Although I knew I wouldn’t be taking that journey to the surface, to keep up with moral, I encouraged the others to keep going. If this allowed all of the deep dwarves to live and reach the surface quickly to warn others, then it would be worth the attempt. I could hear hammering already, even though Terra was still designing the thing with Garnet as a consultant. They’d be doing it by the seat of their pants.

I decided to focus on what I could do, which was managing the battle between the two dungeons. I needed to hold them off for as long as possible. Only an hour passed by when the barrier to the Twilight had been broken. I moved the forces I could spare, working on slowing them down by any means necessary. I was no longer focused on repelling or stopping them. As long as I could delay them another minute, that would suffice.

I also began to consume any useless items or superfluous areas, turning them into mana. If I had to chop off every limb of the dungeon to keep it alive as long as it needed to survive, I would do so. Progress moved quickly, and the 2nd Boss room was breached. The Blood Spirit hadn’t taken much damage in the first fight, and I had healed the Apeman. They were joined by the three-headed bear. A free-for-all once again occurred in the boss room, lasting for nearly fifteen minutes.

{Your monster, the Apeman, has died.}

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I had to collapse this room as well. Unfortunately, with our Terra or myself there, collapsing the room had consequences. The bear had to hold King Diorite back during the collapse, and he was caught in it as well.

{Your monster, the Three-headed bear, has died.}

The Blood Spirit, since it didn’t depend on a physical body, was the only one to escape. I was down to a single final boss. It was another ten minutes when the Infernal Hell broke through on their side. I didn’t even try to fight them. I immediately collapsed more corridors.

Another hour passed by, and every time they broke through, I collapsed again. The Blood Spirit did his best to hold back the wraiths. He was extremely effective against the wraiths, and many of them fell to his bloody screams. However, in the end, they overwhelmed him.

{Your monster, the Blood Spirit, has died.}

The last of my bosses were killed. I had managed to hold things for three hours. Had it only been three hours? It had felt like three days. I was covered with sweat and gasping for air. I had been functioning totally as a dungeon master, my awareness being on the dungeon and not what was around me. Therefore, I hadn’t kept notice of the progress that was being made.

“We’re finished!” Gabbro announced.

Behind him was a new door to my room, although this one appeared to be glass. It led into a large room, which appeared to be the drill base. There was a boom, and I could feel the boss room being breached. King Diorite was finally here.

“Go! Everyone, get in the rocket, we’re out of time!”

It was cutting it close, but they might just be able to make it. As for me, my fate was already decided.