Shurry's descent into the dungeon this time, he'd been clearing the floors slowly recovering from his earlier predicament. On floor 75, he took a break, laying down, with his head in Luna's lap. If one didn't know better, they might think the two were lovers. But in reality they were more than a married couple but not quite lovers. They were like the tightest of friends, or siblings, maybe… With a slight bit of other things sprinkled in there.
"Shurry, you don't usually let the wolves hunt this much without you, they're loving it… But I worry, you're not alright."
Luna's words cut straight to addressing the main issue at hand. It was mildly ruthless, but Shurry knew just as well as Luna, there wasn't much time to cry. They needed to deal with some of those powerful monsters the wolves aren't nearly strong enough to deal with.
"I… I lost my child to the machinations of an insane demon god, hell bent on destruction. I killed him for it, I wish I could do it again…"
Shurry began, slowly speaking as he munched on a fruit he'd grabbed from the mountain of them nearby. Luna kept petting his head, when she stroked his right ear, she smiled with a slight pain in her own heart. She knew what he was thinking.
"I- I don't think I can do the same for Seldas. I don't think I even want to, and I don't know why? Is it because I thought she would fight hard enough to come see me herself, which she failed? Is it because that Tione girl inherited her spirit, as well as the promise I made with Seldas when we were younger, so much so that Seldas came in spirit? Or is it because I already knew this was an inevitable moment in the timeline, and did nothing to stop it, even if I'd lost my memories for a long time I still feel a little guilty about it?"
"Don't beat yourself up about it too much. Do what you can here, and leave the past to the past. We have to get stronger if we want to kill that dragon."
"I know… I can feel it, and yet, it feels weaker than what's on the bottom of the Dungeon, just waiting for me."
"Yeah… Whatever that is, it isn't possible to win, not yet anyway."
Shurry sighed, and got up, stretched, and finished the entire mountain of dungeon specialty fruits, wiped his mouth, and howled. The wolves immediately began their retreat to Shurry's safe haven.
"We're going to slaughter our way through the monsters, devouring them all. You'll eat their magic, I'll eat their flesh."
Luna smiled, and floated up to now stand on her feet.
"So, are you going to collect all of the members you wanted into your familia? You just got Tiona, and Tione. And you're trying to get Ais. Plus Lefiya was up there as well."
"I'm… Waiting to make some choices, I want to see what the one who should avenge Alraj will do. Will he kill, or will he forgive, and allow the criminals to continue living, so they may repent?"
"Which would you-"
"Kill."
"That's why you're leaving it to him then?" Luna giggled, teasingly placing a hand over her lips. "You're a big softy underneath it all aren't you?"
"Whatever happens, I'm not the one who should make that choice. It's his wife and son who get to make that choice. It's the reason why I let them live the day it happened. Is it bad that I regret letting them live after that?"
"I couldn't say, I feel the same way as you do about it. It's because of our family in the Zeus and Hera familias that we were able to grow as strong as we did, as fast as we did. Losing them to the dragon was already horrible enough… But then they took him from us too… He may have been an annoying perv, making mixed family baths impossible with him around, but he was still a kind, loving, and friendly person."
"Yeah, Alraj, my big brother… And Seldas, my little sister… I couldn't protect either of them… Hell, I couldn't protect my own kid-"
"Don't say that, you were forced away from the scene by the machinations down here in the dungeon. There was nothing else you could have done."
"That's the problem… And soon, once I have all of the pieces to the puzzle, I can really bring out the full potential of this world… If it hadn't killed any of my family, I wouldn't bother fighting the black dragon at all. I'm more interested in what lies beneath us."
"Why's that?"
"Because, I can match the dragon in a year, and surpass it in 2."
The last wolf in the wolf pack returned, thrusting Shurry and Luna into the battle at hand. Thousands of monster rexes, with hundreds more monsters for each of the rexes…
"Who would have thought the dungeon would have this many monsters just because of one god's Arcanum…"
"Oh, don't complain, you're loving every second of this!"
"Yeah! I can't wait to see my pups, and take them on their first hunt. Oh I bet they'll be the cutest!"
"Pfft, of course they will! They'll be learning from you, and their beautiful, kind, and cheerful mothers… They'll dote on them so much, just you wait!"
"Humph, don't say that like I won't be doing the same."
The telepathic communication continued with teasing back and forth. Shurry slayed the monsters with relentless efficiency. He was like an invincible foe, through an army of monsters… He was the predator, the apex… Despite this, the monsters never seemed to end, as their spawn rate was still keeping up with Shurry's kill rate.
While Shurry killed through the enemy, Luna manifested her light to harvest the meat from all of the corpses, and drop items, then harvest the magic stones. Saving the magic crystals from the low ranking monsters for sale on the surface, while devouring the monster rex crystals… With each one, she recovered some of her power she'd had to use doing the fight with Erebus, power she and Shurry had been collecting in the hopes it would kill the black dragon.
It was a full, 2 days of non-stop fighting on floor 75 before the energy to spawn monsters had finally run dry… And they could finally leave the dungeon… More wealthy than most anyone would ever know.
"Alright, let's head back to the surface, I want to sleep in my bed with Ardee and Neze there."
"What if they're not the only ones who join you?"
"Huh? Oh that's right, Alfia's stopped repressing those feelings she had, didn't she."
"For someone so smart, you can be a real dunce sometimes, can't you? There's no way she's the only one after your tail."
"There's a lot, but if you're talking about Rose, she'd need to leave the guild and join my familia."
"I don't just mean lovers either. Once you return to the surface, Idunn is going to be all over you."
"Oh yeah, you're right… Mothers, when worried about their babies, can be quite clingy. Though, It's not like I mind that…"
Wolves proudly carrying all of the battle's spoils of their alpha's battle. They began their return trip to the surface, back to their home, this time, knowing full well that there's no chance of it having suffered under anyone's thumb.
…