It took a couple of hours for Vysala’s stamina to fully recover. The felworms had gotten to her at some point, and they had left behind a stamina draining debuff that kept her from waking. The entire time Rav sat over here like a guard dog, waving his blade at anything that got close - until Zaria told him not to menace the other mimics. Then he just sat there, watching over the sleeping witch. He came back with the other mimics when his duration was going to expire, before he could go wild, but whined until Zaria let him return. That cycled repeated with him and the other mimics a few times, keeping them busy with tasks outside of Zaria’s dungeon.

It appeared Rav has a new friend.

During that time, Zaria summoned a non-mimic chest and shoved the captured balehen inside of it. It squawked and struggled and hissed, but the creature wasn’t that much stronger than an ordinary chicken, so it remained contained for now. For the best - Zaria wanted to wait for Vysala to fully awaken before that. It wasn’t hard to repair the damage left by the giant balehen, nor was it difficult for her sword mimics to start chopping up pieces of the monster to make into future meat for the ovens. It was not a demon itself, but there was enough demonic blood coursing through the creature it would suffice the requirements of Hellish Cuisine.

She also took a moment to use her scry ability, this time targeting the clouds overhead. Zaria couldn’t see far inside the cloud, but it didn’t just move her vision. Up there, she could hear a constant sound, a metallic thwock-thwock-thwock of the balehen drone’s blades. The noise didn’t get any further or closer to Zaria, so her best guess was that it was hovering in place, awaiting further orders from its mysterious controller. Zaria tried reaching out to it telepathically, but there was no response from the creature. If it could hear her, it didn’t have sufficient mental capacity to respond.

All of that filled her time until Vysala sat up, clutching her head. “Fuck me sideways and throw me on a fire, who’s bed is this?” she muttered into the dirt. Then she blinked, realization hitting, and she shook her head. “Okay, no. Not a bedroom. Battlefield. Those are very different things.”

Zaria put her consciousness back into her body and waved. “Let me check for brain damage. What’s the difference between a bed and battlefield?”

Vysala scowled and gave Zaria a rude gesture. “I only want to be screaming in one, and it’s not the battlefield.”

Zaria let out a shocked laugh at that. “Okay, I think you’re fine. Best fight of your life, eh?”

“Don’t let it go to your head, most other fights have been me trying not to die against demons. It was good to have the deck stacked in my favor for a change.” Vysala blinked a few times, clearing her eyes. “Just left me in the dirt, eh?”

“Would you rather I have a candleman try to carry you up a ladder?” Zaria asked.

Vysala shuddered at the thought. “Point fairly made and well taken.” She shook herself again. “Head finally feels less like it’s full of gravel and sawdust. Can you make me some water?”

“Easily. Come on in. We’ve got a lot to go over.”

Once Vysala was inside and hydrated, Zaria started by letting her know the balehen drone was still overhead. “I don’t know if we can do anything about it,” Zaria finished by saying. “What’s your take on that thing?”

“It’s weird,” Vysala said. “And not just for the obvious reasons. I’ve seen construct dungeon mobs before, they don’t look like that. And they sure as fuck can’t imitate a demonic creatures. Their mobs are more like… spinning blade trees, or rolling balls of doom. When they are animalistic in nature, the mobs are closer to the real animal. A chicken construct would look almost exactly like a chicken made of steel.”

Zaria nodded, about to speak, but Vysala wasn’t done.

“There’s also how it fought. That was something else. Construct mobs can have ranged weapons, but… I’ve never seen anything like that barrage of explosive arrows. That feels like it should be a Gold level ability, given the area it covered. But it didn’t hit as strong as a gold level ability.”

“So it breaks the rules of the system a bit,” Zaria said.

“Yeah.” Vysala chewed her lip. “You think it might be tied to the alien dungeon quest you got?”

“Maybe,” Zaria said. “But I can’t be sure. Why would the quest trigger after the fight if it was connected to the drone? Wouldn’t that be sooner?”

