Death and Birth

Seeing that the flowers seemed to be taking hold, Styx immediately went and bothered Aura to catch several Second Step Blood Gold Devil Flowers as well as Third Step Tortured Soul Devil Flowers.

It was a bit of a wild and dangerous plan, but if they calmed down after being fed like the others, his dungeon would have some excellent defenders. There was also the thought of producing some unique and highly valuable honey with the blood crystal bees too.

"I don't want to," Aura spoke while sulking about not being allowed to eat more of the humans.

Styx whispered his plan into her ears to bring in more humans into the dungeon and her ears immediately perked up.

"Will that work?"

"Of course, you have to cooperate and not eat these humans, though. Only if they don't coorperate or break their word are you allowed to eat them. So, are you going to help ensure they behave?"

Aura's brows scrunched together in thought. On one hand, she would get to eat them now, on the other hand, she would get a lot more humans as food in the future. It seemed to be a very important decision but ended up nodding her head and joining Styx in another trip to the prison.

The prisoner knelt in terror upon seeing Aura, trying to make their presence as faint as possible in the hope she would overlook them.

"All of you, stand up. You all already know Aura from your first day here. She has agreed to not eat you, as long as you do what she tells you to."

Vivy had her favored human lying with his head in her lap, massaging his chin and chest with her long, slender fingers. Intent on protecting this one as she promised, she petitioned to Aura and especially Styx, the only one whom the Fifth Step Monster Lord would listen to.

"Please don't eat my human again."

Aura looked at the human and contemplated briefly before nodding her head. All the other humans, even the several women, looked at Vivy with desperate eyes as the value of being the elf's male toy immediately escalated.

Styx could see them secretly plotting to steal the boytoy position by any means and chuckled to himself.

"You humans don't need to be too nervous. We are here today to offer you the chance to be released from here and return to the city."

Everyone's ears perked up as they immediately listened closely, the bravest among them even asking, "I understand, and will do anything… Please, tell me what you need me to do…"

Not a single person had any reluctance at betraying the city, so long as they weren't eaten alive.

"Excellent, you all understand! It is very simple, actually. Once the current festival is over, you all only need to return to your guilds or group of friends, and start bringing other people to the dungeon."

"You each have a quota of one person per month, which will be recorded when you enter the dungeon, but you can bring more people to pay off months in advance."

"Before any of you think you are free once you leave the dungeon. Aura here will be marking you all, and should you ever miss a month or otherwise fall into debt… Well, let's just say that dinner is served."

Aura nodded repeatedly in agreement, fully intending to visit them should they fail to bring her food.

With the humans submitting themselves to his desires, Styx then called forth the several females among the humans and implanted a piece of himself in them. They would be his inside liaisons for him to talk to the other adventurer's should he need to.

"Oh, and just so you all know, anyone found to be breaking the rules and misbehaving when they've been told otherwise may also find themselves being invited to an early banquet."

Styx had intended to just make marking them a bluff and have her sniff them out with Irie's assistance should it be required, but Aura surprised him by leaving a purplish scar to appear on their chest. This marking wriggled and twisted, but never left its position.

He checked with the wolf-eared woman, and apparently, she could use this mark to drag someone into the phantasmal realm, not that he understood what that was. Regardless, she was capable of feasting on these humans whenever she wanted, while it appeared the human goddess may not even be able to detect that it was her.

"Now that that is done, and you are happy, go capture me my flowers."

"Yep!" Full of anticipation, Aura vanished from the dungeon and reappeared not long after with the flowers in hand and properly restrained this time.

Whenever a resentful soul appeared from the Third Step flowers, her claw like nails flashed violet and they were torn to shreds. The Brimstone Devil Flowers also tried spitting lava and attacking Aura, but she was completely impervious to whatever was thrown at her.

Styx hurriedly had them planted in their own respective areas and thrown a large amount of monsters.

