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Arc I, the Malleus and Arachne Arc
Sailor Mercury (Mizuno Ami) arrives in the Dungeon Keeper world and accidentally bonds with a Dungeon Heart, becoming a Dungeon Keeper. With her soul now held hostage by the dark gods, and having the automatic mistrust of all heroes, she nonetheless is able to defeat the evil Keepers Arachne and Malleus, recruit the few heroes who will listen (along with plenty of monsters), and evacuate to Malleus' dungeon before the forces of Good can capture her.
Ami is greatly disturbed by this development, but with the Reaper's begrudging yet knowledgeable help, she begins mining gold and building a few rooms so that she can establish a food supply and begin researching magic that might allow her to return home. As the chickens will take days to be ready, though, she takes the chance to imprison the Reaper and dig her way to the surface in search of company and a meal.
Unfortunately, her blue hair draws attention, and the dark power flowing into her from the Heart causes her to be quickly exposed as a dungeon affiliate by Light Acolyte Snyder, and arrested by adventurers Cathy, Jered, and Boris, who take her to the capital for trial. Boris in particular is hostile, but Cathy and Jered become cautiously better disposed toward her after she saves them from a goblin attack (by hiring the goblins, and healing Snyder's injuries with rudimentary necromancy).
When they arrive, the capital is under attack by Keeper Arachne, and the mayor quickly puts Ami on a front-line assault team in lieu of other punishment. Her team is captured and imprisoned, but she is able to use her Senshi magic to escape, and summons the Reaper to her location, devastating Arachne's spider forces and assisting Baron Leopold to destroy Arachne's Dungeon Heart. In the process, however, Ami's true identity as a Keeper — not just a minion or runaway child — is revealed, and the Baron turns on her, as well as on Jered, Cathy, and Snyder, whom he accuses of being in league with her. Knowing that they don't have a real chance of clearing their names, they take their chances with Ami, accepting employment with her so that she can teleport them to her dungeon.
Since the Baron will be able to track down where Ami was arrested and thus trace her dungeon, Ami and her minions make preparations. The Reaper instructs her that she needs to learn a minion possession spell and use it to invade another Keeper's mind, in order to take the knowledge of how to build more Dungeon Hearts. She succeeds in learning the spell, but takes over his body full time for several days, leading to a funny Not What It Looks Like situation that begins her reputation as a sadistic Extreme Omnisexual predator (an asset, in the Underworld, but a Running Gag amongst her friends). Snyder also assists her in designing a practical animated golem, to provide disposable shock troops.
Upon excavating a portal to the Underworld and visiting a nearby town, however, the Reaper turns on Ami and breaks his minion bond, rejoicing in his new freedom and promising revenge for humiliating him. She is hard-pressed to beat him, but after she briefly possesses Cathy in order to stave off her own body's injuries, Cathy retains access to her Senshi abilities; finding himself facing two empowered opponents, the Reaper retreats.
Ami hires new minions from the Underworld, including Tzerk the tentacle blob and Tasbaal the former high priest of the dead dark god Murdrul. Based on Tasbaal's information, she is able to complete a working golem design, and selects the dungeon of Keeper Malleus as her target for evacuating before the Baron finds her. After a hard assault, she and a golem army succeed in reaching Malleus' Dungeon Heart and forcing his submission, after which she ransacks his (centuries of) memories, then executes him in disgust at the rampant unrepentant horrors she found.
After transferring her minions and resources to the new dungeon, Ami imprisons Tasbaal in her original dungeon (having learned from Malleus' memories about just how evil Murdrul-worship is), and leaves Malleus' concubines there to be rescued, before appearing to the Baron's forces in an ice golem body, seeking a peaceful resolution. When he rejects her overtures (as expected), she simply directs him to her dungeon's location. However, she provides a decoy Heart, leaving the real one hidden, inactive, and disconnected, rather than dead.
