By: Indumati Eveningnight
Gran already made a plan to capture the kidnappers in Granite Valley who had been stealing people left and right off of the streets and taking them who knows where. Alucarda would use monsters that Gran made for her called "Eye Bats" which are a type of monster bat with black wings and single eyes, hidden by their illusionary stealth ability, and use them to track Azure, who would use an illusion to pretend to be a beautiful woman since it seemed the kidnappers favored beautiful girls. Additionally, they would begin this operation at Dusk, since that's when the kidnappings according to the reports about them which Maria burrowed from the town guard told her they would strike during the investigation, which she obtained by pretending to be a church official since Gran knew the town guard was corrupt and in league with the Church of Protagonism. Gran in the meantime would communicate with his team with magic devices similar to cellphones that only recognized him and his allies as users and would spy from afar using the Eye Bats and Azure's magical energy signal to track the enemy. At least, that's the plan.
Azure decided the best way to disguise herself as a beautiful big-chested elf and pretend to be very naive. Then, some rough-looking people started to approach her position. They quickly moved in from behind to grab her and drug her by grabbed her head and putting it to her mouth. Azure herself was immune to sleep ailment, but played along with this and let the men place her in a hidden cage. The Eye Bats hid under an illusion and tracked the carriage towards a warehouse on the edge of town, in a seedy part of town. Alucarda then said, "So, what's the orders, Master Gran?" in a teasing way. Gran then said, "Now now, you don't need to call me that. Anyway, if anyone's inside, along with Azure, you need to secure and rescue them. You are, of course, allowed to be rough with the bandits as much as you please, though we do need information from them." Alucarda then laughed in an evil way and said, "I like that." Gran then responded, "Oh, don't forget to capture any brainwashed monsters, if any, after all, we know the bandits could potentially have connections to The Church." Alucarda smiled and said, "You sure don't make it easy. However, I feel like having fun." She watched them move inside the base and smiled an evil smile and sneaked inside, under an illusion of darkness, right on top of the carriage, and snuck inside. The bandits soon unloaded several women. Alucarda observed they were mostly targeting demihumans. She got rather angry and annoyed at this. The bandit leader of this group was a shady man in a purple robe with a bald head and carrying concealed weapons. He then said, "We got another shipment in." One of the lower level goons then said, "It sure is easy with everyone busy with the war effort." The bald man then said, "And the church is paying the guards to look the other way too. Now, let's go bag them all and tag them and get the brainwashing collars ready. So that they can be made into soldiers for the frontlines. After all, the church is paying us big money to provide free meatsacks and entertainment for their men." Alucarda leered with disgust. Suddenly, they noticed that Azure had escaped her confines. The lower level goon, who had an iron mask and an axe then said, "Hey, that elf. Where did she go?" The bald headed man panicked and then said, "We need to capture her at once! After all, elves are worth a lot of money! Especially women!" The Azure appeared under her elf guise and then said to them, "You looking for me, darlings?" The bald man then took out a crossbow with a drugged dart and fired at her, but it was an illusion! The man with the axe moved in the grab her, but Azure's illusions made her slip between them and then she cast a spell known as "Sleep Mist" which hit all the men and made them fall asleep while the bald man panicked and Azure hit him with an ivy bind to capture him alive. One of the bandits from atop a balcony aimed a