Once again, the strange phenomenon called the days of darkness plunged Aderon into the never-ending night. However, the cities of Arcadia seemed only slightly inconvenienced by it this time. Magic lights pushed away the darkness and the people were not as affected as they had been in the past. While the corvettes were dutifully following their patrol routes, a few destroyers were waiting in standby to teleport to any crisis or enemy action. I wasn't going to take any chances and decided that I would rather be safe than sorry. We may have lowered the population of Voidlings in Aderon significantly but I wasn't going to just assume we had killed them all. They were the strongest during the days of darkness and we warned all our allies to be on high alert for the next few days. Surprisingly, Vestargo's army withdrew a few days prior which made Galahad anxious trying to understand their reasons. The ancient trees in his forest moaned and creaked strangely in a seemingly endless night. Instead of focusing on reasons, Galahad pushed scout and raid teams deeper into the forest, discovering something we weren't ready to find.

On the list of most important things: we found another Dungeon. We immediately committed ten entire Legions supported with the entire might of the First Fleet and both Titans. The battle was... Apocalyptic. All bugs that had retreated previously were gathered in the defence of that Dungeon. Every Vespid, every Archane, every single bug Titan. Thousands upon thousands, if not millions, of Vestargo's minions engaged in the brutal battle. They fought desperately and we had no understanding why. They threw themselves at the cannons of my warships and died by the thousands on the shield walls of my Legions, breaking our lines not thanks to their skill, power, or luck, but only because they managed to pile up a multitude of bodies in front of my Legionnaires. The arrival of the Crusaders softened the bugs' resistance. Rolling artillery fire swept the battlefield and Vestargo's forces became even more desperate.

For a moment, I was getting excited that, perhaps, we found the bastard himself. I even involved myself and guided Galahad during the battle to get closer, to break the enemy line so we could learn the Dungeon's real identity. Avalon's Wrath and Doom Herald were instrumental in breaking the enemy defences. Their massive legs flattened enemy bodies and allowed my infantry to move again. Their runic cannons rained destruction and death all around, finally pushing the assault forward. But the real killers during this battle were my airships. Their guns fired constantly and they fired missiles when their guns needed to cool. They thinned the bug population that would have otherwise crushed the Immortal Legions with their overwhelming numbers.

The battle was far from one-sided. I have lost more than three thousand Legionnaires before we reached the revealed Dungeon's boundary. Four destroyers sustained minor damage but they continued with the fight. HMS Gladius fell to the ground with a giant hole in its hull but they continued to fight. Gladius' hull held despite the impact which partially buried the destroyer nearly six metres in the ground. Without needing to worry about flying anymore, they redirected all remaining power to their shields and weapons. They were still deadly despite being grounded, becoming a mini fort working to clear everything nearby. Their Marines doubled and tripled their efforts to stave off the bugs and they weren't going to let themselves be overrun so easily. When I ordered them to abandon the ship, they refused, claiming they had everything under control. When I was about to yell at them, I finally realised what was going on.

They had used the opportunity and became large bait. Thousands of bugs scraped at their slowly failing shields while my remaining forces seemed too occupied to intervene. Tens of thousands of bugs finally collapsed Gladius' shields and rushed for the kill but all they achieved was being caught by a clever trap laid by my soldiers. A chain of truly timid detonations in comparison of what was happening across the battlefield dotted the ground around the downed destroyer. At the same time, the bugs closest to the ship simply died. The air around the airship was laced with insecticides so dense that it turned to a deadly fog. The poison spread with the wind and, in just a few heartbeats, killed tens of thousands of bugs. It broke the enemy battle line allowing us to approach the Dungeon.

