Zaria took advantage of the wet ground to settle herself in the mud, using her tongues for leverage to get her injured leg underneath her frame and let herself gradually sink into the ground until she was just another house. With her babmoraph sitting in a turret on top. While Vysala worked on preparing everything needed for the bond, Zaria had her Candlemen bring her the two Reclaimers that had surrendered to Zaria in the fight.

They didn’t resist in the slightest.

“What are you?” one of them asked, looking up at the Babamorph. A woman with a nasally voice that Zaria recognized. An idea formed almost immediately.

“You’re Chyndra,” Zaria said. That was information she could get from nameplates, however, and Zaria wanted them off balance. “Shame that Robert didn’t give you those thundersticks. It’s good to finally meet in person.” The woman blanched, and her companion looked over at her. Zaria continued. “Oh, don’t act surprised. I’m the roaming dungeon, the world’s only Yagacore. My powers are beyond your comprehension. I know things you couldn’t possibly imagine. And you? Are going to tell me everything.”

Chyndra was quaking. “Who betrayed us?” she asked, and Zaria realized the shakes were anger, not fear. “Who leaked that conversation?”

“No one,” Zaria said. “I was in the room. Or at least, one of my minions was.” Zaria sent a nudge to a nearby crate mimic, and it went from an inactive box to a living mimic and turned to face the two captured Reclaimers. “As I said, I know much.”

Chyndra wilted at the idea. “Then what do you need us to tell you?” Chyndra asked. “You already know everything.”

“My knowledge is vast, but not complete. If you tell me everything, you’ll be allowed to go free. If you lie – and you know I already know much, so I will see your lies - you’ll be turned into werewolves, copied to be made into new mob types for me to terrorize your fellows, and then allowed to run loose, terrorizing the countryside until the Reclaimers find you. I’m sure you know better than even I what horrors await members of their own that turn into monsters, but I imagine it’s not pretty.” Zaria said all this is in the most bland tones possible.

The two Reclaimers shared a look, and Chyndra swallowed hard. “If you could tell us what you wish to know…” she saw Zaria’s expression and now the quakes were fear. “Of course. Of course.”

“Everything,” Zaria said. “Begin now. Leave nothing out.”

The two Reclaimers didn’t last long under her stare. Almost immediately, they started tripping over each other to tell her everything they knew. It took some prodding to make them circle back, but Zaria got a complete picture by the end.

The Commander of the Reclaimers was Hakyon, and he was responsible for much of the changes that had underwent the organization since the Fissures erupted. Hakyon believed the Fissures were a sign from the Gods. That the world had become wicked, and this was their punishment for the sins of the Sapients. He did believe in protecting the Edge and the people in it…to a degree. Towns had been abandoned for failing to convert. From the Reclaimer’s words, they didn’t see a problem with that. Hakyon also believed the Wyrdcores were a corruption of the system, something he called a “hack” - a term he’d learned from his new friends.

Those friends were men and women like Robert. They were working with Hakyon, providing aid in the forms of otherworldly devices. They were from the Dirtworld, a world that had long ago lost all of its magic to a disaster. They said they were here to help Hakyon prevent the same fate for this world.

They’d been the ones to provide the means of Bonding demons, but not Purification of demons.

“And how does that work?” Zaria asked, leaning in.

Bonding a demon worked through a device known as a Stygian Leash, that bound caster and demon together. Those allowed the demon to mirror any spell cast by the holder of the leash, and also prevented the demon from attacking without the caster’s permission. In addition, the caster could syphon off the demon’s power to heal their injuries - and could even come back from the dead. It had a flaw, however - the user would be constantly subjected to corruptive whispers, and drawing upon the demon’s power to heal would corrupt the holder greatly. That latter was why, in spite of the obvious utility, bonds were never given to tanks. Over enough time, corruption would be inevitable. In addition, it scarred the user's soul. New bonds were impossible after that, nor was Purification.

“Purification…” Chyndra trailed off, then saw Zaria’s expression and plunged ahead. “Well, you see. A core is a core.”

“Obviously,” Zaria said.

“The idea behind purification is that if a core can be used to contain a powerful entity, like how you dungeon cores work, it should be possible for less powerful entities. Allow the user to safely syphon power off the being without risk of corruption.” Chyndra wrung her hands. “Even a demon.”

