One moment I glimpsed my old life.

The next.

My awareness briefly was at my core, staring at swirling black threads that were tracing their way through the crystalline lattice like minnows in a lake. Focusing was hard. The little chamber my core rested in looked normal. the little door was shut, the traps in the hallway one would need to crawl through undisturbed.

I tried to stretch my awareness out, to see what was going on, but trying to do so caused my head to ache. Instead I looked to my core, watching the flecks of black. Something about what was hapening seemed important. I needed to think. To focus. I needed to-

'Wake up.'

Darkness.

I could feel myself drift. Without any sense of what was going on, or ability to focus, memory started to take over and fill the gaps lack of sensation left behind.

My mind drifted through the ages. After my falling out with Ishida and the others I did what I could, but it was always and only a matter of the first mistake catching up to me at that point. My friends, those kids dumb enough to follow me, held a wake for Shinji when he fell. No grand gestures. No great battle. Fuzen simply pointed, and his heart stopped. I had told the rest this was on my head, This is why I had made them write those letters when they first wanted to step up, to try getting them to understand this wasn't a game and there was a very real chance they would die.

They told me I was a fool for insulting them by acting like they weren't smart enough to have agency in thier own lives. If i was willing to risk my life, they had the same right to risk theirs.

I couldn't argue. To tell them that I hadn't gotten in this to be a fighter, that I was only supposed to be there as support and a reminder so the heavies don't end up getting high on their own power and going 'All Shall Love Me and Dispair.'

"It's Alright boss." Akio smiled, patting my shoulder. "We've got this."

Flick.

Time passed. Memory shuffled. I was dead. I wanted to say I went out doing something meaningful. Covering someone's escape, buying time for help to come, something. You'd think you'd remember details like that, but I didn't. I was just a bit of awareness that stubbornly held onto just enough mana to drift through the world rather than move on.

Flick.

"What do you want?!" Ishida there, angry when I managed to manifest. It was after Ami had twitched her fingers causing the court that had formed after the world went to hell. She'd taken the title of First Minister. It was supposed to be a parliment. In reality it was a royal court in all but name, and Ami was the power behind the throne. So, she pulled pupept strings and Fuzen had been officially pardened.

After all he had done. Including not just taking Uchiumi from her, but puppeting her corpse about to torment her, all the people he'd killed, maimed, hurt. After all that, Ishida was supposed to bend the knee, kiss her ring, and play nice?

I tried to speak. My mouth moved, but she couldn't hear me when I said I knew what she was feeling. that she was right. Instead I stood there, spending what mana I had to cry tears she refused to shed.

It was only then I noticed the teacup, and that Ishida had stopped moving. I was too late and could only hide when Ami came for her.

Flick.

Ami there, in the center of a magical circle with the others at the edges. She knelt in front of Fuzin's body, short cropped blue hair blown by an unnatural wind. The others couldn't move. Not after they had been drugged. She had made sure of that. Leaving their minds clear, but their bodies sedate. Pliant. Able to follow her command as she had lain out the ritual for this moment. For extracting all of the power Fuzin had stored within himself.

The air in the circle thrummed with energy as runes and glyphs lit. Ishida looking at me, unable to move to stop this.

The runes flared, the circle closed, and power began to leech from the people Ami had called friend up until that moment. Outside of this place was pure black. No wind. No stars. Nothing. Were we in a bubble of Dark, or we a pinprick of reality in the void?

All that mana concentrated into one place. Ami's hands started moving. Building.

I saw her eyes, solid black, as a wide grin formed. Her hand twitched. A tremor. The grin too wide. I could feel her skin growing cold.

It was only in that moment I understood this wasn't the crowning moment of a megalomaniac. This was the final play of something that had puppeted her like a meat suit.

All that mana in one place, and I was a creature of mana directed by will.

I reached. Willing my fingers to close around the knife planted in Fuzin's chest.

Everything hurt.

Flick.

Everything hurt. There was pressure crushing around me. My awareness barely able to extend past the marble that was my core. A voice. familiar. I forced myself to listen. Forced the pain into the background.