My disbelief swept over everyone when I learnt that it wasn't Vestargo? It must have confused my warriors because they faltered for a moment before they resumed their assault. It wasn't the bastard himself but rather The Dungeon of the Merciless Chasm. We pushed forward despite the fact that I felt that I was deceived. It wasn't a reason to give up. Galahad regrouped the Legions and the Navy flattened the walls of the enemy fortress. The Enchanted Stone held for nearly three minutes under the combined firepower of the First Fleet of Arcadia and both Titans. The enemy wasn't going to surrender so easily. Whatever was in that Dungeon, it was important enough for Vestargo to continue his battle of attrition. Another airship got hit by the enemy Titans and flashed out of the battlefield once it gathered enough mana to flee. HMS Sabre reported heavy damage and they lost both prow turrets during the last attack, but they were alive and just ten kilometres away. They wanted to keep fighting but I ordered them to return for repairs.

Before they jumped away, they fired all their missiles.

The barrage of missiles mercilessly raining from the sky sent the bugs into disarray and panic. However, not all of the bugs panicked. The enemy Titans focused their beam weapons on HMS Cutlass and its shields flared, illuminating the seasonal darkness. The agile ship tried to break out and sharply dived, but it was almost as if the enemies planned and waited for them in ambush. Seven more beams crossed its path and Cutlass couldn't avoid a direct hit. Before they were destroyed, however, the Captain fired their entire payload towards the enemy, securing a mutual destruction. Cutlass was covered in smoke moments before she flew into the enemy beam spells. Her crew jumped out of the doomed ship and I already had the closest Legion moving to protect them though there weren't many sailors remaining. The shield shattered a split second later and the Titans' fire carved the destroyer. For a heartbeat, I thought they might manage to survive as the Cutlass accelerated, her Captain trying to give them a chance but, then, two more beams licked her hull. HMS Cutlass turned into a fireball when her systems went critical but, despite that, she somehow managed to change her course. The vengeful and spiteful spirit of her dead crew rode the burning hull straight into the largest enemy force. There, HMS Cutlass dealt her final blow when her reactors started imploding as their shielding failed. For a split second, there was an absolute silence that ended with a massive explosion that killed four enemy Titans and at least twelve thousand bugs.

That finally broke the insects and they reluctantly retreated, leaving the Dungeon at my mercy. Mercy that wouldn't be given considering what we have found... It was the biggest slave camp we had stumbled upon so far. The sheer scope of that damned thing was gut-wrenching. It was a place that exploited the death of the innocent on a soul-crushing scale. It was hell. From the hectic readings of our sensors, there must have been nearly a million people inside this Dungeon. This was too important, too horrible, the entire frontline be damned... The Second and Third fleets flashed into existence, guns blazing, dropping thousands of their Marines into the hell below. The Enemy's Dungeon denizens resisted but the fury of the Arcadians crushed them. Morrigan, Gawain, Thor, and Crawline were teleported directly into the battlefield by my furious wives. My warriors, both Mortal and Immortal, hacked and slashed their way to the spawners in grim unison. The Scions dashed without wasting a second into the Dungeon, killing anything that attempted to stop them. Their goal was simple; destruction of every single enemy spawner and denizen.

Galahad stood in the ruins of a once grand Sanctum. Its walls were lined with colourful crystals and veins of gold and silver. It glittered in a soft blue light coming through shafts in the ceiling but it wasn't natural light. After all, the world, or at least Aderon, was swallowed by the days of darkness. Galahad's most elite Triarii in the First Legion had the enemy Scions restrained with their hands, their swords resting on their necks ready to execute them. Deeper in the Dungeon, Thor and Crawline were crushing the enemy spawners while Gawain was wreaking general havoc. Morrigan led the Vampire Legates deeper into the Dungeon attempting to save as many people as possible.

"What is your name, pest?" Galahad asked the enemy core in a voice so cold that it froze the air around my Scion.

"How dare you, you inferior creature-" The core started speaking with a coarse voice.

"Enough," I said through the link. My voice was trembling with fury. "Tell your master that he broke our Conventions. There will be a punishment."

