I ACCIDENTALLY MARRIED A DUNGEON

"All right, then, let’s get it done." Felix made a move for the door handle. Sabrina grabbed his arm before he could.

"Hold it..."

"What’s there to wait for? Don’t tell me you’re scared to meet them."

"I’m not," she retorted quickly.

"That’s good. Just try to stay calm as we discussed. All will be well."

"I didn’t believe one word you said."

"You don’t have to." He flashed her a smile and opened the door.

Dune was standing there as usual, blank-faced, with Joshua right behind her.

"Mother..." He moved forward a bit and then stopped.

Sabrina knelt down in front of him and ran a hand through his hair. "Everything is going to be alright." She got up and looked past him at Helen who was standing a bit back from them. "Helen, I—"

"I am not interested in hearing your apologies." Helen’s words pierced through it. "And once again, I am sorry for the way I have treated you. But don’t ever consider yourself my mother."

"But I am," Sabrina whispered back.

"Just the same irritating attitude that I hate about you. You always believe that you have the right to decide everything, huh." Helen snorted and directed her gaze on Felix. "Move. I am sick of staring at her face."

"All right, moving." Felix walked down the hallway. Helen walked beside him, followed by the others.

"You really should be nicer sometimes," Felix muttered.

"How nice? I already apologized to her, but she does not look sorry at all for the things she did. She is so shameless." Her gaze moved in the direction of Joshua, clinging to Sabrina’s side. "Mother, my foot. She can call herself what she wants."

"You never let her finish what she wanted to say." Felix moved in the direction of the left corridor. "Ever heard of the word patience?"

"You are so irritating, have I ever told you that?"

"You are a brat and arrogant one at that."

"Just shut up."

"Fine by me."

Helen was quiet for some time, and then she said, "Did she explain to you what happened after father passed away?"

"Yes."

"Tell me."

"Some guy approached her with false hope. She tried a magic circle, thinking it could solve everything. And this is what happened."

"She is a total fool."

"She was desperate." Felix looked at her sidelong. "I would have done the same thing as her in her place. You would do the same thing, too, if you loved somebody enough to give him everything that you had."

Helen did not respond to that.

She looked at them for a moment more before glancing over at Dune. "For how long have you been married to Felix?"

"Five days."

"Pretty recently." Sabrina said softly as Felix came to a stop before them. The door to the right was flung open.

Felix bent down, picked up a card from the floor, and then he straightened up. "Everyone gather around."

They all clustered around him. He looked at Dune for a moment and then he nodded. "I really don’t know what’s inside here. It could be a devil. It could be some kind of monster. All I can tell you is that it’s very powerful, and it’s the reason why you’ve all been trapped here for so long."

Felix coughed and rubbed beneath his nose. "So this is what we do. You guys wait out here. I go in there and kill it."

"That’s the plan?" asked Sabrina right away.

"That’s the plan," Felix said as he squared up his shoulders. "If it’s a devil, then maybe I’m a devil killer."

"That’s frightening," said Sabrina and Helen in unison. Helen quickly looked away.

"Just you watch me." He pointed towards the door. "Dune, you are staying out with them."

"Understood." Dune nodded.

"Do you think he will be all right?" asked Sabrina.

"If Felix thinks he can handle it, he can." Dune stated clearly. "He is very strong."

"I really don’t care if he dies," said Helen.

"That’s not something you say about a guy helping you," said Sabrina.

Felix moved across the room, glancing over his shoulder into the space. He did not notice anything odd. The room was big and empty and dark, the light from the orb he carried was not enough to dispel the darkness gathering in the corners. Then his boot hit something. He glanced down.

A human skull.

He took a breath in hesitation. It’s just a skull. No need to freak out.

His eyes moved to the right corner of the room, where two other skulls were, along with parts of three skeletons in a line against the wall. Fuck me. It’s them, isn’t it.

Creak. Creak.

And here it is. He swallowed hard and turned toward the sound, coming from somewhere to his left. Still no strong pulse of Numen anywhere near him, which was strange on its own. When he’d tried tracking the source with his card earlier, it had thrown the energy straight back at him instead.

"Your little party is over, you ugly son of a bitch. Show yourself."

He stepped forward slowly, and the orb light flickered and grew dim. Something was starting to take shape from the darkness before him.

"Shit."

The creature that materialized before him looked humanoid, with a slender torso and legs disproportionately long. Its skin appeared pale gray and smooth, free of hair. It was devoid of any arms whatsoever; rather, its shoulders tapered down along its body without any indication of limbs having ever been present.

The head of the creature was almost perfectly spherical in shape, and a single vertically oriented eye resided in the center of its face, with a black slit for a pupil. It had no nose, no ears, and no brow ridges to detract from the smooth surface of its spherical head.

Underneath the eye was a gaping mouth, which occupied almost the entire lower half of its face, with no teeth within. Instead of a mouth, eight thin tentacles extended from its jaw, wiggling independently of one another to taste the air.

A long and slender neck connected to a narrow waist, and the legs terminated in two bare human feet standing firmly on the ground.

"What the hell... is that?"