Until now, Trevisanus, the dungeon heart, had been having the most fun he’d had in years. This group was different from any other he had encountered. Every moment brought a new surprise. Cooling down the mist wasn’t new, but few revenants used ice magic, let alone with area-of-effect spells. He remembered a druid specialized in weather magic; that one had completely messed up his first level.
His strategy to remove the team leader had worked, just as it had countless times before. Some groups had a second-in-command ready to take over seamlessly, but that was rare, even among elite kingdom warriors.
Now, the entire first floor was in chaos. Spell matrices were imploding, and a chain reaction of failing enchantments threatened to disable the whole level. Error prompts flashed one after another, and mana sparked from the ceiling of the heart room. Trevisanus frantically manipulated the mana flow, trying to prevent the collapse of his first dungeon floor. Only his trusted fairy, Galadressa, could hear him cursing the delvers.
Galadressa, struggling to follow the events, asked, “What’s wrong? His knife couldn’t have damaged the pillar that much.”
“What?! By Golgoroth’s triple foul breath, where did he get shadow-affinity mana? We check for shadow crystals at the entrance.”
“I’ve never heard of this class before today. How would I know? Can you contain the reaction?”
Trevisanus focused for a moment, then blinked yellow once.
Galadressa frowned. “Since they haven’t defeated all the adult monsters, found the hidden lever, or solved the pillar riddle, when do you plan to trigger the boss fight? Should we wait until they’re done fighting?”
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Trevisanus trailed off as he sensed a characteristic change in the magical currents. A fairy portal was opening. His fairy was still here, so… he got a visitor? This was unexpected. Another dungeon fairy? Was there a fairy meeting planned no one had told him about?
The portal sparkled open. A dungeon fairy stood on the other side and respectfully bowed as soon as she saw the dungeon heart. “I bring a message for Galadressa. I ask your permission to enter.”
Trevisanus flared up slightly.
The fairy nodded, bowed again, and crossed through the portal. Galadressa hurried to meet her. “Tessylvi! What’s going on? Are you here to delve too?”
Tessylvi looked horrified. “Delve? Are you out of your mind? Do I look insane?”
Galadressa chuckled. “No, of course not. But who authorized your visit?”
Standing tall, Tessylvi declared, “The High Fairy sent me with a message. She has invoked Article 50. All dungeon fairies in active service are hereby summoned to meet at the hidden cavern at sunrise in three days.”
Trevisanus chimed in.
Tessylvi blinked in shock at the crystal. “How in all realms do you know that?” She turned to Galadressa. “You even taught him about the Addled Articles? Really? I’ve never even mentioned the Accords to any of my former dungeons.”
Galadressa waved dismissively. “A complete education is key to long-term success.”
Trevisanus didn’t feel the need to correct her.
Galadressa grew serious. “I didn’t expect the situation to become so dire so early into the plague. I wonder what went wrong this time. Of course, I’ll attend. I still remember the last time we had to act. That was when we had to stop revenants from attempting to ascend to godhood. We did not expect them to succeed, but the cost in lives caused by their megalomanic mass sacrificial ritual would have been catastrophic.”
“Article 50 doesn’t require the cabal to focus on world domination,” Galadressa replied. “That’s just one example. We would’ve acted even without a formal Article allowing us, but invoking it made everything faster. Everyone understood what we needed to do, and there was no fear of repercussions from Golgoroth since he sanctified the Accords. He may have laughed while doing it, but he did sanctify them.”
Galadressa nodded seriously. “I’d prefer that.”
Galadressa opened her mouth, then hesitated, glancing at Tessylvi. “We had an acronym… something starting with ‘A.’ It’s been so long. Maybe they’ve even changed it.”
Tessylvi shrugged. “The High Fairy decided to stick with the old name: AGATHA - Acolytes of Golgoroth Against Tyrannical Heroes Ascending.”