Chapter 30

Red Sands Desert, Contested Border Region.

Dungeon Factory, 1st Floor.

Diamond sheathed his sword, and took a deep breath, before looking back at the rest of his men.

To say they were the worse for wear would be a tremendous understatement. True, they were well trained and well equipped, but...this was a dungeon. They were used to handling short bursts of extreme combat, not the slow, steady, seemingly unending grind of combat of a dungeon delve. He felt a newfound sense of respect for the adventurers that endured this as part of their routines, in dungeon towns around the world.

Still, they endured. And according to their information, they had cleared the last room before the boss room. He calmly looked to the side to Onyx, and nodded at the architect's questioning gaze.

The specialist moved his hand to salute, before stopping at the last second with a smile of embarrassment, and reached for his satchel. He fiddled briefly with something inside of it, and a loud 'click' could be heard throughout the room. Onyx looked back up, and firmly nodded back at his CO.

"We're in range."

Diamond smiled.

"Well, it looks like it's about time! Ruby, if you and your boys could give Onyx here a hand?"

The corporal nodded, and gestured at her men, who practically leapt at the poor architect, who handed them pieces and bits of equipment, which they started to assemble immediately in a well rehearsed pattern. This was the one thing Diamond had made absolutely sure to drill so mercilessly into his men's head that they could do it in their sleep. He hope it wouldn't have been necessary, but....well, they were in the dungeon's depths, and the killing of the guards would almost certainly put the adventurer's guild on their backs as well. So even if half of his men weren't dead or captured already, continuing operations as normal would have been impossible.

All or nothing, a final throw of the dice...and this device would significantly level the odds, maybe even tip them in their favor.

Onyx gave the odd device a final look, before nodding at Diamond.

"Alright! Power it up!" He ordered, and Onyx complied, pressing the large, red button on the side of the device.

A hum filled the room...and then they all felt it, like a wave passing through them. And suddenly, the ambient mana wasn't as dense anymore, and the slight weight on their shoulders, like someone had been watching them this whole time, abated.

Diamond waited for a few seconds for all hell to break loose, then smiled as nothing happened.

"Excellent! Looks like it did work! Let's move!"

*****

Alexandra watched, perplexed, as the adventurers stopped, and started building...something. The fact that they had completely bypassed the shrine of war -and made her lose the bet- had totally nothing to do with her current, somewhat foul mood.

Absolutely nothing.

"What is that?" She asked.

"I don't know." Emilia frowned, and leaned forward. "It looks magical, but I'm not sure..." Then her eyes widened as the final piece was assembled, and the runes on the device began slightly glowing, as if in a testing pulse. "No....SHIT!"

Alexandra almost jumped as her friend turned around, and pointed at the screen, panic clear on her face.

"We need to destroy it! Now! It's an influence distru-"

Alexandra brutally stopped listening, as she felt...something like a brief void, inside of herself. Simultaneously, screen after screen started blacking out in the command center, the ones closest to the adventurers coming offline first.

Then, the invisible wave reached her core, and the Earth-born screamed.

It wasn't in pain, not really, just of the feeling of being...enveloped by something. Like a hand touching you, then grasping and completely covering you. It was almost suffocating.

"ALEX!" Screamed Emilia as she grabbed the suddenly shaking Earth-born, and stopped her from falling over from her stool. "Alex! Are you alright?"

Alexandra blinked, and fought off the sensation threatening to overwhelm her, regaining her balance.

"I..." She took a deep breath. "I'm fine." She looked up. "What the fuck just happened?"

Emilia sighed in relief, and gestured at the screen, where her spell was still watching over the adventurers, who were now apparently preparing to go fight CQ.

"These...bastards." She spit out. "Have just powered up an influence distruptor."

Alexandra blinked.

"An...influence distruptor?"

Emilia almost spat on the ground.

"Anti-dungeon weapon. Supposedly outlawed centuries ago, after the first United Dungeon War. It has two modes. The first one acts like the disruption area created by adventurers, well, their cores, just on a larger scale. The second one...The second one latches onto your core, and envelops it in...some sort of cocoon of energy. It prevents you from connecting to the rest of your influence, and, well, do anything."