The enemy Dungeon hesitated, however, I felt when he used the link. I felt the fear and panic spread in the core touched by Galahad and I knew the source of that fear very well. It was Vestargo. One of the enemy Scions screamed in pain and went limp as Vestargo spoke with a voice that was usually used to issue orders.

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"No! You cannot use your fire weapons!" Vestargo squirmed in panic.

"You promised to stop killing the innocent. You said that you weren't going to use Mortal women as seedbeds for your disgusting Vespids." I said with fury.

"They volunteered!" He said and the audacity of his lie made my skin crawl.

He looked at Galahad from the creature that resembled a lizard with long fingers that must help it climb on rocky walls. We weren't there in person after all. But for the time being, Galahad and, whatever that creature was, were suppressed. It was like only Vestargo and I were in the chamber. Even the Core, whose sanctum it was, was reduced to a spectator. I watched the lizard through Galahad's eyes and felt the flames of fury burning inside me. The silence spread uncomfortably but Vestargo knew that I was waiting. Just a few minutes later, Morrigan entered the Sanctum with a young, maybe fifteen-year-old woman. The girl was a Human and she dropped to her knees the second Morrigan let go of her hand. She faced the core, naked and trembling when the blanket Morrigan gave her slipped away.

"Oh, the great and merciless God, Vu'kaar! I didn't want to come to intrude on your presence but I was ordered by a Scion." The girl pressed her forehead to the stone floor and, while her tears flowed down her cheeks, she managed to keep her voice from trembling.

"Tell me, is it true that some of you volunteered to be raped by Vespids, sealed in their damned hives, and eaten alive by their disgusting offspring?" I asked through Galahad, lacing my voice with a demand for truth. However, the moment I said it, I finally snapped back from my fury. She was innocent and I was adding to her terror, so I added as softly as I could. "We are here to save you. We will take everyone from this cursed forest but you must tell me the truth. Please..."

"No, Master! Who would choose to die?!" She screamed at me, finally breaking into sobs. Her eyes darkened and she looked sick. "But they said that we can choose... We can give ourselves to the Master Race as wives, as it always has been, or every tenth day, one thousand will be sacrificed."

"You sick bastard, Vestargo..." I whispered and laced my voice with all my hate and fury.

"The choice was given!" He protested with hate and a sense of fulfilled obligation.

Morrigan was kneeling near the absolutely terrified woman and held her hand on her shoulder. The Vampire Queen shielded the woman's mind from collapsing under the sheer volume of mana Vestargo and I used to simply argue with each other. The girl trembled, too scared to comprehend what was happening. She only knew that two incomprehensible beings clashed in front of her. She was naked and, like all Vestargo's slaves, she had bruises and evidence of mistreatment covering her entire body. One million souls like her, just here. In this hell... I turned my entire attention to Vestargo and felt his inhuman feelings. Some kind of happiness and a sense of fulfilled duty.

"Do you want me to burn your forest or spread poison in the air every tenth day?" I asked quietly but my tone was far more menacing and devastating than any shout of fury I could bellow.

"You can't do that! You will violate the Conventions!" His confidence burst like a soap bubble.

"Why? The choice was given..." I said through Galahad's mouth. I felt my Scion on the fringes of my mind, boiling with wrath and a desire to kill Vestargo.

"That's not a choice at all!"

"And yet you offered the same to others," I said calmly.

Too calmly, but I realised that I crossed that line where fury and wrath ended and something worse was born. I had no words to describe the feeling but I was there. I reached the calmness of the certainty that I had to destroy Vestargo. Killing him wouldn't be enough, it wouldn't bring any solace or peace. No... I wanted to imprison his soul for all eternity. I looked at the Scion he took over. He was scared and couldn't understand me in the same way I couldn't understand him.

"You shouldn't be unreasonable, Righteous Dungeon... The Supreme Beings like you and me should understand that we are over the servants." I immediately understood that he referred to the other Dungeons. His voice hung in the air, the lizard's face twisted in indignation and disgust when he looked at the Human girl, petrified in fear. "You should understand the purpose of the slave races..."

