the chain behind me as it got dragged on the gold pieces on the ground. When I came close to the eggs, there was one with a light red color and two with a light blue color. Damn it, I is covered in white behind the color so I can not even see inside the eggs.

“Oh my Queen! They are so beautiful, if you do not mind my asking, which one has both prince and which is the princess?”

Miel posed weirdly but looked happy with my words about her eggs.

She bent down with her head, breathing on the eggs from her nostrils.

“The first one with blue closest to me is a prince. The light red one in the middle is a prince, and the one on the other is the princess at the end. Move away from my eggs, you will be the first one and the last one seeing my children.”

I only backed away two meters, and when Miel gathered a large flame that started beneath her body as she leaned her head backwards, I threw the chain on the egg with the princess and pulled it to my body. Miel looked down and noticed I was holding one of her eggs, and both looked at each other in a moment before Miel noticed I had one of the eggs. She unleashed the fire in another direction, and the third level up to the left started crashing down on the ground. I needed to get to where the wall was before she attacked, and I quickly ran by the other eggs into one of the exits on the other wall. I saw stairs going up and moved up to the second level, seeing Killeh, who was not far away. With all the pain on my back, I ran through an open corridor to Killah, who was waiting behind a wall. Miel saw me, and the pathway behind me crashed down as Miel was already in the air, using her feet to cut me off from reaching the other side. As Miel crashed down my path, I slid on the ground in the last meters. The walls started to shake around us, and we quickly moved through the path and came up on the other side, away from the treasure area. It was just a circular walkpath with stairs going up.

“Killeh, or whatever your name is. Have you seen the portal?” I asked.

“Kill Her,” Killeh replied, staring at me in what looked like a serious expression, but I was not sure.

“Kill her? What! No, Pooortal, door.” I tried explaining.

“Kill Her?”

I put the egg down and started to make a square with my hands to try and explain the door to Killeh.

“Door! Portal, door! No Kill Her, No Killeh, Door, Escape!”

Killeh blinked several times which made me wonder if the Demon thought I was the retarded one because it didn’t seem it understood what I was saying, or because I have just bonded up with a retard Demon that is not even called Demon.

Suddenly, Killeh moved, and when we entered the circled area, it pointed to the fourth floor. It made movements like a square back to me. I looked around and noticed stairs on the other end. The ground shook again, and when we were going to move, a strong wind blew through as Miel came down from above and landed in the middle.

“I KNOW YOU ARE CLOSE BY HUMAN. THE STENCH FROM BOTH OF YOU IS VERY CLEAR, AND I HAVE SEEN THE PORTAL. I WILL NEVER LET YOU ESCAPE FROM HERE WITH MY BABY.”

We hid behind the wall and I thought maybe we are screwed, how the Hell are we going to move to the other side.

I picked up Rieven and continued on the path. Of course, I was worried that any creatures would pop up from the 2nd or 1st Row. The ones on the right could see me walking on the path, and any of them could jump out to attack me…or us. I could see the desert now on the other side, and I tried comparing how big the areas were and calculated that I needed to go through one more Area and maybe I would not have to walk the path if the Daemons area was on the other side. Took a deep breath to check quickly, and when I peeked quickly, something grabbed my neck and threw me inside the Area. A sword came towards my head, and I rolled quickly to the side, dodging it in the last second, and I made an upkick and saw three…humans? No wait! They had white kilt and black wings. Two of them had black colored eyes, and one had red eyes.

“What does a human do in Hell with its soul intact inside the body?” The red one asked me.

Surprised, not by the question, but by their looks and the black wings, they looked like a royal type. They look slightly like angels, but not like the one I saw with Taz. I think the one had armor like a warrior, and these are more kink-kilt angels.

“Uh! Is this the angel area?” I asked monitoring all three of them if one more attack would come.

If I try to step out, it may be bad news as Rieven is outside.

“What…ARE YOU DOING HERE?” The red one asked with a finishing scream, or more demanded an answer.

“Uh, I was out walking with my pet!” I tried explaining and pushed the chain, noticing Rieven pressed against the wall on all four, making her visible for the black wings.

“LIE!” The red one screamed out loud, resulting in weird howling and roars in the surrounding areas.

Something of a large figure banging on the wall to the right. I suppose the Daemons are not there.

I released the tight grip on the chain, and Rieven fell from the wall to the ground. I need to get out of here, throw Rieven above the top, and keep moving before we attract too much attention. I moved slightly to the right, and the three also moved, but kept their distance.

“Human! Do you know why Angels fall from heaven to Hell?” The red one asked with a smirk on his face.

“No idea!”

All three of them were laughing at me, and one of the black eyes responded:

“When an angel kills a human, their eyes turn black, and it gets black wings. When an angel kills another angel, it turns to red eyes with black wings. These are called Fallen Angels, we get sent to Hell instantly.”

That was not a fascinating history lesson, but maybe I can keep them monologuing and try to escape.

“Oh! Are you sure there are no other colors of eyes sent to Hell? Like Purple or Blue?” I asked with a burst of laughter from the three.

I quickly stepped out of the Area and grabbed Rieven and threw her up on the roof with a bad face expression from her. The Angels burst out from the Area with the red one screaming:

“YOU TRIED TO GET US MONOLOGUING!”

I only managed to move one or two meters before a flying kick, yes the damn black wings was flying and kicking me and I managed to get my arm up and fell through the blue barrier rolling on the floor. A big, bald creature looking like a combination of a goblin and a troll swung a big club from above, and I separated my legs quickly as it hit the floor, barely missing. It roared and put the big club up to swing it down again, and I rolled to the side, noticing Rieven on the roof was also rolling but looking down at me with a smile. I got up, but was not fast enough as the creature tried to swing from the side, and I bent my upper body backward as much as possible so I fell on the floor. It turned from above again, and I rolled backward and jumped out from the Area right into the 3rd Row. The giant creature followed me and roared so loudly that other creatures reacted and made a roar back. I put my head inside an Area and finally noticed several Daemons…eh…with weapons and they stared at me. I saw the blue-eyed Daemon and knew which one we had to grab. The giant creature swung the club from the side, and I backed two steps back as two Daemons stepped out, getting splashed by the swing. Oh my god! I hope blue eyes were not one of the two. More Daemons stepped out on the pathway, and they jumped on the creature and stabbed it with small knives, while two were moving towards me, one of them with blue eyes. I released Rieven from the chain and lit my right fist with the chain in black fire, making the two hesitate slightly. Then one jumped in the air, and I whipped the chain and hit it in the head so it lost consciousness. Blue eyes jumped in the air, making the same boring attack, and I whipped it, so it fell on the ground. I quickly took the knife from it, threw it away, and rolled the chain around the leg on blue eyes and then rolled it around Rieven and threw both of them on the roof. Got damn it! I have to move into an unknown area. I jumped inside another area and tried to prepare myself, but there were just plants everywhere in this Area. It was green moss, plants, and flowers everywhere. Slowly, I tried to move through without making any hasty movements. A couple of flowers started to move and spit out some green liquid. Looked at the green liquid from a distance and noticed the floor melting. Great! Just what I needed, why are the damn flowers so close to the other side?

I took a step forward, and the flowers started to move faster and spit out liquid again in the path I needed to move on. I wonder if the spit comes from movements on the floor, and if they can feel the vibrations?

