When reinforcement appeared at the west side of Karmaria, the enemy had already left.

At first, all Begdar could see was the bodies of the dead left behind.

But after a comforting side hug from her beloved mate, she realized the vast majority of the dead were humans, and thus people unknown to her.

That being said, a couple of the elf and gnome bodies were eerily familiar, even if Begdar didn't exactly know who they were.

In total, when only looking at the number of bodies from each side - and Begdar did what she could to not look at the actual injuries that killed them - Karmaria had undoubtedly won.

But Begdar doubted she was the only one to realize that wasn't the whole story.

But - as always - she was likely the first to realize exactly what had happened here.

“Both the Security Guild and the jousters are missing.” Begdar pointed out. The Security Guild had been informed of the incoming enemies first and would have had ample time to arrive here before them.

The jousters referred to Chief Brassheart's group of ram riders as they had all been jousters back in their old place. They had jumped on their rams and ridden ahead.

They too should have been here, yet not even their bodies could be found.

“As we're up against a mind controlling cult,” Begdar continued. “-my guess is that they were mind controlled into joining them.”

“But where are they now?” Questioned one of the gnomes with them. With Chief Brassheart wanting to speed ahead, Chief Nerok had agreed to stay behind with the gnomes who didn't have a mount but still wanted to join the fighting.

The family of giants had decided to stay behind with the rest of the civilians, but the human twins and Mlartlar had joined Chief Nerok and were ready to fight alongside them.

Begdar scanned the battlefield cautiously once more - doing her best not to puke at the sight - before replying. “They want the Dungeon Core. That's where they're going.”

“Then that's where we're going as well.” Chief Nerok declared from his seat on top of Lionheart, his trusty kirin.

And so they turned around to head towards the Dungeon Portal.

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The arrival of the combative half of the Tribe, 347 gnomes - which I assumed was the part of the Exodus who wanted to join the fight -, two humans, and a half elf half vulpinkin hybrid relieved a fear I didn't realize I had.

They're not dead.

And considering the personality of the arriving people, it now seemed more likely that the rest of Karmaria - or at least a good majority - were simply sitting the fight out rather than dead.

Good. Good. That's one less thing to worry about.

The massive number of people - with several hundred people, there wasn't actually enough space for them to stay on the same Floor - seemed ready to simply storm in and attack the cult from behind. And while I appreciated the thought, there really wasn't a reason for that, when it cost me nothing to at least wear them down first.

Which would lower the amount of casualties from our side, so I heavily preferred that option.

Luckily for me, the Tribe was in the front of the group - supposedly because they were more experienced with my Dungeon - which meant the gnomes didn't notice when I had a mimic request that they wait and attack on my signal instead.

And as their god, they naturally obeyed.

The gnomes appear to have agreed to the plan because they find the reasoning sound, so at least I know I'm not being completely stupid.

My creatures can respawn, you guys can't.

Due to Zina's mind controlled aid, the cult had no problems solving my puzzles. Due to ‘Earning One's Own Paycheck’ she couldn't tell them how to solve them and have the cult actually understand it, but there was nothing stopping her from simply solving the puzzles herself.

“While the common creature might not possess the comprehension needed to remember and heed your words when not in mental contact with you, Great Mother, we kobolds will remember and obey!” Declared the kobolds of the 3rd Floor when I took a moment to explain what The Song of Liberation was doing.

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Naturally I saw no reason not to simply test this. And true to their words, the respawned kobolds could charge the cult from behind even in the last room of a Floor, while the rest of my creatures lost interest the moment the cult was out of sight.

And with my kobolds still obeying my commands even while in the effects of The Song of Liberation - though I couldn't give them new orders while they were on the same Floor -, their mounts, the galespikes, were indirectly still in my control as well.

And while that was all fine and dandy, the good news couldn't keep coming without a bad one sneaking its way in.

As I had done for the first room of the first four Floors, I stormed the cult with all my respawned creatures the moment the last member had entered the first room of the 5. Floor. But this time the number of respawned creatures were large enough that not all of my creatures immediately noticed a cult member to go after.

Instead several of them noticed a creature of another species standing a bit too close to them - as they had all just entered from the same direction - and latched out on them. Thus creating infighting.

