Morgan stood, panting and sweating, over the corpse of the blade abomination. Thanks to Bronwyn’s tracking, he knew they were called something else, but they looked like giant ants with swords for legs and humanoid heads. Blade abomination seemed to fit just fine. He and his two companions had been clearing passage after passage of the monsters, so many that they’d already each gained another level.

“God! I hope that’s the last of them. Where’s the next boss, anyway?” Bronwyn groused, kicking at the monster’s four-foot, bladed leg.

“I don’t know, but I could use a break. We’ve been at this for hours. Days?” Olivia leaned back against a white marble wall, rubbing her forehead. The incinerated remains of another blade abomination just to her left.

“No, definitely not days. Close to a day, though,” Morgan said. He was feeling alright and knew Olivia was being dramatic—she had nearly as high an Energy affinity as he did, so she’d be replenished from victories just like he was. “How’s the map looking? Any idea what we’re missing?” He walked over to her and waited while she pulled out the notebook where she’d been mapping the corridors they were clearing.

“Let me see,” she said, tracing the neat lines with her finger. “This area here is suspiciously blank. There’s a door up this hallway we haven’t been through; it might lead down there.”

“All right, so back this way,” Morgan pointed to the map, “then up those steps and to the left.” He sighed and stretched. “Let’s have a sandwich, then get moving, hmm?” He looked around for an argument, but neither of them said anything, and Bronwyn put a hand to her necklace, presumably looking for her sandwich ingredients.

“Yeah, while we snack, let’s go up the ramp a bit, away from these stinking corpses.” Morgan led the way, and they all sat at the top of the sloping passage, taking turns with the ingredients to build their lunches. “Hah, I keep thinking of this as lunch. I guess because we’ve been working hard and we’re taking a break. It feels like a lunch, doesn’t it?”

“I guess. If people worked forty-hour days.” Bronwyn snorted. Morgan chuckled and wolfed down his sandwich, then waved his hand over his face to activate his helmet’s visor. He stood and leaned against the wall, Bloodfang in his hand, waiting for Olivia and Bronwyn to get the hint and finish. He’d agreed to fight one more boss, but the process was taking a lot longer than he’d intended, and he was starting to get anxious.

“I’m going to scout a little ahead,” he said, voice echoing out of his helmet. “Meet you at the junction up this way.” Olivia nodded, and he moved off—better to give them a little space than stand around, making everyone tense. They’d already cleared the area, and when he got to the junction where another abomination corpse slumped against the wall, he sighed and cast Void Window, concentrating on Issa.

The sizzling, popping gap in reality opened between his hands, and he saw her standing in his tower, near the atrium, talking to Ykleedra. Ykleedra had grown, not a lot, but even with her legs folded in close, she was as tall as Issa. Not for the first time, Morgan wished he could hear what was being said through the scrying spell. Still, it was good to lay eyes on Issa, and he was pleasantly surprised to see Ykleedra looking healthy; he hadn’t spared many thoughts for the young Yovashi, but he did feel some responsibility for her. “I ought to, seeing as I killed her family,” he said, gripping his sword with a grimace.

While he watched, Issa’s head jerked toward the atrium glass, and her eyes widened. She looked at Ykleedra, and it looked to Morgan like she was yelling or exclaiming. Ykleedra backed up a step, shaking her head, and lowering her front legs in a show of obeisance. “What the fuck?” Morgan asked, watching the silent drama unfold. Issa moved forward to Ykleedra, still speaking vehemently.

“Spying on your sweetie?” Bronwyn asked as she and Olivia traipsed up the hallway.

“Uh,” Morgan let the window close, and then he turned to Bronwyn, “yeah, I guess so. She was having an argument with Ykleedra, I think.”

“Your pet Yovashi?” Bronwyn scowled.

“Bron! She’s a person!” Olivia said.

“I know, I know. I’m sorry, but I’ll never forget that monster in the cave.”

“That’s like hating all humans because of, oh, I don’t know, Dahmer or Perez.”

“Jesus, do you have to bring Perez up?” Morgan asked. Even as out of touch as he’d been as a teen, he remembered the nonstop footage of the trial—Perez, the butcher of Europa Station.

“Well, it makes the point, doesn’t it? You can’t judge an entire species based on the actions of an individual or two.” Olivia frowned from Morgan to Bronwyn.

