Corvayne was, at the moment, not thinking too deeply about a drop of at least ten miles under the tips of his boots. He was thinking a bit about Bell, currently tied to his front in a not-so-flattering but balanced manner. It was the only way he could sidestep across the ledge around a room that was a light house death trap. Behind him was an ornate brass wall, and next to him was a window blasting out light so powerful he could see it's radiance through some of the window frame itself. It looking to him like a blast furnace, but left no damage on the mundane materials in the dungeon. As the light faded to nothing he moved, trying to be fast and careful as he had three seconds.

One second, as he used Gravity to help his grip and lighten bell, stepping halfway into the window.

Two seconds, as he was bringing his feet together and kicking one out, pulling his back away from the wood so he didn't catch a rope on it.

Three seconds, as he was hurrying to pull his torso out of the way, using a hand and Gravity to force himself to stop when he used too much force, nearly his other hand as he pulled it away from the window as the beam of light once more blasted everything in the chamber, scouring it.

Brines was following Corvayne, clearly trying to not hyperventilate as he clutched on a corner of the building. "I can't make it over there!"

"Brines, we NEED to keep going, and if I leave you behind, your stuck in this dungeon until you clear it. Stand up!" Corvayne took a deep breath. They could do this. "Stand up. Chin up. Look over at me. There's enough room for your feet. Together, apart, together."

He watched Brines pull himself upright and pull himself to the window blasting radiant death out of it, then start to shy away.

"Stop!"

Brines Froze. Corvayne watched him start to look down.

Corvayne cleared his throat. "Look at me. Back flat. Chin up. On the count of three, your going to take five more steps like you just took together, real quick."

"One," the light blasted out of the window.

"Two," it started to dim.

"Three." Brines moved, sashaying across the beam but didn't account for the frame of the window, hitting it with his shoulder as he moved. Corvayne used Gravity and slammed him into the space next to him, managing to keep either from falling but feeling every bit of Bell's form trying to pull him forward, as well as the texture of the brass he was using his power to slam his fingers into.

"That's the worst thing we'll have to deal with. If you can do that, we can skip those death traps."

Corvayne then made his way around the corner of the eight sided room, and there was another window. "Fuck." he muttered, quiet enough that Brines hopefully couldn't hear it.

A haughty voice called out. "Stop lollygagging!" Which made Corvayne take a deep breath. Nyxion was using his boots ability to float to keep an eye on the paths they were taking, so while flying gave him an extra responsibility, it wasn't a free pass. There were dangers with flying on the floor as the dungeon floor had mirrors everywhere, directing the beams of light into the large open spaces, and every so often the clockwork would shift and swing parts of the 'shelves' or drag them up and down, making flight a hazard.

Yet, it was much safer then the number of hazardous rooms the dungeon kept forcing them through. At least the monsters were not a problem. The hostiles on the floor were all empty white cloth 'ghosts' armed with staves. They had some numbers in chambers, and were immune to the light, but were slow, clumsy, and weak. They fell to a single strike from Corvayne.

On the last side, there was a piece of decoration that blocked the way, and Corvayne had to resort to launching himself to safety, setting Bell down, then jumping back and hurling Brines to Nyxion.

"Can't you just carry me?"

"She weighs a lot less then you."

Brines looked down. "Is... she going to wake up Corvayne? I've been using healing on her."

Corvayne didn't know. "She will be okay. A spear moves forward. Her breathing has been more steady." What if she wasn't? He couldn't keep thinking that. He took a deep breath and pushed it all aside. "We can fix her after we get to Diamond."

Nyxion nodded. "Ice cold but keep it like that. She'd be prodding us to hurry too."

"It's still taking too long." Corvayne said. If they kept having to go around the death trap rooms where mirrors bounced thousands of beams in erratic patterns, they would never reach the exit before Diamond crashed into Nel'Ferral, and that would be the end of Bell's world and most of the people on it.

Nyxion folded his arms. "You are not going solo, again."

What choices did they have? Nyxion was fast, but if he didn't have to carry anyone, he was faster. "You and Brines can protect her, then start going sideways. This place is a Tower, not a Dungeon, so there's probably a way to get back to Cascadia."

"I made a promise."

Corvayne felt hot for the first time in a long time, pulling the collar of his shirt to let air inside his chainmail. His rubber pants suddenly felt sweaty. "To Spears?"

"I made a promise to Lady Blood Claw." Nyxion said, an edge to his voice.

