The journey was faster than Rieren had assumed it would be. Despite the sloping tunnel they had entered having several different intersections and side-passages, Kervantes’s guidance was sure and unerring. For all that he mainly focused on protecting his dungeon, he would have made a good guide within it.

“When you mentioned the others before,” Amalyse said. “I assume you meant the Abyssals. But I’m curious how exactly did those monsters come in here and take over everything. Actually… I’m not even sure there was a dungeon underneath Lionshard mountain before the apocalypse, was there?”

Another clanking laugh from the automaton. “Many of the tunnels and passages that make up the dungeon beneath your mountain have been there for as long as I was able to deduce. Likely dug by long-forgotten and long-dead creatures beyond our concern.”

“So… you just appropriated them to turn them into your own.”

“Well, we had to perform a lot of our own digging. In fact—”

“You hollowed out most of the mountain,” Rieren said.

Kervantes turned to her. It was eerie how it could rotate its head without needing to move its torso. For the dozenth time, she wished its hole-ridden ceramic face could betray some sort of expression for her to decipher it properly. “Correct. We dug out the most of the mountain to create multiple, branching passageways.”

“Not to mention the roofs of many tunnels that can form an alternate route.”

“Most of those are actually not supposed to be used.”

Amalyse snorted. “Yet I doubt you were guarding the tunnels’ exterior as well.”

Kervantes didn’t reply, perhaps letting the silence admit that it was the truth. Rieren had first met him much deeper in the dungeon, after all. The path Kervantes had taken them now started to narrow. They were forced to go along it in single file, the automaton at the lead with Amalyse in the middle and Rieren bringing up the rear.

Atop Rieren’s head, it felt as though Batcat had turned so that it was facing behind them. Perhaps keeping an eye out on their backs? Good kitten. That was, if it wasn’t napping.

“Speaking of guarding,” Rieren said. “Tell us, if you would, the context of your current predicament. I can surmise that you do not approve of your dungeon’s… cooperation with the Abyssals. And yet, I would have thought you would remain close by to continue protecting the Core.”

“Core?” Amalyse asked.

“A dungeon functions thanks to the efforts of its Dungeon Core.”

“Is it like a Beast Core?”

“Sort of. But it is much more conscious. In fact, Dungeon Cores are the only conscious parts of a dungeon. They are also much more elusive and difficult to find than Beast Cores. You cannot simply kill a dungeon and loot a Dungeon Core off its body.”

There was a coughing sound from Kervantes. Perhaps he understandably wished for them to stop talking about killing Dungeon Cores. “They have allied together.”

“Yes, as I surmised,” Rieren said.

“I opposed the alliance. Therefore, I was shunned. When I attempted to point out how working together with such monsters would be dangerous, I was banished to the fringes of the dungeon.”

“Ah. Makes more sense now.”

It was a terrific thought to imagine that the Abyssals were finding allies to work with in much the same way the Sect had been doing, albeit at the behest of the Forborne Emperor’s faux cooperation. It wasn’t unlikely that there were intelligent Abyssals pulling the strings of the weaker ones. She had killed a few of those in her last life, though certainly not all.

“Let me guess,” Amalyse said. “You’ve now sworn vengeance against the corrupting Abyssals and will do everything you can to remove their presence from your dungeon.”

Kervantes gave a slight nod. “Correct. More or less.”

“What about the rest of your kind?” Rieren asked. “You are neither the only Ceramic Automaton here, nor the only defender of this dungeon.”

At that, Kervantes paused, if only momentarily. “There are many who feel much the same as I do. Well, as much as we are capable of feeling. But none wishes to stand against the dungeon, certainly not after what happened to me.”

“In other words, we cannot count on them to help.”

“Not at the moment and not so easily. But, if we can prove our case to them, we can find ourselves some strong allies.”

“Are you sure we can prove our case to them?” Amalyse asked, skeptical. “Forgive my bluntness, but are you even certain they do feel the same as you about the Abyssals? For all we know, some of them actually helped this Dungeon Core of yours to work together with the monsters.”

“Casting aspersions on the judgment of my comrades does not help our cause one bit.”