“Of course, you’re right. I’m sorry, Liv.” Bronwyn reached out a hand, facing Olivia, and the other woman took it. They stood staring at each other for a minute, and Morgan sighed, turning to walk toward the unexplored doorway. He found that he could remember details better now than ever in his old life. He could picture Olivia’s map in his head and followed the turns back to the corridor with the three marble doors, one of which they hadn’t opened yet.

He only had to wait a few minutes for Olivia and Bronwyn to catch up, and they seemed to be done with their little dialogue, walking briskly and silently up to him. “Ready?” he asked.

“Yeah, all set,” Bronwyn said, hefting her crescent-moon-shaped, green hatchets. Olivia nodded, and Morgan leaned into the door, pushing it open. Like all the others before it, it slid silently and smoothly on invisible, recessed hinges. A sloping, marble corridor led up into the distance.

“My spatial awareness is pretty good, and I don’t remember going up in that direction before,” Morgan said, gesturing.

“Yeah, this is promising,” Olivia said, peering up the slope.

“Alright, fingers crossed.” Morgan strode forward, his gleaming sword ready and his Core primed. He climbed the slope for a hundred meters, then it leveled off, and he saw a massive double door ahead. Standing before it were three blade abominations, still too distant to react to the companions’ presence.

Morgan didn’t want to give them a chance to notice his approach, so he cast Void Step, suddenly appearing in their midst, then he unleashed a Void Wave, and he felt them struggle against its destructive Energy, fighting his assault with their will. They weren’t a match, though, and their chitin began to crumble, the flesh beneath dissolved, and their will to fight faded as the wave of non-existence washed over them. By the time Olivia and Bronwyn reached him, he was standing over the twitching creatures, draining their Energy. Bronwyn quickly moved among the broken, weak creatures and dispatched them with her hatchets.

“I’m not trying to take the glory if that’s what you’re thinking,” Morgan said, looking between the two women. “I’m just sick to death of these damn things and wanted to kill them quickly.”

“No complaints from me,” Olivia said. Then she glanced at the doors and continued, “Those look like boss room doors.”

“Hell yes,” Bronwyn said. A surge of Energy from the dead abominations filled Morgan’s reserves. A stream went to Bronwyn, and Morgan was surprised to see a thin ribbon flow into Olivia as well. It wasn’t the first time he’d noticed that the System seemed to share out Energy to people working together, even if one or more of them didn’t really participate in a fight.

“Well? I’m ready to see what’s next; what about you guys?” He looked from Olivia to Bronwyn.

“I’m all set. I have a little surprise for this one,” Olivia said, tapping her black crown. Morgan grinned and nodded. The crown was a very cool item, he had to admit, and it looked impressive. With her improved race and elemental highlights, Olivia looked like some sort of sorceress queen or fantasy demi-goddess with that crown.

“Bronwyn?” Morgan asked.

“Yeah, sec,” Bronwyn said, concentrating, and then her double shimmered into being right next to her. They both raised a hatchet, and the original said, “Ready!”

Morgan nodded and pushed open the left-hand door. Another massive marble hall stood before them, and, in the center, stood a titanic marble statue of a bulky humanoid. Morgan glanced around the room, wondering if there were more fireball launching tubes or other statues to be aware of. He didn’t see anything on the floor or along the walls, but metal lines crisscrossed the ceiling, looking suspiciously like rails or tracks for something to slide along. He followed them with his eyes and, tucked against the walls, so surreptitiously that one might mistake them for ornamentation, were little orbs with downward-facing tubes at their center. He saw a dozen on the left and a dozen on the right.

“You guys seeing those?” Olivia asked in a breathy whisper.

“Yeah,” Morgan said, and Bronwyn grunted an affirmative sound.

“We’ve got this,” Morgan said. “Be aware of those things on the ceiling, and be ready to dodge. Let’s light this thing up.”

“Literally,” Bronwyn said with a grin. She pushed the other door open, and, with a nod from Morgan, she sent her double at the colossal statue. It towered forty feet in the air, each long arm the size of a tree, and Morgan knew they couldn’t afford to let it hit them. The three of them stepped into the room, and, as Bronwyn’s double closed the distance, the marble encasing the giant started to crack and fall away.

As massive sheets of stone crashed to the ground in thunderous cracking concussions, Bronwyn called her double away, afraid it would be crushed before even engaging with the monster. “Good call!” Morgan yelled over the din.

“I’ll send her back in after it’s done shedding!”

“I’m going to flank! Watch the ceiling!” Olivia said, moving to the left.

