Ceres laid out a plan for Dyson’s rescue, but the catch is there is a lot of “what ifs” associated with her plan. Ceres’s strength even after taking in Belphegor’s eye is questionable at best, and the rest of us would have no chance against anyone that would be able to capture Dyson.

Ceres thinks she might be able to teleport to and from the location in which Dyson is being held, but if something happens our only avenue of escape is using the justicar teleport and even with the dangers present, Angela and Desiree are both refusing to stay behind.

“If something goes wrong, we can use the justicar teleport to leave, but we won’t be able to get you two out the same way. Dyson trusted you both to me, and I can’t put you at that kind of risk.”

Angela: “You promised! We gave you the eye so you have to take us with you. I don’t care if I die, as long as Master is saved.”

“If Ceres plan works, we get in and out before anyone even knows we are there, so taking you along only decreases our chance of saving Dyson.”

Angela: “We already covered this! The same can be said about you!”

“Ceres doesn’t know how much of a drain on her power teleporting is going to take, especially when we will be teleporting through one of the traitor’s items. If we arrive at Dyson’s side, only for it to be too much of a strain on her powers, she might even collapse, if that happens I will at least be there to use the justicar teleport to get us out.”

Angela: “And if something happens once we arrive every second might count, and if Desiree and I can give you even a few extra seconds to get Master out of there it will be worth it.”

Ceres: “Give it up Two-Twelve, if it were Belinda being held, would you be any less determined to help?”

“I just want to be clear I am highly against taking them along with us, and if anything happens I tried to stop it…”

Ceres: “Noted. Now, it has been a while since I last teleported, and it took a while to pierce the protection of the traitor’s item just to see inside, so teleporting may be even harder. I should be able to do it, but bear with me.”

Ceres then shakes her head and arms loosening herself up before she closes her eyes and begins to focus. After 20 or so seconds she shows signs of discomfort as she shakes her head again. She then reaches out grabbing ahold of me and Angela while instructing us to grab ahold of Desiree.

The moment we are all joined in a circle I feel a tug on the back of my chest… Ceres’s form of teleportation usually had no tells, much like when we got teleported by the traitors from Barry’s dungeon or in Madam Erin’s dungeon, but this time I do.

It isn’t even the normal feeling of teleportation either, I can still feel my feet firmly on the ground where we are standing in Dyson’s dungeon, but the pull on my chest feels like it is actually pulling me, and I feel like I am being stretched from here all the way to our destination.

Needless to say, even as a dungeon core that is used to teleportation even I am starting to feel sick to my stomach. Then all of a sudden there is a snap feeling like my body being stretched over the vast distance caught up with itself all at once, causing a lurch in my stomach causing me to bowl over.

I am not the only one either, all of us including Ceres is bowled over gasping for air, but Ceres looks far much worse for wear then we do. Her face is quite pale, she is covered in sweat, and seems to be having trouble catching her breath.

We however seem to have arrived in our destination. We are standing in a small darkened room. From the information Ceres figured out from when she found Dyson we are on the top floor of the new section of Madam Erin’s dungeon, but by the appearance of the room you would think we are deep underground.

Ceres said Dyson was in bad shape and it was hard to be sure that the person she found was even him, and after finally having a look around the room I can see why. The figure nearby being stretched on a rack, and has been stripped of all of his clothes and belongings, he looks to be of Dyson’s build, and scars all over the body are reminiscent of ones I have seen on him in the past, but that is quite literally the only indicators we have of this person’s identity.

His head is completely covered in a helmet much like the one Dyson wears in his armor, with the expectation of instead of having no holes at all within it there is a singular hole right in the front, and its purpose? Dyson’s tongue is pulled through the small hole and long rods have been stabbed clean through his tongue keeping him from pulling it back into his mouth.

The helmet is only the beginning however, because the binding holding his wrists and ankles to the rack keep him stretched out, but other long rods each with thorny barbs sticking all out of his body from all angles is what truly what is holding him in place.

Giving the helmet on his head, I am not sure he was aware of our arrival, but once Angela and Desiree’s eyes fall on him they quickly run to his side. They try to help Dyson by quickly removing the rods, but as soon as they touch them Dyson begins to struggle against his bindings causing the barbs on the rods to not only tear into more of Dyson’s flesh, but into Angela and Desiree’s hands as well.

