They had all been stepping forwards with confidence. Flashlights piercing the darkness permeating through the rooms.

  “Hey, isn’t this place darker than before?” John asked suddenly from the back.

  “I think it is.” Becca agreed.

  Fergus and Gunther didn’t say anything, but nodded all the same.

  Only Ryuji and his flock of clucking hens seemed indifferent to the changes.

  “Colonel Lander-san assured all of us that the corridors and walls kept changing every time someone descended. This much should be normal.” He spoke somberly. Keeping his eyes locked onto the next passage.

  “I mean, yeah. Kinda. But the lighting never changed before.” Fergus quipped.

  Three more soldiers agreed in turn, before John spoke up once more.

  “Maybe we should slow down and pay more attention to our surroundings.” He said quietly. “Or maybe we should head back up and come back with more men, or more guys with powers if you can convince them Mr. Super.”

  He swallowed a lump in his throat.

  “I don’t like what’s going on. I don’t like that your guy back there ran off. I… I’ve got a really bad feeling about this.”

  Gunther snickered.

  “You sound like a horror movie protagonist man.”

  “I know that Gunther. It doesn’t mean I’m wrong.” The older man snapped. “In fact, a lot of those guys in horror movies would have made it out with their intestines in one piece if they’d been smart enough to turn tail and run.”

  Ryuji snorted.

  “I am not forcing anyone to come down here with me soldier-san. If the darkness frightens you so much, then maybe you should leave. I certainly wouldn’t want you to be uncomfortable. Io hear it is bad for your heart.”

  One of his hens snickered. While another shot the older man a derisive look.

  At the same time, I felt nothing but giddiness. Now we, but I.

  I was back in charge. Of the fury and the rage. Now fully connected with the girl and the boy. More powerful than ever before. More complete than ever before.

  I had been changed somewhat, but those were minor concerns. And it was true that the old me had been too proud. Too stupid to see the bigger picture. Too caught up in the moment.

  Now I saw that achieving supremacy was a marathon, and not a sprint. The girl’s mind and knowledge had helped with that.

  ‘Not to mention the sweet, tantalizing knowledge this fool brought with him.’

  I thought back to the news. The prospect of two cores. The hatred and scorn that the boy felt after having his family kidnapped. The anger the girl felt after having her family threatened and betrayed.

  I had taken the reigns, but that did not mean I wasn’t angry too. Far from it.

  I was seething with an indescribable bloodlust. One that made my blood and the blood of all my brood boil.

  I had created them. I had created Patience.

  Me.

  The power to sustain two Cores should have been mine and mine alone. Perhaps if the brute hadn’t shattered my body and broken my nerves… perhaps I might have realized what she could do sooner.

  I shook my two heads. The boy and girl following my movements.

  ‘There is no use in dwelling in past failures. I was too proud and too stupid. I believed I could control the brute’s actions. I am to blame. I will learn my lesson.’

  My attention went back to the delvers. All the units of my brood and all the walls of my Dungeon sharing in my rage. My indignation.

  ‘It will not be long now.’ I thought with sudden glee. ‘Come down to me. Come down to the stage I have set for you, foolish mortals. Come down to suffer my wrath.’

  John started to shake violently.

  “Okay! Stop!” He bellowed.

  Then, when everyone turned to stare at him, he began to stammer. Spittle flying from his mouth as he kept opening and closing it in quick, chaotic movements.

  “What seems to be the matter soldier-san?”

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  “Wha…? Seriously!?”

  He shook his head suddenly and turned to stare at each and everyone of the expedition’s members.

  “None of you felt that!?”

  “Felt what?” Gunther asked.

  John stammered further.

  “I… I… We’re being watched.” He finally finished. “There’s something in here that wants us dead. Something evil.”

  Gunther barked out a laugh.

  “Dude, that was so good. You almost had me for a second there.”

  John got angrier and the others laughed at him some more.

  I wasn’t laughing.

  In fact, I took note of his sharp senses and dialed back my bloodlust. Shifting the corridors in front of the group some more to make sure the trap was ready, while also sealing shut all the passages that they had already traversed.

  I was probably overkill, but there was no telling what kinds of Cores the hens had, or what the chunni’s second Core did. The last thing I wanted was for any of these fools to escape, now that I had decided I wanted them. Better to appear welcoming and unassuming. Better for the Dungeon to appear as if nothing was different.

  For now.

  John seemed to calm down after a few minutes, and he allowed himself to be convinced that it was all in his head. He grumbled, but kept going down the corridors in spite of that.

  Then they met a few dozen Sunflower Brutes. Just as they had before.

  Unlike before, they now had the chunni and his hens with them and the man dealt with the monsters with ruthless efficiency. Drawing a sword and infusing it with crackling arcs of lightning. The blade cleaving through the monsters like a hot knife through butter.

  I allowed the carnage and in fact sent more monsters to the slaughter.

  Let him have his fun. Let him think this is all I have to send his way. Let him grow overconfident and proud as a peacock.