Morgan strode forward, watching the revelation of the monster. It didn’t have skin, at least not like a person. Its exposed flesh was dark brown, spotted with black patches and shiny—chitin or something between chitin and skin. Its head was bulbous and round, and a dozen wet, black eyes of varying sizes dotted its forehead. Pincers jutted from its wide jaw, and snapping claws were revealed when the marble fell away from its hands. This was some sort of humanoid relative to the giant tick they’d fought. It made sense; Olivia had said the dungeon was populated with creatures from the same world.

As the marble stopped crashing to the ground, Bronwyn urged her double to attack, and the titanic boss roared as it saw the little red-haired figure rushing toward its oversized, black-clawed feet. Morgan pointed Bloodfang at the center of the monster’s round, smooth head and charged up a Vortex Lance. With a concussion and a swirl of Energy, the speeding projectile smashed into the titan’s left cheek, blasting a hole in the thick skin and rocking its head back several feet. It roared again, whirling to face Morgan.

It took a ponderous stomp toward him, lifting a hand to deliver a hammer blow that would reduce him to a pulp. Morgan targeted its back foot and cast Hollow Charge. He raced over the ground, avoiding the smashing impact, and as he sped near, Morgan held out Bloodfang, slicing a deep groove through the titan’s heel, cutting deeply into its tendon. It screamed and lifted its foot to stomp, and Morgan used Void Step to relocate himself to the back side of the room.

Morgan turned to watch as Olivia suddenly swirled with wind and lightning and took on her air elemental form. He wasn’t sure why—perhaps to boost her mobility. She fired spell after spell into the massive torso of the giant, blasting away bits of chitin and causing it to stumble and roar in pain. He turned to Bronwyn and her double, no longer sure which was which; both were laying into the feet and ankles of the giant, carving long grooves and hunks of flesh away with their hatchets and dodging away from the stomping feet and slow, slapping blows. The giant roared and screamed in angry, pained outbursts.

Morgan was starting to think the battle would be easy, considering the monster’s ponderous movements, but then something happened: a loud clicking report sounded from the ceiling, and suddenly the orbs were sliding along the tracks, and bright beams of Energy shot from their nozzles. They looked like magenta laser beams, and though they didn’t tear up the marble, they didn’t look like they’d feel good against flesh. “Watch out!” he bellowed.

Bronwyn danced back from the giant, no longer hard to distinguish from her double, which kept hacking at the titan’s left foot. The beams were converging on the center of the room where she stood, and Morgan couldn’t see an easy path around them. He cast Guard Ally on her and prayed she’d avoid most of the beams. Bronwyn’s double suddenly disappeared, and Bronwyn’s body flared with bright, golden light—her shield spell. Morgan hoped it would help.

He watched with white knuckles as Bronwyn danced between the flashing, sliding beams of Energy, avoiding most of them by less than a hair’s breadth. One of the beams grazed her arm, and her golden armor of light seemed to deflect most of the damage. The rest came through to Morgan and flashed brightly against his armor. He didn’t feel any pain and grinned, realizing Bronwyn would be okay. As the beams began to slide toward the room's edges again, Morgan began to plan his next assault on the titan. That’s when things went sideways.

Having dodged the last of the beams as they raced past her toward the room’s perimeter, Bronwyn had taken her eyes off the titan, and it lifted a massive foot to stomp her. Olivia screamed, and Bronwyn whirled, saw the gigantic appendage falling toward her, and suddenly she stood up straight, her hatchets outspread, and shouted with the voice of crashing thunder, so loud that Morgan thought the world was breaking.

The entire room vibrated with the sound; chunks of marble broke from the ceiling and crashed down. The titan stumbled back from the palpable sonic attack, flailing its huge arms for balance, and then a beam of crackling, blinding plasma the size of a telephone pole speared through the giant’s chest, annihilating its flesh and organs and scorching the marble wall behind it.

Morgan followed the beam's trajectory to Olivia, who stood with her palms outstretched and her crown blazing with high, white flames that shone like a supernova. Her eyes sparkled like little suns burned within them, and her mouth was twisted in a snarl. He glanced back as the titanic abomination slumped against the far wall, gouts of black fluid pouring and bubbling from its quivering mandibles, and Morgan could see the insides of its chest where Olivia had hollowed it out. The titanic boss shuddered and jerked, then fell still. Morgan looked from Bronwyn to Olivia and could only say, “Holy shit!”