Adon finally managed to withdraw out of the wyvern’s line of sight, after long minutes of crawling across the ceiling.

  It was incredibly lucky that there were hardly any glowing orange cracks in the ceiling close to the wyvern. If things had been otherwise, he would have either been stuck too close to the wyvern, or he would have had to take a chance crossing over the extremely hot space, inches away from more magma.

  As things stood, Adon quickly transformed into his camel-bat-lizard form and flew, exhausted but determined, all the way back to the level’s entrance.

  I did it, he thought. I know the route, I know the enemies—at least two out of the three types. And I’m not going to find out what the third type is unless I provoke a fight with them. I’d probably have to attack the magma somehow… No, thank you, I think I’ve done everything I set out to do. There’s no way the magma creatures are scarier than that wyvern. If it’s possible for us to win this, then I think I have enough information for the group to make a plan.

  He limped through the entrance and crashed straight into Rosslyn. His tiny, furry body struck her breastplate, and she caught him in her hands as he bounced off.

  “Adon, good to see you are all right,” she said softly. She used the back of one hand to stroke the coarse fur at the nape of his neck as she spoke.

  He allowed his body to snap back into butterfly form to stop draining energy and begin recovering it as quickly as possible.

  I know just about everything we need to know, he sent quickly. Nothing has changed since I left, right? Why were you standing at the level entrance?

  “Just taking in the view,” Rosslyn replied. A hint of pink blossomed around her neck, though Adon barely noticed it. “These dungeon biospheres are fascinating, are they not?”

  They are something, Adon agreed.

  Scary as anything in the garden, that’s for sure, he thought to himself.

  “Well, we should let the others know—”

  The world suddenly shook. Everything around Adon and Rosslyn positively trembled, from the ground to a few stalactites on the ceiling.

  What the…?

  There was a loud noise from below, like hundreds of rocks being smashed all at once, and the shaking suddenly changed. The ground shifted beneath them, and Rosslyn grasped hold of the stone of the cave entrance to steady herself.

  Then all was steady again.

  There was just one thing that was odd.

  “The tunnel…” Rosslyn’s voice came out slightly strangled and nearly inaudible, barely above a whisper.

  Adon looked down and confirmed what he thought Rosslyn was disturbed by.

  The floor of the tunnel had been flat and level with the entrance to the third floor of the dungeon.

  Now the connection between the two spaces had shifted so that he ground no longer lined up. Instead, the ground of the tunnel hit the next floor several inches below ground level, exposing inches of solid stone.

  Mind your step, Adon thought slightly giddily. He had hardly any understanding of what this meant. Why the tunnel between levels would have shifted was a complete mystery.

  To Rosslyn, he sent a simple message: Do you know what just happened?

  She shook her head. “You?”

  Nope.

  The others rushed into their space suddenly.

  “Princess, are you all right?” one of the female knights who had been carrying her earlier asked.

  “I am well, thank you,” Rossly replied, smiling politely.

  “Do we know what happened?” Frederick popped up beside them and asked the question.

  “I assume…” William started a sentence and trailed off.

  The spiders just stared.

  The amusing thing was that Frederick and Goldie were looking at Rosslyn for answers, while William and Samson looked to Adon.

  Telepathy confirmed what Adon guessed intuitively: Frederick and Goldie had imagined Rosslyn might be responsible for the sudden collapse, because of her display of power earlier that had seemed to shake the dungeon similarly to this. William and Samson somehow imagined that it had something to do with Adon’s exploration of the next level.

  I’m pretty sure neither of us knows what happened, Adon quickly transmitted. I just finished exploring the floor, but nothing I did or saw could have caused the ground to shake and the tunnel to start shifting position, even on a delay.

  “I cannot explain the sudden subsidence either,” Rosslyn agreed. “I trust that the fact you were asking means neither of you has any idea what happened?”

  William and Frederick nodded silently. Frederick in particular looked quite somber.

  “The dungeon is becoming unstable for some reason,” he murmured.

  “I think it is urgent that we enter the level,” Rosslyn said. “As soon as we can make a plan. Before the tunnel destabilizes further, and we are perhaps cut off.”

  She left unspoken the possibility that the entire structure of the dungeon might somehow collapse and leave them trapped something like a mile or more underground. But Adon sensed that they were all keenly aware of it.

  “Let us withdraw and speak amongst ourselves for a few minutes, then,” William said quietly.

  “Could someone please get the butterfly some meat?” Frederick asked. “We all need to be in top shape to tackle the level.”

  Adon felt like he could use more rest, but he would not say no to a healthy snack either. He was burned out in more than one way. It was time to start rebuilding his strength.

