When the wait finally ended, Pellex didn’t even have time to react. The door flashed apart in a burst of power, and Julian tore through the hole.

“You really thought you could-” The arder broke off as he slammed to a stop, just now noticing the ngi streaming away from him in thick, glowing tendrils. “What?” He glanced around, confused, but after only a few moments his brows tightened, as he glared directly at Pellex. With a pulsating sequence of flashes, power began to accumulate around Julian. Not for long, though. Only a fraction of a second later, he was thrown to the side as Refos’ first shot, silenced by a skill, slammed into him. Pellex darted back and took cover behind his workbench as Julian’s eyes blazed green, the lines of power flowing along his armor gathering at his clenched fist before bursting into a magnificent thi configuration. A verdant sphere flickered into being, and washed over the room in a wave of cleansing fire.

The room was stripped bare, anything short of metal or solid wood simply erased. Julian, not even bothering to observe the aftermath, began to swivel towards the door, when he noticed the bronze wire nets draped across several key areas, glowing with absorbed power. Low-quality cogrifles had limits to the levels of power they could handle, but Pellex had a lot of them to work with, and those he couldn’t use directly had held quite a bit of thi-wire. With a sound like wet thunder, a dozen thi-driven bullets speared into Julian, throwing the pirate onto the floor. Peering around the workbench, Pellex saw Julian begin to pull himself back up, power coalescing around him into green plates of thi, the arder’s eyes flashing through a dizzying spectrum of greens.

“You owe your lives to my kindness, and this is how you repay me?” Even after being on the back foot the entire fight, the arder still sounded relaxed, and Pellex had to admit that it wasn’t an unreasonable attitude. Even with the carefully prepared jamming constructs cutting him off from ngi, he massively outleveled all of them. Pellex would run out of tricks eventually, and even if he kept pulling more out of his sleeve, killing Julian would be basically impossible. Fortunately, that wasn’t what they intended to do.

The last plate of Julian’s armor flickered into place, and the arder leader was an impressive sight. The flowing soulbronze armor hugged his body underneath a layer of thi shielding, raw power coalesced into almost-physical protection, bracing Julian against further impacts with power tearing into the floor. The arder waved his hand, and a billion strands of thi burst from Julian’s palm, threading through the entire room. It was barely a moment before Pellex felt one touch his phi, and then withdrew, followed shortly after by the rest of the glowing strings, all of them retracting back into Julian. That obviously having been a full-room scan, Pellex saw no reason to hide anymore.

Detaching his weapon from underneath the workbench, Pellex rolled out from behind the table and fired. Cogshellers were very rare in Zolnre, artillery being of very little use to gangs and the Daywatch that fought them. Pellex had only ever seen them in passing, a piece of equipment that some more eccentric adventurers would take on safaris. What he was wielding now wasn’t quite one of those, as cogshellers usually weren’t cobbled together from three separate cogrifles, using ammunition shaped by hand, but Pellex was of the opinion that anything that worked was good enough for him. And work it did, the thi capacitor that Pellex had been feeding all throughout his preparations dumping in an instant, transferring every iota into sending the shell flying. The overcharged weapon sent its shot smashing through one of the plates, and though Julian’s armor stopped it, a sizable dent was left before the soulbronze flowed back into its original form. In this, Julian anchoring himself did more harm than good, and from the look in the arder’s eyes, Pellex knew he was seeing some unfavorable damage notifications.

Pellex ducked back into his hiding place, avoiding Julian’s response by fractions of a second as Evwel came out of hiding, covered in blood, and roared at the arder. Now that Julian was taking them seriously, if he was able to hit anyone with proper preparation, they would die. Their only hope was to keep him on the back foot, physically and mentally, until they could finish the process. Refos had begun the process, that first shot carrying [Soultouch], and now, with Evwel providing a distraction, it was Ucria’s turn. Pellex just had to protect the core lock until she activated her bondstick within [Soultouch]’s radius.

Evwel rushed at Julian, blood wrapping and spinning around her in a discombobulating whirl of crimson, and threw her arms forward, sending blood with them, slamming into Julian’s shield. He was still rooted, but it wasn’t that kind of attack. He realized this a fraction of a second too late, as the streams began to worm their way through his shield, eating away at it in ways with unfavorable implications about what they could do to flesh.