While all this has been happening, the remaining Sailor Senshi on Earth have been attempting to track Ami down. They are able to scry on her, but are confused and perturbed by the changes in her appearance and her dealings with dark creatures. They also attempt to interrogate a youma, on the assumption that the Dark Kingdom might have kidnapped Ami, leading to a situation where General Jadeite is humiliated by Luna, and is imprisoned in Endless Sleep by an angry Queen Beryl (sooner than canon).
"Dungeon Keeper Ami
" to "Some Resolutions" (about 105 thousand words)
Arc II, the Duel Arc
Continues with Ami's efforts to find a way back to her home dimension, including meeting with the Light, the united gods of Good, who are sympathetic but unable to help her because her soul is in the realm of the dark gods. The dark gods are offended by Ami's attempt, and force her into a rigged duel against the Reaper to prove her worth; she is heavily injured, but narrowly wins by ring-out.
Introduces the sub-plots for Ami's relationship with General Jadeite of the Dark Kingdom, whom she recruits, and her preparations for an expedition to the Avatar Islands. Also, as a desperate insurance against the risk of dying in the duel and being claimed by the god of violence, as well as the first step toward locating and recovering her soul, Ami becomes a worshipper of Metallia, goddess of the Dark Kingdom.
The Reaper then appears, however, to inform her that her petition was noticed by the dark gods, and offended them. He attempts to kill her, but she succeeds in restraining and imprisoning him. The dark gods then use her Dungeon Heart as an avenue to afflict her and her minions with a deadly plague.
Failing to cure the disease by her own efforts, Ami uses her knowledge about the Dark Kingdom to devise a spell for stealing life energy, and gathers a non-lethal amount from each of her minions as an offering to appease the dark gods. Azzathra the Tyrant, who loves brute strength and violence, answers her prayer, unimpressed but suspending her sentence pending the result of a nonmagical duel between herself and the Reaper. Queen Metallia, on the other hand, is more pleased by the offering, and releases Jadeite into Ami's custody — still sealed in a sensory-depriving crystal — as a reward. Jadeite accepts service with Ami in exchange for his freedom, and despite being initially upset about serving a Sailor Senshi, he quickly comes around to seeing the opportunities associated with working for a Keeper — especially one favoured by Queen Metallia and thus with the potential to enable revenge on Beryl.
Having learned about a possibility that the wrecked Avatar Islands contain Dungeon Hearts that do not require the dark gods' blessing to create, and thus do not have the same vulnerability to retaliation, Ami launches an attack on a young Keeper (with Jadeite's skilled help) and claims his Dungeon Heart, then loads it onto an ice ship and begins sailing it to the islands. The ship is unfortunately intercepted by a group of fairies, who attack Ami's golem and are able to discover that it's a construct vulnerable to magic-dissolving attacks. Ami disables and imprisons them to keep the knowledge from spreading, as she doesn't want to put more flesh-and-blood soldiers on the line.
She also has Jadeite assist in massively damaging and weakening another of Keeper Arachne's dungeons, before Baron Leopold finishes it off. The Baron makes a reluctant deal with her to help him track Arachne down, but remains hostile.
In preparation for Azzathra's duel, Cathy puts Ami through an intensive fitness and training regimen, including sparring against Cathy herself and a hired dragon. Ami also learns some of Jadeite's teleportation and flight spells, and designs a suit of magic Powered Armor that can further enhance her strength and speed; the principles are then used to create an animated Reaper puppet for her to fight.
Ami is also able to make two-way contact at last with the Sailor Senshi back on Earth, through mutual scrying with written messages. Her friends are concerned and perplexed by all that has happened to her, but remain trusting and supportive, to her great relief. She is also able to pass on information about the Dark Kingdom that she has learned from Jadeite (who would quite like to see Queen Beryl taken down a notch and thus doesn't mind sharing).
When the ice ship reaches the Avatar Islands, Ami finds a variety of crystal Dungeon Heart that does not require the dark gods' blessing to create, and thus would be less vulnerable to retaliation like the plague. However, this type of Heart depends entirely on gold and similar precious materials, instead of providing a pool of mana; requires different room designs; and cutting off the dark gods would have side effects like losing access to the imp creation spell. Despite the drawbacks, she and her advisors agree that transitioning to a crystal Heart is necessary, as the plague or similar punishments will inevitably come sooner or later. She carves out a large iceberg from the North Pole and constructs a crystal Heart there, in preparation to make a floating dungeon that can sail to the Avatar Islands for further research and development.
