(Curator POV)

[Start!]

On Whit’s go, I’m thrust back into my core room.

[Oh, one last thing, as a handicap, you have the first move. So yeah, have fun, learn, and most importantly, put on a good show!]

Immediately I felt myself, the dungeon attach to Head’s. Like entrance to entrance.

Heaps of DP slowly flushed in, coalescing on the first floor. Feels strange but empowering. This is definitely to pace the fighting. Longer this scuffle goes on, the stronger the unit we can fish up from lower floors.

“Men round-up!”

On my call, a pack of wolves lingered at the edge of the woods. In ambush, they peered into the darkness that used to lead to my library. Sending in a scouting sparrow, it pops right into Head’s Dungeon. And it looks just how I imagined.

Completely ass opposite of my dungeon. Sterile orderly metal halls out of some futuristic sci-fi novel. Damn, boy got essence of aliens on his side.

Gliding up and down the labyrinthine halls, I felt his presence focused on me, prying, analyzing. It was unnerving, to say the least, adding in the lack of life or resistance. There has to be some trick. Maybe he has no creatures?

*Fwip* A door, one of few missing a key reader, slid open as I flew by. At first glance, it looks like a storage with towering racks filled with canisters, all the same type too, judging by their appearance.

Going in for a closer look, the door slammed shut, cutting all sound. Nary a wing beat could be heard. The world slowed, the air warbled and, I found myself, the sparrow gliding in place. it’s invisible.

Switching to DP vision. Enemies... that ain’t good.

Depicted as streams of color converging around the sparrow before. Poof! Gone, disintegrated into nothing. Oh. OH! Shit! These things are in my dungeon!

Rushing back, the ambush squad remains untripped. But, the colors... they were in, swirling arrogantly through the air.

They have to be some kind of elemental. But not the usual earth, fire, water type, nor even simply air.

Thinking back, the way my sparrow disintegrated wasn’t unnatural. I’ve seen it before when paper oxidizes.

“Alice, have the cinder wolves and fairies on standby.” While that gets going, let’s try scouting again.

Lesson learned, don’t go into rooms unless you have to. Peeking into lockless rooms, most had nothing of interest, except one. A large lab designed for general use, there was a keycard.

Shiny eyes on the shiny prize my sparrow swoops in, only to tailspin out of the way as a blocky tendril lashes out, shattering itself and the table the key was on.

Terribly brittle, the thing was a blocky humanoid composed of dark grey cubes. Absorbing its shattered pieces, the elemental recomposed itself as additional reinforcements came crawling out of test tubes.

Alright, time for some muscle. “GO, GO, GO!” With the ambush pack scampering over to sort that out.

Back in my dungeon, the colors seeped down to the second floor. *Fwoosh* And were instantly consumed by the ember wolves’ flames. Yep, science dungeon, oxygen elementals, not a hard guess. At least some were, but gaseous all the same.

As flames trailed over the elementals eating their bodies, embers whipped across the land in their frenzy, sending the fairies on full damage control. That is until the colors started to combine.

Like time bombs burning towards an end, each sizzle ticked down to the colorful swirl's center.

*Boom* For the briefest moment, I saw its silhouette solidify as it was engulfed in light.

Canvasing the area, the fairies seeing another fire hazard, gave a sigh and did their damnedest to keep the explosion contained. Not that the ember-wolves cared, happily lapping up the destruction.

Waves of steam billowed out from the crater, swallowing the area, all was silent until a rumbling riptide broke the pause. Cutting down the feasting wolves, it drove the survivors whimpering for cover.

From the parted steam veil came hulking figures, hunched backs stretching outwards to form a pointed head, floating on legs ending in a similar fashion.

Compounded with a blue jitteriness running throughout its body, it wasn’t hard to guess what they were, water elementals. That’s not all, the steam pillow itself took up a similar shape, lashing out at the fairies.

Shit. “Alice, get the dokkaebi. Have the fae bury those water elementals and see if Guardian can do anything about the steam.”

Moving back to the, I guess, expeditionary squad now. They made quick work of the cubic elementals(?). Retrieving the keycard, we continued on our way.

The floor itself wasn’t large, at least compared to mine, but it required a lot of backtracking for key cards, each protected by some type of elemental. Not the usual stuff, they were base elements.

Course, there were still traps like the disintegration one, but you know, just prop the door open, and it’s good.

Five keys later, we rounded back to the elevator at the heart of all this. By now, the DP levels had risen significantly, so I sent boggarts and black dogs as reinforcements. Swiping the cards in, there was nary a creak as it carried our large group down.

“Alice, status report.”

“The enemy encroaches, their numbers have significantly increased.” That smarmy smartass, this explains his confidence, he knew his monsters were perfect for this.

Just blend elementals together and have something to kick start a reaction, boom. High-tier creatures on command. Guy is really going all-in on the science thing.

An insta drop, how troublesome. “Alice keep on the defensive for now.”

*Ding* the doors slide open, and it was like a whirlwind hit the place. Chemicals, papers haphazardly strewn about the floor. Tables laid out like a maze, sprawling and stacked upon each other. This was a workshop and a big one at that.

One step out and. *Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.* All four walls lifted, revealing hidden cavities, allowing for a cavalcade of elementals to spill out, none of them aggressive as it stands.

Henh. All these beakers, formulas, and this machine, sitting next to the elevator. It had a vial shape slot, putting two and two together, we probably have to get drops and cook something up.

So while they get on that. Back at the dungeon, Alice was frantically stoned-faced, as in her usual blank expression but more jittery around the eyes. The enemies were multiplying, cinder elementals, mud elementals, oh my! Pushed hard, everyone stood strong against the tide.