Alexandra frowned.

"Then why am I still controlling this body? And why didn't you warn me about such a thing even existing?!?"

"Because they aren't supposed to exist anymore?!?" Emilia shrugged angrily. "Like I said, outlawed. And not, 'oh boo-hoo we'll put a small fine on you' outlawed, 'there's not going to be enough of you left once we're done to feed a rat' outlawed. Since it's only use is pretty much to enslave dungeons, especially younger ones, the UDC has been cracking down, hard, on whoever made these, or even had them in stockpile."

Alexandra opened her mouth, then closed it. Losing her calm wouldn't help, and the vampire girl was right. It was like warning someone about a NXVS gas attack back on Earth. Sure, it existed, but after the atrocities of the Terran Hegemony wars, and the millions that particular gas had killed, it had been so thoroughly outlawed that even at the height of tensions between the Eurofed and the UIS they were still cooperating in obliterating any would-be-warlord trying to manufacture it.

"Okay. Fair enough. So, what about the first part of my question?" She said as she sat up.

"Why you're still moving?" Alexandra nodded, and Emilia smiled. "That's because it's your dungeon avatar. It's...complicated, but more or less it's part of your core. Sort of. It's very complicated. But nothing will be able to interrupt the link between you and your avatar. Literally nothing, the only known way to break the link is to destroy the avatar itself. Or, well, your core."

"That...I suppose that makes sense." If a dungeon avatar was supposed to be essentially a war form for dungeons, to lead their troops into battle, it would make sense it make it immune to the sort of attacks that would usually deprive said dungeons of the control over their own forces. "That's something at least." She looked up at the adventurers, and frowned as their 'party' structure broke down.

Now she realized what was that feeling she couldn't quite place. They weren't acting quite like adventurers.

They were acting like soldiers trying to mimick adventurers.

Shit.

"Well, I suppose that all of this is to steal me. Or my core, which is the same thing."

Emilia grimly nodded.

"That's the only thing that makes sense."

Alexandra sighed.

Wonderful, she thought. Normally, she would have considered herself more than prepared for this, but with this...

"Alright. Well, we need to act fast." She looked up at the screen. "CQ isn't going to buy us much time. Jared!" The golem bowed, and she thanked the Gods that at least her golems recognized and understood voice commands. "Get all the praetorian guards together, and form them up in the core room."

The golem nodded, and departed the room, and Alexandra smiled. At least one of her more...frivolous design decision was going to pay off. Since she'd used Jared to keep an eye on the adventurers recovering in the resurrection room, she decided to give him the ability to order the praetorian guard as well (with, of course, an override only she knew), just in case some adventurers decided to get...rowdy.

Emilia frowned.

"Why form up in the core room? Shouldn't we be rushing to the boss room, and help CQ?"

Alexandra shook her head, and gestured at the blast door at the end of the hallway.

"We can't. Can't open the doors remember?" She winced. "And even if we could...I don't think it would have been a good idea."

"Why?"

"Think about it. They obviously have the assault guild's intel. That means they know how to take her down. Making our stand in the core room would only leave us on ground they've already prepared for, and would hand them the initiative to boot." She gestured at the trapped hallway. "Right now, our greatest asset is this. We need to have them come through, but not completely."

Emilia blinked.

"Beg your pardon?"

"Again, initiative. Look, I'm no ground force commander, but even I know that much. Holding a defensive position is all fine and dandy, but giving up the initiative always puts you at a disadvantage. In this case, it's even worse, because the only thing our defensive position gives us is traps, not walls or trenches. What we need to do is let them get whittled down by the traps, then counter-attack. Multiple times, if necessary. That way not only do we regain the initiative, or at least prevent them from gaining it, but we also hamper their movements. They can't push our troops too hard, for fear of the traps."

The vampire girl slowly nodded.

"Sort of like seeding the ground with charms of spark, to prevent melee fighters from overwhelming you?"

Alexandra froze, then slowly nodded.

