Cat Core 2, Chapter 34+35.

I've included two chapters today so you aren't left on a cliffhanger.


Chapter 34.

“Stop, do not harm this core, it isn’t to blame!” Shara said, climbing down the ladder from the attic to confront the kill team. Just how many folks were going to visit Florence’s home today? The kill team had held her entire attention and neither she nor Doug even noticed Shara’s arrival.

“And just who do you think you are?” The wizard asked.

“I’m the Matron of initiates for the Brilliant Keep and I speak with the authority of the light,” Shara said.

“You tell them, Shara!” Florence said.

“Dungeon, you will be silent!” The mage ordered before turning his attention back to Shara. “While I respect all followers of the light, we are tasked with the destruction of this aberrant core and will abide no interruptions,” the mage explained.

“At least stay your hand until I explain what has happened here,” Shara said.

“Go on, out of respect for your position, I will hear you out, but know that my patience is limited,” the mage said.

“Thank you, I brought a new team of initiates here to train, the light guiding me to this newly created dungeon. While here, we learned the dungeon was beset by creatures who roamed the tunnels and killed adventurers as they left the dungeon. I hunted down the monsters and they should trouble this place no longer. The dungeon is of only modest difficulty and it would be a waste to destroy it for a simple misunderstanding,” Shara argued.

“I have no doubt you believe that, but the fact remains, an investigation team was sent here to find out the truth of this dungeon’s character and they were slain inside here less than an hour ago. As you know, Matron, such a thing cannot be tolerated and my team was teleported here at great expense,” the mage argued.

“While I can’t claim to know about this investigation team’s loss, I believe you should hear the core out before rendering a final judgment,” Shara argued.

“If I do, will you relent and leave us to our task unimpeded?” The mage asked.

“Yes, she is unusual, but I think you’ll find that this core is not excessively murderous,” Shara said.

“Very well, dungeon core, we’re entering your core room and any threats of violence will be met with your instant destruction,” the mage advised.

“Well, in that case, come on in. Would you like any refreshments?” Florence asked.

“I need nothing from you other than answers to my questions,” the mage told her as the whole gaggle of them climbed down into the core room. Florence was happy that she had made the new core room larger than her other one. She had planned on making it a place for her kitties to hang out, but now there was a gnomish clan, a kill team, a cat advisor, a parakeet battle mech, and her friend, Shara.

“I have one question for you, dungeon core, how did our investigation team die. I know it was inside your dungeon,” the mage asked. Florence gathered her thoughts, something that was becoming more difficult by the minute as a familiar pain began.

“First off, my name is not dungeon core, my name is Florence Valentine, and I’m a…Uggh!” Florence grunted in pain as the lich once again made a play for her gem, at the worst possible time, of course.

“That is it, the poor thing is mad, and we likely do it a service by putting it out of its misery. Stand aside, Matron,” the mage said.

“No, she is in pain, likely injured in the attack she just fought off, I’ll try to heal her. I won’t lose another friend like I lost Vanderman,” Shara said, tears running down her face as she cast a spell in Florence’s direction.

The attempt to use magic elicited a deadly response from the rogue that was hovering right behind her. Florence looked on in pain and horror as her friend, perhaps the only one in this world other than Doug, was attacked. Thankfully, a paladin is not that easy to kill, and a contingency spell activated. Instead of her friend being impaled on the magical daggers of the rogue, she blinked out of view, teleporting to what Florence prayed was a safe location. The pain encompassing her increased, and Florence tried with all her might to hold back the lich once more.

Divine restoration has been cast upon your core stone by a neutral party. Do you wish to allow this beneficial spell to take effect? Y/N.

“Hit yes, Florence, it’s your only chance!” Doug shouted before he was cut down by one of the warriors. The gnomes looked on in horror, some holding up their hands to show they weren’t a threat while others went about constructing a makeshift bunker out of all the parts stored in the duffel bags they had lugged into her core room.

Florence was losing it, her mind unable to comprehend the loss and the pain both. She hit yes, accepting Shara’s magical help even as the pain overrode the last of her focus. Her very being was shattered as her gem broke into a handful of shards. The pain receded, but as it faded, Florence could tell her hold on this life was also fading. Perhaps it was Shara’s spell, but somehow, she was still able to hear and watch from her core shard as Berikoz appeared, standing right next to her rocking chair.

“Unwanted guests, everywhere, that must have disturbed you to no end, Florence, I’ll deal with them as a final reward for your sacrifice,” Berikoz said.

“A lich, this core has summoned a lich, destroy it quickly!” The mage commanded as he drew in mana.

The lich wasted no time, pointing at the pair of warriors, the men shriveling up like a pair of prunes as all the moisture was drawn from their bodies. A wave of Berikoz’ other hand created a rain of fire in the room, and now the gnomes started screaming as well, retreating into the partially completed bunker. She wanted to shout at everyone to leave the gnomes be, but her voice was gone, vision slowly fading as Berikoz ignored the deadly spells being cast in his direction.

