The Castle in the middle of nowhere.

Demesne was depressed. After hundreds of years of unquestionable domination in the area, she bowed before some kid... some... Some fledgling dungeon only because...

Without any warning, in her core chamber, five people materialised, one scion of her new...brrr... Master, and...

If Demesne could open her eyes in shock, she would do that. Right in front of her was standing an entity whose power dwarfed any of the summoned heroes that ever delved within her domain. Despite his looks, this man could not be human... This was her new Master. In growing astonishment, she identified the five people as incredibly powerful warriors, stronger than most heroes she remembered: four Dwarves and one Human. They all were equipped with incredible weapons and armours and they look relaxed despite the dire possibility of being overrun by goblins.

All spite and wrath in Demesne's soul was replaced by growing awe and jealousy when she was washed by the seemingly endless stream of Theon's mana. She was no longer the master of her dungeon, but she still could feel everything that happens on her grounds- the wolf spawners were reinforced and new previously unknown evolution paths were unlocked. The wolves that were fighting and losing so far were suddenly stronger and started pushing back goblins. With growing surprise, Demesne noticed a series of the World's Words notifications had opened, and dozens of new quests overwhelmed her for a moment. Before she moved them away, all her resentment towards King Theon vanished when she noticed he appointed her as the supervisor of her former dungeon.

"Demesne, I grant at your disposal a half million of mana. Use it to speed up respawning of your wolves and send them where they are needed most. Do you understand?"

She looked at him, surprised and wondered how she was supposed to confirm this order without her scion when the fenrir barked angrily at her.

"Respond to your King!"

"Yes! I understand that!" She quickly said.

"I understand that, my King!" He growled, raising his gaze upon her core.

"I'm sorry! I understand that, my King!" Demesne corrected herself and suddenly screamed. "You can hear me?!"

"Yes we can, Miss Demesne," the tall human smirked and spread his arms, summoning two large fenrirs. "Gin and Ginny, scout the area and return!"

"Focus people..." The king sighed and flickered his fingers. The twenty knights in pitch black armours appeared from thin air, and the king looked at them. "Stay here and protect Demesne."

When everyone left the core room, Demesne started crying. For the first time in her long life, she actually talked with someone who was not her scion. She never suspected how exciting this could be.

If she survives this assault, this servitude might not be the worst thing in her life at all...

•••

Hahaha! It worked! I can teleport between Avalon and Manor, which is very exciting.

•••

We walked down the corridors of the Wolf Manor and my party giggled like crazy, seeing my disgusted face.

"But, my King! This is a really nice building! If we had never seen Avalon, everyone here would be in pure awe!" Ian giggled while Ragnar whistled loudly.

"My King! This dungeon has some rare resource nodes! It's great she submitted to you!" He tried to change the topic.

"Oh? What exactly?" I asked, still shocked by the messy architecture and mismatched materials used for building this place.

"More gold than we have and it gets better. She also has rubies, emeralds, sapphires and diamonds- so all the main elemental gemstones she has covered. And if I'm not wrong, she also has some herbs, but that is not my game." The dwarf touched the random doors that opened with a loud creak.

I looked inside to find just an empty room without any purpose or furniture inside and I shook my head. We moved towards the exit when in the room near us we heard movement.

"It's Ginny." Ian quickly pointed towards the bend in the corridor. "There is an opening in the wall and I think we can jump..."

"Pfff... No. I see the movements of enemies, Ian. Demesne is submitting to my will slowly, but there’s no malicious intent as she simply is a bit overwhelmed." I pointed at the doors just downstairs at the end of quite a small hall. We quickly reached a badly deformed metal gate. "Vernon?"

"As you wish, your Majesty!" He raised his pickaxe- a vicious weapon, and shattered the large and deformed gates that otherwise couldn't open. "Now we have their attention for sure!"

I smirked and looked at the courtyard, thinking that it should be protected by mazes filled with various traps. The maze was demolished by the earth wyrms that ripped large paths, allowing goblins to easily band near the main entrance. However, their first enthusiastic attempts at breaching heavy doors deformed them, causing them to be stuck for good. The goblins had to look for another way inside. An eagle shriek and the loud crack of thunder that killed two hobgoblins signalled the arrival of Verni's familiar. My residents' familiars, all of them almost as powerful as my scions, were let loose to kill all goblins they could find. I smiled and inhaled, noting the air was full of choking smoke and an iron stench of blood. The approach to the manor was wide open and while we still were inside, the wicked creatures couldn't see us, yet this opening pushed them to act and each one of them started running towards us.

"Shatter...EARTH!" Ragnard raised his hammer and dropped it in front of him, causing a violent wave of orange energy that tore asunder the earth in front of us, killing dozens of goblins.

Two silent whizzes like a whisper of wind passed near me when Ian shot his large crossbows, instantly killing two hobgoblin generals. Without a word, I just tilted my head when a sky-blue ray of light shot right from behind me, taking out five goblin archers that tried to shoot blindly right in our direction. I laughed when Aurora started apologizing to me, but I was not alone. My party was in good humour, eager to finally fight. Behind us, the spider's chittering informed us that Vigo, Vernon's familiar, finished weaving his web. He closed the passage inside the manor with the obstacle even more durable than the doors I ordered to be destroyed. But my plan worked and the goblins, seeing an obvious entrance, stopped running around and began gathering on the other side of the courtyard.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have exactly twelve thousand one hundred and sixty-two... Now one, goblins to slay. They are all about level sixty." I raised my sword. "To be honest, I expected way more of them after the horde that fell upon Avalon."

"Ay! They might have something nasty for later, my King." Bjorn pointed towards the tunnel exit right in front of the grounds claimed by Demesne.

