<~> Chapter 133"Lilith! Are you okay?" Mimi rushed to my side and looked over me. My entire right side hurt, no way that's not going to bruise. Good thing one of my lovers is a healer.

  "I'm okay Mimi, just a little bruised up. What happened?" I asked shaking my head. "I didn't see what hit me."

  Mimi's cat ears went bad she looked guilty. "Whatever happeo the room sent you flying at me. You smmed right into me without moving. My body is so dense you just bounced right off..."

  I gave her a reassuring smile and pulled her into a side hug with my good arm. "Don't worry Mimi, it's not your fault. We weren't sure what was going to happen."

  She ed herself around me, luckily her arms ed around my hard cuirass otherwise I'd probably be wing from how hard she was squeezing my bruised side. "I'm gd you're okay. I... I don't know what I would do if I hurt you..."

  I kissed her forehead. "It's okay Mimi, it was an act and more my fault than yours. Now let's get to Bel, I could use a bit of healing."

  I limped over to the doorway of the office with Mimi's support. I was feeling pretty beat up from running into Mimi at like, forty miles an hour or something. No wonder I felt like I had been hit by a truck. Mimi opehe door to reveal a line of guards with raised spears. They seemed to be ready just in case something they weren't expeg came through.

  The moment Jasper saw me he ordered the guards to back off and move out of the way for us.

  "Lilith! Are you okay? What happened?" Bel came over and began to fuss over me, her fussing always made me smile. Since I was only banged up, rather than bleeding to death, I was able to appreciate how cute she was.

  "I'm okay Bel, just a bit bruised up. I think the space we were in shrunk back down as soon as Mimi took care of the knot of stagnant mana." I pat Bel on the shoulder to reassure her a bit.

  Man rubbed her . "The spatial expansion in the room colpsed instantly? Strange, did the spatial expansion effect go back to normal instantly because the dungeon hadn't pletely formed yet? Or was this spatial expansion actually unstable? I don't know much about spatial magic so wouldn't know what to look for."

  Bel ran her diagnostic magic through me and nodded. "Mostly bruising, there's some internal damage but nothing I 't fix." I felt her magic seep into me, it made my body rex and I leaned harder against Mimi. It felt like dipping into a hot spring. Ohe healing finished I stood up and stretched. There was a bit of fatigue in my muscles but I was only feeling a bit tired now, not like I had been stepped on.

  "Thank you Bel and thanks for helping me over here Mimi." She smiled and hugged me again in response, relieved that I was feelier.

  Torien eeking into the empty room but turned around after only a quice. "Whatever was in the office before is gone now, the room is empty."

  Jasper stepped past us and into the room to look around. "That's a shame, I would have liked to bury the Baron and secure some of his dots. It seems his body was ed by the... dungeon-like spabsp;that had once been here."

  Man looked around. "Now that y it up, the Miasma has reduced to almost nothing. The tration of miasma had been much higher even out here in the hallway but now most of it has faded after Mimi uh, dispersed all of the stagnant mana."

  "What's that mean?" Jasper asked.

  Her eyes sed the hallway. "It means there won't be any more areas like the one we fought the dulhan in and there's not much demonic miasma left here either. We haven't searched the lowest floor of the castle yet but I doubt there will be many, if any, demo at all. trary to what you would normally expect."

  I tilted my head. "Why would we expect there to be demons on the lowest floor anyway?"

  Jasper raised an eyebrow to my question but Man didn't notid expined. "For two reasons, demoo prefer hiding in dark quiet pces, like the banshee we found in that basemeerday. Demons also like to gregate around suffering, the theoes that suffering creates small amounts of miasma that demons find appealing. Naturally, the dungeons itom level of the castle would attray demons that would be here normally."

  I noticed that when she said dungeons that time, their actual word for it was different. Dungeon in the sense of prison is a different word from the explorable monster-killing spabsp;I think of as dungeons. I've been hearing them both as 'dungeon' though so I have to focus on the text. My cept of dungeons in video games is s to me that my [World Traveler] title is transting it that way automatically.

  Man tinued, "Maybe the presence of the... proto-dungeon was attrag the demons away from other pces in the castle."

  Jasper tapped his foot. "We'll still have to check that area to properly clear out the entire castle. But it would be nice if what you say is true and we don't have to fay more powerful demons. The st two were challenging."

  Man straightened up. "Oh of course, I wasn't suggesting otherwise, just that we expect resistao be lighter."

  He nodded. "Good, is everyone ready to move then?"

  I was about to nod but a sudden thought popped into my head. "Oh, where did you take that woman we found up here? That attendant, the malnourished one?"

  "A couple of my guards are watg over her like you asked, why?"

  "Do you think you arrao have her kept near Nathaniel once we've finished up here?" I asked.

  "Why Nathaniel?"

  "I think she might have information that would be of mutual io the two of us. I don't wao disappear once we're done here."

  His brow furrowed. "Very well, I'll rey the orders. I find the request a bit suspicious but I agree that Nathaniel would be ied in someone who mao evade the demons for this long and had been there when the men in bck brigaacked this pce. Regardless, I would like to get moving."

