"Good work, Crumbs! You were right on the money...this time!" An earth elemental turns to stare at the fiery man speaking while standing next to a clamshell statue.

"What do you mean this time, Scorch? I told you it would be mostly random guessing, after we spent all that time hunting and getting lost in the tunnels. I told you we might not even be anywhere close yet! We just got lucky, is all."

In another corner of the room, a more feminine flame's found an entirely different topic of interest. "Oh my, look at this bed! It's the softest thing I've seen in my entire life! Not that that's a hard challenge, given I've barely seen anything other than bare stone all my life." She hops on top of the large piece of furniture, and the rabbit-fur blankets begin to spark. "And look how flammable it is! Hey Scorch...wanna celebrate our discovery with a little bit of fun?"

"You ought to stop thinking with your firepit all the time, Cinder! We're deep in enemy territory, now, no time for dawdling! It's time for...The Plan." With a serious look on his nearly nonexistent face, the masculine elemental turns to face another boulder-shaped man who's just entered the room from a raw tunnel carved into one wall. "Flint, can you help Crumbs find what we're looking for?"

The new arrival laughs, a deep rumbling sound. "Hah, like that takes any effort at all! The thing glows like a magma vein! Behold!" The elemental steps over to the statue Scorch is standing next to and rests one hand on it. Within seconds the sculpture's crumbled to dust, leaving only the base intact and revealing a swirled stone hidden within. "Pshaw, that was some of the softest stone I've ever encountered! This is supposed to be security!?"

Before Scorch can respond, a human woman suddenly pops into the room, her dark pupils glaring out of an alabaster face. "Hey! What - elementals!? Where the heck did you guys come from!? And what do you think you're doing with my core!?"

The lead elemental gasps. "It's them! The Tyrant of Above is here! Hold steady, brothers and sisters!"

Xenia's face turns from one of anger to...well, still anger, but with quite of a bit of confusion added in as well. "The Tyrant of...what? Dude, you must have me mixed up with someone else."

"Do you deny your acts, tyrant? Do you deny that you sent your agents into our sovereign realm, to capture our lord and master for no doubt sinister purposes?" Scorch crosses his arms, his voice thick with judgment.

The dungeon master pinches her nose for a moment before answering. "Are...are you talking about Sincere?"

Her question is answered by a third earth elemental who steps into the room, this one speaking with a woman's voice. "Yes! The Sincere Demon! The one who promised us a kingdom of elementals, for elementals!"

Xenia stares at her. "What? He never told me anything like that!"

Scorch again responds with accusations. "Aha, no doubt he's managed to refuse your tortures even after all this time! Well, now the tables have turned, villain! You shall return our lord to us within the hour, or your core shall be forfeit!"

"Whoa, whoa, this is all just a huge misunderstanding!" As yet another fire elemental steps into the room, Xenia begins to realize just how much risk she's really in at the moment. "Just how many of you are there, anyhow?"

"We have been biding our time, building our numbers! Perfecting our strategy!"

Crumbs butts in. "Getting lost."

"...Exploring the limits of our domain! Now, shall you hear our demands, or do we need to get...rough?" He gestures in the direction of Xenia's core, and the woman sighs.

"Sure, let's...let's talk this shit out..."

----------------------------------------

Several minutes later, Xenia's avatar reappears in the middle of a very-confused conference meeting. "...You ever have those days where you just really hate your life?"

Alizz gives Xenia an unimpressed look. "More often than usual, of late. But tell us, who managed to skip directly into your core chamber from outside the dungeon?"

"I'll be honest, I kind of forgot these guys existed. Sincere, remember how you left like half of your elementals downstairs, because finding them all would've taken too much time? Well, they finally showed up."

Taly scratches her head. "Eh? We left directions back at Sincere's camp, I drew the maps myself. It took them...that had to have been more than two months ago, right? If they hadn't found the way out by now I woulda figured they just liked it down there."

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Well, apparently they were 'exploring' the dungeon, and growing their numbers. I, uh...I think a fire elemental tried reading your map and burned it up, not that he said as much. I dunno how many of them you summoned, Sin-man, but sounds like they've been going through and finding more elementals who were boxed up, like that Roxxy was. There's at least six in my core chamber right now but I think there's a lot more still out there."

Sincere's expression grows concerned. "You don't sound pleased by this. Is there some sort of problem with the elementals?"

Xenia snorts. "Yeah, apparently they've pegged you as some sort of king-slash-father-figure, and they're mad at me for kidnapping you and locking you away in my dungeon. They think I declared war on some sort of...Elemental Kingdom, or something like that."

"Elemental - ? What nonsense is that? Did they imagine I was planning to set up some sort of permanent home down in the abyss? I don't recall ever saying any such thing. Shall I go and have a word with them?"