Angela: “Master, please calm down! It’s us! We are going to get you out of there!” –She pleads to him with tears in her eyes, but he can’t seem to be able to hear her through the helmet as he keeps struggling.-

I try checking on Ceres because she still hasn’t seemed to recover from the teleport, but she pats me on the shoulder and tells me to go help Dyson. I head over to Dyson and try taking the helmet off first, but it seems to be far more complicated then I originally realized.

The rods though his tongue will have to be removed to take the helmet off that is for sure, but there are at least a dozen knobs, and screws all over the helmet doing who knows what on the inside. I can remove the rods from his tongue, but I don’t know what to do about the others, because I could do more harm than good if I mess around with them especially with Dyson still struggling.

Once the girls finally remove a few of the rods from Dyson’s body he seems to realize that he is not being tortured further and starts to struggle far less, but the damage has already been done to both of the girls’ hands.

Dyson’s tongue shrinks back into the helmet after I pull the last of the rods out, but to no surprise he doesn’t immediately speak, if he is even capable right now… Not sure what to do with the rest of the helmet I switch to healing some of the wounds in which the girls have already removed the rods from, and that causes Dyson to quit struggling altogether.

Angela: “We got the rods all out, but I can’t remove the shackles or the helmet…”

Desiree: “They are some sort of magical items, as I can’t even see inside Dyson’s head with the helmet still on him.”

“If worse comes to worse, we can cut him off of the rack, but I am more worried about the helmet.”

Angela: “I am not cutting off his hands and feet! Hasn’t he been through enough?!”

Desiree: “Then I will. It won’t kill him, and healing him will be no problem unlike what will happen if we stay here too long.”

“I agree the sooner we get out of here the better, even if we can’t get the helmet off right away, we need to at least remove him from the rack.”

I stand by ready to heal Dyson, as Desiree pulls one of her swords. Angela buries her face into Dyson’s chest while wrapping her arms around him the best she can. Even with Desiree’s sword, between Dyson’s level and skills cutting though his ankle proves to be a lot more work than Desiree anticipated, and it turns into a horrible bloody mess, but once his left leg is finally free from its shackle I begin casting a healing spell immediately to reattach Dyson’s severed foot.

This is taking far more time than we anticipated, and can’t help get a little more anxious each second we remain here, but as I look over to Ceres while repairing Dyson’s ankle, it doesn’t seem like Ceres is much shape to teleport us out of here even if we did have Dyson free already.

Reattaching severed limbs is much easier then growing new ones from scratch, but even still it uses a lot of my magic to continuously cast a healing spells as long as it takes to completely heal even one of Dyson’s severed limbs, much less doing it four times in a row.

As hard as it was to cut off Dyson’s feet and then reattach them, it proves to be far easier than his wrists. Not that it is any harder to cut, but once one of his arms is free he starts struggling again and flailing his stump as I try to reattach the hand.

Once I finally do however Dyson reaches over grabbing the last remaining shackle and begins to pull. Even with his strength he isn’t able to break the shackle but instead he breaks several of his own fingers and strips half of the flesh from his own hand as he pulls his last hand free of the shackles.

Even with his hand being a mangled mess it is still much easier to heal than reattaching the severed limbs, so at least that is something. Once Dyson is whole again he runs his hands over the helmet, albeit very carefully. Even he seems rather hesitant to mess with any of the knobs or screws.

“Alright, we got Dyson free. We need to get out of here, and then we can figure out how to get the helmet off in the safety of one of our own dungeons. Ceres, are you going to be able to teleport us back out?”

She still looks rather pale, but collects herself and says: “I’m going to try.”

“If it makes it easier, start with Angela and Desiree, we can always use the justicar ability to teleport out, but only your power will be able to get them out.”

Angela: “No! Not without Master.”

“Once we know you are safe, we will be right behind you.”

Ceres: “It doesn’t matter, two people or five people won’t matter, it is getting though the protection over this place that is the hard part.”

I am pretty sure Dyson still can’t hear us, and even with Dyson’s tongue being free he still hasn’t said a word, so I am not sure if he is even capable right now, but he at least seems to recognize Angela and Desiree by touch, so when they take his hands stopping him from fiddling with the helmet to grasp his hands for Ceres’s teleportation, he complies.