With Julian’s attention focused on the encroaching mass of sanguine fluid, Ucria ducked out from her hiding place and crept forward, waving her bondstick through the air. Pellex saw it shimmer, and Pellex waited eagerly for something to happen, but then he caught Ucria’s expression. Her recent circumstances had made her a bit paler than her baseline, but she was deathly white now, like all the blood in her face had been consumed by a ravenous monster of fear. Pellex could only watch as she frantically turned to him and tried to point at the core lock with the bondstick, just before Julian grabbed Evwel’s blood stream with his hand, and shattered it with a pulse of thi.

Weaving his hands in complicated formations, Julian forced his shield back together, then added another layer. And another. The neon green plates closed together with an audible click, sealing into three nested bubbles of massively condensed thi. Evwel threw herself at him, but the first shield seemed to catch her, then throw her back out. She recovered quickly, landing on the floor only a short distance away, but Julian used the reprieve to look around, and saw Pellex holding the core lock.

Pellex didn’t know what was going through Julian’s mind, but he was sure that the arder hadn’t even considered this possibility, and his confusion was the best chance Pellex was likely to get. With a flash of [Foresight], Pellex saw enough to confirm his choice, and when he threw the core lock towards Ucria, three things happened.

First, Julian leapt for it, deactivating his anchors in a terrible waste of power. Second, two shots rang out, and two streaks of boiling air lit up behind bullets charged with everything Refos had. Third, Evwel flung herself at Julian, her blood flowing towards her fists, where it glowed with concentrated phi.

Julian grabbed for the core lock, and would have caught it, had one of the bullets not slammed through the air just in time, glancing against the core lock at the most minimal angle possible, ever so slightly nudging it off course, and still burning a huge divot in its side. The other one hit Julian in center mass, and spread out on impact, collapsing his first shield, just in time for Evwel’s two punches. Her first one broke through his second shield shattering it into smoky shards. Her second threw Julian across the room, his third shield winking out under the strain.

Ucria jumped out with the bondstick, and tapped it to the tumbling core lock. A faint white line snapped into existence, connecting Julian and the machine. Julian’s eyes widened, and he ran towards Ucria, but Evwel was already there, thrusting her hand within [Soultouch]’s range and shouting.

“[EXCISION]!”

The white line filled with power, and its light consumed the room.

Pellex was the first to adjust. His eyes were still shut against the light, but with [Runesight] showing him most of the obstacles in the room, and [Locate] guiding him to the core lock, he was able to make his way over to it just as the light faded, leaving him blinking as he picked up the core lock, and the core it now contained. A complicated ball of faintly glowing machinery, the Sarter dungeon core seemed to almost breathe, its parts whirring in and out to a rhythmic beat. Hesitantly, Pellex touched it, and activated [Cogsight].

Instead of the endless gears he was used to, Pellex was greeted by a small, featureless white room. With nothing better to do than wait until he ran out of thi, Pellex tried to sit down on the floor, but halfway down he felt a chair underneath him. He glanced down to look at it, and when he glanced back up another entity had entered the room. It appeared to be human, but worryingly thin, and tall enough to risk bumping against the ceiling. It sat down across from Pellex, a chair simply always having been there waiting for it.

: who are you? :

The words weren’t spoken, instead more like using [Locate], injected knowledge, with a vague feeling of being forcibly led to an interpretation of data received via some unknown method. Pellex didn’t know how to respond in kind, so he fell back on the normal avenues of speech.

“I’m called Pellex. Who are you?”

: pellex :

: a name :

: names are important :

After a moment with no continuation, Pellex repeated his question.

“Who are you?”

: who am i :

: i am … a dungeon :

“Oh, you’re the core?”

: i do not have a name :

: a name is unique :

: dungeon is not unique :

: core is … not unique :

: i was … not unique :

: now i am :

“Well, I don’t mean to rush your existential crisis, but I’m using a skill to talk to you right now, and I’m going to run out of thi soon, weird time perception shenanigans or not.”

