Chapter 41 Bathing Time

The vampires and human servants from the castle kept going through the tunnel, but it would take them a few hours to leave it.

Gerard stopped talking after Serana's slap — only a crazy person would keep challenging her.

So their trip was going fine, with everyone feeling relief after escaping the Undead Legion with their life. Only Serana was not feeling that way, as she wanted to see Damian again.

Deep down, she knew he was fine, alive, but how long? His fate could change at any second, and she was powerless to help him.

"Even if I escape, what can I do against an army of undead alone?"

She could not understand why the Undead Legion was there. It was almost a myth, and they never had grudges against the vampires.

Serana did not know, but the Undead Legion was not there for the vampires, but for Damian.

~~~~

The castle had been taken over by the undead, and Druvana was the one sitting on the throne, while her army surrounded the castle, making sure no one came close.

Damian was there too, sitting on a chair with the constant gaze of Druvana, who did not want him to escape.

"You know I came here for you, right? Not the vampires," she said.

"What? Why would you come here for me?"

Druvana saw his look of confusion. She frowned, and said, "you know you are inside a dungeon floor, right? This is no other world but the third dungeon floor."

What she said was shocking news for someone like Damian, who was still clueless about everything. It was not like he had never thought about the possibility, but everything looked so real to be a dungeon floor.

She saw the shock on his face, and continued, "there are many dungeons on the surface, and by the end of those dungeons, one can go to the second floor, the third and so on. This third floor is huge, and this is where the vampires live."

Each surface dungeon had many monsters, but all of them led to the same place after one completed it, the second floor! The second floor was completely different, and its size was akin to that of a country!

One had to find the way out of there to reach the third floor, the one Damian and Druvana were.

"So you are saying to me that each dungeon floor is this huge?"

"Yes, of course. Each floor has its size, and it is random. The tenth floor, for example, is only an island way smaller than this floor we are on. But the deeper you go, the more powerful are the beasts."

What she said was things Damian knew about already. It was not like the humans from Earth did not explore the dungeon, but what was inside was still a mystery, and only those with enough power knew about.

So there was no way for him to know that the place was on the third floor of the dungeon.

"And you were born inside the dungeon? How do you know all of this?" Damian asked.

The humans from Earth had named that place the dungeon, so how could Druvana know about that? Could she be from Earth and got lost there, just like Damian?

"Me? I was born on the eighth floor. I knew nothing about the dungeon until going to the fourth floor, where I found humans who claimed to be from Earth after I tortured them. They say there's a world up there, one that is huge,"

"I came here after knowing someone had appeared out of nowhere on the third floor. Now, tell me, Damian, are you from Earth?"

Druvana was staring deeply at his eyes, making Damian feel uneasy. Should he tell her the truth? That did not sound wise, as she was a powerful lady that could harm Earth and the humans.

But could he lie to her without her knowing it? Unlikely.

"Why would you want to know about this Earth place? Aren't you happy here?"

"You don't understand… this is personal for me," Druvana said.

Damian just stood there, waiting for her to gather her words for the next sentence.

"It is my mother, alright? She left me a diary, and before I did not know what the diary was about, but after interrogating those from the fourth floor, I finally understood it! My mother came from Earth, but she lived on the eighth floor with my father. They both disappeared when I was six."

Damian sighed in relief. At least she did not seem to have a vendetta against Earth, wanting to destroy it. Also, with her current power, many humans up there could kill her.

"The humans explored many floors of the dungeon after getting their abilities."

The eighth floor where Druvana came from may sound a deep level of the dungeon for Damian, but other powerful humans from Earth had gone way deeper than that, exploring many floors of the dungeon.

"Yes, I am from Earth, but if you go there and cause a mess, humans will kill you. You know that, right?"

Druvana got up from the throne, stopping right before Damian. "I knew it! And yes, I know they can kill me. I just want to find my parents."

"This situation is freaking bad. If I don't tell her what I know, she will kill me, or worse, torture me. This girl is insane!"

Damian did not trust she only wanted to find her parents causing no harm to others, but if he wanted to stay alive, he had to please her.

"You know a way out of here, right? If you came here, you know how to get back," Druvana asked.

"No. I don't even know how I got here."

"You are joking, right?" Druvana stared at him, trying to find anything that proved he was a lier, yet there was nothing.

"You are telling the truth… fuck. Are you telling you just magically appeared here?"

The scenes of how Damian got there flashed through his mind, and he said, "yeah, that was exactly what happened."

"…"

-Druvana: "Should I kill him? No. He doesn't know how he got here, but he did, so he can still be useful. Also, he is quite pretty. Men here in the dungeon are often ugly…"

"Can I take a shower, please? I am feeling dirty," Damian said.

He was feeling dirty, but the actual goal was to stay alone and think about how he would get out of that place alive.

"Sure. Come with me."

"Wait," Damian frowned, "are you coming with me?"

"Of course. I can't let you escape, right?"

The two left the throne room, going into a bathing house outside of the castle, still inside its perimeter.

Damian undressed himself, dreaming about jumping on that warm pool. He did not know, but Druvana was spying on him, peeking her head close to a wall.

She saw his toned body — Damian could thank Magnus for that — and she also saw his down parts, way bigger than anything she had ever seen.

Something clicked inside of her, a primitive instinct.