A Return to Peril

I emerged back into the physical plain, with a shuddering gasp. My return was usually seamless, but I'd gone through so much, and swallowed so many liquids that the difference between my physical self and spiritual self took some reconciling.

"Herald!" Melli grabbed onto me, to try to stop my termoring.

Wait no.

That was the dungeon that was shaking.

"What did you do?" Dorothy cried out, as waves of energy flowed through the midnight pool into her, and out through the dungeon. We were all getting buffeted by the the waves.

"I got help." There was screaming from deeper in the dungeon.

"The twins!" Melli dropped me, and ran deeper into the dungeon.

I didn't know if I should follow her or, "Dorothy are you okay?"

"There's a lot coming through!" She gasped, convulsing up in the air. Fuck if I killed Dorothy with this stunt, then I'd seriously messed up. Even with everything that was offered I don't think it would have been worth losing a 3 star. "Ragh." She grunted. "I'll be okay. Check on your minions. I'll stop this place from collapsing."

I nodded and started to run, then noticed that my workshop was sinking into the obsidian wall of the chamber. In fact the entire section of the dungeon I'd set aside for my lab was sinking backwards, expanding... turning into a new room. "Daliah." I called out to the apprentice who even in the midsts of this disaster had a hand buried between her legs. "Keep an eye on that wall. Let me know if anything comes out."

"Mmmm." She muttered.

Close enough.

I ran down the hallway after Melli, and as we passed through the elongated passage I noticed a pack of shadowy dogs pass us by.

"Didn't we..." Cyrus craned to watch the dogs as they passed through us.

"I brought them back." I said, doubling my pace. "and I think one of the twins might be trapped with the boss!"

"Mox?" Cyrus looked to his shield.

"Or something like him." I managed to catch up with Melli before she reached the cathedral. I had god blood running through my veins, and it felt good. I should have given her a bigger head start! "Think your old friend the vampire is up there?" I asked as we punched through to that chamber.

Partly.

There was a shadowy figure of a man sitting on a throne at the center of the room. He reacted to us entering, but not in an animated way. He simply bowed his head. It was a ghost or a shadow of a ghost. The real vampire must have gone to rest with his goddess.

"It's like the dungeon is coming back to life." Melli whispered. She gave the shadow a large birth as we circled the chamber.

"It is." I said.

She shuddered and looked at me. "I didn't think you'd actually be able to do it."

"Ye of little faith." Then I paused. "Cyrus." I looked to the two darkened chambers on either side of the catherdral. "Were we keeping prisoners in the east or west wing?" I seemed to remember a swarm of blood sucking scarabs in one of them.

"East." Cyrus said with a gulp. "The western room didn't have a floor."

"Shit." I ran around the throne to the bug room and found... a door! "We don't have doors!" It was ornate with a picture of Bellowyn carved into it's thick metal plating. "This is a dungeon." I said. I put my hand on the handle, and pulled the door open. It was massively heavy but moved easily on its hinges for me. Sure enough inside was the ranger and the brute, chained to the wall with new manacles.

"Woah." Cyrus popped his head into the room. "I don't like this." He couldn't ignore the many new cells, chains, and hooks avalible to the warden of the new dungeon, not to mention an absolute wealth of **** implements.

"We'll just close that for now." I said, sealing the prisoners back in place. "Steelowyn made good on her promise."

Melli had left us behind to find the twins, who exited the boss room safe and sound.

"You guys alright?" I called after them, and joined their meeting.

"There's something in there." Sapphire hissed at me. She gestured through the massive doors into Mox's lair and sure enough there Mox was. Or... well it was the body of the great archon, shattered and looking like it was stitched together with shadows. It was perhaps the best The Theif of Wonders could do to recreate the being with the limited powers available to him.

"That's an Archon." I said tilted my head to observe the strange creature.

"What's left of one." Melli, said hugging herself. No fond memories or love lost between her and that thing.

I went inside the boss chamber, and Mox made no moves to disintegrate me. He just floated there, tilted to one side, like a boat taking in water. Sheobrimborn perhaps over sold his abilities as far as his boon went, but you couldn't blame a thief for lying. "It's safe!" I called back to the mages.

"I don't meant to be negative." Melli said cautiously. "Awakening a dungeon is extremely impressive." The twins couldn't help but nod in agreement with that. "But how is resurrecting a 1-star dungeon going to stop a 3-star?"

"I've got more tricks up my sleeve."

"Of course you do Master." Melli nods her head, then shoots me a scared look. "Where did that come from?" She demaned.

"What?" I asked.

"I heard it too." Sapphire looked around.

"Someone was just talking to us." Ruby agreed.

"I didn't hear anything." I looked about.

"No." Melli growled. "There was someone else talking to us, she said... something."

"Yeah." Ruby agreed.

"Cyrus did you hear anything?" I looked down to my goblin.

He shrugged. "Nah boss. Must be a lady thing."

The three mages looked to eachother, sharing unspoken suspiciouns.

I shrugged and moved farther into the chamber. I noticed something at the center of Mox's platform. Something that had not been there when we fought him, and something that hadn't been there this morning.

"Stairs?" Mellis looked at me, her eyes wide.

"I think so."

"No way?" Ruby jumped, and clutched onto her sister. "There's more dungeon to this dungeon. A sub dungeon! A hidden dungeon!"

"A second floor." Sapphire whispered.

Melli nodded. "The dungeon expanded."

"What's down there?" Ruby asked.

"There's only one way to find out." I said, taking the steps one at a time.

"There's no way." Sapphire said from the top of the stairs. "I thought we had a fight coming for us. You can't go dungeon delving now!"

"Why not?" I called back. "This is my dungeon."

I entered into the second part of the dungeon, and the wall when from the stark black with purple glowing strata to a more earthy brown. The strata was now green crystals. The whole level smelled musky, foul even.

As I descended down there stairs, it led to a small chamber. There a stone door had an image depicting Grokhan and Seabaoden doing battle with eachother. "I don't like the look of this." Sapphire hissed over my shoulder. At least she'd come down.

"Just keep your spells handy." I cracked the door open, and it led to a wide open circular chamber, not unlike the catherdral on the first level. Three passages led from this chamber as well. The eastern Chamber had a beastly statue of Seabaoden looming over it. To the West was an statue of Grokhan and to the north an incectile creature stood over a closed door where the other two were open passage ways. Then at the center of the chamber was a wide and shallow pool of white liquid. Above the pool as a mosaic depicting a motherly goddess having sex with a green man, and a man with a goat head. White liquid dripped from between the lines of this moasic and into the pool below.

This was the level of beasts.