“The abandoned capital of Soteria. DawnGuard… This area of land has been abandoned, undisputed by either our great Zeta Empire, or The Holy Kingdom of Soteria, for over 2000 years. Despite being both a great historical site and nearly 200 miles of easily developable land… Why?”

  The teacher turns away from his chalkboard. He had just finished drawing a simple map. It’s essentially an upside down triangle. The north of the triangle, leading into an ocean. The southwest was The Holy Kingdom of Soteria. The southeast was the Zeta Empire. A line separates the two, coming from the bottom point of the triangle. The inside of the triangle is marked with lines that emphasize the region of land the class will be learning today.

  I ray of daylight covers the teacher's eyes as he looks around the class. He starts to frown as he scouts the class for raised hands. “Anyone?”

  Eva’s eyes dart around to see no one has raised their hands. She frowns and goes to raise her hand, only to nervously rub the tip of her long ear. She finally decides to fully commit and raise her hand completely.

  The teacher grins at her attempt to be a good student. “Ah, Eva.”

  The young Eva lifts her head with a fake smile. “Uh- Because the land is bad?”

  The teacher nods his head. “That is technically correct, but not exactly what I’m looking for.”

  Eva's fake smile slowly vanishes from her face. Everyone in class is now looking directly at her. She was right, but not right enough… She will be punished for this.

  The teacher ignores this fact and continues his lesson. “No, the land isn’t simply bad. The land around the ancient capital had been cursed. Cursed by the goddess Soteria when she had reached apotheosis. Does anyone here know why the goddess cursed her own home the moment she had become a god?”

  No one raised their hand. Some of them knew the answer, but it was too risky. The teacher smiles at the more common reaction when he asks a question. “Eva! Perhaps you know?”

  Eva grits her teeth as the attention is turned on her once more. She looks around at the oppressive gazes of her peers. “Uh, yes- um.” Her eyes widen as she thinks of an answer that might work. “Because she was a human! A stupid selfish human!”

  The teacher breaks into a maniacal grin at the answer. “Correct! Since she was a selfish human, Soteria wanted to hide her path to godhood so no one could follow her! She had cursed her own home so nobody could follow her path to divinity!”

  Eva sighs at answering correctly, but freezes as a shadow looms over her desk. Eva looks up at the teacher standing right in front of her. The glint of his glasses hiding his eyes and his mouth in a wide blackened grin.

  “Your hatred for humans is admirable Eva, but the ignorance in your vagueness is laughable.” He leans in and the glint vanishes to reveal pure golden irises. “Worry not sister. We will remove your flaws.”

  ---

  Eva stares at the ceiling of this massive cavern. Everyone else is too focused on the massive cube to notice what she has her eyes trained on. It was a moon, a strangely glowing moon stuck to the ceiling of the dungeon. She decided to use Identify on it.

  (Faux Moon / level 130)

  The details of the Faux Moon suddenly become more visible to Eva.

  Thousands of humanoid creatures stuck together in a writhing mass. Dozens of humans, elves, barbarians, orcs, goblins, and even a few dwarves are mixed in this thing. Their skin had become translucent and their innards glow a brilliant blue that outshines their horrified expressions. Random objects such as clothing, armour, and supplies are stuck between the squirming bodies of the Faux Moon.

  Eva feels that they are about to share the same fate of those lost to create the Faux Moon. Her gaze falls back down to the massive cube floating in the center of the cavern. One of the smooth faces of the cube cracks open.

  The cube unfurls outward as a staircase made from rock extends from the cracked surface of the cube. The staircase grows downward hundreds of feet before reaching the ground.

  The Zombified Blattaria Anathema jolts, and its massive tendrils of translucent flesh push outward and dig into the ground to start pulling itself towards the staircase.

  Tiffany suddenly calls out to the party. “We are not going to die in this place!”

  It was a simple declaration, but it made Eva pause. Does Tiffany really think that we could survive this scenario? It was an impossible situation. The monsters here are casually over level 100. Whatever compelled this monster to bring them there must be even more massively powerful. Before Eva can spiral even further into despair, Tiffany calls out to them again.

  “We are not going to die! This monster could have killed us, but didn’t! It wants us for something! There’s still hope that we can live through this! So, I swear to god, if any of you give up! I’m killing you myself!”