"I've got him!" Jen's voice. I could hear shuffling. How'd she get past the traps? There was movement. Running.

Finnal's voice was somewhere between fear and excitement, "Great now c'mon!"

Why couldn't I feel anything? I pressed with my awareness.

And hit a wall. No. Not a wall.

Flick.

Ami saw me as I advanced on her with the knife. This is the moment I stopped her. Forced her hand away from Creation and allowed what would be to stand on its own.

Flick.

Ami's black eyes blinked. Her body moving, forearm blocking the knife, twisting, yanking it out ofmy hands. "This time it won't be so easy."

Not Ami's voice. Kronos's. Fuzin's.

Flick.

"So we're supposed to what, just put him on the alter?" Jen sounded skeptical.

There was the sound of papers. Finnal's voice. "Keystone's notes about the group that killed Damala said something about a throne where mana gathered, says it should be enough to bring him back."

"But," Worry in Jen's voice, "What if he's already gone?"

A pause, the sounds of movement. "Notes say if the core were 'dead' then it would have turned to powder. Not go black. We can only try."

Flick.

I punched not-ami with everything I had. Grabbing hold of the pain in my hand. Grabbing hold of any sensation really, and using it to anchor myself here. This wasn't a memory anymore.

Ami's body twitched, a smile, if you were to try asking something that only vaguely knew human anatomy to try making a smile. "Not as stupid as I took you for." Her own movements sluggish as she reached for me. "When they place your shell back in my throne I will have to remember that." The not-smile widened to show rows of razor teeth and an unending black maw.

"I'm sorry Ami." I headbutted the meat-puppet in front of me. "I'd taken you for a heartless souless creature that wanted only power." When she caught my right hand I lashed out to kick at her knee. "I hadn't realized he'd already eaten your mind."

Not-Ami hissed. Black oozing from the corners of her too-wide mouth as she gave no reaction to her knee folding backward. instead of pained screams or incoherent howls, there was a mad sort of laughter there mixed with inhuman, almost insectoid squeals.

I'd dodged her lunge, grabbing her in a headlock, pressing my forearm hard against her throat. She made a gurgling sound. Bones broke, her arms twisted behind her as she clawed at me. Talons raked at my sides and back as I squeezed. Red blood mingled with black ooze as I felt her talons slide between my ribs.

Unwillingly, my hold loosened. I couldn't breathe.

Not-Ami's neck snapped as her head turned to face me. Her maw now wholly inhuman. Circular and lined with razor-teeth as she lunged for my face.

A second set of hands reached, grabbed not-ami as she hissed, rotating maw only coming within a hair's bredth from my face rather than sinking into it. The parasite, now more a fat tape-worm thing with many stubby limbs, hissed and shreaked, the human shell discarded as its jaws twisted to face its new attacker.

"All that was misirable in my life." Ishida hurled the thing that wore Ami as a meat-suit against the black marble that represented what remained of our reality.

A hiss from the creature as it darted for me again, jaws rotating, grinding as blind eyes sought my flesh. "You made my friends become monsters!" Her grip solid as she pulled, raising it high. Her voice now a whisper. "You made me shut out people that were important to me."

Its ruined body was smote upon the rock that bore us through the void and an armored boot slammed down on its head casting it to ruin. It was dead now. Dead. Gone. the steam that came from its shell as its remains were cast into the black already dissolving. I should have been happy, elated not just of crisis averted, but that Ishida had come to save me.

Unfortunately in that moment, I couldn't breathe. Air wouldn't come in. My vision contracted to a dark and greyed out tunnel.

A woman's voice from everywhere and nowhere. "It'll be OK. Just hang on."

I felt a hand press against me. I reached for Ishida. Her features blurred and grainy. Her hand clasping mine. "I won't let go." Her voice and mine. I could feel the life leaking from me as we held each other as she knelt beside my body when darkness claimed me.

Flick.