crossbow bolt at Azure and was ready to fire at her, but Alucarda hit him with a fireball and made him burn and fall over right into the floor below and crack his skull and burn to death. Azure smiled and said, "I knew you would have my back." Alucarda then grabbed the half-sleepy bald man and then ordered him, "Talk. Who is your boss and where is he at?" The bald man then replied with a smirk, "You think you can take us down? The church will have us out in no time!" Alucarda then said to Azure, "Darling, you know what do, right?" Azure then said, "Very well." She then made a creepy sickly sweet smile at the man and giggled and said, "All I need to do is put you to sleep and show what's in your mind to me and everyone else. Let's get started, shall we?" The bald man was frightened and said, "Wait, you can't just, that's impossible." Azure smiled and giggled more as the sleeping spell hit him and she peered into his mind as his resistance and consciousness faded...and she saw someone named Bazza the Butcher, a large muscular man, holed up in a cave near the Church's own chapel just off the path past the Graveyard near town. Azure smiled and said, "All done, Alucarda. That was very easy." Alucarda then smiled in an evil way and said, "Then let's dispose of this trash." She then conjured flames and burnt them all up painfully and turned them to ashes. Azure then said to her, after it was done, giggling as she did, "Let's free the slaves now." They went through the cages and the carriage nearby, full of frightened women and children. Azure then said, "I think maybe they think we're monsters..." Alucarda then said, "I don't blame them, we did just destroy their kidnappers, after all." Azure then said, "Looks like some of the missing people are here." They approached some of the villagers and Alucarda then said, "Promise not to snitch?" The villagers agreed, and Azure then said, "We'll get ya back home, alright?" Alucarda then said, "There's more here then in the reports, not to mention many of them are missing or not mentioned. Boss?" She contacted Gran while Azure got the villagers in the report to safety, with Maria meeting up with them to help them outside. Alucarda then said, "What should we do?" Gran said, "Try talking to them, but be friendly, alright?" Alucarda then sighed and said, "Sure thing." She approached a nearby Lamia who was protecting a small child. The lamia then said, "Stay back, vampire." Alucarda then said, "So, you weren't in the reports...so what's the deal with that?" The Lamia then said, "My village was burned down long ago by the church. And many of these little ones are war orphans from their campaigns." Alucarda then said, "In that case, I would like to offer you guys a safe place to stay, if that's okay." The lamia then said, "We don't make deals with the Dark Lord." Alucarda then sighed and said, calmly, trying to be a bit more friendly, "We do not know this "Dark Lord" of yours. Now, our leader has a dungeon that they built and would like to offer you work there, if you're willing..." The Lamia then said, "I...guess we have no choice. What terrible deeds will you have us do?" She eyed Alucarda with suspicion and felt they had no choice. Alucarda sighed. In truth, if it were Maria or Azure, they would be better at negotiating, since they have much friendlier appearances. Alucarda thought for a moment. "Well, our leader is a dungeon architect. Whether you want him to rebuild for all of you or work with him, that's up to you. Is that acceptable?" The lamia softened a bit and said, "I guess, not like we can be safe either way." And so...they all agreed, cautiously, to go into the Dream-Space Dimension and head into The Ziggurat of Shadow. Alucarda said to Gran, "Looks like there's a much bigger operation going on with these guys." Gran thought for a moment. He admitted it was pretty grim and said, "We should meet back up with everyone. Azure has altered their memories, right?" Azure popped back in for a bit and said, "I did, to protect us. As to not cause a panic."
