Some with more warmth than others

The next day, you stand in your throne room with your new betrothed—if such a thing exists for monsters. Two fallen angels stand in front of you. Mariel has a curious look on her face as she looks at the woman on your arm, while Seramiel keeps her distance. "Hey Mary. Hey Sera. This is Ikaria."

"Hey cuties, I'm Kay to the two of you." She steps up to Mariel with her arms outstretched, and the angel happily accepts a tight, friendly hug. "Oh my god, I love your wings. They're so soft!"

"Nice to meet you! We should hang out some time. Ooh, tingly!" Mariel shudders a bit as a spark from the golden dragon jolts her. "So how did you end up, erm, you know?" The dragoness toys with the angel's hair for a second before disengaging, then holds out her arms to Sera.

"Well, mom's been trying to get me hitched to some dungeon boss or other for a while now, making something of myself, you know how it is?" Mariel shakes her head in confusion. "Well, anyways, it's a thing. We got off on the wrong foot but your master pretty much ended up rocking my world, so I'm taking him on as a charity case." The younger angel laughs. "Anyways, come here already!"

"Look, woman, I don't really know you and I don't really trust you. Maybe in a while, but for now as far as I'm concerned you're a threat." The fallen seraph stands in a defensive posture, hands on her two weapons.

"Ooh, can I smite her? Pretty-please?" Kay turns to you with a playful begging look on her face. "Just a little bit?"

"Hey, be nice to Sera. The two of you are going to be living with each other from now on." You put your body between the two of them.

"Hah! Don't want your arm candy to get hurt? I can take her." The red-haired angel puts an arm on your chest and gives you a gentle but insistent push to tell you to step out of the way.

"See? She wants it! I won't even make it hurt!" The incredibly powerful dragoness gives you puppy-dog eyes, doing a very bad job of concealing a laugh.

"Fine, just remember that you two are going to have to get along later." The moment you step to the side, Seramiel steps forward and cracks her whip on the air.

"Excellent, now—" Ikaria reaches out and grabs the sword in front of her with her bare hand. Arcs of electricity shoot between the blade and its wielder, and the angel vanishes with a smell of ozone.

"You know, I think we'll get along just peachy." Mariel's jaw is practically on the floor at the display.

"What'sss going on down here... who are you?" A sleepy gorgon slides down the stairs, apparently just having woken up despite it already being mid-afternoon. She looks at the smoking burn on the floor, then at the woman standing above it, then flies into a defensive, hissing posture with her snake-hair writhing above.

"Oh, hi! I've never met a gorgon before, mom never invited any over." Tlax's face shifts to surprise as the woman strides up to her completely unfazed. The snake woman wraps her tail around the mysterious assailant. "Nice to meet you too!" When the dragoness' long arms wrap around her, she instead closes her eyes and returns the hug, her hair returning to its normal state.

"Mmm, warm, sssoft, tingly." The gorgon closes her eyes and gives a happy hiss.

"What's all the commotion about?" Celestina steps down the stairs next, her eyes shifting between the new champion hugging Tlax and the charred mark where Sera stood a moment ago.

"Say, are you another one of the maids? Aze, why did you not dress this one up like the other one?" The princess turns back to you with a confused look and Tina scowls.

"That's Tina: she's one of my champions, not a servant. She's the first adventurer who underwent Synthesis here."

"Ooh, right. Glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks adventurers are kinda hot." She sticks her tongue out then turns to the offended daemonologist. "Hugs?" Tina's scowl melts into utter bewilderment before she's swept up by the energetic newcomer.

"Who's the new girl?" Ari is the last of your champions to respond to the noisy reunion, sitting down on the steps as she looks down at the chaos below.

"Hey babe, I'm Kay. You must be Ari!" The dragoness bounds up the stairs and takes a seat next to the tiefling, pulling her on to her lap.

"Right, and how'd you end up as a new champion here?" A tinge of skepticism is still in the half-elf's voice, although she relaxes in the larger woman's arms.

"Well, I sort of got hitched to your boss—don't ask, mom's idea—and here I am. Say, want to show me your powers some time? I've never met a warlock before: sounds cool!"

"Since when do monsters 'get hitched?'" Ari turns and glares into the eyes of the towering beauty who's holding her.

"Oh my god, I said don't ask, didn't I? Some stupid thing of mom's. Apparently she wants to do 'human-style diplomacy' or whatever, and I'm supposed to go be a consort and make something of myself." The bratty princess rolls her eyes and tosses back her hair. "Turns out your boss is a good fuck so I figured I'd give it a go. Parents, right?"

"There is no way she gets to be consort before I do. Just because she's some big-name monster's daughter doesn't mean she gets to skip the line!" Ari pulls herself out of the touchy woman's arms and practically shouts at you.

"Someone's awfully feisty. You tell him, girl!" The dragoness gives a little fist pump.

"Hey, babe, relax." You walk up to the fuming elf and wrap your arms around her: she gives you a scorching glare but allows herself to be hugged nonetheless. "Nobody said you aren't going to be a consort."

"I don't want to be a consort, I want to be the first consort! I've been with you since the beginning! If it was Tlaxy I might understand, but not some slut who struts in like she owns the place!" Her angry yells turn into sobs as she claws at your chest.

"She can be the first consort, I don't really care." The tall woman casually shrugs and crosses her legs as she remains seated on the steps. "As long as I get there by whatever stupid deadline makes mom happy it's fine by me."

"There, does that work for you?" You squeeze the tiefling and she nods into your chest. "I may be mostly oblivious, but I do remember these things. Ask first next time, alright?"