Vysala drummed her fingers on the table. “You might be right. I’m not an expert in dungeon systems - mostly I know what I learned about fighting their mobs, and a few example mobs we had visit from other dungeons. The quest system, from what I understand, is different for dungeons and people. But based on how mine works - that the quest may have triggered because you defeated greater Balehen. Sometimes you can get that - you defeat a mob, and it gives you a quest for similar mobs.”

“Like, for example, alien bipedal creatures with worms for faces? The Balehen could be analogous to that,” Zaria said.

Vysala nodded before Zaria’s words fully caught up with her, then her eyes narrowed. “You’re thinking of the things we’ve seen demons fighting inside the Fissures.”

“I am,” Zaria said. “The Balehen certainly reminded me of them.”

“That isn’t impossible,” Vysala said. “We need more information, though. We’re running on too much guesswork. And there are still questions about what the balehen drone was even doing here.” The witch sighed. “I’d like to know I have most of the pieces of the puzzle before I try to solve it.”

“I hear you on that. Which is why it’s so important we get control of that portal. Even if I don’t bond a fae, having some insight would be invaluable.”

Vysala nodded firmly. “For now, I say we don’t worry about the Balehen Drone, but open fire if it gets low enough to be in range. I don’t want that thing ambushing us.”

“I agree.”

Vysala sighed in relief. “So, what’s next?”

“The mimics are collecting the last of the meat for the larder.”

“Where’s the larder?”

Zaria shrugged. “I don’t really have one, so I’ve had them shoving them in the void of unreality that will be my second floor as soon as I can safely form it.”

Vysala blinked. “You’re shoving demon meat into an extradimensional space that doesn’t quite exist in any reality?”

“Is that a problem?”

“I guess we’ll find out!” Vysala said brightly, her face splitting in a grin. “I signed on for this because I was sure I’d never be bored around you, and I’m glad to see I’m right.”

Zaria grinned. “Glad to hear it. Want to see what happens when I shove a living creature in an oven? I caught a balehen alive.”

Vysala rubbed her hands together. “Do I ever!”

A couple candlemen bought the crate with the struggling balehen up to the Oven room. Zaria had put Broil there, awaiting orders. The moment the lid was opened, Broil's stovepipe tentacles wrapped out, clutching the chicken and holding it in place. Upon Zaria’s command, Broil shoved the creature directly into one of the ovens and slammed the door shut. The smell was… not what Zaria expected. Instead of burning feathers, it almost immediately let off the pleasant aroma of a roasting chicken.

Demonic corruption purged. Living Creature Consumed! Reward: 1 Bird Elemental Heart. This Heart may be reused any number of times, but cannot be duplicated without selecting the appropriate elemental type from the Upgrade menu. Note that future instances of animal type: Chicken may yield different rewards.

Bonus Reward: 1 Purified Roast Chicken. A Herocore, Wyrdcore, or other Sapient-Bonded Core Type will receive a 200% increase to stamina regeneration for 1 day after consuming. This will spawn with every additional animal type: Chicken (or chicken variant) consumed. Deceased chickens will yield Purified Roast Chickens within 1 week of death, but will not grant the reward for the living creature consumption.

“Ooh, buff food,” Zaria said. “And a bird elemental heart.”

Vysala raised her eyebrow, and at the same time her stomach growled, betraying her interest. “Please tell me that is something I can eat. It smells like something the gods shat onto a king’s plate.”

“And that’s a good thing?”

Vysala snorted. “They gave it to a king. Of course it’s good.”

“Fair. Well, the status block indicates its safe for human consumption, so you should be fine to eat it. Want to dive in now?”

Vysala thought for a moment, then shook her head. “I’m famished, but you said it was buff food. Let’s get ready to knock the rocks in the river and start the flood build up, but I suppose-”

“There’s more balehen outside so I can make additional buff foods.”