Gran and the team agreed to meet up at the inn...where Gran would make prep to hunt down the bandit's base in the deed of night past the peaceful graves and the glow of the nearby chapel's lights while the chapel was mostly empty of Protagonism Cultists aside from Janitors and gravekeepers who didn't bother the heroes one bit, though one very confused watchmen did some shadows nearby but thought it was just a groundskeeper or a wild animal and paid it no mind. The team was about to get into the caves, which they found due to Azure's dream-sight showing them the way and Maria marking it on the map and following Gran's map and using the eye bats to scope out the area just in case of trouble. Gran and his team snuck in invisibly, everyone but Alucarda using night vision devices to see in the darkness. Alucarda herself just straight up had dark vision. Gran noticed a trap nearby to alert people of intruders, so he neutralized it without triggering it due to his ability to make and unmake traps giving him the ability to disarm them. The team split up, with Alucarda staying with Gran and them heading to the boss's office through the caves, while Azure and Maria handled rescuing the slaves. Alucarda said, "I wanted to stay with you anyway." Gran then said, "I know, and they can handle the negotiations as well as any...unexpected troubles that may arise." There were a couple of bandits patrolling, but Gran quickly used traps to take them down and dispose of the bodies, while Alucarda and her Eye Bats scanned for intruders and she used darkness magic to render herself invisible and pull a bandit by surprise from behind into the void and killed them. They were able to quickly make short work of the patrolmen, but then they saw a dog monster that is a zombie dog with a brainwashing collar on that alerted a couple of bandits to Gran. One of the Bandits said, "Hey you! You're not supposed to be here!" and he threw a dagger, but Gran blocked it with invisible strings that cut it in midair and he sliced the bandits arms off before the strings hit their neck. The "Rottwieler" charged for him, but Gran trapped it in a small non-lethal pitfall and removed the brainwashing collar. The Rottwieler recovered it's senses, but sided with Gran to help him sniff out the other bandits in their quarters, whom were drunk from a night of partying and had some captive brainwashed elves and cat folk with them who were out of it. Alucarda used the darkness to sneak attack the Kidnappers, which alerted some of them but Gran quickly sliced them with a steel wire trap. One of them grabbed a nearby elf and put a knife to her throat and said, "Hey, don't move! Or she dies!" Gran smirked somewhat amused and said, "Aren't you forgetting something?" The kidnapped didn't understand, until an Eyeball quickly shot him in the back of the head with a laser beam right through the eye after flanking his position while invisible. The elf was too out of it to realize or care. Alucarda then said, "What should we do with them?" She noted several of them were naked but didn't mind. Gran, however, was quick to clothe them first before removing the collars. The elf from earlier was frightened and horrified, but Gran held her close and said, "It's okay, we're getting you guys out of here. Now, come to my Dream-Space Dimension." The elf and the others agreed, but were frightened and had been through a lot. Alucarda then grabbed a nearby key and said, "So, I wonder how Azure and Maria are doing."
Meanwhile, in the dungeon depths of the Kidnapper's Kove, Azure and Maria snuck around under illusions and Azure was quick to snatch a key from a passing kidnapper, which surprised him and he panicked, until Maria impaled him with her lance. She still wore a cold yet kind expression as the blood stained her face and armor. Azure was a bit horrified by this, but then smiled a bit and said, "Well, Gran did say not the spare the kidnappers at all, right?" There were some kidnappers nearby who had a Cult of Protagonism Priest with them. The priest then said, "What is the meaning of this?!? Monsters?!?" Azure puffed her cheeks and said, "Monsters? Us? How rude!" Maria then said, in a booming declaration, "The nerve, after kidnapping so many innocents against their will." The priest then said, "Oh well, you two look cute enough to entertain people. We can always feed you to the Wyvern if you're no good." Azure laughed and giggled. The priest then replied, "What's so funny, brat?" Azure then said, speaking to a sylph she summoned, "Are you ready?" She then blasted a bunch of toxic paralyzed butterfly scales all over the priest and the lackeys moving towards them, and they collapsed on the ground. The priest was horrified as Maria butchered each of them as she advanced, slashing them with a sword and stabbing them with lances of pure light. The priest held up a holy symbol and said, "Back, foul beasts! In the name of the Goddess of Creation!" Maria however, cut his hand off and stepped on top of his neck and said, "Talk." The priest started reciting prayers, but Azure quickly put him to sleep and started peering into his dreams...and found that there was a wyvern not too far ahead whom the kidnappers