I breathed deep. My awareness expanded out past my core. Soft blue light pulsed from it. Not a fleck of black to be found. I looked around. This wasn't my chamber.

High vaulted ceiling. A wide room with myself near the rear in a too-large cradle on top of a raised plinth. A king presiding over court. I could feel the inrush of mana. Quickly I spiraled my mind back to my holdings, crafting the rooms I had removed, replacing the chests I had eaten.

Then I noticed that I was on the fifth level down. Three levels down from where our assault failed.

> Wha'd I miss? Talk to me.

>

> Not until verification you are uncorrupt. Spiders have been sent to sever your connection to the network.

>

> Considering what happened. Can't fault you. I'm beat. I'm also very... Very confused.

Jen was there, sitting on the edge of the raised bit of floor my core's receptical rested on. "Whatever you're paying Laginn, he deserves bonus. He'd somehow managed to get all the way down here while we were all tied up in the bottleneck upstairs and ate the core down here. We all thought it was over. Except Bonehead and all the others were still out of it."

Briefly I'd checked. Their respawn timers were ticking down. but the timers on them made little sense. Why so long? Then I noticed the progress already made.

"Hey." Jen tapped the bowl my core was in. "It's OK. We'll get this sorted out. You'll get declared safe, and we can get back to normal." I started to wonder how she knew what I was thinking, then mentally shrugged. More likely than not, if she were in my position she'd have those questions.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Which.... had my awareness cast about. Most of my minions were on long respawn timers. Days instead of minutes, and no credit card slot in sight to deal with the mobile gaming nonsense. Still, the numbers were moving.

There was a timer I was searching for, but I didn't know where to look. Uchiumi was gone. Ditto the six others that attacked us. Yet she'd been transferred to me.

I searched through the part of my dungeon that had been mine before, and mentally raised an eyebrow. Jjaro and Arin, Finnal, a bunch of the other regulars were all there with camping gear. Fires were lit outside, and I suspect latrines dug somewhere, thankfully we were far enough away from water that could be used for intake that the location wasn't all that important.

Jen soon joined the group. Sitting out beneath the stars as they told tales to eachother, of what they each did during the rush to contain the horrors. All of them put on a brave face, but the common thread is all of them were on their last legs when Kronos went up in smoke.

Where are you?

Everyone was accounted for, save for one. Please don't do this to me. God, whatever's up there don't do this to me. Not when we just started to reconnect. I breathed in. Don't focus on the monsters. Don't focus on the timers. Focus on Her.

My awareness spiraled downward, guided by the music of her laughter. Deeper, following the beat of my heart when Uchiumi said Yes when the ring was presented. I even followed my heartache when she handed me her sword and leaned against its tip, telling me to finish her after my desperate gamble failed. All these and more were moments that guided me to the very lowest place of my new expanded domain.

It was a cavern. Yet there was also light. Limestone rock covered in irridecent moss, glowing mushrooms. and fireflies casting fitful light. At the very center of this was a perfect circle of black marble. Once glowing lines and runes etched through its surface. the last remains of a now dead world.

At its center a woman stood. I dared not hope. It may only be an empty shell. Then I saw the respawn timer bar. I would have to wait far longer for her than for anything else. But an active bar meant I would see her again.

Then we could have that talk on what to do from here.

������

A new delver approached my entrance. Laginn rode on Bonehead's shoulder as my guard captain stepped out to greet them. Even by dwarven standards, the lady was short, her build slight, almost Leifallin rather than Dwarven. Yet I recognized the clothes. Her hair was the same shade as Keystone's, but tied in a messy bun. Her gear was far less bulky, cloth and leather with only sewn metal here and there to guard the important bits.

Briefly, I wondered if it was worth introducing the concept of plate carriers instead of sewn-in metal bits, then was brought my attention back to the moment by Laginn's finger snap just in time to see her and Bonehead exchange bows.

"I am Stone Soup." Her voice a melodic Alto to contrast with Keystone's Baritone. Her voice official as she spoke. "The Dungeoneer Confederacy has asked that I inspect this dungeon as well as the two others that participated in the destruction of the murderous dungeon Kronos for the purposes of suitability for delver activities."

