As the doors swung open, Pellex resealed his soup bottle and took his place by Refos, at the back of the group. Ucria had seemed confident in her ability to easily defeat the boss, so she hadn’t spent the time to study the inscriptions for hints about the upcoming fight. Pellex would have preferred caution, but the [Dungeon Bees] were an undeniable advantage. This dungeon clearly wasn’t very concerned with increasing its difficulty – it obviously spent far more energy on its carvings than its spawns. The interior decoration was nice, too. The hotel theme was kind of funny, and this boss room was a clear continuation of that, appointed like a grand foyer, with two sweeping staircases leading up to a balcony that wrapped around the room. As Pellex was looking around, Ucria stepped over some invisible line, and the final boss battle began.

The first thing Pellex noticed was that, in stark and horrifying contrast to the last fight, there were three distinct masses of light forming from flecks of energy. They each coalesced and imploded, revealing the three final bosses.

Trite, Brutal [Targnol]

Floor Boss

Phi: 652/652

Thi: 68/68

Sci: 85/85

Banal, Grounder [Targnol]

Floor Boss

Phi: 130/130

Thi: 478/478

Sci: 73/73

Inane, Discordant [Targnol]

Floor Boss

Phi: 267/267

Thi: 122/122

Sci: 364/364

These [Targnol] were nothing like the pathetic monsters they had fought outside. Each of them was at least as tall as Pellex, and the [Cogseer] was a fair bit taller than his companions. They were all still made of wood, but they were different colors, with Trite having a reddish tint, Banal’s form sporting a yellow hue, and Inane flecked with green. Their five arms were well-muscled, and the spears of their simpler cousins were replaced with more individual weapons. Trite wielded two massive axes, Banal held a quartz staff, and Inane carried a golden flute.

None of the three attacked yet. They simply stood there, as if waiting for the group to make the first move. Pellex whipped out his blade and sized up his opponents. Judging by stats, Banal would probably be his best bet. He couldn’t deal much damage without a better weapon or dedicated skills, but he could predict magical attacks easily. Up ahead, Ucria sighed and flung her arms out, sending her bees scattering across the room.

“It’s a standard three-enemy setup, one for phi, one for thi, one for sci. You usually see it with minibosses, but there shouldn’t be any surprises. Evwel, take Trite, Refos, take Inane, Pellex, take Banal. I’ll pick them all off one-by-one.”

Pellex looked around at the others as they all nodded assent to the plan. Seeing no reason to wait, Pellex charged at his opponent, and the others followed his example. Banal didn’t react until Pellex struck, his blade biting into the [Targnol]’s wooden skin. As soon as the metal touched the boss, Banal screeched, and flew into motion, waving the staff in complicated circles. Pellex tugged his blade out and struck again, using [Foresight] just before he swung. He caught a glimpse of something bright in the vision the skill showed him, and dodged out of the way. He had misinterpreted, however, and Banal’s attack wasn’t meant to hit him. The explosion of light from the end of the staff blinded Pellex, and as he tried to disengage, he felt one of the arms whip out and trip him.

Lying prone, Pellex slashed at the arm that had tripped him and scrambled back up. His vision was slowly clearing, just in time to see Ucria turn her attention towards Banal. With a wave of her hand, the [Dungeon Bees] fired as one, the glowing spikes of power screaming towards the Grounder [Targnol]. Banal wouldn’t have been able to react in time, if he had cared. He didn’t need to react. The spikes stopped short only a short distance from the monster, slamming into an invisible wall and dissipating. Pellex sized the situation up quickly. He hadn’t expected anything like this in this dungeon, but he should have known from the name. Banal was the [Targnol] equivalent of an [Antimage], optimized for the dissolution of external manifestations of power.

