“Y-you can make us do whatever you want!” The Guild Master cried out in surprise.
I nodded. “Sadly, the infection has already taken root. It’s wrapped around your soul, and whoever has control of your karma has control of you. So, you can see the kind of damage Elaya could cause, and why I am unwilling to just barrel through the dungeon and defeat her.”
“Y-you can make us do whatever…” Ruby replied with a dazed expression, then looked at me with wide eyes and looked away. “P-pervert… I’m your big sister!”
“Don’t say misleading things like that! If I was controlling you, do you think I’d have let you attack me earlier!” I cried out.
“I still don’t get it. Why did they do this?” Alysia asked.
“It’s not much different than what Astria was doing,” I explained. “She was using fairies to extract the natural mana from the nearby residents. However, Elaya isn’t looking for mana, she’s looking for miasma. Normally, once a soul is infected with karma, miasma slowly envelops it until the soul is either consumed, resulting in the death of the host, or the soul is converted, becoming a karmic soul. Once someone’s soul is converted to its karmic state, they are bound to the dungeon and are basically a dungeon monster.
“However, that isn’t what is happening. The miasma is instead being absorbed by the barrier and then being fed into the dungeon. So, the people have become walking lightning rods, absorbing miasma to power this miasma generator. This is why, even after two months, you guys haven’t been turned into monsters.”
That was the essentials of it. Of course, I didn’t understand all about how it worked. It’d require someone far more accustomed to using miasma than myself. There was also one component that I had intentionally left out when I explained everything to them. That was the miasma fountain. I had noticed it the second I walked into the city. Shooting out from behind my mansion was a massive stream of miasma, which spread out and created a barrier over us. That’s how I knew the two were linked because I could see they were physically linked.
The others either couldn’t see this fountain, or they didn’t know what it was. The fairy fountain behind my mansion was a secret, and even the mayor and Guild Master weren’t fully informed about it. The fairies had been commanded to keep everyone from noticing it, and there were various spells and tricks so that should someone sneak behind the mansion, they would walk right past it without ever knowing it was there. If people did become aware of the fairy fountain, it would spread desire and envy. It was best to keep it as hidden as possible, but for those sensitive to mana, that was probably impossible. Either way, I thought it best not to mention it in front of these two, despite it being the lynchpin behind the alleged miasma generator.
“M-monsters…” The Guild Master went pale, seemingly focusing on that part of my talk.
“Well, I’ve seen the others out there. They don’t look much better than monsters.” Ruby frowned. “What is your plan?”
“I’ll need you guys to try to capture them, one at a time. We’ll free them from the dungeon’s control.” I explained.
“You’ll be cutting off the supply of miasma.” Ruby frowned.
“Not just that!” Alysia spoke excitedly as she realized my plan. “He plans to keep the miasma feeding into the dungeon.”
“Huh? For what reason?” The Guild Master asked with a frown.
“The dungeon is currently no longer mine.” I shrugged. “And I do not know how much the dungeon has grown these last few months. Normally, if a dungeon acted this aggressively, someone would destroy it. However, Elaya was clever to hide her tracks, and so was Astria. As a result, I can’t predict how powerful or how deep it runs now. It might just be me worrying for nothing, but since we’ve come this far, I might as well take every precaution.”
“He’s going to feed the dungeon his own miasma.” Alysia declared.
Ruby and the Guild Master only stared. They didn’t understand, but that was the gist of it. This had once been my dungeon, but now the miasma frequency was off and no longer my own. Since Elaya was using the people of this town to feed her dungeon, then I would change it back to my frequency. I would take control of the dungeon once again, starting from the inside.
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