The Chronicles of Dwynveia – A Slimeling LitRPG

Aki

‘A deal?’ I asked.

‘Yes,’ Ere confirmed. ‘My visit to Dwynveia only strengthened my resolve to give Phoebe as normal a life as possible, so if she chooses to live in the mortal world… I want it to be as safe as possible for her, and that means removing… problematic actors.’

‘I’m in,’ Lilyth immediately said.

I looked at the others and since they didn't protest, I nodded and said:

‘So are we.’

‘You would have a stellar, if brief, career writing blank cheques,’ Ere laughed. ‘Hear me out first though. I have identified four groups that are potential threats here: Strickland and his friends, the Red Masks, the Sanguine under the command of Tirrleena and the Church of Light. Ensure that at least one of them is no longer a threat within four months and Deirdee and Persephone will be allowed to stay in the mortal world. Fail and they drop dead for the second and final time. Should the task, despite your best efforts, prove impossible to complete within the specified time period, you will either be granted an extension, OR I will deem the obligation fulfilled if you have made substantial enough progress. Deal?’

‘Deal,’ we all said.

‘What about Dain?’ Lilyth asked.

‘You will need to rescue him the traditional way,’ Ere said sadly. ‘Having access to my gates will not give you access to the gates of the afterlife. At least not for that specific purpose, I am afraid. What I can grant YOU, however, sweetie, is an amulet that will let you survive inside, since, to be honest, I think I will really need your help at work once you are done making the world a better place. The rest will need to make their own arrangements.’

‘Fair,’ my Jelly nodded.

‘Splendid,’ Ere clapped her hands in joy. ‘The clock on your task starts in two weeks. That should give you plenty of time to prepare. Use it wisely.’

‘I’ve missed you guys so much,’ I turned to our alive again friends.

‘Which is why you visited us so often?’ ‘Phone asked.

‘Umm… we were trying to figure out a way to rescue you guys,’ Caei came to my defence.

‘That didn't mean you couldn't visit us.'

I wanted to ask Lilyth and Ere for support, but they disappeared somewhere.

Oh, boy.

Lilyth

‘I hope you don’t think I am trying to get rid of you,’ Ere said after we sat down on our bed. ‘Especially, given… you know…’

She pointed to the engagement ring.

‘No,’ I shook my head. ‘You are right. When we were down at the lake… I thought it would be nice to bring Phoebe there with us one day, or you know… have her spend some time with me in the keep. But then… doubts started hitting me. What if Strickland came in for revenge and went full Al-Qaeda on us again and she got… hurt in the explosion? The Red Masks know who we are and have assassins working for them. They are also slavers… No. Other people also have loved ones who can get hurt by those fuckers. I can’t just chill here… Not if there is something… anything I can do.’

Ereshkigal wrapped her hands around me and said:

‘I will hate every second of every day you are out there and not here with Phoebe and me.’

‘I will too,’ I hugged her back. ‘But we still have some time together. Let's make the most of it, eh?

‘Yes,’ Ereshkigal smiled at me and leaned forward.

Our lips briefly locked, but she quickly detached herself and said:

‘More later. We have guests over after all.’

‘Yes,’ I whispered and stole one last quick kiss from her.

‘Idiot,’ Ere giggled, grinning widely.

Who would have thought I would manage to get the Goddess of Death to behave like a schoolgirl?

Aki

Lilyth and Ereshkigal emerged from the bedroom, holding hands. They seemed to be in excellent moods, though seeing the tense atmosphere quickly changed that.

‘What’s up?’ my Jelly asked.

‘Oh,’ Persephone shook her head. ‘Just recalling all the good times we had during all of your visits to us.’

‘Let it go, ‘Phone,’ Deirdee shook her head.

‘Oh… shit…’ Lilyth muttered.

‘Told you, you could just ask where they are,’ Ere said.

‘Ummm…’

‘You actually have decent excuses, Lilyth,’ ‘Phone said. ‘We’ve been following your exploits and between recovering from a curse, ACTUALLY researching how to rescue us, doing Queen stuff and taking care of a baby, congrats on that by the way, you had your hands full.’

‘Seriously, ‘Phone,’ Deirdee repeated. ‘Let. It. Go. It is not like they were just sitting around and jacking off. They were helping around Ror-Bhyk and then Lilyth and Ere with the baby.’

That was true. Whenever one of us wasn’t with Lilyth they would help Ireela with whatever she needed and there was a lot.

‘Ugh… Fine!’

‘We’ll make it up to you,’ I promised.

‘I mean… we will work to ensure you stay alive,’ Ren made a good point.

‘I said it was fine,’ the obviously not fine Persephone conceded.

Any further discussion was interrupted by Phoebe's crying.

‘I’ll be right back,’ Ere said. ‘Sounds like a clean-up might be needed.’

‘Let me take care of it,’ Lilyth quickly came to her aid.

‘It’s fine, hon. Stay and catch up with your friends.’

‘If you say so.’

‘I do.’

We spent the rest of the afternoon in amicable conversation. Apparently, Deirdee and Persephone were assigned to take care of our Sanguine POWs in the Realm of Shadow, maybe not the most fascinating of tasks, but a necessary one nonetheless. The sorceress was also utterly enchanted by little Phoebe, calling her “absolutely adorable”, earning her warm smiles from the happy parents.

