Kaito watched as Duke Finley and his party reentered the chamber far below. He was about fifteen minutes ahead of the giant beasts that were following him, but he was moving fast. In those fifteen minutes, he’d managed to cover at least a kilometre of distance, some of it straight up. It would only take another ten minutes to reach them.

“Get ready,” he told the others, but with no real urgency. The monsters would take longer to arrive. They were taking the long spiral up the side. They moved quickly, but they had about thirty kilometres to travel before reaching them. It was too bad that Nori was out of arrows, or she could have taken potshots at them as they travelled.

There was a murmur from his girls to show him that they’d heard, but they all knew that the most important thing to do now was rest and recover their Stamina and Mana pools. Still, they made the effort to look alert when the Duke arrived. His disapproving gaze swept over them all.

“Where’s the King’s doxy?” he asked.

It took Kaito a moment to realise who Finley was talking about, and then another moment to choke down his angry words at such disrespect. None of the other girls spoke, they were letting him deal with the matter, but Kaito could feel the furious glares they were giving the Duke. The Duke ignored them, waiting for his answer.

“She… went back,” he finally said. It was the answer that Kandis would have wanted him to give. She didn’t want credit, and she didn’t want the Duke to know anything. Kaito had once thought that she was exaggerating about the attempts at killing her, but since meeting the Duke, Kaito knew that Finley would have ordered Kandis’s death without hesitation.

“You should have followed her,” Finley sneered. “We’re pulling back.”

“Why? Isn’t this position defensible?”

“It’s being bypassed,” Finley said. He stepped back and gestured for Kaito to look. The giants were coming through now, behind the ogres who were now… not taking the ramp. They were climbing down the rocky cliff, and their lead elements were now walking straight across the chamber floor.

“They’ll climb straight up when they reach the other side,” Finley said. “Best case is that they attack us from two sides, but it’s more likely that they’ll just leave us behind.”

As Kaito nodded understanding, what had to the Forsaken Giant came through the lower entrance. He was so large that he had to crawl through. Kaito gulped, wondering what it would be like to fight that thing.

“Will we hold the entrance then?” he asked. “Fight them as they climb the cliff?”

“We’ll see,” Finley said. “If the dungeon’s thinking, it will hold them off until the animals can give them cover.”

“Does it think?” Kaito asked.

“Sometimes it does,” Finley answered. “We’ll just have to see.”

Aghen Shadthe was having a bath. Not, as those familiar with the tales about him might assume, an ice-water bath. The water was steaming hot and the tub was not made out of his signature black ice but carved out of a single piece of marble. Given its massive size, it would have been a work of singular craftsmanship, were it not for the fact that it was, like everything in the room and the room itself, a product of his dungeon.

Ice had its uses, to be sure. It made a better construction material than what you might expect, once it was magically prevented from melting. His headquarters wasn’t known as Ice Mountain for nothing. He had wrapped acres of ice around his tower, creating a tall, slippery slope. It served as both a physical deterrent and a warning. Any who trespassed further would feel the icy might of Aghen Shadthe.

However, his dungeon itself used very little ice. He didn’t feel the cold, but his attendants definitely did. Like the two lovely ladies washing him right now. As the idle thought crossed his mind, he cast the barest whisper of a spell on them. After all, he might forbid any of his people from taking [Cold Resistance], and his School might inculcate total obedience and loyalty into his attendants from birth, but it never hurt to check.

The girls squealed as the icy cold rippled across their naked bodies, but they never stopped sopping his body, and they certainly didn’t complain. He watched them closely for their more physical reactions. Anyone could squeal but hardened nipples and goosebumps were much harder to fake.

Satisfied, he allowed them to warm their bodies against his. Had there been time, he would have taken advantage of their increased fervour, but he was expecting a report. Correctly identifying his lack of interest, the girls held off and finished rinsing and drying him without further attempts at arousing him.

He made an approving note to himself as they dressed him. The School ensured loyalty, but not every one of its products were bright enough to serve him independently. It took close observation over a period of time to determine just how well a particular attendant could identify his needs. Those that could identify whatever he happened to want at the moment were sufficient to serve him in the tower. Much rarer were those who could anticipate his desires. These few were sent out as his emissaries.

As for those that failed, well there was always a need for more people to toil in the lower reaches of his dungeon. They also served.

Once his robes were properly arranged around him, the girls quickly slipped on some revealing silk dresses. One wore a pale red, the other a turquoise blue. Nodding in satisfaction, he gestured for them to follow him. It was time for another test.

Sitting down in front of the communication item, he waited for Manuela to make contact. His attendants draped themselves decoratively at his side, intuiting that he wanted them to observe this conversation.

Manuela was prompt, of course.

“Master,” she said, dropping her gaze to the ground once she had seen his face.

“Manuela. Report,” he said warmly.

“Alexandros has sent all the Champions into Duke Finley’s dungeon. There’s no official word coming out of the castle, but the assumption there is that the Duke has entered the dungeon as well.”

“Perhaps this will start a new trend. Going into a breaking dungeon? How amusing.”

Manuela smiled at his small jest, and his two attendants shifted slightly to let him know they were amused without interrupting him with something as indecorous as laughter. Seeing that her master had no further comment, Manuela continued her report.