fed defective and "used" goods to. Azure responded with disgust and drowned the priest's dreams into an eternal endless nightmare that he could never ever wake up from. Maria was surprised by this brutal act. Azure then said, "They have a brainwashed wyvern. I'll take care of it. You take care of the prisoners and get them out of here, okay?" Azure then went off to a dark pit like area. Maria in the meantime saw something of interest. Among the prisoners she saw a dwarf girl shivering in a corner. Many of the slaves were women and children, branded with foul slave crests and collared. Maria approached the Dwarven Girl and said to her, in a comforting voice, "It's okay, we've come to save you all." The dwarven girl then said, "Who...are you people?" Maria then said, "Just simple adventurers out on a mission." The dwarven girl begged her and said, "Please get me out of here. I was kidnapped from the Mountains and these slavers want to use me as ransom against my father, the Mountain-King." Maria then thought for a moment and said, calmly, "We will. In exchange though, could you put in a good word for our team with the King of your people? After all, we have some business with him as well after all this." The dwarven girl then said, "My name is Ruri Ruddybeard. And it would be a pleasure." Maria then said, "Then please, come to the Dream-Space Dimension." Ruri agreed, and entered. Maria soon freed the rest of the slaves, noting it was a sizable operation, and even took some paperwork from the slaver's records, detailing that they had plenty of business with the Church and had sent many slaves all over the realm and that these kidnappers were all part of a much larger network called the Scorpion's Sting. Maria winced at how much these bastards had done. And took the paperwork with her as evidence. Of course, she would tell Gran about it later as it not only would be useful later but could get them plenty of potentially allies down the road. Of course, it would need to be copied, just in case of tampering by the Church or any corrupt officials.
Meanwhile, Azure found a guard from the town guard who was in the Scorpion's Sting along with a couple of bandits who were in front of a brainwashed dragon. Azure came down the stairs friendly as could be, and the guard then said, "A little girl? How did you get out of your cage?" One of the bandits laughed and said, "Maybe she's entertainment or tonight's monster chow?" Azure then responded, "Disgusting ignoble wretches." As she summoned sylphs from the 4 winds who cut apart the two bandits in a second. The guard panicked and grabbed his spear to prod the dragon into waking up and yelled at it, "Eat this little creepy girl! Hurry!" The dragon tried to resist, but the brainwashing magic forced it to obey, hurting it. Azure then said, "You're hurting her." The guard then said, "So what? We can do whatever we want to monsters. Besides, once she finally breaks, she'll be a useful took for the Church of Protagonism, as they're offering big bucks for dragons." The dragon roared and let out a blistering fire, but Azure melted from existence, using the flame as cover to pretend to be atomized. The guard was estatic and laughed in a creepy haughty way and said, "That's what you get for messing with the Scorpion's Sting!" However, then a bunch of blue scales started raining from the sky. And the dragon started feeling sleepy and the guard started to panic and shouted, "Wait, what? But how?" Azure then summoned an Undine, a beautiful alluring spirit of water to embrace him as his vision was clouded with an illusion of an elf girl before him who was ready to receive his short spear, as it were. But the Undine soon kissed him and filled his lungs with water and he tried to gag and cough as more and more water went down his throat which burned and exploded and he died a painful death as water filled his body and he lost consciousness. Azure then looked at the sleeping dragon, now dreaming of more peaceful things, and quickly used Gran's technique that he taught all his allies beforehand to free the dragon, who woke up in a panic and wondered where she was. The dragon then said, "What happened?" Azure then said, "It's okay, some bad people captured you and made you do bad things by trying to brainwash you, but you're free now." The dragon then said, "And the people who did it?" Azure looked at the bodies around her and said, with a smile, "A bit touch dead, fortunately." The dragon then said, "In that case, I was the 3rd princess of my clan. If I get back to my father in the mountains, I shall lend you my assistance." Azure then said to her, "In that case, let's get you out of this awful dingy place. Here, we can take you to our base, and you can stay there for a while, until we get ya back. Deal?" The dragon agreed and went inside. Shortly after this, Azure met back up with Maria. Maria then said, "Mission's almost done. Gran and Alucarda should be finishing up on their end. If they haven't run into any trouble. I am worried though since Bazza the Butcher is a B rank and is supposed to be pretty strong. The reports on the wanted lists say he slew many a great warrior back in the last great Civil War."