I moved one more step forward, and the flowers started to move again and spit on the floor, where soon it would be a big hole if they continued. I waited and didn’t move, thinking that maybe the flowers won’t move, but after a moment, they started to move again and spit. I have to jump through the Area and onto the walking path. I took a few steps back and looked where the spitting Area was, but I needed to jump between the first and second spit attacks. I took one step forward, and they started to move around. Exactly when they spat out the liquid, I rushed forward, jumped over the hole they created, and fell on the ground on the 2nd Row. A high-pitched bark echoed when the black winged angels saw me. They looked at me and then moved inside their Area. The barking continued, and I swung the chain with both of them, flipping to the second row Area. I looked for the desert exit, but it was on the first Row, and I jumped without thinking to another area with three short warriors with axes, a helmet covering their eyes, and long beards. Is it axe wizards?

Slowly, I tried moving forward, silently thinking they might not see me as the helmet went down on their noses. Being silent may be the key here, but they had steel armor which looked cool, what the Hell am I thinking?

When I came close to them, they didn’t move at all. The barking in the air echoed as a noise cancellation for me, and I sneaked past them and jumped down on the first Row.

“Thank god! Desert.”

I pulled the chain so both fell from the roof and grabbed each under my arms. I started to run as the barking felt like it was getting higher pitched, which worried me. I moved past the first Area and ran towards the hill.

When I came to the top, I looked back, and the barking was from Cerberos. One of the black wings looked like it was talking to the giant dog. I had a bad feeling about this. Suddenly, all creatures in all areas turned in my direction and started to run towards us. I went quickly down from the hill and ran towards the portal with Daemon waking up and an immense pain as if someone was slicing my back with a knife. I slowed down and fell in front of the portal, both falling inside it. I turned around and saw the red-eyed angel charging with his sword at me. I managed to dodge the sword, but I got hit by the angel on impact, and both of us fell into the portal.

I was suddenly rolling down on something yellow until I hit the floor. I went up on all four, but tried to work out the pain in my back when I coughed up blood on a dark wall in front of me. The Daemon came by my side and only commented:

“Killah!”

It wasn’t attacking, the expression looked worried about the blood around me. I noticed a gold coin on the ground, huh! We are not in prison, wait, where is Rieven?

“Where is the baby, Rieven, baby dragon?”

“Killeh!” It responded.

Like that will help me, I coughed up more blood and held my hand towards the wall when I suddenly saw air pushed out from something on the left side. The wall in front of me opened up, or should I say, it was a big eye. I looked up as the creature moved its head up and sat up with three eggs beneath it.

“Come on! Give me a break, A red Dragon.”

The screeching sound echoed everywhere, with the coins on the ground vibrating. We are so dead.

I could feel the wind, we must be outside now. Opened my eyes and saw Rieven lying on the sand, staring at me. I got up from the sand and looked around. There was a portal door, but everything around us was just sand with a red sun above, shining down on us.

“Great! Maybe getting instructions on connecting the bond or whatever would be useful.” I commented to myself.

Our bodies pointed towards the sand hill before us, and the door was behind us. Where the heck is the Daemon?

A loud sound came from the direction of the hill, and I was lost here out of nowhere with a princess baby, without even getting proper introduction on this damn thing.

“Let’s move to where the sound is and check it out.”

Rieven got up on my shoulder, and I walked up the hill as the sound was getting louder and louder. I had to crawl the last bit because of how steep it was, but managed to reach it in the end. I looked around in shock, realising that it was an enormous army of soldiers gathered in the same place here in the desert and front of them was Cerberos, the freaking big dog with three heads. I quickly jumped back behind the hill and only peeked my head up to get a grasp of the situation. I tried to figure out why we were at a big army gathering of Cerberos. There are thousands; the bond doesn’t mean I have to fight all of them, it would be instant death. Why am I here?

“Meh!” Rieven uttered.

She went up on top of the hill and pointed in a direction, looking at me. I peeked again in the direction she pointed and noticed a gathering with several Daemons. Wait a minute, in the 3rd row and the 4th from the right! It looks like creatures of the same race are only in a square area where they are. It is like everyone who comes from the same clan gathers in a specific space. I tried looking around to see if I could find any humans, but there were none. I noticed that dragons were on the 2nd row in the 2nd square space. I looked at Rieven, who tried to figure out my thoughts, but she can’t be that smart. I grabbed her and loosened up the chain from my wrist. Rolled it around Rieven’s body and moved to the left side. We need to join the dragon clan and move to the Daemon’s space to see if we can find the one to bond with. I grabbed Rieven, moved quickly on the steep sand, fell several times, and heard Rieven make a weird sound. I think she was laughing every time I fell.

After moving for a couple of minutes, the big red light was shining up from the army’s direction, and I quickly went up to see what was going on there. Nothing was out of the ordinary, maybe someone fired some flares. I noticed the Rieven was staring, and her eyes reflected the red light, like many pillars shining up. I looked again towards the army, but still couldn’t see anything. It was strange that she could see something, and I couldn’t. I loosened up the chain from my wrist and grabbed Rieven and turned her around with her facing away from me, and put her in front of my face and rolled the chain around her. It is not the best plan I have ever done, and it is more like the stupidest ever, but there are no other alternatives. Maybe they will think I am a hybrid or something, it is worth a shot.

“Mieeeh!”

“Yeah! Sorry, I need you as a cover, we are going to move to the square area where the dragons are.”

I tightened up the chain, and now my face was Rieven, hoping they would believe in the hybrid trap. I walked down from the hill on the left side, realizing that I couldn’t see anything. I hoped they didn’t notice anything. I slid Riven a little bit to the right and managed to get my left eye to see just a little bit where I was walking, but it was all blue on the right side as her body was covering most of the view. I wish she could talk, but that may be asking too much. I turned my head to the right to see the dragons, hurried, and managed to enter the square. Two dragons started to growl while the largest one was lying there like it didn’t care who entered or left. Now that I think about it, this is freaking stupid, they probably smell human flesh. The two dragons moved towards us, and I backed out from the square and moved two squares away, noticing small turtles, which looked like a good safe zone. When I tried entering the area, it lit up in a big square in red. I managed to go into the dragon space, but not the turtles. Is it because of Rieven?

I looked around to see if anyone would notice if I put her down on the ground, loosened the chain, and rolled it around her body so she could move herself. I put my foot in the square with the turtles and managed to go inside, and it seemed to work for the chain. I tried pulling the chain inside with Rieven, but she got stuck on the wall of the red light that suddenly showed up when she hit the wall. It looks like the clans can not enter each other’s areas. How do I move through with Rieven, and how do we move back?

I went back out and looked around, but couldn’t see any openings between the areas. Well, there isn’t much I can do here.

“Do you trust me, Rieven?”

She stared at me and moved her whole body left and right hastily.

I prepped the chain and put a bit of loose chain for her to hold as she widened her eyes, probably knowing I would play a new game with her.

I threw her above the area with turtles and noticed the whole square lit up. I could move inside the squares if she moved to the area’s roof.

“MEEEEEEEEEEH!” She screamed at me.

I moved inside the square and between the turtles, and when I stepped in what I thought was the next area, it was a walking path between them. The ground was quite hard, with a dark brown color that was not sand. I looked to the left to check for an exit, but the path ended at a square without any path. It was a light blue wall, and I kept checking out the path and noticed that I could not see inside the squares on the second row. Checked the chain above and saw Rieven lying on her side, looking out into emptiness because she knew I was dragging her above the roof. I moved to the right on the path and decided to quickly peek my head inside one of them when an anaconda-looking snake with wings and red eyes was staring at me. Like we both were confused for a moment, I quickly pulled out, and when I moved just a meter, the Anaconda came out flying, hitting its head in another square.