Returning to the Avatar Islands, Ami creates a second crystal Heart there. Unfortunately, the new Heart reacts poorly with the organic Heart docked nearby, causing a dominance battle that ends with the organic Heart exploding. The detonation also attracts the attention of Keeper Zarekos, ruler of the islands, who overruns her new dungeon with ghosts and vampires and destroys the new crystal Heart — hurling Ami's body into the realm of the dark gods, where Azzathra tortures her and promises to claim her soul when she dies. Jadeite sends her the life energy that he had collected on Earth before being exiled, to help her return; he succeeds, and she returns to her remaining crystal Heart, but Azzathra activates the two-day countdown to the duel, thwarting her hopes of avoiding it.
As a last-ditch insurance to avoid letting her soul fall into Azzathra's hands if she loses the duel, Ami — in consultation with Jadeite, and with the hesitant but understanding support of the other senshi — prays to Metallia instead, offering her some of the Reaper's life energy and becoming her worshipper. She then makes her final preparations, including plans for if she fails, and organises for everything (including her first Heart) to be destroyed or transferred to the crystal Heart iceberg in the event of success, before being transported to the duelling arena. In the ensuing fight, she is heavily injured, but eventually wins by ring-out, and is granted knowledge of the Reaper's equipment summoning spell and scythe techniques as a token reward (intended as an insult).
"Oh, Gods!" to "The Duel" (about 125 thousand words)
Arc III, the Voyage Arc
Ami recovers from her ordeal and prepares to travel to the Avatar Islands, where she hopes to study ways to free herself from the dark gods. Shorter than either of the other previous arcs; Arc III stresses the subplots and introduces many of the major power players in the Dungeon Keeper Universe. The continued happenings in the Sailor Moon universe are more important in this arc than any other, detailing the emerging Dark Kingdom civil war. The Arc reaches its conclusion upon the discovery of an apparently inhabited island during pre-invasion recon...With the iceberg not yet livable and her body injured by the duel, she and her inner circle then stay briefly at an inn while they arrange healing. There, Ami narrowly survives an assassination attempt by multiple Keepers and the fairies, all at once; fortunately, they get in each other's way, and everyone returns safely to the iceberg.
Back on Earth, the Sailor Senshi let slip to General Nephrite that Jadeite is still alive, which he is able to verify by scrying; the other generals become aware shortly afterward. Zoisite informs Queen Beryl — who jumps to the conclusion that it was a planned defection and that there must still be conspirators amongst the Dark Kingdom's inhabitants. She launches an inquisition that starts arresting youmas on a large scale, disappearing them or returning them with their minds altered.
Using the plentiful electricity from her turbines, Ami next establishes a steady income by constructing furnaces to grow synthetic sapphires, using tiara shards as seeds. She also uses a combination of high-pressure water, fans, and intense light, combined with a fire immunity spell, to enable massively accelerated plant growth through necromancy, thus enabling rapid farming. With the immediate needs met, she resolves to return to the Avatar Islands, where she can build up resources to take down other Keepers without her own dungeon's corruption doing any (further) damage.
Unfortunately, Ami finds that her strategic retreats have given her a poor reputation and hinder recruitment of soldiers. She settles for hiring goblins, who take over many of the jobs usually performed by imps (which she can't use with her crystal Heart), and she begins teaching them the Reaper's equipment spell. Snyder is also able to obtain information about the weaknesses of vampires, although he is attacked by bounty hunters in the process, revealing that Ami has become a high priority target.
Conversation with Jadeite brings to Ami's attention the fact that there are many youma victims of Eternal Sleep. Ami is torn about seeking Metallia's help again, but the other senshi agree that freeing them is the right thing to do, so she gathers a variety of life force samples and builds a full temple. The offering is a qualified success; Metallia does not directly release the prisoners, but does grant Ami a spell so that she can do it herself. She also reveals that the most desirable life force variety is that of a dragon.
