Newly Summoned Demoness - Chapter 43 – It Sizzles in the Dark (Patreon)

The tension was palpable as they trudged down the final corridor to where the map claimed there was a treasure chamber. Those were relatively rare—and also contained the most dangerous enemies—and nothing prevented the summoned inhabitants from migrating into the corridors.

Everyone was weary. The [Rockbear] had just been the start. They’d had to fight a horde of skeletons backed by archers after that, and her anti-projectile wand had been drained dangerously low. Yet she didn’t want to waste mana crystals on recharging it without a specific need, because those stores were limited in supply.

Yolani sighed and rubbed her face. Even if she hadn’t been in the thick of the fights like the others, she still felt the exhaustion seeping into her head.

That wasn’t a great state to be in when there was an upcoming showdown.

She peeked into her potion bag and counted. They had one set of stamina potions left, and everyone still had their own healing vial.

“We should rest,” Harlock suggested as they reached the halfway point of the corridor. It was marked by a small indent in the wall, where a corridor might have gone if they were in a different section of the dungeon. It was probably the best resting spot they’d find.

Yolani nodded. “We should each take a stamina potion. Whatever is up ahead will probably be the worst thing we face here.”

“Aye, especially if there is a treasure like promised,” Thoren said.

“The map’s been accurate according to the structure of things so far, it’s just the rewards have been meager,” Yolani said.

Harlock grunted. “That’s likely because your father’s crew came in before us, but it’s a wee bit extreme.”

“I’m not a delver, but I agree. It should have recovered by now, really. It took us three days to get down here. Maybe they left father behind, and he’s been stuck down here looting…” Yolani’s words trailed off. It really was too hard to try and hold on to some hope.

Henri came over and put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it supportively. “If anyone could do it, it would be your father.”

She gave him a fake smile and nodded.

Kareth began to rummage in his pack for something, and she caught the smell of fresh meat. Harlock had handpicked the team, and the man had done a deft job of being the party’s finesse, but…

“If you’re so attached to those pieces of meat, I could cook them for you,” she offered with a hint of sarcasm. Her fire wand was low-powered and more for starting fires than doing anything major, but it would be capable of cooking the meat, at least enough to eat.

Her suggestion elicited a laugh from the group, breaking the somber mood for a moment. Kareth shook his head with a grin. “No need. We’ll have ourselves a campfire up ahead, and we can all enjoy some juicy steaks.”

She shook her head but didn’t press further. Probably everyone coming to help her had their head on a little loose, otherwise they would have fucked off. Actually, that probably went for anyone who entered the dungeon willingly.

Everyone downed the small vials of yellow-green liquid. An almost immediate relief from the tiredness and exhaustion washed over her, and she quickly stashed the empty vials for later reuse. The energetic effect would eventually wear off after several hours and they’d be even more tired, so delaying wasn’t a good idea.

“Alright, let’s finish this,” Henri said. Everyone nodded and moved out.

The next chamber was incredibly massive; if it wasn’t for the obvious continuance of the corridor on the other side of the room, she would have thought they had accidentally punctured into the deep caverns.

Lucas let out a low whistle, drawing a sharp look from Harlock.

Yolani didn’t blame the man though, a massive canyon cut the area in half, with an anemic stream of dark water at the bottom that slowly flowed through. At the end, a ramp worked its way up to a second level, then across the ravine and down to the other side.

A multitude of different colored lights shone from the second level, which was out of sight. It was the only path available unless they wanted to try and bridge across the ravine, but the chamber was their destination anyway.

Yolani’s grip on her kinetic combat wand tightened unconsciously with each step into the chamber. It was quiet, too quiet. It wasn’t really a question of whether there was an ambush or trap waiting for them. She was sure that there was. Everyone else seemed to feel the same way as they scanned their flanks and held their weapons ready.

At the top of the ramp, she wasn’t disappointed. The boundless array of colors weren’t spawned from the Underdark’s plethora of bioluminescent fungi—larval eggs and silent insects tending them revealed themselves to be the source.

“Demon’s tits,” Harlock muttered.

Yolani’s eyes fell on the largest form in the chamber's rear, nestled on top of a large clutch of the eggs.