Meanwhile, back on Gran and Alucarda's end, Gran entered the boss room with Alucarda in tow. When Gran entered, he saw a large muscular man clad in an orc's skull and wearing a red open jacket and a pair of red leather pants who had a big sword with a couple of blades poking from it. Gran noted it looked like a magical weapon of some sort, though he wasn't sure what it's abilities were. He also noticed a lamia and an elf, with collars on them, completely out of it, and half naked who were hanging off of him. The disgusting man saw Gran and said, "Who the fuck are you? Where are my men?" Gran then said, "Dead, I'm afraid." The man then said to his two slaves, "You too go back to the bedroom. I'll make this real quick." The quickly left his side and the man stepped down and took out his sword and said, "I don't know what stupid arrogant punk thinks they can waltz in here and take me on, but I want you to know, no one has ever beaten me, Bazza the Butcher, in a fight. Besides, you look scrawny and weak like a twig. You had best give up right now, and leave that girl you have with you. After all, she looks cute enough to play around with for a while. A fair trade, wouldn't you say?" Alucarda replied, disgusted by this man and said coldly, "Not on your life, pig." Bazza replied by laughing in a mocking way. Gran stood in front of her and Bazza then approached him on the field of battle. Bazza then said, "Real firecracker you got there. Oh well, time to show you both some manners." Gran started off by summoning a slime. A brilliant blue one. Bazza laughed and said, "A slime? You think you can beat me with such a weak pitiful monster?" Then he swung at it and struck it, but the slime did something he didn't expect. It absorbed the hit and started latching slime to his sword and trying to grab it from him. Bazza then pulled it up with a burst of strength and tossed it aside and was prepared to say something mocking, but a bunch of invisible wires quickly wrapped around him and started to cut into his flesh. Bazza was surprised by this, not expecting it. Bazza then replied, "So it seems you have some slight skill. You used the monster as a diversion to set this up, eh? However...I didn't butcher so many people in The War by being weak or dumb." He then used a defensive buff combined with a strength buff to radiate energy and blasted apart the strings, and then swung his sword to whip up a cutting gale while releasing two crescent shaped blades from his sword that tried to flank Gran. However, Gran summoned a Sylph to put up of a wall of wind to counter the "Whirlwind Slash" and used some arrow traps to deflect the blades, which retracted back to Bazza. Bazza, however, used the opportunity to charge forward and try to slash into Gran's arm, but then a wash pan came down from the ceiling and stunned him momentarily, allowing Gran time to respond by sending steel wires outwards to slice into Bazza, but Bazza powered through, grabbed at them to try and pull Gran, when his arm suddenly went numb and he felt a painful sensation. He quickly retreated and noticed he was covered in some sort of red ant-like monsters, small enough to be hidden and unnoticeable. Bazza then responded, "What? But how?" Gran then said, "I had them hide on my wires, so when you went to grab them, they crawled on your hand. They're a monster I developed known as "Red Alarm Ants." They're not only equipped with paralyzing venom, but it will burn and blister like you won't believe. Bazza laughed in a heartly way, clearly enjoying himself and said, "Oh? Interesting. You might actually be an interesting opponent." He then hurled his sword's crescent blades forward, which Gran noticed flew right by him to Alucarda. Bazza then said, "However, I ain't interested in fair fights." The blades struck at Alucarda and cut into her, only for it be revealed to be a wooden log! Bazza retracted his blades and said, "What? But how?" Then he noticed some Killer Needles and Death Widower babies coming at him. The Death Widower babies started spraying him silk and the Killer Needles flew at him with stingers drawn, Bazza struggled a bit, but did a Whrilwind Slash to blow them away and tried to fire off his crescent blades, but they got jammed. Bazza noticed that there was some slimes gunking up his sword's mechanisms and saw the log past Gran dissolve into slime. Bazza was shocked by this, and said, "No, this ain't fair!" The something struck him through the chest like a black, bitter knife, which stabbed him through the heart! It was Alucarda who came in from behind him through the shadows. Bazza laughed a bit through coughs of blood and said, "Some hero...you are. Using monsters and sneak attacks." Gran smiled and said, "Oh? I knew what kind of man you were going to be from the start. I knew you would target Alucarda, so while you were focused on me for a bit, I had the slime I summoned, that you underestimated, switch places with her and use an illusion to fool you. I'm afraid this is the end. For you." Bazza's eyes then felt empty and as Alucarda withdrew the blade made from her arm, he sprayed