Dungeon of Lust: Managing Otherworldly Beauties-Chapter 234: Hatred

Vale wasted little time in dispatching the last remaining Mutant.

[Piscari Ap has been slain.]

[+4 Aether]

He didn’t waste time watching its body sink. Instead, he rushed over and knelt next to Mias.

’Unconscious?!’

A sight he didn’t even know was possible lay before him.

Vale scooped Mias into his arms and, while keeping a careful eye on the wall of [Eclipse], walked back and found Ivory.

"Take him to Greed."

After handing Mias off, Vale returned to the Dome and sat in his stone throne. His entire chest was covered in blood.

***

’This sucks...’

Ximena grunted, then flapped her wings and shot to her feet.

’Is this how people feel when facing me?’

Ximena’s abilities still worked. Whenever the Wretch closed in, it would freeze and suffer the lasting effects; however, it would also trap Ximena’s Aether in its skin.

Meaning, each time a crystal made contact with the beast, any bit of Aether within it was captured. And when she used [Frostbite], the effect it had compared to the Aether she expended wasn’t worth it.

She’d donned her current form to counter the effect, but it wasn’t enough.

She had two options at the moment...

Keep making sword crystals and eat away at her Aether until she died, or charge at the beast and see who outlasted the other.

Would Ximena succumb to the Aether-absorbing properties of the mucus, or the Wretch to [Absolute Zero]?

Yet...

’I don’t particularly like either option!’

Ximena had just gone through the most excruciating physical torment in her life. Was she willing to make such potential sacrifices just after being saved?

Ximena clicked her tongue, knowing very well the situation may devolve to such a point where making one of the two decisions would be necessary.

As the towering purple fish man cleaved downward, Ximena summoned a thick shield of crystal which slowed down the attack just enough so she could dive away.

She had indeed managed to cause some non-incidental cracks to the thick bone broadsword, but it was only enough to break away the tip.

Something eventually started working against her, as with the weight being centered lower, its smashes became more powerful and devastating to her shields — so powerful that one clean hit would be enough to stagger her, and two would kill. Especially considering those blows would immediately be followed by an unavoidable date with a stone wall.

Ximena sighed as she easily conflated her current situation with nearly every duel with Salome in the past.

Looking up, Ximena flapped her wings forward, jumping back to create space.

"I really hate you..."

"Surely that wasn’t directed at me, Ice Witch."

At the far end of the hall, the proud Queen of Ruin turned the corner and stood with her hand on her hip.

"We do have that agreement you never agreed to."

Ximena ignored Salome in favor of dodging the Wretch as it jumped in the air and landed where she’d been standing moments ago.

"Don’t ignore me. We’re allies, remember."

Ximena clicked her tongue, then bellowed:

"Then stop talking and help."

She hated this. She hated receiving Salome’s help again. She hated being a fish out of water.

’Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate it!’

A princess shouldn’t be subjected to such humiliation. A princess shouldn’t be receiving help from an enemy!

’I hate it all!’

Ximena dodged again as Salome detached all thirty quills she could and made them revolve around her as she spectated the duel.

Salome joked, ignoring the woman whom she was supposed to vehemently hate with all her heart.

"Tell me, fish man, how do I deal with you?"

’I hate it!’

Ximena wanted things to be simple again. In an odd way, she wished Salome would go against her previous words. That Salome would send twenty quills at the Wretch and ten at her, but she didn’t.

"I can absorb your Aether, but I have no idea if touching you is safe, mind telling me, fish man?"

Ximena gritted her teeth and summoned another crystal shield which was instantly shattered as she jumped to the side. When she landed, Ximena shook her head.

She couldn’t waste time mincing words or dwelling on the unnecessary.

"It merely traps Aether, not absorbs it. As long as you intake more Aether than it traps, you can!"

Salome smiled.

"Good to know."

No quip, no insult, no attack... as promised. Nor did Salome thank her.