Lilyth

The next morning, having expanded our inner circle to include Kartyen, we held a meeting in the council room on which group we should pursue first. We immediately ruled out the Church of Light as an option. There were too few of us and we were too weak. Going after Tirrleena and Löwe was also ultimately struck down. We had no intel on them, though Persephone suggested Tirrleena might be interested in finding more of the Ascension Thrones. After all, the Blood’s throne was empty and all the Sanguine were now endlings. That was an issue that also required solving but we had no idea where to even start.

That left us with two options, and we chose to focus on what Kart and Phosi assumed to be some sort of an Imperial Remnant, a.k.a. Strickland and friends.

‘Ren - try to figure out where exactly the Dread Queen’s Kiss grows,’ I ordered. ‘Kart, Phosi - you are on it too.’

‘Oh, that's easy,’ Persephone said. ‘It only grows in areas with a high level of Death contamination. I remember hearing about some jackass who ended up building a keep around one of those, as he was obsessed with researching ways to explore the afterlife. It ended… poorly.’

‘Was his name Daven Zi-Nyr?’ I asked.

‘I think so? How do you know that?’

‘One of the few historical records I was granted access to was the journal from his SECOND expedition.’

‘I need to see it,’ Persephone said eagerly. ‘More out of curiosity than anything, but there could be clues there.’

‘Come by my room later,’ I shrugged and turned to Kart. ‘Could you try to find out if there is any connection between Daven and House… What was the name… Sainyr?’

‘I mean…’ Phosi interrupted. ‘House Sainyr’s holdings were up North.’

‘Huh. So… we just need to find the keep,’ I sighed.

‘There should be some old Imperial maps around,’ Kart said. ‘I’ll look for them ‘

‘Splendid.’

‘There is one lead we might consider with regards to the Red Masks,’ Savri mused. ‘The River Goddess on Julbar.’

‘It has been nearly a year,’ Ren retorted. ‘Any trail there has likely gone cold a long time ago.’

‘Still… worth a try,’ I said. ‘We have nothing else to go on. We are sure as shit not going to track Halveck down by working through the Church of Light.’

‘Good point. When do we leave?’

‘After the clock starts ticking. We need to take as much time to prepare as possible. Like, the trip to Julbar SEEMS like a simple task, but knowing our luck we will be chest deep in corpses by the time we’re done.’

‘Maybe it won’t be as bad,’ Caei muttered. ‘Maybe we will only be waist deep.’

Savri

The next two weeks were a flurry of preparations. Lilyth spent most of that time locked in her labs with Deirdee and Persephone. The sorceress was mostly there as an advanced magic expert and Dee was also interested in magical engineering so functional workshops were a dream come true. Apparently, she spent a lot of her being-dead time studying the subject of magitek gun making, so having resources to put that knowledge into practice was a godssend.

The final crafter of our group was Aki, who, since her first misadventures with making healing potions, made real progress learning alchemy. I still didn't trust her with making anything drinkable, but as her tests in the blast chamber Lilyth had set up for her in the Realm of Earth proved our blue-haired leader was now adept at making alchemical explosives and other offensive potions.

I hated to see how Lilyth sacrificed time she could have spent with Phoebe during all this, so I told her to take the final day before we were on the clock off for family time and she immediately agreed. To my surprise, Ere also took that whole day off too so that they could spend it together.

The day of our departure, I found Lilyth and Ereshkigal sitting together on the couch, the furball holding Phoebe and the goddess reading a children’s book aloud.

‘Is it time?’ Lilyth asked, tears glistening in her eyes.

‘Yes,’ I nodded. ‘We are ready to go.’

‘I’ll be back as soon as I can,’ she told Ere and handed Phoebe over to her.

‘Stay safe,’ the goddess responded and kissed her.

‘I could give you more time,’ I said, heartbroken.

‘No,’ Lilyth shook her head. ‘If you do, I will never leave because I would want another extension and another.’

‘Then stay,’ Ereshkigal said. ‘Let your friends carry the torch. You wanted to be mission control for them, I can get Nyx and the King teach you methods to do that. Let’s face it, hon, you are in no shape to go back into the field. I know about your attempts at running.’

‘Attempts at running?’ I repeated.

‘I spent the past two weeks trying to see how much the curse will let me handle more vigorous exercise,’ Lilyth explained. ‘I can run for seconds at most before I get hit with a coughing fit.’

‘And you didn't tell me about that… why exactly?’

‘I was hoping it would get better.’

‘Did it?’

‘No.’

‘Let’s see it, then. Maybe it is not THAT.’

After apologising profusely, I had to concede that thirty-two seconds wouldn't be an acceptable performance in bed, much less on the battlefield.

‘I knew the attempts were unsuccessful, but I didn't know it was that bad,’ Ere covered her mouth in horror after seeing that massive coughing spasm Lilyth got.

She handed me Phoebe and ran over to her fiancée to comfort her.

‘Yeah, honey, thank you for trying but you are staying home.’

Lilyth didn't look happy about the prospect but nodded.

‘I’ll… give… you… a portal prism, Sav,’ she wheezed. ‘I was originally planning to use it as a “get home” measure if there was a Phoebe-related emergency, but… if something happens call me and I will be there.’

‘Will do. In the meantime, focus on making cool shit for us. I think we will need it.’

‘I actually do have something in the pipeline that will require proof-of-concept field testing,’ she said with a wide grin. ‘Would you like to play around with a wrist launcher that fires magical explosives?’

Oh. Oh my.

‘Watch it with the sexy talk, furball, or Nyx will get jealous.’

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