Monster's Mercy: Extra Epilogue (Patreon)

Bianca smiled as bravely as she could as Rene vanished.

Disappearing into nothing as if he had never been there.

The smile lingered for several seconds before it fell, along with her heart. Plummeting into her stomach where it rolled around hollowly.

As if it were a bell that’d fallen free and clunked to the floor. Rattling about pathetically, never to chime again unless picked up.

With a shake of her head, Bianca realized she was letting her mind run away with her.

While it was true that the light of her world had dimmed considerably with Rene leaving, it was still brighter than it had been before him.

There was much more depth, feeling, and context to her life available to her now.

And all it took was finding someone crazy enough to think Mother isn’t that bad.

That and to fall in love and have some really great sex.

Grinning, Bianca put her hands behind her back and started walking down the sidewalk. Just the thought of Rene was enough to brighten her spirits.

Not to mention her plan had been a great success so far.

He didn’t underestimate her. He was actually wary of her, but willing to pursue a relationship of sorts with her. Not to mention, he was actually far more interested in her than he was letting on.

She could tell.

The way he looked at her, how his fingers lingered on her skin when they finished love-making, how he would put himself between her and any perceived danger.

Unable to help herself, Bianca began to giggle. It slowly built into actual laughter, causing a number of people around her to look at her.

Uncaring, Bianca opened a portal back to her mother’s home. Laughing all the while, she threw herself bodily through it.

She knew she’d be sick, but didn’t give a damn at the moment.

Appearing on the other side, she landed on her back in the green grass of the high-heavens. This had once been a plane filled with those who were deities. People who watched over the planes, especially the prime material plane.

Her mother had killed them all ruthlessly, taken their bodies, and set up a “tea party of the damned” as Nancy called it. Letting their corpses rot away where they sat, their bodily remains held in place by magic.

Rolling over onto her stomach, Bianca got onto her hands and knees.

Then promptly began throwing up violently.

Thankfully, she’d planned ahead and given herself more than enough time to digest her last meal with Rene. There was no way she was going to allow herself to throw that one up under any condition.

All that came up was bile and a coffee she’d split with Rene, staining the grass dark brown.

Bianca quickly stood up, wiped her mouth with a hand, and dismissed the remnants from her mouth and finger with a zip of magic.

“Mother?” Bianca called, looking around. She did her best to not look at the skeleton-filled tea party that wasn’t far off. It wasn’t something she wanted to really dwell on.

She knew her mother was insane, but it didn’t make her any less her parent.

On top of that, she’d actually had a rather loving family life. She’d been raised by a doting mother who gave her everything, made sure she had the opportunity to grow, and cherished her.

Insane, most certainly.

But just as clearly, her mother had loved her.

Looking around, she didn’t see any sign of her mother. That really only left her home, which wasn’t that far off.

An impressive manor home stood in the middle of the field. It looked extremely out of place, like it didn’t belong. Something from several hundred years ago in the current timeline.

Not for the first time, Bianca considered just what kind of world her mother and father came from.

This manor—likely a replica of something in her mother’s past—was her family home. The place were Bianca herself had been raised and therefore, she thought that it was perfectly normal.

She had never worked up the courage to ask her mother about it directly. Any topics that involved her father tended to send her mother into the deep end for a time.

She suspected it was likely an imitation of the very house where she herself had been conceived. Though, that was something she knew she could never really ask about.

“Are you here, Mom?” called Bianca, wondering if her mother was currently out.

“I’m here, dear. What’s wrong?” called her mother’s voice from behind the manor. It was faint, but she already knew where she was.

Bianca took in a short breath, held it, then marched herself toward where she knew her mother would be. There was a small bench at the back of the house that overlooked a garden.

Her mother would often simply sit on the bench and stare at the garden for hours on end.

Sure enough, when Bianca turned the corner, she found her mother exactly where she expected her to be. What came next would be the incredibly difficult part.

Looking more like her sister in age, her mother apparently hadn’t aged a day from when she’d met her father. An ageless beauty that attracted a great number of men whenever she traveled anywhere.

Full in figure with bright-blue eyes and rich-black ringlets, her mother’s features set her apart in any location. Bianca knew that she herself shared much of her mother’s good looks and figure. To the point that her life had been a constant game of balancing risk to herself versus being able to live a normal life.

Not to mention with her mother being ageless, she had to take steps to make sure they looked different enough that people didn’t do a double-take.

Smiling, Claire stared at her daughter, waiting for her to speak whatever was on her mind.