Appearing behind the lich, the rogue thrust her blades, only to have the weapons deflect from a magical barrier. A horrible word was spoken by the lich and the dead in the room rose once more, attacking the living members of the kill team. A flash of light from the healer obliterated the newly summoned undead, but the healer then caught another of the wilting spells from Berikoz.

“The guild will end you for what you have done today, lich!” The mage shouted.

“I hope they try, tell your betters that their minions were slain by the mighty Berikoz. I look forward to killing more of you, it has proven very amusing,” Berikoz said as the mage teleported away. “Hmm, it seems one more is lurking about, oh, there you are,” Berikoz said, firing off a black ray of energy into the middle of the room. The rogue appeared from where she had been hiding. A second blast of magic disintegrated the now visible rogue.

“Goodbye, Florence, it’s been fun, but I have things to do and can’t stay for your final moments, my apologies. I’ll see myself out,” Berikoz said, taunting her as Florence’s vision faded for a final time.

Chapter 35.

Well, being dead this time was kind of boring. She couldn’t see, hear, speak, or do anything other than think. Florence knew she was, well, somewhere, but had no idea how much time was passing. How long would it take her to go bonkers in here? Now, of course, Florence Valentine wasn’t the type of woman to lose her marbles, but that would happen in a place like this eventually, wouldn’t it?

She tried to keep her mind occupied, but all thoughts drifted back to the horrible and chaotic last moments of what she guessed was her fourth life. Shara had tried to save her, and she could only hope her friend was safe. Poor Doug, he couldn’t survive without her core around.

One thing she did know, if it were at all possible, she was going to put paid to that lich, Berikoz. That guy was going to get his comeuppance if she had any say in the matter. Too bad she couldn’t say anything or even listen in on what was going on around her. It wasn’t the worst thing she supposed, there weren’t none of them lakes of fire and whatnot. She couldn’t see anything, but it wasn’t dark and creepy, it was more like a comforting grey haze all around her. The haze parted briefly as a system prompt appeared.

The final adjudication of the lifeform/core known as Florence Valentine will commence.

“There is some confusion over this one, I will solicit input from the lifeform directly,” a voice said. What was this adjudication nonsense, was she on trial for something? Was there some kind of dead person jail they were going to put her in?

“Hey, you, the voice guy, can you hear me?” Florence asked, surprised as the ability to speak returned.

“Yes, of course, now, I’m trying to complete your file, but I seem to be having some difficulty in confirming your death. There’s an interference involved; can you describe to me your last moments?” The voice asked.

“I most certainly can, but who in the heck are you, and why are you asking me all these weird questions?” Florence asked, confused over this whole ordeal.

“One moment, oh, there it is. I see in your file that you’ve been labeled as a rather, shall we say, challenging individual to deal with. I note several heated interactions with core gem creators, one of which ended in the creator’s demotion to the position of core assistant. You seem to have difficulty working with another entity unless there is a certain personalization to the interaction. To that end, you may call me the Master Adjudicator for Entity Disbursement,” the voice said.

“Nope, how about I just call you Mike, yep, that will work. So, Mike, where am I, and what’s going to happen to me?” Florence asked.

“You’re at the end of term processing department and as for what is going to happen to you, that is what we are trying to figure out. On a side note, I’m not sure if I like the moniker you are using, did you not wish to call me by my title?” Mike asked.

“That title nonsense is only for hoity-toity folks that think they more important than everyone else. You seem like a nice enough guy, at least compared to the others I’ve dealt with. I can call you Mike, or, you know, I could even go with Michael if you prefer a longer name,” Florence offered.

“Michael will be sufficient, oh, that’s what the core gem creators meant when they said you would draw them into the strangest conversations. That might be the first moniker conversation I’ve had in my existence. It is quite a treat to have a new experience, thank you. Back to the task at hand, can you tell me what happened to you just before and during your death?” Michael asked.

“Sure, Michael, wait, which death do you mean? I’ve had three of them so far, four if I really did just die,” Florence responded.

“Uh, the most recent one, if you please,” Michael replied.

“Okay, well I was there in my home, minding my own business when these hooligans entered to try and destroy my core. They were tough and all, but my kitties were giving them the business,” Florence said, pausing to gather her thoughts.

“So, destruction by adventurers, then?” Michael asked.

“No, hold your horses, I’m just getting started. Let’s see, yeah, Spud killed them adventurers, then the guild sent a kill team after me,” Florence said. The memories of the last few minutes on Aerkon were a bit fuzzy, so she took a bit to sort things out.

“Ah, so it was the organization known as the adventurer’s guild on your world that dispatched your core,” Michael said.