After a few seconds of Ceres focusing hard, however it is clear this isn’t going to work, as Ceres nearly falls over, but since we have ahold of her she only falls down to one knee, and that is only the start of the bad news.

I quickly try to help Ceres back to her feet but I am interrupted by a [Menu] message. I am initially surprised about receiving a message while inside the effects of one of the traitor’s items, but it is the content of the message that worries me the most.

Dungeon Core #187 [Elder Lucille] perished at the hands of Dungeon Core #400 [Elder Dyson].

The traitors haven’t been using Dyson’s name when killing other cores for last few months, so why would they switch back now, and how can we even be sure this is a legit message when we shouldn’t have received it within the effects of the traitor’s item.

“Impossible…”

Ceres: “We have other things we should be worried about right now, so ignore it.” –She says while managing to pull herself back to her feet, but she looks in even worse shape than she did before.-

I didn’t think Dyson could hear us, but as a figure steps out of the shadows from the corner of the room and starts to speak, Dyson already holding onto Angela and Desiree because of the attempted teleport, he pulls them behind him. Putting himself between the figure and them.

Shadowy figure: “It is perfectly possible when we are the ones that control what you see and don’t see. We just thought seeing that message would put into perspective just what kind of situation you have found yourself in.”

The figure is decked out from head to toe in Dyson gear, so it would be no surprise for someone to mistake this person for him, although [Menu] wouldn’t be so easily fooled, but they have the rings for that.

Angela: “That belongs to Master!” –She says trying to step out from behind Dyson, but Dyson firmly holds her back.-

Shadowy figure: “It really is the best armor ever made, and this sword… I could do wonders with this sword.”

“Who are you?!”

Shadowy figure: “Can’t you tell? I’m Dyson, or at least for all intents and purposes I soon will be.”

Angela: “You can’t just wear Master’s armor and claim to be him!”

Shadowy figure: “It was enough to fool Lucille, and the ring was enough to fool [Menu], but soon even his dungeon will acknowledge me, and that will make you mine as well.”

Angela: “That’s never going to happen!” –She says still struggling to get out of Dyson’s grip.-

“Calm down, he is just trying to rile you up…”

Angela: “I don’t care! He can’t have Master, or Master’s dungeon!”

Shadowy figure: “You’re not really in the position to be making any demands, now are you?”

“What is it you want from us? Surely if you killed Lucille like you claim, and even captured Dyson, this conversation wouldn’t be happening unless you wanted it to.”

Shadowy figure: “Until Dyson’s dungeon becomes mine, we still need him to stick around, so I wouldn’t want anything to happen to him just yet. As for you, the verdict is still out. You have done some curious things that have made us quite interested in you, but curiosity only gets you so much good will.”

“And what of Madam Erin?”

Shadowy figure: “Safe, for now at least. The boss wants her dungeon for himself.”

“The boss? So you aren’t the one in charge?”

Shadowy figure: “You don’t think he would bother with the petty stuff like this do you?”

I don’t want to leave Angela and Desiree behind, and if we are ever going to stand a chance against the traitors we have to get Dyson out of here, but Ceres is clearly in no shape to teleport again. Whoever this is wearing Dyson’s armor, if I can just keep him talking, Ceres might be able to recover enough to teleport again.

“I can only assume you are the reason I have not heard back from Lucille and Laura then? What of Laura, did you kill her as well?”

Shadowy figure: “We still haven’t decided what we want to do with Laura yet, with Lucille out of the way, Laura just might be of some use to us, but so far she has not been very agreeable. Much like Dyson here, but her dungeon isn’t as important as his.”

“I haven’t seen Dyson’s actual dungeon, but Lucille’s was surely far more impressive, so why kill her and try to take Dyson’s dungeon?”

Shadowy figure: “That answer should be obvious, for the ability to summon humans, of course. It is truly a gift that Dyson squanders without utilizing its full potential.”

“Everyone keeps saying that, but I don’t see how it is any better than being able to summon beastkin. The only difference is the summoning of beastkin is far less rare.”

Shadowy figure: “Beastkin may be making their way up in the human world, but a beastkin will always have to do twice the work to prove they are equal to a human, and kingdoms like Dalian still refuse to acknowledge them.”