Jadeite is then captured and imprisoned while attempting to help transport the fairies back to their home empire. Ami is able to plan and execute a rescue, and learns that they already have transport arranged.
She then rescues the first youma from Eternal Sleep: Mareki, who can shoot jets of water from her mouth. Like Jadeite, she is willing to serve in exchange for her freedom, though initially disgruntled to find that she is bound to a Sailor Senshi.
Ami then possesses Mareki's body (which alters the youma's form into a hybrid of the two of them) to investigate an anomaly: an island near Zarekos' domain that has fresh troll footprints. Her visor helps her to discover a trapped corridor with a locked door.
"Recovering" to "Mysterious Island" (about 77 thousand words)
Arc IV, the Avatar Islands Arc
Ami makes contact with the last living survivors of the Avatar Island wars, a band of war-hardened Trolls and their abrasive leader, Marda. From the very beginning, it is clear that Marda is more than meets the eye. However, as all parties involved have bigger problems, and Marda is reluctant to share details, an uneasy alliance is begun to bring down Keeper Zarekos, ruler of the islands. The arc concludes with Zarekos' defeat and the revelation of Marda's true identity as the Avatar of Light himself — who, with his powers restored, will no longer tolerate Keepers, including Ami. However, Ami outwits and defeats him, with the Light gods agreeing to a non-aggression pact and granting her the title of Empress in exchange for freeing him.Marda is also quite unimpressed by Ami's goblins. However, Ami then reveals that they are not intended to be infantry, but rather pilots for remote-controlled magical robots. While the reaperbots prove to be no match for warriors like Marda, they are considerably faster and stronger than the goblins' native forms. They also require very large amounts of gold for power; Ami can afford it due to her synthetic sapphire production, but does not reveal this source to Marda, leaving the troll puzzled.
Unfortunately, Ami then learns that several other Keepers have identified her iceberg's location. Unbeknownst to her, Keeper Arachne hides a sack of spider eggs on the underside of the iceberg, ready to burst out and attack when they hatch.
Ami leads the initial assault on Zarekos' lands in the body of the third freed youma, this one left practically mindless by long sensory deprivation and thus providing a more morally acceptable host to Ami. Her reaperbots take heavy casualties, and she herself is wounded by Zarekos — who manages to draw blood from her true body and the youma at the same time — but she successfully destroys a Dungeon Heart, clearing an area where she can establish a foothold free of Zarekos' influence. To her concern, the youma — tentatively named "Tiger" for her orange and black stripes — retains Ami's form even after she stops possessing it in order for them to be healed.
The reaperbots then attempt to spread out and destroy more Dungeon Hearts while Zarekos is weakened. However, Zarekos is able to use Ami's stolen blood to track her, allowing his vampires to drive her off and then crush the reaperbots (who need magical support to keep the vampires at bay). Ami is able to recover or destroy most of the gold from the bots, rather than let it fall into Zarekos' hands, but only narrowly escapes being killed in the process.
Zarekos then launches an assault on her iceberg with thousands of ghosts, supported by gold-fueled earthquake spells that crack the ice and create multiple breaches. Ami is hard-pressed, but while tracing the damaged ice, she discovers the lurking spiders and is able to set them loose on the ghosts. Jadeite then uses an advanced glamour to temporarily reseal the ice, and Keeper Morrigan, recently arrived on the islands, launches an assault on Zarekos at the same time, causing Zarekos' forces to retreat. Ami then robs Morrigan's treasure room and catches Zarekos with a teleport that takes him to open ocean in a part of the world exposed to daylight, causing his vampire body to be destroyed and not respawn.
With the vampires now leaderless and turning on each other, Ami turns on Keeper Morrigan, with Jadeite opening Underworld portals that flood his tunnels with lava, before the reaperbots finish off his Dungeon Heart and banish him. However, Arachne is able to subordinate a vampire who has seized one of the late Zarekos' Hearts, and begins planning a spell to end Ami.
