Gloria’s sense of self is returning at a rapid pace as it looks upon the person who healed her. “W-why are you trying to stop me? I am running away from the DC room, shouldn’t you only care about guarding it!?” Gloria asked as her voice quivered in both fearfulness and sorrow at the thought of attacking the closest thing she had to an ally in this place. “Answer me, Busta!”

Busta only smiled stoically back at me. “Simple: your escape is both a hindrance to this castle and a threat to the outside world.” She explained it completely seriously. Gloria was perturbed and confused by her words so she allowed her to continue explaining. “What do you think will happen when you get outside and finish your transformation? Without my dear husband’s guidance you will devolve into a feral beast, I mean look at the carnage you’ve waved since you escaped your cell!”

Gloria did and looked at the goblins and kobold that were still in her view all but one or two were slashed open by her claws. ‘Still, I can’t spend the rest of my existence here, I got to get back to my family and friends. My loved sister Melissa, Captain Atkins, mom, dad, everyone… I got to escape for everyone!’ As Gloria thought that she turned to Klags who was currently catching his breath since Busta arrived.

“I can be human still and I can be merciful, with or without this dungeon!” Gloria shouted in defiance as she swiftly shoved Klags against the wall with one of her legs. “See, he's still alive. This shows I- Ahhhh!” Gloria began to explain before she was interrupted by her own screaming.

Her transformation was continuing as now the scales were traveling from her arms and legs and were now going to cover her back. As she was distracted by her scales' continued growth her claws grew even sharper and the ones on her feet grew so sharply they began to dig into Klags’ skin. Realizing this she put her foot down letting Klags collapse and bleed out on the floor. “I-I this doesn’t disprove any-!” Her screams continued as her transformation didn’t stop with just her scales.

She felt a pain in the spot above her asshole jut out before opening to reveal a rapidly growing black tail. As she was distracted by her changes Busta fired a shot of dark magic but by sheer dumb luck managed to evade it as she fell to the ground in anguish. “If you give up now me and my husband can ease the pain for you! You just have to give up and join us!” Busta informed her.

Gloria wasn’t having it though and seeing the tides of battle turning against her and so as the pain of transformation began to dull as her tail had fully grown she turned tail (literally) and tried to book it to the exit. Leaving herself open Busta fires another magic shot and just before it hits her square in the back it is flung to the side like some sort of ball. ‘What!? Who deflected my magic!?’ Busta thought to herself before preparing another spell.

This spell however seemed to go even worse than the first as it misfired and blew up in her face. “Damnit! What sort of divine aid do you have Gloria!?” Busta shouted her stoic facade truly fracturing. Still seeing red she fired another spell but this time it was due to her still being too angered to aim properly that it missed.

Gloria, meanwhile, knew absolutely none of this as she completely focused on running. She had to lean forward more than she was used to due to the new addition of her tail, at least the claws on her feet seemed perfect for running. She was close to it now. The door was less than ten feet away now. In joy at her fast-approaching victory, she jumped through the air towards the large castle doors.

As swiftly as her hope appeared it was dashed as all her momentum was stopped as she was entangled by Busta’s shadowy tentacles that appeared from her shadow below her. “Nooo! Why, why, why!?” Gloria screamed as she tried to claw herself out of the tentacle’s grasp but they were having none of it as the tentacles she did tear away were quickly replaced by three more. Then in response, they squeezed tightly around her form pushing the air out of her body and draining her of all fight as she struggled helplessly.

As her will was drained from her body she heard the clicking of heels behind her as Busta sultry strutted towards her, knowing her husband was watching. “You caused us a lot of trouble with your rampage Gloria. If you just stayed in your cell we might have simply let you go and live your monster life without a care, might have even made you the boss of the first floor after my husband expands the castle so that it would have many floors. But no, you just had to go and kill a number of our strongest minions, they cost DP to revive you know.” Busta said mischievously before she giggled at the blonde woman’s situation.

“Though I do have to thank you for one thing… It seems your escape attempt counted as an attack on our dungeon and since we have neutralized you my husband has been awarded which more than makes up for it. Of course, I shouldn’t commend you for trying and failing to escape even if it did reward us.” Busta informed her as she stopped in front of her as Gloria was pulled to eye level by the dark tendrils. “You did give us an idea, maybe we should have our prisoners try and escape to both test out our dungeon and get some more DP if we are low.”

Busta laughed evilly at Gloria as new ideas formed in her head. “I mean everyone who proved an obstacle to your escape deserves a level up for slowing you down, even if one of them didn’t do their part you may have actually escaped.” As Busta continued her gloating, Gloria yelped in pain which returned Busta to reality. “Oh, yes. Here let me ease your suffering as the process finishes.”

“It isn’t finished?” Gloria asked, too drained to shout right now. “W-what more could there be?” Instead of answering Busta dispersed her tentacles of shadows dropping Gloria on the floor. Gloria then struggled onto her feet as she looked at Busta waiting for answers.

“Well your wings haven’t grown in but more than that is the mental changes… They already started showing before with you having your moments of being feral.” Busta began to explain to Gloria now having dark thoughts about her changes. “Don’t worry though, you won’t devolve into some sort of monster. You will just be, how should I put this… Less refined than before let me put it that way.”

As Busta finished her explanation she placed a hand on Gloria to ease the incoming pain. She then looked around and discovered that the goblins that were formerly blackout drunk were now staggering to the hallway. “Let’s finish this in a more private venue. You can thank me later.” She said before teleporting with Gloria towards the Dungeon Core room.

Point of View: Darius

I sighed in relief when Busta stopped Gloria just in time and choked on it when I saw her tease me with that look in her eyes. I then monitored the two of them until they teleported out of the hallway and into the Dungeon Core room. "Thank you for your hard work, my dear." I said to Busta as they arrived reminding myself to add the last two words while I was in the middle of saying it. "However could I repay you?"

Busta smiled back at me completely forgetting about Gloria on the ground. "You know I couldn't ask anything of you. But, if I could, it would be you getting your body back." Busta revealed as she sauntered over to my floating light. I recently got a notification about that actually, I needed to defeat at least two more challenging adventurers before I could have a boss form of my own.

"That is fast approaching my lady." I informed her causing her smile to only widen. "However, first we must deal with her first." I said motioning towards Gloria who was only now getting on her knees. Busta's smile turned sour as she remembered why she was here before cracking a smile as she walked over, making sure to flaunt her hip movements for me to see.

"You are quite right." Busta said before stopping right in front of Gloria, she then kneeled down so that she would be level with Gloria with her back to me. "We must act quickly, not a second should be wasted. You, however, just need to stay calm." She said to Gloria as she placed one of her hands on Gloria's chest as the blonde woman nodded her head in response.

"I trust you..." Gloria said. I am not quite certain if she was telling the truth, in fact, I don't even know if she could tell. Her face scrunched up as her thoughts and emotions conflicted with each other. "Just warn me first, okay?"

Busta merely nodded back as a light lit up under the hand on Gloria's chest. "You are certain that you are prepared?" Busta asked her to which she only nodded back as she prepared herself for the pain she experienced before. "Good, then I will begin in 3... 2... 1!" Busta warned before her light shined even brighter as the process began its finalization.