Tessa had a vampire clinging to her neck and a giant monster of lava beneath her. A ruin towned lay around her, the screams of the dying filled her ears, and everything was on fire. All things considered, her day wasn’t going too badly.

“Pillowcase? What the…how the…what the?” Rip’s babbling was at least more than any of the other adventurers in [Sky’s Edge] were able to manage.

“This is our stop Darren!” Pillowcase said. “We’ll get all the non-Consortium folks out of the area so you can let loose.”

“EXCELLENT. COME VISIT LATER,” the enormous [Servant of Fire] named Darren said. “AND PERHAPS BRING A MOP.”

“We’ll see you soon,” Alice said. “And we’ll get your labyrinth cleaned up. Sorry about the mess I left.”

“I ONLY WISH IT HAD BEEN LARGER AND THAT MY CAPTOR HAD SUFFERED LONGER,” Darren said.

“Stay safe!” Tessa said as she gathered Lost Alice in her arms and leapt from the top of the [Servant of Fire]’s head to land in the huddled crowd of adventurers. “Hi folks, got any objections to leaving,” she glanced over as Darren swept down onto the advanced [Ground Claimers] and melted them to slag, “Like now?”

“No, nope, not at all,” Kammie said.

“Leaving sounds like a great idea to me too!” Battler X said.

Lady Midnight, Starchild, Matt, and Rip didn’t even bother responding. They just got moving.

“You owe us a story later,” Rip said as the assembled party ran for one of the holes that had formed in the Consortium’s ranks.

“Good job bringing her back to us,” Matt said to Alice.

“Yeah!” Rip said and then did a quick double take. “Should I ask why you’re covered in blood?”

“Probably not,” Alice said but her smile had a bit of a feral gleam that dared for the question to be asked anyways.

Despite the devastation Darren-the-living-lava-river was causing, some of the Consortium’s forces remained alert enough to notice the adventurers’ attempted escape.

Pillowcase’s shield snapped into place , blocking a barrage of shots targeted on Alice before anyone else noticed they were under attack.

“[Plasma Lancers]! Everybody down!” Tessa shouted, of course not taking her own advice. She instead relied on the enchantment on her shield to allow it to withstand the super heated bolts of energy the Consortium soldiers were firing at her.

A part of her considered the physics involved and how the heat from the bolts should have eventually turned her shield to slag. With magic in the mix though, physics was left to whimper over in a corner by itself.

“Nope. We gotta leave,” Rip said and knocked an arrow. To her credit she did use Pillowcase as partial cover, though she didn’t warn her newly arrived teammates of what was to follow. “[Flame Shot].”

The explosion was mostly channelled away from them, again thanks to the physics-defying effects of the [Oil of Dragon’s Breath]’s enchantments. ‘Mostly’ was not the same as ‘completely’ though and the blastwave which hit them easily knocked the party off their feet, except for Alice and Rip who were both nimble enough that they landed gracefully and remained standing. Where they’d been blown back though, the Consortium squad had been been blown away. Visible particles of dust remained of them but that was about all.

“That was not a [Flame Shot]!” Tessa objected as she picked herself up and scanned for any remaining threats..

“Mister Pendant gave me a little something extra,” Rip said. “Watch out!’

Her warning was enough for Pillowcase to get her shield in place against a crushing mace blow which hit with far more damaging potential than the plasma lances had.

“Rogue [Clothwork] Unit, [Command Override: Shutdown],” the enemy [Clothwork] said as she identified Pillowcase.

Tessa felt a jolt run through Pillowcase but when it tried to cross into the uniquely “Tessa” parts of their shared consciousness, Tessa shook command off like it was no more than a rude comment.

The temptation to taunt the enemy was powerful. The temptation to give an enemy as little information as possible was stronger though and so Tessa used the small moment when the command should have processed and the opening it held to put a boot into the enemy [Clothwork]’s chest.

She’s dangerous.Tessa didn’t feel the same divide between herself and Pillowcase that had been there before. She could move as Pillowcase and Pillowcase had her insights into the world. The evaluation of the soldier before them could have come from either side but the suggestion that followed was somehow the clearest combination of both their perspectives that they’d yet experienced. I should save her.

“That got the attention back on us,” Matt said. “We should keep running.”

“Yes! Go!” Tessa said. ”I’ll deal with her.”

“We’ll deal with her,” Alice said, magic flaring in her hands.

Tessa considered the battlefield before her. There were a lot of dead Consortium troops. There was a giant lava serpent wrecking havoc on the ones that remained. The [Clothwork] in front of her was a [Defense] model, the same as Pillowcase had been, but she wasn’t unique or special.

Except they all were.

All of the Consortium’s [Artifax] were individuals, despite being stamped into identical molds and wrapped in bonds of conformity.

If I could break her control threads, she’d be free.

The enemy [Clothwork] spun low, forcing Pillowcase to dodge back and allow her enemy to kick back up to her feet.

A searing beam of purple-pink energy screamed past Tessa’s shoulder, but the Consortium soldier deflected it with her shield.

“I’ll keep her pinned, attack her from the other side,” Matt said as he continued to fire the stream of arcane energy from his staff.

This isn’t right. We shouldn’t be killing slaves! The thought was a chilling one but the crushing barrage of blows as the enemy stepped in to keep Pillowcase between herself and the rest of Tessa’s team left Tessa no time to reflect on it.

Can’t do the best thing now. Gotta survive. Tessa thought as she matched her enemy blow for blow.

Their fight lasted only a moment longer. Tessa saw the exact second when the order to retreat arrived, carried on a channel Pillowcase no longer had access to since being abandoned by the Consortium.

One moment she and her opposite number were wailing away on each other, vying for the better tactical position and the next the enemy [Clothwork] was leaping backwards dozens of yards, evading the fire sent in her direction by the other members of Tessa’s team.

“We’ll meet again.” The enemy [Clothwork] hadn’t said those words. There wasn’t time for her to have, but they still echoed inside Tessa’s mind.

***

Glimmerglass felt the teleportation effect take hold and hurl her across thousands of miles, out into the abyss of the night, to land on an enemy warship.

And right in the middle of their arrival she felt another sensation.

Confinement.

As the transport bay of the [Field Carrier] [ABP77G-K-71-CA512] came into view, Glimmerglass felt crimson bands of force bind around her throat, arms, and legs, rendering her completely immobile and helpless.

With even words denied to her by the globe of silence that formed around her head, she was left with nothing more than casting a plea from her heart for salvation out into the cosmos.

***

Azma watched as the lead ships in her carefully assembled fleet came under the most chaotic of attacks.

“We have reports of spatial breeches on all of the forward ships which are approaching bombardment range of the planetary surface,” [Comms Officer] Clarisse, reported in the dispassionate tone it usually took new comms personnel at least a few invasions to get down.

“Excellent. Forward all of the security reports to my station. No aggregation delay,” Azma said. 

Opening a new market (i.e. invading a new world) was usually a chaotic enough affair that [Commanders] preferred to work primarily off briefs assembled once all the relevant parties had reported in. It wasn’t a sign of laziness. The most important aspect to making command decisions was to distill the data from the various battles into information which showed the full scope of the conflict. Getting bogged down in the moment to moment details and trying to micromanage an entire war was a proven recipe for missing vital intelligence in a torrent of trivia.

A wise [Commander] knew to rely on the assistance of the people who were there to coordinate things on a fine scale. Conflicts weren’t won by single individuals, no matter how surpassing of all others their greatness was, but rather by the ordinary greatness of everyone within a command structure, from the lowliest grunts who executed to simplest of orders to the analysts closest to the central command. 

Harness that to the proper yoke and all the worlds you ever desire will be yours for the taking, Azma wistfully reminded herself, as the security reports began to stream in from the forward ships in her fleet.

Her analysts were combing through them as well, concentrating the data into clear and succinct summaries, which Azma would also review. She wasn’t trying to do their jobs for them after all. To the extent that she’d reviewed their past work, or knew who had trained them, she trusted the output they provided her.

The security reports which filled the screens on her station weren’t for second guessing her analysts, or for micro-managing her security teams. They were for her enjoyment.

It was something too many of her colleagues missed.

True, grand conflicts like the one below her were as deadly serious as it was possible to get. Well, short of a personal feud. Within the bounds of the current campaign, Azma had a wide degree of freedom to be merciful and reasonable, should either of those approaches be desirable. When one of her coworkers (and it was always a coworker) made things personal though? For those unlucky sinners, there could be no mercy and no reason. The [Consortium of Pain] was not an organization where insults of a sufficiently personal nature could be allowed to go unanswered, and the answer always had to be overwhelming, lest she be tainted by the hint of weakness. Sometimes one gruesomely spectacular punishment could save the lives of so many other slightly wiser coworkers.

Outside of such dire circumstances as intra-office squabbles though, there was always room to enjoy a project’s successes. In fact, reveling in them did more for morale than any course of beatings or dispersal of gift coupons to the underlings could ever manage. 

“It looks like the teams who worked on the [Stasis Webs] are due some significant commendations,” she said, fully intending that the nearby bridge crew should overhear her musings. After the battle, word would leak out of her appreciation well in advance of any official recognition, bolstering morale not only for the security teams but for everyone who had done their jobs well since they would all have the impression that their efforts were being observed and recognized.

