Chapter 69

AN: Ayy Funny number.

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The Sixth Floor, The Dungeon, Medea Island

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Auora Isirtine stared at the broken form of the Fifth Floor Guardian. It had taken them so long to get here. Even after they'd been informed of the Guardian's location and how to access the arena... there were so few of them remaining.

After Blace, Titon, and Dorin had been kidnapped, killed, and used in the dungeon's monstrous experiments... The party hadn't fractured immediately, but it did... it cracked into half a dozen pieces. Lina was only the first to leave. Now only four remained. Auora, Xerat, Hallmark, and Chana. Hallmark was the epitome of a knight. Bearing a set of enchanted plate mail that glistened in the light, he bent over and picked up the broken lens and cracked core with a downward twist on his lips.

"That was easy." He commented, putting them in a pouch. "Let's get going. The sooner we get past the Sixth, the better."

"Too easy," Auora stated with a frown. "After so long... It was too easy." The other two said nothing, but she knew their silence was agreement.

"Whatever," Hallmark said with a wave. "It's done. Get out your cloaks. They cost a pretty penny but should be plenty worth the expense."

They nodded and pulled their enchanted cloaks from their own bottomless pouches. Each was a deep red, bordered by orange. They'd chosen the colors in the hope they could help blend into the Sixth's environment.

After they traversed the long, descending tunnel and got their first view of the floor...

"The descriptions don't do it justice," Xerat said in awe. "Vision of Hell indeed..." They stood there in silence for a moment.

"Chana. Do you have the map?" Hallmark asked, turning to face her. Auora turned to look at their party's leader, confused. Map? What Map?

"Of course," Chana replied, rolling her eyes. "Like I would lose it." She pulled the scroll from her pouch and laid it on the black stone. "Okay. Here's where we are, at the entrance. They've mapped all of the western, southern, and northern areas. Nothing important there, but they've marked three 'safer' places to rest for the night. They've also marked a... village?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on. You stole this map from the Guild?" Auora interjected, appalled. Chana snorted.

"It was easy," She bragged. "Snuck in there one evening when the guildmistress was out on a walk with that assistant of hers. They went up to the overlook, which meant the woman was all but blind to the goings-on of the Guild. No better chance. I'll make a copy after we get back and put the original somewhere in her office. They'll just think they misplaced it."

Auora shook her head in disbelief as Chana returned to analyzing the map.

"Anyway. Village. I don't know how closely you guys have been listening to the local gossip, but assume you've heard of their opinion of the monsters here?" Chana asked, receiving nods.

"Insanity is what it is," Hallmark claimed with visible disgust at the idea. "They're monsters. Animals that have been granted power through mana. I will admit that some of them can be very smart. You don't get to the bottom of the Deepwood without acknowledging the intelligence of the wolves. But this isn't the fortieth floor of the Deepwood Dungeon." He scoffed. "And even then, they were just smart animals. They barely comprehended pack tactics and how to leverage their size and strength. I doubt the monsters here are any smarter."

"Alright then," Chana drawled. "If you're done? The only place left to explore is over here, the east-north-east. The furthest point from the entrance. Not a big surprise, but given the Fifth, I'm sure the locals are just trying to be thorough. Makes it easy on us, at least." She squinted at the map for a few more seconds before rolling it up. "Let's go."

The trip down from the middle of the cliff was precarious. It seemed like their footing would crumble away with every other step. The first time was a surprise, and every time afterward just an annoyance. When they got to the bottom, Auora was glad for the cloaks. She could see the heat rising off the molten lava lakes, as well as the smaller rivers and creeks that ran across the plains.

They moved directly to the unexplored area, and as they approached, Auora saw something she just had to comment on.

"I think they weren't just exploring every other area to be thorough..." She trailed off. There was a dramatic-looking triangular fissure in the wall. It was half as tall as the cliff itself, and from the looks of the guards, there was a reason the edges of the crack looked melted and shaped.

"Manabeings." Hallmark hissed, suddenly looking absolutely pissed. "Of all the things that could be here, of course, it's them."