"I asked you a question." My voice broke through his voice. "Do you want your forest to burn, or do you want me to spread poison every tenth day until you release every single person and give them to me?"

"Ahhhh..." He started laughing as if he had finally figured out something. "So you just need slaves? I can share with you... You proved to be resourceful and more powerful than I imagined. You just need to form an alliance with me. But I can't give you all the slaves, you should understand that. As long as you release my servant, I will allow you to take half of the slaves gathered in the Chasm."

He chuckled a few more times and I felt a bitter bile in my mouth. I will kill him... No. I have to trap his soul and shred it; bit by tiny bit, for all of eternity. I will, if possible, make him whole again and then shred him again. Maybe I could, somehow, make him feel what the untold millions, if not billions, of people felt in his slavery? Oh, that would be an incredibly appropriate punishment. He took my speechless wrath for consideration or maybe even agreement because I suddenly sensed his relief. Morrigan covered the woman with a thin blanket but the girl was staring at Galahad with fear. Her eyes were speaking more than words could have. A fear so deep that she was on the verge of going insane. I gave her hope when I promised to save them and now that hope was dying. Dying, suppressed by Vestargo's confident laughter.

"I had never before met another Supreme Being so it was easy to make a mistake and offend you with my attacks. I'm deeply sorry for my transgressions-"

"I asked you a question, bug."

My calm voice echoed in the chamber with a promise of death and war. It wasn't even menacing but it overwhelmed anyone who heard it with a sense of doom. My voice was pure but it was laced with a hatred so deep that it, momentarily, shredded Vestargo's remaining confidence. The lizard's mouth opened and closed but no sound came out. However, the girl looked at Galahad, her malnourished body was trembling and she had her hands pressed into a prayer. Hope truly dies last...

"You think that you and I are equal? That we are the same?" I spat the question with a voice so incredulous that it gave Vestargo a pause. "You are wrong. We couldn't have less in common."

My voice echoed in the room, my will held Vestargo's mind imprisoned in the body of Scion he possessed. Each word carried my wrath despite its apparent calmness.

"You killed my daughters and my friend. You killed my people and gloated about how you would kill and enslave the rest." My words reverberated with old primordial power but it wasn't my power. It was Minerva. My wrath must have reached her. I knew that I couldn't stop Vestargo from running away but he was silently waiting. "As much as I would like to hold you accountable only for that crime, simply because I wanted this to be personal, I can't anymore." My quiet voice hit like a hammer and yet he couldn't understand. I saw his absolute confidence that what he was doing was right, still burning in the eyes that looked at Galahad. At me. "I don't believe there is a crime that would neatly describe the full extent of your sins but, honestly, I don't care anymore. Vestargo, you are guilty of genocide of innocent beings. If you surrender unconditionally I will spare you. I will hate myself for every second of my remaining life, but I promise that I will spare you. Continue this fight, continue tormenting those people you call inferior, and I will find a way to sentence you to a fate worse than death."

There was a moment of absolute silence when everyone and everything held their breath. It wouldn't last long.

"You arrogant f-!" Vestargo bellowed in outrage, but his voice was drowned in the terrifying roar of an explosion that consumed all sound.

The tremor that came next violently shook the entire Dungeon.

"I won't show you mercy, Vestargo. Do you think this is some fucking game? I will be your doom... Surrender."

"What have you done?!" He demanded but his voice was full of pain and shock.

"You haven't chosen so I have chosen for you," I said calmly and steadily. "This time, it was the fire."

"This time?!"

"Of course..." I waved my hand. "The next will be poison every tenth day."

"I won't forgive you!"

"I had hoped you wouldn't surrender. Put down that rabid animal, Centurion," I ordered and the Legionnaire instantly decapitated the lizard Scion. "Kill them all."

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