“The majority of the King’s elites are no longer to be found in the palace,” she said. “Kayla reports sighting twelve intense magical pulses from the central palace. I can’t prove anything, but…”

“That suggests that the elites have gone to help defend King’s Isle,” Aghen finished for her.

“Yes, my master,” Manuela agreed. “If twelve were sent, it suggests that no one higher than level five is left in the castle. Aside from the King of course— he’s been sighted.”

“Of course. There would be no way he could leave his capital at such a delicate time. Everything seems to be proceeding according to plan. Instruct Kayla to proceed with the second obelisk at the arranged time. That is all.”

“Yes master,” Manuela said reverently. She bowed and ended the communication.

“So,” Aghen addressed his girls. “Are things proceeding to plan?”

The one in blue frowned with concentration. “Isn’t it bad that the Champions are moving in concert? And against us, at that.”

“The dungeon break was Lord Ashmor’s play,” the one in red replied. “It’s only natural that the gods would make a move against it… but it was only ever a distraction on our part.”

“Won’t Lord Ashmor require more effort from the Master to help with his ploy?”

“No…” the one in red looked uncertain, glancing at Aghen for confirmation. “Lord Ashmor’s deal was strictly confined to that one action, was it not?”

Aghen nodded. “He has already fulfilled his half of the bargain. Quickly, as is his wont. He may come back with another deal, but if the terms are too onerous, we can always complain to the others.”

The one in red nodded, satisfied. “Then, having the Champions in the dungeon only helps us. Either they will die and take themselves out of the equation, or they will be stuck in the dungeon for days, unable to interfere.”

“We still don’t know if the elites have actually left,” the attendant in blue warned. “He might have sent any twelve of his men to fool us.”

“Perhaps,” the one in red agreed. “But he can hardly ignore the threat to his home territories. With Master able to project his magic through the portal, he can project a considerable threat without leaving his tower.”

“True,” Aghen agreed. That was the true value of the Order. Every one of his emissaries possessed the means to summon his attention, which dealt with most matters. More serious situations might require his magic, delivered from a portal at a safe distance from the conflict. Since he had set up this system, there had never been an occasion requiring him to actually step through the portal, leaving his precious dungeon.

The King also had his teleportation network, of course. But this would be a naval battle, and the King was never going to risk one of his nodes by putting it on a ship. His men would teleport out to the island and then set sail. Every hour they travelled would be another hour that they could not come to the King’s aid.

“That still leaves the King,” Red warned. “He is supposed to be level eight, yes?”

“I wouldn’t want to face him in a sword fight, true,” Aghen said. “But his primary abilities lie in empowering his followers. With no real power-houses at his disposal, his own power is greatly constrained. And he has not yet divined how this conflict is being fought. He should be easily dealt with.”

The fortifications had seemed so impressive to Zichy when they’d arrived at the dinosaur level. Zichy wasn’t sure how Kaito knew they were dinosaurs. She had said that there weren’t any where she came from. Zichy had [Identified] them, of course, and while some of them had Saur in their names, not all of them had. And none of them had Dino. So that was a mystery.

The fortifications had seemed good though. She didn’t know much about defences, but when they’d all arrived at the fort, Vassi had worked with the Duke’s stone-mage to build the walls even higher. Then Finley’s arcanist had reinforced them with ice, making the outsides slick and cold and spiky.

Things had gone well at first. The beasts tried jumping up, but the walls were too high and slick. The ogres didn’t fare much better. The walls were now taller than them, almost reaching to the ceiling. The ones with clubs could shatter the ice, but it just grew back. They were holding, but they weren’t doing much killing. The ogres were just too tough! Any wounds Zichy managed to make were just light cuts. Given enough time that would take an ogre down, but the giants were right behind.

The ones with axes took the lead, shoving the ogre aside, and cutting into the wall with axes. Axes were for wood, not stone, but that rule probably didn’t apply when the axe head was bigger than she was.

The wall Zichy was on exploded under the blows, like a particularly flaky pastry. This was a lot messier than that. Stone, ice, and blood was flying everywhere, and Nori could only hope that the blood didn’t belong to anyone she knew. The wall disappeared from under her and things started looking bad.

Then Ettalle was there. Grabbing Zichy as she fell, and snatching her out of the way of a big piece of wall that had somehow gotten above her. They landed on the ground with bits of rubble falling around them.

“Get out of here,” Ettalle ordered. “You can’t dodge!”

That seemed like a great idea, so Zichy didn’t bother pointing out that all the rocks were on the ground now, or that Ettalle’s [Agility] wasn’t that much better than hers. The ogres were clambering through the gaps in the wall now, towering over Zichy, and looking like they’d want to grab her up and eat her like she was a pastry.

Then the notification came. Zichy couldn’t read, so she didn’t know what it said. But she knew what it meant, or thereabouts. It was telling her that she had done a good job and that the dungeon event was now over and that she had gotten her experience as a reward. That seemed nice.

Not everyone seemed as pleased though. Zichy’s attention was mostly on the ogres and giants, who had turned around and were heading back down into the dungeon. Zichy didn’t know monsters would do that, and she wasn’t entirely sure they wouldn’t turn around. But Duke Finley was worth paying attention to, especially when he seemed mad.

Now he was staring at thin air and looked madder than Zichy had seen him so far.

“Twenty-five percent!” he yelled, but Zichy didn’t know what he was talking about.