For Azma, the joy came not only from the delayed sense that her organization would work a little more smoothly and her people perform at a slightly higher level. Those were nice, but more immediately she had the joy of envisioning the effect of the [Stasis Webs] with a wealth of detail to paint clear and lovely pictures in her mind’s eye.

It had been so easy to bait her enemies into attacking her. 

They’d held back surprises, because of course they’d held back something in the hopes of unleashing their best efforts when a target was in sight where their best would do the most good. Azma was sure they had stepped across the starless void between their world and her vessels intent on raining an unimaginable amount of destruction upon her.

But they’d been caught.

Full body paralysis generators and the best communication jamming techniques the Consortium had access to. So rare for those to be installed on an invasion ship and yet such a wonderful payoff in test subjects they’d provided.

Azma could picture her opponents squirrming, everything but their minds frozen so that they were as completely aware of their plight as they were helpless to remedy it.

***

Brendan Reingold stared at his screen in horror. He couldn’t imagine a worse outcome. Mellisandra was motionless in front of him. The raid had failed.

“Brendan! Can you still hear me?” Mellisandra asked, her voice reaching through Brendan’s headphones like a lightning bolt.

“YES!”

“Good!” She didn’t seem anywhere near as overwhelmed by the terror of the moment as he was. “What kind of mezz did they hit us with?”

Brendan blinked. Everyone was frozen on his screen, but, as he looked at the background he saw the machinery behind them was still rolling and oscillating and pistoning as normal. 

The game wasn’t frozen. It was just the raiders.

“It’s a new icon,” Brendan said, looking at the system display. “No time limit given, but the info on it says it’s a ‘Deep Paralysis’ effect? Wait, isn’t that what King Noggrad used in the Unhallowed Halls raid?”

Brendan heard Mellisandra’s laughter ring out with a gleeful tone.

“Yes. Yes it is.”

“You’ve still got the Eternal Warmth counter charms for that right?” he asked, unsure in the moment how a raid he hadn’t run in two years had turned out the last time he played through it.

“I do. Just like everyone who beat [King Noggrad] does. Give me a second to invoke it and then be ready to help me move and cast like never before ok?”

“Absolutely!”

Mellisandra looked into the night sky above the [Astrologos Observatory], searching for the tiny point in the darkness from which all of their troubles began.

“Are you sure you’re ok with this?” she asked, whispering to herself and knowing that her inspiration would hear her words no matter how quiet they were.

“Absolutely,” Brendan said.

“If I die, we’ll be stuck together,” Mellisandra said. “Or at least that’s what seems to be what’s happened with the others we’ve talked to.”

“I know,” Brendan said. “That’s why I’ve got to be with you while you do this. We got the players who are little kids, or people with family’s to take care of sitting out the fights, but you saw the attack. If we don’t stop the Consortium, there’s not going to be any sidelines.”

“It doesn’t seem fair,” Mellisandra said. “You’re risking your life and your world and all I’m risking is a visit to the [Heart Fire].”

Brendan laughed and Mellisandra heard real joy in his voice.

“You’re facing possible death, capture, or worse, and you’re still worried about me where the worst that can happen if everything goes wrong is that I get to live in the game I love the most.”

“My world isn’t a game though,” Mellisandra said. “It won’t be how you imagine. And you would be trapped together with me.”

“That’s the only part I’d feel bad about,” Brendan said. “Not being ‘trapped’ with you, but you being stuck with me. I mean, you’re a powerful wizard. You’ve done incredible things and mastered skills I can literally only dream of. Meanwhile, my version of a heroic day is getting to class, doing the grocery shopping and running a load of laundry.”

“You’re world sounds like a blessed one,” Mellisandra said. “I suspect mine could use a taste of the peace you speak of.”

“I don’t know,” Brendan said. “We can be pretty awful too. The Consortium wouldn’t be out of place at all on Wall Street.”

“In that case, you’re welcome to them,” Mellisandra said. “Perhaps when we kick them out we can return them to your world if they belong there.”

“That sounds fair,” Brendan said. “Though I wonder if their ships would even work here?”

“Oh, I was thinking we would return their bodies to your world in coffins. Their ships we’ll just burn. The only thing we leave unbroken is their spirits and the [Hounds of Fate] can have those, if the ghost pups even want the stinking things.”

The murmor of the crowds quieted as Niminay rose to address them. Mellisandra moved to stand with the group she’d joined and the others who’d be accompanying them as Niminay laid out the very simple strategy they’d be following.

Simple seemed good. When you were outnumbered by enemies and fighting on strange ground, there were quit enough forces making your life complicated, the last thing you needed was for your leaders to be one of them.

“We’re the twenty first group to go,” Glimmerglass said. “Niminay’s team is leading the charge.”

“Will we be assaulting the ship she’s going to?” Cambrell, the goblin assassin, asked.

“No, we’ve got our own target,” Glimmerglass said. “One of the smaller carriers. It’s up to us to get on board, disable the ships weapons and, ideally, take control of the helm.”

“After killing everyone on board?” Cambrell asked.

“We’re treating it like a dungeon,” Glimmerglass said. “If it’s hostile, we kill it. If it’s not hostile, we make sure it won’t kill us the second our backs are turned.”

“How are we getting back?” Mellisandra asked.

“Their ships have portal generators,” Glimmerglass said. “We don’t want to wreck those. If we do, they can try to recall us from the Observatory here, but we’ll be near the range limit so targeting might take a while to lock onto us.”

“Looks like we’re up next,” Damnazon said, gesturing to the transport circle which was flashing groups out as fast as they could assemble on it.

Mellisandra took another look at the sky as she stepped onto the portal and saw the whole world turn to sparks of light.

***

An explosion cast Rose’s world into darkness. Below her, Jamal scream in surprise as the building she’d been standing on came tumbling down onto him.

“They have aerial support too!” she yelled in broadcast, in case anyone was confused at what had shot the building out from under her.

[Sky’s Edge] hadn’t been a large town before any of its recent problems. By the time Rip Shot wiped her eyes clear, more than half of it had been leveled and soldiers from the [Consortium of Pain] were advancing through the rubble from the north and south.

A stroke of purple-pink lightning ripped from under the collapsed building, blasting Matt Painting free and lancing through one of the three [Recon Skiffs] the Consortium forces from the south had sent ahead to soften up the remaining defenders.

Rose shielded her eyes and flinched away from the explosion in the sky above her, but Rip Shot looked past her hand and spied the other two skifs as they banked to flee back to the south.

“[Multishot],” she said, loosing a trio of arrows which each carried enough force to punch through a reinforced suit of platemail. Two of the arrows missed as the skiff juked downwards. The one which struck home lunched straight through the vessel, but hit nothing vital.

“We’ve got to get out of here!” Battler X said, sniping at the approaching Consortium forces with a bow he lacked any special skills with.

“They’ve setup a perimeter,” Rose said, recalling the layout of the forces she’d seen from top of the building. “The main forces are advancing from the north and south but we’ve got units flanking us on all sides.”

“Did Obby get the townsfolk out?” Jamal asked.

“Yeah, you bought us just enough time,” Oblivion’s Daughter said over the party channel. “We’re behind some of the hills and moving away to the [Ruins of Heaven’s Grave].”

“They’ll send a tracking squad to follow you,” Jamal said. “Be careful about killing them, that sends a signal back to their base team.”

“Noted,” Obby said. “Can you escape? I can peel off and come back to help at this point.”

“Stay with the townsfolk,” Rose said. “You’d have to fight through half the Consortium’s forces to get to us.”

“Does that mean we have to fight through half their forces to get out of here?” Lady Midnight asked.

“If that’s what’s required,” Starchild said.

“I’ve got a few more of Mister Pendant’s dragon breath potions left,” Rose said. “If we use those we can punch a hole in their formation and make a break through that. And if that doesn’t work, then we ghost run it to the ruins and respawn there.”

“I don’t know that we want to rely on making a long ghost run,” Kammie Anne Do said. “I’ve got some guildmates in the regular zones who were saying the [Hounds of Fate] are out in force at the moment. We’ve lost contact with one of our guildmates but other guilds are missing entirely.”

“I don’t think the Consortium’s going to give us a choice there,” Jamal said.

Rip Shot scampered over to the collapsed wall he was standing behind and peered through the holes in it to see that Consortium’s heavy units had rolled up to the battle at last.

“We have to move,” Rose said, pointing to one of the few remaining buildings that was standing.

She’d been thinking to use it for concealment since nothing in the town seemed adequate in terms of providing real cover.

“Good idea,” Mister Pendant said. Alone of the townsfolk he’d stayed behind. He’d claimed it was out of revenge for his destroyed store, but Rose had noticed that Pendant was for more focused on the adventurers than the ruin his town was turning into. “There’s a basement we can take shelter in there.”

Basements weren’t Rose’s favorite place, and the prospect of descending into one seemed less like taking shelter and more like stepping into a cage.

“We can’t get trapped,” she said.

“Yeah, if we go into a basement, they’ll drop the whole building on us,” Jamal said.

