I just met Halo and Maude a couple of hours ago so I honestly couldn’t care less about either of them. But if I had to choose between them... then I’d go for Halo. She’s quiet, and a little odd, but not in a bad way. She’s really pretty too. But I’m not gonna tell him that.

I gave Icezack a look, and rolled my eyes. He laughed and shrugged it off.

I looked down and saw Halo staring up at us. She... almost? smiled? and her hair and her cloak whipped around her as she calmly fell into the polychromatic pulses beneath us.

Gradually, the light show began to change. My perception of gravity, or whatever force it was that kept us flying at these insane speeds, started to shift and level out. If before I perceived our motion as a fall, now it felt like a leap through an impossibly long tunnel of light. The turbulence crashing against the purple barrier died out suddenly and I started seeing individual trails of stars again.

“Not long now.” Cassius spoke, looking much more sober now after emptying his stomach.

Space distorted back to it’s normal shape, and the five of us were rapidly shunted towards a growing portal of light in the distance.

“Try to stick the dismount, kid! Makes a good impression.” Icezack advised, uselessly.

The portal grew larger and larger until I could see the ceiling of a building on the other side.

I twisted and caught the lip of the well with the tips of my fingers, flipped over, and landed on my feet in a knee deep pile of glittering metal keys. What.

Halo and Maude had landed side by side on the lip of the well. They met each other’s eyes, then stepped down and surveyed the empty room.

Maude sniffed. “What a warm welcome. Surrounded by all our fans.”

“...These aren’t fans, they’re keys.” Halo spoke.

“Hah!” Maude let out a fat laugh at the dry... joke? I’m guessing that was Halo’s attempt at a joke. Probably.

The room looked like a near copy of the transport hub back in Raun, but with some glaring differences. Thin streams of light filtered through broken windows and into hot, dusty air. The walls were cracked and aging, and the floor? Well it was probably cracked and aging as well, but the thick carpet of keys prevented me from seeing it. There were thousands of them at least, probably far, far more.

Cassius dragged himself out of the well and fell flat onto the keys with a thud and a clink. He stood up, brushed himself off and adjusted his pack.

“Are we all here?”

Icezack raised a hand and grinned.

“Present.”

I looked in the little alcove where the potion attendant was back in Raun. It was cleared out, save for piles of keys.

“There’s no potions. No one here, either.”

Maude pulled a face.“That’s not ominous at all.”

Halo put a palm on the door and pushed, and a wave of keys flowed down a set of stairs covered in keys into a street covered in keys. We stepped out in to the scorching heat to find the city a metallic wasteland, radiating hot sunlight in every direction off of innumerable... keys.

I asked tentatively. “... Is this an Ac-Rayate thing, or...”

“It’s a dungeon thing.”

Ah. The mansion aggregate was probably a lure dungeon, then. The dungeoneering rush was before my time, but I’d heard enough about them to know a bit about the different types. Lure dungeons spit out special items to entice the unknowing to enter them. Lost, weary, traveler finds a shiny key out in a forest, then happens to stumble upon a beautiful mansion. They try the key in the door, and behold! It fits! Too bad the mansion isn’t a respite, it’s a deathtrap. Now though, I guess whatever caused the dungeon to aggregate out of control has also caused its lures to be produced a lot faster and in a much higher volume.

Maude pushed back her hood and ran her fingers through her red hair. Sweat formed on her neck and her long ears as the harsh sunlight beat down from above.

It was the middle of the night when we left, but now there’s sunlight... right. This is a different planet. No reason that both Lecliss on Raun and... wherever this is on Ac-Rayate would conveniently both be in similar time zones. This is going to make keeping track of how much time I have left to save Shale a little more troublesome.

“But even so... there’s something wrong with this picture, right?”

Dead trees lined the streets, fountains looked as if they had been dry for ages, and the wind blew hot whorls of sand that stung the eyes. I looked up and down the long street.

“Where is everybody?”

No one answered, but the adventurers faces were grim.

Cassius started walking, and we fell into step behind him.

Our footsteps made soft clinking sounds as we strode across the key covered road. It almost sounded like music... Or no, that’s just actual music. We all gave each other looks, then walked towards the source.

