Dungeon of Doors

~ Pontiff Tallow, Beneath The Enclave ~

I'm sure I'd look like a ghost to anyone else right now. My complexion has lost its color, and the candle I hold flickers dangerously as I tremble in the face of God's Voice. I force myself to tighten my grip on the candle until my knuckles turn white with effort. I'm the supreme figure in the church, damn it!

Dry wind tickles my ears as something long and knobbly shifts at the edge of the shadows. My resolve wavers as I let out a low choked whimper. God's Voice speaks once more.

"Her… Weakness… Revealed."

I have to assume God's Voice is referring to the heretic responsible for the dungeon. All I can bring myself to do is nod my head in understanding. He doesn't seem to mind as he continues to speak—his words whistle in my ears like the beginnings of a storm on the horizon.

"Doors… Never… Mattered."

My head nods before I even process what God's Voice is saying to me. He previously told me to close her door, or was it doors? Now he is contradicting that notion. I can only assume some trickery was involved on the heretic's part to obscure her weakness from God himself.

"I-I see. Holy Father, I beseech you, what is the heretic's true weakness?"

The words which part from my lips don't make it very far before being swallowed by the darkness. I swallow nervously as I see faint shapes moving in the dark. Pointy segmented limbs and fingers grasping at the stone floor. They dip back into the shadows as God's Voice speaks once again.

"Delve… Her… Gauntlet."

Confusion knits my brow. We are to send our forces into the mouth of the beast, where they never returned from in the past? My doubts are forgotten when I hear a whisper tickle my ear from just behind me. Goosebumps erupt along my nape as I feel something lightly brush my neck.

"Shatter… Her… Core."

Soft fearful whimpers linger in the back of my throat. Sharp points slide along my neck, leaving red scratches as God's Voice somehow grows ever closer to my ear. I feel something dry and coarse tickle my ear. God's words slip into my ear like infernal parasites crawling to the base of my skull.

"Every… Last… One."

My eyes widen upon realizing the implications. The heretic has multiple cores? Could it be like a beast having multiple hearts? Confusion knits my brow as God's Voice retreats, his presence retreating into the darkness behind me.

Relief washes over me as I feel the pressure of God's presence retreat. The darkness stops squirming, and all that I'm left with is the flickering candlelight. I waste no time in turning and retreating back up the steps toward my office.

I've got a lot of work to delegate, and a lot of stress to burn.

~ Vivian, Daywark ~

Everyone around the table is exhausted after all the heavy conversation topics. The energy has been completely sucked out of the room, and it is high time I take my leave. I rise from my seat and fix Teddy with a look. He raises his brows expectantly.

"I should be going."

"Oh, right, it is getting kind of late…"

There's a pause where everyone collectively glances to the window, through with plenty of sunlight pours. Teddy coughs to hide his obvious fib before gesturing to Andy.

"Can you take her home, Andy?"

Andy nods after a moment's hesitation "Of course."

Well this won't do at all. I can't teleport back to my dungeon if Andy is following me around. I shake my head, waving the boys off with my best attempt at a reassuring smile.

"That really won't be necessary-"

"You were being attacked when we found you, Vivian. I'm accompanying you."

He is set on it. I reluctantly nod my head and Andy follows me to the door. The others wave lamely as a form of goodbye—the argument from earlier has killed everyone's desire to be friendly. I lead Andy out of the small home and down the street. He doesn't speak at first, only piping up once we're on a populated street.

"Where are you from?"

I could say anything in reply. He would probably never believe the truth of my origin, and I shouldn't mention I'm from the dungeon anyway. I don't know the name of any town or even country other than the one we're currently in. A specific cover story is going to be tricky.

"The capital."

"Really? You don't sound like it…"

"Never said I was raised there."

Andy looks thoughtful upon hearing my words. I'm just making up a believable yet mysterious background, since apparently I come off as foreign to Daywark's locals. We keep walking and I spot what I'm confident is an Inn. Andy follows me inside.

The place is a lot less lively than the last establishment I visited. There's fewer seating options, and the decor is more polished. The woman behind the counter gives the pair of us a searching eye as we approach the counter.

"I'd like a room."

One long look up and down at me and Andy later, she replies.

"We're full up, sorry."

Disappointment churns in my gut. The way the innkeeper is acting makes it clear she's lying to our faces. It isn't that she has no rooms for us, but that she thinks we can't afford her prices. While I could call her out here I think I'd rather teleport home on the spot! Of course that would be a huge blunder, so I'll settle for leaving without incident.

"That's a shame, but I understand. Thank you anyway."

I turn and motion for Andy to follow me out. Unfortunately Andy is not as averse to direct confrontation as I am, and so he places a palm firmly on the counter-top. My jaw drops slightly as I watch him glare up at the innkeeper.

"Perhaps you could check again? It sure doesn't look full, judging by this empty dining room."

The innkeeper gives Andy a sour looking frown. I panic slightly, shifting my weight from foot to foot as I place a hand on Andy's shoulder. He looks back at me sharply and I question him as quietly as I can manage without preventing him from hearing me.