Fortunately, all the external powers Pellex had were completely useless in a fight. Keeping a half-eye on the future, he charged back in, whittling away at the monster’s pathetic phi pool. [Foresight] was a bit more costly than usual under Banal’s better-than-expected power suppression, which was worrying, but Pellex didn’t plan on the fight lasting too long anyway. [Targnol] were harder to kill than most, being made of solid wood, but there was a trick to them that Pellex had read about. The suppression field made it harder to pull off, but it went down for a fraction of a second every time Banal used his own magic. Having spent a few exchanges stalling, Pellex finally caught the split second of an attack with [Foresight], and the instant it happened, flared [Runesight]. Instantly, the massive golem hybrid’s form burst with light, dozens of tiny sigils scrawled in the flows of power running all over the monster. Pellex only caught a momentary glimpse, but it was enough. With renewed vigor, he launched a flurry of attacks, trying his best to strike at the areas with the most vital runechains. The monster’s phi sparked with feedback, and Banal seemed to realize what Pellex was trying to do. Swinging his saber forcefully, Pellex knew that this strike would be the one, catching the first instant of the hit with [Foresight]. He felt the blade connect, saw the vision confirmed, and was thrown backwards by a blast of force. Pellex got up, and saw Trite where Banal had been, the hulking Brutal [Targnol] charging at him.

“They swap places!” Ucria shouted, a volley from her bees splashing against Banal’s shield. “Don’t get too close!”

Spamming [Foresight] again, Pellex scrambled away, narrowly dodging three of the monster’s fists as they slammed into the floor. Banal had swapped places with Trite, and the Grounder’s suppression field had done something to Evwel’s blood coating. The [Apheretic] screamed in pain as the dark liquid seemed to thicken, becoming more viscous and slowing Evwel down along with it. Refos was still occupied with Inane, and Ucria couldn’t hurt Banal. Pellex made what was probably a very bad choice, and hoped that Ucria would adjust in time. Checking [Foresight] for attacks from behind, Pellex ran across the room, feeling Trite right behind him. Just as he was about to cross into Banal’s field, Ucria’s [Dungeon Bees] fired, blasting Trite off his course for the fraction of a second that he needed. Throwing himself into Evwel, Pellex was able to knock her far enough away from Banal.

For a second, Pellex was covered with Evwel’s blood, but as Evwel regained control, it flowed back onto her, and she got back up. With no time for pleasantries, they both charged back into the fray. Pellex had a second to glance at the monster tabs, and was relieved to see that that had taken nearly all of Trite’s dismal thi pool. Banal’s was more substantial, but the monsters seemed to have taken the same thi cost, so Trite wouldn’t be swapping anymore, at least.

Pellex drove through Banal’s half-hearted melee defenses quickly, and this time his perfect swing wasn’t interrupted. Catching Banal where the lower right arm met the body while the [Targnol] was casting, the monster’s arm flashed and sizzled as the phi feedback broke the runechain. Banal was distracted for a second by its limp arm, and Pellex took the opening to slash right into one of the [Targnol]’s eyeballs. Screeching in horror, the golem clutched at its ruined eye, and Pellex slammed his saber through the other one. He pierced the monster’s brain and tore the sword back out, spraying the grotesque innards of the half-golem across the carpet. Pellex felt the suppression field lift, and Banal slumped over, dead.

His former foe hadn’t even fully disintegrated by the time Pellex looked away from him. Banal had apparently cast protection shields on the other two bosses after he had teleported, judging by the fact that they were still alive, but they hadn’t been as good as the Grounder [Targnol]’s own. Trite was covered in smoking holes, and Inane was riddled with bullet marks. As Pellex sized up the battlefield, Ucria took advantage of Banal’s death, and a dozen spikes of power speared through Trite. He managed to survive, somehow, but not for long, as Evwel slammed her fists into the [Targnol], hard enough to make the hybrid’s wooden skin crack. A few more blows, and Trite would be dead. Pellex turned back to Inane as another gunshot cracked into the the monster, Refos’ skills disrupting the runechains and keeping the sci-specialized monster from using its power.