out blood and collapsed in a pile of it too. Alucarda then spat on him for good measure and said, "Serves you right, pig." Gran then patted her head and said, "Good job." Alucarda smiled and was pleased and said, in a taunting teasing way, "Thank you, master Gran." Gran then said, "Now...let's go get those two prisoners of his freed, shall we?" He and Alucarda went to his bedroom and Gran first clothed them in something a bit more decent before undoing the collars which returned the elf and the lamia to their senses. The elf was shy of him and said, "Who are you? What do you want?" Gran then said, "It's okay now, you two are safe." The lamia then said in cold sweats, "Thank you, both of you. I am a princess of my people, and the church slaughtered my people and took me from my home. I am Apophis Belladonna." The dark skinned elf than said, "I come from Blackshade Wood, far to the north, those horrible men...they brainwashed us, didn't they? I am Rose Thorne. So what brought you here?" Alucarda then replied, "We had a job to do." Gran then said, "From the adventurers' guild. However...I have something in mind. Would you two be interested in getting out of here? Then I can take you to the Dream-Dimension, if that's okay." Blackshade and Rose agreed and quickly went inside. Gran quickly called for Azure and Maria on his comms device and said to Azure, "How are things on your end? No trouble?" Azure then said, "We just cleaned up the last of the kidnappers and rescued every prisoner we could find. Did you get their leader?" Gran then said, "He's dead." Azure then said, "Delightful, let's get back to town, shall we?" And so, the team quickly left, taking the kidnapped people from the report back into town, but everyone else who was from afar to the Ziggurat of Shadow. For now, they rested at the inn.
The guild receptionist was surprised that Gran and his team made it back. Gran even presented the head of Bazza the Butcher to confirm the report. The receptionist was horrified, but accepted it as a job well done. She also said the guild master would speak with them about their promotion to B-Rank.
In the guild master's office, who was an older white bearded gentleman with many scars and hand a metal arm, then said, "You took out Bazza the Butcher and rescued as many missing people as possible?" Maria then said, "That's not all, I have evidence of a bigger operation. It seems they're involved in a huge gang known as The Scorpion's Sting." She left out the church involvement, since the evidence, which Gran copied and compiled himself as a backup at the inn, showed it. The guild master then said, "I, for one, am very happy. Though the Church being involved, huh? Not only that, the Town Guard, too? Yeah, the local lord and the authorities will want to hear about that. However, that's for bureaucrats to worry about, not you guys. So don't worry about it. Anyway, all of you are officially now B-Rank. Also, did you decide on a team name yet?" Gran then said, "New Moon" The others were happy with this, thankfully. The guild master made it official and gave them their B-rank cards. The guild master than said, "I don't think any of you will have much trouble going wherever you please now. You can even get up the mountain since it's barred from anyone below a B-rank. But with how strong your team is and what you've done for the town, I don't think anyone will complain too much." Gran thanked him before leaving with his allies. The guild was celebrating, as many of them had friends and family who were nabbed by and hurt by Bazza's gang, though Gran, while he let his 3 friends celebrate in peace, made careful plans for the Mountains. The spy from the church nearby was watching him over his friends. He wondered what Gran's plans in the future and had to make a report about Bazza's gang being defeated. He knew, of course, Gran would know that the Church was involved as news of it had already spread through the guild. This worried the spy a bit and he thought if Gran and his party, New Moon, were enemies, though thought it was simply uncovered a bit of internal church corruption in their eyes. He had heard, however, from a scout sent earlier that the Kidnapper's Kove was cleared...and the dragon and all the demihuman slaves the guild weren't aware of had disappeared somehow, which the Spy intended to investigate. He wondered what Gran was really planning, because it's clear he's hiding something, something big. Of course, Gran was unaware of this as he was engrossed in his plans. He was sure he could secure an audience very easily, though he was worried about the state the Dwarves and The Mountain-King were in due to War over the Keys. He only hoped he wasn't too late. He knew, at least, getting the Mountain-King's Daughter Ruri back would be a major step forward. After everyone was done celebrating, he and his team met up at the inn, and quickly headed to the Ziggurat of Shadow. The spy watched from a distance on a dark rooftop with a magic spying device and saw them disappear somewhere into a dimension. He would have to make a big report to the church about