“Mom, I’m… I… I sent a note through my boyfriend to Dad,” Bianca said and then moved to stand directly in front of her mother. Grabbing her hands in her own, she held onto them tightly. “I told Dad that you love him, miss him, and want to see him. That… that you were manipulated into doing what you did.

“That he needs to forgive you and take you back. Because I’m sure he still cares for you. We both know Dad attacks anyone and everyone who dares to set foot on any server that they control.

“Except you and me. From what I can tell, he forces everyone to stay away from us by sheer force of will and threats. If there’s even a hint that he might not be able to do it himself, he pulls in Runner.

“He wouldn’t do any of that if he didn’t care.”

Claire’s face was a frozen mask of despair, longing, and insanity.

Her mind had long ago been cracked by the realization that the world wasn’t what she thought it was. Only to then be completely shattered when Zeus—the rotten bastard that he was—started to manipulate and twist her thoughts around with whispers in the dark.

“Your… father… Ryker, he… I don’t—” Claire’s mouth hung open as she came to a stumbling stop with her words.

“Cares about us. He wouldn’t do what he does, otherwise. You’re a logical person, Mother. Think it through. Don’t… don’t let the whispers take your thoughts right now,” pleaded Bianca. She didn’t underestimate the power of those whispers, or how fragile a mind could be. She now knew what kind of obsessive nature ran in their family considering how she felt about Rene. “I know you still love him. Want him for yourself. That you miss your cousins. So… think it through, would he do—”

“No, he wouldn’t,” whispered Claire. Though the volume was soft, the power of her words stopped Bianca cold. Around her mother the crackle and pop of the world coming in and out of focus was apparent. Strings of letters, words, numbers, and symbols appeared, then disappeared. The truth of the world was always thin around her mother. Especially if she was dipping deep into her thoughts or emotions.

A sure-fire way to open rips in the world was to bring up her now lost husband.

“He wouldn’t, but I can’t— he wouldn’t take me— I can’t. I can’t! It’s… no, no, no, the world it’s all— no!” with that final and single word, the plane trembled and started to tear itself apart. A massive rift into nothing split the entire home in half with a deafening crack.

In the next second, everything was back to the way it should be. Her mother reassembled the whole thing as if it were nothing at all.

“I love Ryker but I’ve hurt him so badly,” said Claire in a low whimper. Her head hung low, facing the ground. Her hands were desperately holding Bianca’s. “Please, leave me, honey. I want to be alone for a while.”

Realizing that this attempt was a failure, but hopeful because she hadn’t started shrieking endlessly this time, Bianca nodded her head.

Releasing her mother’s hands, she stepped in close and hugged her mother’s head. Pressed it to her stomach.

“It’s okay, Mom. I’ll get Dad back for both of us. You’ll see,” she whispered, petting her mother’s head. To Bianca, her mother had done all she could and more. This was her chance to give happiness back to her.

All because of one man.

“Rene will give Dad the note, and he’ll meet me. You’ll see. I’ll talk to Dad, for the first time ever, and he’ll understand,” promised Bianca as Claire began to quietly sob.

***

Ryker sucked on his teeth, chewed at his lip, and then sighed heavily.

Looking up at the empty nothingness above him, he found nothing there. There was nothing at all that concerned him in any way.

Then he looked back down at the letter in his hand.

It’d been delivered to him via Runner, who got it from Rene, who received it from Ryker’s daughter with Claire.

Bianca.

A child he now knew existed, but that he had thought died long in the past. One he didn’t know of until Runner told him.

Clicking his tongue, he considered the plea that’d been written inside once again.

A simple request to meet on a neutral world. One that they could both go to without having to worry about influence from either side.

Ryker’s original home and where Bianca had been born.

A server that would allow both of them to enter without assistance from anyone else because it was their home plane.

Supposedly, his daughter wanted to meet him.

Talk with him.

If it were all true, Ryker knew he would owe Rene in this matter. Being able to speak with his first-born child wasn’t something he’d ever thought possible.

The very idea of speaking with Bianca was nearly mind-numbing to him.

As that thought sprang to life in his mind, he knew there was no other answer available to him.

Even if it was a trap, even if it put his life in danger, he needed to make sure that this opportunity wasn’t lost to him.

Opening his inventory, Ryker sorted through it quickly. He knew what he was looking for and knew that it’d been in his inventory a very long time.

Such a long period of time, in fact, that it was probably the very last item listed.

