Chapter 15: 15: Alpha

You exit the staircase and walk down a damp and claustrophobic tunnel of this dungeon level that nearly the same as all the others in this place. Your only source of light is a single wooden torch that Delta carries, walking close behind you. You can’t afford to waste any more for now as even this one will soon die out. You regret not asking your sister if she had more of those light crystal thingies she carried earlier.

The other two bunnies—Gamma and Epsilon—follow closely behind. Neither of the three have spoken a word. They don’t show much emotion at all and don’t interact with each other. A shadow of their former, lively selves. None of them have their weapons, of course, which Ariadne locked away in the storage connected to the main hall.

You soon reach the cell where you left Alpha. She lays on a pile of hay spread one side of the sell, hands crossed behind her head, one leg crossed over the bent knee of the other. Her thin, black waistcoat fits tightly around her petite upper body, even revealing a bit of midriff. You might've even been able to see under her skirt if it wasn't so dark. She’s chewing on a couple of strands—still sticking out of her mouth—that she must have taken from her “bed”. Alpha winces when Delta reaches the bars of her cell and finally shines some light inside. She was left completely in the dark, but hey—at least she has a bed! Well, sure, it’s nothing more than a pile of mostly moldy hay on the floor, but that’s still more than Epsilon, Delta or Gamma had.

Alpha jumps to her feet when she hears the click of the key turning the lock mechanism that held the steel bars in place. The tips of her long, white bunny ears touch the ceiling of the cell. You open the cell door and Alpha lunges at you that very moment. She is knocked back by Gamma of course, as per your instructions. The cell is barely bigger than Epsilon’s so Gamma’s shove sends Alpha at full speed into the opposite wall. The air is knocked out of Alpha’s lungs when she hits the stone with her back but manages to stay on her feet, pressing her hands against the wall for support.

“Again!?” Alpha screams once she regains her breath. “I knew you two were utter morons, but this is too much even for you!! Delta, there has to be a functioning cell still left in your brain that hasn’t been melted by your non-stop activities! Take that torch and shove it up this bastard's ass, or so help me—”

“Punch her,” you calmly say to Gamma.

“Guh!” Again, the air is knocked out of Alpha and she collapses to the floor, holding her stomach and coughing violently. You are a Demon Lord. You already murdered a dozen men and women today without a second thought, even if it was in self-defense. You also fought these very same bunnies in a life-and-death situation. And Alpha would rip your guts out the first chance she got. Yet still seeing Alpha like that made you feel… wrong.

Is it because you currently have such an overwhelming advantage over Alpha that it isn’t even remotely fair to treat her this way? Since when has anyone cared about what is fair? Your sister has been left all alone taking care of her physically and mentally ill father, managing this entire estate and fighting off invaders at the same time and you didn’t hear her complaining. In fact, these bunny girls were guarding the very bandits that attacked your sister! And who knows how many others suffered because of them? Isn’t this due punishment?

Are you just feeling this way because it’s a girl you’re treating this way? Would it change the situation in any way if she wasn’t? She would kill you just as well. At the very least you should probably learn to ignore threats and insults that are nothing more than that. But, at this moment, it’s not even about you—you don’t want to let her talk too much to your bunnies until your control over them is absolute.

“Bring her with us and follow me!” you command. “Each time she speaks up… you know what, just hold the palm of your hand over Alpha’s mouth and keep her quiet!”

“Let me go, you, tits-for-brains—mfff!” Alpha’s further cursing is muffled by Gamma, who easily picks up the struggling bunny with one hand and proceeds to carry her out of the cell.

Alpha does keep struggling all the way, so at the very least she has spirit. But you don’t have to deal with her muffled screams for too long, as Beta’s cell is close by. You take out of your pocket the metal ring with over twenty skeleton keys attached. I would usually take you a while to find the right key, especially when they look so alike, but since there is a master key attached here, it makes things easier.

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It is probably not a very good idea to hold the keys and the master keys to so many different parts of this place altogether. But you can easily forgive your sister for taking shortcuts in these matters. This will change. Soon. Also, what do you even call this place? A dungeon? A Castle? Tomb? You wouldn’t want to keep telling yourself or anyone else that you live in a dungeon. And a tomb is where the dead are supposed to rest. Questions for later, you think to yourself as you unlock Beta’s cell. It's about the same as Alpha's was. Maybe a couple of feet wider?

“Throw her inside and stay out,” You say as you move the bars to the cell half-way.

Gamma literally throws Alpha inside the cell and you quickly move the bars back and lock them. Not a moment too soon as Alpha lunges at the bars. You barely manage to fall back away from the cell, pulling the key out of the lock by the ring. You see long nails swipe before your eyes as you fall—Alpha is stuck with her arm stretched out between the steel bars, foaming at the mouth, attempting to scratch your face off.

“Argh!” Alpha cries in pain when Gamma grabs her hand tightly, but only after the attack. Apparently, when it comes to pure speed, Alpha wins out. You’ll need to remember that.

“I’ll have you calm down a bit,” you say to Alpha, regaining your balance.

“You’re dead!” Alpha screams back with her arm still in Gamma’s grasp. “I’ll kill you and these useless sows if it’s the last thing I do!”

“Perhaps a lesson in humility is in order,” you say and—keeping a distance so that Alpha doesn’t scratch it through the bars—lift your arm and cast [Aphrodisiac Mist] inside the cell.

“Let… go of me!” Alpha screams at Gamma and tries to pull her arm back inside to no avail.

“Let her go,” you say to Gamma.

She does just that and Alpha falls back on her butt from her own attempts to push back. Alpha doesn’t bother to get up and just breathes heavily while staring you down. Thus far the Mist doesn’t seem to have much of an effect on her. Though this is hardly the most arousing situation. In fact, you notice Gamma, who was the closest to the cell, shift her weight from one leg to the other, keeping her thighs together, in a way you’re sure you’ve seen before.

With the torch Delta carries nearly dead, you take it from her and light another, fixed to a wall in a sconce. With more light coming in you can finally see properly inside the cell. Beta lies there, on a pile of hay, just as you left her before. She’s out cold. Considering that even all this commotion did not wake her up, for a moment you fear she’s already dead. But, looking closely, you notice her ragged breathing —the only sign that she’s alive.

Perhaps the first round of [Aphrodisiac Mist] did not quite have the result you were hoping for right off the bat, but the night is still young. Well, it can’t even be night yet—the sun wasn’t close to setting when you returned from the outpost. Which only means you have even more time to break Alpha!

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