The Tortured Soul Devil Flowers were troublesome in which their prey had to be alive, as they received most of their nutrients from the souls which the resentful souls pillaged and feasted upon, a portion of which went back to the flower in some kind of supernatural symbiotic transaction.

~~~~~

⠀

The final days of the Myriad Flower Devil Festival passed by relatively uneventful. Styx had gotten the flowers under control and ensured they were fed enough on a regular schedule. Even the elves could feed the Tortured Soul Devil Flowers so long as they weren't going out of control.

Styx had a total of 632,550p after the final wave, a very large amount considering his young age in this world.

He glanced at the leaderboard once at the end and the amount of digits of the top scorers was ridiculous. They were all in the trillions, which was an amount even Styx couldn't fathom.

'Are these galactic empires annihilating entire planets at a time?'

Disregarding the top scorers, he simply exchanged his points for a large number of items in the store.

His first, and most expensive purchase, was a 400,000p Obelyon Mana Gauss Cannon which he installed in the ceiling of his throne room. This would be his final, and most powerful, defense to protect his dungeon core.

"Aura, Beatrice, Elena, come stand behind me… Actually, Aura, stand in front of all of us. Just in case."

Everyone moved into position as the cannon unfolded from the ceiling.

It appeared to be made of some kind of stone which had a black, metallic gloss. The barrel itself was three triangular rods two meters in length, countless magic formulae and connections engraved on the inside faces.

"This weapon takes a minimum of 100 mana and a maximum of 20,000 to fire. I am going to test it with the minimum first."

Styx explained to the girls as the weapon came alive under the dungeon's control and several shards split off from the barrel rods. Rather than falling to the ground though, they hummed and circled the tip of the barrel like spears waiting to fire.

Blue sparks of lighting ran down the metallic stone barrel rods before instantaneously turning red and firing a burning beam of light into the ground on the other side of the throne room.

Dirt and stones were blown away as a small crater formed from the impact.

"This is from just 100 mana?" Elena raised her brow in surprise at the damage wrought by a surprisingly small amount of mana.

"Correct, but even I haven't the first clue as to how such an amplification was created. I'll now try 500 mana…"

The gauss cannon quickly recharged and fired an even more intense beam of burning hot energy. This time, it turned the entire entrance of the room into a crater, with a meter wide hole extending another 100 meters into the earth.

"…"

"…"

"Aura, if that hit you, how hurt would you be?"

"A little."

"A little?"

"Un, like someone biting your tail all of a sudden. It would hurt."

Styx felt the analogy was a little off, but he once again marvelled at the monstrosity that was a Fifth Step Monster Lord.

"What if it was fully charged with 20,000 mana? Would it be dangerous then?"

"If I let it hit me, it would."

Styx naturally understood her meaning. It could cause grievous, even fatal harm if it hit her, but she was more than capable of dodging it. It didn't matter how powerful an attack was if it couldn't hit the target, after all.

Styx filled the hole and repaired the room very quickly, his <Lv. 10> Dungeon Control skill allowing him to make quick work operating his dungeon.

His next purchase was 100,000p on advanced materials and books. These were all much more advanced than anything else he had bought and only added up to a total of 7 books. While each were very large and currently too advanced for him to understand, they were a valuable source of knowledge he wouldn't be able to acquire elsewhere.

He then paid another 50,000p on assorted goods. He summoned giants rolls of cloth, many of which of a much nicer material than the clothes they currently wore. Some even had their own abilities such as enhancing mana, servings as an armor with the strength of iron, or just being resistant to certain elements.

These more advanced cloths were of a smaller quantity that the standard plush variety.

He summoned every daily item they could possibly need in equally enormous quantities. Of the items he was currently arranging Irie to deliver to the dungeon though, such as common food produce and other items, he didn't purchase them.

The remainder of the points were spent on standard knowledge and experiment books, filling up Styx's library with enough leftover that he needed to expand it.

The festival finally ended and the stele in the dungeon began to fade from existence. The process took place over only several seconds, before it was like it was never there in the first place.

"How often do festivals come around?" Styx asked the girls.

Both Elena and Beatrice answered at the same time, but the latter halted her words and let Elena explain.

"They occur usually once per year. Sometimes there is a year without, or two in one year, but it all evens out in the end."

"Do they ever repeat?"

"On occasion, but it is only several ones which have, they are usually new each year. This is the first time we had devil flowers, but there have been similar type events in the past."