That was apparently all Vysala needed to dive into the dish. From the way she sounded, it was every bit as delicious as it smelled. She took a large bite and chewed before asking, “So, what about the main reward?”

“I’ve got a bird elemental heart,” Zaria said. “Without needing the upgrade - and it’s reusable. So there’s a lot I can do with it, but only one thing at a time.”

“Any idea what you’re going to use it for?”

“Not for new mimics,” Zaria said. “We probably won’t get a chance to test new mimics between now and the fight with the Reclaimers. But I am going to test it - and a Moon heart - with my cauldron. Just not yet. That and the upgrade point are going to wait until we’ve finished setting up the river. I figure that’ll take the rest of the day, we look into that in the evening, and tomorrow we flood the reclaimers.”

Vysala nodded, her mouth too full of food for a verbal response. While she ate, the mimics brought the last of the balehen corpses inside, and Zaria set off to the river that was the whole reason they’d come here in the first place.

“So,” Vysala said, licking her fingers clean of grease between words. “I was thinking. The test run of your mobs seemed to go well. Even without the intervention of the drone - is it still following us, by the way?”

Zaria cast a quick scry to confirm. The sound was moving with them, without question, and she told Vysala that.

“Thought it might be. I guess it decided we were more interesting now that the balehens are dead.” Vysala shook her head. “But even without that, we had basically won the fight. It just cleaned up the last few tin fliers for us, which won’t really be a problem against the Reclaimers.”

Zaria nodded. “The Reclaimers will have better tactics, though. I think you’re right, overall. And with my rank up, I get a new oven and a new upgrade point. I’m going to use that new oven to start off with a couple more seeker crossbows on my roof - probably not a lunar variant. That stacking buff to charge up the moonbeam was wonderful, but I only really need it against a single big target.”

“Unless it builds up based on number of shots, not individual targets,” Vysala said.

Zaria hadn’t even considered that possibility. She realized she needed to check the crossbow’s ability so she could know how it worked.

Lunar Curse (Stacking). Conjures an image of one of the three moons. After fifty shots have landed on a living target (25 against demons or creatures with demon corruption) a beam will erupt, targeting all creatures that have been struck. Effect varies base on which moon is summoned - moon is chosen randomly once the first shot of the cycle is fired.

Celon (Theia) - Celon’s rays cause an eruption of energy from the bolts’ current placement, dealing 50% initial impact damage in a 5 foot radius around the bolt.

Ysdrah (Luna) - Ysdrah’s rays cause tentacles to erupt from injuries caused by the bolts, which last for 5 seconds and lash out at nearby targets for 10% initial impact damage and attempt to destabilize the host.

Spiral (ERROR: BROKEN) - Spiral’s rays cause psychic damage to targets struck by the beams, dealing 25% impact damage. Psychic effects do not utilize mana and ignore physical resistances or effects like mana shield.

“Why does it have different names for the moons?” Zaria asked.

Vysala shrugged. “No idea. Although Luna is close to Lunar, so like… maybe it’s an archaic term and that’s where it stuck around.”

Zaria shook her head. She had more pressing issues than lunar nomenclature. “It looks like you were right, though. I can stack it up between multiple targets. That makes the Seeker bow much better. I’ll use the extra command from that for a lunar seeker bow. The higher rate of fire is going to make that the best option.”

“Agreed. Going to set up the river trap now?”

Zaria nodded. “Did you want to talk upgrades now, or did you want to sleep first?”

“Sleep. The stamina regeneration bonus from the chicken means I won’t need more than a couple hours - it stacks with stamina regeneration from sleep. I’m feeling pretty good, but I did get knocked on my ass earlier, and I can devote some stamina to repairing some of those injuries while I sleep, too.”

“Sounds good to me. I’ll start kicking boulders around.” The river was in sight now, and the rushing water filled Zaria’s ears.

Soon, she’d be ready to give the Reclaimers a fight like nothing they’ve had before.