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(Observation room, The Null)

[Your thoughts?]

“Head’s toying with him.” Seth was the first one to share. “It’s unlike him to do something so callous, but I can’t deny its effectiveness. He’s really improved since last time.”

Whit nodded. Out of everybody, Seth was the most familiar with Head’s technique.

“Don’t underestimate Books’ fighting spirit. Head has the advantage, but he’s getting sloppy.” Smith rebutted, much to Seth’s confusion.

“Sloppy?”

“Yeah, do this long enough, and you get a feel for it. Sure, Head has the lead when it comes to floors and output, but he’s still green. If that kid plays his cards right, he can win.”

Whit also accepted this assessment.

[G?]

All eyes fell on the unusually focused dungeon core, a gleam of unshakable concentration analyzing every frame.

“OI! Get your balls out of the garden!” Smith conked him on the noggin. “I’m sure the kid’ll give you a tour of the garden later. Now come on, fight talk!”

“Curator will win.” He uttered without a second thought, not a word more. Knowing how he was when it came to things of this nature, Whit gingerly accepted the short reply.

“Ey, look. Act two’s ‘appening!” Smith called out, bringing everyone back to the screen.

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(Curator POV)

“Curator, enemy forces are nearing the illusory woods.”

Goddammit, I need more time. These damn elementals are a pain to identify, like what the hell are heavy water elementals! Don’t even get me started on the recipes, might as well be moonspeak. At least Grandma seems to have her head on right, as far as witchcraft translating over to chemistry goes.

It didn’t take long for Head’s forces to storm the woods. Red’s absence didn’t matter. Enough bodies and illusions don’t mean squat.

Coming up to grandma’s house, I knew the usual song and dance wouldn’t work. So I flipped the script a bit, training Bad for another story.

Mmmmmhgggg, A~hem.

From a war against the unfathomable to illusions of reality, his armies soared unfettered through the starry sky, circling a quaint hovel in droves. Mixing in the clouds, swirling, expanding, overtaking the moon.

In complete blindness, the watery vanguard poured into the one-room house, only to find it empty. But not devoid of life. Sightless they may be, their water made up for that. Rippling, acting as a radar for the creatures. And right now, it was a raging storm. The house thrummed rhythmically, its walls sloughing and contracting with the song of life.

So rapturous it was that even the slamming of a fatal door didn’t tick them off.

The beating turned violent, excited at the prospect of prey. Sloshed around, confusion took the invaders as their numbers dwindled with every beat. The room was alive, but something else was killing them. A shadow of death, striking, disappearing.

Midst the chaos, our enemy fumbled about, scrambling, attacking without direction. Skin and blood flung through the air, rendered minuscule as piercing tides slammed into them. But try as they might, the flesh gave no inch, regenerating at an absurd pace. Still no sign of the thing assaulting them.

Frantic to the last, all were eviscerated by the being who resided in blood.

Kinda anti-climactic, really. But if it stalls ‘em, all the best. Although that next wave they’re bringing... might be a little overkill.

Crowding into Grandma’s house was a standard mix of mud and water elementals, with the exception of a new type now thrown in. An ominously floating ball of jelly-like silver. What really had me on edge was just how closely they guarded it. As a side note, I noticed that they were surrounded exclusively by mud elementals.

And it didn’t take long for me to figure out why. The moment they merged with a water elemental, there was a flash of light and an explosion strong enough to shake the building, cleansing it of filth. Then another rang out...

Until *Creak* *Creak* *Crack* the floor, unable to take the strain, broke. Dropping the chemical army into the basement. There they were faced with the source behind this horror, a mass of crimson muscle contracting, retracting. A heart, bestowing life upon its host.

Before the enemy could react, the heart ceased beating, for the beast who crawled through flesh bore its fangs. Bursting forth, it sliced through the crowd announcing the start of act two.

Big Bad did as he always had, bouncing from wall to wall using his incredible speed to pick off victims. This time the frantic chaos was pumped up to eleven as the heart resumed, beating erratically as any injured animal’s heart would.

Sadly for us, strong as he is, this was a bad matchup for Big Bad. Fighting close up, all that water sunk into his papers while mud clutched onto him, making an easy target for those detonations.

In lieu of grandma gifting them the key, it simply dropped as Big Bad dissipated.

Tch, damn. “Grandma, how’s the mixing going?” After a round of silence came an unsettling cackle, not an ‘oh crap, this is bad’ type. But a ‘this won’t be good for my mental state’ one. Back at Head’s dungeon, how best to explain?

The general workshop had turned into some dark summoning ground. Maybe we’ll be able to summon demons or devils or figure out what the fuck the spirits in my dungeon want... No, no, not now!

At the center of it all, in a dim light surrounded by esoteric markings and otherworldly scrawled circles. A Grandma shifted boggart was brewing up a concoction. “A dash of this, a nibble of that~.” Down to her words and movements, the little guy did an admirable job mimicking Grandma. Well, Grandma working with Alice to work through the boggart.

It’s a whole broken telephone thing, but it gets the job done.

As she dropped the final ingredient, the brew bubbled and bobbled, the lights. Which I’m sure Grandma had broken to create a better atmosphere, flickered on and off. Until settling as the brew calmed.

“...This will work, right?” Giving a hearty snort, the Grandma shifted boggart assured me as she shoved her newly poured brew into the identification machine. *DING* a green light popped up, and it spat out a keycard.

“ALRIGHT!” Let’s not think too much about it. Grandma is a scientific genius. Yep, she is! Taking the keycard, we fed it into the elevator. And like that, the back of it opened up to a large reinforced room.

That’s a boss room if I ever saw one. Pressed for time, I just hurried everyone in.