Dungeon Menagerie 26 (Patreon)

Commissioned by InfiniteChaosRei

Dungeon Menagerie

Chapter 26

-VB-

“Oi, what are you doing out here in the middle of the night?”

Vanessa jolted awake and pushed herself up. “Wha?” she asked groggily before rubbing at her eyes. She blinked a few times and that’s when she noticed that Athena was standing under the doorway of the machine shed. 

She laid there on the table before her brain finally caught up.

She blushed. 

“Ah,” she uttered before laughing nervously. “I guess I loosened up pretty quickly,” she said as she swung her legs around the table and hung on the side. “... What time is it?”

Athena huffed. “It’s close to midnight.”

“Oh, so it hasn’t been long.”

“Yup. I had to go out with Chrysalismon to get extra oil for his machine since you were asleep, but I’m not going to leave you out here for much longer.” 

And then, the Celestial Menagerie blinked and reached for something again. 

She blinked.

And then paled as she felt something familiar.

Athena froze too as she felt something. 

Vanessa got ready to bolt if it was necessary, but instead, she found herself frozen, briefly, as she heard something.

The Void sees you. IT CAN REACH YOU.

A shiver ran up and down her spine and she whirled around. 

Nothing.

But it wasn’t her that the Void was reaching for. She felt it just as the rest of her Friends felt her.

And Chrysalismon screeched as something latched onto it. 

“Chrysalismon!” she shouted, panicking and not knowing what to do. “Get out of the machine! Quickly!” 

There was a flash and Chrysalismon did exactly as she asked. He reformed from the digital particles that briefly sparked to life before dying down just as quickly. Chrysalismon briefly floated above the head of the Kopesh before his eyes blacked out and he tumbled down in a mass of sharp metal bits and cables. 

Even though she wasn’t wearing any armor, she dove forward and caught the giant pupae digimon in her arms. She winced when the sharp tips and edges dug into her, but she was just thankful he didn’t smash into the hard rock ground that the shed had been built on top of. She set him down gently and looked over him.

It looked like a really bad infection, even though she knew that digimons didn’t have blood. Black veins crisscrossed all over his body, and he shivered terribly. 

“Holy shit, what do I do?” she muttered a little wetly as she looked him over. It just happened so fast that she didn’t even know what was going on.

But it was clear to her now what it was. Vel’koz, or rather the Void from the League of Legends verse, managed to catch the tail end of whatever Celestial Menagerie was doing and established a connection last time she managed to touch it. And now that she did it again, all it had to do was follow the already established link. 

And even though she was not available because the connection hadn’t been fully established, her friends hadn’t been so lucky. And Chrysalismon was the closest one to her. 

Athena walked over to her and looked down at Chrysalismon.

Vanessa looked over her shoulder. “A-Athena? Can you help me?” she asked, asking for help for the first time to her goddess. 

Athena continued to stare down at Chrysalismon. 

“It’s better if you let him go,” Athena told her.

“What?!” 

“He’s been infected by … whatever that thing was. Whatever it is, it’s already established a link with you, and Chrysalismon is now another link. The more links it has, the easier time it will have exerting its influence over you. You need to kill him.”

“No! I’m not going to kill him!” she hissed. 

Athena glanced at her finally before turning back to look at Chrysalismon. “Then I might be forced to all on the other gods to do it.”

Vanessa looked at her goddess in betrayal. “What?”

“That thing felt like something worse than the Dungeon,” Athena told her flatly but her hand on Vanessa’s shoulder tightened. “Having a second Dungeon out in the world spewing out monsters will never be accepted, but I will not allow you to be killed. So I will just have the other gods kill any of your other friends who do get infected by this … Emptiness.”

“Y-You can’t,” she whimpered. 

“If I must, then I will,” she replied with a snap. “I am a goddess of wise war, and the wisest way to wage war … is to prevent it in the first place.”

Vanessa started hyperventilating. 

What was she going to do here? Was she going to have to … to …?!

She was about to let out a choked sob when she remembered something.

Digimons evolve.

Evolution can sometimes wash away any infections or strains a digimon might have had before its evolution.

“... He might be able to control it.”

Athena gripped her shoulder. “Vanessa -.”

“No, I mean… if he evolves, then he might be able to control it,” she sniffed before wiping her eyes with the heel of her hands. 

“And how do you intend to make him evolve when he is nearly comatose and clearly not fit for dungeoneering.”

Vanessa rose up wordless. “Then I’ll just have to do it myself.”

Athena stared at her in shock. “No, you can’t! You can barely last a single day in the dungeon! You don’t even know when he’s going to evolve!”

She looked down at her goddess, and she stopped herself from spitting out curses. Because she saw that all of those demands and cold, cruel logic … had been to protect her. 

She won’t harm her children to come to harm. 

But Vanessa’s Friends weren’t Athena’s children.

“Then I’ll make do,” she replied as she started walking towards the house. “I’ll never be able to live with myself if I don’t at least try.”

“Then you will die trying and tired!” Athena shouted at her back. 

Vanessa didn’t say anything anymore.

She was tired. 

She needed to sleep.

Because there was a very good chance that she might not sleep again.