"Yeah, sorry... I just—"

"Now that we've got that little incident dealt with, when do you think the angel will respawn? Think she'll want to go for round two?" The carefree woman speaks up from her seat on the stairs in front of you. Ari squirms out of your arms then turns and shoots a livid glare at the reddish-brown woman in front of her. She looks as if she's considering saying or doing something, then huffs and storms up the stairs.

"Call me when the new girl here has learned to behave." She makes a rude gesture and storms up the stairs and out of sight.

"What's her problem?" Kay lazily leans back, her arms resting against the stair behind her, as she looks over her shoulder at the retreating elf.

"If you're going to last long here you're going to need to learn not to be a bitch." Mariel's uncharacteristically harsh words float over your shoulder.

"You too, cutie? Is it something in the air?" Ikaria looks like she wants to say something else, but stops when she sees you glaring at her. "Fiiiine, I'll make it up to her later." She rolls her eyes, then the sound of footsteps distracts you. "Oh, hey again Red. Walking alright?" Sure enough, the angel wobbles slightly as she puts her foot down each step.

"Kay, was it? You're alright." Sera shakily lowers herself down beside the taller woman, who grabs her head and draws her into a momentary deep kiss. "Mmm, we just might get along."

"Okay, is that the whole crew?" The princess stands up and claps her hands, still as energetic as ever. "What say we find out who's in that crystal of yours?"

"Since when are you so eager to do things?" You start to walk back up the steps behind her, and the others follow in turn.

"Hey, it's a whole new dungeon! Besides, I'm ready to see the look on your face when you realize how much your next week is going to suck... sorry, isn't going to suck." She smirks. "And then I can spend some of the afternoon finding out if the rest of the help has been trained as well as Rea here!" She skips down a few steps and grabs the silent elf's hips, inserting a few fingers into the perpetually damp opening under her skirt. Your ex-rival lets out an appreciative moan and leans into her as she's toyed with by her new mistress. "Mmm, good girl!"

"Ari?" You tap on the closed door. "We're going to try summoning the woman in the crystal now, if you want to join in." The sound of muffled footsteps approaches, then the door swings open and the gorgeous elf shoots a glare at your new champion. Her anger is cut off by a yelp and then her scowl melts into satisfaction as you scoop her up and carry her to the portal.

"So, has she agreed to join us?" The appeased warlock looks up from your chest.

"We haven't actually spoken in a few days." The summoning circle glows as you approach and you set your first humanoid champion down before removing the haunted mana crystal from around your neck.

"That seems risky," Sera joins in from the back. "Why summon someone you don't really know without even talking it over first?"

"The two of us bet over what she'll do when she's free: no cheating!" Kay's voice joins in from somewhere behind you.

"That's how it is. Besides, I need her out of the gem regardless to use it to upgrade the tower, and I'm pretty sure this is what qualifies me for the next level of the summoning circle." Hearing no protests, you set the gem near the centre of the circle and open up your summoning menu, entering the name of the once-ruler of the forge where you first found the lich's tomb.

Warning: Insufficient levels in Fae Liegelord skill. Aethane may be hostile.
Proceed?
Yes/No

Vines snake out of the portal as you confirm your choice, then wither as blue overtakes them. Browned, withered leaves float idly on a chilly breeze like a brisk autumn day. Two white wolf ears poke out of the portal, then wavy white hair follows. Soon after, a woman with pale skin, a slight blue tinge playing across it, floats out of the portal. She wears a long folded blue robe covered in embroidered snowflakes. A trio of bushy wolf tails stand behind her back, and when she turns to you you can see sharp fangs peek from between her closed lips. The tall wolf-woman crosses her arms under her generous C-cup breasts and opens her fang-filled mouth.

"Who are you and how have you brought me back?" Aethane crouches into a combative posture when she sees your champions surrounding her. Her eyes finally land on your newest companion and she perks up, launching herself at the tall woman and grabbing her into a tight hug. "Romie! You found a way to save me?"

"Um, hi, nice to meet you." The lupine woman pulls back and looks at Ikaria with a confused expression. "I think you've got me mixed up with mom. I'm Kay, nice to meet you."

"If none of you are Prometheia, how did you free me from my prison?"

"Your dragon queen friend told me your name when we met and I figured I could use it to summon you. Hi, I'm Azazel. We've spoken a number of times recently." She regards you with a suspicious expression.

"What are you going to do to me, daemon?" The woman's fingernails look like jagged claws as she readies herself to attack.

"Relax, I don't want to do anything, although if you want to join us that would be nice. I mostly just wanted you out of the mana crystal so that I could use it already."

"Oh, I can imagine a few things he'd like to do with you, cutie," Kay smirks and licks her lips as she admires the voluptuous body in front of her.

A slight blush plays over Aethane's face but she loosens up slightly. "Then I am free to go?"

"I wouldn't recommend going too far: who knows what might happen if you get killed by adventurers outside? For now you're welcome to stay in my dungeon as a guest." The woman crouches back into a defensive posture and eyes you suspiciously. "Of course, you can leave whenever you'd like should you decide you want to risk it."

"That is... acceptable. I will think on things." She turns and struts out of the room.

"And with that your mornings are mine!" Ikaria struts forward and wraps her hands behind your neck. "Looking forward to your new duties so much you decided to help?"

"Actually, I believe your bet was that she would join us 'right away', whereas she hasn't made any decision yet." You give her a little flick on her forehead and a smirk of your own.

The dragoness scowls. "Fine, spoilsport. We'll call it a draw. Now why don't you give me the rest of the tour to make up for that little bit of foul play?"

You shrug. "Suit yourself. I'm going to work on some dungeon upgrades: anyone else want to join in?" Tlax slithers off with a yawn, but everyone else sticks around, and with that you ready yourself for the first real changes to your dungeon in a little over a month.