It was close to midnight when the colonel was finally able to contact someone on the other end. Yet the tent was still abuzz with life and energy, both on the inside and the outside. Staffers were coming to and fro with alarming regularity. Their feet doing a sorta half-sprint, half-waddle as their eyes kept darting around their surroundings and their own clipboards.

  We looked at them through the eyes of the disguised Saboteur, but we were more or less sure all of them were trying to look busy while the situation developed.

  Outside, the tunnel leading down to the Dungeon had been widened as we willed the walls to open up further. We commanded the aperture to branch off too. Forming many adjacent tunnels that all needed to be filled with new delvers in order to keep monsters from coming to the surface and in order to make sure the soldiers on hand started getting themselves some magic of their own as per the information we’d provided.

  The staffers and desk jockeys saw them going down and then saw then getting back out again. The shovels they’d brought dented and twisted while the new swords they were given remained intact.

  Their movements all came together to form a hypnotic effect.

  Like a line of ants going endlessly in a circle. Where each ant blindly trusted the one in front of them knew what was going on.

  ‘The line goes on throughout the city.’ We mused within the Pool. ‘Everyone is awake and coming over. Because they think that someone here knows what’s going on. They’re finally starting to think magic is not a hoax and they come to see the dead Distraction for confirmation. Their world has been turned upside down and shattered. Now, they all rush to pick up the pieces.’

  That was good. That meant that the initial stages of denial from the public wouldn’t lead people to wasting precious time.

  Other Saboteurs would be doing their part of course. Other ones leaving with hordes of food from other tunnels besides the ones that were currently supplying the colonel.

  We needed these infiltrators out in the public, because we figured the one disguised as a human Herr Muller would be killed sooner or later. As soon as anyone with any real knowledge of the alias got in contact with the colonel and the mayor and the governor at this makeshift HQ.

  However, when the first calls came, it became evidently clear we’d overestimated the people making decisions.

  “So, just to clarify sir… Mr. Muller is?”

  “A CIA asset.” The secretary of state said over the video call. The man looked like someone who’d been violently dragged out of bed and force-fed two gallons of coffee, before then being threatened with the chair if he didn’t solve every problem that popped up.

  “We don’t know everything they know because someone in their ranks presumably lost track of who had access to the information.”

  “They… lost track?” Colonel Lander asked again. His face a mask of stupefied incredulity.

  “Yes! You jarhead! They lost track of it! They know we had guys like that Hanalulu kid or whatever on ice after Alaska and they know magic or x-powers or whatever the fuck you want to call them are real! But they let a bunch of those guys escape and then they lost track of who had the intel!”

  The talking head stopped talking and immediately lit a cigarette. Draining half the thing in one prodigious inhalation before then going down in fit of coughing.

  “Listen up. That guy Muller is an asset, so just go with whatever he says for now. Treat him like an expert. If things go SNAFU then lock him up and blame him for it. But otherwise try to keep the situation contained.”

  The call shut off immediately after and Colonel Lander turned to the Saboteur.

  “Very well sir. My apologies. I suppose. General Barret should be making his way over to us in short order, but I’ll be your liaison until then.”

  We forced the Saboteur to nod.

  “Understood. That means you listen to what I tell you in regards to the tunnel.”

  The Colonel nodded. So did the mayor next to him, though he began dabbing at his forehead with a napkin.

  “We have to open up the tunnel to everyone.” We spoke through the unit. “And I really mean everyone. Tell the people outside what I told you about magic and start taking volunteers. Give them the same weapons I brought up or arm them with bats or shovels or whatever else they can swing. Then throw them at the Dungeon.”

  “Um, pardon me.” The governor piped up after cleaning her glasses and downing another mug of coffee.

  “But wouldn’t it make more sense to keep everyone away and make sure the police forces, state troopers and the regular army get magic first? I mean, things are bad enough as it is, but if we have some kind of civil unrest involving people and those people end up being able to take a bullet without shrugging…”

  “Better that than having to deal with people getting eaten left and right when the monsters start popping out of the surface.” We announced. “Something tells me the voters will take a governor that handled the situation and gave them relief, magic food and access to powers over one that kept them in the dark until everyone started losing family members.”