"Sort of? I think I see what you mean by that. So yes, kind of." She looked up at the screen. "We can continue talking on the way, we have to move."

"Right. Uh...where are we going?"

Alexandra smiled wolfishly at her advisor.

"Well, if our guests are insisting to be this...uncouth, I think it's time we broke some of the rules. We have all these nice reserve golems, and all of those magnificent, unstable prototypes. It would be a shame if, ah, they were deployed in battle, wouldn't it?"

Emilia mirrored her friend's smile.

*****

"Remember everyone, take out the boss last. And for the love of the Gods, watch out for those beams, so Lapis, I'd appreciate it if you prioritized them."

"Yes sir!"

"Excellent. Then, everyone ready?"

Diamond looked at his men, and nodded in satisfaction as they met his gaze steadily. They looked ready.

"Then let's go!"

And with that, they charged forward into the boss room.

*****

"That should be about everything." Said Alexandra, as the group of golems carrying the scorpio not-prototype for the spider golem passed by her. They'd loaded in the prototype one by mistake earlier in the confusion, and well...there was no longer a prototype. At least the golems had gotten out intact. Mostly.

"Yep." Emilia shook her head. "Are you sure it isn't a bit...overkill?"

Alexandra smiled, coldly.

"Overkill will be when I start deploying KEWs."

"Kiwis?"

Alexandra froze, and laughed.

"K-Kiwis? No! I meant Kinetic Energy Weapons. Like....rods of metal, thrown from space. Well, usually from space. They move so fast that their impact creates a massive explosion."

That wasn't technically true, as while the characteristics of a KEW seemed similar, or even outright identical in some respects to that of a plasma bomb, it wasn't a detonation per se. It was more that it's immense kinetic energy was converted into thermal energy, turning the entire area around the impact point into plasma, and the 'explosion' part was just the massive shockwave of remaining kinetic energy bouncing off the target. In fact, some very high grade armor, the kind that sheathed UISN dreadnoughts or EFSN battleships could literally deflect anti-ship railguns rounds (which were KEWs, just shot at spaceships), which resulted in the entire armor belt ringing like a giant bell.

"Oh. Uuuuhhh...sure." Emilia shrugged. "In any case, you're the dungeon core. Besides, I approve of anything that would keep these....people from getting their hands on you."

Alexandra smiled, and put a hand on her advisor's shoulder.

"See, that's the spirit!" She sighed. "Now, that aside, we need to strategize." Her gaze became suddenly darker, as she looked at the floating screen following Emilia around, displaying the boss room, and the violent battle currently finishing inside of it. "These guys aren't exactly morons. Just charging in at them with everything we've got won't cut it."

Emilia nodded in agreement as she gave the screen a look as well.

Overall, CQ had fared remarkably well...given the odds stacked against her, with opponents that had been warned of her moves. She'd managed to take down one of their ranged specialists, and wounded one of their close quarters specialist -she couldn't exactly call them crossbowman or swordsman, they all had a damned crossbow and a sword for some reason, and their armor looked identical-. Unfortunately, the ranged specialist hadn't died, just knocked unconscious, and had been promptly healed by their allies. The rest of the golems had fared....less well. The Royal Guardians had gotten obliterated by their mage's lightning attacks, and the Palace Guards Mk2s had just been mowed down by the ranged and close quarters specialists. And with her influence jammed, Alexandra hadn't been capable of activating the golems in reserve in the 16th room or the boss room, or even call up the ones in the challenge rooms, which had been a royal pain in the ass, as it would have more than equalized the odds.

Something to remedy in the future, I can't have half of my failsafes rely on an unreliable communication system, she thought.

TO-DO LIST UPDATED

Override, up high.

COMMAND OVERRIDE ACCEPTED. TO-DO LIST UPDATED. ITEM MOVED TOWARDS TOP OF THE LIST.

Been a while since I used that one, she thought.

"Alright, well, any ideas?"

*****

Diamond frowned as he looked at the massive, towering door.

"Can you breach it?" He asked Onyx.

The architect winced.

