Dungeon Overlord: My First SSS Gacha Summon Was a Yandere

Zoyra’s POV

Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! How could I have forgotten something like that?

Cold seized her body, which was already starting to tremble, and sweat beaded all over her as she drew her bow and nocked an arrow, her eyes on the canopy, barely lit by the fire Arielle had built at the center of the camp.

Beside her, Jin raised his two daggers toward the branches in a fighting stance, and Arthur did the same with his sword.

They stayed like that, trembling, sweeping the canopy with their eyes without ever looking away, tense, watching for the slightest movement.

But nothing came.

At least, not what they were expecting. Instead, the fog that had drifted through the forest from the very beginning thickened with the night and began to spread all around them, until they could no longer see the canopy, nor Frelja, nor Arielle, who were standing only a few steps away.

"What is this? Guys, stay close to me..."

She turned toward them.

But there was no one there.

Jin and Arthur had vanished. She was alone, in the middle of the fog, and her hands tightened a little more around her bow as she raised it once again.

What the hell is going on here?

The silence was total. No more crackling fire, no more voices, not even the faintest rustle of leaves, only her own breathing, far too fast, and her heartbeat pounding in her ears.

Then she felt a presence behind her and spun around, bow drawn.

Her gaze swept the mist, left to right, top to bottom, searching for something.

Nothing.

"SHOW YOURSELF!"

She turned in place, searching everywhere and finding nothing, her steps backing away little by little.

"I SAID SHOW YOURSELF!"

She kept backing away, again and again, sweat running down her forehead in heavy drops, her arrow aimed in turn at every corner of the mist.

A hand touched her back.

She flinched, but this time she didn’t hesitate: she spun around and fired blindly in the direction of the touch.

FWOOO—

The arrow whistled through the mist.

But once again, nothing.

Panic was taking hold of her. She immediately nocked another arrow and started running in the opposite direction, but a touch stopped her again. Then another, and yet another. Every time she strayed too far in one direction, something invisible brought her back the other way, without violence, simply to keep her there, in the middle.

So she stopped.

She stood still, bow drawn, slowly turning in place, no longer daring to take a single step. The fog surrounded her on all sides, so thick she could no longer even make out her own feet. She was waiting for the next touch, the next breath, the next sound, and every second that passed without anything happening tightened her throat a little more.

Five minutes passed, maybe fifteen, maybe thirty, she had no idea.

Then a small light appeared in front of her.

A firefly.

It fluttered gently through the mist, its pale yellow glow dancing through the white, and Zoyra followed it with her eyes without moving, until it came to rest on the back of her hand.

Is it here to help me?

PRICK—

"Owww!"

The firefly flew off at once and disappeared into the mist. Zoyra looked down at the spot where she had been stung, and horror swelled as she watched: the skin around the sting was blackening before her eyes, and the stain was already spreading all around it, far too fast.

She didn’t think any further. She dropped her bow, grabbed the dagger at her belt, and raised it high with her other hand, jaw clenched.

"Strength of the winds, be with me."

She hesitated for a moment, looking at her hand, then resigned herself and went on.

"Wind Acceleration."

She brought the dagger down with all her strength, driven by the current of the wind, toward her wrist, where the flesh was blackening more and more.

But a grip suddenly closed around her wrist, so strong that she had to let go of the dagger, before she was lifted off the ground.

Then.

SMACK—

Her head snapped to one side, then the other, under the force of the slap, and it took a moment for her mind to come back to her.

"Tch... That’s enough now. Pull yourself together."

Those cold words made her look up.

Arielle stood before her. Through her helm, her gaze was full of irritation, and something else too, something far colder that looked a lot like contempt. The kind woman who had served them tea had completely vanished.

Instinctively, Zoyra looked down at her wrist.

There was nothing wrong with it.

Huh?

Then she looked around her. Not far off, Jin and Arthur were swinging their blades at empty air, in a mist far thinner than the one she had seen a moment earlier.

𝕗𝕣𝗲𝚎𝚠𝖾𝔟𝗇𝔬𝔳ℯ𝐥.𝒄ℴ𝓶

"...What’s going on? What just happened?"

Arielle released her wrist without the slightest care, and Zoyra collapsed to the ground, drained of strength.