“Not this basement,” Pendant said. “It connects to the [Ruins of Heaven’s Grave]. At least if you have the right key. Which of course I do.”

“Wait, do you know how to navigate those ruins?” Rose asked as a thousand other questions tried to tumble out.

Before she could ask or Pendant could answer though, the Consortium’s [Ground Claimers] opened fire. It wasn’t all that different from a dozen main battle tanks unleashing a salvo. What was left of [Sky’s Edge] exploded into a cloud of shrapnel. 

“Go now!” Rose called out, unable to see anything in the cloud of dust and debris the attack had kicked up and willing to gamble that the Consortium was temporarily blinded too.

“How are we alive?” Battle X asked. “That kind of explosion should have torn us apart.”

“Question it later, move now,” Rose said.

“It’s because we’ve gained a few levels,” Lady Midnight said. “Look at our health bars. They all dropped but only by about 20%.”

“I’m stuck,” Kammie said.

“On what?” Jamal asked, appearing out of the mist by Rip Shot’s side.

“Brick wall,” Kammie said. “Whole thing toppled over onto me.”

“We’ve got to get her out,” Battle X said.

“No! Rip Shot’s right. You all need to run. Just leave me here. I’ll tell you when the Consortium picks up your trail.”

There was a instant of quiet.

The Consortium had stopped firing, pausing to access the effect of their volley and the adventurers were frozen between the slim window of opportunity for escape and the horror of abandoning someone to an unknown fate.

“Screw that,” Rose said. “Find Kammie on your maps. Form up on her.”

“They are going to kill you!” Kammie said. “For real!”

“We might be dead already for all we know,” Rose said. “That doesn’t matter. What matters is I’m not leaving you or anyone to die alone.” Something feral twisted inside her. Rage surging out where she hadn’t expected it. “Nobody gets abandoned!”

“Yeah,” Jamal said. “Who’s afraid of some ghost dogs. Let’s do this!”

They weren’t alone when they reached Kammie’s position. Starchild, Lady Midnight, Battler X, and the last standing member of his team, Cpt Hatorade were all there heaving on the brick wall that had Kammie pinned. Only Mister Pendant was missing.

Rose called for him, but no answer came back. As an NPC in the game, he wasn’t someone she could have added to their team, and some part of her had been thinking of him like that even with the world having become real in every other way.

“There’s too much stuff on the wall,” Lady Midnight said, gesturing to the ten foot high pile of debris that had landed on mostly intact brick wall.

“We need to clear it off without crushing her further,” Starchild said.

“Midnight, can you keep her healed in case we mess it up?” Rose asked.

“Yeah, but we don’t have much time,” Lady Midnight said.

“I’m counting on that,” Rose said as she dipped the tiniest bit of the [Oil of Dragon’s Breath] that she could onto her arrow.

“What are you doing?” Battle X asked, clearly all to aware of exactly what Rose had planned.

“We don’t have time to clear a building off her,” Rose said and drew back her arrow. “The rest of you should move.”

Her ad hoc party didn’t need to be told twice.

“Hey, kid,” Kammie said. “However this goes, thank you!”

“It’s going to fine,” Rose said. “Because Rip Shot…”, she release the arrow, “…doesn’t miss!”

The resulting explosion was smaller than the building destroying one she’d fired previously. This one only blew her back about five feet to what Jamal caught her in Matt Painting’s metal arms.

“Get her out of there!” Rose called as a new round of artillery rained down on the town. 

It had been a miscalculation.

She saw that as her team surged forward.

Lady Midnight and Starchild were both pouring healing magic into Kammie, who’s health was topping off just fine. Rip Shot had indeed placed her arrow just right to direct the blast as she wanted. The debris on the wall had been swept off and the wall cracked enough that the others were hauling giant pieces of it off Kammie. That part of the rescue had been perfect.

The problem was Rip’s blast had given the Consortium the exact coordinates they needed to strike at to eliminate the remaining defenders in [Sky’s Edge].

Rose heard the incoming whistle of the Consortium’s targeted munitions and knew she was standing at ground zero for where they would land.

Before she could process anything else she felt a burning wave of heat and was pitched off her feet. She waited for the pain to either get worse or vanish entirely as she switched to ghost form, but neither happened.

Blinking, she opened her eyes to find a vast column of lava and flame rising like an impenetrable wall between her team and the Consortium’s [Ground Claimers] to the north.

No. Not a column. A Creature.

A [Servant of Fire] if her heads up display was reading it properly.

“Level 12 Tank and Healer looking for group,” Pillowcase said. “Oh, and we’ve got a Raid Boss who’d like to pitch in too!”

The shackles which bound Tessa’s arms and legs were made of tissue paper. A glance over to her side showed that the ones on Lost Alice were no different. With a simple flex, either of them could shatter the effect which was holding them in place, but neither of them did. They both wanted to see what the fool in front of them had to say.

“Does it surprise you?” Mikonnel said. “Certainly you did not come to this place thinking to find the future [Lord] of the [Fallen Kingdoms] standing before you. No, I imagine you are here as desperate rats fleeing the wrath of my allies. Tell me, how many of your kind has the Consortium slain? It must be hundreds by now.”

“You don’t look like part of the Consortium’s [Directorate],” Pillowcase said.

“He’s a local,” Lost Alice said.

Tessa saw that her eyes were riveted on the man who didn’t appear willing to come closer to them despite their apparently helplessness.

“Of course I’m a local,” Mikonnel said. “This world was far too well hidden for the [Consortium of Pain] to discover on their own. Someone need to reach out and invite them in.”

“And in exchange they said they’ll name you the ruler of the world?” Tessa asked.

“They had already given me this world,” Mikonnel said. “I am logged into the Omniversal Registry as the administrator of everything within this sphere and my place in the Consortium’s [Grand Hierarchy] has been secured.”

What’s the Omniversal Registry? Lisa asked.

A lie, Tessa said. The Consortium doesn’t have special book for recording ownership of the worlds they conquer. Officially, the worlds retain their sovereignty. The Consortium exercises control of a world through their ‘contractual agreements’ and those are traded between the portfolios of the upper management in whatever weird games they play.

But the [Grand Hierarchy] is a thing? Lisa asked.

It’s basically the Org Chart for the entire Consortium, Tessa said. Everyone’s got a spot in it and a number, from the [Executive Directorate] down to the [Disposable Interns].

[Disposable Interns]? Seriously?

Yep. It’s to set the right attitude in them from the start.

I guess this is a group that calls themselves the [Consortium of Pain]. What the hell were the devs thinking with that?

According to the Consortium’s internal propaganda, it’s supposed to be in commemoration of their founder, with the overlap of meaning in some languages being “unfortunate”. Tessa said. 

“…and that was how I, and I alone, was able to see past the paltry limitations…” Mikonnel was saying when Tessa turned her attention back to him.

If he can contact the Consortium does that mean he has some method of getting off this world? Lisa asked.

Not necessarily, Tessa said. The Consortium is able to pick up all sorts of transmissions. He might not be anything more than the equivalent of a ham radio operator who got lucky. We should find out though.

He’s still talking, Lisa said. This is like a unskippable cutscene.

We are in Hell, technically, Tessa said.

“…and using that knowledge, I was able to show my allies the path to arrive here, and thus they saw my worth and value. Not as some insignificant number or level but as a man of vision and genius. One who they would do well to court and treat as he deserved to be treated,” Mikonnel said.

Oh, the Consortium is definitely going to treat him how he deserves,Tessa said.

“I can’t help but notice that for all your power and importance to the Consortium, you’re hiding in one of the deepest, least accessible holes anywhere in the [Fallen Kingdoms],” Lost Alice said.

“I am not hiding,” Mikonnel said. “I have claimed this place as my [Sanctum].”

“How?” Tessa asked.

“I have gained many things from the Consortium,” Mikonnel said. “Secrets those on this world would consider most unnatural and impossible to believe.”

“It looks like you drew a binding trap on top of the maze over there and then lured the [Servant of Fire] into it,” Lost Alice said.

“How could you trap a boss in their own lair though?” Tessa asked. “It should be able to die and respawn here if that’s the only option for escaping the trap.”

“That creature doesn’t control this place,” Mikonnel said. “It was always an interloper. There were some few creatures here before it, but once it wormed itself in through the cracks at the center of the maze it slew them and tried to claim the area as its own. But I! I was too fast for it!”

Tessa didn’t want to interrupt the rant. Not before they had all the information they needed.

“Just like you, it did not foresee that there might be those with plans beyond its conception,” Mikonnel said. 

“It’s bindings seem to be different than ours,” Lost Alice said, her voice clearly different than usual.

Are you okay? Tessa asked.

No, Lisa said. Not at all.

Tessa could here the strain that Lisa had been hiding tearing through her voice. Lost Alice’s external demeanor never wavered though.

“Yes, well, the Consortium has given me many curious and profound abilities,” Mikonnel said. “You are not the equal of a Giant Wyrm of Flame, and so I am practicing..no, experimenting with a lesser effect to bind you to my will.”

He doesn’t know what its name is, Tessa said. What level is he?

His information is hidden, Lost Alice said, probably thanks to a trick his Consortium handlers gave him. He’s not high level though.

