Dungeon Overlord: My First SSS Gacha Summon Was a Yandere

"Even the strongest enemy in the world is nothing when forced to fight on your ground, by your rules."

— Freya, somewhere between Sun Tzu and an unhealthy obsession with tower defense games.

~~

"Shit... shit... shit..."

Freya was pacing back and forth across the luxurious chamber, unable to stay still for more than two seconds.

Everything happened way too fast. The revelations one after another, the tower, Nymeria, and above all, once again, we were way too sure of ourselves.

She kept replaying the scene, and the more she thought about it, the more it tightened her throat. Artalia hadn’t tried to hold Aria back for a single second. She’d let her cross that entire world, climb that entire tower, sit down across from her. She’d let her come.

Because Aria wasn’t the target. I was. All of that was just a way to draw her far from here while they sent something after me.

She had no idea what was about to show up, and she didn’t need to know to dread it. A Faceless Devourer at the very least, so a Rank S beast. At worst, something she’d rather not even try to imagine.

One thing was certain, though: no way was she getting caught off guard.

"Come on, girls! We’re heading to the Heart chamber, right now!"

They nodded, still reeling from everything the so-called Artalia had just dumped on them. The material the tower was built from, the existence of Nymeria, the threat now hanging over their own home. It was a lot to take in all at once, and Freya could clearly see the unease on their faces.

She led them down the corridor, quickening her pace, her eye darting constantly between Aria’s screen and the one from the butterfly posted at the dungeon’s entrance.

She, at least, looks like she’s managing without any trouble. That’s already something.

On the screen, Aria was advancing without the slightest apparent difficulty, and it was almost enough to reassure Freya. Almost. Because she knew her servant far better than their few days together might suggest. She knew Aria, for all her power, would be worrying herself sick over her from a distance. So she leaned toward the bird trailing her and rested a hand on it.

"Aria. Listen to me. We’ve got things perfectly under control on our end, we have everything we need to handle it. So don’t you worry about us. Focus on your own fight, and don’t lose. That’s an order."

The bird relayed the answer at once, and the voice that came out had lost a bit of its tension.

"Understood, madam. I’ll be as quick as I can to rejoin you."

So it wasn’t enough.

She’d have given anything to be strong enough that Aria would never have to tremble for her. Clearly, that day hadn’t come yet. But at least those few words would have eased her servant’s mind, for lack of anything more she could do right now.

Once she reached the Heart chamber, the entrance butterfly still showed nothing. The calm before the storm. She made use of the reprieve and turned to Mei.

"Mei. Show me your sword, please."

"...Yes... here..." the giant breathed, holding out her enormous black blade at arm’s length, with a shyness that clashed with the monstrous weapon she was wielding.

A panel opened before Freya’s eyes.

[ Heavy Black Sword — Rank A ]

[ Forged in black iron by a master smith. Exceptional endurance and resistance. Made to last an eternity. ]

"Now that’s a fine sword." Freya smiled, weighing it a moment. "Let’s see what fate feels like handing us."

She activated her skill on the blade.

[ Activating Enchantment Gacha... ]

[ Rolling... ]

The wheel materialized in the air and began to spin, that whirl of symbols she now knew by heart, slowing bit by bit before coming to a stop with a little chime.

On a Rank F.

[ Enchantment obtained: Infinite Rapeseed Oil — Rank F ]

[ The enchanted blade oozes frying oil in unlimited quantity. Duration: 24 hours. ]

A blank.

"...WHAT?! The exact moment I need something powerful, you hand me THIS, system?! Rapeseed oil?!"

"What’s rapeseed oil?" Laïa asked, tilting her head to the side, intrigued.

"Oh, that? Nothing exciting. Just an oil you use for frying, nothing that could really be of any use in a fight like thi—"

She stopped dead, the sentence hanging.

Because as the words left her mouth, something was falling into place behind them. Oil. In infinite quantity. A labyrinth already packed with traps. Narrow corridors, rooms she could have dug whenever she wanted. The pieces sought each other out, found each other, slotted into one another, and the plan drew itself out on its own in her head, clearer by the second.

An opponent too strong to beat head-on didn’t mean he was invincible. You just had to not fight him head-on, precisely.

Silence had settled over the room. The girls stared at her without a word, waiting on her next words, as if they’d sensed that something had just clicked somewhere under her skull.

Freya whistled for the Mycofoxes, who came trotting over, then turned to her whole little assembly. A mischievous smile slowly stretched across her lips.

"Right. Listen to me very carefully, everyone. Here’s how we’re going to do this..."

A few hours passed, spent putting it all in place, until a silhouette finally appeared on the entrance camera.

A small being. Some kind of demonic imp, with milky-white skin and big eyes of an almost icy blue. In one hand, he held a scythe whose handle overshot his own height.

Through the stream, Freya sized him up for a long moment, and what she felt confirmed her fears. Beneath his slightly ridiculous little-creature looks, he was absolutely not to be taken lightly. He was at least on the level of a Faceless Devourer. Probably even above.