this, and hoped he could find someone, or something, willing to try and tail them through into it. Maybe if they can slip someone they control into his group, or get a spy inside, it would work. After all, the spy now had conclusive proof of something, but he wasn't sure what, that Gran was hiding. Perhaps that Dimension Gran and his friends went to was where Gran had taken the missing slaves...including Ruri, the Mountain-King's daughter. He knew it could be a problem if Gran did something at the mountains, so he decided to tail him at a distance, knowing Gran would be back as he mentioned visiting Iron Mountain. The spy took out a small bird and tied a letter to it and sent it out in secret to deliver a message to the church on the frontlines and headed back to make his report to the Church.
Gran quickly took everyone from Ruri, the Dragon Princess, Rose and Apophis, and all the rescued former slaves and refugees and presented himself to them. One of the Lamia was a bit taken aback by the dungeon and a couple of slaves were afraid of the monsters, but Gran then said, "Hey there." As he stepped forward and said, "So, I have a proposal for all of you, if you're interested. I will return anyone to their homes that wishes it and even help to rebuilt what villages or homes you've lost, if you like, and improve any of them, if any, in terms of their defenses. Of course, some of you have no place to go so you are free to stay here and we'll do our upmost to train you and care for you. Of course, we could use the help and also form potential alliances with your people." Ruri then said, "You want to see the Mountain King? But who are you people exactly?" Gran then said, "My name is Gran Mason. I am a Dungeon Architect." There was murmurs from the people. Rose, the dark elf, then said, "In that case, I accept your proposal of staying here." Apophis then said, "I still have missing family out there who've been taken by the Scorpion's Sting and the Church of Protagonism. Can you help find them?" Gran then said, "We shall do what we can to do so." Apophis then said, "Then allow me to stay, for the time being." The Dragon Princess then said, "Since you guys freed me from The Scorpion's Sting, I can put in a good word with the Dragons. However, our home was devastated in the War over the keys by Church Soldiers. Can you help us rebuild?" Gran then said, "I accept." The others quickly got on board and decided to stay and work in the Ziggurat of Shadow. Maria was quick to accept them as students in magic and education and the use of magical weapons and devices. While Azure suggested added some places that are more suitable for them to the dungeon, which Gran agreed to. Alucarda introduced them to the monsters and led them to form bonds and contracts with them to help them defend themselves and work together while showing them their daily routines and around the Ziggurat's many areas. Gran made sure the fortress was safe and protected them and didn't see any of them as intruders while making a wide forested labyrinth area, new living quarters that were each controlled to what the needs of his quests were such as putting in heat and cooling areas for Lamias and making comfortable shelving and homey-room and grassy meadowy areas and gardens and living spaces for the beast-folk, and more natural environments for elves and dark elves, while making a crafting area for dwarves who were enslaved to practice on rare materials and build new machines, and finally made a cave like area with lots of room and hiding places for the dragon princess. He even helped teach the Rottweiler he got some basic commands and kept him as a pet in his private chambers, whom Gran remarked was a good boy and said reminded him of his old dog from back in the day that his dad unfortunately neglected back home. The rottweiler was even affectionate in return. Gran also added additional monsters and security measures, especially in the new living quarters, in case of intruders breaching his fortress. He then fine-tuned some alarms and gave everyone devices to communicate with each other and added an entertainment center with games and an arcade from his own world from his memories for everyone to try, which Azure was fascinated by, though Alucarda preferred books...until she saw the mangas about it and was hooked. The others quickly engaged with it, with Rose saying, "Fascinating..." And Ruri wondering how they worked and wanting to make stuff like it to bring back home. Gran was pleased they were all happy and safe. He then made sure there was a hospital wing with additional medical staff and white magic support in case of injuries. Gran even summoned "Mad Nurses" modeled after one of his favorite horror games and a hulking doctor with a massive saw weapon to act as staff, who were surprisingly friendly, as well some haunted medical devices to act as backup while summoning "Angel Nurses" to act as support for the others to treat more serious conditions. He even made a Duck in a robot suit to act as psychological staff. He then rested after this...for he had a big day ahead of him.
