I opened the door and in the next moment got a front seat for an impressive show of destruction.

This lady didn’t hold back and I watched her invoking runes all around her glowing golden and growing stronger with every moment. There were some guards scattered over the floor. Granite was the main theme here it seemed. Heavy oaken doors stood every 20 metres enticing my curiosity what may be behind them.

The guards seemed surprised at the display before them and took much too long to react to the impending doom when Mariah released some kind of purple mist that streamed away from her fingers filling the floor extremely fast. I heard muffled coughing and even a weak scream from a guard near me but I doubted that the noise would reach very far.

Visibility returned after 10 seconds and I was horrified of the effect of the spell. The bodies and equipment of the guards were in several kinds of dissolution with their fluids in big pools on the ground. Half destroyed bones sticking out of their bodies and stomach fluids running down on the perforated corpses displayed a horrifying sight.

I looked down to Mariah with a raised eye brow, “What kind of mage are you?”

She smirked, “The dangerous one! That’s a spell I reserve for any fights inside buildings where I want massive damage in a short time with no one able to warn anybody else. It has a steep mana cost but it’s worth it, believe me. Down here in this floor are the torture chambers for Thorm’s enemies and also some treasure chambers as far as I know. Behind that door over there”, she pointed to a wooden door 40 metres to my right, “Is a special case. I could only take a short look inside but I’m quite sure that there is a dungeon core capture inside a special kind of ritual. If we could free it the core might release some havoc on this cursed place and give us some needed distraction to cause even more destruction.”

I thought for a moment and then shook my head, “No, if this core is an enemy of Thorm then I will have to free it and subdue it for my own needs. The dungeon cores have some ability I don’t and that I desperately need.”

Mariah looked somewhat disappointed at me and sighed, “Allright, let’s get the damn thing and trash the place as good as possible. I think we still have 5 minutes auntil all hell breaks loose and we have to leave for good.”

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We had arrived at the door during the talk and I tried to open it but was presented with some resistence. I shrugged and took a step back. Then I kicked and the wooded exploded into the room. I think it was never meant to hold back several tons of force.

“You know that you’ll make an excellent storm trooper? I would have had some use for someone like you several occasions in my life.”

“Hehe, I have to admit that this body has some serious advantages but being so big isn’t always a good thing.”

This time I had to bend down to enter the room. Luckily the room itself had a high ceiling and I could move easily. There was a ritual circle in the room glowing a sick green I saw last in some games I played last on good old Earth. Steam rose from the runes and enveloped a red glowing crystal in the center that seemed to expand and shrink every second.

‘Please help me! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…!’ A female voice screamed in my mind.

Okay, this core seemed ready for negotiations.

‘Will you serve me and help me build a city to protect anyone who wants to life in my domain?’

I felt some surprise from my counterpart, ‘Wait, you are the city core? You are the reason for all this mess!!!! Tiria would still be alive and a goddess if she would just have never created you. I will never bend down before you, cursed creature!’

Perhaps the starting negotiation could have begun a little bit better.

‘Keep your pants dry, lady. Tiria is with me now, even if she isn’t a goddess anymore, but last time she didn’t seem to be angry about it.’

The dungeon core fell silent and surprise made a reappearance, ‘She is with you? Where? I don’t see her!’

‘Of course you don’t see her. She is back in my city. I discovered Thorm’s plan just in time to change the teleportation to my golem body instead of my core. The high priest was very impressed with my fists when the connected with his head. Made quite the mess but the magical lightshow was kind of impressive.’

I heard a chuckle, ‘I don’t have much choice right now, so I will obey you for now, but I will cancel my contract with you if I go with you and Tiria isn’t at your place. Just be warned that I will loose most of my power and knowledge if we leave this world.’

‘Will this also apply to the gal beside me when I take her with me?’

She seemed annoyed by my mention of Mariah, ‘You can’t take her with you. She won’t survive being stuck into your inventory. It’s only for unliving things. I can survive in there because I’m a core but she will die.’

‘Nope I have a way of transporting her mind and body separately in my inventory and my inner mind.’

‘WHAT? That’s cheating! No wonder that Tiria got such problems when she gave you such an OP power. I want a refund!’

‘So you will come with me?’

‘Yeah sure! Just destroy this motherfucking ritual that binds me and I will submit myself to your rule as long as everything you said has been true.’

I took a step forward and stomped down unto the runes at the ground. They shattered into green dust rising into the air and dissolving fast. The runes next to them also dissolved the same way and seconds later all that was left was the red dungeon core in the center.

Blue runes appeared around it and flowed into the crystal changing its color from a solid red to a pleasant purple and then a dark blue in seconds.

I heard an indistinct voice suddenly.

Dungeon core Sarah has been subdued by City core Marcus

The contract will be enforced by the system!

‘What the hell just happened? You can create magical contracts you bastard! That’s CHEATING!’

Right this moment I was sure that this Sarah will cause me some serious headache.