“You’re telling me…what? Purification creates new dungeon cores?”

“Not exactly,” Chyndra said. “It uses a Herocore. There’s no physical location, no actual dungeon. And instead of summoning creatures, the user takes on aspects. It also requires a Celestial mob be sacrificed, to ensure purity. Only a Bronze Tier can survive it. But when they do - and assuming they don’t go comatose from the pain - the result is a sort of psychic dungeon. No actual location, but there is a place in the user’s mind for a one floor dungeon with a single boss that drains the power of the trapped demon. Allowing them to create mobs and a single boss. Which they can then emulate via the Purified Demon Cores.”

“It gives them boss level power,” Zaria said flatly.

Chyndra shook her head vigorously. “No, not that. Gods, if we had that power, we would be ruling the Edge already. But it gives them dungeon level versatility. Let me put it in more basic terms, I’m explaining this poorly. Say they have a three room virtual dungeon. Room one has warriors fighting, room two has mages researching direct damage spells, and room three has a boss with powerful area of effect spells. They can change their Mob Aspect between those three at will - regardless of existing class limitations. In addition, since these are Mob spells, many of them only have cooldown periods - no mana cost. So you can have a Paladin but with Mage spellcasting who can swap to Boss area damage against a group, or add a damage dealing mob’s melee attack strength on top of their tank resistances.”

Zaria whistled softly. That was incredibly dangerous. Not as bad as she feared - not a bunch of Bosses running around - but still would make them unprecedented threats.

Zaria probed deeper for more information. Unfortunately, it was hard to say what any one Purified Demon Core was capable of, because their psychic pseudo dungeons could vary as much as a real world dungeon’s mobs. The one interesting bit of information was that hadn’t come from the Dirtworlders. That power was one discovered by Lidivah. The dungeon had been experimenting on people captured during dungeon runs since before the Fissures. The discovery of Demon Cores was an accidental byproduct of attempts to fuse his normal dungeon mobs with boss level powers, and with the Fissures, it had been natural to extend that “gift” to Hakyon.

Once again, Zaria wondered how Lidivah had lived this long.

In either case, access to a portal was needed to capture the demons. Not a Fissure - the demons that came through were too dangerous and varied. A portal, however, could be used to pull particular demons through and ensure the proper types were acquired. The one here was only strong enough to handle the weaker demons for Bonds. The one at Cal’borah, however, could handle the stronger demons.

Zaria took all this in and then pressed them harder. Unfortunately, these two knew very little outside of the details they had already shared. The man with Chyndra was just a guard. Chyndra herself was a Mage who had made a study of the Stygian Leashes, Dirtworlder technology, and the demons, which is why she had been assigned here - that and her low Tier, to keep prying eyes from suspecting anything. She could tell Zaria a great deal of the exact mechanics of the Stygian Leash. She did give up a couple more locations of Reclaimer bases, which could be good to know, but not much else. Except for one piece of good news - the Reclaimers, in an effort to secure some additional support, had delegations going to all three kingdoms right now. Delegations of their strongest. Between that and the normal operations of the Reclaimers demanding their stronger members, Golds and Platinums were out of play for at least a couple weeks.

“Both of you,” Zaria said, once she was satisfied they had told her everything they could. “Are going to be led by the Candlemen to a waiting room. My witch will be along soon to ask some follow-up questions. Then you’ll be set free.”

They babbled their thanks and were taken to the Oven room. The moment the door closed, the Candlemen and the respawned Broil set upon them, beating them into submission before they could even think to react. No lethal damage - just a brutal thrashing until they couldn’t fight back.

Chyndra was the first human to be tossed into an Oven alive, with the Guard following a moment later. True to Zaria’s word, their ashes floated free, and words floated across her vision.

Living Sapient Consumed! Reward: 1 Bonus Upgrade Point. This Upgrade point need not be spent before advancing to Bronze, but cannot be spent on Upgrades that are Bronze Tier or Higher. One Time Reward. Future instances of Sapient Type: Human will not yield this reward again. Other Sapient Types have a different One Time Reward that is guaranteed upon the first burning.

