One of the guys with a bit more brass on his shoulders took a step towards me, arrogance in his eyes, and stopped when my gaze hit him. Not completely sure in his belief and with a somewhat shaky voice he said, “Core, you are in your new master's domain and will obey him and us, his loyal servants. If you comply he will be a generous lord, but if you resist he will break you, discipline and torture you until nothing of your will remains.”

He stood upright after he said his words and seemed quite pleased with the bullshit he threw my way. The others around me also became more relaxed and confident after the speech. I still hadn't moved after I stood up and waited for their next move. My best guess was that they would try some new spell on me after having confirmed that I wouldn't resist them, so I just waited for them to be distracted and then make my move.

I hadn't have to wait very long because the old sucker before me nodded to the others and then they came closer to touch my body to begin their new spell. I still waited and watched their magic at work for some seconds. It seemed to be some kind of binding spell and I was impressed by their skill with the magic. Don't get me wrong, it was just pure professional interest. Never would I allow them to finish the spell, I was just curious.

I felt my own magic give me a kind of small domain covering most of the room and I smiled inwards when a plan formed in my mind. I once saw a scene in a movie where a similar scene occurred and I was curious if these idiots would react the same way.

Just to be sure I took a look at my inventory and was happy that I still had access to it.

So let all hell break loose. I dropped big boulders of stone all around these guys blocking their way to the door and limiting their ability to evade my arms. In the next moment I lifted my arms and then brought my closed fists down onto two of the casters still completely enraptured by their work.

Their bodies exploded like watermelons hit by a truck and they sprayed all over the other guys around them shocking them into statues. The spell formation broke and the collected mana erupted badly into the scene.

I had to admit that if I hadn’t been in this wonderful golem body I would have gotten quite the beating, but my companions in this adventure didn’t fare so well. I enjoyed the magical fireworks splattering their sorry bodies all around the room with lightning electrocuting some of them and spontaneous bursts of fire making a barbecue out of three or four of the lot, their flesh and fat giving of some strange noises.

My old self would have been shocked with the scenes unfolding before my eyes but my new being just took it with a curious look and waited for the action to slow down. At this moment the guys around me ran like chicken without their heads, some even literally. I enjoyed the show and studied the effects of the rampant magic to learn some new insights.

When the magic lost its juice some 20 seconds later there were only two women left, both heavily wounded and loosing blood fast from several wounds. They looked at me with dread and understandable hate in the eyes. I walked over to them and bend down to them making them shiver in fear.

“You know I can save your sorry asses but I need some information first. For a starter, where am I and is there a dungeon core near?”

The left one with a heavily scarred face and burn marks from magical fire all over her body spit at me, “No one will tell anything to you, accursed creature. The master will bend you and torture you for this transgression and I will be with him soon…” Before she could say anything more I gave her a backhand slam into the head silencing her forever.

Then cool and without any emotion in my voice I looked back at the last one, “You wanted to say anything else or shall I send you to your master too?”

The woman took a short look at her former colleague and then gazed back to my towering figure, took a gulp and spoke with almost shattering voice, “You have been summoned into the master’s first temple after his ascension for bending you to his will and removing Tiria’s stain on you. And yes there are several dungeon cores near this place, some of them should still be loyal to the old powers.”

She looked at me waiting for my next action so I gave her the help I had offered and tried to modify my heal spell so that it only targeted her. To my surprise it wasn’t very hard to do that and moments later my mana streamed into her body mending wounds and alleviating her pain.

My captive gasped for a moment and then smiled suddenly, “You’re a creature of your word. That is surprising as most cores betray and trick anyone to get their will.”

“I’m a city core, not a dungeon! I have to honor my word if I I want anyone to stay in my city and help me with it.”

She nodded and then stood, “I thought you just a modified dungeon core but Tiria seems to have really created a new kind of core with you. As thanks for my life I will help you with your escape from this place and maybe get some goodies too. I myself just got paid for my help with the ritual so there is no love lost between me and the new dungeon god.”

I wasn’t sure if I could trust her words because they almost sounded too good to be true, but for now I accepted them at face value.

“So where are? Underground or above ground?”

The female shrugged, “We are in Tesija, one of the biggest dungeon cities on Aarees. The temple is build above ground just at the entrance to the dungeon to prevent any incursions from the underground. When Tiria fell from grace, her successor, an avatar called Thorm took over her reign and this dungeon was the first to follow him willingly so he erected his main temple at this place.”

So I was in the center of power of my enemy. I just hoped that I could wreak some havoc before my golem body was destroyed, “Do you think that we will get some company soon?”

She thought for a moment and then shrugged, “Possible, but with the high priest gone, Thorm has to get a new one and until then his line of communication is broken for at least a day. The other priests will take some additional minutes until they recognize that the place at the top is vacant, so if you want to do something you should get moving.”

I just wanted to get going when a sudden thought hit me.

“What will happen with you?”

“I will try to get some space between me and this place. I got a teleportation scroll to leave this place but I still will get a bounty on my head. You can be sure that Thorm is watching us and screaming bloody murder.”

“Don't get me wrong but I could use someone like you at my place. I still have access to my inventory, so I could try to stuff you inside and take you with me when I leave this place. What do you think?”

She seemed surprised at my proposal, “Are you sure that I can survive in your inventory? As far as I know it can only hold dead materials.”

“This can be tested quite easily! We just have to capture a guinea pig for checking the theory.”

'Or you could throw the mind of the mage into your inner mind and the body into the inventory. Sorry for the intrusion, Marcus, “ I heard Alvera's voice in my mind suddenly, 'I can only speak for a short moment with you as this not my place of power and not my world but thank you for your work at the city. The goblins and lizards are in full retreat at this moment and this is my reward for your hard work. Get going, time is running and Thorm will only give you ten minutes if at all.'

Her presence disappeared as sudden as it came and I was alone again in my mind.

“Got a sudden inspiration from a friend of mine. There is a way by separating your mind from your body by taking your consciousness into my inner mind and your body into my inventory. I just have to warn you that my homeworld is a very primitive world with very underdeveloped magic and technology.”

The wizard just smirked, “I will take my chances with you because here I will be hunted down like an animal, that's for sure. Shall we do it right now or do you want to do it after we have wreaked this place. I have still most of my mana and I got some spells I always wanted to test but never got a good place for them.”

“Hell yeah, be my guest. By the way, my name is Marcus, city core of Aegis, first and only of my kind.”

I put the stone boulders around of us back into my inventory and went to the door.

The female followed beside me and bowed her head shortly, “The name's Mariah Ulvantor and I'm pleased to make your acquaintance. Let's trash this place and then run for our lives!”

I opened the door and in the next moment got a front seat for an impressive show of destruction.