The Castle in the middle of nowhere.

"Impossible..." Cahrona Ashes whispered, looking at the crying girl held in King Theon's arms.

"Rather Impressive, you bitch." Dahlia's voice hit her like a whip and she looked at the Wolfkin woman in shock. This must have been some kind of skill, but what class could have such a skill set?

King Theon, who was still holding Lanka, went toward his Queens and put down the Nekomi right next to them. He turned around and looked straight at Cahrona.

"Galahad. Take the corpse of that incubus... Hmmm, it was an incubus, right?" He looked uncertainly at the remains of her brother.

"Yes, my King. That was an incubus."

"Right... Take his remains and bury him in the dungeon graveyard. Somewhere near the Lich."

Cahrona paled. These maniacs want to purposely bury someone in the dungeon?!

"You monsters!" She screamed when another lightning bolt painfully zapped her body. She tried to move towards her brother, but Dahlia's armoured feet forcefully pinned her to the ground.

"Maybe. But it's amusing to hear such accusations from someone who uses innocents for sacrifices and is using soul-shattering magic..." King Theon graced her with a single cold gaze, which awoke all her primal fears at once.

The succubus swallowed an icy ball that formed in her throat. When he put it that way, it really looked like they were the evil ones. She gritted her teeth, but after a moment, she bit her lip and felt blood in her mouth. Thanks to that, she gained enough strength to scream at these people.

"No! We did everything to prevent the return of the Dark Empire! We were so close..."

"You are fools!" Luna yelled unexpectedly at the chained woman. "The only thing you were close to was destroying the ley lines of the world! You almost killed us all!"

"No..." Cahrona was looking at the Kitsune with shock and fear. "No! You are wrong!"

"I'm one of the Kitsunes, you idiot! I was created to save the world!"

"Created the same way as the Kitsune that stands near the Dark Emperor?! LIES!" The Succubus wriggled under Dahlia's feet, but was unable to do anything when two legionaries picked up the body of her brother.

However, King Theon raised his hand and everyone stopped, even Queen Luna only just huffed angrily.

"Whether you believe it or not, we are the ones who want to save this world. Hmm... This incubus was someone precious to you." King Theon hasn't asked; he barely declared his last observation, and Cahrona, in fear, understood that she made a mistake.

"I..." She decided it was better to keep her mouth shut. She was in big enough trouble already.

"I will eventually learn everything." King shrugged. "Listen... I don't like the idea of torture and pointless violence, but I am not a delusional pacifist either. You are about to witness first-hand that I will do whatever must be done to ensure my victory. Failure is not an option."

She looked at King Theon with anger in her eyes, but the fear he had seeded in her heart finally overtook her. With a simple wave of his hand, his soldiers carried on with his order and put the remains of the incubus into a wooden box. She felt her tears falling down her cheeks, but she knew it was over. She looked at a few dozen other Devilkins who were kneeling, surrounded by these strange knights. She saw fear and resignation in their eyes as they were chained together and prepared to be taken away. She never suspected that one of the strongest armies of Devilkins could lose so easily to the surface dwellers. She never suspected they could lose to the Cridians. The only thing that didn’t match her knowledge was the names of the current Kingdom rulers...

"Everyone you ever knew thinks you’re already dead.." King Theon didn’t even look at her. "Now you can decide whether you will cooperate or not. You will tell us everything and only your decisions and attitude will determine what will happen to you later. If you tell us everything you know, honestly and without unnecessary fuss, you will become a prisoner in Avalon, living in comfortable conditions. If you plan to resist, fine, your last days of life will be full of suffering and pain - endless torture. After that, you will die."

The succubus looked at the king and finally, overwhelming fear washed away the last bits of her self-confidence and bravado, which made her trap fail in the first place. She pursed her lips and tried to calm herself when the cold realisation that he was not joking or telling this only to intimidate her more settled in her mind. He just announced the only options she had and his calm, even soothing voice was much more menacing than his anger. She decided to try one last thing- to play on time and wait for the Dungeon to retake full control of this place. With a little luck, it would send its minions and maybe scions to kill these Cridians. But before she could do anything, the World Words message was displayed in front of her eyes and she felt satisfaction.

She laughed when she saw this. With a little luck, she could maybe manage to escape...

"Finally..." The King's voice was not nervous in the slightest.

•••

"Finally..." I sighed.

This meant there were no more demons in the area and I could start cleansing the reclaimed site. The succubus, surprisingly, started smirking, and I had no clue what she was planning, but honestly, there was nothing she could do now. I had a feeling there was some kind of misunderstanding here, but in the wider context it didn’t really matter. The Devilkins proved to be my enemies, and now I just had to estimate the threat they posed.

"Luna, do you have any idea how to fix this gate?"

"Hmmm... Maybe? I hadn't expected the entire army to be here to begin with. My best guess would be to clean this place." She shrugged and smiled at me.

"Really? Just clean this place?" I looked at her, surprised.

"Well... Yes? When you were busy with the initial interrogation, I asked the legion officers about reports from the structure." She started explaining, pointing towards the command tent. We slowly started walking towards it. "This structure is full of sacrificial altars and strange magic entanglements. If we get rid of the structure, we will destroy most of the things that disturb this place."