Sure enough, he found the contract and wedding band side by side.

He’d never had the chance to give her the wedding band as they’d had their falling out before he could. In the dark recesses of his mind, at the back of his thoughts, lay the lingering feelings and longing he felt for Claire.

She’d had a major impact on him. One that had only quieted when he diverted the feelings he’d had for her, to her sister and cousins.

“That’s not very fair to Adele, Shirley, or Lauren, you know,” said Marybelle. She was rarely that far from him. She was his first comfort and last defender.

His one and true wife who would suffer the world with him against all things.

Only Shirley could truly compete with her.

“Well, good that you know it, dear, but I’m not so sure this is a great idea,” warned the Hob.

I know it, Baby-Belle. But I need to do it.

What if it were our own daughter, hm? You’d be encouraging me to go. Regardless of anything else.

“I… you’re right. Maybe I’m just nervous. I think I’m the only one who truly understands how you feel about Claire,” murmured Marybelle. The concern and worry were clear in her tone.

Fret not, my sweet Hob. I’ll come make you squeal after this. Then maybe it’s time for you to finally give me another kid.

You promised me I could have as many as I wanted, after all.

“I… well… mm… we’ll see. Go… go see Bianca. We’ll talk after. I’ll run blocker in case anyone asks where you are or what you’re doing,” Marybelle promised. “I love you. Be safe.”

Love you, too.

In the next instant, Ryker appeared on his home server.

The smell of the fields assailed in him a second. Dragging his mind back to a long time ago.

A time that he’d nearly forgotten.

Taking in a deep breath, he looked to the northwest.

In the distance, he could see the towers of his school reaching toward the sky. Straining to pierce the heavens. A place where all types of magical instruction went on and anyone got a fair chance to learn of their true abilities.

Smirking, Ryker briefly considered dropping in to see how things were going. It’d been a long time since he’d done so. Years upon years, in fact.

Then he shook his head, realizing he was here for a reason.

Here to possibly meet his daughter.

And maybe even Claire.

His heart shuddered at the prospect of seeing the woman who’d birthed his first child. A woman he’d thought long dead until she reappeared in the middle of his trapped server, along with news of his long-lost daughter.

Standing there, Ryker reached out to the dungeon sense.

Instantly, he connected with several Fairies and Imps.

The moment he’d entered the world, they’d all felt him. Felt the connection to him as the god of dungeons. They fluttered about him in the dungeon sense as if they were a wave of butterflies.

“Stop, stop,” Ryker said with a chuckle. “I’ll say hello to you all after this. I need to open a portal first.”

He’d memorized the coordinates that Bianca had put into the letter. They were a simple locational position for somewhere on his trapped server.

A position she likely thought was safe to cross over from, as this would be just as dangerous for her as it would be for him.

Gesturing with one hand to the space in front of him, he tore open a portal from this server to the trapped server. It was something he could do because Runner had made him an equal.

To Ryker, the entirety of the Sovereign was at his disposal. Every version two server, including the trap server, were open to him as if they were a book.

Additionally, he was not constrained as Runner was by the same rules with the deities of each plane.

Ryker was essentially the devil in most servers. Serving as the opposite to Runner, or those who took up the role. It gave them a lot of leeway to shift things as they saw fit.

A second after he’d opened the way, the server connection was finished. The transfer point of data was represented as a portal between the two locations.

Standing there, Ryker put his hands behind his back and ended up clenching them. Then he forced himself to unclasp them.

Only for them to clasp one another again, threatening to break his own fingers.

His nerves were already getting to him and it had only been seconds. There was the distinct possibility he’d be waiting for a little while.

It wasn’t as if his daughter would just be waiting on the other side and—

A young woman stepped through, as if she had been literally waiting on the other side.

She looked no older than Claire did when he’d met her. With eerily similar features that matched far too close to the woman Ryker had once known.

There was something around her eyes and nose though. The way that she looked at him made him feel like he was looking in a mirror.

Without turning her gaze from him, the young woman dismissed the portal. Then she slowly glanced around at the location where they stood.

Her movement inadvertently drew Ryker’s eye to a necklace resting at the woman’s throat.

He instantly recognized it as the one he’d forged with Shirley. The one into which he’d laid his spellwork. A necklace that was created to help, assist, and benefit her in whatever she did.

The woman looked back and stared at him.