Meanwhile, at the Church Headquarters in the Capital, a message came by from a pigeon. The Head Priest, who's face was obscured in shadow, took the letter and read it. He looked it over for a minute. Apparently, some upstart adventurer team named "New Moon" had dealt with a branch of the Scorpion's Sting and just made the authorities out in Granite Valley. And had taken the "bargaining chip" that the Church had intended to use against the Mountain-King to make the King submit to the demands of the Church of Protagonism. On top of that, the authorities in Granite Valley had been cleaning up and jailing officials and officers who had been on their payroll who had been complicit in the Kidnappings. The Head Priest was annoyed, but ultimately said, "It's no big deal. That's why I already had a plan B made. Besides, Bazza and his crew are just part of The Scorpion's Sting and were pretty small time. Still, this "New Moon" group could be dangerous or interesting, depending on what they're truly hiding and what their intentions are. However, I don't think they'll be much of a problem." He also heard of a report of a new dungeon that had been seen in the skies as of late...which looked like a strange pyramid-like structure. Apparently, it had been spotted over the Ruins of the Old Demon Kingdom Territory that got wiped out during The Dark Lord War 300 years ago. He then said, "It couldn't be. The Dark Lord couldn't have returned, could they? But that dungeon is something far different. I thought the last of the Daemons were wiped out ages ago." He thought for a moment and said, "We will have to send someone to investigate. With an Airship. I had intended to use them all to get The Keys to the Sacred Realm, but I need to send out to the Ziggurat. And...I think I'll send The Valkyrie to investigate. With her handlers, of course. After all, we don't know what's out there or how difficult it is but it does seem like Daemons have somehow returned." He sighed and started filling out some paperwork for the approval of it all, and once he was finished, he had a note sent out to The Spy, who was a slave trained by the Assassin Guild who used to be a famous A rank adventurer of the Beastfolk Clan who went missing years ago. He decided to have her tail this Gran to see what he's hiding and to make sure New Moon doesn't cause any complications with the Dwarves and the hunt for the Ruby of Love. As for The Valkyrie, it would be easy to handle her. After all, she was a hero from another world who had been given the right motivation and training and a healthy dose of brainwashing to ensure she would be loyal, especially with the Armor of God on which warped her perception of reality to the Church's cause.
Later...Gran, along with Azure, Maria, and Alucarda in their human disguises, made their way to the gate, the guard at the gate, who was a low-ranking underpaid church official looked over their cards and said, "Ah, you. Mr. Gran. You're the guys that beat Bazza and his crew? I am a huge fan of that. He caused a lot of trouble, kidnapped my niece too. Got her back because of you. Of course, you guys can go on through." Maria noted that maybe there were some decent people in the Church after all. Gran thanked him and told him, "Keep up the good work." and the guy waved them through no problem. New Moon's next adventurer, and Gran's business, is only just beginning, for the next destination is just up the dusty mountain trail past the canyon- The Dwarven City of Iron Mountain.
End of Part 3