[Alpha Waspite Queen]

The queen’s body was a sickly yellow brown color, twice the size of a person. The veins in its wings glimmered with magical energy while the spikes embedded in the exoskeleton seemed to bristle. A single loud note escaped from her mandibles as it rotated to face them.

An exhale escaped Yolani as the group formed a defensive circle with her in the center. An angry buzzing filled the air all around them as more [Waspite Drones] revealed themselves from every nook and cranny. The entire upper chamber turned out to be their nest.

“Killing the Queen should incapacitate the rest,” Harlock said. There was no humor or mirth in his voice.

Kael swallowed nervously. “I don’t suppose there is any way to back out now.”

Yolani shook her head as she looked over her shoulder. There were drones filling the space behind and below them, the entire ravine crawling with the things. Despite knowing that there would be an ambush, it still came as a surprise. They were effectively cut off from escape. “We’ve come this far.”

Thoren grunted and readied his great sword at the front of the group. “We’ll need protections.”

Yolani went to work without delay, wringing her memory for the properties of [Waspites] the best she could. Their venom was acidic in nature, so she pulled out the corresponding wand and began to etch a personal protection ward for each party member.

That served as a signal for the drones to rush them.

“Brace yourselves!” Harlock shouted over the deafening hum of wings. Each [Waspite Drone] was easily the size of a person, but they rushed with the speed of a charging Ralfot.

The first attacker arrived and Thoren swung heavily with his great sword, cleaving it in half, sending a dangerous spray of ichor through the air. It missed splattering her, and she enacted the acid wards with a final drawn sign with her wand.

It was just in time as Harlock jabbed another drone with his spear, sending a spray directly into his face. Rather than sizzling acid the blood dripped off his skin. That didn’t protect his gear, though, and it quickly began to smoke and sizzle.

Thoren took down a second and then third drone as he began to cleave through each challenger, but they began to attack in groups. Lucas raised his shield and blocked one attack on the exposed warrior’s side before bashing the extra attacker away, but the drone released a glob of green acid that quickly began to etch away at the wood.

Their weapons and armor would need separate wards, but before she could consider that, she was forced to change tack. Four drones assaulted their rear at once, Henri cleaved one while Kael guarded his side, but they were nearly flanked and stung anyway.

Her wards wouldn’t do anything to protect from an actual sting, and she was forced to aim her kinetic wand and slam a white bolt into each attacker.

It preoccupied her so much she didn’t see the one drop from the ceiling right on top of her. Rather than be impaled, Jareth was there, tackling the drone and stabbing it repeatedly in the side of the head. She didn’t have time to feel shocked.

They needed to deal with the queen somehow, and they were already starting to be overwhelmed by the drones! The [Alpha Waspite Queen] seemed content to remain on her clutch, so Yolani figured she’d have to be the one to act.

“Cover me, I’m going to hit the queen!” she shouted. There was a chorus of acknowledgement, but there was little room for anything else.

The warding wand went back into its slot as she yanked her Aether one out. Her [Aether Manipulation] would amplify its effects greatly. She wasn’t sure it was the optimal counter to the queen’s own affinity for acid, but it was better than trying something else.

She kept the kinetic wand in her other hand and ready just by simple necessity. Leaving herself open while channeling wasn’t an option, even with the other party members doing their best to cover her.

Raising the Aether wand above her head, she drew a full circle in front of her as the base for the spell. The massive space provided ample room for her to rapidly begin to etch the needed runes in the air, but it also meant it would drain an alarming amount of [Power] from the built-in mana shard powering it.

The space was thick with natural mana, though. Adjusting the formula on the fly, she added a siphon that would allow the working to draw from that source as well. That complicated everything, but she wasn’t sure she’d get a second shot, so she needed to make the first one count.

Penetration, siphoning, lighting-Aether, wind-Aether, shockwave amplification, homing, multiple projectile, explosive, channeling, and acceleration runes all slowly formed one by one around the artifice’s center.

The blue-white lines burned in her vision as she used the raw energy as the tapestry for her working. Once the runes were in place, she began to inscribe the Aether bindings around the edge and then work on the core’s finishing touches.

