No Need for a Core?

Mordecai fell to his knees alongside Kazue and Moriko and took a deep shuddering breath as he tried to recover from the ritual. For the first time since he had awoken and fully assessed his situation, he actually felt safe. Desperation had driven him to turn himself into little more than a ghost. He'd come so close to death during the bonding that he had been relieved to verify that he wasn't one of the undead. Then a glimmer of hope, and the generosity of this young dungeon with problems of her own, and he now had a home, a core, and an avatar. Well, a partial core at least. All of his own magic was gone now, and it was only going to recharge at a trickle. He’d made sure to balance that in her favor, one of a few things he’d skewed that way for each of the women who’d helped him.

Each of his wives.

Wow, that hit differently when he actually gave it a thought. Mordecai was old, and through his awakened avatars had known several lovers, somewhat fewer loves, and a selection of those he had called wife, even if they had never formally bonded. Now he had hijacked part of a sacred ritual in order to save his own selfish life, and formally bound himself with these two. So what else could he do but try and express the depth of his gratitude?

So the ancient dungeon bowed his avatar low before Moriko and Kazue. “Thank you, truly. You have both given of yourselves, one first to save me, the other to then help give me more freedom in this world. You’ve trusted me, and I will absolutely do my best to make both of you happy. I-” Shock cut him off as he felt a presence of terrible strength suddenly approaching. He may not know this particular aura, but a Divine Presence was a hard thing to not recognize once you’ve felt it. “Oh shit.”

As soon as those words slipped out of his mouth, Mordecai had a sudden sinking suspicion of who was coming. Moriko had already used the swear "Oh by The Twins" so he knew that they, and probably the rest of the Empyreal Pillars, were still worshipped in this area. Kazue was a kitsune shrine maiden who had been saved by her goddess, and most kitsune followed either The Twins: Amirume and Mericume; or their respective children: Sakiya and Ozuran. That meant Kazue's goddess was probably one of the twins, and said goddess would want to protect her handiwork, leaving only the question of which one Kazue worshiped.

Which sister would actually be worse in this scenario was debatable, but the sensation of wild night and growing darkness pretty much narrowed it down to one, Mericume, the goddess of the moons. Arguably, only one of the three was strictly hers, but it took a very foolish sort of person to argue such matters with a goddess. “Okay, let me take the brunt of whatever is to come. Be polite, nice, and above all, humble. I think I just pissed off a goddess, let’s not make it any worse.” He sent over their link, then turned to face the entrance and did his best to not grit his teeth as he prostrated himself once more.

Humbling himself to his new wives hadn’t grated at all. It was sincere thankfulness, and he hadn’t been able to think of a better way to show everything he was feeling. This humbling he was doing now was absolutely a ploy, being ingratiating out of necessity rather than because he wanted to express himself. Despite being an ancient and powerful dungeon, he tried to not be too proud of a being, but this certainly stung his ego.

Moriko and Kazue were a little confused, but in this scenario, Kazue was quicker to catch on and matched him, with Moriko following soon after. Good, he didn’t want to be distracted by trying to explain everything right now. It also meant that they trusted him, so let's not screw it up, right?

Moments later their approaching visitor was visible to Kazue and Mordecai through their dungeon senses, which they now shared. A tall kitsune woman with pure black hair and tails stalked forward out of the shadow of a boulder by the dungeon entrance. All nine of her tails arced upward, sparking with elemental energies that danced in different flavors of foxfire along their tips. Her fingers were crooked to allow her nails to grow into wicked claws, with her right hand wreathed in the silvery light of the moon and her left dripping with the darkness of the void itself. Yep, she was pissed.

It made him itch as her glare swept over the denizens of the dungeon, analyzing everything in detail even in her rage, and he could tell Kazue felt the same itch. Oh hells, being evaluated by her technically counted as a challenge, he could feel the mana reserves of the dungeon filling with the combination of that and the energy her presence leaked. To bleed off the excess and prevent any accidents, he quickly sent Kazue a few hastily sketched ideas on how to create interconnected warrens between the rooms, as well as how to just send energy into her rabbit monsters to make them stronger but without changing them much. They didn’t want to do anything drastic, but this was not the time to let overflowing energy run rampant. He had to trust her to handle it though, as most of the dungeon was in her control.

The goddess's avatar quickly swept through the small, one-floor dungeon. Though only a small splinter of a nigh-infinite being, even a god's avatar was incredibly powerful. A mortal would be able to face down dragons before they'd have been strong enough to make trouble for the avatar of a primogen deity. At the height of Mordecai's power, he might have been able to contest against one in his dungeon's territory, though he'd rather have not risked it. Now? They were simply helpless.