On the stage of an open air amphitheater, a small, lithe steel golem sat in front of a rickety piano that seemed to be made entirely from keys and random pieces of wood. With its back to the audience, it played the tinny piano with a practiced touch, and crooned a soulful song to no one.

When I’m alone,

I’m playin these keys

Ooh, I’d like to know

What you’re hearin next to me, yeah,

But I’m all on my own

Lost what I’ve loved

And I’m fooling on these keys

Lock it back tight and pack it up

Ooh, I’d like to know

But I’m all on my own,

Cast out don’t bring me home,

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m playin these keys.

The golem ended on a strange note, but let it ring out anyways as if the song had resolved.

Halo started clapping, and we joined her.

“Bravo!”

“AHHH!” The golem tumbled backwards and fell off the stage with a crash.

Ah. We spooked it.

“I haven’t had visitors in so long! You all don’t have any diseases do you?”

“Uh...”

“Oh, what am I saying, of course you do! I’ll keep my distance as a precaution.”

The vaguely reptilian metal golem gave a silver grin as it quickly backed up to put 10 feet of distance between us, then shouted a little louder when it spoke.

“I’m Rooster! I live here, world’s ending, but hey no property taxes, right? What brings you all to the beautiful, flourishing city of Alma?”

“I’m Maude. That’s Hayden, Halo, Icezack and Cassius. We’re adventurers. We hear you have a mansion infestation.” Maude smiled at the metal golem.

“Ah! Suicidal visitors! Do you all mind if I erase all of your names from my local memory as soon as this conversation is over?”

“Oh, by all means, go ahead.”

“Dear friend Rooster, are you the only one here in Alma?” Cassius asked politely.

“Oh I sure hope so, the evacuations have been going on for a while now, and to be honest, this is a terrible place to get left behind.”

“I haven’t heard of any evacuations from Ac-Rayate.” Icezack commented.

Rooster shrugged. “Maybe you should get out more.”

Icezack set his jaw in irritation.

I spoke up.

“Do you know anyone here who can make the transport well potions?”

“Oh for sure, I can do that.” Rooster replied confidently.

“Wow, really?”

“Yeah! A batch will take about half a day, give or take. Unless you want unfinished potions, which, haha, oh boy do you not want unfinished potions.”

Good. At least the potions will be done in time, no matter what complications occur.

“Rooster, start making those potions, we’ll need 5 sets when we get back.”

“When you get back! Right, so, I mean, realistically, you’ll need maybe, 2 sets, or none sets. Probably none sets.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, you multi talented little metal buddy! Start making those potions!” Maude beamed as she spoke.

“Which way to the mansion aggregate, golem?” Icezack spoke without restraint.

“Uh, all roads lead to the mansions, actually, just pick a direction, really?”

“What?”

“Listen, just find some place high enough to see the horizon. You’ll understand.”

Maude’s face went blank for a moment. She walked closer to us and spoke.

“Gather around, friends.”

Her shadow suddenly spread out around us, and then we sunk for a brief second, then reappeared on top of a tall building at the center of the crumbling, key covered city. The hot winds howled around us as we stared in silence at the panoramic view.

Halo spoke first.

“This is unexpected.”

“Seems more like the dungeon is hunting us at this point, no? Bearing down upon us and all.” Cassius made a wry smile.

“Fuck. I thought the pay was pretty good. Now I think we all need a damn raise.” Icezack’s constant grin was nowhere to be found.

“Wow! What a pretty mausoleum.” Maude smiled bitterly.

Hah. If I’m understanding what I’m seeing right now... this city might be the last place on the face of the entire planet that hasn’t been absorbed into the mansion aggregate. Surrounding the city on all sides was a vast ocean of keys, forming metal dunes and steel whorls. Past that, at the very reaches of the horizon, the largest structure I've ever seen. Structure is really the only word I can use for it. That thing could hardly be called a building, and definitely not a mansion. Abstract and unintelligible, it leans and angles, violently and ungainly, as if some great beast with a flawed understanding of matter haphazardly iterated upon something beautiful until it pulsed and raged like a great tumor of architecture. Even from here, it seems to nearly reach past the sky, encroaching on all sides, a titanic cage, blocking all hope of survival.

The planet Ac-Rayate is gone. Only the dungeon remains.