In the “negotiating room” deep in the dungeon, Selenia, Ellora Arthus and Merlin sat at the table watching Merlin’s magical projection. “something is wrong” said Selenia, “the cannon golems are supposed to reverse back into the tunnels in the walls and go to the second floor if they survived”

She closed her eyes tried to send a message to Lucifer through their link and even tried calling out to him, but she couldn’t find the link and didn’t receive a response. Ellora tried too before saying, “your right, something is wrong”

Arthus stood up and stretched, “it seems that its finally time for me to test out my healed body” he said while grinning.

Merlin also stood up and begun leaving with the warrior king, Ellora followed behind them and told Selenia, “you go check on Lucifer, I’ve got my men to command up here”

Meanwhile on the second floor.

Several tank golems fired at the invading army, however, there weren't many in comparison the first floor and the mages had figured out how to defend themselves. They used earth magic to collect all the dirt they could and created earthen walls. This stopped most of the machine gun fire, but the solid cannon shots would still go right through.

Groups of mages took turns rising above the wall and pelting the tanks with fire and force magic. The force magic rocked the tanks and occasional set off a chain reaction in the fragile mana crystals they used for firing, while the fire would heat up the tanks until they exploded.

Very quickly the remaining tanks on the second floor exploded and there wasn’t any backup. The mages breathed a sigh of relief. But that only lasted for a moment.

The earthen walls had limited their vision and Arthus used them to get right on top of the army before they noticed. His first attacks were quick, decisive and silent. Using absurd physical abilities he flickered across several groups of mages leaving them with lethal cuts.

Before the bodies had even dropped he had already disappeared over the walls and started circling around. Alarms were raised and the army moved into action, however, Arthus was already behind the army and he used the enemies distraction to his advantage, taking even more lives before disappearing again.

He was able to do this several times taking hundreds of lives before a barrier rose above the army. Arthus sent several test strikes at the barrier before running once again. Even with his strength the blows just glanced off doing no damage. Then a moment after he had left the area where he attacked the barrier exploded with elemental fury. Fire, force earth and several other magics flew in all directions with enough force to make even Arthus worry.

Arthus cursed mages to the 10th hell and attacked several more sections of the barrier earning him some ear pain, although he only attacked lightly to waste the enemies mana, then he retreated to rest, he couldn’t break the barrier and even if he tried and succeeded it would leave him exhausted. Instead, he just left them to their bubble

Arthus met up with Merlin and said, “I think its your turn”

“hmph” Merlin scoffed, “I will attack when the time is opportune”

“can’t you destroy the barrier” Arthus asked.

“yes, however, I would be rendered as useless as you if you did the same”

Arthus said, “then I guess we will wait for them to come out”

Previously when Lucifer became unconscious.

He suddenly “woke up” and found himself in a black void, ‘I’m dead again he thought’. But it didn’t feel the same as the doughnut journey. He didn’t feel like a soul. Lucifer was surprised when he could move around freely which proved that he wasn’t dead.

Then he heard a voice and turned around, “greetings young dungeon”

Behind him was an ethereal old man. He wore gaudy mage robes and carried an intricate staff. Lucifer asked, “and you are”

“you can speak” the old man exclaimed. “I didn’t give them that ability”

Lucifer repeated, “you are”

The mage came to and replied, “I AM… I am I’m… I don’t remember my name, just call me prime dungeon”

“well prime dungeon, why I am I here and where is here exactly”

The mage questioned, “not important, why can you speak, you should just be an animal soul, how did a human soul get inside my children’s dungeon core”

Lucifer sighed and asked, “how do I get out of this place”

The mage laughed, “get out, your not getting out, I’m going to snuff out your soul and take over your dungeon”

“well get on with it then” Lucifer replied.

The mage was raised his brows and questioned, “don’t you want to know a--”

“no” Lucifer cut him off.

“DO NOT INTERRUPT ME!” the mage screeched, “I am the original dungeon, after being betrayed I shot myself into the center of the world, but not before creating my own self replicating dungeons for later use, then I slowly sent parts of myself to a suitable--”

“I don’t care, stop monologing and just get to the soul-snuffing already” Lucifer interrupted.

…

“FINE, if you wish to die sooner, I can oblige you” said the mage before he rushed straight into Lucifer.