Bonehead nodded once before pointing to the banner. Charlotte woved from the top of the carefully crafted web, rightly proud of the effort.

'Stroadsborg's Dungeon Corps' 'Welcomes its new Inspector'

The dwarf raised an eyebrow before looking to Bonehead, "Best take yer place lad. I do be here on official business so I need th'full gauntlet."

A shrug from my guard captain before he trotted off, downstairs and to his arena.

I watched Stone Soup catalog my new drops and resource nodes in this first room; noting the change from fungal growths to a mix of small fungoid creatures, piles of dried wood, cast-off robes and other 'mundane' clothes, and the like. There was a distinctive slant towards mundane utility here now with the odd pile of coin tossed in. As the room was a delver's first taste I had left the encounters fairly basic; a few skeletons, tarantulas, and the odd crumbled stone trap that had a chance to be a tripping hazard in a fight.

"Aye, first room is definitely on par with the two other dungeons in this necropolis. Suitable for newbie to beginners." One of the skeletons waved as she made her way upstairs. As she walked she made the same two-finger side-of-the-head gesture her brother would make when taking notes or possibly talking to a partner with a rescue team in case she got in over her head.

"Western chapel is-" Her breath caught. "Correction. Western chapel is now a memorial site with an actively maintained non-combat flag for the entire area." Where the pulpit had been was a life-sized stone statue of Keystone in his inspector's gear leaning on his mace. At the base of the statue was a simple placard in etched bronze.

'His life was taken in the line of duty giving voice to those who often have none. He was our friend, and he is missed.'

Gone were the pews, the book stands, and the religious ornamentation. There was a small simi-circle of benches in front of the statue, with the rest of the space given over to a series of tables at the edges of the room, and a wide open area along the room's long axis. These tables were less booth-style like one might eat at, instead having outward-facing curved benches encouraging everyone to look away from their group to the rest of the room. A place fit for meeting and discussion, or a quiet place to rest.

"Exiting the western memorial hall. Plan on going to the eastern chapel on re-entering dungeon." Stone Soup would take one last look at the statue of her brother before exiting through what had once been a crypt. Now the room was lined with delvers names and accomplishments. It contained spaces for everything from 'fastest clear time of 'the bone Zone,' to those that managed to solo Nyx at her most intense, and even one for 'largest fish caught.' All these and more, including a wall of shame for less well-behaved and outright unwelcome delvers. each name attached to a piece of gear these offenders were relieved of on their way out.

A hearty chuckle from the inspector, "Dungeon has plans to foster healthy competition as well as a means to permanently flag and shame delvers that act unruly."

When she got to the eastern chapel, there was an eyebrow raised at the renovations I had made to the place. "Eastern chapel has been reconfigured into a..." There were goblins everywhere in rough-sewn work clothes standing at attention. the goblin at the counter waved Stone Soup over to the countertop before pointing to the chalkboard that showcased the day's meal rotation and prices. "Dungeon has made a space for adventurers to purchase meals. Room contains layout similar to memorial hall, clear lanes of traffic. Central clear space for entertainment or other activities."

Her eye was drawn to the wall opposite the register. As she approached she saw a series of notes posted to a corkboard. "Dungeon has constructed simple bulletin board for announcements and, presumably, a place to hand out quests." An eyebrow raise as she read one of the notes, "Several of these quests involve raiding local ally dungeons and bringing supplies here."

Then she used a stepladder I had left for shorter delvers to make use of to look at the 'Future Plans' section. "He wants to create an inter-dungeon postal system with the ability to accept mail and parcels for delvers. Not yet implemented."

Her mouth worked for a time. Words not coming out for several minutes before verbalizing, presumably, a question I had no real answer to since i hadn't really thought past 'what I wanted if I were here for awhile doing murderhobo things.' "Is this thing trying t'be a dungeon, or a bloody functional township?"