  Jasper began to walk away and I let him get some distaween us befesturing for the rest of my party to follow. All of us knew where we were headed, having passed the door, so this would be a good moment troup with my team.

  Silva came up o me and spoke quietly, "Whatever caused the proto-duo form erased any clues we could have found on his body or in his journals."

  I sighed. "I know. That's why I don't want that deer attendant of Fae's to escape."

  She shook her head. "I don't trust that guard captain. Are you sure it's wise to trust him to manage her?"

  "...I don't know what to think about him but I trust your instincts on something like this. That said, we don't have much of a choice. It would be weird if we tried t a malnourished woman through the dungeons and I don't wao slip away when no one's looking. Having him take her to the priest would at least make sure she's ated for." I scratched the base of my horn, this whole thing was making me anxious.

  "What about the priest then? Do you trust him?" Torien asked.

  I shrugged. "I haven't seen a reason to distrust him and he is looking into something for me. The only reason I might not want to share what she knows with him is that I would have to expin how I know that she's probably involved in all of this."

  Silva's eyes narrowed. "This Order of Lilith? I thought it was a strahing to ask for. Why are you ied in this anyway? Just because you share the name?"

  I rubbed my eyes, trying to gather my thoughts. "Where I e from my name has significe. I didn't choose the name randomly, the name is reted to succubi as a cept." The words I spoke made me furrow my brows once I heard them out loud. "...I named myself this before I knew I was a succubus. I suspected as much right from the start but... It's odd, the name just popped in my head when someone asked me for it the first time ...but before I knew for sure."

  "Perhaps it's fate then." Man's interjeade me pause.

  After a moment I waved it off. "ce more like. Actually more like an educated guess."

  Man shook her head. "No, I meant literally fate, as delivered by the goddess Moira. It's been said that she personally intervenes with the destiny of notable and important mortals. You've been noticed by at least two gods already, Moira the goddess of fate and future could have reasonably known of you before even them. Names have power, she could have guided you to choose an appropriate one for the future she sees for you."

  I closed my eyes. Man was starting to sound more like a priestess than a mage... However, when you had tangible proof of gods, it was harder to dismiss things as superstition. Still though, fate as a religious domain? Wouldn't everyoart attributing everything to her?

  I shook my head. "We're getting off-topic, I trust the captain and priest to keep Matilda around. For their own is, if not mine. With that muegative karma, I don't see how she wasn't involved in this attaehow. Unless we find something in the dungeons, we don't have any other leads on the people in bck brigandine."

  "Alright." Silva nodded a it at that.

  Shortly after our versation, we made it back to the door that led down to the dungeons. We were gging behind so much that the door had already been opened and a trail of guards were headed dowairs in front of us. The door housed a square staircase that spiraled around the regur room down the four floors.

  About halfway dowairs, I smiled wryly at the thought of aor. Two floors, stairs are fihree, maybe I take the stairs, four, elevator for sure. I was surprised to find that I wasn't wi all by the time I reached the bottom. None of my friends had any more trouble than I did with their magihanced bodies either. Eveen points in endurance you get for unlog the stat made a huge differehe guards weren't phased at all either but they probably had actually ied iat and surely had some kind of training regimen as well.

  I looked around. The first room was an area with some small offices. It wasn't until further in that we started to see iron bars seing off some of the rooms. trary to how I would picture a fantasy prison dungeon, most of it was built from solid stoher than the rusty metal cages I had pictured. There were still iron bars but they were mostly reserved for doors and inside walls of the small chambers, much like a prison from my home pne.

  The miasma in the area was low as we expected so I wasn't feeling particurly on edge. It wasn't until I started smelling the decay of rotting flesh that I started to bee ed. After a while of following the guards, I spotted Jasper speaking with the fox woman we had fought the dulhan with.

  He noticed me approag right away and o the woman who walked off before I got there. I also noticed she had kept that monster's bone whip. It was still hanging from her belt, I wonder if it was magical. There probably should have been a discussion about splitting spoils but the dulhan was the first thing to drop something that I wasn't particurly ied in. I'd rather leave it be, seems better not to rock the boat.

  "Lilith," Jasper greeted me.

  "What's happening? Did you find something?" I asked.

  "Demon wise, surprisingly no. All of these bodies here were former prisohat died in their cells because they weren't being fed, luckily the dungeons weren't very full up. They haven't even bee zombies. We did find another survivor though, a demi-human man in his thirties. There's no record of him beihough and from the look of it, he wasn't with the men in the bck brigandine, so we don't know what to do with him."

  "He's not a prisoner?" I asked.

  Jasper shook his head. "As far as we tell no but without any records, we have no idea if he be trusted."

  "I think I help, you take me to him?"

  Saine

  Hello! A bit of a cliffhahis time but you'll have tive me. Also! On my Patreon at the Ram level, there is some cut tent of a partial chapter I scrapped here. I ended up thinking it was too simir to what happehe st time she was in a dungeon so I cut it and wrote this chapter instead. I wao introduce the character ing up anyway so it was for the best that I didn't go that route even though I thought it could have led to some iing character building for Mimi. If you're ied and wanna check it out, I would love the support!

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