"I se-" Styx abruptly cut his words short and shot to his feet from the throne. "Not good!"

He ignored all the gnomes and dark elves moving the new items and ran out of the room. He didn't need his avatar body to go there, but he did almost instinctively.

The issue he detected, was that along with the end of the festival, the devil flowers he had captured had begun to rapidly wither and die.

Elena and Beatrice were stunned by his sudden panic and ran alongside him while asking him the issue.

"The flowers we captured are dying at a rapid pace. I'm injecting mana into them, but it is only prolonging the inevitable."

Elena raised her eyebrows in surprise as she hadn't expected them to begin dying either.

Styx's avatar reached the secluded flower rooms while his mana tendrils were rapidly inspecting the dying flora monsters.

"It's bad. Their entire mana networks are collapsing at the same time."

"Is there anything you can do?"

"Maybe. I suspect the powers above had granted these mana networks to create the monsters during the event, but now that it's over, are no longer supporting them. It's rough, but I can also interfere with, and even create, a mana network."

Styx was racing against time as he rapidly reinforced their current mana network while also filling in the holes in it to support it and prevent collapse.

He was working on all the flowers at once to prevent their deaths, which was an enormous strain on his mana reserves.

He commanded Beatrice to grab a bunch of the new mana gems Therina brought back from Lagoon Porter City and had them place against his core.

He carved a simple energy conduit array in the ground beneath him and transferred all the mana from the gems directly to himself.

Even though he didn't have veins, he felt like he did at the current moment. They were on fire as large amounts of mana was channelled through himself in real time.

It was thankfully enough though, as the devil flowers stopped dying.

They weren't the same as they were before either. They had lost the quality to them which made them 'alive', and were much more like plants now. The Tortured Soul Devil Flower had retained some of its danger as resentful souls still emerged from its giant petals, but they were weak and couldn't travel far before having to return.

He was happy that they could still be used though and breathed a sigh of relief.

His core still burned and his consciousness was hazy as a result. He looked closer at the mana gems in the conduit array he had used and felt like facepalming.

"Beatrice, why did you use fire attribute mana gems?" He spoke into the dark elf's mind directly.

"Is that an issue?"

"It is."

"My apologies, I won't let it happen again."

"Come to the study, immediately."

"Yes."

⠀~~~~~

⠀

Beatrice strutted into Styx's study with an apologetic expression. She was truly unaware that using attributed mana would be an issue for Styx, especially given that he could handle all kinds of mana as naturally as breathing. She made a mental note however to ensure she didn't directly insert such mana into him in the future though.

The dark elf halted in her footsteps when she saw Styx sitting behind his desk, completely nude.

"Hus… Styx?"

"It took you long enough. You started this problem, now you are going to help me… push out… this mana. The festival had also prevented us from sharing more intimate time together and we were… cut short last time, but we are now completely free."

"I understand."

Styx watched closely as Beatrice unhesitatingly begin taking off her clothes before folding and placing them neatly on the end of the desk.

It wasn't long before she revealed her complete nude body, not a single strand of body hair to be seen anywhere.

Her breasts truly were very large, shaking and bouncing slightly as she walked over to Styx and courteously sat on his lap. She had thought wanted her to squeeze his burning hot rod in between her thighs again like last time, but she hardly had the opportunity before he wrapped his arms around her body and pinned her back against his chest.

"This time, we'll be going all the way," Styx said as he erotically bit and licked the ends of or long, slender elvish ears.

Beatrice nodded slightly and overlapped her hands with his, one of which was tightly grasping her breast, the other running its fingers down the pink inner folds of her vagina and tightly circling the entrance.

Her anticipation assaulted Styx through their bond like a raging wave, the complete opposite to her expression.

"Do you have difficulty expressing yourself?"

"A bit."

"I can feel your emotions, you know."

"…"

"And that is embarrassment."

Styx pressed his fingers tightly against the entry to her lower cave and it immediately slipped inside with a faint squelching sound.

"Mmm…" Beatrice slightly moaned as she raised her legs up and clenched her muscles in pleasure, he vaginal walls tightly constricting and tightening around the invading finger.

She rested her head back against Styx's shoulder and let out light, faint pants as his finger begun digging around deep inside of her, pressing and rubbing against her most sensitive spots.

She also grabbed his cock and begun stroking it in long, steady strokes.