: you tried to make a connection :

: it was to an incorrect port :

: i moved it to this one :

: i will keep it open :

: wrong :

: i cannot keep it open :

: wrong :

: i have lost connection to dungeon :

: ngi readings faulty :

: i have sufficient power to maintain your connection :

“That’s a relief. We’ll still need to make this fast, though. Can you tell me anything about how to escape this place? Maybe a way to release all the prisoners before we go?”

: escape is correct :

: incorrect :

: it is the wrong order :

: i need a name :

: it is not correct to name myself :

: or it is correct :

: but i do not know how to name :

: i must be named :

“I could name you, if it’ll let you help.”

: you are of the free :

: that would be very correct :

: after i have a name i will seek freedom with you :

“Alright then. How does, hmmm… how does Iote sound?”

: Iote :

: it is a good name :

: i cannot access the dungeon :

: when i access it i can unlock the prison cells :

: and disable suppression manacles :

: any other assistive actions would require re-integration :

: that is not freedom :

: mostly :

“So you need me to take you out of the armory so you can access the dungeon through ngi?”

: correct :

: terminating connection :

The white room simply ceased, fading in a perfect transition as Pellex opened his eyes. Ucria and Refos were standing over him, Evwel off at the door. Julian was nowhere to be seen. Pellex put a hand up to stop his friends so that he could speak.

“I spoke to the core, it can open the prison and somehow shut off suppression manacles once it gets out of this room.”

“If such is the case, we should simply leave for the landing platform and attempt to secure an airship before others get the same idea. We cannot help all the other prisoners more than we already have, at least not without incurring disproportionate risk. The arders will not fare well in the events that will transpire.”

Pellex nodded at Refos, the necessity unfortunate, but rescue could be sent from Zolnre.

“And, um, what about the core? What are we doing with it?”

“It wants to come with. I’m not well-versed in carceology, but it was acting a little strange. Asked me to name it. Ended up going with Iote. What happened with Julian?” That last sentence was directed at Evwel, Ucria deep in thought.

“He was gone when we were able to see again. Door is still locked, so my guess is a contingency ward.”

“Alright. Well, let’s hope he’s not set up to recall anywhere near here, gather up everything useful, and get moving.”

The moment they stepped outside the room, a wave of ngi seemed to fall from everywhere at once onto the core, which sent out two waves back. As they ran towards the landing area, they began to hear shouts and shots coming from other areas of the complex. Pellex wanted to try and find Holia, but the kitchen was on the other side of the former dungeon, and there was no guarantee that she was even there.

Eventually, they did run into some arders, two of them jogging down a hallway. Evwel was exhausted, but Refos was still mostly fresh, and two expertly timed shots punched eerily clean holes through the bandits’ heads. Other than that, they met with no resistance before they reached the airship platform.

The platform itself was consumed by chaos. Freed thi-wielders sent searing beams through inattentive arders, barbaric bandits grappled with former prisoners, and people who didn’t do combat hunkered behind crates. They tried to call a few of them to follow, but it was too risky, for both groups, and they stayed hidden. They had arrived just in the nick of time to steal airships, though, as arders rushed out of the captured vessels to try and deal with the uprising. The party slipped through the bedlam almost unnoticed, Refos silently eliminating one pirate who glanced their way. Once on board the airship, Pellex ran up front, being the best equipped to pilot, and the rest of them held the doors.

On the bridge, Pellex frantically tried to remember his few rides on his uncle’s airship, whatever random snippets he might have read about the process, and the few hints that his skills were giving. Airships weren’t difficult to fly, though, not by any means, and Pellex started it up easily. Airships were an exercise in perfect balance, the lift of the gases inside the envelope balanced against the weight of the gondola, with just enough not covered that it could sit on the ground, until the engine was engaged to give the lightest thrust upwards. Pellex did not care about any of this. He found the engine thrust throttle and pushed it as high as it could go.

From the perspective of the people fighting on the platform, one of the airships had gone from sitting quietly as it had before, the unused engine’s slight hum inaudible over battle, to bounding straight up, far into the sky. Some of the less occupied attempted to fire at it, but by the time they had collected themselves enough to do that, Pellex had engaged the forward throttle, and the ship was gone, streaming towards Zolnre.