“Wait, no, that weren’t it either. It was that lich guy that done me in, the guild folks were the ones that tried to kill my friend, Shara. They also killed poor Doug, my assistant,” Florence said, sad thoughts overcoming her excitement at being able to talk to someone again.

“That’s what I needed, thank you. Now that I have more information to sort through the final moments of your core’s existence, I can zero in on what is causing the problem with your adjudication. Oh my, there is something rather unusual there, a fragment of that world’s mana is attempting to prevent your passage,” Michael said.

“I don’t know what you’re looking at, but if it was mana, it might have been when Shara cast that Divine Restoration spell on me. I didn’t know she could do that, usually only the harmful stuff worked on a core gem,” Florence said.

“Interesting, an inhabitant of that world has used a form of divine magic to bind your soul to your body. Our normal process would be to terminate that link and move you along without delay, but this requires a bit more investigation. I’m sure it’s a one-off occurrence, but I will need to develop new guidelines and procedures to work through a potential recurrence of these events in the future,” Michael said.

“Well, I’m sorry if my death has caused you some extra work,” Florence said, a bit annoyed. Sure, this guy was polite enough, he even knew how to say thank you, but her death wasn’t some homework assignment.

“No, it’s not a bad thing, this is wonderful. I love a new challenge and it’s been a while since I’ve done anything of the like,” Michael replied. Long moments passed, with Michael not saying anything. Now, Florence was as patient a woman as anyone you could name, but sitting in the nothing, back in that durned silence wasn’t something she was going to put up with.

“Hey, you still there Michael? What’s going on?” Florence asked.

“What is it? I’m working on the new guidelines,” Michael said.

“I’m just kind of sitting here in the nothing. Isn’t there somewhere I can go, or maybe, you know, I could head on back to Aerkon?” Florence asked.

“That would be impossible, wait, hold on,” Michael said, his voice starting to get excited again. Florence sat in the nothing, and sat, and sat, and sat.

“I’ve created an option for you, should you wish to exercise it. The mana causing this entire holdup can also be used to link you back to that world, bringing you back to life, in a manner of speaking,” Michael said.

“Woah, hold up there, buster. What do you mean back to life in a manner of speaking?” Florence asked, worried this Michael might be some flimflam artist, or trying to turn her into some undead creep like the lich.

“Well, you have a link back to this Aerkon world due to the spell cast upon your core. Of course, that link is tenuous, and it would require some effort to recraft a physical form that fits within the guidelines. You’ve been rather pleasant to deal with, not nearly as difficult as the gem formation specialists would have me believe, so I’d be willing to whip something up for you,” Michael offered.

“Sounds good to me, zap me on back whenever you're ready,” Florence said, excited to return. If she was back, she could resummon Doug and save him from whatever was happening to him.

“There will be some restrictions, and your time there would be limited to the length of time it takes me to craft new guidelines and procedures to deal with this sort of event,” Michael advised.

“How limited are we talking? I can’t imagine it would take all that long to craft new procedures and whatnot,” Florence said, she wasn’t sure she wanted to go back for a couple of hours only to leave again.

“In local time, exactly 199 days. Was there some goal you wished to accomplish? Will this be enough time for you to do so?” Michael asked.

“It’ll be tight, but I think I could make that work. That lich that did me in, he’s a planning to do the same thing to other cores, and I’d like to stop him. Now, them other cores aren’t likely to have a paladin casting spells to keep them alive, but I suppose there is the possibility the lich will cause you some problems if folks like me keep popping up all the time,” Florence replied.

“Hmm, it would be rather inconvenient to have a continuous influx of entities in your particular situation. Of course, my new guidelines would help, but I had planned on crafting them as a one-off, not something that would be used as a regular process. I think I can see to it that you’re given a chance to accomplish your goal. Please understand that I can only give you a chance and I cannot, and will not influence events in your favor,” Michael told her.

“That works for me, send me on back, oh, and as a personal favor, can you see to it that my assistant, Doug, is returned?” Florence asked.

“I think that can be arranged for your assistant. I should also advise you that should you be destroyed again on Aerkon, your death will be permanent,” Michael warned.

“So, I’d end up back here to hang out with you?” Florence asked.

“No, if you perish during the 199-day window, your afterlife will be…most unpleasant. I need you to understand that your return is not some simple excursion, it is one that has substantial risk,” Michael advised.

“So, I get just under two hundred days to deal with the lich, and when my time’s up, then what? Florence asked.

“Well, I can’t say just yet what will happen after the 199 days, that is something I am most definitely not permitted to disclose. So, do you wish me to send you back, now that I have informed you of all the potential risks?” Michael asked.

“Hmm, so you’re saying you haven’t decided what to do with me after the 199 days and something bad will happen if I die again before that. Hmm, yeah, whatever, send me on back,” Florence said.

“Here you go, enjoy your return, Florence Valentine, it has been a pleasure,” Michael said. Florence tried to thank him, but her vision faded out again.