Marda, meanwhile, goes off without consulting Ami and destroys one of the unclaimed Dungeon Hearts. Ami, upset by this unilateral action, starts asking questions, and Umbra, from spying, reveals that the trolls are Light worshippers and that Marda is looking for a mantle worn by Zarekos. Marda is initially alarmed by the revelations, but Ami provides Snyder as proof that she doesn't mind employing Light worshippers. Marda then reveals that the mantle belonged to the Avatar and might help to break the curse on Marda's body if it can be purified from its current desecrated state, which Ami agrees to help with.
Ami and Arachne, along with Arachne's subordinated vampire Keeper Nero, compete to claim territory, with Ami hindered by her lack of imps and Nero's recruitment of a Horned Reaper, Rabixtrel. Ami compensates by using magically dominated rats to take the place of imps, and capturing enemy imps when possible. One of the vampires then joins her, and informs her that the location of her stolen blood is inside a temple that Zarekos built to channel power to himself, which Keeper Wemos is attempting to open and loot.
Under Arachne's direction, Nero fortifies his dungeon with a high number of traps and lava, then casts an Armageddon spell that connects his Dungeon Heart to Ami's and summons all troops on both sides to his fortress for a huge melee. At the same time, Arachne and Keeper Alphel attack the iceberg. Alphel draws on Azzathra's power to turn a chicken into a huge dragon and smashes his way through Ami's traps, but she is able to trick him into touching a temple pool, allowing Metallia to suck all the dragon's life energy away. Metallia rewards Ami for the offering by increasing her access to Metallia's power, as if she were a dark general, then returns to slumber, much to the dismay of a watching Queen Beryl. Ami's forces then win the Armageddon battle, and narrowly evacuate before Nero is able to collapse the whole dungeon into the magma.
In the aftermath, Ami's forces easily succeed in destroying Nero's remaining Dungeon Heart. The Horned Reaper also accepts employment with her, destroying the remaining skeletons and ghosts on the Avatar Islands. Back on Earth, Queen Beryl instructs her generals to offer the Sailor Senshi a ceasefire due to Ami's new level of favour with Metallia, and instead focuses her efforts on finding a path to the world that Ami is in.
Keeper Wemos then breaches Zarekos' temple, but finds Zarekos' ghost, which takes control of his body. Furthermore, before doing so, he had attacked and looted an Underworld town, triggering a large-scale coordinated retaliation. Ami decides to quickly destroy Wemos herself rather than allow a large army to land on the continent and begin plundering. Her forces are able to defeat his armies, but Zarekos' ghost proves difficult to harm; however, Marda steps in, attacks him with holy magic, and seizes the mantle, which causes him to fade away. Marda then abruptly resigns from Ami's service and runs away with the trolls.
Scrying reveals that Marda and the trolls have prepared a ritual to cleanse the Avatar's Mantle. Once done, it transforms Marda back into the form of a human male: the Avatar of the Light gods. Ami goes to talk to him, willing to cooperate or leave, but he declares his intention to destroy her and any other Keepers he finds — although the Light then instructs him to take her alive instead. Ami retreats to her dungeon, where the Avatar follows, intending to imprison her as the Light had originally offered. He proves to be Nigh-Invulnerable to every attack she can throw at him, but she takes him by surprise with a hidden electromagnet that she constructs in a wall behind him; with him pinned by his armour, her Keeper powers consider him to be her prisoner, allowing her to confiscate the mantle and thus cut off his instant mana replenishment.
The Light speaks through the Avatar and negotiates with Ami, agreeing that the Avatar will not attack her on the Avatar Isles in exchange for freeing him. Ami also informs the Light about Queen Metallia, whom they had not previously encountered, and provides her notes on Dungeon Heart creation and modification, since previously no-one with that knowledge had gone to the Light gods to pass it on. In exchange for the notes, they provide the Sailor Senshi on Earth with a crystal ball to allow for full two-way scrying. As a parting gift, the Light appoints her Empress of the Avatar Isles, so that she can spin her release of the Avatar as a clever blackmail plot, instead of revealing her true allegiance to all her minions and the other Keepers.