His boss nods. "That's one of their demands, yeah. Well, not just talk, I think they want you back for good, but you're gonna need to explain why that's not an option. They've also got other demands. For one, they want us to 'free' the elementals we 'kidnapped' along with you."

Slooshy, who'd left the river and approached the conference area at the sound of elemental talk, shouts in defiance. "What!? They want us to go back down there!? There's no water down there! A couple more weeks of that and I would've dehydrated! Let me guess, some dim torch came up with that one? We're good up here, thanks."

"Thanks for the support. We're gonna have to be careful about this, though. They're threatening the core if we don't make them happy, and they've already found the thing. If this turns into a fight I don't know if we can take them all out in time." Pointing at the ground, Xenia generates a new shortcut portal ring. "This'll get you to the door outside the chamber, Sincere, but try not to make any sudden moves, yeah?"

Lilly, the elven priestess representing the Church of Bounty, steps forward. "Is there anything we can do to assist, dungeon master?"

Xenia shakes her head. "Right now, swarming in a bunch of folks is just gonna risk causing a panic, but thanks for the offer. You all mind holding tight while we sort this out, though?"

Alizz nods assent on behalf of the group. "Of course - anything happening to your core would be a disaster for us as well. If you need anything, just let us know."

"Thanks. Alright, Sincere, time to get me out of this hostage situation, eh?" The Core Guardian nods, and as he steps into the ring the two once again vanish.

----------------------------------------

As Sincere steps through the door into the core chamber, a cheer goes up from the waiting elementals. "Lord Sincere! Lord Sincere!"

The newly-titled lord quickly waves his hands to try and get them to settle down. "Calm yourselves, please. I am here, there's no reason for alarm. Now, can someone tell me what exactly is going on here?"

Scorch steps forward to speak for the group. "We're here to rescue you, my lord! So that you can continue to summon our brothers and sisters, and build our kingdom below!"

Sincere eyes the flickering fellow warily. "There seems to be some confusion here, I'm afraid. For starters, I am no one's lord. Secondly, explain to me what you mean when you refer to this 'kingdom'?"

The elemental's head tilts, although his expression is unreadable. "The...kingdom you were building before the adventurers kidnapped you, sir? Or did you mean for it to be more of an empire?"

"I didn't mean for it to be a polity of any sort. My camp in the Great Dungeon was semi-permanent only - perhaps a few months at most, if I fully stretched my supplies to their limit. Did I ever say otherwise?"

With a bit of uncertainty, the fire elemental glances towards his compatriots. "But...you told us to secure your territory, sir! And to fend off invaders, while you summoned more of our kind!"

The demon pauses for a moment of thought. "I suppose I did use the term territory once or twice perhaps, but I never meant...but, never mind. It doesn't matter. This hostility towards Worthy Dungeon is entirely unwarranted, the dungeon master and I are currently on excellent terms. When you did not follow us, I had simply assumed that you had gone your own way. If you would like to spend time here as guests, I'm certain we can overlook this minor property damage."

The female earth elemental speaks up, with a bit of hope in her voice. "Ah, if you're on good terms, then that means you can return to help us summon more elementals! None of us have any idea how you did it, we've only been able to awaken a few cores we've found hidden around the mountain."

"Ah, well, I'm afraid I must disappoint you on two fronts, then. The floor core I used for that purpose was destroyed, and it would likely take weeks to find another one stable enough to use as an alternative source. And that would not be possible for me even if I wished it, as I am now a permanent resident of the dungeon."

Scorch's tone again turns angry. "Curse her! That damned Tyrant has imprisoned you here after all! She may not have put chains on your body, but instead she's put chains on your mind. But...I have an idea!"

The look on Sincere's face is filled with doubt. "An idea, you say?"

"Crumbs! Take the core, and take it down below! If the floor core is destroyed, we'll use a dungeon core instead! And once the Tyrant has been weakened, your mind will be free! Free to return to us! We'll await you below, but for now - we must go!"

Sincere quickly steps forward, raising a hand. "What!? Now, see here - " He halts as he sees an earth elemental pry the core out of the ruined statue, and moves instead to cast a spell to freeze him in place. He never finishes, however, as another standing nearby suddenly swings an oversized fist and clocks him in the side of the head. The demon tumbles to the ground, stunned, and the elemental kneels down to briefly check him before returning to his feet.

"Good, I have not hurt you too badly. Forgive me, my lord! Once you're free, you'll understand our actions!" With that, the half-dozen intruders run off down the tunnel, carrying their prize.

----------------------------------------

Above, Xenia re-appears long enough to utter a single message to the waiting crowd. "Hey, quick update. I'm fucked!" With that, her avatar suddenly jolts and collapses, and before she can even hit the ground her form vanishes into a puff of smoke.

Eyes wide, Lollyp turns to the conference guests. "...Yeah, I think that about sums it up."