"Hmm... Make sense." I looked at the chained succubus and marked her as a VIP prisoner. I pointed at one of the legion centurions. "You, take a centuriae and guard the prisoners."

The paladin centurion saluted me and moved to take the succubus away. I followed Luna and entered the command tent where Amber, Irene and the Flower Girls were sitting silently. Amber, Irene and Lanka were resting, lying on couches, still enormously tired. I moved towards the table where the map of this place was lying, labelled Avalon in Shadows. The area that nominally belonged to me was five, maybe six times smaller than the actual Avalon.

"How are you feeling, my Ladies?" I asked, sitting on my throne. Luna stopped to take a drink from one of the slime butlers.

"Much better, Theon, thank you. But I don't want to replay that." Amber smiled at me and rubbed her temples.

"I think I'm going to sleep two days straight when we return home." Irene yawned, relaxed.

"Lanka?" I smirked. I really could see Irene sleeping two days straight after this.

"Thank you, my King... I understand that the Queens cast a legendary, one-of-a-kind spell." She looked at her shaking hands.

"And very much single-use, with how limited it is, Lanka." Luna sighed, sitting on her throne near the table. Lanka tried to smile back, but she was still looking at me.

"Thank you, my Queens. But, my King! You used so much mana..."

"How do you know that?" I looked at her, surprised.

"When... I remember that I tried to save Queen Amber. But... But I died. It was so scary..." Her eyes dimmed and she quickly took a sip of juice. "It hurt so much... I don't remember anything from that time besides enormous pain and darkness. It was like I was spread thin. And then I heard your voice, my King, when you called me- so I did everything I could to follow your voice, but I couldn't move. I felt how Queen Amber and Queen Irene dragged me from the darkness… and... I felt strange, like I was drowning in an enormous tide of energy. My mind became clearer, and I understood that my soul was in mangled pieces. I knew that all the mana that saved me was yours, my King... Unimaginable amounts..."

"Unimaginable? No. You quite literally cost me twenty-five million mana points, Lanka." I smiled and winked at her, making my Queens chuckle. "We will need to create a barrier able to protect people from that spell. The incubus hit me with it as well, and it burned two million mana points. So I think Luna, Amber and Stella will have a little homework when we return. And Lanka... Don't do that again..."

"I'll try, my King."

•••

The next few hours passed as the deconstruction of the demon fort continued, cleaning the site of any dark magic. In the meantime, I decided to expand the cemetery into the underground level after my denizens cleared the battlefield. The price of war weighed heavily on the mortal species, and there would be no one to tell a tale about this battle to their kin. The fuck? Mortal species? Since when do I call people like that?! I looked around with a suspicious gaze but felt no one around. I sighed and returned to the tent. I felt much better in the presence of my Queens. That was certainly due to the influence of the Shadow Realm.

"Luna? Is it working?"

"Well... Kind of? The flow of mana is more natural, but it's still... Not right." She replied after a moment.

"Monitor it, Darling. I want to return home as soon as possible."

She just nodded and went towards me while I sat down on my throne. I felt her soft gentle hands massaging my shoulders and neck. It was absolutely amazing.

"Thank you..."

"Don't mention it." She kissed my cheek, making me smile.

"I should build a small fortress here and garrison it with an entire Legion."

"Hmm... That would be wise." Amber agreed with me. "Leaving aside the importance of the gate, the simple fact that any shadow here is connected with Avalon is a bit scary."

"Then it's decided... Ohhh... A bit to the left..."

Luna giggled and continued her massage. I closed my eyes and finally was able to switch into a building mode.

•••

It was straight-up strange. I felt as if something hostile was hiding in the darkness. I tried to fuse the enchanted stone with the stone floor of the Shadow Realm and, fortunately, it was possible. I quickly planned a star fort and made sure its bases were properly fused to the ground. The bastion would have immensely huge walls, so they couldn’t be scaled, and garrison buildings to properly give shelter to us if we ever had to return here. With proper firing positions, I decided that the legion guarding this place would have many more archers and mages than other legions. With the central castle planned, I nodded with satisfaction. When the construction started, I returned to my body.

"What a shitty place..." I whispered under my nose.

"Theon?!" Amber shouted at me.

"Yes, it's me. You don't have to shout. It's been just a few minutes."

"Few minutes?! Theon, you were out for over ten hours!" She frowned at me, but she was more happy and relieved than angry at me.

"WHAT?!" I yelled quickly, standing up.

"I swear, Theon, if not for the fact we are all dungeon residents, it would have been bad..."

The women were sitting together in silence. The dark spots under their eyes indicated the rough... Night? They had. I felt bad about that and a little panicked about how I could lose so much time. But that has to be the influence of the Shadow Realm.

"I'm so sorry, Amber... Luna, is the gate secured or not?" I asked her when she miserably tried to smile.

"Yes. Just half an hour ago, Irene performed another miracle and fixed the Dragon Gate." She sighed and yawned immediately. "Theon, time is not flowing in the Shadow Realm as it should..."

"The Legio Umbra that started forming in Avalon will be garrisoning this place and relieving what was left of Legio Fulminata." I looked at the women who faintly smiled back at me. "We are returning home. We are going back to Avalon."