Catgirls And Dungeons
Chapter 238: The real betrayal

Chapter 238: The real betrayal

We continue petting Inky for a while. The little spirit sprawls out across Eris’s lap and mine, its shadowy body stretching and curling like smoke in the breeze. Within minutes, it drifts off to sleep, purring softly, each little vibration like the hum of a lullaby.

Watching it sleep is... oddly calming.

There’s something about the sound, the rhythm, the warmth. They say a cat’s purr carries healing power. That it can ease pain, lower stress, even mend a broken heart.

And I guess... a purring spirit pretending to be a cat counts too.

The garden is quiet now. Just the sound of Inky’s breath and the soft rustling of crimson petals swaying in the moonlit breeze. The world feels slower. Softer.

Then, Eris speaks again. Her voice gentle, but serious.

Her story isn’t over yet.

"You know what," she says, still gazing down at Inky’s tiny form, "after we made it back to ShadowFang... it turned out the situation was even worse than I thought."

"Eh? What do you mean?" I ask, my ears perking.

Eris’s eyes darken slightly. "It wasn’t just Lucian who was connected to Aphaeleon."

"What?" I gasp, spine straightening as my tail flicks in alarm.

Just hearing that cursed name again makes my pulse race. That cult... that damn name. Aphaeleon. It always brings a chill.

"Yeah..." she murmurs, nodding slowly. "After we recovered enough to walk, Larp and I started a quiet investigation. We went through Lucian’s things, his personal storage ring, mostly. And inside it, we found... letters. Dozens of them. Some still sealed. He hadn’t gotten around to reading them yet."

She looks up, meeting my eyes.

"And when we opened them... we found names. A lot of names. Ones I never, ever imagined would be involved."

Gulp...

I swallow, throat dry. My fingers instinctively tighten around hers.

"Like who?"

"Like..." She hesitates, then exhales. "Eight of the remaining Pillars of ShadowFang."

"What...???" I whisper, utterly stunned.

My voice cracks a little. My ears are flat against my head.

That’s nearly the entire leadership of ShadowFang...

"And not just them," Eris continues, her voice grim. "There was also the Guildmaster of Razortooth. The Guildmaster of Serpenttail. The Guildmaster of Eagleclaw."

My jaw drops.

"WAIT!" I blurt out. "Isn’t that.... THE WHOLE ZEHRAK?!"

"Yeah..." Eris says quietly, offering a bitter, twisted smile. "Pretty much."

My blood turns cold. All those guilds—all of them—working together behind the scenes? Serving Aphaeleon?

How deep does this go?

"And what about Black Scorpion?" I ask, my voice barely above a whisper.

I remember what happened not long ago, the Black Scorpion Guild launched a surprise assault across Zehrak. They just... snapped. Turned on the others in a brutal, coordinated massacre. Beside ShadowFang, two other big guilds were also destroyed, its guild members slaughtered.

The bloodshed shook the region to its core.

I still remember what those two wolfmen, Darron and Korum, told us back at the Vanessa Outpost. They were exiles from ShadowFang, on the run. And when they spoke about Black Scorpion, there was real terror in their voices.

They said the Guildmaster—Elisa—was an SS-rank monster of a woman. Ruthless. Unstoppable. And she showed no mercy.

"So the Black Scorpions... are they... in Aphaeleon too?" I ask nervously, already dreading the answer.

Because if they are...

Then Zehrak is screwed.

But to my surprise—

"No," Eris says, shaking her head.

I blink. "Huh? Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"But... how come?"

She pauses.

Then, with a strange calmness in her voice, she says—

"Because I was the one who betrayed. The one who leaked the list of Aphaeleon members in Zehrak to her."

...

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTT?!"

I jolt upright, nearly launching off the bench, tail fluffed up and ears twitching like crazy.

Totally, utterly stunned.

Eris... did what?

No. No way.

NO FREAKING WAY.

My heart slams against my ribs as her words echo in my mind. It feels like she just dropped a massive bomb, shattering every truth that I know.

This whole time, I thought she was loyal to ShadowFang. I knew how much that guild meant to her. How tightly it was tied to her past, to her father. It was the very guild he poured his life into building from nothing.

And now...

She betrayed it?

Gods...

What the hell is even going on anymore???

"Y-you..." I stammer, my voice trembling. "You’re serious?"

"Yes," Eris says quietly, her eyes steady but heavy. "I know Elisa, the Guildmaster of Black Scorpion. We met a long time ago. Her parents were killed by Aphaeleon too. So she hates them, loathes them, with everything she has. She made a vow—to find every last member of that cult and wipe them out, show them no mercy."

I stare at her, barely able to breathe.

"It’s just..." she continues, her voice faltering now. "She moved faster than I thought. I was honestly shocked how quickly she acted. I gave her the names thinking she’d plan, investigate first. But no. She struck immediately. Ruthlessly. Now that I think about it, she probably had already did some similar investigation. It just... my evidences then solidified her conclusions."

"Damn..." I whisper, still trying to wrap my head around all of it.

But the more I think, the more it starts to make a sick kind of sense.

Maybe... maybe the ShadowFang Eris returned to wasn’t ShadowFang anymore. Maybe it hadn’t been for a long time.

Aphaeleon had already infected it, burrowed in, spreading like a plague from the inside out. It wasn’t her guild anymore. Not really.

I inhale sharply. Then exhale, slow and deep, trying to steady the storm inside me.

And in that quiet moment... Eris reaches out and holds my hand.

Her grip is warm. But her eyes... still carry that pain.

That sorrow.

Even now, after everything, I can still see it.

Right... I get it now.

Of course it wasn’t easy for her. Of course it tore her apart.

Betraying the guild she grew up in, the place that was once her home, her family? That her father once led with pride?

It must’ve shattered something inside her.

But maybe... maybe that guild had already fallen long ago. Maybe what she did wasn’t betrayal at all.

Maybe it was mercy.

Because if she hadn’t done it... if she’d let Aphaeleon continue twisting its roots through Zehrak, unhindered...

The damage would’ve been far worse.

And in the end, if she had to choose between a guild lost to corruption and stopping that evil from spreading—

Then yeah.

Even if it hurt like hell...

She chose right.

In the grand scheme of things...

It’s a damn good thing Black Scorpion carried out that purge.