“Great! I am never going to talk about my bad luck again!”

I started to run the pathway with the Anaconda following fast, really fast. When I turned my head, it looked like it wasn’t even crawling sometimes and just floating in the air. How the Hell can a black anaconda with red eyes and wings float? It can’t be that bad. Rieven was rolling as I tried to distance myself from it. By mistake, Rieven rolled over the edge above the Anaconda, firing a blue cannonball of fire as the Anaconda hit the ground, burning in blue flames. That was a close call, and maybe I should not peek with my whole head next time, but make a hasty movement to check what is inside, then pull out quickly and move on.

“You all right, Rieven?”

She didn’t have that happy or curious face, so it was a new expression. I wonder if it was an angry one.

“We only have one more square to pass, then we can look for the Daemon. So I need to throw you up on the roof again.” I explained to her.

A blue light lit up inside her, and she spat out a small blue cannonball towards me as I ducked quickly, and it continued outside the desert, making a blasting sound in the sand.

Shit, I need to take it easy and not pissing her off to much.

I took a deep breath and spoke up to Maular:

“Let’s make a deal, what do you say?”

Maular continued to stare until the blink came. I hoped that meant he was ready to listen to the deal.

“I am lishening!”

Maybe we can find a way out of here. If we break the Dragon’s chains and it starts flying around, that can trigger the alarm, if there is one. The Mage should be able to sit on the back of the Dragon, and if there is a Daemon, it takes barely any space, Rieven should also fit. I am maybe too big for the Dragon to carry on its back.

“I came here with a Mage, a short one, and a Daemon. We are here to free a prisoner. We need your help to escape the Dungeon. In this area, there is an exit at the top, and I wish you to wait at the top for us to rescue the prisoner and then dive down and get us.”

Maular had closed his eyes, and it looked like the golden goose was thinking.

“Come on! It is a good deal, we will break the chains.” I added.

“I agree, if you leave Princess Rieven in prison.”

Wait!… What! Why does it think I would agree with that? I need volleyball on the journey as a weapon.

“No deal!”

“Mhm, I agree! I will wait at the top until you give the signal.” Maular uttered.

“The agreement is for all of us, right?” I asked to make sure.

“Yes!” Maular responded.

I put Rieven down on the ground and guided her out of the cell to the side.

The chain caught fire, and I slammed my fist down on the locked area of the chain and did the same as the Dragon stood up on its legs, looking much bigger than I thought it was.

“Mhov,” Maular uttered as the yellow spark inside the body got as big as a ball, and I ran out from the cell, grabbed Rieven, and waited a couple of meters away. The whole cell blew open with the bars all melting on the edge as the Dragon went up on the edge. I heard a sound behind me and noticed the Mage was there. Maular made a hissing sound towards her, but I intervened instantly.

“She is with me, Maular. That is the Mage. An idea popped into my head: Can you give us a ride three floors down?”

The Mage walked up to the edge, and the Daemon pointed where we needed to dive.

“I see ehnemy, many,” Maular uttered.

“Well, if we walk there, wouldn’t it be much harder than landing close to the cells?” I asked

“The Daemon has informed me it is best to avoid the bridges, because it is not certain how many guards are in this area.” The Mage spoke up, which surprised me as she was scared earlier.

“I hope this is okay for you, Maular?”

“Yes! I responsible not you die.” He responded.

The Dragon isn’t the first to tell me about death. Maular descended from the edge, and the Mage jumped up on the back and held tight. It jumped over the edge, and I went up to look as it spread its wings as quietly as possible and disappeared under a bridge. It was much darker below, so I didn’t know where they landed.

After a minute, Maular flapped his wings, approached us from the top, and landed perfectly with its feet on the edge. I put the chain around one of the legs and ensured it was tight.

“Maular! I need you to fly up so I can hang with Rieven in the air, and then you slowly drop down, and my chain will release itself from your leg. Then you can fly to the top and wait for my signal. I will probably be screaming, so pay attention.”

It went up in the air and slowly descended into the darkness, and there was not much light down below, but I saw a light not far away. I felt the ground and snapped with my hand as the chain got loose from Maular, and the Dragon started to ascend and went under the bridges before it kept going up.

“Rieven! Fire!” I said, and she fired a big blue ball as it flew past the Mage in the dark, barely missing her.

Damn baby Dragon, she almost killed the Mage. We were on flat ground without bridges, so it was a good idea to light our way forward.

We moved to the light as there was a door, strangely, it didn’t look like there was any guard here. I slowly opened the door, thinking I was discreet, but the screeching sounded throughout the area. Hm, strange. I put my hand up, signaling the Mage not to move, looking at her and pointing to a couple of boxes on the side. She went behind them, and I saw a weak blue light on the other side. It didn’t shine up everything clearly, but at least it was possible to see a little inside the cages lined up after each other. I relaxed as the coast looked clear.

When I walked past a couple of cages of corpses from different creatures, the smell was terrible, like an animal that has been lying way too long unmanaged, and the meat was starting to rot. I tried to cover my nose, but my blazer had blood on it, so it didn’t matter which smell I got. A hand was sticking out from one of the cages, and I closed in to check and saw a toddler with red skin and crystal blue eyes trying to reach something on the ground. It even had two small horns on its head with any hair. I thought it was diapers on it, but it looked like pants.

“I think I found the prisoner. Luckily, it seems to be still alive.” I uttered as the Mage came out behind the boxes and joined up.

When the caged Daemon immediately saw the other one, it tried to escape the cage, looking stressed. I broke the lock, and it ran out from the cell to the dying Daemon.

“KILLAH! KILLAH! KILL! KILLAH!” It uttered, and I hoped it was not the only thing it could say.

It looked stressed out, and the dying Daemon started to speak jidderish as the stressed one just nodded and then pointed at me.

“Uh! What is going on?” I asked the Mage.

“The old one is the father of the younger one. It wants it to pledge its life to serve you as its master for saving the children and a couple of Daemons. The son has agreed to fulfill his destiny to serve you until death.”

“Aha! Well, that is not such a good idea, as I could be dead in a couple of hours. What can a toddler do?” I asked.

“They may be tiny, but have great jumping abilities and can land from great heights without problem.”

Oh waow! A jumping toddler, that should be a great asset…Not.

“Okay! Well, can we go now? It is not like we have all the time in the world in enemy territory.” I tried explaining so we could get the Hell out of here.

“We can not! The young Daemon’s grandfather will die any moment, and it wants you to connect the bond between master and follower.” She said.

Oh my god! We dont have time for this bullshit. I will try to get this over with so we can move on.

“Fine! What do you want me to do?” I asked

“Sit down, grab one sharp stone, cut your palm, and hold hands with the young Daemon.”

So much work for nothing.

“How long does this take?” I asked to be sure that we didnt spend to much time on this crap.

“It will just be a moment here, but it can feel like days pass by.” She answered.

I put a sharp stone, cut my palm, and gave it to the young Daemon, who also cut his palm on his tiny hands. Rieven jumped down from my shoulder, thought it was a game, and wanted to join in.

“MEH MEH MEH!”

I took a deep breath because I was so tired of this shit.

“Fine! You can also bind a bond baby.” I said.