"Keep it down!" Auora whisper-yelled at the knight. "Do you want them to hear us?" The man took a few heaving breaths, each smaller than the last, as he regained a measure of control.

"There are only two of them, " Xerat commented. "Shouldn't be too hard to get past."

"But don't you see?" Hallmark said, "They explain the shadow monsters! Those were shadow spirits or fairies. And the Fifth's Guardian as well! I'd bet my fortune that it was a metal manabeing. It all makes sense!" He started pacing.

"They must have physical bodies to inhabit. The Guardian had a monster core, but what if it was from a different monster, long dead, and it was just using the core? The hands that sometimes burst out of the ground as well. We thought they were traps or magic used by hidden monsters. What if they were Earth Spirits?"

Auora nodded, getting the idea. "If that's the case... We've seen Earth, Fire, Metal and Darkness manabeings. Two basic and two advanced elements. We can only assume it has access to others of those levels. If it has access to more..." She trailed off. She didn't need to say it; the others knew her meaning.

Xerat shook his head. "While this is enlightening, it changes little. We can assume the Guardian is a manabeing of some kind. At a minimum, it's a Fairy. At worst, we're looking at an elemental. We've faced them before." That was true...

They quickly worked out a plan of attack. They would push into the Seventh. Today.

Even if it was the last thing they did.

They owed it to those lost on the way.

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The Eleventh Floor, The Dungeon, Medea Island

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Paragon stared at the huge crystal core of his contractor.

As one of the original sprites summoned to participate in the dungeon's experiments, he knew the being quite well by now. When he'd been offered the chance to be the final line of defense, he jumped at it. Any manabeing offered the opportunity would have done so. Gladly, and thrown themselves into the task with vigor.

So, of course, something happened he had no capability of defending the dungeon against.

He hadn't lied to the Children when they came to ask what'd happened.

He remembered it being an otherwise typical day at the tip of a mountain poking out of the ocean. Paragon had watched the core pull the ground up, then twist the top into something on which to rest his core. And with him came the enormous amount of mana in his orbit. Rings upon rings, some thick, some thin. Some fast, some dawdling.

All slowly, inevitably, falling inwards.

At the center was the core—an enormous crystal, ten feet long at its widest point. The point of the teardrop pointed skyward, while the broad curve at its base was cradled in the stone fingers. He'd recently spun away almost all his mana, leaving the core dim and translucent.

Then, without warning, the remaining energy in the core began writhing.

It twisted around itself, and Paragon felt the vague awareness in the back of his mind that the dungeon was watching disappeared. He watched as the dungeon's presence withdrew, concentrating within the core. The vigor of the energy increased tenfold, and it was then that Paragon understood.

Like his people transformed from sprite to spirit to fairy to elemental, Paragon concluded that dungeons must have a similar life cycle.

It made sense to him. Dungeons were much as they were, manabeings, though intimately bound to cores and granted unparalleled power over raw mana. It was, he mused, interesting that Paragon himself was at this very moment inhabiting a core and driving a body. It grounded him in a way he couldn't explain.

But back to the Core. The events made more sense when reframed in terms of a transformation, but not entirely. Unlike manabeings, the core was not saturated in mana when its transformation began. He supposed it could be linked to the core's physical size, but that was speculation.

Over the days and nights since, nothing had changed. The core's energies still writhed and twisted around each other. The only difference was the slowly growing mana level as it was drawn in. Where it had once resembled blobs of energy within the very core of the crystal, those blobs had grown to fill more than half the space available.

Noting no changes in the dungeon's situation, Paragon turned to face the floor's entrance.

On that distant shore, he could see the gathered fire sprites and spirits like a beacon. Several had already made the journey to their new island, but the trip was long. Their vessel hadn't been able to withstand the heat given off by its passengers for more than a single return trip.

He'd noted the significant burst of Ice magic the day before and was curious if the caster could create a new platform for every trip. He doubted it but admitted he could be surprised.

He turned away, glancing across the slowly rising ocean. Already, it was filled with life. Thousands of different fish. Dozens of whales and dolphins. Those that'd survived had already settled into their new environment, though there were plenty that hadn't made it. When the dungeon emerged from its cocoon, greater than ever, it would have plenty to work with to perfect this floor.

