My Dungeon Daddy System: Raising Monsters and Waifus Underground Chapter 40 – Siege of the Foundry

​The Blast Doors didn’t fail all at once. They died screaming.

​The massive iron slab, welded together from the scrap of a hundred failed adventures, groaned under the assault. The center bulged inward like a crushed soda can.

​THOOM.

​A rivet the size of a fist popped loose and shot across the cavern, ricocheting off the catwalk.

​"Integrity at fifteen percent!" Grika shrieked, her hands flying across the control console. "The hinges are lting! They’re using acid! My beautiful welds are dissolving!"

​Reed stood on the raised platform overlooking the kill box. The heat was stifling, sweat stinging his eyes.

​"Terra!" Reed shouted over the chanical roar. "Brace the door!"

​"AFFIRMATIVE."

​From the steam-filled center of the room, Terra strode forward. The Magma Golem was fully active, her stone plating glowing red-hot from the forge.

​But she wasn’t empty-handed. She reached behind her back and unslung The Peacekeeper—the massive, rocket-assisted iron maul Grika had welded for her.

​"DOOR IS... RUDE," Terra rumbled.

​She slamd the head of the hamr against the buckling tal of the blast doors, using it as a strut. She dug her stone heels into the obsidian floor.

​"HOLDING."

​She was physically fighting the pressure of an entire army.

​Kaelen stood behind the conveyor belt, her sword drawn. She watched the Golem with a mix of awe and unease. "That construct... it is taking the full weight of a Siegebreaker! How?"

​"She’s built different!" Reed yelled back. "Grika, get the grinder ready! Terra can’t hold it forever!"

​CRACK.

​The tal tore. A skeletal hand the size of a shovel punched through the wall next to Terra’s head.

​"BREACH IMMINENT," Terra warned. "HAMR IS... ITCHY."

​"Fall back!" Reed ordered. "Lure them into the belt!"

​Terra stepped back, revving the thruster engine welded to the back of her hamr. VROOOM.

​As she moved, the doors exploded inward. A Siegebreaker smashed through the ruin, followed imdiately by a tide of armored skeletons.

​"NOW!" Reed scread.

​Grika slamd the button.

​[TRAP ACTIVATED: THE INDUSTRIALIZER]

​The floor roared. The conveyor belt lurched into motion, dragging the stumbling army backward into the machinery.

​WHAM. The first hydraulic piston smashed down, flattening a cluster of skeletons.

WHAM. The second piston hit the Siegebreaker. The giant construct roared, trying to stand, but the belt dragged it down the line.

​But the sheer volu of bodies was too much. The gears began to grind. Bones jamd the intake.

​"It’s clogging!" Grika yelled. "The torque is dropping! I need more power to the main drive!"

​"I’m out of range!" Reed cursed. He checked his mana.

​[MANA RESERVE: 38.5 / 150]

​He couldn’t channel it from here. The air was too thick with necrotic interference. He needed physical contact.

​"Cover !" Reed vaulted over the railing.

​"Reed!" Kaelen shouted, but he was already moving.

​He slid down the ladder and sprinted across the vibrating floorplates toward Grika’s console. He didn’t stop. He grabbed Grika by the back of her overalls.

​"We need to unclog it manually!" Reed shouted. "Go to Terra! Initiate the Combo!"

​Grika’s eyes lit up. "Fastball Special? Or the Spin Cycle?"

​"Spin Cycle!"

​Reed shoved her toward the golem. Then, he grabbed the mana-conduit feeding the trap. He didn’t have a spell for this. He just had [Dungeon Touch].

​He slamd his hand onto the hot brass pipe. "RECHARGE!"

​He dumped 10 Mana directly into the machine. The gears scread, spinning faster, chewing through the bone jam with a wet crunch.

​anwhile, Grika scrambled up Terra’s back like a squirrel climbing a tree. She latched onto the roll-cage Grika had welded onto Terra’s shoulders.

​"Overclocking!" Grika scread, jamming a screwdriver into Terra’s neck port. "Safety limiters off! Let’s dance, big girl!"

​Terra’s eyes flared from orange to blinding white.

​"PROTOCOL: SMASH," Terra bood.

​She revved the Peacekeeper. The rocket on the back of the hamr ignited with a trail of blue fire.

​Terra didn’t just swing. She spun.

​With Grika cackling on her back, adjusting the trajectory mid-swing, Terra beca a tornado of iron and stone.

​BOOM.

​The rocket-hamr hit the lead Siegebreaker in the chest. It didn’t just break the monster; it punted it. The twenty-foot undead giant flew backward, crashing into the skeletons behind it like a bowling ball striking pins.

​"Strike!" Grika cheered, hanging on for dear life. "Adjusting for windage! Left flank!"

​Terra pivoted, the hamr whistling through the air. She smashed a Death Knight into the wall, flattening his armor into foil.

​"I AM THE FACTORY," Terra roared. "I AM THE HAZARD."

​But more were coming. They spilled over the sides of the conveyor belt, bypassing the trap.

​"They’re swarming!" Kaelen yelled, cutting down a ghoul. "Reed! Behind you!"

​Reed turned. A skeletal assassin was lunging for him.

​Before he could move, a flash of gold and erald intercepted it.

​SHINK.

​Seraphine’s spear impaled the skeleton against the wall. The Lamia was panting, her magma armor glowing dim. She was exhausted from holding the left flank alone.

​"My Lord," she wheezed, her tail trembling as she held the line. "I... I am fading. The cold... it saps ."

​Reed saw the frost creeping onto her scales. The Necromancer’s aura was leaking in.

​"Not on my watch," Reed growled.

​He didn’t cast a spell. He stepped in.

​He grabbed Seraphine’s waist, pulling her flush against him. He ignored the battle raging inches away. He pressed his forehead against hers.

​"Transfer," he whispered.

​He pushed 5 Mana—pure, raw emotional mana—directly into her core.

​It wasn’t just energy. It was heat. It was the mory of the sauna, the feeling of the Cuddle Pile, the absolute refusal to let her freeze.

​Seraphine gasped. Her eyes blew wide. The gold plating on her chest flared bright orange. The frost on her scales evaporated in a hiss of steam.

​"Oh," she moaned, a sound that had no place on a battlefield. "That is... potent."

​She shuddered, her strength returning instantly. She spun around, her tail whipping out with renewed, crushing force, shattering three skeletons at once.

​"I am revitalized!" she shrieked, laughing. "Co and break against !"

​For a mont, it looked like they might win.

​Terra and Grika were a wrecking ball of physics.

Seraphine was a wall of superheated violence.

The traps were grinding.

​Then, the temperature dropped.

​From the darkness of the tunnel, the Lich floated in. It saw Terra decimating its army. It saw the magma fueling her core.

​The Lich raised its staff. "Extinguish."

​A beam of absolute zero cold struck the main magma channel feeding the room and feeding Terra.

​HISSSSSSS.

​The molten rock flash-froze into black ice. The heat in the room vanished.

​Terra froze mid-swing. The rocket on her hamr sputtered and died.

​"SYSTEM... FAILURE..." Terra rumbled, her voice slowing down like a dying record. "CORE... TEMP... CRITICAL..."

​She locked up. She beca a statue in the middle of the battlefield, Grika trapped on her back, frantically hitting buttons that no longer worked.

​"Terra!" Reed scread.

​"She’s frozen!" Grika wailed. "Her power source is solid rock!"

​The light in the Foundry died. The steam traps failed.

​The Foundry plunged into darkness, lit only by the faint, dying glow of Kaelen’s sword and the cold blue eyes of the Lich.

​The wall had fallen. The tank was down. And the army was still coming.