  One of the knights quickly ran and retrieved a strix haunch for Adon to eat, and then he and the spiders were left alone with the three potential heirs to two countries’ thrones.

  “Adon, will you please tell them everything you know?” Rosslyn asked.

  While consuming the delicious flesh of the strix—the spiders helped him with that—Adon explained the basics of what he had encountered on the level.

  So, the most common monster in the level is the Giant Lava Monitor. Those are big lizards with thick, scaly armor…

  As the explanation went on, William seemed dissatisfied with Adon’s failure to uncover the truth about the monsters that dwelt within the magma, but that sentiment was felt only as a telepathic ripple. For the most part, everyone was silent for the full narrative.

  When he explained the final boss, however, the three humans could not hold back a collective gasp.

  “A wyvern? Truly?” Frederick asked.

  Is that special? Adon sent.

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  “I have heard of them,” Rosslyn said, “but I believe they are uncommon in dungeons.”

  William raised an eyebrow. “Uncommon is one word. I do not believe one has been seen in a century. Not that adventurers are reliable in their reports, but it would be noteworthy if a wyvern was seen. Their armor is particularly tough. High grade enough to become armor better than any naturally occurring metal.”

  “If the last one had not been over a century ago, perhaps one of us would be wearing wyvern armor now,” Frederick added.

  “True,” Rosslyn said, raising an eyebrow of her own. “Where are the two of you going with this? I do not mean to be impolite, but we need a plan to fight on this level—and to make descent as rapidly as possible—remember?”

  “I would request that the two of you trust me to lead the attack on this level,” William replied. “As for why I brought the wyvern up—I propose a contest, privately, just among ourselves.”

  “A contest?” Rosslyn asked.

  “Usual stakes?” Frederick said.

  William shook his head. “Winner gets the wyvern’s hide.”

  Telepathy told Adon that the usual stakes were—Winner pays for the loser at the brothel—and simply tried to put that out of his mind.

  “What is the contest?” Rosslyn asked.

  “Whoever gets the most kills wins, of course,” Frederick said. “We will need someone impartial who is not participating in the contest to keep count. Uh, Goldie? Or Samson?”

  I could keep count, Adon sent before either of the spiders could reply. Given the armor the monsters have, I suspect they are a bad matchup for me.

  William nodded. “Thank you.”

  “We will make certain to save you some wyvern steak, Adon,” Frederick said, clasping his hands together as if praying or thanking the Goddess.

  “Will you be making any other plans, besides initiating this contest, William?” Rosslyn asked. Adon could feel that, although she was trying to hide it, she felt a little annoyed at how casually William was taking this.

  “I think everything Adon has told us is within expected parameters, except for the wyvern,” William replied. “I will make a quick announcement, and with that, I believe we should be ready to go.” He looked Rosslyn in the eye, waiting for confirmation that she was all right with that.

  “You are leading the attack,” she replied with a little shrug. Her mouth formed a line as William turned away.

  I truly hope he knows what he is doing…

  William made his announcement, repeating some of what Adon had said—mainly about the monitors and the unknown creatures within the magma. When he mentioned the wyvern, however, his demeanor changed.

  “As some of you will already know, the wyvern is an extremely rare monster. It is also quite dangerous. Given that fact, the Princess, my brother, the mystic beasts, and I will fight the creature without assistance. When we reach that point in the dungeon, you are all instructed to withdraw back until you can no longer see us. That should be a safe distance. We will call you forward when the beast is slain.”

  There were some grumbles of protest from the warriors.

  “It is our job to protect the members of Dessian family,” articulated one particularly loud Dessian knight.

  “We cannot let the Princess come to any harm,” added a Claustrian knight.

  “Nevertheless, none of you will be of any help in this fight,” William replied, his tone firm and blunt. “This is not a situation where numbers will aid us. The level is a much more confined space than the previous floors. We would only be increasing our casualties by sending more people forward. And would you want the Princess or my brother or I to be forced to restrain our attacks so that none of you come to harm? If we did that, and someone died, who is willing to take responsibility for that decision? Please. Raise your hand.”

  No one moved.

  “Right, then, so we will be following the plan I have outlined, understood?” William said.

  There were nods and murmurs of acknowledgement.

  William is actually pretty good at this, Adon thought. Maybe… Maybe I have something I need to learn from him.

  The young lord organized the party into two columns, with Rosslyn at their front and Frederick and William at the rear. The idea, Adon gathered through Telepathy, was that whenever they were ambushed by the unknown monsters beneath the magma, one of their stronger group members would be able to respond immediately and fight the creatures.