Which did make him wonder why she'd chosen to use a full avatar instead of an agent; it was complete overkill. But the goddess embodying the primal wildness of nature was known to be impulsive, to say the least.

The cavern passageway crooked a couple of times so at least it wasn’t a straight path, but it was clear Kazue hadn’t put much thought into her layout. When the outraged visitor stepped through the final archway, her gaze quickly took in the room and locked onto the two-toned dungeon core. “What have you two done to my sweet little dungeon?” She hissed at Mordecai and Moriko. “And what did you do to that lovely little construct familiar I gave to her‽”

Oops. Maybe he shouldn’t have ‘eaten’ it. But the book hadn’t exactly been sentient, and Kazue had spent more time glaring at it than referencing it. “My apologies for that Lady Mericume, that was my fault, I did not think out all the ramifications of my ritual, and it was subsumed in powering the ritual. Kazue was truly gracious in her kindness and agreed to a ritual that had to be performed with haste.” He could feel a sudden spurt of annoyance from his kitsune as she realized her book was gone, but at the moment that quailed in the face of her goddess's wrath.

The goddess had tilted her head to the side when he had spoken, and her gaze had slowly moved to land on him. He felt himself analyzed at a level he couldn’t describe, and knew, in his heart, that she could just erase him with barely an effort. “Mor-de-cai.” The way she drew out his name in an almost cooing fashion might be more terrifying than anything else she’d done so far. “I had no idea you were still alive, though I am very much considering rectifying that oversight.” Then she noticed the ring on his finger, now a band of entwined purple and gold crystal. That was more than enough for her to put everything else together.

“You married her so that you could fuse your core to hers‽ No, you tied all three of you together; how did you get another mortal roped into this too? I should just destroy you, but you’ve already tangled yourself up too deep to make it safe for either of them. Hmm, maybe if I unraveled you slowly, that would free them carefully enough. What do you think, Mordecai? Why shouldn’t I just start ripping off pieces of your soul and convert them into mana until my sweet little temple maiden is cleansed of your presence?” Mericume had crouched down to grab his hair, and yanked his head up.

Mordecai was pretty certain she wouldn’t actually do that. Wantonly destroying a soul was considered one of the worst sins, even for gods. But she was rather angry, so he wasn’t completely certain. “My lady, I promise you I will do everything I can to help her and make her happy. I truly want her to be safe and feel at peace here.”

"At Peace?" Those last words caused Mericume to freeze a moment before releasing his hair. “Wait, where were you before? How could you have possibly gotten here?” The sparks of foxfire had suddenly stopped, and her hands ceased glowing as she rose and looked around again. “Ah, so, you came here by riding in the half-elf ... and she came up from ... over there.” She focused her gaze on the trap door, ignoring the intervening stone walls. “So, you were down…” and her gaze dropped to peer through the very earth until she found what she was looking for, “directly below Kazue. Which is how this one got mixed up with you in the first place.”

For a moment the goddess’s tails and ears drooped, which rather disconcerted Mordecai. Then she sighed and shook her head to gather herself before turning to face the group. “Well, I need to remember that making prophecies is not my forte, and if you try and press a Fate onto this reality too hard, it pushes back. Apologies, it seems to be my fault that you two are stuck with this stubborn idiot. You can both get on your feet now. But not you Mordecai. I want something from you.” That didn’t sound promising, especially not with that wicked smile growing across her face. “A promise isn’t going to satisfy me.” Oh no. “Instead, I want to Witness you swearing an Oath. In His name.” Mordecai could hear every capital added to that sentence, and they both certainly knew who she was referring to. The Lord of Shadows. Gah, he didn’t even want to think of the name right now. “Go on, I’m sure that my son would be pleased to hear from his once favored Dungeon.” Crap.

Well, nothing for it. Maybe it was better to face the music now anyway. “Very well. I, Mordecai, do swear upon the name of Ozuran that I will dedicate my life to making my wives happy, to keeping them as safe as they wish to be, and to truly care for them in all the ways I can. They have already given enough of themselves for my sake that I can only hope this will eventually bring us to balance.” He wasn’t foolish enough to say ‘love’ when he’d known them for so short a time, but he would certainly do his best to foster it in all of them.

Ow. Mordecai could feel the words and intent of the oath latching onto his soul in a nearly violent manner. Normally a binding oath didn’t hurt, but given the circumstances … he sighed as he watched the shadows deepening even further in the room. There was another kitsune avatar there now, and with his fair skin and dark hair and tails, he was very much a reflection of his mother. Except his eyes were lit with a tone of molten gold not unlike Mordecai’s own, and for similar cause.

“You.” The tone was flat as Ozuran stared at Mordecai’s avatar.

And now the dungeon hosted avatars of two of The Empyreal Pillars. Somehow, Mordecai didn't quite feel honored.