Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 856: Final Push

Kaiden walked over to her and settled his hand on top of her head.

”You made the normal choice.” He gave her a slow pat while eyeing the room. ”The rest of us just happen to be incurable risk takers, so there’s really no need to feel bad about it.”

”Kai...” Alexandra peeked up at him from beneath his palm, her voice a small murmur. ”Are you saying this to make me feel better?”

”No.” Kaiden grinned and shook his head at her. ”Actually, I’m glad you chose option A. You’re the group’s protector, so it makes sense for you to pick the careful road. If anything, it makes me feel better about the future, because the rest of us have grown way too accustomed to taking incredible risks for potential gains. Hearing a normal argument for once was great.”

The dejection vanished in an instant, replaced by a smile so bright it could’ve doubled as a healing spell, and Alexandra threw both arms around him.

”Then I’ll be your voice of reason from now on!” she declared into his chest, squeezing tight.

She stayed exactly where she was after that, cheek pressed against him, nuzzling, thoroughly content.

”Look at this shameless bitch,” Luna said.

”Very bold...” Aria mused.

”My Blondie Bestie is amazing~” Nyx sang.

Alexandra turned pink to the very tips of her ears. She did not stop nuzzling.

For once, no kitten hiss came from Alice’s direction. The little sister watched the scene with her arms crossed and decreed, ”Brother’s headpats are the best. Watch out, or you’ll be hopelessly addicted as well.”

”...I think I’m already in danger,” Alexandra muttered into his chest.

Kaiden chuckled and gave her a few more pats, then lifted his eyes to the rest of his girls.

”Alexandra. I heard your opinion, but I’m with the others on this one. Option B is simply the better choice for us.”

She tilted her head back without letting go of him, and the protest everyone half expected never came. ”Okay. You thought it through, and you believe in it. That’s all I need.”

The trust in her voice was total.

Kaiden nodded at her, and with one hand still resting on his healer’s head, turned back to the glowing window and made the choice.

[Option B selected.]

[Stripping Claimant forces...]

[The Defender and his chosen forces will be transported to the site of the final engagement.]

[Phase 3: STRIKE.]

’So it’s outside the dungeon, as expected.’

A second window opened before him, listing everything under his command.

[Select the forces that will accompany the Defender.]

He selected all of it. Every champion, every monster, every last one of the Dungeon-Born.

[Champions: All selected.]

[Monsters: All selected.]

[Dungeon-Born: All selected.]

[Selection confirmed. Transporting...]

The Abyssal home vanished in a flash of brilliant light, and Alexandra’s arms clamped tighter around him as the whiteness took them.

When it receded, they were standing on a seamless white plain that stretched unbroken in every direction, golden light already blooming behind them in widening waves as the dungeon’s forces began to arrive.

The Kaiju was waiting for them.

Through every phase of the duel it had been a silhouette behind barriers, a shape crouched over a distant board. Standing on open ground with nothing in between, the creature was colossal, a mountain range of muscle wrapped in a hide of raw stone carapace, all six burning eyes fixed on the man it had challenged to a Dungeon Master Duel.

Its chest swelled, and the roar arrived as pressure before it arrived as sound, a wall of force that rolled across the plain, tore at hair and clothes, and pressed against ribs like an open palm.

It went on far longer than any battle cry had a right to, animosity given a voice and aimed at Kaiden specifically, and the white world trembled under it.

Luna stepped out in front of the group before the echoes finished dying and drove her Stormblade’s point into the ground at her feet.

”Gremlin?” Nyx asked.

”It’s an intimidating roar. We can’t stand here taking that scream like scared little babies, or we’ll start the fight disadvantaged.”

”What do you propose...?” Aria asked, confused.

”Simple.” Luna dragged in a breath so deep her entire tiny frame swelled with it.

”RAAAAAAAAH!”

It cracked at the top, pitched somewhere between war goddess and angry kitten, and it was, by the unanimous silent verdict of everyone present, adorable.

The girls traded smiles around her, and then they answered her properly.

Scarlet threw her head back and howled, flames erupting off her shoulders, while Calypso’s bellow crashed in beside it with enough force to shake the air, and the rest of their voices rose together until the plain rumbled with them.

Behind them, bronze thunder rolled. Taigi and her Dungeon-Born had locked their shield wall the moment they materialized, and now forty-six spears hammered forty-six shields in rhythm while every throat among them screamed for their Lord, boots stomping the white floor like a war drum.

The golden waves kept delivering. Maulfiends landed rank upon rank, obsidian plating gleaming dark against the pale floor, Monoliths planting themselves like walking fortresses while Quakelords cracked the pristine ground simply by arriving. Above them, the Nightclaw flights poured into the sky, Gorefiends and saddle-ready Skyfiends wheeling in wide circles as Nightshrouds bled ribbons of darkness across the colorless air.

Melty and her friends weren’t here, however.

The match had restored his champions to perfect health after phase 2, but the monsters that died in phase 1 received no such mercy, resulting in the wyrm pod’s complete absence.

The dungeon’s lesser creatures spilled out last, a tide of slimes and venomflies that wobbled and droned into position behind the army, contributing what they could.

Then the monsters joined the war cry, Quakelord bellows rolling under Nightclaw shrieks, stacking on top of bronze and flame and lightning until the white domain rang like the inside of a struck bell.

Kaiden eased himself out of Alexandra’s arms and stepped forward.

Crimson mist poured from the Blood Monarch’s Gauntlet, condensing into the familiar weight of his greatsword, dark red against all the white, and he began walking toward the creature.

”Let’s do this.”

They surged forward.