We cut the small palm the Rieven had, and all three held hands in a circle. The chanting started, and a red circle appeared from nowhere around the three of us, and I noticed that the Mage looked nervous.

“What is it?” I asked here.

“From the chanting, the Daemon says you can not return until you return your comrades. If you die while the bonding stage is ongoing, you will die here. So be careful not to die.”

“WH…” That was all I managed to muster out before everything went dark.

I lifted my blazer a little bit to check the bleeding area on my stomach, it seems like it covered it well, but still quite a lot of blood around the scarred area. No point in trying to check how deep it is, but it looks like the charm protection I got doesn’t protect much at all. I turned to the Mage, who waited for me, and went to the edge to check down on the other bridges; a fall from this height is bad, and nobody would survive if they fell.

“Can you ask it if it knows where the brother-in-arms is?” I asked it.

Before she could ask, it pointed downwards. How unlucky can I be? Of course, it is beneath, why would they have the prisoners above where the red sky is gaping down the big hole above, it would mean light for the prisoners. The more down you get, the more darkness will greet you and welcome you to a depressing environment. We walked to the other side of the bridge, it was like a small flat area before going into the next stairs to the left, hm…so if someone came from beneath, they could either turn to the bridge or keep walking up the stairs. I wonder if we can keep moving down to the prison through the stairs without any hiccups who am I kidding? It probably is a stop somewhere.

“We had to go down, right?”

The Mage nodded, okay, so going forward, we will only hear the “Meh” sound the rest of the way.

“Meh,” Baby uttered, telling me which direction to go.

“Shut up!” I responded, throwing away my torch and letting only the Mage behind me have a torch as I walked ahead as the dead meat in this messed-up mission.

The stairs ended after a while as we entered a flat ground again, and this time there was a bridge leading to the other side on the right, but there was also a walking path moving forward. A roar echoed suddenly through the area; someone was struggling ahead, and a light lit up the area. I signaled with my hand to the Mage to duck and hide behind the railing, which she did with the Daemon whose face was slowly looking like it was switching color. I sneak peeked above the railing down on the other bridge beneath and saw something moving with a helmet on, walking to the other side. Oh crap! I need to check the other side to see any other stairs. I signaled to the Mage to stay sneaked behind the railing, moving forward, and noticed that the baby had jumped on the ground and was walking beside me with its tongue out. Don’t tell me it is hungry?

The path ended forward and suddenly turned to the left, and I peeked from the edge when the baby jumped on my back, and it looked like it was also peeking. There were two guards with red colored arms, and the gear with the body armour and helmets made it hard actually to see what they were.

They were hitting with their spears towards something, is it a cage, maybe? Something with big claws grabbed one of them from nowhere and smashed it toward the cage. It was so hard that the helmet broke, and purple liquid squirted everywhere, and I hid behind the wall so the other guard wouldn’t see me. Baby had jumped down, and I was thinking about how this dragon could walk on two legs while other dragons were walking on all four. It has to be because of all the overeating of Demons here in the Dungeon.

“Meh,” It said and pointed toward the claws.

Is it the mother? Wow, that would be an excellent scenario for us. We saved the baby. The mother will show respect for us. Maybe it knows a shortcut out of here and will lead us out. Maybe then…I will be able to make it in time and survive. Great plan, that would be great save, and I can focus on getting the other baby back. I turned around the corner and ran towards the guard who was poking the stick inside the cage and when it noticed me it tried to turn its direction toward me and exactly when I was going to throw a fist toward it, a lot of purple sqiurted on my suit and then suddenly changed to spray as it continued to color my suit to a different color. The squashing claw had put its nail right at the guard’s throat, resulting in instant death, and let the blood go in all directions for a couple of seconds without releasing and giving me a new colored suit. Now people will call me the Purple Bitch Investigator.

Baby ran past me and tried to squeeze into the cage, or it was more like a prison cell, where something in the pitch black darkness with yellow eyes was following our every movement. The baby was too fat to squeeze through and was staring into the cell towards the yellow eyes with its mouth open. It kept trying to squeeze in and utter the “Meh” word, maybe it was the baby’s mother?

I went close to the bar and stared towards the yellow eyes to see if I could get a better look. Suddenly, a yellow light moved from the ground and was getting bigger and bigger, and the whole cell lit up as a big yellow dragon was sitting towards the wall. I grabbed the leg of the baby and rolled to the side of the cell, as light colored yellow fire gushed out from the cell in full force.

“Oh, Shit! That was close.”

I did see a chain on the legs of the dragon, but we haven’t done anything. Why is it firing at us?

I moved slowly towards the cell and put my hand down towards the baby so it wouldn’t move up to the cell if the yellow eyes decided to fire again. I put my hands up and moved slowly as the eyes followed my every movement.

“Hi, Friend! I mean no harm.”

The two eyes tilted slightly in the darkness, and my feeling told me it got curious.

“Help! I help!” I tried explaining, moved my right hand, and pointed at the door’s lock with a weird expression.

It blinked, I took that as a yes, or I am unsure, but it is a dragon. What is the worst that can happen? I looked down on baby and it was staring with the black eyes and the damn ugly blue color looking like a volleyball. I clenched my right fist with the chain catching fire instantly and hit the lock that easily shattered. Slowly, I opened the door, but it was dark when the eyes moved quickly, and a small, light yellow ball got puffed out on a torch in the darkness. I could see a dragon covered in gold just staring at me with the shackles stuck to the wall. I do not know how young a dragon is, but this one looked young. Who am I to judge? I put my hand towards my chest and tried to speak to it:

“Me! Zark!”

The dragon was still moving around near the wall, keeping its distance.

“Hrm…Why…is a human with the flesh and body in Hell? Yoh…only seols are ahlowed here…” It uttered with a low-pitched, murky voice.

Why does it sound angry when I am saving the life of a dragon?

“Eh, I…Me…Zark…Am here on a mission…to…save baby!” I tried explaining slowly, thinking it may need me to explain things more slowly to match the same speed, even though I didn’t have time for this.

It hissed at me for no reason and started to speak again:

“Maular! Name…Maular!” And…There it went silent again.

Okay, Maular is the name. The baby moved in front of me staring at the dragon and kept uttering the same damn words calling for mother.

“Why…royal blood with human?” Maular asked.

I looked down at the fat volleyball and lifted it from the ground, holding it toward the dragon.

“You mean you are royal blood or this fat dinosaur?” I asked it.

Maular looked closer at it, and the whole expression changed.

“Tath…Is Reiven! Princess…of the Red Dragon Clan. Wath…is a human doing…with royal blood?… Hav yuh stolen the princess? Firstborn to the queen.” It still managed to keep the same dark, murky tone. It impressed me that this dragon managed to keep the same tone length for every word it spoke, but I still felt like I was in a horror movie.

“Eh! I found it when entering the Dungeon.”

“Reiven whas on way out Dungeon…yuh took it dheeper into Dungeon,” Maular uttered, and it made me realize that it was right; the baby was on its way out, but it would be interesting to see how Rieven would manage to go up the stairs on two legs because she is so fat.

I just kept nodding like I understood the situation completely.

“I, Maular from Golden Dragon Clan, Golden Clan, And Red Dragon Clan…Ehnemy!”

I took a deep breath and pulled Rieven close to my chest. My conscience inside was screaming at my brain, Who let a royal blood princess join in on a cozy prison cell with a full-grown golden dragon from another clan that is the enemy. Great, death creeps up on me like we are homies or something. I wont get a freaking break.