  The monster had now reached the staircase and started dragging its gelatinous body up it.

  Eva understands what Tiffany is doing. She is trying to improve morale. Eva is well acquainted with the idea of threatening subordinates with violence to get them to steal themselves.

  Eva drops her head and the monster's hair constricts at the sudden movement. She is tired. So tired- Eva is sick of all the politicking and competing with her siblings. That’s why they are here in the first place.

  Eva needed to provide something valuable to the empire, in order to improve her personal standing. She needed it- If she didn’t provide value, she would be disgraced and practically become a slave.

  She found an opportunity in a lowly Nav Imp. Eva had summoned a deformed Nav Imp with three arms, and it whispered secrets of treasure underneath the abandoned capital, DawnGuard.

  A demon sealing collar. It sounds like a simple demonic artifact, but it represents much more. Cultists can actually summon demons at any level. The problem with summoning demons stronger than yourself, is that the demon will kill you if it thinks it can. But with this supposed collar, that problem becomes mute.

  The plan was to summon a demon above level 200. Apply the collar before the demon can escape the first devil's hands and enslave the high leveled demon with ease.

  That’s what the Nav Imp promised. Now the demon is dead- Her expedition is dead. They are about to die, and even if they do live, she would surely be disgraced for losing a large chunk of her lifespan.

  The monster’s large body hangs limply off each side of the staircase as it slowly climbs. Now almost reaching the top.

  Eva is so tired that she attempts to let herself fall asleep right then and there.

  “Eva!”

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Eva jolts back to reality at the sudden use of her real name. She looks over at the person that called out to her. It was Tiffany and she looked scared-

  Tiffany stared at her with a kind of intensity that she had never felt from her before. What came next out of the mad woman's mouth was the most sincere thing Eva had ever heard from her.

  Tiffany gritted her teeth and spat out. “Don’t you dare faint!”

  Eva frowned at her. Her face contorted and she felt like she wanted to cry. Eva closed her eyes and nodded affirmatively at her summon. She still wanted to live after all.

  The monster slowly pulls the party into the cube. And they prepare themselves to meet the real reason why the goddess had cursed her own home-

  ---

  I was livid. Everyone had immediately resigned themselves and it pissed me off. I did my best to make sure everyone had their shit together before we got pulled into this giant cube.

  The rock of the cube crumbled away and the thunder got more and more muffled as we got pulled further into the darkness. We traveled through the tunnel in the pitch blackness. The only sound being the sloshing of the monster's movements.

  Light catches my eye at the end of this long tunnel. We finally reached the center of the cube.

  We entered a perfectly square room. Small black flames sitting in each corner, the white light washing out all color. At the center of the room sits an abomination. He rises to his feet and looks at us.

  He has six arms, three on each side of his torso. His bipedal legs each have an extra knee joint. One of his heads hangs to the side with his eyes closed and the other stares with completely white eyes. His fur covers him like a gorilla, leaving his chest and faces bare. He has over a dozen tails that stretch out across the room like vines.

  The conscious head scratches his neck, drawing attention to an ornate tattoo wrapping around it.

  (??? / ???)

  “YOU!”

  The monster suddenly drops us to the ground and is sent flying into the ceiling of the room. I catch myself and look up at the Zombified Blattaria Anathema. Its body now crumples in on itself as its own soul surrounds it completely.

  “Th- There were six of them! A cultist! A level 25 cultist! W- W- Where is it?!”

  A voice booms out from the creature. It ricochets inside my mind.

  HUNGER DEATH

  Its mouth rips open once again and it screams out. “LEt mE EnD!”

  The abomination seems to recoil at the monster's words. “Oh! I- I see what h- happened. Some o- of your being was taken w- with your essence.” he laughs at himself as his face twitches at impossible speeds. “I- I don’t need you now a- anyway.”

  The monster falls to the ground and its soul is ripped from its body. The abomination yanks the soul towards himself and twirls the thing between his arms. He claps down on the soul and it shatters into thousands of pieces.

  You have slain a (Zombified Blattaria Anathema / level 109)

  -

  More experience rewarded

  You have leveled up! (46 → 48)

  -

  You have earned (10) stat points

  I rise to my feet as I stare at the abomination. His soul is so massive that we are sitting inside of it, partly obscuring my perception. I take a step back and his eyes connect with mine.