How can you tell? Tessa asked.

He smells weak, Lost Alice said. And he wouldn’t need to be high level to use a binding like the one he caught the [Servant of Fire] in. It’s an environmental effect so it’s drawing power from this place instead of from him.

That’s why the shackles on us are so weak then? Because he’s powering them himself.

I believe so, Lost Alice said. What would the Consortium have given him?

As little as they could to protect their investment, Tessa said. Recalling Pillowcase’s memories had grown easier at some point, a fact with Tessa felt a distant sort of concern about.

“But come, rise my new slaves,” Mikonnel said. “You’ve already met my most loyal servants, the [Lava Drinkers]. Show me the same devotion they do and I may grant you the liberty they possess – to hunt those who oppose me within the areas I have designated for you.”

“How do you control the [Lava Drinkers]?” Lost Alice asked. “There’s no sigils drawn on the walls or floors to hold them like there are here.”

“Oh it’s all the same,” Mikonnel said. “They, like the Great Wyrm of Fire, and you, are all bound to my will through the power of my blood. Given freely and transmuted via unimaginable rituals into the most potent of agents to carry my will.”

“Really?” Lost Alice’s eyes burned with an alien light as her lips caressed the word she spoke.

In a blink, Tessa saw the one word which Mikonnel shouldn’t have used, and in a blink it was over.

***

Rip Shot was terrified out of her mind and it felt good.

“You’re laughing,” Jamal said. “You shouldn’t be laughing.”

“Can’t help it,” Rose said. “This is what Rip Shot was born to do. [Multi-Burst].”

She leaned out from the corner of the building they’d retreated behind and loosed a hail of arrows at the incoming Consortium forces.

The Consortium troops who weren’t obviously inhuman, like the [Metal Mechanoids] and [Clothwork], favored heavy, identity concealing armor. It made shooting them so much easier. For all Rose knew the things inside the armor were squids made out of mucus and toenails. 

Unfortunately, they were well protected mucus toenail squids if so.

“Did that drop any?” Rose asked.

“Nope. Slowed them down though,” Jamal said as he cast a [Torment] spell on them.

Half of [Sky’s Edge] had been overrun but Rose, Jamal, and a few of the defenders were fighting a more successful delaying action than she’d thought would be possible.

To be fair, the arrival of Lady Midnight and Starchild had proven to be a crucial part of that, their healing abilities keeping the other defenders on their feet far longer than they would have managed on their own. 

“Here, this might be of some help,” Mister Pendant said, passing Rip Shot a case of vials.

He was the other reason they’d survived as long as they had. Rose had always thought of NPC shop keepers as little more than window dressing but in this version of the [Forgotten Kingdoms] it turned out that destroying one of their stores left the shop keeper in question more than a little annoyed and entirely willing to disperse his best supplies for free.

Rose had gone through a half dozen of Pendant’s healing potions already and was enjoying the permanent swiftness bonus one of Pendant’s enchantments had given to her bow. The vials were something new though.

“[Oil of Dragon’s Breath]?” she asked, not sure if she was supposed to drink the vial’s contents or throw it at the oncoming troops.

“Yes. For your arrows,” Pendant said. “Be sure to fire those at distant targets though.”

“Do you have any more mana potions?” Jamal asked.

“Yes, and let me draw this on you,” Pendant said, producing a a pen with a tip that glowed like burning steel.

“What’s that going to do?” Jamal asked.

“Give you more magic,” Pendant said. “Normally you could not carry this enchantment, but that is because a normal enchanter does not have my skill.”

“How long will it take?” Rose asked.

“I need one minute,” Pendant said. “No, half that. Now sit still.”

“It’s up to us to keep up the pressure then,” Kammie Anne Do said.

Rose was astounded at how well the players were working together. Something about having a specific enemy to point their efforts toward had given them all the focus and cooperative spirit that they needed.

“See if you can hold our flank down that road,” Rose said. “I’ll get to the roof and make sure they don’t try to dive bomb us again.”

“Sounds good,” Kammie said.

Rose had never done drugs, and after this she was certain she would never need to. Having people listen to her? Having them respect what she said? And follow her plans? In the middle of a crisis when it really mattered? Her body tingled from the tip of her toes to the top of her head. There wasn’t a drug in existence that could match the feeling.

“Stay within line of sight though!” Lady Midnight called out. “I can’t heal you if you go too far.”

“Don’t worry about me,” Rose said. “Stay safe. I’ll come back for healing. We can’t afford to lose you.”

“We can’t afford to lose any of us,” Pete said through Starchild’s voice.

“I thought the plan was we were going to lose all of us and then ghost run off to a hiding spot?” Battler X asked.

“New plan,” Rose said. “Let’s try to survive this. It may not be permanent but dying still sucks.”

“They’re getting more troops into the town every minute,” Battler X said.

“All we need to do is fall back quick enough and buy ourselves room to escape. [Flame Shot],” Rose said, launching an arrow that she’d dipped into the [Oil of Dragon’s Breath].

The fireball blew her off the top of the building she’d climbed up. 

It also flattened the building near the person she’d fired at, as well as caved in most of the two buildings to either side.

Jamal was up and caught her before Rose could hit the ground.

“Nice [Flame Shot],” he said.

“As I said, fire those at distant targets only,” Pendant said.

“Ok, forget about falling back then,” Rose said. “If you’ve got more stuff like that, we can push them back instead!”

“They’ve got a lot more troops than that though,” Jamal said.

“If we can push them back far enough it won’t matter,” Rose said.

“No, I mean they have more troops from the ship that came in. We should have seen them already unless they’re hanging back.”

“Why would they…” Rose trailed off as the same thought occurred to both her and Jamal.

Breathless they turned their gaze to the south.

One thing about having [Tabbywile Eyes] was that they could make out details at far greater distances than Rose’s human eyes could. Details like the army which had landed well south of [Sky’s Edge] and was marching to catch the town’s remaining defenders in a classic pincer move.

Glimmerglass wasn’t out of magic, she wasn’t out of health, but she was out of time. Above her, a projection of the world spun as a disconnected series of colored sparks in the [Astrologos Observatory]. The sparks were supposed to be a pale green, showing peace and stability. A few, on any other day, would have glowed a bright amber, indicating a local crisis or border skirmish.

The sparks hanging above Glimmerglass were a sickening mix of red for city’s like [Eastrun] where fighting continued unabated and purple where there was no fighting any longer because none of the [Fallen Kingdoms] defenders remained on the field.

Looking around the projected globe, Glimmerglass found a few sparks burning with a bright orange light. Those were where their hopes lay. The places where the defenders of the [Fallen Kingdoms] had been able to claim victory.

Then there was the [Astologos Observatory]. It wasn’t marked on the projection. Technically, it wasn’t part of the [Fallen Kingdoms], despite Glimmerglass being able to look out of the window beside her and see the burning plains which stretched away to the destroyed city of [Doom Crag] far to the east.

The city she hadn’t been able to hold.

No one blamed her. Mellisandra, Damnazon, not even Combrell, the goblin [Assassin] who’d been all but kidnapped and forced to join their party, none of them had spoken a harsh word to her. Holding out against the forces the Consortium had thrown against them had been an unreasonable hope.

But it was still one which Glimmerglass found hard to let die.

“You look like you’re mind is far away,” Cambrell said, dropping back from the crowd which had gathered in the observatory. “Looking forward to tomorrow’s worries or back towards [Doom Crag]?”

“A little bit of both,” Glimmerglass said, forcing a smile onto her face. “Mostly just looking for mistakes from there that we can avoid repeating here.”

“Always more fun to make new mistakes,” Cambrell said. “It sounds like we’re going to get paired up again.”

Glimmerglass looked up. She hadn’t been paying careful attention to the buzz of conversation in the room, preferring to wait for the official announcements. Or that was what she told herself. Wallowing in self-pity might have been a more accurate description a snide inner voice suggested. That wasn’t a fair accusation but it was true enough that Glimmerglass kicked herself for succumbing to that mindset when there was so much else she needed to do.

“I thought your party was full?” she asked. “Did someone not make it back?”

She was certain that all of the adventurers who’d been assigned to her guard detail had either made it to the [Heart Fire] with her or had escaped the town without dying at all. Hadn’t they?

“Oh, sorry, no worries there, all of them are still here,” Cambrell said. “We got lucky. I guess for this raid though we’ll be moving in [Alliances].”

For raids and other challenges that were beyond the power of a single party to deal with various other grouping structures existed. Glimmerglass was used to [Alliances] and [Full Raid Groups] but looking at the devastation which blanketed the land left her wondering how those could possibly be enough.

Everywhere she looked, the forces arrayed against them were overwhelming, crushing not only the defenders strength but their hope as well. Even the assemblage who’d gathered at the observatory had been brought together out of a desperate need to do something, or try anything.

“The Consortium’s ships are in range,” Niminay said. “We’re going to start portaling up to them. Our strategy is simple. Treat this like a newly opened dungeon. Everything is an enemy and anything we find can be turned into loot. Hit them hard and get back out before you’re overwhelmed. If you run into something nasty, call for help. These people are used to thinking like a military. Let’s show them how heroes fight.”