It was an awkward staring contest, the tension was mounting except for Rieven, who kept calling after her mother because she had no clue her enemy was standing before us.

I tried counting the stairs we had gone down, trying to remember we didn’t lose track of our walking direction. When I watched the clock, it was 14 hours left, which made me worried that if we got stuck in this place, dying in a dungeon wasn’t precisely what I thought was the place to die, which was not the best way to go out.

A wind blew through the dark corridor as our torches went out when the chubby baby fired up the whole wall to the right to light up my torch as I stood still. I was sweating with the pain getting worse, and I looked down at the baby, pissed off that I could have lit up together with the torch and the wall.

“Y, Y, YOU DAMN BLUE BALL, NEXT TIME GIVE A HEADS UP BEFORE SHOOTING FIREBALLS,” I yelled at it as it just stared at me and responded:

“M…E…H!”

Of course, everything it can say is calling for its mother. I picked it up and put it on my left shoulder as it grabbed my hair to hold on, but at least it was on the side and could only fire forward. I doubt it can turn because it’s so fat. It would fall if it tried to face me.

After walking for a while, it looked like we had entered a room. The room was huge when we tried to light it up as much as possible with our torches. My brain told me this was a trap, but it was the only way to move forward.

“Ke tah me me yre!” The Daemon uttered with a weak voice.

“Yeah, I don’t talk Daemon. What did it say, Mage?” I asked the girl.

“It says that this is probably a trap!”

“No shit! That was obvious from the room layout.” I commented.

The girl found a scribble on the wall and started to read out loud:

“A demon who passes shall not let anything of the other pass. If something else passes, death only waits ahead.”

Well, I am not surprised that it is a dungeon for demons. It makes me wonder how long the baby has been here. That is strange, but it probably just went around killing demons and kept screaming after its mom and became fat in the process.

“Okay! Well, it is a trap. The only demon we have is dying, more or less, and we do not have time. So I will move forward with the baby and see if any traps activate.”

The Mage nodded. Of course, she didn’t want to die. I wish we had the chair here. Make a sacrifice, throw it in the middle of the room, or use it as a shield if something shows up. I took two steps forward as the chain around my wrist came loose, and I grabbed one end to prepare for battle. Strangely, my right fist didn’t catch on fire, which made me a little worried. I tried moving my fingers to light up my fist with fire, but nothing happened. Is the fire only getting lit up when there is a battle?

I moved a couple more steps forward and noticed two exits from the room, one in front of me at the other end, and one door with a ramp sticking out on the upper right on the wall. The Mage took a few steps behind me, entering the room. I felt as though the whole situation was weird. If there had been traps, it would have gone off by now when I had passed more than half the distance to the other end. I looked around to see if there were any clues before I walked to the door, but baskets were hanging on several hooks. Wait a minute! The center of the room is empty.

“GET BACK MAGE!” I screamed, but it was too late. A clicking sound came beneath us, and all edges of the floor fell into darkness. We stood still, not moving. Rocks kept plunging into darkness as we stood on a smaller rectangular floor with all edges gone and nothing to jump to. I tried moving toward the Mage when a clicking sound went off, and a large part beneath the floor crashed. I noticed the floor was moving in my direction, so I quickly moved forward to keep a straight balance so the floor wouldn’t fall and kill all of us. We would not survive a fall of more than 15 seconds until hitting the ground.

“Well, the door on the other side of the room is out of the question. I guess we have to get up on the ramp and enter the door on the right.” I said with a sarcastic smile, knowing that if the floor got unbalanced in weight, we would die anyway.

She looked afraid and didn’t answer my comment. I wouldn’t call this a child-safe PG-13 mission and decide to go into a pitch-black dungeon with more or less no information. It is like asking to get killed, more or less, if there is no information about it. It reminds me that this is way worse than the time I had an assignment in Paladin Woods when I entered a small dungeon to take out a Minotaur that was kidnapping and eating children. Ah! I don’t want to think about that when this scenario is way worse. I tried to slowly turn my head to see the ramp more closely and use my chain on it, but it wasn’t easy to concentrate and keep the right balance so we wouldn’t fall when my back was against the ramp. I suddenly felt immense pain on the left side of my stomach, and the girl was watching me on the floor on the same side as I had pain. Then I started to puke blood on the ground but kept my balance. I opened my blazer and saw blood covering the left side of my shirt. It was red, so it must be my blood. I looked down at the watch, noticing it was 12 hours left, making me hesitate as I had been here for a long time. Walking in darkness felt like we moved fast, but was it the opposite?

I slowly took off the blazer as the baby fatso didn’t want to get stuck on the blazer and moved to adjust its position on my shoulder, and I moved the chain between my hands to get it off completely. I wrapped the blazer around my waist and pulled it hard in an attempt to slow down the bleeding, or even maybe stop the bleeding. My breathing became a little bit heavier, but that was okay as long as the bleeding didn’t continue. I tried to get my right fist into black fire, but nothing happened. I tried focusing and closed my eyes into pitch-black darkness, and when I opened them again, I was on the field with Sterk standing in front of me.

“You are dying, and this does not look good for you, Zark!”

“I know. I am trying to get my fist to catch black fire, but nothing happens.”

“Yes, that I do know of! You would not come here if there were no problems. Am I right?”

Why was the brat suddenly behaving so maturely? I do not have time for this game he is playing.”

“Please, Sterk! Just tell me how I activate the fire on my fist.”

“Why does the chain keep sticking by your side? Why does it activate together with your powers?”

“The chain? Is it not only a tool for me to use? It just activates depending on the power of its user. I don’t get what you are trying to say here.”

My powers are my powers. What does the involvement of the chain have to do with anything?

“That is where you are wrong. Many believe that the chain only adjusts to its user, but it goes much deeper into the depths of its master. You did not choose the chain. It was the chain that chose you because both of you have the same beliefs and principles. Both of you have the same beliefs. If you know what you believe and what principle in life drives you forward, your fist and the chain will catch fire.”

Wow! Talk about going in-depth with the talk when he is a brat child who deserves a big whopping. What are my beliefs and principles in life, what are they? I want to find Sandra, but the chain doesn’t know her, so that is wrong. It makes me try to think about my life, but I have done a lot of assignments, some deadly, some relatively easy. Why did I do the assignments? Finding Sandra? Not really. It is to protect the citizens, to protect…everyone.

“To protect everyone!” I commented to him.

“Good, you figured out how to activate your powers.”

“ZARK!” Someone yelled behind me as I turned around and saw a woman walking towards the cabin, and a boy came out, running into her arms with a big smile on her face.

“Have you missed your Mother?” She asked the child, and I got confused for a second as the boy looked a little bit like me, but I only remembered a bit of my life in the Orphanage.

A hand pressed my back with a comment from Sterk:

“Sorry! I can’t have you going into a memory flow now. It can kill you.” When a hard push with force from Sterk suddenly moved me back on the floor as I stood still.

The girl was shaking on the floor, and that could mean our death if she tried to move around.

“Do not move and stop shaking, or we can fall,” I told her, but her shaking continued.

I need to fix this now. My fist was on fire, and I was so damn happy that the chain was also on fire. I released most of the chain from my wrist as the small bandage that Jacqueline had done was all covered in blood. I swung the chain repeatedly until it started swinging in the air. I threw it above the ramp, and it got stuck. I couldn’t completely move to pull as hard as I could, but with my little strength, I knew the chain wouldn’t get loose. We will die if it gets loose anyway, and this is the end. I wrapped the leftovers from the chain around my wrist so it wouldn’t be possible to lose its grip.