I outright started cackling when she got to what had been the room I was born into this world. The Urns, Coffins, and all were gone. After the inquisitorial inspection finished I'd made sure they came back with a pile-on of padres to, respectfully, remove the dead from not just my walls, but the entire necropolis. the structures couldn't really be as easily changed about, so it still had this creepy sudo-gothic vibe going on, but I felt better for the dead having somewhere quiet to rest.

Plus I don't think they would have appreciated the fact I turned that initial crypt into a gift shop. It had all sorts of silly nick knacks, but they trended towards 'actually useful' more than 'provides two minutes of entertainment.' Even with that attempt at simi practicality, the joke seemed to be lost on the poor dwarf who picked up a black t-shirt portraying a cartoonish imp holding up a sign. 'I went through the Lonely Hill Dungeon and the only loot I got was this t-shirt.'

The poor Dwarf's only comment was made while she held up the garment. "What's a T-Shirt?"

Well. I thought it was funny.

Things got more serious after that point. I simply figured if people are leaving they do need a chance to sit down to rest, eat, maybe pick up a souvenir if they had a particularly lousy run, or wanted tabletop figures for planning encounter strategies. Plus everyone needs the odd laugh, even me.

"I swear by th'Rider if the next floor down is something silly I'm writing this place off as a toybox." Stone Soup's exasperation was something I could empathize with. She's trying to do a job after all, but no worries. From here on it was fairly 'Normal' as far as these things went.

My second-floor training area remained largely the same. Bonehead's arena, a training space for the skeletons, though now there were goblins and the odd imp thrown in for flavor. The guardpost was gone as there was no need. instead, I'd designated that as a 'safe' area for Delvers. A place my creatures couldn't attack them in normally, though if a delver kept popping in and out of that spot to take potshots at creatures only to hide behind the line I had a contingency in place to encourage them to leave.

Stone Soup smiled when she saw the note I'd left as a warning. "'Abuse my good will at your own risk. Hint: it involves spiders." She smirked as she put that to the test. I get she likely was doing it as part of her job to make sure I wasn't going to respond to delvers getting cute by dropping anvils, but I still felt bad after the fifth baiting attempt earning her several dozen tarantulas, orb weavers, and even a few ogre faced spiders dropping on her from cracks in the ceiling that all immediately scattered rather than attack. that was a very deliberate choice on my part. Lowbies attacked by that many spiders would get knocked out, or potentially killed if allergies were a thing here. Even mid-level delvers could have their runs cut short when all I really wanted was to encourage them to stop horsing around.

A second note appeared. 'Told You. :)' This earned a headshake from the inspector. "So y'did."

From here things got less playful. the top part of things were explicitly for lowbies and new folk to cut their teeth on. this floor is where Erebus patrolled. While I had wanted to make him just as potent as Nyx, I hadn't the resources just yet. One could argue I burned resources needlessly with the eatery and gift shops, but I felt social spaces were as important to draw Delvers in as monsters and loot.

So, at least for now, Erebus had to be content with being at best a mid-level encounter. Still. Like all of my more notable creatures, and even many of the less noteworthy ones, I rotated him out and am quite happy that he and Nyx do get along quite well when their rotations let them be in eachother's company..

When he was rotated out I had Good Neighbor's goblin champion fill in as patrolling thing to be looked out for. Fine I had to split mana gained pretty heavily toward them, but Variety kept things interesting. The rest of the floor included those shadow creature things that Bonehead and the rest from my prong of the big attack got stuck on. They cheeped, hopped around, and honestly were kinda cute for pitbull-sized beings of shadow.

The next three floors were similar in form. A roving creature that acted as a way to keep delvers from simply camp-farming, loot that would reflect the group comp, and zones of explicit safety for groups to have a chance to recharge stamina and mana. I was not at all a fan of dungeons that demanded a gauntlet run with no places to stop, and that was when I could put a controller down and stretch. Here? These were living breathing people. I especially wanted ways for them to quickly call time out if they got in over their heads.

