Charlie didn’t understand this at all. What was this new creature? Why did they use a hex knight to create it? He had a bad feeling about this.

“If you’re so confident you can capture the king, then why not do it when he was right in front of you?” Brel asked. He didn’t seem convinced.

The mayor smiled. “Doing that would require the core guardian to reveal its true form. If they’d seen it upon entering the room, they never would’ve heard us out. Never mind that now. The boy you were supposed to bring is here. Get him.”

Brel looked at the mayor and then turned to look at Charlie and the others. He took in a deep breath. “Well, kid, I said I’d be waiting on round two.” Brel grabbed his hammer and strolled across the room. He didn’t seem to be in a hurry at all. Luckily for him, the mayor found it amusing. The mayor chuckled and turned to face the core guardian.

They seemed to communicate with one another the same way Charlie did with his friends. Except the mayor wasn’t talking out loud like Merlin and the others had to. He was using his mind, too. At least, Charlie assumed that was what was going on.

Charlie wondered how he’d learn to do that. He’d have to find out later. Maybe after beating the man up.

Lyra shook herself out of her frightened state and stood, holding Kyo close to her chest. At Charlie’s order, the friendly Scaler took a step to the side to block Brel’s path so he couldn’t reach Lyra.

Brel stared at the kids for a moment. His gaze seemed to linger on Kyo the longest.

“You know, it’s sort of funny. There was a time where all I wanted in life was recognition. I wanted everyone to see me as someone strong. That was why I joined up with Varroc. It was the reason I helped him, and Philo take over this little town and fed children to beasts…” He paused, looking over his shoulder at the core guardian. “Well, at least I thought I was feeding children to beasts. Point is, after a while, you get tired of all that. It’s getting old being stuck in this town.”

Charlie tilted his head. Stuck in the town? Was Brel trapped here for some reason?

“I know. You’re probably confused, so how about I just give you a very important life lesson, kid?” Brel came to a squat a few feet away from Charlie. “Sometimes life presents an opportunity. When it does, you take it. Even if it’s a gamble. Even if it’s risky as shit.” He flinched. “Sorry about my language, not used to talking to kids.” Brel grunted in amusement.

He stood, the muscles on his arm rippling as he clenched a fist around the hilt of his hammer.

“You’re smart. You’ve realized that coward was the king, right? Well, what do you think the king would do if I brought him the mayor’s head? He’d love me. Hell, he’d take care of me and my friends. That’s the kind of risk I’m talking about. The kind that gets the blood pumping because of the possibilities. The what if of a risk so big it makes you want to sh—” Brel bit his tongue again. “It makes you want to dirty your diaper,” he said instead of what he’d started to say.

Brel looked over at Kyo. He looked at this hand, the one not holding his hammer, and lifted a single finger. With it, he reached out over Charlie, toward Kyo in Lyra’s arms.

Lyra stepped away, turning her body to shield Kyo from the man. The friendly Scaler and Bonehead hissed. Brel laughed to himself. “Yeah, I deserve that.”

In an instant, he spun around, and the ground cracked under his feet. The mayor and the core guardian took notice. But Brel was already shooting through the air, right toward the resurrected Hex Knight. The knight stood absolutely still, like a body without a soul.

Brel dragged his hammer against the ground. It burst to life, a series of flames licking the air around it as he went.

“Let me show you why I just love kierstone hammers!” Brel yelled. He swung the large hammer toward the Hex Knight’s head.

Charlie, Lyra, and even the mayor watched on with shocked expressions.

The Hex Knight’s face exploded in a burst of gore and brain matter. Its body collapsed, falling to the floor.

Brel laughed. He turned to look at the mayor. “This was your secret weapon? If that’s all you’ve got, then that core guardian is weaker than I thought. Which means this next part should be even easier.” Brel rested his hammer on his shoulder and started moving toward the mayor.

The three snatchers in the room moved to intercept him, but that proved to be unnecessary.

The Hex Knight’s body shot up from the ground and quickly moved toward Brel.

Charlie started to warn Brel telepathically, but Kyo shrieked from somewhere behind him before he could. Charlie hadn’t even realized the baby had woken up. To be fair, Brel had yelled pretty loud during his attack.

Brel turned to look at Kyo.

Just as the Hex Knight’s hand shot through Brel’s stomach. Brel’s brows drew together, and he looked down at the bloody hand emerging from his stomach. He turned to look over his shoulder at the headless Hex Knight standing behind him.

“That’s just not fair,” Brel said, before he plummeted face first into the dirt.

Charlie shook his head. He didn’t understand how the body could move without a head. He didn’t think that was something the other snatchers could do. But the mayor had said this creature wasn’t quite the same.