  After all, overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer.

  I sent a wave to Tulip Lamias alongside the Sunflower Brutes next. Ordering them to approach from the sides and attempt to outflank the chunni. With a few even aiming for his hens.

  Those were blasted apart by gouts of fire or scythes made of pressurized winds. The hens using their Magic to back up their peacock.

  Each room thereafter contained more monsters with more variation within the groups. Rose Goblins and Amethyst Shield bearers and Torchers coming together to form battle lines and draw out more and more of the attacker’s Magics. Slowly draining their reserves while I hardly touched mine own.

  Those last two variants seemed to worry the chunni though. The former deflected his sword strikes. Even at level 1, while the latter hid behind walls of Sunflower Brutes before sending plumes of smoke and bio-chemical fire towards the attackers.

  The soldiers were forced to open fire for the first time then. Flanking the monsters themselves while the hens blasted the opposing group with their Skills. Sending them above and to the sides of Ryuji as he weaved in and out of combat with his sword.

  The battle raged on for a few more minutes, but it eventually ended in their victory.

  They gasped and sighed and heaved. Struggling to breathe.

  “How far down are we?” John asked, not for the first time. “I haven’t seen the flamethrower things of the shield guys before.”

  He took another look around.

  “This is also the biggest room I’ve seen so far. I… I lost track of the rooms we passed too.”

  He looked at his watch.

  “We’ve been going down in a spiral pattern for almost two hours. I think we’ve come deeper than ever before.”

  It was an astute observation. A very true one as well.

  They were so far down that they had almost reached the second floor, but I wasn’t about to let them pass without a few more surprises.

  “I think we should head back up and report what we’ve seen.” He said at once. “If these guys have ranged options, then we either need more men down here or bigger guns at the very least. We need to start clearing rooms one by one using the tactics we used in cities or during SWAT raids. Every room beyond this one could have a few flamethrower guys in entrenched positions and we don’t have enough ammo for a protracted battle. We need to retreat for now and come back later.”

  “Soldier-san.” Ryuji spoke with a sigh. “I’ve already said this before. If you feel so anxious, then you should head back up the way we came. It should be clear with how many monsters we’ve defeated. Even if you have to take a detour because the walls shifted a few times, you’re not likely to find more than one of two stragglers.”

  John had gone quiet for a second, but he now broke the silence by taking a deep gulp of air and exhaling it in a weary sigh.

  “You know what kid? You’re one hundred percent right. I don’t know how I let you talk me into going even deeper for this long in the first place.”

  He turned to leave the way they came, but stopped.

  Then he sighed again.

  “And the door disappeared altogether.” He chuckled dryly. “Great. Just what I needed right now.”

  “Calm down dude.” Gunther said from the side. “Remember the time with Muller? He just said you need to keep going until there’s another fork in the road and then follow the fork back up. It’s super easy.”

  Of course it had been easy. I had made it so that anyone who really wanted to leave could find their way up. Until now.

  “Come on, let’s keep going. I’m sure we’ll find a fork soon.”

  John stopped dead at that.

  “A fork.” He repeated. Now alarmed. “Holy crap a fork!”

  He turned to the others.

  “We’ve been going straight for hours and we haven’t seen a single fork in the road!”

  “Yeah? Dude, you said this already.”

  “No you idiot! I know I said it before but really think about it! We’re supposedly going after something that has a level of intelligence right? If that’s the case, what do you think this means?”

  Gunther shrugged.

  “That it isn’t very smart?”

  “No!” John bellowed. “That it wants to lure us deeper! It means…”

  “Uh, guys?” Becca called from the other end of the room. “I think you should all come over and take a look at this?”

  John bolted up and ran over.

  “What? What is it?”

  “It’s… a door.” She said slowly. “Like, a regular door with a doorhandle. I mean, it’s closed, but it’s the same kind you’d seen in a random house.”

  She shone her flashlight on the handle.

  “P.C.” She spoke softly.

  “What do you think that means?” Fergus asked.

  ‘Pool Cecil. The closest thing to a name that I have.’ I thought. ‘I want them to know it was me.’

  “Personal Computer, obviously.” Gunther said dismissively. “I guess someone else came here before us and they too were part of the PC master race. Sounds about right if you ask me. Only losers play on console these days.”

  “Indeed.” Ryuji spoke with confidence. “Let’s just open it and make our way forwards. We’ve wasted enough time talking and standing around.”

  He pushed past Gunther and grasped the handle with confidence.

  And a bright, childlike smile blossomed on my face.

  As it happened, the handle was not made of metal. Instead, it was a living organism with a thin membrane of metallic-looking skin where a door handle would have been. A very sticky layer of skin to be precise.

  That part of my little guy now spurted out small, glue-covered pseudopods to keep the hand in place. All while the arteries and veins beneath the skin filled with a certain bio-chemical. A cocktail of powerful acid… and the same burning fluids that Napalmlings were filled with.

  And for the first time that day, Ryuji screamed.