All she did was acknowledge what she’d said.

Salome thrust her arm forth. At that same moment, all thirty quills blitzed through the air.

The purple bastard tried to dodge, but its body was much too large to dodge the small quills which pricked every inch of its body. The quills attempted to wriggle their way under its skin. The mucus stopped that attempt.

However, Salome had managed to guide the quills to vital areas, injuring its tendons and lodging some quills in its joints, effectively immobilizing it.

For the first time since being knocked down at the beginning of the fight, the Wretch found itself relegated to its knees.

It shuffled around to face Salome, who was closing in on it.

’Don’t.’ Ximena’s crystal armor tore away, leaving just the bust and waist bits for protection. ’Don’t you dare look away from me! Face me! Face me, bastard!’

An untamable anger boiled in her, spawned by the inexplicable disregard Salome had begun to show her.

Eyes blazing with fury, Ximena kicked off the ground and whipped the purple banner off her wings, holding it like a whip as crystals formed on it.

Salome suddenly stopped her approach and, with the quills she’d managed to free, held up her arm signaling she was about to unleash another volley.

’Why won’t you look at me!’

Ximena controlled the fabric, making it snake around the Wretch’s neck before looping.

"Bastard!"

Ximena jumped in the air and screamed as she caught each end of the fabric and pulled.

The purple fish man shot Ximena an angry over-the-shoulder look as Ximena jumped in the air and pulled herself along until she had one foot planted on the back of its head and another on the crest of its spine.

Instantly, a wave of weakness took hold of Ximena, all the Aether in the lower half of her body being sucked into the mucus. But as long as it didn’t grab her, she wouldn’t die.

And grab her it tried. But each time it tried to sling its arm behind its head, Ximena pulled tighter.

The beast would never reach her. Instead, it began clawing at the fabric, trying to free its throat to no avail.

Not to mention [Absolute Zero] was intensely lethal at such a close distance...

’You should have never shown me your back!’

Ximena began to breathe laboriously, but with one last tug, the beast stopped its resistance.

But that didn’t mean Ximena stopped.

She tightened her grip and pulled. She pulled so hard the veins on her tiny biceps were bulging.

It was clear the Wretch had died, seeing as its Traits had deactivated.

But Ximena was too emotional to care.

Feeling her strength return, Ximena used it to create a wire that lined the fabric.

Finally, with one more tug, before the beast could sink into the ground, she decapitated the Wretch.

Ximena rode the Wretch’s body to the ground, then stood where it disappeared as all around her Salome’s quills fell to the ground with muted clinks.

"You’re one scary woman, Ice Witch..."

Salome turned to walk away.

"I’m not sure if your assistance is needed. Reaper hasn’t said anything, so it might not be, but be prepared."

Salome began recalling her quills, but Ximena stomped on eight of them, then bent over and picked them up.

Ximena stared at Salome’s back, hatred still consuming her mind.

"You..."

Ximena grit her teeth and took a stride toward the succubus, who had stopped and looked back.

"What is it, we don’t have time to waste."

Ximena held out her hand with an annoyed look on her face. Then the edge of a crystal grew from her palm, holding the quills.

Salome’s eyes widened.

"Oh?"

When the crystal finished forming, Ximena clicked her tongue and threw it toward Salome.

"How unexpected."

Salome caught the crystal arm with her quills embedded inside and stuck it over the stump of her right shoulder.

If she controlled the quills while simultaneously running Aether through it, she not only had a functional right arm, but one that could detach and fly around while being controlled.

Of course, she couldn’t activate [Vitality Drain] while using it, but it was still a useful tool.

Salome turned and walked away while flexing her new arm.

’Why...’

Ximena looked over the chipped bone sword which hadn’t followed its wielder.

’Why did I do that?!’

Sure, she was responsible for the loss of her arm, but she was responsible for the loss of her family, people, status, dignity, freedom... everything.

Ximena hated it...

She hated the fact that her hatred was waning.