"I think so, but it's not going to be pretty. Or particularly fast. Unless you want me to use the explosives? That would mean using most of them, but it'd be quicker."

The sergeant thought about it for a few seconds, before shaking his head.

"No, we’ll need them to disarm the more dangerous traps, if there are some. Use your regular breaching gear. We'll cover you."

Onyx nodded, and got to work. Diamond nodded at Ruby, who ordered her men into defensive positions. So far it had seemed like the dungeon was indeed incapable of responding -the ceiling hadn't collapsed on their heads or an army of golems hadn't swarmed in from the challenge room-, which was a tremendous relief, but it paid to be prudent nonetheless. Besides, it kept his men focused on the task at hand...which given what they were attempting, and the risks involved, was probably for the best.

His gaze wandered around, and briefly stopped on the ramp leading further down into the dungeon. At first, he'd wanted to start moving down there, but a quick consultation of their equipment, and especially a tablet that let them monitor the state of the influence disruptor, had informed them that, indeed, the core was on the first floor...and somewhere behind that massive, reinforced closed door. Only the gods knew why the dungeon hadn't moved it's core behind it's second floor, but he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

He looked briefly at the door as the hissing sound of Onyx's breaching gear began, and nodded in satisfaction as the cutting beam started melting through the door. The cutting beam was essentially something that looked like a lance held with both hands, linked to a bulky backpack, that outputted a powerful beam of energy, albeit at a short range. He didn't know if that Gorromarian piece of equipment truly originated from the Old World or not, at least in concept, but it was tremendously useful in getting into places people didn't want you to access. And for once it wasn't something the Tarkians had built, which was a plus. It stuck in his craw that they had to use so much of the bastards' terms and gear. Sure, Gorromar might be a city of sanctimonious bastards, but at least they didn't go around invading and annexing people, and stayed in their damned borders!

He shook his head to clear his thoughts at the familiar internal rant, and kept watch over the area as Onyx slowly started moving the beam around, slowly cutting up the door.

*****

"Too bad we don't have droidekas."

"Uh?"

Alexandra smiled, and shook her head as she realized she'd spoken out loud.

"Nothing, just a reference to an old movie, uh...like a theater play, back on Earth. In it there's a scene where there's people cutting up the door to a command center roughly like this, and they're chased off by very powerful golems called droidekas."

Emilia smiled.

"Well, that would have been nice. Maybe we should design something like that. You know, to attack people trying to bust through our doors."

Alexandra blinked.

"That's...a very good idea actually."

"Of course it is!" Said Emilia, crossing her arms with a huff. "I came up with it!"

Alexandra giggled.

"Of course vampy." She patted her advisor's head, and promptly withdrew her hand as her advisor scowled. "Alright, alright!" She smiled, then her expression turned serious once more as she looked at the screen. They'd closed the door to the command center by the simple expedient of having Emilia take out the locking pins, and having her avatar lift up the door when passing through was necessary, and were currently looking at the boss room through Emilia's scrying spell projection. They had discussed using the workshop instead, but in the end decided to keep it as a staging ground for their golem counter-attacks. It wasn't like they were going to be able to bring another prototype online in the time they had left, and if all else failed being able to come at the enemy from an unexpected angle would help. "Still, I hadn't expected them to be able to cut through it this fast...and their talk about using explosives to clear the traps is worrying."

Emilia frowned in thought.

"Is it...actually possible to do that? Without caving in the whole tunnel on top of them, I mean."

Alexandra shrugged.

"I think so. It heavily depends on what kind of trap they're trying to take out, and how many risks they're willing to take. Spike traps? Blowing them up won't change much. In fact, I wish they tried, it would turn it into a giant claymore mine." She made a mental note to remember that one for later, actually. "But for the power beam rails or drop axes? It would almost certainly work. To some extent at least. Flamethrower trap...eeehhh, maybe, maybe not."

TO-DO LIST UPDATED

"I see...Well, can we prevent them from doing that?"