  It was stretching the truth a bit, but our goal had always been to give Cores to as many people as possible. We wouldn’t be stopped after coming this far.

  “Besides, the Dungeon will keep growing and growing towards the surface. Soon, it’ll have branching exits all over Detroit and even all over the state. There won’t be enough soldiers in the world to guard all of them. What are you going to do then?”

  Everyone looked startled at that. The mayor most of all.

  “NO! We can’t let the city get blown up by monsters! I won’t get my pension!”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Colonel Lander stared at the man. Mouth agape. So did the governor.

  The military man was the first to recover though. Coughing into his hand and making his way outside the tent. Going towards the line of reporters with the air of a dead man walking.

  ‘The news will not go over well.’ We decided. ‘And a lot of people will think the idea of having regular civilians go down into a deep monster hole when soldiers are around.’

  We nodded within the depths of the fourth floor.

  ‘Good thing we saw this coming and prepared a little push.’

  “AAAA!!!”

  “WAAA!!!”

  “IT’S THE MONTERS!!!”

  “I DON’T WANNA DIEEEE!!!”

  Gunfire erupted all over the streets and around the nearby buildings. The crowd of onlookers running for the hills and the ground beneath their feet gave way and spread itself apart to

  “Good evening everyone. We come to you live from the streets of Detroit. Where a war has broken out in the middle of the streets.”

  Gunfire erupted all around the few block where people had gathered. Brutes and Rose Goblins and Tulip Lamias making their way out from beneath the earth by the hundreds. Flailing their limbs menacingly out in the open while the people up top made their hasty escapes.

  And just to spice things up a bit, we’d also released a new addition. Courtesy of the many ideas we’d gotten off of Eva.

  “As you can all see clearly behind me, another kind of monster has broken free of the pit. Some kind of giant spider lizard, with eight eyes, eight spider legs and eight hairy bat wings on its back. The creature appears to be hostile to humans and…”

  “Shut the fuck up and run you stupid bitch!” The camera guys shouted in front. Discarding the rets of their equipment and sprinting away. “The spider dragon’s gonna eat us!”

  “Hah!? How dare you call me a stupid bitch Gary! You fat slob! Come back here and get a shot of this! Or I’ll personally gut you and eat your liver in front of you!”

  Gary did not listen. If anything, he sped up as he ran.

  So, the reporter cursed him under her breath and picked up the camera herself. Filming while running.

  “You heard it here folks. The creature has officially been named as the spider-dragon. A horrible monster from the deepest pits of the abyss. This news comes right as several online groups were criticizing the local leadership of Colonel Lander as he stated civilians should form up into militias and get magic for themselves. The stated reason was that everyone needed to have some measure of self defence on short notice and that no one was safe. Opposition soon came from pundits on VNN and OBC where they pointed out that the army had lots and lots of guns, and that the area should be sanitized with aerial bombardment if it really was that big a threat.”

  Above the crowd, an explosion rocked the night sky. The Spider-Dragon leaping upwards and impaling two helicopters with its needle-like legs. Spindles of webbing rushing forth from its open maw and capturing all the people inside before they fell to their deaths.

  Also, spiders. The Spider-Dragon was made with enough of our own Magic to [Spawn] thousands of tiny spiders and send them flying with the force of its breath.

  The idea was to really hammer home the fact that everyone needed magic, now that we’d managed to get the authorities on board.

  Again, it was proving a very effective strategy.

  Everyone, even most of the soldiers had taken a single look at the thing breathing spiders out into the sky and decided that they accidentally left the stove on.

  Everyone was running and shooting and yelling.

  Everyone was feeling that same helplessness we’d felt, back when we first descended. With that flimsy spear in hand.

  ‘Good.’ We thought. ‘Having that much hatred inside you is good. Having that fear and desperation inside you is good. It will temper you. It will make you strong.’

  They would need to be strong, for what was coming.

  And thus we saw them.