***

Tessa fell to one knee, her lungs filled not with blood or air but the claws of a [Lava Drinker]. 

“You’re…you’re starting…to…to mildly annoy me,” she said as she rose to her feet and shoved further into the mass of biting, stabbing, burning monsters in front of her.

The dissociation was gone. She was no more able to passively observe the battle while Pillowcase fought for her than she was able to ignore the pain of her wounds. 

The [Lava Drinker] that had slipped past her shield and speared her through the chest screamed and vomited a stream of molten fire into her face. That should have been the end of Pillowcase. Head immolated. Health dropped to zero. No more fight left.

“[Casting spell: Counterdeath],” Lost Alice finished saying between the time when the [Lava Drinker] inhaled and when its fiery breath exploded outwards.

The [Lava Spew] hit the spell’s shield and burned it away, but not before being neutralized itself.

Tessa felt her [Heart Killer’s Curse] rip the life from [Lava Drinker] and seal the injuries in her chest as she smashed the creature into the horde of its brethren.

“Thanks for the save,” she said, leaping back from the horde rather than exploiting any of six easy openings the [Lava Drinkers] had left for her.

The monsters were eager to kill her, driven by an urge that might as well have been a directive written in code, but they were more than simple pixels controlled by a few lines of logic. Enemies in the game had never shown reluctance towards being hurt. They’d never hesitated, looking for a moment to strike when there would be no danger of reprisal. 

The [Lava Drinkers] weren’t intelligent from what Tessa could see but they were behaving somewhat reasonably for predators, eager to claim their prize but unwilling to suffer debilitating injuries to do so.

If Obby had been standing beside her as a co-tank, and Rip, Matt and the others had been able to unleash their attacks from the back line, Tessa knew they could have handled the entire hoard. 

As it was though both Pillowcase and Alice’s resources were running perilously low.

“Our next retreat will put us in the boss room,” Lisa said. “I don’t see any side passages either.”

“Pushing through here didn’t work,” Tessa said.

“We need to make it work,” Lisa said. “We’re in no shape for a boss battle.”

Tessa knew that would have been true even if they hadn’t encountered the [Lava Drinkers]. Duo’ing a boss was possible but generally only if your equipment was top notch and you were extremely good with your character. 

A [Lava Drinker] knocked her shield aside, but Tessa warded off the other two attackers who followed the first in, swinging her mace with another force to knock them all into a pile before springing back, losing more distance rather than gaining it.

“Wait,” she said. “They’re herding us.”

“Yeah, right to the boss.”

“Since when do trash mobs move you towards the end of the dungeon? They’re supposed to slow the party down.”

“There’s not even supposed to be trashed mobs here,” Lisa said. “This dungeon is supposed to be empty still.”

“What if it is?” Tessa asked.

“Those things would seem to disagree with that idea,” Lisa said.

“No, I mean, what if these weren’t what was supposed to be here. What if the dungeon was empty and then something else moved in.”

“How does that help us?” Lisa asked.

“Because there may not be a boss set up in that room,” Tessa said. “And since we haven’t been attacked from that direction yet I think we can say that there’s no [Lava Drinkers] in there.”

“Probably something worse,” Lisa said. “Do you have all your spells in place? How long can you hold out if I go check?”

“I’m good for at least a minute,” Tessa said. “Go. See what we’re up against. Maybe you’ll find this place’s [Heart Fire].”

“Doubt it, but I’ll check. No dying,” Lisa said and broke her healing spell as she moved.

Tessa felt the continuous stream of vitality peter out and began giving ground rapidly. The only thing that prevented her from making it a full retreat was the need to continue harrying the [Lava Drinkers] so that they wouldn’t decide to commit to simply overrunning her.

With rapid blows from her mace, she discouraged each of the [Lava Drinkers] that tried to leap forward and catch up to her. Swing after swing she drove them back gaining distance from the mass of obsidian bodies until she at last noticed that they weren’t following her anymore.

The [Lava Drinkers] didn’t disperse. They simply paused. Waiting tensed in the passageway of polished bone, unwilling to move past some invisible border outside the center of the spiraled spider’s web.

“Tessa, there’s a boss here, but…you should see this,” Lisa said.

She was standing just outside the edge of bosses room, peering in when Tessa caught up to her. It was a smart spot. The place where an experienced adventurer would stand. Just far enough to be able to see everything in the room, without crossing a threshold which might begin bringing things to life.

Tessa stopped just behind her, keeping an ear towards the horde that didn’t seem to be surging forward.

Yet.

Inside the room a vista awaited which made it spectacularly difficult to keep her attention divided.

“That’s really big,” she said, staring across a cavern with a diameter as large as a football. The path they stood up led down into a maze which resembled a complicated bit of celtic knotwork with walls which were carved out of the same polished bone as the corridors they’d been walking down.

Above the maze a layer of wispy clouds hung, only slightly obscuring the sigil painted in throbbing red across the top of the maze.

None of that was what captured Tessa’s attention though. What she couldn’t take her eyes off was the giant serpent of molten rock which was suspended far above the maze.

From how the [Servant of Fire] writhed, Tessa could see that it was still alive, despite the crimson spears which pierced it through.

“Think that’s what burned the bodies we saw in here?” Lisa asked.

“It looks like it would fit in the tunnels,” Tessa said. “And I can feel the heat its putting out from here.”

“What happened to it?” Lisa asked.

“A trap? Maybe those lances are some kind of defense mechanism for the maze?” Tessa guessed.

“Is that why the [Lava Drinkers] brought us here?” Lisa asked.

“No. They move according to my will,” a man with blemishless skin and a buzzcut said as he stepped from a crimson ripple in space in front of them.

“And who would you be?” Lost Alice asked, her voice lower and echoing with a dark undertone Tessa wasn’t used to hearing in it.

“I am Mikonnel, but you may address me as Supreme Overlord,” Mikonnel said.

“And why would I do that?” Lost Alice asked.

“Because this world will very shortly be mine,” Mikonnel said. “But come in, there’s no use cowering, I’ll find some use for you.”

He gestured and Tessa felt a telekinetic force hurl her forwards, across the threshold of the chamber. As she passed over it, she saw a crimson line at the entrance flare to life and felt shackles form around her wrists and ankles.

Glancing at her status bar she expected to see an endless array of debuffs dragging her capabilities down but the only one which was present was a fairly low tier “rooting” effect which prevented her from moving away from the position where Mikonnel’s telekinetic shove had thrown her.

“A vampire and a ragdoll? What an interesting pair. You’re not from the Consortium are you? They didn’t say they would be sending representatives and it would be unfortunate if they discovered this hideaway.”

“How do you know about the Consortium?” Tessa asked. Memory told her that the [Consortium of Pain] often worked with quislings when ‘opening’ a new world.

“Why who do you think summoned them here?”

Obsidian shatters. When a mace is swung with sufficient force it doesn’t dent obsidian armor. Instead, like a pain of glass, the plates of armor which make up a [Lava Drinker’s] body will explode. Pillowcase found that to be vaguely satisfying. 

What was less pleasing was how the creature’s molten innards clung to the mace’s head as Pillowcase drew the weapon back to fend off another attacker. Target rich environments had their advantages but getting your weapon bound up by one attacker could fatal when you had dozens more around you.

Dozens in total but we only have six foes left in front of us. Tessa felt herself dissociating. It wasn’t against her will though. It was more a matter of stepping back and allowing her instincts and Pillowcase’s inborn experience to handle the moment to moment details of the fight she was engaged in. That left her free to evaluate the battle dispassionately, noting and tracking the number, position and strength of their foes.

Unfortunately the values she had for those were “too many”, “everywhere” and “possibly more than she could handle”.

A [Lava Drinker] jumped over the corpse of its comrade as Pillowcase struggled to hold off another one which had tried to drop from the ceiling onto her. 

She whirled a full power blow with the mace at the new arrivals sparsely defended underside, but three of its feet brushed the blow aside.

On Tessa’s tactical display the [Lava Drinker’s] health dropped only a smidge, The abdomen was a sensitive spot for [Lava Drinkers] – the same as it was on humans – but the creature’s defense had been enough to deflect most of Tessa’s swing.

Its counterattack came with such speed that Pillowcase was only able to avoid it because Tessa had given her “warrior spirit” free rein move as she needed to stay safe.

Well, almost free rein.

Keeping Lisa safe was a higher priority than saving herself.

Tessa didn’t stop to think about that.

There wasn’t time to wonder if she was stepping over a line, or allowing her feelings to taint her reasoning.

A [Lava Drinker] bit into her leg and her health plummeted.

“[Heart Killer’s Curse]”, Pillowcase called, targeting the one which was trying to tear her leg off. The ability lashed out at the monster, ripping back some of the health the creature had stolen from Pillowcase. The ability couldn’t save her life by itself, but it offset enough of the damage that Alice’s health spell was able to repair the rest.

Until another [Lava Drinker] sank its fangs into Pillowcase’s  weapon arm.

They’re level 12. Tessa observed. And Minion class.

It was good news. 

It didn’t mean she or Alice were going to survive though. 

That would have been wildly incredible news. 