“Okay! Listen Mage! I am going to turn around with my back towards you. When I count to three, you will take two steps forward as I will slide with my leg a little bit back to balance the weight, and you will have to jump and grab my back because the floor under us will fall.”

“You make it sound so easy!” She commented and adjusted the Daemon, so it was hanging with its last strength around her throat. I wouldn’t be surprised if it would lose its grip and fall into the darkness, but there is no other option.

“Okay! Ready…ONE…TWO…THREE!!!” I yelled out and pulled one leg back, and I quickly noticed the ground releasing under me, and someone was choking me from behind as a baby fell from my shoulder.

We were dangling in the air, and I was waiting for the girl to start climbing, but her grip just got harder.

“M, Mage, climb!” I managed to utter as she now was aware that she was choking me.

She climbed up, and I tried to apprehend the situation as we had lost our blue fire. My leg was swinging back and forth, and I looked down, seeing the baby hanging upside down, tangled up in my shoelace, and it rocked back and forth like it was a game.

“STOP ROCKING BACK AND FORTH, DINOSAUR. YOU ARE BARELY ALIVE AND ARE JUST ADDING MORE CHANCES TO DIE!” I screamed at it as the swinging back and forth stopped, and it went completely silent mode on me.

I climbed up and slowly lifted my foot over the ramp so the small baby wouldn’t hit something and fall.

After we had rested for a bit, we walked through a dark corridor until lights shone from a distance. When we passed the lights, a bridge was going to the other side, as the area had many torches around that lit up. I looked up and could see the red sky. Are we inside a mountain?

There were several bridges above us, and when I turned my attention and looked down, more bridges were crossing above each other in different directions. I looked back from where we came from and realized that this Dungeon was massive. It made me think about the woman. Was she there in Sterk’s dreamy world, or was it a memory of my life?

“What are you looking at?” The girl asked.

I turned to her and answered:

“I just realized that there is no turning back. I will die here. The priority now is to save the prisoner and to get you out, but my life is over. I will die in this Dungeon.”

Looking at the entrance to the Dungeon, I felt a little bit uneasy to enter. The entrance was a head of a dragon with an open mouth. That made me worried that we might get more than we bargained for.

“Are you sure the Daemon’s so-called brother-in-arms is here?” I asked the girl.

She just nodded, waiting for me to make a move. I still felt the pain in my shoulder and wrist, but I just got reminded I forgot the shield. Oh! Damn it, I forgot the damn shield at the Office. I watched down on the clock as two hours passed since we left the factory area. That means we can’t walk back to go around; we must find a way out in the mountains. I stepped forward and noticed the girl didn’t move from the spot, and I asked her:

“Are you not coming?”

It was quiet, and I noticed she suddenly had a hat on her head. Did she hide her hat from everyone else earlier? It was weird. Is she a wizard? Nah, she doesn’t have a stick in her hand. Witch maybe? Not sure. She doesn’t look like the ones in the organization.

“I looked, and it was dark inside. We won’t be able to see anything.” She commented.

Dah! It is a dungeon. What did she expect it would be, a rolled-up red carpet buffet?

“Wait by the entrance, and I will go in and look.”

I went inside, and she was damn right about it being dark, it was pitch black. After a few steps in the darkness, I slipped and fell on the ground, noticing it was stairs. That was a close one. If I had dropped rolling down the stairs, it would be a little bit scary because I could not see anything. I leaned my body to the right wall and slowly descended the stairs.

After a while, I reached the bottom and felt the ground around me to ensure there weren’t any holes around me. I need to check if something is in the darkness here. It is impossible just to move around and hope to get killed. I will try with sound and see if something reacts in the dark.

“CAH! CAH!” I tried making a bird sound with something reacting from a distance.

Something light blue was shining not far away. I moved slowly toward the light when suddenly, the area where the light turned into blue fire was a big area shining up in blue. You have to be freaking kidding with me. Please do not be a damn dragon in the Dungeon.

I sneaked closer to the area and hid behind a wall to see if the coast was clear. I could see my hands at last in the darkness. A screeching sound echoed through all the open paths. I went into the lit-up area and hid behind a pillar. I need to wait a bit and see if the coast is clear. Suddenly, I saw two shadows show in the light where one had wings, and a battle occurred. I could see in the shadows the battle ended in an instant, and when I was going to sneak peek to check how big the creature was, a head rolled in front of me. It was a damn red lizard head. I gagged on the damn smell, and I tried to be as quiet as possible not to attract the attention of the creature.

“Mej,” something said, repeating the same word several times.

Could the creature talk? Should I take the risk and speak to it? That would be an idiotic idea, and only Berk would do something that stupid, considering what it did with the lizard. It probably killed it with one hit. I moved away from the area and tried to feel with my hands on the walls to find the stairs, and when I came there, I went up so fast, knowing that it was pointless even trying to go down the Dungeon again.

When I came to the entrance, the girl was waiting with the dia…Daemon in her arms.

“We need to move, NOW!” I told her and started to walk away.

“W..What! No, you must respect the last wishes of a warrior who risked their life to save us.” She said with a lot of guilt-tripping.

I stopped, took a long breath, and turned to her.

“There is a creature with light blue fire in that Dungeon, close to the stairs. If we go down there, we can die. It killed a red lizard in an instant. I could not even face it; that was how big it was.”

“Did you see which creature it was?”

“I didn’t need to. The shadow I saw was enough to know I should not even go close to the light blue area. Even the sound from the creature repeating the Meh sound like it was a tactic to lure out enemies to kill them.” I tried explaining.

The girl went into the Dungeon with the Daemon, and I was surprised for a second. Did she even listen to what I just told her?

I hurried after her and could hear her hurry down the stairs. I heard her touch the bottom, and the sound of her going to the left was clear. Why is she going toward the light where death awaits?

I hurried to the left toward the light, ignoring my walking path, and hoped I would not get attacked or hit something when I came up to the area of the light. I hid towards the wall and saw the girl relaxed, hiding behind a pillar. Why is she so relaxed?

“MEH!” Again, the sound from the creature echoed through the air.

I tried waving to the girl as she looked to relax in this situation. She then responded to the sound of the creature.

“Mjeh!”

Is she calling out to the creature?

“Mueh!” It responded.

“Mjeh Mjeh!” She responded.

“MEH, MEH!” It made a loud sound as the shadow became bigger.

I moved quickly, and when she was going to show herself for the creature, I pushed her back into the pillar and prepared myself for battle when a round-looking dinosaur was on the ground in a dark blue color. It looked like a mini lizard…sort of!

The chain released itself, and my right hand caught black fire as I swung the chain, and it swirled around the chubby ball dinosaur.

“NO! MOVE AWAY!” The girl suddenly screamed out in the air.

“MEH!” The chubby dinosaur uttered and opened its mouth with a ball growing bigger and bigger of blue fire aimed at me. I released the chain from my hand and quickly moved towards a pillar, and a blue fire swiped through both sides of the pillar. I tried to stand as still as possible to avoid catching fire.

“MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHH! It screamed out again as the blue fire passed the pillar, which had slightly changed color, and I could feel how the pillar was getting hot. Is the dinosaur trying to destroy the pillar with fire?

“Mjeh!” The girl uttered as it became quiet. I leaned slightly to the side to take a peek at what was happening when I noticed the girl had shown herself for the dinosaur.

