The Spidercrat responded.
Cal felt the throbbing power in the second Celestial Node, and he focused on the second floor. In a flash, he reviewed the rooms. Most of the subbasement had reverted to how it had been before. He checked out the inner sanctum’s exit and saw a long hallway that led to a natural cave. Crossing the huge cavern brought you to another stone hallway. At the end was the staircase leading down to the third level.
Looking closer, he saw statues on the steps, frozen there. Those motionless rock people had to be Amorfo’s doing. He was a Dudusa after all.
A second later, he watched as Kronke and Gwen went running into that room. The paladin lifted his body and carried it back into the inner sanctum.
Then Cal was back in his body, cradled by the big troll. “I’m okay, guys. Just, uh, set me down. I think Amorfo controls the third-level dungeon. I saw his statues on the stairwell. It was creepy.”
Everyone crowded around him. “In other news, Barb just reached out to me.”
“Barb?” Gwen made a face. “No wonder you smell like rotting lemons. That girl needs to watch how much perfume dabbing she does. Did she seem evil to you?”
Cal shook his head. “Not really. She said she was able to use her Aromatic Arts to free up a part of herself. The rest of her is under the Vanilla Master’s control. She says that there is some executive who is stopping Ji-Soo from NUKEing us. Do we have any idea who that might be?”
“Above Jamalzak?” Dave asked. “He’s the CFO. S Class. No one is above him. I mean, the Council of Dungeons is, but they’re above everyone. There can’t be some mysterious C-level executive. Jamalzak, Dr. Smood, nor Vinnie Bluesuit would risk their jobs or risk offending the Arcandor Initiative. The Council of Dungeons oversees DUDE’s activities, but I don’t believe that a council member would destroy over a thousand worlds for their own personal power. All the council members are S-Class and have been fully vetted.”
Gwen didn’t hide her disgust. “A politician becoming corrupt? Oh, that could never happen.” She looked like she’d eaten a rotten lemon herself. “S-Classes always want to be Triple S. You know, one culprit we haven’t considered is Ji-Soo herself. Maybe she has something to hide.”
Dave turned and gave his daughter a withering look. “Impossible. If there is one core in the universe above reproach, it’s Ji-Soo. She’s a zealot.”
Kronke and Helga stood back, not saying anything. Hurricane was munching on something, maybe oats from Helga’s secret stash. Kronke was dipping his finger into his cookie pouch and sucking off the crumbs. Both were loud.
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Gwen turned. “Since I’m obviously stupid, at least in the eyes of my father, do you guys have anything?”
Helga scowled. “Bad business. This is all bad business. We’re forced to mistrust our friends, betrayal is in the air, and it pains me, people. Aye, it’s a dagger in me heart.”
Kronke frowned. “But you ascended, Helga. Use new powers to save our friends in the AT1. Maybe no one betrayed us. Maybe we get happy ending. Kronke like happy endings.”
Cal was mystified. Helga had ascended? It made sense, since both Kronke and Dave had reached B-Class. Even Cal had leveled three times after being exposed to all the Apothos flowing into the five Celestial Nodes stacked on top of one another.
Helga shook her head. “Hope is a double-edged dagger, lad. And both blades have cut me deep. I’ll go guard the stairwell to the third level in case Amorfo comes to kill us all.” Helga then marched out of the second pair of steel doors.
The battle goat sighed, gave them all a long look, and then clip-clopped after his mistress.
Dave glanced back, grumbling. “Is there always this much emotional drama in your team? It’s exhausting. Let’s focus on the task at hand. We have two of the five Celestial Nodes, and we need to protect both of them. With the second Node, I have some of my Apothos back, so I can create more minions, and we can reset the traps in the Soul Crusher. What can we add to the subbasement to stop them?”
Cal couldn’t switch gears that fast. “Kronke, I don’t want Helga guarding the new stairwell alone. We’ll have the Conference Call going, so if anything comes up, just reach out. Gwen, maybe you could run some recon on the third level.”
Gwen tilted her head. “Oh, you mean in a second subbasement that shouldn’t exist? That was created out of the rock by gods know what? Sure, I’ll down there alone because I have this death wish I’ve kept hidden all this time.”
Dave rubbed one of his pair of eyes under his glasses. “So that’s why I yelled all the time. No wonder I got upset…it’s that passive-aggressive, whiny—”
“Dave, don’t,” Cal countered.
Gwen rushed up to her father. “I don’t want to die like you did, Dave, because if I die, I don’t get to become a spider god. All I get is death. So yeah, I’ll whine, but am I going to run recon? Yes. Because I trust Cal. And Cal trusts me. So keep your flippin’ opinions to yourself. I thought you’d changed, but no, you’re just the same old Weavelord.”
With that, she turned on her heel and tried to stomp out of the room, heading toward the stairs leading to the first floor. But because of her magic boots, she made zero noise.
Kronke gave Cal a helpless look before hurrying after Helga, leaving Cal and Dave alone.
The Spidercrat shook his head. “I blew it again. I feel terrible about what happened to us. And I can’t help but make it worse. I do love my daughter, Cal. It’s just, she hates me so much, it’s hard to cling to that love.”
Cal was still connected to Dave through his Dungeon Meld. He knew how complicated it all was. He also knew that Dave was telling the total and honest-to-gods truth. Every blunder made him feel worse and that made the whole situation worse.
“You said it before…emotions are exhausting. Let’s just focus on coming up with defenses to the subbasement. You can see the rooms, right? Most of them reverted to storage again, but there are natural caves. And the weird, tiled room.”
“Which remains a mystery,” Dave replied.
Cal closed his eyes, feeling overwhelmed. “Could this be the Quatros? I mean, Barb thought that maybe Quisling might be behind this.” He opened his eyes.
Dave adjusted his tortoiseshell glasses. “The Quatros do keep to themselves, but they’ve done good work for me. Besides, wouldn’t Ji-Soo have sensed their cores?
It was a good point.
Gwen’s voice filled their thoughts.
Cal suddenly felt proud of his friend. Gwen had apologized for blowing up like she did, which was progress. And she did have a brilliant idea.
That was a good thing. They needed all the brilliant ideas they could get in their fight against the Vanilla Master.