"Nyxion, what would you tell me right now, if you were the same as when we met?"

He was quiet as he looked down as his feet. "Same as now, you're being an idiot."

What he needed was to be told to go for the juggular. His instructors would be ashamed of him, holding back for the girl who was just supposed to be their white elephant hostage. He was debating keeping bell safe against the weight of a world. He had read the same stupid situation so many times and now it wasn't his world, and it wasn't clear what the danger he was putting them in was. He wished he could just go for the win. But he was never a good warrior. Maybe the curse was right. A spear moves forward, and his feet were stuck on the kelidascope ground.

Brines stood up. "I'll protect her, by myself."

Corvayne hadn't forgotten that something had felt like it was shadowing them. "If we have an enemy behind us..."

"If there's someone after us, I'm not the goal."

Nyx ran his hand thorough his hair. "But Bell might also be, if there's more doors." Bad planning on his part. Too many mistakes. He had got Bell hurt. They needed more people.

Nyxion gestured around him. "Corvayne, damn it, we should have waited for more people. What if it's a six on one fight?"

"If we don't get a humanized version, or If I have to fight a moon, I don't think it would matter."

Nyx nodded. "If it's a moon, you won't win before you run out of juice. You need Brines."

"Corvayne." Brines said, stepping in front of him and looking him in the eye. "Leave me with Bell. Trust me. I might be a coward, but that's why she'll be safe with me."

Nyx was pacing. "You're really going to try to go alone? In a dungeon that's making you break out into hives just from the energy in the air. Stop fucking around Corvayne. We are a team. Even if it's slow."

Corvayne thought about using Gravity, and leaping ahead. Flinging himself to high points, he'd find stairs. "We need to change what we are doing then."

As they were talking, four of the hooded figures had turned a corner and started walking then running down Lapis Lazuli stairs. Nyxion flicked his whip and something caused them to scatter, flinging three off the edge to start tumbling forever. Another flick of his serpent whip and the last cloth monster dissolved into a pile of tarry ash as the venom from the artifact consumed it.

"It's too bad we can't just throw buckets of paint on the mirrors or something." Brines said. Corvayne's mind flashed back to the gateway with a paint can on it. No time for regret now.

"Next time we see a pack of those things... take one alive." Corvayne said, and with that missive they started moving, hitting a trap room where mirrors moving above a grated floor and mirrors in the ceiling would illuminate tiles in sets of patterns. There wasn't a good way to walk around or over the room, and Corvayne was worried if they went hand over hand they might fall to the ornate structure below and lose height. He pulled his pistol out and tried to break one of the mirrors, but as he suspected they were beyond physical harm, as were the machines moving them about.

He was not used to feeling so frustrated. He'd been helpless before, but the times in the village where he was just... not able to do whatever it was he needed to do, and didn't know what whatever person training him really wanted him to do or fix... he was the wrong man for the job and the only one who could drag a curse out of Diamond, who likely would be fighting him with a full array of light powers as Spears had used Water. People he loved may or may not make it to safety before the moon hit. He found himself thinking about Hari, about Spears, about Wick, and about Lady Blood Claw.

He created a ball of shadow stuff in his hand and then shot out a bouncing shadow hand at a mirror ahead. He regretted it as he did, it was a waste of mana as his hands inevitably were trumped by light powers.

There was a great crack, and the mirrors he hit screamed and started quivering, leaking glowing goop that created radiant smoke as it went from welding bright to a dull grey on the floor.

Corvayne looked at Nyx, then Brines, then back at the mirror, now wounded.

"Brines. Mana."

As the refreshing feeling of a jog through cold on the high plains washed over him, Corvayne started flinging, his scything hands no use against the beams of light, but completely able to shred the mirrors and turn them into piles of glowing crap. They strode across the room avoiding the one lit mirror his shadows could not get close to.

"Pick up the pace." Was all he said, but he could feel through [[Unity]] that some sort of tide had turned, that the frustration they had felt was washing away to determination.

The stairs for the first floor was behind a few more set piece trap rooms, neutered by his ability to fling shadows.

Brines wiped his brow as they reached an ornate stairway, a chimera construct of brass with glowing orange stairs. "How the heck did the imperials ever get through that?"

Nyxion smirked. "What if the power they had over the artifacts is like a radiance version of Corvayne's hands. I bet they hardly take damage from the light in here."