Instead it meant that the area they’d fallen into was mirroring the sort of level design the [Broken Horizons] devs typically followed. With level 12 for common mobs like the [Lava Drinkers], it was plausible that a group who’d started at the abandoned farm house and worked their way down through portion of the [Ruins of Heaven’s Grave] which lay beneath it would be capable of taking on the challenges in this next area they could reach.

Pillowcase adjusted her stance, stepping forward into the jaws of a [Lava Drinker] and using her shield to drive it into the bone floor. Another approached but it failed to land a blow before she hammered it back with blow after blow from her mace.

“Another patrol’s incoming!” Lisa called out.

That made five total groups of monsters which had gathered on them.

“Follow me,” Pillowcase said, her voice flat and uninflected. It wasn’t an order as much as a tactical advisement. If Lost Alice chose to do something else, Pillowcase would assume it was because Alice was had noticed something Tessa had missed. Or was pursuing an alternate goal as sometimes happened in battle.

There were too many [Lava Drinkers] for them to fight, and no option of out running the monsters, but that didn’t mean moving away was a lost cause.

Redoubling her offensive cost Pillowcase. Her health dropped into the critical range and stayed there for an agonizing second and a half. Almost an eternity in battle. What her pain bought them however was the position Pillowcase needed.

By slamming one [Lava Drinker] into the wall and crushing another one under her boot, Pillowcase was able to open a path for Alice and herself to step through to the far side of the growing [Lava Drinker] hoard.

Tactical advantage achieved, Pillowcase noted internally, her emotionless voice nonetheless singing with triumph.

“[Casting spell: Counter Death]”, Alice said, wrapping Pillowcase in a protective barrier before racing as far down the tunnel as she could while remaining in spell casting range. 

Pillowcase switched back to a fully defensive stance, giving ground to every attack the horde threw at her. With the corridor clogged with [Lava Drinkers], the ones in the back tried scuttling up the walls and onto the ceiling. Their pounce attacks required Pillowcase to brace carefully, but as long as she was ready for them, the damage was greatly reduced by her shield and the [Lava Drinkers] were easily hurled back into the horde which had gathered, tripping up their fellows and preventing a surge of such attacks from literally burying Pillowcase in enemies.

“[Casting spell: Minor Blood Channel],” Lisa chanted and added, “I don’t think this corridor is going back to the entrance.”

While she was casting her best healing spell, Lost Alice couldn’t move, but she’d run back far enough that Pillowcase’s fighting retreat allowed plenty of time for the healing spell to repair her injuries. They weren’t defeating the [Lava Drinkers] fast enough to win the battle, but they were facing off against superior foes and surviving for far longer than they should have been able to. Despite the terror of an impending death by devouring lava bugs, Tessa felt a fierce surge of pride at the victory each additional second represented.

She wondered if she was losing her mind, but since each moment of survival meant more of the dungeon mapped for later use, Pillowcase found the prospect of inevitably being overrun by the [Lava Drinkers] acceptable. 

When they returned with the rest of their party, the contest would have a very different outcome.

“All of the halls are curving,” Tessa said. “When I try to picture this place in my head it feels like a weird, distorted spider web?”

“And all paths lead towards the big monster in the center. Yeah that fits,” Lisa said.

“Let’s see if we can hang on long enough to find out what it is,” Tessa said.

“The boss has got to be some kind of major flame monster,” Lisa said. “These things are fire based, but they couldn’t have taken out the dead people we’ve seen. Not that quick at least.”

Pillowcase noted that the temperature around them was rising, the further they followed the tunnel.

“We’re definitely heading inwards,” Tessa said. “We could try for another branch?”

“Let’s follow this in to the center,” Lisa said. “The bosses are usually the worst part of these dungeons. If we can get a sense of what its basic attacks are like we’ll know we’ll be up against next time.”

“I’m game,” Tessa said. With her shield, Pillowcase caught a thin stream of a super heated substance which was probably supposed to look like lava despite the two sharing no actual physical properties beyond being exceptionally hot.

With a quick shake of her arm, Pillowcase splashed the liquid material from the shield onto one of the [Lava Drinkers], who ignored its presence.

Ok. Obsidian doesn’t burn, Tessa observed. It wasn’t surprising to find fireproof creatures in the [Sunless Deeps]. Anything which regularly encountered lava and thermal vents tended to live longer if temperature extremes didn’t bother it.

Pillowcase parried, blocked, and fell back further and further as Tessa pondered their best plan of action.

A flight back to the entrance as ghosts would allow them to use the column of falling lava as the teleporter it was so obviously meant to be. Getting back to the demon’s lair wasn’t the end of their troubles though. They would still need to find a [Heart Fire] before the [Hounds of Fate] caught them.

She was blocking out the idea that the hounds might trap them inside the corridors she was fighting in. There was no good answer for that and Pillowcase, at least, was built with enough wisdom to know insolvable problems weren’t worth any worries when there were plenty of others to work on.

Also, maneuvering down the hallway was an exercise in brutality, which was more than enough to keep Tessa was spiraling too far into herself.

Each time she got close to Alice, Alice would break her healing spell and race away before resuming the cast. Those second while Alice ran to max range demanded that Pillowcase react to every attack and have all of her own healing working to offset the endless sea of stabs and burns the skittering bugs assaulted her with. 

“I am so glad you followed me,” Tessa said, as Alice planted her feet and resumed her healing spell. “Which is horrible and selfish, I know.”

“Horrible and selfish was coming down here alone in the first place,” Lisa said. “I’m just glad you didn’t run into trouble before I got here. I was afraid I was going to find Pillowcase torn about and your ghost being gobbled up by the death puppies.”

 “Would have served me right, I suppose,” Tessa said.

“Don’t say that,” Lisa said. “Just. Don’t.”

“Ok,” Tessa said. “Bad time to joke about getting eaten. Though, listen, when I drop run. Don’t try to save me. I know it probably won’t help, but who knows what kind of stuff is down here. Maybe you’ll find something that can eat them for you.”

“Don’t think I’m going to have that chance,” Lisa said. “Those things are pretty fast. Also, unrelated note, I’m running really low on mana.”

“These damn corridors are endless,” Tessa grumbled. “If we can just make it to one more interesting spot we can call it quits and death run back.”

“We’ve got another intersection behind us,” Lisa said. “Or, wait? It might be more than an intersection.”

“Are we at the boss room?” Tessa asked, hope flaring within her that they’d found something truly important in their mapping run.

“I can’t tell from here,” Lisa said. “The lighting’s different in there though and its a lot hotter here than it was where you’re standing. And, wait, I’m getting a call.”

Pillowcase wasn’t sure that waiting was much of an option. The [Lava Drinkers] were driving her back no matter how hard she tried to hold the line against them. Her choices were mostly around how much damage she was willing to suffer to keep the pace slow and and how thin a buffer of health she was willing to risk fighting with.

“The next time we move, go ahead and run out of casting range,” Tessa said after a moment. “I’ll hold out for as long as I can so you’ll have time to make it there and find out what we’ve got to work with.”

“I’m not letting you die,” Lisa said, a new urgency gripping her voice..

“You’re almost out of mana,” Tessa said. “You’re not letting me die. This is the two of us spending our resources as best we can.”

“You’re not a resource! Let me worry about my mana.”

“It’ll be ok,” Tessa said.

“We don’t know that!” Lisa said. “Cease All just called me. The players in the regular zones are getting slaughtered. The Consortium is attacking everywhere! She says they lost Novalux and Grin-Dy. Lost as in their ghosts are gone too. The hounds are getting them all!”

The grief in Lisa’s voice cut through Tessa worse than any of the [Lava Drinkers] had managed too.

“Ok,” she said. “Then we stay together. And we make it out of here. Together.”

“Together.” Lisa echoed, with an iron resolve Tessa wasn’t entirely sure was her own.

When you can’t go back, and you can’t stay where you are, you’ve got to go forward. Pillowcase hated that.

“We’re being herded,” Tessa said, as she retreated away from the scuttling monsters who were still out of sight. She had her shield raised, her mace drawn and no doubt her mind thanks to Pillowcase’s tactical analysis that the monsters generating the red glow could catch them whenever they wanted.

“Towards the level boss?” Lisa asked. She was watching the direction they were moving, since retreating into unknown territory was guaranteed to result in encountering something you weren’t expecting.

“That or a better kill zone,” Tessa said.

“So, we’re in mapping mode then,” Lisa said. “Great. I hate mapping dungeons.”

[Broken Horizons] had changed over the years. Modern dungeons were designed with the entertainment of the players in mind. Venturing into one was meant to take fifteen minutes to an hour to complete. Paths were clearly laid out, puzzles relatively simple to deduce, and a premium placed on never putting the players in a position where they were lost and uncertain what to do next.

That hadn’t been true of the original dungeons though.

The original dungeons hadn’t been focused on entertainment. They’d been been designed as sieves, brutal tests meant to separate the “elite” from the less worthy masses of “noobs”.