Living Sapient Consumed! Reward: New Lycanthrope Ability Unlocked: Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing. Your Lycanthropes can take the form of a human when outside of your dungeon, although this does not grant the ability for them to speak intelligently. They will, however, be able to grunt in affirmation or rejection, and their body language will match those of a human’s properly. making passing in human society possible for short windows. 1 Human Form unlocked - all Lycanthropes will appear as the same person. Earning this reward multiple times will unlock new appearances. Note that future instances of Sapient Type: Human may yield different rewards.

Bonus Rewards: 2 Longpig Meal: A Mob that consumes a Longpig meal will gain 200% bonus bite damage against Sapient Type: Human for 7 days after consuming. A Sapient consuming a Longpig Meal will become a Lesser Lycanthrope 7 days after consuming. If the Longpig Meal is consumed willingly, the Sapient will be able to control their Lycanthrope form so long as every transformation, they eat the flesh of another Sapient Type: Human. Deceased Humans will yield a Spoiled Longpig Meal, which grants the bonus damage against Sapient Type: Human for 1 day after consuming and will only poison a Sapient that consumes. This will not grant the reward for the living creature consumption.

“I heard screaming,” Vysala said, climbing the ladder up to the turret. “I’m going to take a wild guess that you’ve sent off our guests?”

Zaria nodded. “You want to become a lycanthrope with full control of your mind so long as you eat human flesh?”

Vysala made a face. “I’ll pass, thanks. Cannibalism is a bit much, don’t you think?”

“I don’t think so, of course.” Zaria considered. Cannibalism was eating a member of your own species. It wasn’t really cannibalism when she ate humans - she hadn’t been one for some times now. Then she considered the idea of killing another dungeon core to absorb them, and immediately felt a bit queasy. “On second thought…maybe it is.”

Vysala raised an eyebrow. “I’d love to know what went through that core of yours there - but later. For right now - I’m ready to start the Bond. Need you to take care of that crystal ball.”

Zaria absorbed the crystal around her core, letting the gem sit out in the open air. It felt weirdly exposed to be like this. “Anything I you need from me before I go back into my core?” she asked.

“Have a bit more preparation to do before I start. Once I do, keep your consciousness in there while I work,” Vysala said. “After I’m done, you can go back into the babamorph, but we should be able to communicate through the bond. Are you going to upgrade first?”

Zaria shook her head. “I really don’t like my core stability being this low. Don’t want to do any more changes until that’s fixed.”

Vysala nodded and got to work, drawing sigils on the table around Zaria’s core. “So, what’s our next move?”

“We need to secure this location. I can’t do that on my own. I’ve got a couple Candlemen recovering Chyndra’s research notes - she had a lab on the second story of one of the ruins, so they should be undamaged. That’ll provide the proof we need to get the Coven involved.”

Vysala bit her cheek in thought. “The strongest members are still tied up dealing with the Hardness 4 Fissure. Probably will be for a while. But we can at least get some Coppers and Bronzes out here.”

“And we’ll need them,” Zaria said. “Lidivah is still digging a tunnel to the portal. We need to keep him from getting ahold of it.”

Vysala murmured agreement. “So we run back to the Coven, get support, and come back?”

Zaria shook her head. “We don’t go. We send a message. Once I’m back to mobility, I dig down into the legacy dungeon, and put a lockdown on the portal. Hold it until the Coven arrives. Then we start making plans for Cal’borah. It needs to fall.”

“Agreed,” Vysala said. “So secure the location, finish your second floor, and plan for Cal’borah. Once the Coven finished with the Hardness 4 Fissure-” she saw Zaria shaking her head. “What?”

“Every day we wait is a day they can make more of their Purified Demon Cores. And now that they’ve lost this place, they know they’re in danger. They’re going to ramp everything up - fast. We might not have time for the Coven’s strongest - and we have a window. A couple weeks where the Reclaimers have Cal’borah relatively undefended. I need to hit Bronze. Probably let some Coven groups run my dungeon while we’re waiting, then we hit the nearest Fissure. That should get me up the rest of the way. If I can do it fast enough, that plus whatever support we can muster…we can take the base from them before their strongest are back.”

“And without our strongest too,” Vysala said, frowning. “It’s dangerous.”

“It is,” Zaria said. “When we’re closer, I’m going to start looking for any way we can weaponize the terrain to give us an advantage. There’s no convenient river we can use, I already checked, but there may be other options.”