"Why is this so small?" I nodded in agreement and murmured, looking around me and easily spotting the borders. "This dungeon area is ridiculously small. Two hundred meter radius, or so?"

"Have you ever considered the opinion that Avalon is simply vast, my Lord?" Bjorn took out another wooden barricade from his ring of holding and placed it on the side, blocking one part of the demolished entrance.

"Hmmm... No!" I laughed.

We observed how the first and presumably weakest group of goblins moved our way. They moved slowly, wary of the unseen danger hidden in the shadows of the Manor entrance hall, but they were pushed forward by the yells of stronger goblins behind. The evening sun cast long shades of the nearby dense forest. The cold of the incoming night marked its presence in the trails of fog left behind by my breath, but I did not feel the cold at all.

"Slashing Dust!" Ian fired his crossbow once more, but this time he used skill.

The small, bloody red magic circle formed around the bolt right before it left the flight groove of the barrel, instantly changing it into silver dust that flew in a wide arc towards the goblins. Upon impact, the dust behaved like a vicious sandstorm; it pierced and slashed the goblins, ripping the closest of them apart.

•••

Demesne was looking at her king's party dealing with the goblins in absolute silence. They disregarded all the dangers of goblins...

"Demesne! Stop slacking off!" King Theon's angry voice startled her. "You received the orders! Guide your wolves to funnel the goblins our way!"

"Yes... I mean, yes, my King!"

She quickly looked over all her quests in panic, when the door to the room opened and a dark figure rushed at her. She gasped in fear and shock when hot blood and two parts of the goblin assassin's body hit her statue. One of the guardians brushed the blood from his sword, not even moving one bit. She looked at the black knights in blue capes and focused on them.

The Praetorian Guards are the bodyguards of the Royal Family of Avalon. They are the most elite and skilled amongst the triarii; Praetorians are vigilant and fierce warriors that protect the Palace and those found worthy by their King.

Statistics...Access denied.

Level 90?! What kind of monster is King Theon?! She needed hundreds of years to level up to her current 83 level, so how could he command such powerful denizens?! Demesne calmed herself and quickly focused on the task, guiding the packs of her wolves and pushing goblins back towards the courtyard. She was thrilled- for the first time in her life, she saw and heard everything so clearly, as if something binding her lost its grip.

•••

I sighed. She was old but acted like a teenage girl, easily distracted by the smallest things. But at least she started moving her wolves. I looked at the courtyard full of goblin's blood and suspicious lack of bodies.

"It's kind of funny that bodies turn to dust, but the blood stays." I mused at that sight and tilted my head. "Unleash the familiars. Ian! Take down these three!"

At my command, my party allowed their familiars to rampage in front of the manor. The four fenrirs, a storm eagle, a hunter slime and death weaving spider painted the snow with the smelly yellow blood of goblins. If they tried to rush us, we would probably be in trouble, but so far they preferred to attack us in small probing parties of maybe twenty creatures. The occasional arrows that flew our way were harmless because goblins mainly missed us. The only arrow that would hit me crashed on the runic barrier.

"I think the barriers require more work." Verni’s frowned when the barrier around his fenrir familiar shattered and he received a few nasty blows before he managed to disengage and return so Aurora could heal him. "The amount of consumed mana is ridiculously high, my King!"

"I think we are the first ones to even try this. So I don't think you should be this hard on yourself, Verni." When badly hurt fenrir retreated to the hall, Aurora tended his wounds. "I just lost one of my fenrirs. He was killed by a cave troll."

Suddenly, a green tide consisting of several thousands of goblins started their battle cry and rushed our way. It was exactly what we were expecting and hoping for all this time; I had started to doubt they would move at all. I nodded at my Dwarves, who smirked in return and formed a loose line. I quickly closed my eyes and checked the situation in Avalon, but Galahad had everything under his control. It was strange because I had almost expected them to focus their attack on Avalon in my absence. I shrugged and opened my eyes just in time to see a large pack of Demesne's wolves jumping from the side onto the green horde.

I must find this goblin commander because he is annoying. Probably it's a scion, but I don't sense any exceptional monster around. I leaned on the barricade and watched my Dwarves clash with the stronger goblins and crush them easily. I raised my sword and started shooting arcane bolts and bullets towards goblin archers and shamans, while Ian focused on shooting his explosive bolts into bigger goblin groups. Our presence here is a distraction- the bulk of the fighting was done by Demesne's denizens. Well...by her wolves, since she, in her hundreds of years of wisdom, decided she only needed wolves. That had to be fixed somehow, but must wait for the end of this battle.

"My...*ekhem*, sorry... My King!" The stuttering voice of Demesne sounded straight inside my head. "I want to report that the basement is cleared. About six thousand goblins are engaged by my wolves and thanks to you...my King, I think we can make it."

"Perfect. I am giving you schematics of how you are going to rebuild after the invasion. Give me estimates of how much it will cost you in upkeep."

"But... Now?! We are in the middle of a fight!" She cried in shock.

"Oh, please... It could be bad for you alone, but not now. Besides... Have you bought those skills I told you about?" I asked calmly and killed two more archers I saw.

"Yes... But why? Why do you bother? MY KING! I mean... They are mortals, my King." She asked timidly, but surprisingly, without any contempt or malice.

"I have my reasons. But one amongst them is this... Look at your mana bank." I pointed towards the regrouping goblins. "Ian?"

"Shrapnel Shot!" He annihilated about a hundred monsters with his single skill, which worked as effectively as its name sounded. "Don't mess with farmers!"

"So Demesne? Do you like that?"

"Very, my King!" This time, addressing me as the king came very naturally to her.