“I don’t seek to cast aspersions. All I’m saying is that we need to be capable of handling this mess on our own instead of counting on getting more allies.”

“We are getting some allies, however,” Rieren said. She flashed a smile at Amalyse when her friend looked back. “Soon enough, we shall find our comrades, thanks to Kervantes.”

This was true enough that it caused another little lull in their conversation. Well, that and the path changing once more.

Instead of walking through a narrow passageway, they were now hopping down several flights of long, broad steps. A stairway that was curving off to their right. It wouldn’t have been that remarkable save for the corpse they met after a few minutes.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

“I don’t recognize him,” Amalyse said.

Rieren knelt before the body of the dead guardsman. She also had no recollection of who it was, and a part of her was relieved that it wasn’t Avalien who had died here. Though, the difficulty in recognition was in part due to the injuries he had suffered.

Something had made a mess of his upper torso, including a part of his head, crushing both to bloody pulp. Grisly bones poked out through the mess. His spear lay broken to kindling not far from the body itself. The blood was fresh and the decay hadn’t set in yet, so it couldn’t have been that long since the time of the poor man’s death.

“Me neither,” Rieren said. “But this does not bode well.”

Kervantes clicked his mouth together. “Oh, I think this is rather normal. Or will be, the further we go on.”

That did nothing to ease Rieren. They moved on, hurrying faster to reach wherever the closest group of Sect members were before something worse befell them.

It was perhaps a little bold of them to think that they could turn any tide they might come upon. But Rieren was confident enough. Divine Resilience had done and was doing an excellent job of healing her up, and they were accompanied by a powerful dungeon guardian.

The Abyssals wouldn’t know what hit them.

“What exactly do the Abyssal want over here?” Amalyse asked some moments later as the ground levelled out. “As in, what do they gain from the dungeon by allying with it?”

“The power of reproducing rapidly,” Rieren said.

Kervantes rotated his head to look at her again. “I am the dungeon guardian here. Might you allow me to do the explaining, please?”

Rieren laughed. “As you wish.”

“Thank you.” Turning back to look at the path ahead with no small amount of affront, Kervantes explained. “One of a dungeon’s key powers is the ability to both absorb anything within its grounds and reproducing those absorbed things at a rapid pace in order to populate its hallways.”

“How?” Amalyse asked. “And why?”

“I take it you have never delved into dungeons before. But that is neither here nor there. It is a thing that dungeons do. Adventurers seek to claim what lies within dungeons, and thus, dungeons must create obstacles to prevent said adventurers from taking what they do not deserve.”

“Dungeons also specialize in certain Aspects as well,” Rieren added. “Which makes their creations stronger.”

“Yes. For instance, this dungeon specializes in ceramics. Normal ceramic is brittle and easy to shatter, but you will be hard-pressed to find anything that can break my hide. But regardless, the Abyssals seek to make use of both of those properties to raise their numbers and their inherent potency.”

“I think I understand,” Amalyse said. “So now, instead of Ceramic Automatons being created, we’re getting more and more powerful Abyssals. That… would explain why we kept getting those invasions over and over again.”

Rieren couldn’t agree more. She had suspected the dungeon had something to do with the invasions, but it was only now becoming clear the exact extent of the dungeon’s involvement. “Regarding that line of thought, How exactly did you come to this… deplorable state of affairs?”

Amalyse nodded. “Good question. I don’t suppose the Abyssals invaded your dungeon, killed all your other defenders, and then coerced your Dungeon Core to cooperate. Well, you did say the other defenders were still alive.”

Kervantes made a noise that again sounded close to a sigh, but not quite. He didn’t have the physiological ability to do so. “The world itself conspires against us. Or perhaps, I should say whatever system now governs our world. The Abyssals first started appearing via Abyss Rents. They bypassed our security and made contact with the Dungeon Core directly.”

“And the rest is history,” Rieren said.

Kervantes nodded morosely.

It was easy to imagine what had happened next. Once contact had been established, the Abyssals attempt at converting the Dungeon Core to their side had been successful. Then, the defenders had likely been commanded to not only treat the monsters as guests, but to assist them as well.

