As Olgoi-Khorkhoi fell, Damien considered for a moment whether he should make it a shadow.
The worm's body lay sprawled across the desert, its two halves still twitching, its ichor pooling beneath the sand. It was a Monster Rex... Its power was immense. Its size was incomprehensible.
But he decided not to.
A shadow of such a monster would be too big. Too unwieldy. It would be a liability in any battlefield, its massive form crushing allies as easily as enemies. He could not control something that large, not effectively. And beyond that, he did not see the usefulness of it. What enemy would require a worm the size of a continent? What battle would be won by a creature that could not fit within the walls of Orario?
He dismissed the thought and moved on.
There would be other monsters. Stronger monsters. Monsters he could actually use. He was heading deeper into the dungeon now, and he knew what awaited him below. The Guardian Rexes. The remaining five. Each one more powerful than the last.
He would deal with them when he found them.
...
Floor Seventy-Two
...
Damien descended to the next floor, and what he found made him pause.
It was the same lake. The beautiful lake he had seen on Floor Seventy-One...the one Olgoi-Khorkhoi had used to trick him. The same green grass. The same towering waterfall. The same distant mountains.
But this one was real.
He could tell the difference. The illusion had been too perfect, too extravagant, too designed to lure him in. This was different. It was a nice lake...not the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, but pleasant. A river connected to it, flowing from the waterfall. The mountains in the distance were tall but not impossibly so. The trees were green but not vibrant to the point of suspicion.
This was a safe zone.
Damien smiled.
"Safe zone number five," he said to himself. "Under Resort on the Eighteenth. Under Garden on the Twenty-Eighth. Under Bridge on the Thirty-Eighth. Under Ruins on the Fiftieth. And now..." He looked around, considering. "I was the one who named the Fiftieth, so I will name this one too."
He tilted his head.
"Under Lake? No. Under Desert? Since it literally is under a desert..." He shook his head. "No. That is crap."
He raised his eyes toward the waterfall.
"You know what? Who cares. Probably no other adventurer will ever arrive here without me." He grinned. "Let's call it Under Falls."
He laughed to himself.
"And if someone complains about the God King's naming sense, I will punish them by naming their firstborn too! Ha! That will show them."
He decided to rest.
He summoned a makeshift beach chair from his inventory and set it up near the lake's edge. He pulled out a cocktail...something fruity, something cold—and settled into the chair, his eyes fixed on the waterfall.
The sound of the water was soothing. The air was cool and fresh. For a moment, he could almost forget where he was. Almost forget the horrors he had faced, the battles he had fought, the enemies that still waited below.
He closed his eyes.
Then he sensed it.
A presence. Approaching.
'No... two of them'
He opened his eyes.
"Well... that took a bit longer than I expected."
"We apologize for boring you... Shadow Monarch."
The voice was deep. Growling. Coming from behind him.
Damien did not turn.
"Arrogantly sitting while we are here... You must be pretty confident, eh?" Another voice....feminine, playful, coming from the lake.
He heard the water ripple. Heard footsteps on the sand.
"Would you like a massage? Or maybe a foot rub?" The woman's voice was sultry, teasing. "In fact, I will even blow you a bit. Give you a nice relaxing blowjob. Let you have your way with my body if you want. Since you are about to die, I will give you that much."
Damien smiled. He turned to face them.
"Before we do this... may I have your names? And your ranks?"
The man stepped forward first.
He was strange. A figure in dark, suit-like clothing, with hollow black eyes. He moved like a puppet....stiff, unnatural, as if his body was not his own.
"Of course. My deepest apologies, sir. I am known as the Fifth Dungeon Rex. Guardian of the Lord of Light." He bowed. "Nuckelavee."
The woman emerged from the lake.
She was breathtaking. Flawless, pale skin that seemed to glow with an inner, watery light. Full, round breasts with taut nipples. The smooth, inviting curve of her hips, openly displayed. Long, wet hair the color of river silt clung to her shoulders and back, framing a face of angelic innocence. Her eyes were deep, hypnotic green...promising pleasures both carnal and fatal.
"And I, darling, am your submissive girl. I will service you all day long if you so ask." She smiled, slow and seductive. "I am known as the Fourth Dungeon Rex. Rusalka."
Damien looked at her for a long moment.
"Sorry, love." He shook his head. "But I am already taken."
He paused, then grinned.
"Also... I am not into old, ugly monsters like you."
Rusalka laughed. It was an innocent, cute sound....light and musical.
Then her voice changed.
"YOU DARE CALL ME UGLY!"
Her appearance shifted.
Her beauty rotted away. Her flawless skin became a bloated, waterlogged corpse—the color of a drowned bruise. Her angelic face twisted into a nightmare of hollow eye sockets and a jaw hanging slack, revealing jagged, fish-like teeth. Her curves became a sack of decomposing flesh, bones poking through in places. Slimy river weeds and rotting debris clung to her. Her hands were cold, bony claws.
"Then I suppose I will also take my real form," Nuckelavee said.
His body began to change.
Bones shifted. Flesh tore. His hollow-eyed human form became something else...a skinless abomination, a fused mass of man and horse in a permanent state of flayed agony. A human torso, its raw musculature and black veins exposed, sprouted from the back of a massive, skinless horse. A single, giant red eye burned with pure malevolence above a mouth that was a lipless gash of flesh. The horse's legs ended in sharp, bony hooves. Its breath was a plague-bearing miasma.
It was a creature of pure, unending torment. Its very existence was an affront to life.
Damien looked at both of them.
"Calls himself the Lord of Light..." He shook his head. "Yet all the creatures that serve him are horrific monstrosities that even Lovecraft did not think of."
He summoned his daggers, shadows coiling around his feet.
"Anyways... let us rid the world of the two of you."
He prepared for battle.
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