“Go back, move to the stairs, and get the Hell out of here. Just move to safety. I will find a way out from here!” I told her, noticing her facial expression showed that she was angry.

“Stupid, it is a baby dragon. It is calling out after its mother. It looks lost.” The girl said.

I slowly showed myself from the pillar with both my hands in the air and my right hand still gushing out the black fire.

“I yield!” I told the little dragon. It just stared at me without even showing its teeth when it suddenly climbed up on my body and put its mouth through my right hand as the black fire went out, and my hand was suddenly in the dragon’s mouth. I shook my hand around to get the dragon off my hand. It released in the end, and my hand soaked with the dragon’s drool. Noticing my black fire was gone with a bad smell. I started to gag repetitively because I couldn’t bear the damn smell. The girl laughed loudly, reminding me no children smiled when rescued earlier. I wonder what they have gone through in the prisons.

“We should take the baby with us. The mother doesn’t seem to be here. Dragon mothers always guard the baby, so it seems it is not close by!” The girl commented.

“Yeah, whatever. It looks like it can shoot blue fireballs. Maybe that will make it easier for us to reach the prisons.” I explained.

The Daemon pointed into another dark walking path, and I grabbed one of the torches that the chubby blue dragon had lit up. We were moving on, going deeper, which worried me a bit because I didn’t know if I was the only one who could fight with the exemption of the blue cannonball we had with us. I hope this does not take too long.

I do not know why I have to see Jacqueline when waking up. It feels like a curse, with Jacqueline’s face haunting my dreams.

“Are you all right, Old man?”

I moved her face out of my way and noticed I was not wearing any clothes on my upper body. I felt pain in my left shoulder and my right wrist. It was covered in a green bandage when I noticed Jacqueline had made a remake of her dress, which was even shorter now. Her plump ass was almost showing, ugh, I don’t want to think about it.

“We didn’t find any bandage in the factory, but we can probably find something on the way to the town,” Fierna commented.

A bunch of children were around as I slowly got up and looked for my shirt. A small child came forth holding my shirt in her hands and said:

“I wosha! Chlen nuw!”

Uh…Right! I wore a shirt that was soaking wet, but I didn’t want to upset the little one who had tried to wash off all the blood. It made me wonder how the girls managed to get through the Office and follow me.

“How did you finish the Office when I passed both of you?”

Jacqueline raised her eyebrows, looking surprised at my question.

“You smashed the head in on the final boss without blinking and kept running. I managed to finish my one and noticed you from a distance running to the right, and I started running after you. Then, when Fierna finished all of them, she saw me from a distance and began to run after me.” Jacqueline explained.

The girl from my dream came with my blazer, handed it to me, and bowed. The rest of the children also bowed, with a couple of demon babies in the back doing the same. All of them at the same time shouted:

“THANK YOU, MAN DRESSED IN BLACK FROM THE UZZA CLAN.”

I was so confused. I just did my job and scratched my head with a weird expression. Well, the kids seem all right as we need to get them home…or wait a minute. I looked down at my watch to see how long time it was left until I would die, and the clock was ticking down from 18 hours. The children split up as the girl from the room with one of the diaper demons in her hands. It was bleeding from the chest area, and it didn’t look like it had a long time left.

“Mister! As the Dameon has not long left to live, it has made a last request to go and free its brother-in-arms, who is in prison not far from here in a dungeon.”

Dungeon doesn’t sound like a good vibe at all, and if we get stuck there, it will be over.

“I am sorry! But I do not think we will have a long time here. We need to hurry to the town.” I tried explaining to her.

“Dameon insist! You will get a companion for your trip.”

I looked at Fierna and Jacqueline, yeah!… I do not want to build a harem and make this an erotic adventure like half of all LITRPG stories. Jacqueline is already wearing tight, with her dress almost showing her ass and Fierna’s tank top and big tits bouncing around.

“COULDN’T BOTH OF YOU WEAR MORE TACTICAL OUTFITS INSTEAD OF LOOKING LIKE FREAKING BAYWATCH IS ON A VISIT!” I screamed to both of them.

Fiernas’s eyes became more of darker red as she looked angry at my comment and responded:

“Hell is warm, and if you even blink in the direction of my boobs. I will kill you and leave you for dead here in Hell so the creatures can have fun with your human soul.”

I think that escalated relatively high on a Richter scale to the ‘do not bring these things up in your story’ type of comment.

“Fine! We can not take all the children with us to a dungeon. I will go with the girl and the dia…I mean the Daemon to the Dungeon check after the brother in whatever battle arms.”

“Fine! We will start to walk towards the town!

When we came out, the girl was pointing forward toward the location of the Dungeon.

“That is not possible for us to go! We need to walk back to where the Office is and move forward. What if you get stuck in the Dungeon and come out too late? You will have difficulty catching up with us; you know what will happen the more time it counts down. We do not even know if the 24 hours will always hold. If you start breaking down, it is over. We won’t be able to come back for you.”

“A life is a life. I don’t care if we have to save all good creatures here in Hell. If it is not evil, it deserves to live its life, even in Hell. Imagine believing you could have done something right but didn’t. That will live forever inside your heart because you decided to leave someone behind. I choose to save lives. That is how I am. A Van Polan never backs down, no matter what.”

Meanwhile, in The Fallen Kingdoms Area, where Berk Van Polan currently is…

“FUCK YOU AND FUCK THIS FUCKING TOWN WE ENDED UP IN. ALL THE CITIZENS HAVE STATUS BARS IN THIS TOWN. WE ARE IN A FUCKING LITRPG, ARENT WE? I AM NOT GOING TO GO AND DIG UP FARM SHIT FOR 60 LEVELS AND CHAPTERS JUST TO PASS A FUCKING SUBLEVEL THAT HAS NO POINT TO THE FUCKING TOWN STORY. DO YOU GET THAT, YOUR DAMN BOX?” I screamed at the Box floating in the air, Mejni hit his paw toward his face, and Stella looked like a question mark, not catching up with why I was so pissed off.

The Box disappeared and left us at the entrance of the town.

A trembling blond farmer-looking guy approached us at the town entrance, but because we hadn’t entered the line leading into the town, it didn’t look like it could talk to us…yet. Blondi didn’t stop trembling for some reason.

Mejni crossed the line, and we followed after when the trembling Farmer said:

“I…I…I…I…W…W…Welcome…You…To…L…L…L…”

“LITRPG Town,” I uttered with a murky voice.

“I am…T…Tristan!” He said.

“Do we need to interact with the Retardo Berk! He acts like you:” Mejni whispered, and I looked at him surprised because I didn’t tremble.

“Eh…So…what do you want, Tristan!”

“I…I…I have a big dream…C…C…Can I join y…y…your Party Or Guild.”

Shit, it takes like forever for this guy to even ask anything.

A box with a lot of text appeared above Tristan’s head. It read: Farmer, no battle skills if killed in battle, can dig up unions in 60 minutes, potatoes in 500 minutes. Blah blah, more text. Farmer is currently a non-playable character. Then, the Box updated the text to ask if Tristan could join our party. Oliva had disappeared with only Mejni on the ground, and I made signs with my hand so we could move to the side to discuss it.

“One second Tristan, I will talk with my cat.”

“It is Meercat, you stupid hooman!” Mejni commented.