The [Alpha Waspite Queen] was not amused and jumped off her clutch and into the air. It seemed to recognize the danger, and green orbs began to form around her in response.

“Incoming casting!” Harlock warned.

Yolani grunted and raised her kinetic wand, while focusing on her drawing. If she made a mistake, the working would burn itself out and waste all the accumulated energy of her wand.

Tendrils shot out from the orbs of green liquid like spikes directly at the entire party. There were too many of them for her to target individually, so she created a dome field instead. The strike splattered off the barrier, but she gritted her teeth as she tried to ignore it and focus on finishing the artifice.

The brief respite underneath the acid covered shield allowed the others to regroup, quaff potions, and rearrange their equipment. The [Power] remaining in her kinetic wand dropped alarmingly fast.

Yolani finished before it drained completely. It was an improvised working, incorporating brand extra elements that she had only studied and never actively used simply because of how dangerous they were.

She jabbed the Aether wand into the core and the runes and energy began to spin, indicating that everything had clicked together correctly.

Releasing a tense breath, she smiled. Every artifice needed a name, even a made-up-on-the-spot one that would only be used once.

No, not needed. Required. Artifice casting was the hybrid between a wizard’s proscribed list of studied incantations and technical spell casting with the elementalist’s pure willpower-fueled efforts. Her creator’s will wed itself to the sharply drawn and calculated artifice runes.

Yolani took a deep breath and whispered, “Queen’s Requiem.”

Despite the softness of her voice, the sound vibrated strongly in the air, echoing as if a chorus of a thousand voices repeated the name.

The acid that had begun to pool around them on the floor immediately lifted into the air like the center of the spell was a whirlpool, the enchanted liquid consumed by the siphoning spell. A wall of [Waspite Drones] formed up in front of the queen just as the spell launched forward.

Green tendrils shot forward toward the beam of energy, which split into hundreds of smaller beams of light, zig-zagging rapidly across the distance. They sliced through the intercepting acid sharply before impaling the drones and shooting out their backs, straight for the queen.

A defensive magic circle flashed into existence in front of the queen, but it was too late. The spell work was shattered as the multi-pronged beams slashed the working to pieces then stabbed into their target. Each lance of Aether was small but punched clear through the queen’s exoskeleton like bullets before arcing back around to strike again… and again.

By the time the spell worked itself out, the queen was a pile of gore on the dungeon floor. As promised, all the drones began to stagger and act like they were drunk before keeling over or falling out of the air. The lighting from the larval eggs changed from a rainbow to a steady, harsh red.

Kael was the first to say anything. “Holy shit.”

Yolani bit her lip and hoped that was it. Both her kinetic and Aether wands dimmed until they displayed a dull, lifeless shard. She had some extra [Power] in the mana crystals, but it was hardly enough to recharge them effectively. There was zero chance she’d be able to pull off another improvised artifice again.

“That’s why ye don’t mess with an artificer, lad. Or at least don’t give them time to think about doing that to ya,” Thoren said.

Lucas nodded. “Nothing ever good comes of pissing off artificers.”

Harlock grunted and looked across the now still chamber. “Not looking forward to combing through this mess.”

Henri scratched his head. “Probably should start behind the queen’s clutch.”

It seemed as good a place to start as any.

“Acid wards for boots first. Unless you all want to be going around barefoot on the way back,” Yolani cautioned.

The group straightened themselves out while she played her warding wand over each person’s footwear. It was a miracle that they weren’t already barefoot in the first place, so she worked as quickly as she could. Once that was done, they moved forward together as a group.

Just as Henri had predicted, there was a separate room behind where the queen had nested. It was free of the ichor and mess the Waspite hive had presented.

It was unnaturally clean.

Except for the skeletal remains of a person in the corner, clutching a pouch to its chest. Acid had scoured all the flesh and equipment away.

Yolani pushed past the others, ignoring the chests and other items in the room to kneel beside the body.

She recognized the warded pouch, and the [System] message was a punch to her gut.

[An inheritance has been stored for you. Would you like to accept your inheritance now? Y/N?]

Yolani burst into tears.