Dungeon of Lust: Managing Otherworldly Beauties

Chapter 160: Whiplash

[Affiliated Awilix has been slain]

’N-no...’

Vale watched as Awilix’s lifeless body slumped off the bed and fell onto the floor.

[Nascent Champion Awilix has submitted to you!]

’What is going on?!’

Vale hopped out of bed and began patting the floor where Awilix disappeared.

’No. No. No!’

Salome and Toy popped their heads up, staring at Vale.

"What just—"

But Vale didn’t wait to hear Toy ask the same question he had himself. He instead rushed for an answer. Well, the hope of an answer. The only hope he had — the Dungeon Core.

Vale barreled out of his room and turned right, dashing toward the core room, not caring if he were clothed or not.

Each time he slammed his bare foot into the stone ground, a pain radiated from just how hard he’d been stepping.

’Please, please.’

Vale sprinted in, and not even sparing the Crystal Prison a glance, he dove into the Dungeon Core and tumbled into the white expanse.

’Please!’

Vale hurriedly looked around, but only spotted stone upon stone and failed creations of old.

"Fuck!"

Vale screamed as he kicked one of Sizzy’s failed bowls from all that time ago.

A memento mori.

’T-this pain!’

Yet it wasn’t his foot in pain, but his chest.

Vale staggered around, perfectly healthy, but perfectly not.

As he reached the other side of the rock pile...

On the other side of the rubble lay a familiar shape. Tail flicking lazily, jaws stretching in a wide yawn.

"What’s got your panties in a bunch?"

’T-thank...’

Vale rushed forward and jumped on Awilix, hugging her.

"Thank the gods!"

Awilix hissed and screeched as she tried to pry Vale away. The fur of her tail and ears standing on end.

"What’s gotten into you?!"

Vale didn’t know that answer himself.

Or maybe...

He knew the answer well. Too well.

’Love rusts the chains of Lust...’

A part of him... especially after he decided to let go of the past, had fallen in love with all of the women in his life.

Maybe not the most tender, righteous love. But he loved their lives.

For a moment, he’d thought he’d lost what he loved once again.

He thought his curse followed him to Pandora.

Vale pulled away and looked Awilix in her golden eyes.

"What happened to you?!"

Awilix yawned in his face again, not a care in the world to be had. Then started miming her hands intersecting.

"Shouldn’t you know more than me? You did sumtin to my body and my old one. They went kappeshh kaperrdshh and became one."

’Huh?’

Vale was a little stunned, but Awilix’s idiocy soon drew him out of his distraught episode.

"Umm..."

Words with purpose were still hard to come by, but they eventually came.

"What, uh, do you mean?"

Awilix pushed Vale away and then stretched more, showing off the curves of her naked body.

"Like, I remember my life on Kaldora. The two me’s merged."

Vale’s mouth hung lightly open, the aura of his eyes near completely faded. A dull gray overpowering the pink light.

Toy and Salome soon appeared in the core, yelling for Vale.

"Where are you?!"

Vale fell back on his bare ass.

"I’m uh... over here."

Toy and Salome quickly caught up with him and looked down at the cat, who began licking her paws.

When Awilix noted their odd stares, she said:

"What are y’all looking at, seriously?"

Vale hesitantly asked:

"Awilix... can you explain what you meant by the two of you?"

Awilix tilted her head to the side as she eyed Vale’s carrot.

"The me created by the voice combined with the dead me back on Kaldora."

’D-dead?!’

’Created by the voice?!’

Vale’s eyes shot back and met Salome’s.

The two of them stared dumbfounded at one another.

’What the hell is going on?!’

Vale had just gone through some terrible emotional whiplash...

First he thought Awilix was dead. And now he had to contemplate that the very essence of her existence had fractured and recombined. Let alone, what was the entity who could play with death like this?

Just what was the voice?

Not only that, Awilix’s constitution brought up another, more dreadful question.

’Is the real Salome dead?’

’Ximena? Toy? Mias?’

’No...’

Vale doubted it.

His Champions had distinct memories of accepting the offer to transmigrate.

’Although... Vale wasn’t too sure of Toy’s fate.’

Vale asked:

"Dead?"

Awilix looked confused as she glared at the three staring at her.

"Huh? Yeah, I died. Then like... my soul, whatever that is, split in half. Half ended up here, and the other half just now found its way here. Don’t ask me to explain cause I dunno."

Salome hesitantly spoke up.

"How... how did you die?"

Awilix stood up and then cracked her neck.

"A dumbass killed me and my tribe. Sad way to go out. Don’t ask, I’m kinda pissed off now thinking about it."

Salome, admittedly baffled, eventually asked:

"So, you didn’t die to the Scourge?"

Awilix glared at the three in front of her, then pushed past them.

"Nope! I don’t even know what that is. Heard you say it a few times, but that’s all. I’m goin’ back to sleep."

The three, dumbfounded, watched Awilix walk off as if nothing had happened.

Vale scratched his head.

"How can she... accept her death so easily?"

Salome slowly added:

"I think the better question is: how is she alive having died?"

Toy had a different look on her face.

"Am I dead too? Cool!"

Then, she ran off to follow Awilix, leaving Vale and Salome alone in the core.

The only sound for thirty seconds straight was the new stone being transported and dropped on top of the pile.

’And she just accepts it too? These lunatics!’

It seemed Toy had traced the same line of thought as Vale.

The entities summoned in the Levels were dead, most likely uncorrupted beings from Kaldora.

’And the Champions are alive ones?’

While that made a bit of sense...

’That doesn’t explain how Awilix came back to life!’

Vale muttered:

"I hope Mias has an explanation..."

Salome sighed, then added:

"I doubt even he will."