Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 786: Final Hour

He reshaped the Mire into a bowl instead. His will sank the basin floor thirty meters below the elevation of the magma burrow’s exit on one side and thirty more below the threshold of the Verdant Expanse on the other, abyssal rock rising sheer on all four walls of the sunken pit and capping the whole biome overhead in the same impenetrable stone. The poison was heavier than air. It settled. It stayed where he wanted it.

Clean air lived above the rim of the bowl, out of reach of anything walking the floor. Anything flying had no better option. The biome’s ceiling was that same abyssal rock pressed flush against the dungeon cap, and the full vertical airspace beneath it was the vapor layer itself. A flyer climbing to escape the floor spores would only rise into thicker poison and then into stone that would not yield.

The dungeon’s baseline rule that biome atmospheres did not bleed across their own geometry did the rest.

He rerouted the hidden burrow tunnel from the Magma Vein Expanse’s edge into the Mire rather than into the Verdant, the tunnel’s exit mouth shifting on the map to open high on the basin wall. Any invader who made it past Melty’s sisters would now slide straight down the descending slope into the worst of the air below.

[Virulent Mire × 2 km². -1,400 DMP.]

The Defenses menu came next, and the red LOCKED tag that had squatted over the Lava Turret entry for the entirety of his Low-Tier tenure was simply gone.

’Finally.’

Three of them. Two flanking the burrow mouth in the Mire, their molten barrels already primed against their carved housings. One tucked into a ridge above the thickest mist in the Sink, where the pearl haze would conceal the turret’s heat signature until the moment the first round fired.

[Lava Turret × 3. -1,500 DMP.]

’Last.’

Common Creatures. Venomflies three for a DMP, Slimes ten for a DMP, still the two cheapest units the catalog offered. Three hundred of the flies seeded into the Mire in a slow spread, their wings blurred into still shapes Kaiden could see only because he was outside of time. Purpose-bred for armor seams and vent grilles, where the toxicity could not reach on its own. Two hundred Slimes oozed into the Sink’s low floor under the mist, their forms slick enough that nothing walking through them would see them until it was too late.

[Venomfly × 300. -100 DMP.]

[Slime × 200. -20 DMP.]

[Available DMP: 680]

Kaiden stepped back in the air.

Eight square kilometers of dungeon floated around him now where five had been a minute ago. Abyssal Cavern at the entrance, Safe Zone at its edge, two paths diverging. The Magma Vein Expanse feeding into the Virulent Mire along the environment hazard kill route. The Abyssal Corridor feeding into the Twilight Sink along the meat grinder route. Both terminating into the pushed-back Verdant Expanse, with the cathedral-palace waiting at its far end.

Three square kilometers of new terrain. Every meter of it hostile, though none of it populated with Mid-Tier monsters he could not yet afford.

And that was fine.

The Mire did not need monsters to bleed armor. The Sink did not need monsters to blind a formation. The turrets and the flies and the slimes did their own work.

Not that the empty biomes would stay empty forever. They would be filled in due time, of course.

He had been at this for the full duration, ensuring all was as perfect as possible.

With that, the work was done.

He lowered back to the dais.

But not to the spot he had risen from. He placed his feet directly against Aria’s right side, his shoulder an inch from hers, his face six inches from the edge of her silver hair. Close enough that when she turned to speak to him where she had expected to find him still on the throne, she would find him instead right in her ear.

Time resumed.

For a breath, the cathedral simply moved again.

Then Aria turned her head to say something to the throne.

She found his face six inches from hers instead.

She jumped.

A startled little ”oh!” came out of her, entirely without her usual grace, and his arm was already curling around her waist before the sound had finished. He pulled her into his side in one easy motion, caught her chin with his free hand, and pressed a slow kiss to her jawline.

”Kai-!”

”Hi.”

”You- I was just-”

”Missed you.”

Her cheeks went the prettiest shade of offended pink he had seen on her in weeks.

”You did that on purpose!”

”Oh, completely.”

”Hmph!!”

...

They settled back into the cathedral as the minutes drifted on. Kaiden pulled the combat feed up on the dais once Aria had quieted against him, and his family drew in around the projection to watch it with him.

The feed, when it rendered, was worse than Kaiden had expected.

The Claimant was astride its tenth dungeon of the day. The column of light into its mouth had doubled in thickness since their last viewing, and monsters were pouring from seams along every side of its body in waves that did not slow. The kill counter on the tactical overlay had cleared six digits and was still climbing.

The anchor’s voice came in over the footage.

”...Ten consumed dungeons since daybreak. The Association has confirmed that every coordinated military engagement attempted today has failed. The Global Scientific Community has now formally classified the phenomenon as Tier-Zero. The recommended civilian protocol remains evacuation toward pre-designated shelters...”

Luna’s arms folded tight across her chest.

”They’re gonna fail. Every one of them.”

”Yep,” Nyx said from the bench.

”So it comes to us.” Bastet’s voice was steady against his chest.

”It comes to us,” Kaiden agreed.

Calypso exhaled, slow. For once, there was no grin on her mouth.

A message chimed at the edge of Kaiden’s awareness a beat later.

[Direct Message Thread: Kira Vaughn]

He pulled it forward. The feed minimized into the corner of the projection, and the thread expanded across the dais.

Kira: Boss

Kira: I’m so sorry.

Kira: We love you guys. We love you so much...

Rika: Kira’s been crying for twenty minutes for the record.

Kaiden: You have nothing to apologize for. If you had come, I would have sent you away myself.

Kira: ...

Kira: Damn. Should’ve come then, so we’d look braver.

Rika: I TOLD YOU. I TOLD YOU. I knew he’d send us away!!

Kaiden: Take care of each other.

Kira: Come back to us, Boss.

Rika: Don’t die! We just got hired!

Kaiden: I’ll try.

...

The next few hours went into the rest of the Mid-Tier catalog.

The Master’s Domain tab opened onto a full configuration suite Kaiden had not yet explored. They talked through every mechanic together. Luna pulled up old gaming references for parallels. Bastet explained how she had handled similar concepts in her own Low-Tier days. Calypso occasionally groped him while he was trying to concentrate. Alexandra brought two meals up. Alice drifted in and out between the pantry and his lap.

The countdown ticked down through the afternoon.

Six hours.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

And then one.

[Time Until Defense: 01:00:00]

That was when the final arrivals came.