Rieren wouldn’t have been surprised to see the dungeon defenders assaulting the Sect along with the Abyssals in the next invasion. The guardians of a dungeon couldn’t function as well as they could within their dungeon, but little function was still better than nothing.

Amalyse raised a finger to her chin. “I’m hoping we can close these Abyss Rents.”

“We should be able to,” Rieren said. “Though, it will not be easy.”

Kervantes clapped his ceramic hands together. “Excellent. Then we must keep forging onwards as fast as we can.”

She wasn’t about to let him off the hook so easily. “Speaking of onwards, I wish to know what became of the Sect.”

“Oh, you mean the invaders such as yourself?”

“Correct.”

“They scattered.”

“I never would have guessed,” Amalyse said.

“Why did they scatter, Kervantes?” Rieren asked.

The automaton took a moment to answer. “For several reasons, I suspect. Well no. For several reasons I know. One, the collapsing mountain meant much of the dungeon was and is collapsing as well—as if I didn’t have enough to worry about already. For another, I was… rather rude to the ones I came across and drove them away.”

“As in, you attacked them. I doubt you offered them tea.”

“I attempted. Twice. They were rather graceless when it came to accepting my hospitality.”

“Do you know where exactly they went?” Amalyse asked. “Not just the ones you’re leading us to. Everyone. There were a lot of them.”

Rieren was worried about them too. Especially the very first group, led by Elder Olg. It had been a while since she had heard anything of him.

“I am afraid I did not keep track of most of your companions. I had other things in mind. Perhaps you will find them from the ones I do know the location of.”

“Was it you who put in the giant boulder in the middle of the rear entrance as well?” Rieren asked.

“Ah.” Kervantes scratched the back of his head. An oddly human gesture. “I did, yes. Watching an entire horde of your kind pilfer through the rear was quite alarming, I can assure you. As such, I thought to block it and prevent any further entry.” He glanced back briefly at them. “Clearly, I failed.”

Amalyse grinned. “No, you were right.” She quickly explained how they had taken a crack in the wall to get out of danger and into their current situation. “The world is just conspiring against you.”

Kervantes made a frustrated noise somewhere in the back of his mechanical throat.

“You may have noted some people in particular,” Rieren said. “Have you seen a man with a ceramic mask, adorned in a green-and-black robe? Or perhaps an armoured woman with a long sword and potentially cape made of fire? An older man with grey hair and eyes?”

Kervantes paused again. This time, he actually twisted his entire upper body to face Rieren. “I recall the first. Why do you ask?”

There was a dangerous note in the automaton’s voice, suggesting that he didn’t appreciate being reminded of the Masked Avatar. Excellent. Rieren could take advantage of that. An enemy of her enemy could become a powerful… if not friend, at least a temporary ally.

“That was the Masked Avatar,” Rieren said. “The reason why we are here in all this mess. Well, much of it, at least. As such, I have a vested interest in finding and putting a stop to him.”

“I see.” He turned around and kept walking. “In that case, you will be disappointed to know that the last I saw of him, he was leaving the dungeon via a different exit.”

Rieren didn’t have much reason or basis to doubt Kervantes. He likely hadn’t lied to them so far, and from all she knew in her past life, he wasn’t the deceptive sort at all. Yet, he didn’t need to lie to her. He could simply be mistaken.

For Rieren was certain the Masked Avatar wasn’t done attempting to ruin her life just yet.

Of course, Rieren herself wasn’t as important to the Avatar as the dungeon. The connection she had surmised—where Auri had been in the clutches of both the Gravemark Puppeteer and the Masked Avatar—suggested he might have something to do with the monsters in the dungeon as well.

“We have nearly arrived,” Kervantes said all of a sudden. “Do you hear them?”

Rieren needed a moment longer to make out what the automaton was referring to. He likely had a stronger ears than Rieren did. But it was there. At the edge of her hearing.

The Abyssals. Many of them. A veritable army, going by the sheer volume of the distant noise. And through it all, among the distant racket, she was certain she could make out another set of noises too. Ones that set her heart pumping a little harder.

People.

Rieren had found the Sect at last.