The floor my Core now resided on down? That was where it was time to start treating Delvers like they were Big Boys. Mixed unit groups, always with a couple of status spreaders. Nyx occasionally teleport from shadow to shadow stalking groups and initiating encounters against the unwary. Walls that would rearrange themselves by way of either Putty monsters, or moving stone walls.

All of this glossed things over like specific craft and workstation rooms I'd left to fit the flavor of the floor or to give Delvers a way to make use of the stuff they just farmed. As soon as Herbie got the details ironed out I'd even have a per adventurer storage system in place they could draw from, but considering making something to interface with people who had never seen any sort of computers along with all the backend problems? That was filed under 'long term projects.'

The cherry on top was where the dressed stone stopped and things lead to a cave system beneath the town. Here had many natural creatures, or at least encounters that weren't mine. The fishing in the underground pond was surprisingly nice, and the bioluminescence fungal growths and bugs did give just enough room to navigate by if they lost their lights.

Here though was where my heart lay. Set perfectly in the undressed limestone was a circle of black marble carved with arcane symbols and runes, traced over with carved lines inscribing a perfect circle a good twenty yards across.

By the time Stone Soup got to this level she had to make several trips up, oft accompanied by monsters designated as Mercy Escorts to help delvers get up and out of the trouble they'd gotten themselves into. her ego was bruised. Her pride wounded. By the time she made it to the cavern it had been with not just a party of three, but two other parties of three for immediate backup.

She was there when Ishida's respawn timer went off. Bonehead had been told of this and was already waiting, a wide canvas folding chair open and ready, which Ishida seemed glad for as she faced the inspection parties.

"Considering my last memories were bailing this yutz out from Kronos trying to eat him and take over his core?" She jerked a thumb in the general direction my awareness was centered at, "Do we have to do this now Ma'am?"

Bonehead gestured to Ishida as if saying, 'What she said. Cut the lady some slack."

There was a slow head shake from Stone Soup. "'Fraid not ma'am. Skipping over one of Lonely Hill's strongest minions, and one who's origins lay with a corrupt dungeon I am obliged and required to face you to assess your strength and intent in combat."

"I was afraid of that." Ishida stretched, circling her arms about, flexing her legs and back. "Well, you heard the lady."

Bonehead gave one of those impossible grins of his as he held a fist out, which Ishida rapped knuckles with. The moment he stepped from the undressed stone of the cave onto the marble of the arena a rapid change occurred. Seniew, Muscle, Skin, all of the trappings of Life built around his bones until, in this one place and for this one purpose, he was once again the man he was.

Dark and deep brown eyes looked out at the groups that had stepped into this arena. Stone Soup would see a lank man, all sinew and hard edges. He flexed, looking at his new flesh in wonder and surprise. "This." He breathed quietly, voice recognizable from the other times he has spoken and yet containing a warmth that hadn't been there before. "This is going to take some getting used to."

Ishida grinned, lightly punching his shoulder to get his attention. "You can stare at your meat later. We've got to entertain company now."

"Awww. They're interrupting the good part, but I guess I can show it off." There was mock hurt in the man's voice. He grinned as he stretched then took a wide stance beside her. Then he winked as he looked her way, "So long as you're comfortable with an audience watching that is."

Stone Soup stared as the pair started laughing and buried her face in her hands. A long deep breath before her group formally stepped into the arena of dressed stone.

Then the music started. Mostly because the MAFIAA wasn't here to tell me to stop, and I thought it was both rather appropriate for the pair and while I'm sure my memories were mashing up several versions,. It felt right.

Plus the lyrics would give a hint on how to prevent the fight from getting truly nasty. I was cheating and burning far more mana than a dungeon my size should have, but this moment? I had my friend back. If you thought about it, Bonehead very much is the me that fought side by side with her before. So, to have that again? I went all out. Slow-rolling music. The runes of the arena faintly glowed when all three groups stepped into the arena.

Stone Soup squinted as she looked at the pair.

SEPERATE WAYS (Worlds Apart) Ishida: Mythic Light of Bygone Age.Kamio: He Who Held Back the Dark.