The Underworld army, assembled to punish the late Wemos, then attempts to attack Ami and loot her dungeon, in hopes of turning a profit on their efforts. However, between her own forces and the Avatar's temporary help, she is able to push back the invasion and close the Underworld portals.
"Strange Trolls" to "Musings" (about 153 thousand words)
Arc V, the War on Death Arc
In the aftermath of Ami's defeat of the Avatar, the dark god Crowned Death steals the Avatar's Mantle to use in a blasphemous Human Sacrifice ritual. Ami gathers her forces to interrupt the ritual and rescue the intended sacrifices, then forms a temporary international coalition that tracks down and destroys Crowned Death's underwater fortress-temple, breaking most of his power in the world. She is also able to open two-way communication with the Sailor Senshi back on Earth, and reconnect with her mother.
After testing the properties of the Avatar's Mantle, which the Light left in her possession, Ami successfully uses it to treat the mental damage suffered by "Tiger". However, it turns out that Ami's former extensive use of Tiger's body has left many of her memories embedded in Tiger's mind, much to the youma's displeasure and confusion.
On Earth, the Sailor Senshi obtain the crystal ball that the Light promised, enabling them to communicate freely instead of relying on Morse code and handwriting. Ami lets them see what she's been doing, and asks to contact her mother.
Ami then receives a skeletal emissary from the dark god Crowned Death, demanding that she desecrate the mantle again by sacrificing thousands of people. When she refuses, the emissary attacks her and manages to steal the mantle through trickery, delivering it to a temple of Crowned Death and sending it out of the world.
Dismayed by the loss and her mistakes that led to it, Ami resolves to stop the proposed ritual from going ahead. Using bone fragments left behind from when she fought the thief, she locates and executes him, then scatters his remains around an Underworld portal, allowing her to use sympathetic magic of her own to track the movements of anyone using the portal. To her surprise, his magical staff survives her attack, prompting her to collect it for study; her warlocks are able to identify it as a rare, power-enhancing battle staff of Calarine, but she decides that it's too suspicious to use.
She also attempts to contact the Avatar for help, but finds that Crowned Death has used sympathetic magic to infect him with illness using his connection to the mantle, rendering him unable to assist. However, the Light does offer to temporarily lock the mantle in place once it is returned to the world for the ritual. It also informs Ami that the intended ritual is not a desecration, but rather a powerful summoning that will consume the mantle and unleash one of Crowned Death's horrors into the world.
With the information gathered, she is able to track down the ritual location, and builds a fleet of helium-based zeppelins to transport a full-scale assault force. Before departing, she also builds an isolated experimental Dungeon Heart intended to protect itself by allowing its environmental corruption to affect the dungeon itself, creating a significant hazard, with no one living in it.
The assault meets heavy resistance by Death Priests armed with more staves of Calarine, but Ami eventually succeeds in consuming the Lesser Aspect of Crowned Death that is supervising the ritual, by mixing its power with Metallia's and flushing it through the warding system designed to dispose of leftover chaos magic from her Senshi transformation (shunting it into the dark gods' realm). Failing to perform the summoning that he originally intended, Crowned Death makes a last-ditch effort and instead resurrects Mukrezar, the former Keeper who originally brought the Avatar down. However, Mukrezar retreats without immediately confronting Ami.
In the aftermath, Ami takes responsibility for the eight thousand civilians who were gathered as prospective sacrifices, and blinded with cursed knives to help keep them under control. The cursed wounds resist healing, but Jadeite is able to restore their sight using an advanced glamour, so long as they remain nearby. The fairies get caught up in her efforts, having been assigned to track her airships and catching the tail end of the battle; they do not trust her, but agree to help heal the injured civilians. Unfortunately, their reluctance leads one of them to demand concessions in exchange for her help, which results in the Dungeon Heart treating her as a hired minion — making her permanently unemployable in her home country. Ami offers to take her on as an ambassador of the Shining Concord Empire, which the emperor accepts.