"What are you doing?!"

"Getting you a room, obviously. She was lying to your face."

What kind of confidence does this kid have? The innkeeper doesn't kick him out or scream in his face, and unexpectedly she lets out a long sigh. She gestures flippantly toward the stairs.

"I've got two rooms open, but they're not cheap."

Andy turns and fixes her with a stare "How much?"

"Two silver."

Oh, that's not bad at all! I step back up to the counter and produce two silver coins. I don't know if its the shiny pristine nature of the currency, or something about the casual ease with which I offer them, but both Andy and the innkeeper look surprised.

"What? Is this incorrect?"

The innkeeper quickly grabs and slips the silver coins into a tin behind the counter. Her lips—which had been twisted into a frown—curl upwards into a proper smile. She produces a pair of identical small brass keys. She slides them both across the counter towards Andy and I.

"Here you are! Sorry about the mix up with the rooms, Miss."

"Oh, I only need one key."

The shopkeeper tilts her head "Oh? Are you not-"

Andy clears his throat loudly as he pushes the key offered to him back across the counter. The innkeeper takes it with an apologetic smile, and I pocket mine. The innkeeper starts prattling on about the amenities the room has whilst I contemplate what I need to do upon my return.

The first thing to be dealt with is the lack of cores, as the only cores in my dungeons are my own core, my false oversized core, and the core within the forest temple. I'll need to create some cores at the end of each dungeon in the event of a worse case scenario.

If the paladins operate as I hope they'll attempt to delve the dungeon in search of the cores, and if they find them they will likely seek to shatter them.

I'm brought out of my thoughts by Andy, who gently grabs my shoulder to stop me from walking into the closed door of my room at the inn.

"Vivian? Are you alright?"

"Quite. Just need to take a nap, is all."

"I see… Well, if you need a party we're always up to taking you along."

"Thank you for the kind offer, but I'm quite alright."

Andy wilts a little at my words. He offers me a parting wave and a bitter smile, one of which I return with a sway of my own wrist. I use the key to unlock the door and step inside before shutting myself in. With the privacy of the room I can finally return home.

Of course before that I must ensure the innkeeper doesn't think I stole her key. I place the key to the room on the desk pushed against the far wall, and pull my amulet out.

With a strong desire to return home I find myself nauseous.

The world around me spins before settling back into the familiar shape of my true core room. The soft blue glow of my sizeable core comforts me, putting at ease all the anxieties I built up during that outing. My mana reserves are looking a little better. Unfortunately I'll still need a lot more before I can do any major expansions.

It is plenty to create Woodrin and Aquartis' cores, thankfully.

I grab ahold of my core and feel my body slip aside as I float away from it. My consciousness moves at a brisk pace toward Darkwick, Woodrin's final level. I don't start in Darkwick, but rather below it. A new small cavern is dug by my mana shaped into a pickaxe.

The cylindrical space is only as large as a small two story house. I carve stairs descending from the ceiling in a spiral, reaching the bottom in a stylish flourish. My mana shapes into wood as I decorate the walls, floor, and ceiling with shaping wood. When I'm done sculpting the structure it resembles a hollow deep inside a massive tree. The smell of the forest is likely filling this room now.

The final touches to the chamber are a bunch of glourds to provide light to the room, and some smaller moss and water trickling through the cracks in the wooden room.

I move to Darkwick next, working on the other end of this chamber's stairs. Stone stairs cut into the ashen ground around the final treasure chest do the trick. With a spool of threaded mana I stitch Darkwick and Woodrin's core chamber together.

Now for the most important detail: Woodrin's core.

With swirling images of the forest and all life within filling my head, I sculpt the perfectly spherical core out of mana. The drain on my mana is more than quadruple the construction of the core chamber itself. I press on, thankful my estimations on mana cost are holding true.

Green shiny gemstone forms as my mana condenses in the air. I focus on forming the core whilst using a tendril of mana to shape the floor into a proper pedestal meant to house the core. Minutes pass as I layer mana over mana to form the glowing green dungeon core.

Woodrin's core is an softly glowing matte forest green orb. While removing it won't make Woodrin collapse or anything, it will trigger a flushing mechanism of sorts. Removing or breaking the core will enforce a cascading reset event in each of the levels.

For Darkwick that means temporarily removing the constraints of the dire shadows to swallow up anyone too slow to leave.

In Maple Weald the winds shall grow so fierce nothing but the most securely shut wildkin homes will remain intact.

Flathoof Haven will suffer similarly strong wind and rain, alongside a lifting of constraints normally imposed on the rok.

The Wildwood will be overrun with woodwalkers. Their entire population will stampede wildly, pushed toward adventurers by the invisible hand of my runes.

Green Valley's blood moon will be enforced as it does when the level needs resetting.

Finally, the antechamber will quake and crumble much like it did in that explosion the paladins caused. Of course the damage will only affect the ceiling of the chamber so that it may collapse only visually. The walls, doors, and floor will all remain intact.

Before I move onto Aquartis' core, I do need to check the core's effects personally.

It wouldn't do for my surprise to never reach the paladins, after all.