When Tessa had joined, [Broken Horizons] had been three years old and just beginning to grow beyond its original adolescent mentality. The developers had learned the hard lesson that their tests were costing them a sizable portion of their playerbase. They’d moved in to more accessible designs but they’d left the old dungeons in the game for those who enjoyed that sort of challenge. There was enough desirable loot in the old dungeons that Tessa had wound up running them each many times before venturing on to newer, and more lucrative, content. She hadn’t anticipated ever being in a similar environment again, but the “real” [Fallen Kingdoms] she found herself in didn’t seem as interested in being a themepark for her enjoyment.

“I remember mapping a whole lot better than I wish I did,” she said, thankful in one sense that, though she’d loathed doing it, she could remember each of the dungeons she’d “mapped” back when that was a requirement to progress at all.

Part of the dealing with the largest dungeons of the old game – misery dungeons as her old guild had called them – was knowing what awaited you. Some of that knowledge was easy to acquire. There were wiki’s and forums which spilled the difficult secrets – thereby largely invalidating the developers “tests” – but there were elements of familiarity which couldn’t be gained by reading web pages. The foremost of which was unlocking the in-game maps for the dungeons.

With teleportation and secret door detection as a critical aspect of navigating the original dungeons, characters who had explored areas of the dungeon were at a significant advantage to ones who were groping around blindly for the first time. 

A group of newbies in a dungeon would not only be forced to travel through it via the longest possible path, missing out on opportunities to skip forward to later areas via unlocked teleportation circles, they would also be unable to even access some of the most lucrative areas until they’d managed to discover the hidden paths which lead to them (which was generally accomplished by walking back and forth in an area until the game decided the character had “noticed an irregularity” and would chose to display the secret door or concealed tunnel so that the player could click on them and proceed forward.

“Mapping runs” were one of the methods lower tier guilds like Tessa’s had used to unlock those telepoint and discover the secret areas since they lacked the offensive might to simply carve a path through dungeon within the allowed time limits (since many of the early dungeons also had time limits for the maximum duration you can spend within one on any given run).

Instead they’d been forced to race through the dungeons, time and again, with monsters hot on their heels, trying to reach new areas or discover new paths before they were inevitably torn to shred. As the party’s healer, Glimmerglass had been one of the last to fall usually, though that only meant that time she drowned in monsters she’d watched as other party members fell and she was helpless to save them.

Tessa had all of the early dungeons fully detailed in no small part because she’d been willing to die hundreds of times with Glimmerglass to reach the odd corners and discover the hidden doors that held each dungeons most useful secrets. In retrospect it seemed like a questionable method of “having fun” but at the time it had seemed completely worth it.

Tessa felt like she might need to show a similar commitment with the dungeon she was in, except that dying a hundred times to map it wasn’t going to be an option. Not with the [Hounds of Fate] in play.

“We’ve passed a lot of branching corridors,” Tessa said. “We might be able to use one of those to break through and get back to the entrance.”

“It’s a plan,” Lisa said. She didn’t have to add that it wasn’t a good plan. Tessa was well aware of that. “We should see as much as we can before we branch off though.”

“That’ll make it harder to get back to a [Heart Fire],” Tessa said. As ghosts they could move fast enough to cover in a few seconds the ground they’d crept down over the course of a few minutes. Tessa wasn’t worried about the distance so much as the presence of the [Hounds of Fate]. 

On the one hand, in [Broken Horizons], the hounds didn’t appear within dungeons. Since the walls constrained the ghosts the same as they did the player’s bodies, the devs didn’t need to implement a system to handle players wandering off course. On the other hand, Tessa knew she wasn’t in the game version of the [Fallen Kingdoms] and if the hounds were here, it was going to be next to impossible to avoid them.

“There wasn’t a [Heart Fire] at the entrance,” Lisa said. “This place might be incomplete, but there should still be one here somewhere. They’re usually one of the first things put in.”

“You’ve seen the early dungeon designs?” Tessa asked.

“The devs have thrown  some of them up on the test servers for special pre-order sneak peeks,” Lisa said. 

“Did they offer anything like that for this one?” Tessa asked, thinking that even if Lisa wasn’t familiar with it, they might be able to reach out to someone in her guild who was or who could look up information on it.”

“Nope,” Lisa said. “I shot a message over to Cease All, but she hadn’t heard about the [Ruins of Heaven’s Grave] either.”

“So either this is all new and unique to this version of the [Fallen Kingdoms], or its based on something the devs weren’t planning to release with the launch at all?” Tessa asked.

“Pretty much,” Lisa said. “It does look like their design though. I mean these hallways and junctions? They don’t seem to serve a natural purpose. They look like the other dungeons were it’s all about channeling the players to interesting fights. So the there should be a [Heart Fire] hear. It would probably be the first quest objective if this was a finished location.”

“We could break and look for it now?” Tessa offered.

“They’re going to chase us and catch us if we do that,” Lisa said, sounding strangely certain.

Almost as though it was Lost Alice who was speaking from experience. 

But Lisa didn’t have a second persona to draw on. She hadn’t made up a backstory for Lost Alice.

Unless a backstory wasn’t what had created Pillowcase?

“That’ll happen no matter what at this point,” Tessa said. “If we run now, we can at least avoid fighting them where they want to fight us. Best case we can take them by surprise.”

“We won’t surprise them,” Lisa said. “They’re predators. They know how to handle prey that tries to flee, and prey that tries to fight back.”

“Do you know what these things are?” Tessa asked.

“No.” Lisa shook her head. “Or yes. I think I do. I just don’t know how. The red light, and the skittering. I’ve seen that before. I’ve heard it. Except I know I haven’t?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Tessa said. “It’s probably like your spellcasting, just something this world gave you.”

It sounded reasonable to Tessa’s ears as she spoke, but a deeper part of her guessed that Lisa’s knowledge of dungeon dwellers came from somewhere, or perhaps someone, else.

“I think they’re [Lava Drinkers],” Lisa said. “They’re a kind of parasite if I’m right. Made out of obsidian and filled with lava. So, easy to break, but doing so is a bad idea.”

“Good to know,” Tessa said, contemplating if the mace in her hand was at all the weapon she wanted to be wielding. “At the next passage, we’ll break and try to find another turn to take us back towards the entrance room. If there’s a [Heart Fire] it shouldn’t be to far from where we came in.”

“Pick a path and I’ll follow you,” Lisa said. “And if this doesn’t work out, stick with me ok? We’ll make it back together more easily than if split up and try to find it alone.”

Tessa knew that wasn’t strictly true, but she had no interest in being alone, as a vulnerable ghost, in what could easily be described as Hell.

The next side passage wasn’t far, but before they reached it, they found more bodies. The burns on them were worse that the first batch, as though whatever had slain them had grown hotter and stronger with each kill. 

Tessa didn’t take time to examine them, though Pillowcase was certain she could determine a fair amount about their attacker if she’d been able to make a careful inspection of the corpses. 

“Ok, run!” Tessa said as she turned and dashed down the corridor to her left.

She couldn’t resist looking back to make sure Lost Alice was following her but that also meant she got to see just how close the [Lava Drinkers] were too.

The obsidian armored things were roughly similar to beetles. If a beetle was the size of a small pony and bled bright, glowing rivulets of orange lava from the seems on its body.

They’d both been right.

Lisa had correctly identified their pursuers and Pillowcase had been been correct in saying they couldn’t be outrun.

What Tessa did managed to do though, was clear the next corner and pull Lost Alice around behind her before the wave of [Lava Drinkers] crashed into them.

At first she expected to be obliterated, like she had been at the farmhouse, but the [Lava Drinkers] tearing mandibles weren’t able to strike past her shield with enough force to penetrate her armor. Or At least not often enough that Lost Alice wasn’t able to keep up with repairing the damage.

Pillowcase swung her mace, shattering the nearest [Lava Drinker’s] armored shell. A jet of molten rock splashed towards Pillowcase but she side stepped it, suffering burns only on her upper arms and chest.

Another swing burst the [Lava Drinker] like a balloon, but Pillowcase had been wise enough to ensure the blow send the create stumbling backwards, which left it to spewing lava on several of its fellows.

Another patrol showed up a few seconds later, after Tessa and the [Lava Drinkers] behind them had exchanged substantial helpings of pain.

“We’re boxed in,” Lisa said.

Of course they were. That had been the [Lava Drinkers] plan all along. Surround and conquer. 

Another group appeared behind the first, as [Lava Drinkers] from all over began to converge on their position.

Tessa wasn’t a broken mess. Or at least Pillowcase’s body wasn’t. The jury was still out on the rest of her.

“I wonder if they forgot to stock this area with mobs?” she asked herself as she crept down a long corridor which seemed to have carved from the bones of some incredibly vast creature.

Her fall from the demon’s lair in the [Ruins of Heaven’s Grave] to the Sunless Deeps had plunged her through a lake of lava and onto an obsidian landing disk which, somehow, hadn’t shattered under the impact. That Pillowcase’s body was also undamaged, Tessa took as a sign that the “fall” was really more of a visual effect than a literal descendant from the floating land of the [High Beyond].

The obsidian disk she arrived on was the only spot of black on the whole subterranean area. Above her head, a swirling vortex of red light leaked down. For all that the droplets of light looked like bits of molten lava dripping from the lake above, Tessa saw the familiar shimmering quality sparkling within them to indicate the presence of an active portal effect.

