The Demon Lord's Successor

You exit the cell, leaving the dead body behind and head upstairs. As you go up the staircase you decide that Chi’s cell is kind of on your way up to the others. So, you exit the staircase on the fourth level of the dungeons.

“Stay here and guard the entrance,” you say to Delta. Since her healing will be of no further help, there is no reason for either Chi or Beta to see her messed-up state. There might be a slight chance that Beta’s buffs might improve Delta’s healing capabilities enough to fix Chi’s legs, but you have no intention of leaving someone as strong as Chi fully healed, while you are away.

You cast [Summon Imps] and proceed to Beta’s cell with your small entourage of five horned, skimpily clad little girls—two ahead of you, two behind, one at your side. Then you remember something completely obvious.

“Could a couple of you fire up small fires in your hands to make this place a little brighter?” you ask the cute demon girls.

They giggle and look at each other. Then the two girls at the front light up one small fireball each, keeping it on the open palm of their hand. You suddenly have a crazy idea of having your little imps summon fires to cleanse this entire place floor by floor. There’s hardly anything left worth keeping anyway. At least it might help a little with the moisture, even if temporarily. Though this will have to wait until next time.

You walk up to Beta’s cell. The bunny is sitting in the corner, behind closed bars.

“If she tries to attack me, or any of you, feel free to stab her as much as you want,” you say to the imps and then open up the cell. Without walking inside you order the bunny girl, “Get up and follow me!”

“Where to? My execution?” She asks spitefully, but weakly.

“No, you’ll be spending some quality time with your dear leader,” you answer with a slight, condescending smile.

“Ah, take me to her now!” the bunny girl jumps up and rushes to you, but stop when you signal her with your hand not to approach.

“Refrain from sudden movements like that. If you don’t want to get stabbed by my cute little helpers here.”

And with that you proceed to Chi’s cell, with Beta guarded by two of your little imps, kept a safe distance behind you. Long before reaching the cell, you see the towering figure of Hercule, hidden in the shadows of the stone corridor. He has the build of a professional strongman. His head is barely a foot away from reaching the ceiling.

“How is she behaving?” you ask him when you approach closer.

“Just laying there,” he says. “Hasn’t said a word the entire time.”

“Just as well,” you say indifferently and look at Chi. She’s laying on the floor, just as you found her last time you came here—with her back toward you. This time though she’s not bleeding at least. “I’ll send a couple of people here to rotate you out. But you’ll be in charge of guarding these two.”

Then you open the cell and motion Beta inside while saying loudly to Chi, to make sure she hears you, “Someone to keep you company. Another token of my good faith.”

“Chi-sama!!” Beta rushes into the cell and falls to the floor beside her, hugging the tied-up bunny and breaking down in tears, “I’m so sorry! I’m sorry for failing you! I’m sorry for everything!”

You can’t hear if Chi says anything in response.

“How can you keep her like this!?” Beta shouts at you in tears. “Can’t I at least untie the ropes?”

“Go ahead,” you say. “I wasn’t able to heal her fully, but I’m working on finding a solution. In the meantime, stay here. As they say—don’t cause any trouble and no trouble will come to you. Do both of you understand?”

“Yes,” Beta throws out, already busy with the ropes, clawing them open with her bare hands.

“Yes,” you finally hear Chi’s voice.

“Oh, and one more thing,” you ask, already holding the metal bars to close the cell, “Have you ever heard of some ‘Veg Cho’ clan?”

Beta stops what she’s doing and looks at you. Chi rolls over and Beta instantly helps her get up to a seating position. Chi looks at you and says, “Most of us are from that clan. What remains of it, that is.”

“Most of you?” you ask.

“The Bunnykin,” Chi explains. “Me, my brother… Everyone except Beta. Why do you ask?”

“I saw it mentioned in one of the sacred texts I read,” you say and Chi looks at you bewildered. “We’ll talk more when I return.”

You close the cell and, after taking one last glance at the two captive bunny girls, hurry back up. You're already late and should depart as soon as possible.