Brines nodded as they stepped up the stairs. "Do you think they rule from a chicken or egg situation? Did they get power over the artifacts because they can make it through the dungeon, or was the dungeon made for them?"

"Tower. They are different." Lady Blood Claw had drilled him that the ones that went down were nasty, and he didn't want to think about what a descending light dungeon would be like.

The floors fell quickly with the change to an aggressive push. Corvayne aimed for mirrors, and other monsters less subtle about their nature. His shadows clawed fireballs made of light and popped them with little squealing puffs of protest. The dug into gaps between plates of brass dogs, spraying the stonework paths and halls with showers of gears. A small dragon made of light forced Corvayne to charge recklessly after it pushed them back six turns as they were exploring a cube on the third floor where gravity changed every hallway. He bounced off the floor which was a wall, dodging a searing beam to use [Shadow Stealer] then turn and blast the monster with spearing hands as well as his weapon.

There was a floor with pipes spewing flowers that acted like liquid moving puddles of light, attempting to force them to solve some sort of plumbing puzzle that Corvayne instead flung them over, walking on the pipes that fed the room below then hopping off. He tried his best to think of how Wick might cheat it, because the world was counting on him to find the stairs as fast as he could. When shadows couldn't cut it, he'd apply [Sundering Strikes] to anything that looked like it might let him skip a room or make the solution easier.

He might have made it alone, but he would have run out of steam or magic over and over. Nyx sometimes could turn his shield opaque and get at a part of the room Corvayne just couldn't.

Floor Five was nauseating, the floor having devices that teleported them based on mirrors, with his vision being jerked around when he was turned into energy to pivot every time it hit a reflective surface.

He expected a lobby, but instead the trial just moved him to floor Six. There were rules that this dungeon broke, but what were his choices? They rampaged through floor six, which is what Corvayne dubbed a 'fighting floor' that had all sorts of light enemies rather then obnoxious light traps. His hands would form long strings between monsters charging them in giant brass and gold courtyards, darting out in black webs before snapping back, killing untold numbers and numbing Corvayne's sense of the world until Brines pumped him full of Mana for the next room.

Nyxion chipped in as well, whip helping take out pesky dragons and walking cauldrons with orbs of light who would try to hit Corvayne as if they were artillery. If he was close, they'd stretch on their hind legs to fire directly at him.

Floor seven the light beam was slowed down but the entire floor was made of mirrors, and it curved to try to catch them, requiring a scramble and Corvayne to use some tricks to make sense of something like a massive hall of mirrors and a few corridors that were just that.

Floor Eight was broken glass flowing in orbits around what looked to Corvayne like many harem rooms, covered in hazy smoke. He wasn't where the Towers got their ideas from, but he did appreciate a floor that Nyxion could just cheat them through by extending his shield and deflecting the endless streams of glass. It took no more then ten minutes in which they never stopped after deciding their course of action.

Floor Nine was similar to the first floor, and it was there, after besting a room with mirrors on twisting gears that they cheated their way though, that Corvayne felt his neck start to tickle again.

“It's somewhere here.” He tried to use compass on 'whatever is tracking us', but his power didn't like that, and for a moment he felt dizzy. Even on a stairway high up, there were just too many little moving things and insane details that trying to pick out what it was gave him a headache after a minute.

Brines bit his lip. “If I had just stayed behind, you could have left more traps in it's way.”

“Any chance it's Bearer of Burdens?” Nyx asked.

Corvayne closes his eyes and rubbed the side of his head. “No... it feels hostile.”

Brines nodded. “She's stuck on that island until her claim wears off.”

Nyxion drifted back. “I'll cover our back. Move. If it's an assassin, it's not going to do hot against my shields.”

“Trying to look for her gives me a headache. This place is...” He looked at the orange/red/blue/brown/gold colors, hammered into geometric shapes and rigid lines and circles.

“Trying too hard.” Nyxion finished.

It slowed them down, as Corvayne refused to ignore his back. He didn't see anything behind them, but he could feel it. It was following them, and it was gaining on them. But was it a mile back, or a hundred feet, and able to blend into the millions of gears and pillars and geometric shapes he saw? He looked at Bell's face, twitching as if she was in a nightmare, and Corvayne turned around, wiping sweat from his face. Too many problems. Sloppy execution. He was going to have to hope. Hope that they'd find Diamond at the end of the floor, hope that they could fight her, hope he could pull the curse out, and hope that she could actually stop herself from bowling into the empire, and do it well before whatever was after them caught up.