Okay… So, I have to limit the amount of respawned creatures I order into the affected Floor. I can do that.

It's not the best outcome, but I can work with it.

At the 5th Floor, they had no problems with my kirin Boss, and I hadn't expected them to. Zina had defeated my Boss many times mostly by herself - even if it was weaker after leaving its Boss Room - back when the initial group of elves had stormed me, so naturally she didn't have any problems taking it down once more.

When the last cultist had left the 5th Floor behind I naturally had the respawned kirin Boss follow them down to the 6th.

I remember the kirin Boss being pretty good at splitting Zina's attention between protecting the rear and helping the front with the puzzles. Hopefully I can do something similar this time as well. To slow them down if nothing else.

Too bad I can't direct it while-

What?!

As expected, Zina had killed the Boss on vacation. But unexpectedly, the moment the kirin respawned in its Boss Room, it had nearly immediately left to head towards the cultists on the 6th Floor.

I didn't tell you to do that…

Is it…? Because it's in your nature to avenge the death of Heroes and karmic creatures? It lets you track down the killer?

The kirin was once again killed and respawned. And true enough: It minded its own business till the moment a cultist killed a karmic creature. Then its mane, tail, and hooves burst on fire, signaling the activation of its Ability, as the Boss galloped towards its new target.

While I still couldn't contact it while on the same Floor as The Song of Liberation, I also didn't need to direct it towards my enemies.

Nice! That will surely keep Zina on her toes!

Though, she probably ends up simply restraining it in a moment, like she ended up doing last time. But at some point the kirin will get strong enough to break out due to all the killing of karmic creatures happening and then she'll have to kill it. After which the circle will start again!

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Nearly exactly 2 hours have passed since the cult entered my Dungeon, and the front line is just about to step into Hell's Judgement Hall. The puzzle room just before the second Boss on the 10th Floor. Which I hoped a good deal of them would fail.

While originally the puzzle of Hell's Judgement Hall was meant to send those that fail it to the beginning of the earliest Floor, which still had room for more sapients, with the ‘allow all’-tool they would all end up in The Great Tree Room.

Which I had naturally informed the Tribe+ about.

They were ready to either kill or apprehend the cultist on arrival as they saw needed.

And as the puzzle was solved and failed on people's own pace, there was little chance of the Tribe+ getting overwhelmed.

Outmatched, however? Definitely a possibility. Not a particularly big one. But if one of the big hitters were to lose Hell's Judgement?

Well… The Tribe+ could still overwhelm just about all of the strongest members of the cult. And as the mind controlled Zina had already passed Hell's Judgement several times before, it was unlikely - based on what had happened to the mind controlled Crown Princess - that she would fail and appear.

The trouble came if two or more of the cultist's heavy hitters arrived at roughly the same time. Then there was suddenly a good chance of several members of the Tribe+ dying.

I really hope that doesn't happen.

But between the small size of Hell's Judgement Hall and the reduced numbers of the cult, it was at least impossible for the Tribe+ to become outnumbered.

As my mind controlled ‘mistress’ saw no reason to protect anyone she didn't know herself or had been specifically ordered to protect - which was only the centaur and human who the others addressed by the title of cardinal - many of the lower leveled members of the cult had fallen prey to my traps and creatures.

She had, however, been ordered by the centaur cardinal to keep the kirin at bay, so my Boss hadn't been able to get more than a couple of kills.

With how much killing the cult needed to do, and with how both my kirin and kobolds could target them beyond their original room, I really thought they would have had a problem passing The Waiting Room on the 8th Floor. After all, they had to wait for 5 minutes without any arguing or killing happening. With a pair of bìxiés - which are naturally karmic in nature - in the room, which, due to being a part of the puzzle on top of - normally - being a Dungeon creature, would respawn every minute whether or not there was someone in the room.

But no.

It took them a couple of tries, sure. But in the end Zina simply barricaded the entrance - to keep kirin and kobolds out - while restraining, but not killing, the two bìxiés for the required 5 minutes.

At least with Zina normally unable to trigger my traps, my Rolling Boulder traps took them by surprise, with the first one taking the lives of 6 who either couldn't get out of the way fast enough or was pushed into the magma by a panicked ally. The second Rolling Boulder killed another pair of surprised cultists.