The mayor sighed, shaking his head. “Well, that’s a waste.”

The blood and brain matter that splattered against the dungeon floor earlier inched forward. It reminded Charlie of the way the core guardian had moved when it first assembled itself. Slowly but surely, the droplets of blood and pieces of flesh crept up the Hex Knight’s armor.

Its head regenerated in the same way it had inside the core guardian itself.

It turned to look at Charlie and his friends. But the mayor called out to it. “No, go and fetch the king. Kill all the other knights and then bring the king back here. We need to assimilate him as soon as possible. We’ll handle this.”

The Hex Knight ignored him. It started moving towards Charlie. The mayor got angry. “Didn’t you hear me?” he called out.

Again, nothing.

Charlie got ready. If the Hex Knight was going to attack, he needed to be ready as well.

But suddenly, it stopped.

It turned and faced the core guardian and then nodded. It broke into a jog and hurried toward the tunnel Fiona and the king had escaped down.

It was strange that the creature had ignored the mayor. The other snatchers all followed his orders. But this one…

The mayor pointed at two of the snatchers, the two that had been in the room all along. He nodded his head toward the core guardian. He ignored the third snatcher that had brought the boy into the room earlier.

The two snatchers approached the core guardian, and then stepped inside, one by one. They started to dissolve immediately.

The mayor walked up to Brel and kicked him in the side. He knelt and lifted the man’s head up. Brel didn’t look good. He was barely clinging on to life. His breaths seemed labored and shallow. “You asked why we couldn’t take the king while he was here earlier. Well, feast your eyes on the reason why.”

Unlike Sir Albert, the only remnants of the snatchers were their organs.

No bones.

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No clothing.

Nothing.

But what was really disturbing was the fact that there were more organs than there should be. It was like the core guardian had been using them as storage.

No, that was exactly it.

A dozen hearts, and just as many brains. Kidneys, livers, and intestines all floated around inside the creature.

Lyra made a retching noise behind him.

“This is the reason, because no sane person would want to get close to a hex beast full of human organs. Least of all the king. So, we made sure the core guardian was a bit more…palatable. There you have it, now you can die.” The mayor slammed Brel’s face back into the dirt.

Earlier that day, if Charlie had seen Brel treated like that, he might’ve found it satisfying. He hadn’t liked Brel.

He still didn’t like Brel.

But he had thought something earlier, when Brel was explaining his motivations for turning on the mayor. He’d thought that there was another reason. Charlie believed Brel did it, at least in part, because he didn’t want to turn Kyo over anymore. Charlie believed most people could get better. He believed they could change.

Merlin was proof of that.

Maybe, if Brel had more time, he could learn to. But the mayor…Charlie felt differently about the mayor.

Charlie didn’t think he would ever change. He would just keep hurting people as long as it helped him.

So, Charlie decided he needed to put a stop to all this.

Transfer! Dungeon Manipulation!

He held a hand out, and a sharpened pillar shot outward toward the mayor’s face. Brel was a much more experienced fighter than Charlie was. He’d aimed for the face. So, Charlie decided he would do the same thing.

The mayor didn’t even see it coming.

But the core guardian did.

A burst of liquid shot out and intercepted the pillar before it could hit the mayor. The pillar pierced through the liquid but lost enough momentum that it fell harmlessly on the other side.

Charlie realized his mistake as soon as the guardian reacted. Attacking first was the right move, but he’d attacked the wrong target. The mayor wasn’t the threat here, the core guardian was.

The core guardian was at the root of everything going on in Sange.

He needed to focus his energy on fighting it instead. The mayor looked down at the spear of dungeon material laying harmlessly on the ground next to him, suddenly aware of how close he’d come to getting impaled. He sneered, staring at the baby boy that had attacked him. He placed a hand in the core guardian and closed his eyes. The newly grown snatcher reacted and reached out. Their fingers touched, and the mayor suddenly reacted.

His arm trembled, and he inhaled deeply. He removed his hand from the core guardian. “The sweet feel of renewed youth. I figured, why let all that energy go to waste? Your life can never get too long,” he said to Charlie. He turned back to the core guardian. “Alright, now kill the boy. He’s pissing me off.”

The core guardian rippled quickly, waves formed around it and surged forward in a never-ending loop. Then the core guardian inside it turned its head toward Charlie. His eyes opened. They were the same color as the liquid. It seemed as if the core guardian was using the snatcher’s body somehow. The snatcher held out its hand and aimed for Charlie.

A burst of liquid shot forward. Charlie held up a hand to deflect the attack with his powers, but Lyra shot past him.