"Not really no. At least not at first. And I don't want to engage too early. We need to draw them in for a bit before counter-attacking, let them start worrying about the traps more than about us. Then we'll strike. Hopefully the first attack with throw them back, or wipe them out, but..." She shrugged. "Let's be real, they wouldn't be attempting this if they didn't think they had a good chance of winning to begin with. So I don't think it'll be that easy. They don't seem individually very powerful, but...."

"Levels aren't everything." Emilia smiled. "Believe me, I know. That's hammered into any mage's head early on. These people are very well equipped. The influence distruptor alone would have proven that. But their equipment is far superior to what their level might indicate, and their skills are nothing to sneeze at either."

Alexandra gave her advisor an admiring look.

"Precisely. Nicely summed up!"

"Thank you. My mother is an officer in the western marches after all."

"Oh? That's nice. You'll have to tell me about her sometime." A massive clang sounded throughout the room, with a distant echo even coming through the door, as the blast door finally failed, and fell to the ground. "Unfortunately, that'll have to wait. Let's get ready to welcome our visitors."

*****

Diamond gave the hallway a brief look, making sure to keep his hands and face as far away as he could from the white hot, sometimes outright molten metal on the edges of the hole.

The hallway was...empty. There was no sign of life whatshowever. Still, it gave him a sense of foreboding. There wouldn't be a hallway this long between the rest of the dungeon and the core unless there was a damned good reason for it.

"Alright. Looks clear. Let's move!"

Ruby nodded, and gestured her soldiers forward. The first one, a recon specialist, the only one he had left, slowly, cautiously entered the hallway, and began scanning it for traps as the rest of the soldiers filtered in behind her.

"Alright. It looks pretty clear. There's some spike traps, some of the pendulum ones as well. Something in the walls further down, I think...and that's about it." She winced. "Not sure about it though. We'll have to sweep in slowly, just in case."

Ruby nodded, and looked at Diamond.

"That's fair enough. Take your time. Better to do it right than to risk us dying." He chuckled. "We didn't come this far to get killed by a spike trap out of some bad adventurer novel."

His soldiers chuckled back, and he smiled. Then, they started sweeping forward. After a few steps, the recon specialist raised her hand, and everyone stopped. She looked at the ground for a bit, then smashed her hand into it, shattering the false floor and bringing it crashing down into the spikes below. Oddly enough however, this time the trap only took part of the hallway, rather than all of it.

The recon specialist nodded, and cautiously went around the trap, continuing to move forward.

After roughly a minute of trap clearing, mostly by going around spike traps and the pressure plates triggering the pendulum axes, the recon specialist stopped, and frowned.

"That's odd..." She said, absent mindedly, looking at the wall.

"What is it?" Asked Ruby in a hushed tone.

"The trap on the wall. It's not...There's isn't only one, there's two. And they aren't like, small ones like I thought. It looks like it runs along the entire room." She said calmly as she looked to the wall right next to them.

Everyone froze, and looked apprehensively at the wall.

"...Any idea what it is?" Said Ruby.

"No clue. But there's only one way to find out-"

The recon specialist never finished her sentence, as suddenly the clatter of metal feet pounding the floor sounded throughout the hallway, and a group of golems filtered from the one of the side rooms at the end of it, taking battle formations, and everyone dropped to a crouch and took a combat stance.

For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then.

SLAM.

They looked at each other in confusion.

SLAM.

SLAM.

SLAM SLAM SLAM.

Their looks turned to ones of fear as the impacts became louder, and closer together. Those weren't something crashing down, it was something walking. Something huge. Or at least very heavy.

Then, with a final few resounding slams, a massive mechanical spider, easily twice the size of a chariot, erupted into the room, and Diamond's jaw dropped.

"Oh fuck."

For an instant, everything seemed frozen...then, the golems on top of the spider, that Diamond hadn't even registered, aimed their ballista...and fired.

Firatite dodged down in extremis, the screaming bolt leaving a bloody trail as it dealt a glancing blow to his shoulder, passing through his armor like it was butter.

And the massive, lumbering mechanical monstrosity began to charge, it's golem escort running in front of it as it's vanguard.