"Illusion fog."

She let out a long sigh behind her helm.

"Tch. And these call themselves adventurers... You can’t even make it through one night on the first floor."

Then, without sparing her another glance, she walked off to go slap the other two.

Arielle’s words tightened around her heart. Why had she suddenly become so cold? Zoyra searched around her for an explanation, and only then did she realize it: Frelja was nowhere to be seen.

Her heart tightened a little more.

"Wh... Where’s Frelja?"

Arielle stopped dead. Her movements stiffened, and she slowly turned her head toward Zoyra, her gaze icy through her helm.

"She’s gone."

~~

Frelja’s POV

While the youngsters raised their weapons toward the trees, Frelja watched them in silence beside Arielle, sheltered by the sound barrier, while her real body, down on the last floor, was still wondering whether or not she should attend the meeting.

Then the fog on the floor began to thicken and wrap around the three youngsters in front of them.

Arielle calmly stood up and deactivated the sound barrier, before walking toward them.

Seeing that the minds of Zoyra, Arthur, and Jin were already elsewhere, Frelja spoke up.

"Looks like the fog is effective."

"We’ve seen it ever since we arrived, my lady. It was weaker during the day, granted, but it was already wearing down their minds, leading them astray, and tiring them far more than usual."

Frelja simply nodded. After all, they had seen with their own eyes the effect the fog had had on the youngsters throughout their march.

Then, all of a sudden, several shapes burst out of the trees and shot straight toward Frelja at full speed.

She watched them come.

Then she spread her arms wide.

"Come to Mommy, my darlings!!!"

And they came to nestle against her, a dozen of them, squeezed into her arms.

"Pyuu~ Pyuu~"

They rubbed against her, letting out happy little squeals.

At the same moment, cries began to rise from all over the floor. Thanks to her enhanced hearing, Frelja could make out ragged breathing, frantic footsteps splashing through the swamps, screams, and here and there, through the trees, she could see fires flaring up in the night.

In front of her, Arielle was stopping the youngsters whenever they wandered too far from the camp, lost in their illusions.

That was the whole effect she had chosen for this floor. On top of the swamps and the dense forest, hard to cross and nearly impossible to navigate, the fog imperceptibly wore down minds throughout the day, before thickening at night to create illusions. It split groups apart, exhausted them, and even drove some to mutilate themselves.

All of it had been designed to give the floor’s creatures the perfect moment to strike, so that despite their weaknesses, they could easily kill adventurers far stronger than themselves.

That was the true danger of the first floor.

She looked down at the little creatures nestled in her arms.

At first glance, they were slimes, round, gelatinous, and a dark green. But from their backs sprouted four membranous wings, and their bodies were split in two by a gaping maw lined with rows of razor-sharp teeth, dripping thick drool that made the grass sizzle wherever it fell.

Slime Seraphs, a creation of the ChimeraKing. Rank-C+ monsters, born from crossing the slimes of her dungeon with the flying abominations created by Upyr.

Any adventurer would have run away screaming at the sight of such a swarm swooping down on them.

But in Frelja’s arms, they were nothing but babies.

"Pyuu~ Pyuuu~"

One of them was rubbing against her cheek, flapping its wings happily. Another had closed its maw around one of her fingers and was gnawing on it ever so gently, never biting down. Two more were jostling each other for the best spot against her chest, and one last, the smallest, was doing its best to climb up onto her helm, slipping off every single time.

"Oh my, easy, easy~ There’s room for everyone!"

She scratched one under the chin, or at least where its chin should have been, and the little monster immediately rolled onto its back in her arms, all four wings spread wide, letting out a long "Pyuuuuuu~" of pure bliss.

Another then approached shyly, something caught between its teeth, and proudly dropped it into her hand. It was the buckle of a bag strap, still a little damp.

"Ohh~ Is this for me? Thank you, sweetie~ You’re adorable~"

"Pyuu!"

Their teeth clicked together with happy little clack clack sounds, and Frelja hugged them a little tighter.

"Aren’t they just the cutest, Mommy’s little babies?"

In the distance, another scream tore through the night.

All twelve little heads turned toward it at once.

Frelja laughed softly, opened her arms, and let them fly off one by one into the fog.

"Go on, my darlings. Go eat~"