“It’s going to be war,” Vysala said, sadly. She saw Zaria’s look and shook her head. “If the Reclaimers and Coven go to full, all out war…the demons are the only one who benefit.”

“It may not be war,” Zaria said. “Which is the other reason why I want to move fast, and without the high ranking members of the Coven. I’m not part of a faction. But think about it - you said that for all out war, the Reclaimers and Coven are both worried about which side the kingdoms will take.”

Vysala nodded.

“So if the Reclaimers want to turn this into a war, they’ll have to admit they had these secret bases. That they were doing demon research. Which I’m assuming is forbidden research. What’s more likely - they admit to that, or they disavow the people involved? And then when they question us - well, we weren’t acting under orders. We gathered some Coven members who were willing to fight against these ‘rogue agents’, right? Honestly, we did the Reclaimers a favor purging them of these horrible, horrible ne’er-do-wells.”

Vysala paused, thinking. “It could work,” she said slowly. “And then buys us time to find out what else the Reclaimers are doing in the shadows. Gives us time to grow stronger. Time to formulate a plan to wipe them out.”

“That was my thinking as well. The biggest problem, really, is Lidivah. He needs to be destroyed.”

Vysala sucked air through her teeth. “I’m not saying you’re wrong. But the idea of actually going after a Dungeon Core that’s still fighting the demons…I don’t think you understand how unlikely that is. Short of actually creating Fissures, there’s very little one of you can do that would convince the Guilds to sanction your deliberate destruction. Except you personally. You probably will terrify them.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. But I wasn’t thinking of involving the Guilds in this.” Zaria’s voice hardened. “This should be a matter for Cores. One of our own is the problem. We need to bring him to heel.”

Vysala nodded slowly. “I like that better. Mainly because I think it might actually happen.”

“We need some kind of Dungeon Guild,” Zaria said. “But that’s a long term goal. There’s also the alien dungeon we need to deal with. Going to start prioritizing everything based on ‘how easily is this within my power’ and go from there. Which means - secure this location, tackle Cal’borah, and investigate the alien dungeon.”

Vysala looked up. “Speaking of which, is our friend still watching?”

Zaria checked. The Drone was gaining altitude to get back up above the cloud level - at some point it had dropped down. Probably to investigate the fight, although Zaria had been a bit preoccupied so hadn’t noticed. “It’s still there.”

Vysala nodded. “I don’t like the idea of starting the bonding process while it’s there. But we can’t exactly do anything about it. You’re going to be vulnerable for a bit. So will I. And you can’t really resummon mimics right now.”

“I’m putting the ones I have left on high alert,” Zaria said. “We’ll have to hope it’s enough.”

“Then,” Vysala said. “Go back into your core.” she held the brush over Zaria’s core. “It’s time for us to finally establish that bond.”

Zaria did as Vysala instructed, and Vysala finished the ritual by painting the herocore infused ink on Zaria’s core.

After so much anticipation, Zaria had expected something flashy and impressive. Possibly an explosion somewhere in there. But nothing like that happened. It was far more subtle. Just, all of a sudden, there was an awareness of her companion that hadn’t been there before. Not just her presence, but her mind. Her emotions. Feelings of excitement, shock, and joy mingled with an undercurrent of tension. With that came Zaria’s own newfound feeling of…wholeness. Like there had been something missing that was suddenly back. Words flashed across Zaria’s vision, momentarily distracting her.

Striga bond established! Core stability 100%! Due to ongoing attempts to balance Dungeon Core Type: Yagacore, Core Stability will remain as a mechanic, but is now utilized to track physical damage to your structure and how that impacts your core functionality. Repairing damage to your external structures and limbs will cost Core Stability, and new upgrades may allow for Core Stability to be spent in new ways. All normal dungeon activities - summoning mobs, casting spells, creating items - will no longer cost Core Stability unless an upgrade explicitly states otherwise.

Zaria said, trying telepathy.

Only then did she notice the change to the feeling she was getting from the bond, and turned her attention outwards. Excitement radiated off the Witch - well, now Striga - in waves. Vysala was floating in the air. Black energy was forming around her, mingled with bands of light that had the distinctive colors of all three moons. Her spork cackled with lightning, and energy poured from her eyes and fingertips.

Zaria said,