"Before I stick it in," Styx whispered into her ear while kissing and licking her neck, "use your mouth and make sure it's wet enough."

Beatrice visibly blushed but got on her knees in front of Styx's seat and quickly wrapped her lips around the tip of his penis. She was naïve, but very turned on and passionately began sucking on it and even wrapping her tongue around it.

Styx ran his fingers through her hair and guided her to bob up and down as he also moaned in pleasure.

Her plump ass was swaying slightly while her large breasts squished against his legs. Styx wanted her to go right to the base with her mouth and tongue, but even he had to admit she would need to practice a lot before she could effectively swallow it.

Styx raised Beatrice up, and had her bend over the desk with her ass in the air. He firmly held onto it and spread her cheeks, reveal her button tight asshole and pink slit which was undulating in expectation.

With her cheeks spread apart, he pressed the tip of his erection directly against the small opening faintly visible from this angle.

Beatrice clenched her fingers on the other end of the table and stifled a moan as Styx pushed his rod directly inside of her. It was still wet with her saliva and she was also very wet, so he pressed through the tight inner walls with a single thrust.

"Wuuu… A bit gentler… please," Beatrice faintly cried in pain as a trickled of blood ran out of her vagina and down Styx's penis.

He paid little mind and helped aid her in her recovery via her mana network as he begun pushing himself deeper within her.

Styx held her meaty waist and pulled as his cock was like the blade of a sword entering the final part of the sheath with a slight click.

Her vagina was forced wide open around the base of his shaft and even her thighs were squeezing against the large object fully penetrating inside of her.

Styx leaned against her body and bent over to whisper to her, "Any comments?"

"It is… nice," She whispered back with her ears visibly turning red.

Styx chuckled to himself as he could feel through his bond that she was feeling far more than just 'nice'.

Her vaginal walls constricted and clenched around his penis as he began pulling it halfway out before thrusting it fully inside again. He pressed her back down against the table with one hand and thrust into the entrance of her womb again and again, sending electic shocks of pleasure through the dark elf's body every time and causing her to make faint 'iip' sounds.

Styx then pulled himself all the way out and turned her over, some faint impressions of the table still visible on her breasts and waist.

She looked at Styx while doing her best to maintain a steady expression, but she was unable to control her blush which had covered most of her face by now.

He repositioned his cock against the entrance of her vagina and plunged it straight in. She climaxed immediately and bit her lip to stop herself moaning, while her inner walls constricted and squeezed with all their strength.

"You should let your voice out," Styx passionately said while his hips slapped against hers, his hands rubbing up her stomach before grasping her breasts in a firm hold.

"If you… kiss me."

Seeing her rare tenderness being expressed, there was no way Styx could not follow through with her request.

As his urge to cum increased to point of bursting, his leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers, the two passionately exchanging their saliva as her tongue welcomed his domineering entry into her mouth.

"I'm going to cum."

"Y-yes, please do."

Beatrice's legs wrapped around Styx's waist and forced him deep inside of her while her vagina grabbed tightly onto his shaft.

"Mnnnnyyaaaahhh!!!" Beatrice loudly moaned in the study, a trace of saliva on the corner of her mouth as she no longer held herself back.

Styx also thrust before releasing a huge load of dungeon seed, laced with fire attribute mana, into her womb.

⠀

[

Insemination begun.

Please select seed to implant:

• 3x Miners – Burden (1) – 1h incubation

• 2x Fiery Gnome – Burden (2) – 1h incubation

• 1x Fiery Stoneater – Burden (3) – 2h incubation

• 1x Lavarat – Burden (4) – 2h incubation

• 1x Midnight Flame Guard – Burden (5) – 4h incubation

• 1x Lava Fox – Burden (10) – 12h incubation

• 1x Brimstone Bramble Queen – Burden (12) – 24h incubation

• 1x Living Brimstone Golem – Burden (14) – 24h incubation

]

⠀

[

1x Lava Fox selected – Incubation 11:59:43

]

⠀

Styx was shocked as he discovered a new list of monsters he could breed in her womb, a clear result from the fire attribute mana.

'Perhaps I should absorb raw attributed mana more in the future,' He silently mused to himself.

Beatrice locked her legs around his waist and refused to release him. He was also in an exceptional mood, so he merely wrapped his arms around her and picked her up, her breasts squishing tightly against his chest.

He sat back down on his seat with her on his lap, his penis still engulfed within her and stopping the excess dungeon seed from flowing out of her.

Beatrice wrapped her arms around his and pressed her face tightly into the crook of his neck.

"Well, at least you aren't a biter," Styx chuckled lightly while running his fingers up and down her spine. "Ah, I take that back…"