Another shot from the [Dungeon Bees] left Trite dead as Pellex ran over to help Refos, keeping [Runesight] on this time and able to hit far more accurately. Evwel was sprinting over before Trite finished disintegrating, but as Inane faltered under Refos’ uninterrupted onslaught and Pellex’s melee assault, one of Refos’ gunshots blazed with a red glow and tore straight through the minimal phi of the monster, drilling a smoldering hole into what quickly became its corpse. Instead of dissipating like the others, the motes of dungeon energy that had made up Inane streamed towards the far wall of the balcony, and coalesced into a door.

The room the door led to was cramped, more like a staff closet than anything intended for public usage. Four jackets hung on one wall, colored the same maroon as the carpets, with gold trim and a silver insignia, like an arrow fading into view, embroidered on the cuffs and back. They were all the same size, and clearly designed for standard humanoids. Out of curiosity, Pellex took one off the hook for a closer look.

Level 12 Dungeon Uniform

Mark yourself as a willing ally to a dungeon. Its spawns will ignore you unless attacked or specifically ordered otherwise by the dungeon. Grants a Tier 1 increase to Social Agility.

Pellex shrugged and slid the jacket on. Turning to the others, he saw that they were more occupied with what was on the far wall. A strange, flat door, made of a single sheet of metal, covered the wall, thrumming with power.

“That’ll, um, be the core room, everyone,” Ucria said, “I’m going to blast it open, stand back.”

The soulbronze door seemed to melt away almost before the [Dungeon Bees] hit it, and the party entered right away, the metal door resealing behind them. The room was fairly unimpressive at first glance, merely a small, round space, carved directly from the rock, with nothing in it, save for an empty pedestal in the center.

“The core’s gone!” Ucria was frozen with shock, and Refos and Evwel were just as confused. Pellex had never been this far in a dungeon before, but he knew what it was supposed to look like. And he knew how to find out why it didn’t look that way. He walked up to the core lock, placed his hand on it, and activated [Cogsight].

Back in the machine, that infinite expanse of churning gears, grinding towards some unknown purpose. Pellex looked down at the core lock. It was nothing like the cogpistol he had first tested his power on. Whereas the gun had had a few phantom gears coming off of it, the core lock had hundreds of massive, ethereal gears, turning off of the housing Pellex was touching. Still not sure how this power worked, Pellex looked for the largest and closest of the time gears, and grabbed it.

Pellex was everywhere. He could see the entirety of the dungeon, from [Erlch]’s room to the core room, all at once, and he could feel the life within it. And he felt something in the core room. The focus tightened, and Pellex felt the scene contract until just the core room was shown, seen from every possible vantage point at once. Two people stood next to the clattering, glowing core, sitting upon its pedestal, and Pellex felt fear. Somehow he knew that it wasn’t possible to spawn anything near these people. If the bees were brought in, they would be annihilated on sight. There was nothing that could be done. Having come to this conclusion, Pellex felt the core become resigned to the situation. If it died, so be it. But that wasn’t what happened.

The first man to move forward was dressed in a long, purple robe, and held a small metal rod. With an elegant flourish, the robed man tapped the stick first to the core, and then to the other member of the group in the core room. The dungeon recognized something suddenly linking it, like its connection to its spawns, to the bored-looking man in full soulbronze armor. Pellex had seen them running the dungeon, but he couldn’t remember the final boss fight. Why couldn’t he remember? They had stepped into the boss chamber, and then they were in this room. What had – but the thought was cut off, as the man in soulbronze raised his hands and called out.

“[Words of Power IV: Cast Stored Thi Pattern: Entwining].”

Pellex felt a strange pressure, like something tugging at him. Searching for the source of the feeling, the pull grew in intensity, and Pellex screamed as his soul began to stream down the bond to the soulbronze-armored man.

Pellex was thrown out of the vision, and found that only a few seconds had passed. He wiped some sweat off of his brow as he tried to sort through the information. He hadn’t been the one thinking those thoughts – it was like he was the core, unable to view the situation from his own perspective. Now that Pellex was the one reviewing those events, he knew who that soulbronze-armored figure was. And if he had seen what he thought he had –

In a yellow flash, the core room's door faded away, and, floating an inch off of the ground, his soulbronze armor blazing with lines of green power, Julian entered the room.