I ordered the Dragons to retreat after what happened to the triplets. None of them had raised their level by much over the last week as they mainly maintained the peace in my city and they reluctantly headed back to Sis. Anya and Lola were also with the latest weirdo to join my family at the Dragons Daycare up on the mountain. The Rainbow Mage hadn't let the little dragon out of her sight ever since she had called her big sis Anya and was always with her.

I, on the other hand, was actually in the thick of it. I couldn't believe it. I was slapping down demons like there was no tomorrow all while making my way toward King Aldus. As soon as I reached him our eyes locked.

"So you are a Demon King then? Or are you a demon controlling a King? Which one is it?" The Demon laughed, seemingly finding my question amusing for some reason. Shame. It was the only one he was going to get.

"What difference would it make if I were one or the other?" He shrugged.

"You're right. You killed the triplets and I'm going to fucking murder you three times for that."

"You are a very odd woman. What magic do you use?" Smiling at his question, I begin gathering energy in both my hands. Not as much as I was condensing for the void beam, but enough that I would be able to shoot smaller attacks a lot quicker.

"Let me show you." I start shooting lasers out of my fingers straight at the King, but the crafty bastard dodges my attacks. Also, what I'm firing aren't exactly lasers, but they look like them so that's what I'm rolling with.

"That was a lot faster than before. Were you holding back on me?" King Aldus begins to take me seriously. Pointing his sword at me, he starts advancing all while dodging the lasers I'm shooting at him. He's too fast. Before I'm able to hit him, the Demon King manages to get right up in my face and I have to teleport away to avoid a sword to the face.

That was close. Like super close. He almost...

Before I can continue that train of thought, I instantly become furious with myself. My human habits of protecting my body are throwing me off. Luckily this is my dungeon and I can be wherever I want to be.

Appearing directly behind the King, I manage to fire two lasers into his back. His screams fill my ears with joy as the revenge of the triplets is at hand. Just as I'm about to hit him again, I watch as the wounds on his back stop bleeding and begin to heal up.

"Not bad," he smiles as he turns to face me "but how long can you keep it up, I wonder?"

"We'll see, won't we." I tell him while putting distance between the two of us, firing more lasers with each port.

Not far away from Abi's battle with the King, but in a magically secured patch of forest, Eyepatch A managed to stumble upon the Dungeon Priests.

He had already decided that his opponents looked weak, but there were way too many of them for him alone. He didn't even know how he arrived at their location. What was stranger was that for some reason, he felt drawn to enter the clearing that the priests were chanting in.

"Defiler!" One of them shouted, followed by another, "Desecrator!"

Cardinal Carn was in the center of the circling congregation. The highest-ranked member of Abi's clergy and one of the few priests to frequent the Ringmaster at the Coliseum. Ang and Zen were two others that visited the training ground and were beside the Cardinal as the masses made space for Eyepatch A to pass through.

"You will find no death, except your own. You are one and we are many and we are blessed by the dungeon." Eyepatch A's eyes narrowed at the statement, but he didn't stop and continued walking. Led by temptation. The only reason he came was because the Demon King would have killed him personally for being a coward otherwise. The shield demon already regretted following the Controller to this forest. It had been going well until they arrived here.

The Priests slowly closed back up, surrounding Eyepatch A. He couldn't run and he began to show a hint of fear and eventually his facade broke.

"Okay, wait. Please don't kill me. I didn't even want to come here, but that crazy Controller is fucked in the head. He thinks he's invincible and he's a lot stronger than I am. He would have killed both me and my brother if we had refused his order." Spilling partial secrets, Eyepatch A hoped to strike a bargain with the Priests.

He knew the limitations of what he could defend against better than anyone and there were that many Priests around him, he knew he would never outlast all of them. That and he seemingly felt obliged to turn tail and switch sides. It felt like the most natural thing in the world to do. The Priests were warm and caring whereas the Controller was a mean dick.

What he didn't know was that most priests, literally 95%, never once attended the Colliseum to train, practice or level up. All they actually did was spread word of the Goddess Ali, much to their master's unknown horror.

That and he was under the Cardinal's charm spell. One that eased people over to the idea that dungeons are good and should be trusted. That they've been misunderstood for centuries. Those emotions that Cardinal Carn usually broadcast to his flock he was now using on a single individual.

With that, Abi's priests managed to uncover a good deal of information from Eyepatch A before he decided that the best course of action was death by suicide. Biting off his own tongue, he frothed at the mouth as he was quickly absorbed by the dungeon and the Dungeon Priests began chanting once again

Similarly, Eyepatch B was also engaged in battle. Unlike his twin, however, his fight wasn't against multiple opponents nor was it against one of the dungeon-summoned beings. Instead, he had found himself in the presence of the contracted monster Peaches. The pink slime, who was still in her human form, was covered in black blood and was holding a severed claw that she had taken from one of the wolf demons.