Here we go.

"So there you are." she murmured, eyes fixed on the screen.

Then she lifted her head and raised her voice, a playful spark in her eyes.

"Launching phase one of the plan! Objective: catch the chicken!"

The imp pressed into the labyrinth.

For long minutes, he worked through its corridors, methodical, setting off the corridor traps one after another as he went. Blades shot from the walls, portcullises dropped from the ceiling, and none of it left him so much as a scratch. The traps clacked against his white skin and bounced off without even marking it.

Figured he’d take all that without flinching.

It was around a bend in a corridor that he finally came face to face with what had been placed there for him. An immense silhouette in black armor, planted right in the middle of the passage, sword in hand.

Mei.

The second he spotted her, she went on the attack. She threw a projectile at him, a small sphere that split the air straight toward him. With a perfectly clean backhand of her scythe, he sliced it in midair, but instead of exploding, the sphere burst, and a spray of thick liquid splattered over him from head to toe.

The imp paused a second, looked down at his own dripping frame, then raised two irritated eyes toward Mei. He charged.

That was exactly what they’d been counting on.

Because Mei didn’t try to cross blades for even a second. She turned around and bolted, and the sight had something surreal about it, this steel-clad giant tearing down the corridors with a nimbleness no one would ever have suspected, the little imp hot on her heels. She strung together two turns, letting him close in just enough, then suddenly leapt and threw a second projectile over her shoulder.

This time, he saw it coming. He flattened himself and slipped underneath in a roll.

Grave mistake.

At the exact spot where he landed, a blue glow flared beneath his feet, and he vanished in an instant, sucked into the void.

BINGO!

Freya spun with a sharp jerk of her arm, heart pounding.

"LAÏA! We’re moving to phase two! Time to smoke the chicken!"

At those words, the girl conjured a red flame in the hollow of her palm with a simple gesture, and let it drop into a puddle of oil that ran along a narrow tunnel the Mycofoxes had dug. The fire spread through it at once, racing along the glistening trail, and Laïa disappeared into one of the dungeon’s corridors.

That flaming tunnel descended toward a room below, the one where they’d piled up everything the dungeon had that could burn. The bandits’ belongings, the goblins’, all the furniture from the luxurious chamber, every last thing that could catch, all of it well soaked in oil.

And that room fed another, right above it. A sealed chamber, dug over the previous hours by the Mycofoxes, ringed by several dozen meters of solid rock on every side, its entire floor covered in a thick layer of oil.

The chamber, to be exact, into which the spatial trap had just spat out their guest.

The entrance stream showed nothing interesting anymore, but Freya no longer needed it. She could picture the scene easily enough.

"Right about now..." She let out a little laugh. "Our dear guest can’t be having the best moment of his life."

Between the flames already licking the oiled floor and setting alight the oil he was soaked in himself, and the thick black smoke rising from the room below to fill his own with no way out, even a Rank S creature had to be seriously starting to struggle.

Naïa slid up beside Freya, a hand held in front of her mouth, eyes twinkling with mischief.

"...Ahah! How crafty you are, madam."

The two exchanged a look, then a knowing laugh, savoring their little maneuver so nicely put together.

Then the ground answered in their place.

BOOM.

BOOM.

BOOM.

The whole room was shaken. Earth broke loose from the ceiling in entire slabs, and the floor began to tremble under their feet, each blow ringing out louder than the last.

"Everyone back! Quick!"

The Mycofoxes and Naïa fell back with a single motion toward the far end of the room. Freya did the opposite. She stepped toward the wall the impacts were coming from, and pressed her ear to it.

BOOM.

BOOM.

Closer. Louder. Each blow more furious, more enraged than the last, as if the thing on the other side were nothing but pure fury now.

She backed slowly away a few steps, never taking her eyes off the wall.

"He’s coming... Get ready!"

The stone wall blew apart in a deafening crash.

Amid the rubble and dust rose the imp. Or rather what was left of him. His milky skin was blackened, charred in places, acrid smoke still curling off it. His big eyes, so cold a blue earlier, had turned a blood red full of rage. He threw his head back and let out a shriek that had nothing human or animal left in it, a raw, ragged roar that made the air of the whole room shudder.

Freya crossed her arms, unruffled.

"Well now. Looks like our guest is having a little energy slump."

At those words, the creature literally exploded with rage. It lunged straight at Freya, scythe raised, faster than anything it had shown until then.

Freya toppled backward and landed on her rear, in the exact position that had been hers facing the Faceless Devourer. The scythe cut through the air above her and came down toward her skull, ready to split her in two.

But at the very instant the blade was about to reach her, a blue glow flared all around the imp.

And a smile lit up Freya’s face.

"Just kidding."

The creature vanished one last time, swallowed by the trap with millimeters to spare, the scythe dissipating into the void just inches from her face.