When we took a little bit of distance from Tristan, I bent down and told Mejni:

“I have the most fantastic idea because I am the best. Let the character join our party. We can use it as a shield in deadly situations. Nobody will give a shit if It dies.” I said, and Mejni nodded with his tongue out, which made me wonder what the damn cat was thinking.

“What! Why is your tongue out? What are you thinking?”

“Uh! I was thinking of letting the Farmer join so we could use you as a shield hooman.”

Why haven’t I killed this damn cat earlier? I can see the eyes he wants to kill me. It always feels like a kill-or-get-killed situation with him around.

“Never mind, and put your damn tongue back into your mouth.”

We returned to Tristan, and I pressed the accept button in the Box, and a big box of windows floated above my head. Tristan stopped trembling and stared at the Box above my head. I moved slightly to the side to see what the Box was showing, which made Tristan stop trembling.

“Tristan has joined The Villain Party Of Berk Van Polan! Information about the party is as follows: Playing on level Mission Impossible, a dangerous group that should get killed on sight. No capture is needed; there will be a big reward in the Billions of Randid if the party gets terminated.”

Tristan fell on his knees and started crying like the world had collapsed. Well, it did collapse on him because we would use him as a shield.

Back to Zark Van Polan…

“You know what, let me retract my last comment. Zark Van Polan would never back down to save a life. I can not say that for the whole Van Polan organization because there is one idiot who is a danger to everyone. He probably kills more citizens than saves them, and I don’t want to be associated with him.” I tried explaining more correctly this time.

“I do not care!” Fierna uttered and walked away with most of the children and Jacqueline. She yelled with her back towards me:

“MAKE SURE TO NOT WALK BACK TO THE FACTORY. YOU ARE WALKING IN THE SAME DIRECTION AS WE WILL WALK. YOU NEED TO FIND A WAY THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS.”

Oh…I didn’t think about that; we were walking in the same direction as the town but on the other side of the mountains. All I have to do is find a way over to the other side to catch up. That shouldn’t be so hard. We started walking with the dia…Daemon and the girl, giving me some hope that the Dungeon wasn’t that far away.

I opened my eyes and saw the furniture move towards me. I quickly got up and leapt towards the table as a right hook moved toward me from the right. I dodged it and rolled forward under the table, grabbing my chain and hitting with my fist upward, beneath the table. The furniture stopped moving, and the table started to shake as it split in the middle. My chain got loose, with silence taking over for a few seconds in our surroundings. The chain circled my wrist, and I turned around and ran towards the other end with both the girls in battle with the furniture. I moved between them and jumped with my foot towards the door as it crashed down. I rolled forward, seeing a big black creature that roared in a high-pitched sound with three weird eyes. It moved towards me as I leaned with my right upper body back, my right fist catching in black fire as the creature opened its mouth; I hit with full strength inside the mouth. I kept following my movement to the next door, crashing it down. When I turned to the left, I saw ground without any walls covered in all red. I opened the door and started running East as fast as possible.

After a few minutes, I approached a building with a chimney and smoke coming out from it, and two red creatures, who looked like guards by the entrance, noticed me and charged towards me. I met up with them and easily dodged when one of them tried hitting me with the spear; with a fast move, I guided the spear towards the other one’s throat, with red blood splashing everywhere. I hit with my fist on the one with the spear, and I kept hitting it with the chain as a glove towards the red lizard’s head as blood splattered around me. I entered the building and looked around. This area didn’t look like what I saw with Sterk. Which one do I choose from the two directions, left or right?

I opened the door to the left, and there was only a room with several red lizard creatures looking at me.

“Eh! Sorry, wrong room!” I said and ran in the other direction, hunted by several red human-like lizards that didn’t make sense.

While jogging through a long corridor with doors to the left and right, I was sure this must be the place. In the end, a big green creature looking like a goblin on steroids opened the door, and I think I made it in time to save the children. Something behind me screamed a weird sound, and when I was just going to look behind me quickly, a damn lizard came flying toward me, and I bent back as much as possible to dodge the hit, but I made it…almost hitting the ground on my back and made a forward flip to get up fast. I felt the right side of my chest and noticed my shirt had been cut from my stomach to my shoulder, with a thick red line of blood dripping on the floor. The damn lizard had a knife in its hand. Okay! Think Zark!… One covers the road ahead, moving towards the children, and a couple moves from the other direction. The chain released its grip around my wrist, and one end fell to the floor. My right fist caught on black fire as it spread through the whole chain. I monitored the children when I saw the little girl staring in my direction.

“I TOLD YOU THE MAN IN BLACK WOULD COME!” She screamed out loud.

I pulled back my arm and swung the chain as a whip, grabbing the leg of the knife lizard and swinging it towards me. I ducked as it hit a couple of lizards behind me. I kept running forward towards the children when I saw the Goblin hitting the girl as she swung right into the wall before it grabbed the child and guided them out from my view. I looked back, and a freaking axe just missed me, hitting a door as the lock broke, and I backed a couple of steps backwards as the door smashed one of the lizards, as a couple of small…red babies with round big heads wearing diaper like underwear came out as they screamed:

“FAZDAH!” Looking at me and giving a thumbs up.

Are they demon babies?

They prepared for battle as a little girl came out last, looking at me and said:

“It is okay, mister. The demons will make sure they can not move any further. They may be small and short, but they are warriors.”

I was hesitant to keep moving but quickly decided to move on as I heard the small minions scream and jump on the walls, attacking the lizards with the girl standing in the back. I came around the corner and went through the door with the sound of the machine making me boil of rage. I ran towards the stairway as one green Goblin charged towards me. I leaned my upper body again, and my fist hit this time from above downwards as the Goblin hit the ground. I quickly followed with hitting through the head, covered in even more blood now on my suit with different colours, and moved up the stairs as the Goblin was holding the boy above. The other children ran down the stairs to move away, and I took slow steps, trying to de-escalate the situation, showing the Goblin I wouldn’t do anything. I got closer to the Goblin as I noticed it was holding a knife to the boy’s throat and moved closer to the machine. It was grunting, and from the expression, I suppose it told me to keep my distance or the machine would shred the boy to pieces. I put my hands in the air, showing nothing would happen. The Goblin bent down and picked up an axe from the ground. Of course, it needed to be a more effective weapon because I was a lucky guy. Why do these things happen to me only?

The Goblin pushed the boy towards the machine, and I reacted quickly and moved forward when the Axe swung towards me. I pulled my right arm as cover with the Axe, hitting my wrist, but with immense force, it dug through the chain and went through half my wrist with me screaming out in pain as the boy was losing his balance and was going to fall into the machine. I grabbed the Axe with my left hand and cut the head of the bastard, and I swung the chain that circled the boy’s leg as he fell off the edge, and I pulled back, holding with my left hand as my right hand was shaking. I could feel the weight on the chain. The boy has not reached the shredder as long as I keep hold of it.

“You alive still?” I asked.

“YES…YES…BRING ME UP!” He screamed back.

The other children came up the stairs and noticed my shaking right hand, and they started to pull the chain back together to help get the boy up. I saw his foot as the other children went to the edge and helped pull him up on the platform, and when I saw all of them on the platform, I released the chain from my hand. The children hurled together and moved down the stairs as I followed them. My vision became a little bit blurry as I fell to my knees, and something exploded on my left shoulder. I coughed up blood and tried to coordinate myself to try and get up when the door opened.

“ZARK!” I heard someone scream out in the air.

As I was going to fall, someone grabbed me, and I tried to see who it was, but it was too blurry. I saw green, so it must probably mean that it is the brat.