“Hi,” Ryker said, his voice catching in his throat. “I’m… I’m Ryker and I’m pretty sure… pretty sure that you’re Bianca. My daughter. Because that necklace you’re wearing is something— the only thing— I was able to give her before she was taken from me.

“Your Aunt Shirley and I inscribed it with our magic. Together. We wanted to raise you as our own since… since Claire wasn’t doing very well.”

The woman Ryker assumed was Bianca blinked several times, then gave him an odd smile. One that looked just like the rest of her family’s. The resemblance was most definitely uncanny.

“For someone supposedly brainwashed by Runner, you seem decidedly sane,” said the woman, then she sighed and nodded her head. “I do believe I’m your daughter. My name is Bianca, though my mother, Claire, originally named me Shirley. I only… recently… discovered that I was originally going to be given another name.”

“Brainwashed by Runner?” Ryker asked and then laughed without meaning to. “He couldn’t brainwash a rat with a bagful of crackers laced with drugs and a maze that only had one turn.”

Bianca blinked at that and then started to laugh as well.

The two of them laughed together for several minutes and then both sighed at the same time.

“So… uhm… what… do we do?” Ryker asked suddenly. “You work for Zeus, I work for Runner.”

“Oh, that’s… well, that’s over,” Bianca said with a casual wave of her hand. “My destined-one-to-be works for Runner, too. Rene. I’m his, he’s mine. Don’t worry, we’re using protection. You won’t be a grandpa yet.

“It’s just a matter of getting this stupid war to end so I can start my family with Rene. We just need to get rid of Zeus, that’s all.”

I… hm. That would most certainly explain why Rene was willing to deliver a letter.

Also why Runner didn’t hesitate to do so either.

This is already… this is already done. Rene already drew my daughter over to our side. It’s only a matter of finishing things up and… and I get… Bianca back.

Unable to hold himself back anymore, Ryker moved forward.

Bianca had a momentary look of surprise and her hands came up as if to defend herself, but she wasn’t fast enough.

Ryker wrapped her in a hug and did his damnedest to squeeze the life out of her. Hugging her for all he was worth.

Bianca wheezed audibly but then did her best to return the hug, holding him as well.

“We’ll figure this out, Father,” Bianca promised. “You and I could conquer anything together. Because I got Mother’s intelligence as well as yours. Between the two of us, we’ll finish all of this.”

Ryker did something he didn’t expect then.

He began to cry, holding a daughter he’d long thought dead who had come back to him.

“I couldn’t get Mother to come, but... but she said she loves you. She misses you. She regrets all that happened,” Bianca said, her hands moving up and down his back now. “She wants you back. More than anything. She’s just… you know… crazy. It’s hard to get her to be reasonable when it comes to you. She loses her wits whenever someone brings you up and usually falls apart into a sobbing wreck for at least a week.”

“Doesn’t sound like Claire at all,” said Ryker with a loud sniff. “Claire would just draw up a project plan, put together any legal document needed, secure a budget, and proceed to ram the whole thing down whoever’s in charge’s throat.”

“Oh, yes. She does that. Often,” Bianca agreed, laying her head on her father’s shoulder. “Just not when it comes to you, Dad. She loves you in a way that’s terrifying. I suppose… similar in a way to how I love Rene.”

“Runs in your family,” Ryker said and continued to sniffle, holding his daughter. “Your aunts are just as bad, they just don’t show it in the same way. Especially your Aunt Shirley.

“Though… let’s talk about what to do next. We don’t have much time before someone notices us here together.”

“Yes, let’s talk about what to do next, though, if you don’t mind,” Bianca said, and then leaned away from him. She gave him an odd smile. “Could you take me to the house where you and mother lived?”

“Certainly. It’s still there,” Ryker agreed, then pulled his marriage contract free of his inventory with his right hand and held it out to his daughter. “So long as you give this to your mother. Please… please tell her that while time and distance may have bleached out some of my feelings for her… they do still remain.”

Bianca looked somewhat shocked at his words, then released him completely and took the paper, clearly reading it over.

“Now… let’s go plan. So our family can come back together,” Ryker said with a chuckle and then wiped at his nose with his sleeve. “By the way, you’ve got some brother and sisters you need to meet.”

Nodding wordlessly, Bianca continued to gaze at the marriage contract between her mother and father. Something that’d been kept in pristine condition.

“He really does still love you, Mother,” she said almost to herself. Her voice was at a volume where Ryker could only barely hear her, and he realized he wasn’t supposed to.

So he ignored it, then opened another portal. Leading back to Dungeon and where it all started.