"It's been a long time since I had to... fight anyone. I must say though, it's much easier to do in... this form. Are you my next opponent?" She tilted her head and began walking towards her new opponent. Tossing the demon-wolf's claw over her shoulder, Peaches stopped for a moment to consider how best to deal with her enemy.

"You use barriers, correct?" She already knew the answer because she shared the same connection to the dungeon that all Abi's family used. Not getting an answer, Peaches broke into a run. Sprinting as fast as she could, the Pink Slime closed the distance between them and Eyepatch B had to cover himself with a shield.

The barrier wrapped around his skin like a cloak of armor, protecting him from most forms of attacks. Unfortunately for the shield Mage, his attacker had a plan to counter his magic and he did exactly what she wanted him to do. She was going to wait him out.

Peaches' body began to swell, getting larger and larger. Her arms and legs were swallowed by the mass of her body. Peaches laughed at the foolish Mage as her head followed the rest of her appendages and she rolled on top of Eyepatch B, enclosing him within herself. It didn't matter how strong he was, the only thing that mattered was how long he could keep his shield up.

Peaches' body had returned to its original Slime form and she wasn't expending any effort on her part by being sat on top of her opponent. In fact, the loveable Pink Slime was happy to wait until the King's subordinate ran out of mana so that she could let him dissolve inside of her.

Danil, the Demon Space Mage, attempted to teleport into the fight but only managed to come face to face with Marie. That shocked him quite a lot as both he and the human Space Mage were in an empty section of forest.

"Where are we?" He asked, only to be replied with a knife to the throat. Marie didn't manage to kill him however as her attack was repelled. She had gone for an instant kill, but failed. The demon Space Mage hadn't performed any spells or used a single skill, yet Marie was unable to injure him.

Marie, with an age pushing past eighty-years old, was a very-quick learner. She had learned that pestering Abi the right amount would get the Space Mage whatever she wanted. Even if what she wanted was to go out on missions with the hunky Assassins.

Marie knew Danil hadn't cast the barrier himself. That meant he had to have an object on his person that would protect him on its behalf. Marie had seen an artifact like that once. At a time when she herself lived in Imperia, the Royal Capital. One of the previous King's had purchased it and stored it in their treasury, away from prying eyes and any light-fingered thieves.

Marie had always wanted that cross.

Danil laughed as he moved away with a quick jump. Tapping his pocket and reassuring himself of his luck. Marie didn't let the demon get far though and she ported in right after him, swinging her knife and attacking again in the process.

Another flash of light and Danil jumped away again. He was only able to perform short-range jumps because of Marie's control field. Even though he was on the back foot and always evading, flashes of light illuminated the forest with each one of Marie's failed attacks. The demon laughed in delight as none of her attacks were getting through and she then stopped.

This caused Danil to laugh harder because he thought she had run out of mana and had to rest. She was pretty old after all. Chuckling in delight, he walks instead of porting over to Marie with a gloating glee.

"Foolish human, as long as I have the..." he goes white. Fumbling in the pockets of his Robe, Danil doesn't find what he was searching for. "Where is it? Where is charm of Deman?"

"Oh, you mean this?" Marie smiles. In her hand is a talisman. A silver dragon with emerald eyes is wrapped around a silver cross. The very one she saw more than fifty years ago.

"H-How did you get that?" He screams. The glee from a second ago is gone and has been replaced by fear.

"I don't know. One minute it was in your robe and then it wasn't," she laughs, twirling the charm around by its chain.

"You... you stole it!" The Demon seems to be offended that his charm has mistakenly misplaced into someone else's possession. It's as though he thinks that they're allowed to kill people with no remorse but anything done to them is sinful.

"You crazy bastard. This is mine. I've always had it." Marie fakes offense at the demon's words. Mouth agape and her free hand held over her heart, her acting top class. She then pockets the amulet and smiles. "Why don't you try and attack me this time?"

"What? No. That's mine, give it back!" Before Marie can think up another quip to make fun of the demon Space Mage, Light appears from the shadows and chops his head off with his special knife. The blade covered in black mana sliced through bone like it was butter.

"Aww, he was about to blow his top then, Light." Marie complains, but the usually casual Assassin gives her a serious look. Obviously, it isn't the time to be playing around. At least Marie earned herself a new trinket though.

"It's not time for that now. Go help the others," he orders her before dropping back into his shadow. Marie huffs, but doesn't complain instead she ports back into the battle. Feeling safer than ever with the amulet of Deman in her pocket and with that, all three of the King's lieutenants had been eliminated.