  We saw the husband and father of three grabbing an old crowbar and sending it downwards unto the skull of a Rose Goblin.

  We saw the single mother empty her shotgun into the brute, before then hacking away at it with a butchering knife.

  We saw the young girl grabbing hold of her family car and using her short legs to stomp on the steering. Running down a group of three Tulip Lamias and pinning them against the wall of a bodega, before then getting back out of the car. Her father’s tools in her hands.

  Her unconscious parents were both in the back and she had no intention of letting them come to harm. Her eyes were glazed over in a fugue state as she drove the wrench into the Lamias. Her limbs trembling as she heaved.

  ‘Let’s get one of the transformed Saboteurs to make sure she and her folks make it to a hospital okay. Actually, scratch that. Let’s get the transformed Saboteurs to start healing people left and right. That should serve as another incentive for people to get stronger.’

  We began birthing more of them down on the fourth. Making sure they were all equipped with enough Magic to make a difference on the surface.

  Meanwhile, more and more would be heroes were making themselves known up top.

  “Shoot it! Shoot it!”

  “I am shooting at it dumbass! It’s not doing anything!”

  Someone let loose a shell from within one of the tanks stationed around the entrance. The metal struck the Spider-Dragon head on. Cracking some pieces off its outer exoskeleton.

  The Dragon merely stared down as it perched sideways on a building. It’s eight beady eyes glistening and glowing as they reflected a thousand lights coming from a thousand phones and flashlights and even some searchlights from the helicopters that had retreated back out of its range.

  The Dragon saw them all and vomited another volley of spiders on them. The little critters being hurled forwards by the gust of air coming from the Dragon’s lungs and flying out to skitter and crawl along the surface of the tank.

  It didn’t do anything to the occupants, but it sure as shit scared the living daylights out of all of them. Matter of fact, the guys inside the tank were screaming even louder than the guys running for their lives outside.

  The Dragon pierced the armored vehicle with one leg and pulled. Sending the massive, bulky tank flying upwards and backwards.

  ‘Don’t focus on that.’ We commanded. ‘Make sure you are seen. And then flee into the night. Far away from here. Everyone should know where you are at all times.’

  The Dragon agreed. As it was intended. It’s nerves and will tied to us as the ones who birthed it.

  Then it spread its eight furry batlike wings out and flapped them with all the strength it had. Sending the massive unnatural body into the air, high above the rest of the helicopters.

  It breathed out another storm of spiders out into the city and then began to turn in mid-air.

  Until another incoming vehicle caught its attention.

  And…

  ‘Wait a second… Isn’t that…?’

  It was. A much, much bigger helicopter. With four blades and a hull painted to look like azure dragon scales.

  “You vile villain!” Came a voice from the speakers. “You dare hurt the people of tis fine city monster!? You dare to trample on their lives and their hopes!? Well I won’t allow it!”

  The volume redoubled. Until the windows in all the apartments underneath the machine vibrated with the aftershocks.

  “Look upon me and know that you gaze into the form of Ryuji Hanamura! Hero of humanity!”

  “And Slitpipes McGee! Comign fer yee!”

  “We won’t let you crush humanity so easily, monster! We are not cowards who will run away like the Robertsons and their gorilla-san! We will protect these people or die trying!”

  “Yes sireee! Y’all better flee when you see Slitpipes McGee! Coming fer ye!”

  “Shot at it!” Colonel Lander screamed into his comms on the opposite side of the battle. The disguised Saboteur still right beside him.

  “Get men on all the mortars and shoot it down!”

  Three different mortars fired at the Dragon’s location, though only one actually hit. Setting one of the hairy wings on fire and causing the Dragon to struggle. It forced more and more power into each wingbeat to stay aloft and the momentary pause sealed its doom.

  “We may not have the ordinance to take you down…!”

  “But we have the mass!” The voice of one of the girls carried out over the speakers.

  “Yes sireee! I kept telling yee!”

  The helicopter picked up speed and rushed forwards in a mad suicidal charge.

  “Y’all better flee! When you see Slitpipes McGee! Coming fer yeeeeeeee!!!!”