“I have been trying to figure out who you are from the moment you showed yourself, and even though I still am not sure, it sounds like you know this from experience. Bless told me about your leader not being a dungeon core, and to be honest I didn’t expect someone strong enough to do the things you have done to not be a dungeon core. Even with you talking about taking over Dyson’s dungeon, I had assumed it was in addition to your own, but you are not even a dungeon core yourself, are you? And if I had to guess you’re a beastkin at that.”

It’s hard to tell while the man wears Dyson’s armor, but I seem to have struck a nerve and he takes a more defensive posture. This puts me in a delicate situation… If I can keep him flustered I can steer the conversation and drag it out, but if I step too far it could backfire and he could lash out instead.

“We have been calling you all the traitors, because it appeared that you were dungeon cores that were unhappy with the way the Elders were handling things, but instead you have just been using the dungeon cores all along… But what I don’t understand, is how normal humans or beastkin could even learn so much about dungeons, must less become strong enough to subdue Dyson and manipulate [Menu]?”

Shadowy figure: “You are the one that said we were not dungeon cores, not me.”

“That is why you tried to help Hecate kill me, because you’re all failed dungeon cores… The only reason you didn’t ask Hecate to join you, was because she would have found out that it was you that killed Maric, and that was how you knew enough about dungeon cores to convince some to join you as well. What I don’t understand if you gained so much strength why not go back to the Elders to reclaim your positions as dungeon cores like Dyson did?”

Shadowy figure: “Hecate chose her path when she went to lick the Elder’s boots after failing to kill you. Besides, you proved to be much more interesting than she did, and it is the Elders are the problem, and first they must go, only then can we reclaim our place as dungeon cores.”

“Then what Bless said about becoming a god is what? A lie?”

Shadowy figure: “Aren’t we already? We have killed five of the six dungeon core Elders, captured all of their replacements, and can manipulate [Menu] to do our bidding. Our only rivals now are the actual gods, and we have a plan for them as well.”

“Five? Then you were responsible for even Leland’s death?”

Shadowy figure: “Leland was a big help, and we learned a lot from him, but once he started to realize what we were planning to do. Let’s just say, it was quite easy to convince Adra’s king to give us a hand with Leland after the prince’s “accident”.”

Angela has finally stopped struggling against Dyson, and he has resumed the attempt of removing the helmet from his head, and even Ceres’s face seems to be regaining a bit of color, but she is still a long way from being able to attempt her teleportation again.

“I can’t agree with your reasoning for wanting the Elders dead, but even if I did that still doesn’t excuse the hundreds of other dungeon cores you have killed.”

Shadowy figure: “Manipulating [Menu] comes at a cost, and a dungeon core that is complacent in the Elder’s actions is just as guilty as the Elders themselves, especially when they are powerful enough to do something about it like Maric.”

“You can try to justify your actions all you want, but at the end of the day you are just killing dungeon cores for your own benefit.”

Shadowy figure: “And who gets to be the judge on one’s action, you? I am sure many those who have lost loved ones in your dungeon would disagree.”

“Everyone that has entered my dungeon has done so knowing the risks it involves.”

Shadowy figure: “Now who is trying to justify their actions? You do what you must to survive, just as we have. “

“You have done far more than just try to survive…”

Shadowy figure: “As fun as this conversation has been, I had hopes of seeing this new teleportation ability of yours, but given Ceres’s condition I would assume it has something to do with her? As such it looks as it may take a while before I can see just how effective it is, but as I said before we still need Dyson, so I am going to have to ask you to come with me.”

Angela: “I’m not going anywhere without Master!”

Shadowy figure: “You are of very little consequence so if you wish to stick around and watch him die then so be it.”

“I promised to look after those girls for Dyson, and they won’t leave without him, so it looks like we are at an impasse.”

Shadowy figure: “Do you honestly think you could stand a chance against me?”

“You wouldn’t be the first person to underestimate me…”

Shadowy figure: “You’re mistaken.”

I start to ask him how I’m mistaken but before I can even get the words out I am assaulted by a sudden rush of air and a sharp pain in the back of my neck, the last thing I can recall before blacking out is the sounds of Ceres, Angela, and Desiree calling out.