  “Restrain.”

  Suddenly, without my permission, my aura manifests. My body locks up as my own aura gets in the way. I struggle to move, but my own soul refuses to budge. “What the-?!”

  The abomination pulls his awake head back. “O- Oh. You c- can still talk? Y- You're even moving a little bit too!”

  I blink at him before looking around to see everyone elses souls have manifested into auras. They are completely frozen like statues. I attempt to manipulate my aura, only for it to not react at all. “Sh- Shit!”

  The abomination gasps and pulls three of his arms to his mouth to cover it. “You’re lucky father isn’t here o- or he would smack y- you across the head!”

  My fear is replaced with confusion. And a little intrigue-

  “Father?”

  He smiles slightly, but his eyes portray nothing but insanity. “Yes! F- Father! Bogodhan loves all of his children after all.” He lifts one of his hands and everyone is pulled into the air. Everyone is slowly pulled towards the abomination as he smiles at me.

  “M- M- My name is Abatu The Abomination. Y- you have heard of me?”

  I blink rapidly at him. “Yeah! Yeah, sure I have!”

  He immediately scowls and stomps his foot. Cracks explode across the room. “H- How c- c- could you have not have h- heard of me?! I- I am Abatu! The abominable demon king! I- I ruled over t- this continent f- for hundreds of years! Every race b- bowed before me! T- The humans, elves, and the ruthless barbarians w- were enslaved all the same!”

  Everyone was pushed back and slammed against the far wall. Abatu continues ranting.

  “E- Even the dwarves respected me! They d- d- didn’t challenge my power!”

  He rapidly swings his arms about wildly, grabbing onto the air at random and his body. His tails tear through the ground and walls. I notice the rock slowly reforming behind it as he continues to tear the environment apart.

  “No- No. The others might still know me. L- Let me see.”

  I turn to see the others have their aura pulled from their heads and they gasp for air. Were they not able to breathe?

  Abatu looks on at the rest of the group expectantly, rubbing around his neck. Geltor is the first to speak up. “I- I know you!”

  Abatu grins and his voice becomes high pitched. “You do!”

  Geltor tries to work his mouth and eventually stammers out. “You’re Abatu. You were before Soteria. When this continent was called Mult.”

  Abatu pauses, all expression in his face had disappeared. He tilts his awake head at Geltor and looks at him with dead eyes. “Soteria?”

  The atmosphere changes, and when I say ‘atmosphere’ I mean his soul. An oppressive flood of bloodlust fills the room, pouring from his neutral face.

  He is about to kill everyone here-

  I called out to him, “Why did you bring us here!”

  The bloodlust vanishes and I gasp for air. He slowly blinks at me. “W- Why did?”

  Abatu smiles once more and starts clapping a pair of hands together. “Y- Yes, yes! I brought you a- all here simply.” We are pulled away from the far wall and pulled towards the abomination as he gleefully chuckles to himself.

  We drop to the floor and I regain control over my soul. I try to grasp it with Magical Aura Manipulation, but it feels sore. I’m still trying to process that control over my own soul was ripped away from me.

  Abatu’s laughter doesn’t let me dwell on it however. “I- I know! I know! Let's see.”

  I think about what Abatu could possibly want. Is he trapped here? Does he want to escape? Are we just going to be-

  “Let’s play house!”

  Entertainment-

  I grit my teeth as he looks towards Toulif and Eva. “N- The two elves will be mother and father! That just w- works too well!” He then points at me. “You will of course be sister! And you-” He looks down at the small Nav Imp. “Y- You will be the dog.”

  I think to myself. He is more like a cat-

  “NO!” Abatu snaps to me with anger filling his face. I freeze in his presence. He closes his eyes and starts to breathe slowly then nods to himself. He then opens his eyes and stares into my soul. “Do not disagree w- with me.”

  I grab onto my chest and breathe to myself. Did he read my mind? That shouldn’t be possible with the Interloper trait. Did my soul reveal that I was disagreeing with him?

  “Y- Yes! It’s p- perfect! We’ll be family from n- now on! A- and-” Abatu stops as his eyes land on Gent. He stares at the cultist for a moment then purses his lips.

  “I don’t need a brother-”

  And the abomination flicks his wrist-