Ami also makes contact with her mother and explains what has happened to her, although without revealing her identity as a sailor senshi. Mrs Mizuno is thrilled to see that she's safe, though very disturbed by the situation that she's in and her inability to return home for now. She also meets Tiger, whose inherited memories cause her to feel like Mrs Mizuno's daughter; Mrs Mizuno accepts her as being effectively adopted.
Mukrezar, meanwhile, proves to be a wily character, but shies away from confronting Ami. He is able to obtain a Dungeon Heart through unknown means, off-screen, but knowing that the Avatar will come after him for revenge, distributes magical rings that turn other people into his body doubles. The Avatar kills as many of the copies as he can find, but Mukrezar himself continues to avoid capture.
Ami then investigates the staves of Calarine used by the Death Priests, finding that they are drawing on an external power source, and traces it back to a tremendous submarine fortress containing undead Dungeon Hearts belonging directly to Crowned Death. The Light identifies that this may be a plot to gather energy and help Crowned Death fully manifest in the world; it gathers the help of mages in all countries to destroy the fortress. During the fight, Ami successfully takes control of one of the undead Hearts, but is then attacked and immobilized by Crowned Death; however, Tiger is able to possess her body and use the Heart to destroy the fortress (by synthesising a tremendous amount of chlorine trifluoride).
Around the same time, the Dark Kingdom plants a youma in Eternal Sleep as bait, and when she is retrieved by Jadeite, the remaining dark generals are able to use her as a beacon and piece together a path to the Dungeon Keeper world. However, they eventually connect, not to the surface, but to an area controlled by the dark gods, and the Dark Kingdom is invaded by monsters.
"Vampire Solution" to "Catastrophic Failure (part 2)" (about 172 thousand words)
Arc VI, the Empress Arc
CURRENTLY ONGOING from "Expansion"The dark god Crowned Death, desperate for revenge on Ami, turns the magic of her Dungeon Hearts against her, driving her off the Avatar Islands. Ami is forced to relocate to dwarven lands, where she quickly comes under assault from the well organised and equipped dwarves, but is able to capture a city in self-defence and begins to establish herself as a recognized and legitimate ruler.
However, the new dungeon is in dwarf territory, and when discovered, it triggers a nationwide coordinated response. Ami attempts diplomacy, but to no avail, and narrowly beats off an initial strike. The Avatar copies Mukrezar's ring idea and sends a double of himself, who unsuccessfully tries to persuade the dwarves to call off the assault; he then fights for the dwarves, but allows himself to be "beaten" in order to prompt a retreat.
Investigating the country further in the aftermath, Ami finds extensive rail networks, and realises that they are capable of bringing overwhelming force to bear; she goes alone to the city of Salthalls, home of the duke over her dungeon's territory, to plead her case.
Duke Libasheshtan proves unwilling to meet with Ami, so she forces her way into the city to track him down, surprising both the defenders and herself with how much progress she makes. She is eventually able to corner the duke, but he traps them both in an impenetrable adamantine box and declares that they will die together. Ami attempts to persuade him of her good intentions, but he is unmoved, until she follows his taunting instructions and successfully makes a hole in the adamantine — something that requires being favorably judged by the magical metal. The duke is dumbfounded and accepts that she is sincere.
Unfortunately, Ami's imprisonment in the adamantine resulted in her power accumulating on the outside of the box — including a large amount of power flowing from Queen Metallia. Exposure to this power turns thousands of dwarves into partial youmas, which mostly lose their minds and turn feral, but instinctively submit to Ami and become her minions on sight. To stabilize the situation, the duke acknowledges her conquest of the city and surrenders to her, allowing her imps to quickly claim the land and gather the wild youmas for care and treatment.
The capture of Salthalls sends political shockwaves throughout the kingdom and its neighbors, with rulers assuming that the transformations were a deliberate strategy, and fearing that Ami will continue it. She is able to persuade the Avatar to appoint Duke Libasheshtan as her regent (since she is underage and lacks a king or relatives), in hopes of allaying the dwarves' fears and having them recognise her as a legitimate ruler.
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