  And finally, the group advanced into the third level.

  Adon was one of the first to enter, positioned as usual on Rosslyn’s shoulder. He maintained his butterfly form rather than using Transformation, because he wanted to preserve resources and because true to what she had proposed previously, Rosslyn was able to keep the brunt of the heat away from him if he was within the radius of her mana.

  Actually, Adon was impressed with how everyone seemed to be skilled at using their mana to shield themselves from the heat. He should have expect this, given that only highly skilled knights who would have years of familiarity with mana had come along on this journey.

  Kind of a waste that most of them will not have access to any mana affinity, he thought. Is it really wise for ruling families to hoard knowledge like that?

  Adon’s attention was pulled back to the present by Telepathy. He felt it when the creatures beneath the magma began to stir, as he and Rosslyn passed them. And he observed that they moved slightly closer to the surface of the superheated liquid but continued to lie in wait.

  They are waiting for something, Adon sent to Rosslyn, Frederick, William, Goldie, and Samson. Their primitive minds are looking for an opportunity to create chaos and attack where we are weak.

  The columns of knights proceeded into the floor, and both columns were almost fully within the level when it happened.

  Two creatures burst forth from the twin pools of magma, and they threw themselves at the nearest knights, two who were positioned at the back of the columns, just ahead of Frederick and William.

  So that was what they were…

  The monsters were massive and round. Two giant turtles with reddish skin and shells in fiery patterns of red, burnt orange, and charred black, with bits of what looked like volcanic rock coming out of the top of them—or possibly stuck to the top of their backs.

  The knights they went after drew their swords almost as quickly as the creatures lunged, and they turned to face the attackers full-on. But the turtles each bit into the sword in its respective knight's hands—and broke them in two, sending bits of metal flying everywhere.

  Their heavy bodies dragged them back down into the magma after that initial attack, but Adon could tell they pushed off something to throw themselves into the fight again. The image of the scene of action felt strange to watch.

  It was mainly the fact that the creatures were twins in every respect, and their movements felt surreally almost mirrored.

  What can the knights do now? Adon wondered.

  The two men were gathering large quantities of mana, one around his fists and the other around his shins, but it was hard to imagine them doing as well disarmed as they had done armed—and what they had done armed had not been particularly impressive.

  “Everyone stand back!” The knights who were not directly engaged in combat immediately dodged out of the way at the sound of William’s voice, getting distance from the turtles.

  Adon looked to see that William and Frederick had taken on combative stances, their bodies faced toward the two hostile creatures.

  Everything after that happened very quickly.

  Mana already surrounded the brothers, but Adon could see it rapidly turning into an unfamiliar color of aura as he watched them. The light it gave off was pure white at first but seemed to crackle with different shades, one moment hinting at blue, another at pink, then at red and purple. Adon thought he saw green for a split second, but then the shade was replaced with yellow and he wasn’t certain if he had actually seen it at all.

  As the energy surrounding them intensified, both brothers’ hair stood on end.

  What is this? Adon wondered.

  The mystery in what he was seeing was resolved in an instant. Both brothers extended their hands, and forks of blinding lightning shot forward at the turtles.

  The attack was so fast that Adon’s eyes could hardly follow it.

  His vision even grew a bit hazy around the edges of where the lightning had been, but he saw that the bolts had penetrated their targets’ thick, stony armor in an instant. He could see well enough to recognize that the monsters, once struck, were unmoving. He saw both creatures, down for the count, their bodies spasming slightly and pumping little geysers of blood through the large holes the lightning bolts had left—but giving no other signs of life.

  Adon even recognized what might have been the actual moment of death.

  Their brain activity has completely stopped, he confirmed to himself. They’re very, very dead. Instantly.

  William turned and gave a wordless smile in Adon and Rosslyn’s general direction. The emotional wavelength Adon felt from him was simple: overwhelming arrogance.

  The young lord looked at Adon and made a simple gesture. He held up a single finger.

  One kill for me.

  Then he pointed at Frederick.

  And one kill for my brother.

  Received and acknowledged, Adon sent.

  “Let us advance,” the young lord said. “I believe we have confirmed that nothing on this level, save perhaps the monster at the very end, can withstand our family’s signature attack.”

  So, Rosslyn’s family uses fire, and the Dessians use lightning, Adon thought. He could not help but think the Dessians’ ability was straightforwardly more powerful and useful. It certainly would be more useful on this level, where everything was likely to be resistant to fire. No wonder William chose now to have a killing contest. I wonder. If he and Rosslyn had been using their magical affinities in their duel, assuming that I had not interfered, who would have won?