“We have to be careful of getting splashed on!” she reminded him. Tomas had warned them not to touch it. She held a hand up.

“Emerald Hex Elemental!” she cried out. A burst of water shot forward and met the core guardian’s liquid head on. Both attacks fizzled out against one another.

Charlie patted the friendly Scaler on the head, and they surged past her and into the room. Charlie pointed at Bonehead and then held out a hand. Bonehead hissed but relented. He would stay behind and protect Lyra and Kyo.

Charlie launched another attack. This time, he aimed for the core guardian itself.

The creature didn’t react this time. It didn’t try to move out of the way. It didn’t move to deflect or block Charlie’s pillar. The core guardian simply waited.

The pillar sailed right through the creature and plopped out on the other side. Charlie frowned. Why hadn’t it reacted? Had he even hurt it?

He knew he could aim at the snatcher in its center, but…that was just a kid. Until a few minutes ago, it had been just another child. One of the children he was trying to save. He couldn’t attack the snatcher.

At least he couldn’t do anything that would kill it.

He hadn’t given up on saving the boy. Maybe they could reverse the process or something. He hoped.

If the core guardian was using him, perhaps he could…

He launched several more pillars. This time, he aimed at the boy. He made sure the pillars were round, instead of sharpened. He just needed to hit really hard without doing any permanent damage.

This time, it worked. He hit the snatcher right on the chest and sent it reeling out of the core guardian. The snatcher hit the ground and its body rolled several times before coming to a halt. It didn’t move after that.

Again, the core guardian didn’t react. Charlie puffed out a lip. This was getting frustrating. That was two attacks already, and the creature hadn’t even bothered to respond. Did it think he wasn’t even capable of hurting it?

Was it right?

He noticed something. One of the hearts inside the creature had been moved. It had been floating behind the snatcher before Charlie had knocked it out. Which meant…the core guardian had intentionally moved it to keep it from getting hit during the attack.

Maybe that meant the organs were a weakness?

Brel’s words echoed in his mind. The kind of risk that makes you want to dirty your diaper. Or something like that.

“Status?”

Status requested. Dungeon Integrity at 8%.

Charlie nodded. His integrity was low now. He’d only attacked a couple of times and already he’d lost that much power.

“Get me in close,” he told the friendly Scaler.

“Arh!”

He needed to make sure the core guardian couldn’t react. He’d launch an attack he was sure it couldn’t dodge. The friendly Scaler scurried forward. Charlie had almost forgotten how fast the Scalers could really move when they wanted to.

He paused. This was risky. If he used too much of his power, Bleedy and Mousifer and the other two Scalers inside him could die. He still couldn’t control the precise amount of power that he used. Charlie didn’t have a choice. He’d have to pull them out of the dungeon. He’d do it at the same time he attacked.

All at once. Keep them safe and hit the core guardian with everything we had.

All at once.

The world moved in slow motion.

The mayor noticed them charging, a bewildered look on his face.

Lyra called out to them, worrying they would get too close to the creature.

Kyo cried in the distance.

He took in a breath.

“Transfer!”

He held his left hand behind himself, so his animal friends wouldn’t end up in his line of fire.

At the same time, he aimed his right hand ahead. He activated the attack combination mere seconds after the first skill.

They were around ten feet away from the core guardian now. At this speed and range, the creature wouldn’t have time to dodge.

“Transfer! Dungeon Manipulation!”

With the last of his dungeon integrity, he aimed a massive pillar at the creature.

He knew what that meant.

Dungeon collapse.

If this failed, Charlie would lose the fight.

He’d let down everyone that was counting on him.

In hindsight, he shouldn’t have listened to Brel about taking a risk, when the man’s own gamble had failed.

The friendly Scaler skidded to a stop as soon as the pillar shot forward.

“Arh! Arh!” Charlie looked back for a split second and realized the two Scalers in his dungeon were standing there behind them. But they were alone. Bleedy and Mousifer weren’t there.

“Error. Multiple targets unavailable for transfer. Transfer of those targets has failed.”

Charlie was still reeling at the implications of what he had done when he heard the warning.

“Arh!” the friendly Scaler cried out.

He turned to face back toward the core guardian and saw his own pillar stop mere inches before it reached the shapeless creature. The pillar floated there, and then it shot back towards them.

Charlie’s own attack had been turned against him. How was that even possible?

His eyes went wide as the pillar rocketed into them and sent them flying.

Charlie flew through the air and hit something hard.

He fought back a fading consciousness. Why hadn’t the transfer worked?

Why hadn’t it worked?

The question played in his head over and over until he heard it.

“Dungeon Integrity at 0%. The Dungeon has collapsed.”

And it had done so with his friends still inside it.