In the present Selenia was rushing through the dungeon, she wasn’t allowed in the core room, but standing outside of the room would send a warning signal to Lucifer and hopefully figure out what he was doing.

Suddenly the entire dungeon rumbled and shook, ‘that is a bad sign’ thought Selenia as she righted herself and kept running. She kept running and the dungeon tremored twice more before she came to a dead end.

This was supposed to be the pathway to the core but the hallway had caved in, she grabbed rocks and easily threw them aside before remembering there was a second entrance. Lucifer's bedroom had a pathway from the core so Lucifer could get there easier when Ahri showed up for some fun.

Selenia made her way there. She came upon Lucifer's bedroom door and hesitated for an instant before pushing it open and going through. The bed was a mess and she didn’t want to think about it, but blushed slightly anyway.

Just as Selenia was about to open the core path door, the back wall lit up with glowing text. She glanced at the text before she left the room and froze. “welcome Selenia you finally worked up the courage to come to my bedroom, I will be sent a message and will be with you shortly, don’t worry I’ll be gentle XD”

“worked up the courage your head” Selenia cursed before sprinting down the core path.

Soon a black shadow came into view, but it wasn’t a shadow it was Kuro. Selenia said, “I need to get though Lucifer might be in trouble”. Kuro stood up and glared at her, ready to pounce. Selenia was taken back, she and Kuro got along very well and this was the first time Kuro had shown aggression towards her.

Lucifer must have ordered Kuro to guard the core room which was just up ahead and Kuro takes her orders seriously. Selenia took several minutes trying to convince Kuro to let her pass which failed, however, when the dungeon tremored once again her point got through the big cat.

Selenia passed by Kuro and felt a chill run down her spine, she could feel warm breath on her neck. Kuro obviously didn’t trust her as much as she thought. The idea of putting up her armors barrier went through her mind, but that would be admitting guilt and Kuro was the dungeon monster she couldn’t win against. It didn’t matter how impenetrable her shield was if she was dragged into a shadow dimension and left there.

She stepped into the core room and the first thing she saw was the emerald skeletons which first captured her, they now had emerald scythes, armor and pulsed with magical energies. The skeletons looked at her briefly and their eyes glowed before they went back into their lifeless states.

Selenia could feel the warm breath move further away from her which gave her some relief. Kuro thought that if the skeletons didn’t attack Selenia then Lucifer didn’t mind her being here and backed off.

Selenia felt a slight warmth at the skeletons complete disinterest in her, the dungeon with trust issues trusted her enough to be in the heart of the dungeon. That is when she noticed the now far larger dungeon core, it had a second crystal connected by a thin crystal bridge and black tendrils were coming from it and wrapping around the dungeon core.

On the second floor.

The dungeon shook and Ellora almost tripped as she found Arthus and Merlin. They turned to see the newcomer before gazing back at the barrier. Ellora said, “while Lucifer isn’t here we should be using his preparations”

“how” Arthus questioned.

“and what preparations” Merlin added.

Ellora started, “fist, the cannon golems, they should be moving to the second floor to follow the enemies, but without Lucifer the doors won’t open, so they are stuck. I want Merlin to use his magic to open up all the wall doors”

Merlin said, “why do I need to do it, opening doors is a task more suited to the physically inclined”

Ellora explained, “the doors like exactly like the cave walls so only you could find them and open enough of them to matter”

“what will I be doing” said Arthus.

“I need you to get into the roof of the second floor and break open the poison reservoir--”

“you will have to explain this “poison reservoir” better before I go breaking it” Arthus interrupted.

Ellora explained, “fires happened in the dungeon enough that Lucifer made a “fire suppression system” as he calls it. It is thousands of small tunnels above each floor with a massive water basin above it, so when there is a fire Lucifer can essentially make it rain. But when he heard of the incoming attack he filled the basin with poison instead, so once you break it open you will be the only one fast enough to get out in time”

“sounds reasonable, what will you be doing” Arthus asked.

Ellora answered, “Lucifer has a large version of the cannons hidden in some of the hallways, they can’t be activated without Lucifer, so I’m going to have to find the Ant queen and convince her to have her ants manually activate the weapons”

“sounds like a plan” Arthus said before turning.

“wait,” said Merlin, “take these”, he gave each of them a crystal ring, “direct mana into the ring and think of what you want to say to the group”