And until that day, Paragon would watch. Patiently. He was the final line of defense, and he would die before any human lay a single hand on his charge.

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The Sixth Floor, The Dungeon, Medea Island

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Totanam rose from the carved throne as the humans strode through the grand hall's entrance. These were not those humans the dungeon had been courting. These were the remnants of the powerful group that had broken on the Fifth. He'd heeded the warnings given, but he had to admit...

"I must admit, I didn't expect you. I had prepared for the other group, not one so... diminished." He broadcast. Less speaking into one's mind and more projecting his voice for any capable of listening to receive. At his words, two magma golems, three molten golems, and a single Potentium golem emerged from behind the pillars lining the hall's walls. The Magma Golems had taken to imitating their role model, Titan, and quickly grew to twelve feet tall. They were slow but far more difficult to damage meaningfully.

The Molten golems were a mixed bag. One followed Totanam's path, floating under its power and directing metal tentacles. The other two assumed humanoid shapes and twisted their limbs into weapons.

Having left his taunts unanswered, the four guilders rushed the golems, weapons drawn long before they'd entered the throne room.

Totanam knew his followers were among the weaker of his court, but he hadn't expected them to be crushed as quickly as they had been.

The largest human, clad in shining armor, moved with tremendous speed. A kind the others Totanam had fought lacked. As he swung his weapon, he infused it with mana, activating various enchantments across its length. Totanam briefly recognized the intents of increased weight, penetration, speed, and reinforcement, though to a strength he hadn't seen before.

The swing connected, bisecting the humanoid molten golem he'd charged. The sprite's core, which had been struck directly, was thrown from the body it had once inhabited and shattered on the stone floor. Suddenly and violently bereft of a body, the sprite froze in place. The armored human reached out with a glowing gauntlet and crushed the sprite in his grip.

Tatanam heard it cry in agony, then go silent as it returned to their birth realm.

The smaller male lashed out with a lance of water, dousing the second humanoid golem. It screeched as its molten skin was cooled and turned brittle. A follow-up strike from the warhammer wielded by the robed female broke the golem into pieces. The sprite escaped into the floor rather than endure the same fate its fellow had.

The final human, the female clad in leather, loosed an enchanted arrow from a similarly enchanted bow. It crossed the room rapidly, and Totanam barely dodged it in time.

While he was distracted, the two Magma Golems teamed up on the armored human. The alternated strikes kept him moving and unable to strike back. Or at least, that's what they thought.

Rolling back from an overhead strike, he leaped from the ground and latched on to the offending golem. He showed the dexterity of a Capriccio, jumping from cranny to nook as he climbed to the golem's shoulder. He plunged his longsword into a crack in the golem's body. He scowled and jumped away when the golem reached back to swipe him off.

The other three hadn't been idle. They'd engaged Totanam and the other hovering molten golem. While the sprite had been dispatched with another lance of water and follow-up strike, the Boss himself was more formidable than his subordinates.

His fires burned hotter, and the water used to strike him turned to steam on contact. That granted a cloud of cover he could see through, which he used while it was still there. He extended whip-like tentacles from the steam cloud and cracked one at super-sonic speeds against the water mage's chest.

The man was flung back at great speed, a cut in his leather armor blackened by the heat. He rolled on landing and was on his feet in seconds, hissing in pain.

The cloud dispersed, and Totanam was consumed by dodging magical arrows and keeping the robed female at a distance. The male quickly rejoined the battle, and Totanam had little time to think beyond the battle at hand.

In the end, something had to change. That thing was the armored man taking down the magma golems, his sword cracking the cores of the golems, and their sprites fleeing into the ground as the bodies collapsed.

With all four against him... He stood no chance. Totanam made sure he escaped into the floor, even as the man reached out to grab him as he fled.

He had been defeated. Thankfully there was a stock of unoccupied bodies they could occupy, but that was a minor concern. Those four humans were strong, and Totanam was unsure how the Drake-kin would fare against them. Either way, there was no more time to prepare.

They would soon face their trial by fire, and he could only wish them luck.

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