She could return to the demon’s lair, potentially even without dying.

So that was a good thing.

What would be a better thing, she decided was to complete the mission she’d idiotically jumped into all alone.

Was that you? she asked, trying to distance herself from what she knew was her own foolish impulses.

Yes, Pillowcase replied.

Because, of course, Pillowcase was her.

 I get it, she said and shook her head.

She was delaying because she knew what a phenomenally bad idea exploring on her own was. Even if she’d been a [Rogue] or a [Shadow Dancer] with actual stealth skills, exploring a brand new dungeon was likely to be a death sentence. 

I don’t really want to die. 

On the one hand, admitting that to herself was comforting. The actions she’d been taking over the last several hours had left the matter somewhat in doubt. On the other hand, the honest admission had served to dispel the thick layer of denial she’d been working to build up. 

They’d been lucky with the [Hounds of Fate] so far, but even beyond that there was the issue she’d been refusing to consider deeply.

I died getting here? Didn’t I?

Melting into a shower of light? Streaking across the universe faster than light could follow? Arriving in a new dimension, or plain of existence, or whatever, where the rules of reality worked completely differently, and where she was someone else, or even something else? How was that not an afterlife?

We still hurt, and bleed, Pillowcase said. And love, and grow. We’re more now than we were before, both these two sides of us, and our team. Isn’t that living?

Tessa paused as she continued down one of the hallways which lead out of the arrival chamber.

It is, she said. So what was it I was doing before?

Empty days grinding away on tasks which didn’t matter, for people whose understanding of her began and ended with her employee ID number? Empty nights with no one to come home to because she’d been a terrible girlfriend? 

Was that a life?

“Find anything yet?” Lisa asked over their private channel.

“No sign of mobs here yet, but I’m moving slowly and carefully,” Tessa said. “I’ve got a straight shot back to the entrance if something shows up.”

“Good,” Lisa said. “What’s the landing site like?”

“It’s fun,” Tessa said. “There’s a short period of darkness while you pass through the lava lake and the landing is so fast you’d like it would break every bone in your body, but transport system cancels out all the damage. I think it was down for a while though. There’s big empty pools in the chamber where the lava light was starting to gather. I think it drained away after the demons shot down the portal, but it’s flowing again now that I broke the barrier they had in place.”

“Ok, first, Lava Lake? Second, the lava is flowing into room you’re in?” Lisa sounded less upset than Tessa had guessed she would be. There was also the faint sound of air gusting behind her.

“The lava’s not in this area. You kind of phase though it,” Tessa said. “What’s falling into the room is more like lava-inspired liquid light.”

“Oh, well that’s good,” Lisa said, her voice colored by an odd element of hurried relief.

“Where are you now?” Tessa asked, a suspicion growing in the back of her mind.

“I just landed,” Lisa said.

“Wait, you’re here too? Why? That’s not safe!”

“Oh good, you’re aware that its dangerous down here. Just apparently not aware enough to keep you from jumping in without any of the rest of us!”

The anger Tessa had been expecting to hear came flooding back into Lisa’s voice. If they hadn’t been speaking telepathicallly, Tessa was certain Lisa would have been yelling loudly enough to bring the whole dungeon down on them.

Except Lisa wouldn’t do that.

She was too experienced and too collected to make a rookie mistake like that.

“I’m supposed to keep you safe,” Tessa said. 

“Yeah and can’t do that if you die for real!” Lisa’s anger wasn’t diminishing.

“Better me than any of you,” Tessa said.

“What?”

“It’s my job, isn’t it? The Tank’s gotta take the hits so other people don’t.”

“Come back to the entry. We’re leaving.”

“I can’t,” Tessa said. “We need Yawlorna and her crew on our side and this is the only thing I can think of that’ll convince them to work with us.”

“Congratulations then. You succeeded. They’re working with us now,” Lisa said. “So get back here, or I’m going to drag you back.”

“What do you mean ‘they’re working with us’?”, Tessa asked.

“There’s an attack on [Sky’s Edge],” Lisa said. “They’re going along with our team to check it out and evacuate the people there.”

“What? Why did you call me?”

“Because I knew you would put up a fight,” Lisa said. “I’m heading towards you now.”

“I’m not putting up a fight,” Tessa said. “But there’s another reason we have to make this work.”

“Farming for experience?” Lisa asked.

“No! This could be our way home too!” Tessa said. “Yawlorna said their ship could travel to other worlds. If it can travel to here from their home world, it might be our best shot at traveling back to Earth too.”

“That’s…”

Tessa saw Lost Alice pause as she rounded the corner.

“She did say that, didn’t she?” Lisa asked, her anger cooling as she laid eyes on Pillowcase.

“Yeah, I mean it’s still a long shot, but if it works it could fix everything,” Tessa said. “All the people who really can’t afford to be trapped here? It’s only been about half a day so far of Earth time. If Yawlorna’s ship can get people back then there have to be other ships that could do the same. If the stars aligned, we could get everyone back before any real tragedies happen.”

Lost Alice breathed in and released her breath in a long sigh.

“It was still stupid coming here alone.”

“I know,” Tessa said. “I’m sorry. I saw what needed to happen and I didn’t think what it would mean you and Rip and Matt.”

Lost Alice turned away and wiped her arm across her eyes.

“They’re on the mission to [Sky’s Edge],” she said.

“Rip and Matt? Wait, are they going to get there before the attack arrives?”

“I don’t think so,” Lisa said. “They’re with Obby and Lady Midnight, and they’re supposed to be careful, but you’ve seen Rip.”

“Oh god. She’s totally going to fight them. Maybe we should go back?”

“I wanted to,” Lisa said. “Letting them go seemed insane, but keeping them back would have been so much worse.”

Tessa tried to workout how that could be true. Subjecting the kids to monster attacks was one thing. There was nothing “human” about the monsters they fought, and the only people getting hurt were the ones on their team, who were fine as soon as they reached a [Heart Fire]. Seeing other people die though? People who might not be capable of coming back? And killing people who couldn’t respawn? That was a very different thing.

But Rip would know that. And Matt would too.

“She would have gone anyway,” Tessa said, understanding flowing through her as memories of being fourteen echoed in her mind.

“And she would have felt so betrayed that I didn’t trust her,” Lisa said. “I hate either of them being out there, this is more than any of us were built for dealing with, and they’ve been handling it as well as anyone we’ve met.”

“And better than most,” Tessa said.

“Better than me at least,” Lisa said.

Tessa didn’t bother to try hidden her surprise.

“You weren’t wrong. We do need this to convince Yawlorna’s people,” Lisa said. “And maybe to get home.”

That wasn’t what Lisa had meant, but Tessa could see her healer wasn’t interested in digging into things in that moment.

“This is only meant to be a scouting mission,” Tessa said. “All we need to do is get a sense of what the layout is like down here and what kind of enemies we might be facing. Once we’ve got that, no one will blame us for running back and joining the others.”

“We’re not splitting up,” Lisa said. “And no dying for me. We both get out of here. Okay?”

“I like that plan,” Tessa said, and began moving forward again.

Creeping about in armor wasn’t impossible, but it wasn’t exceptionally easy either. The illumination in the halls of bone seemed to come from everywhere so shadows to hide in were essentially nonexistent. Pillowcase’s leather boots didn’t clatter against the bone floor but the long curving hallways didn’t present many corners to creep up to and peer around, even at the few intersections they passed, where the corridor simply widened out into gently curving walls.

“Times like these make me wish turning into a bat was a racial power I could pick,” Lisa said.

“Times like these make me wish I’d logged in with my [Rogue],” Tessa said. “She was only in the mid 50’s but she’d unlocked the full stealth line of skills.”

“I’ve got one of those too,” Lisa said. “I only made it to 62 with her, and that was mostly because Cease All forced me to party with her when she needed to farm the [Drowned Grotto] for [Star Shells].”

“Oh god I hated that quest!” Tessa said. “That place was just littered with…”

She paused as they came to another, sharper intersection. 

An intersection which wasn’t empty.

“With death bodies,” Lisa said, her attention captured by the pile of corpses the same as Tessa’s had been.

“Zombies?” Tessa asked.

“I hope so,” Lisa said.

“Yeah. Zombies we can deal with.”

Tessa crept forward, mace and shield at the ready for the moment when the corpses lurched to life and decided to eat them. It wasn’t what corpses were supposed to do, but nine times out of ten you could count on them to try for a “surprise” attack.

Then there was the other possibility.

The corpses lay where they were.

The blood around them was long dried out.

The rotting fingers of decay had ravaged the creatures which had once been humanoid, though clearly not human. 

“They died without fighting,” Lisa said, pointing to the weapons they held which were still sheathed.

“They burned,” Tessa said, noting the ashed remains of clothes and the charring on what flesh remained.

“We are not ready to face something that can do this,” Lisa said.

“Probably not,” Tessa said. She turned back to the direction they’d come and saw red light pulsing around the long bend of the corridor.

“Something got behind us,” Lisa said, as Lost Alice gripped her staff tighter.

Tessa heard the sound of skittering legs on the bone floor. And the bone walls. And the bone ceiling.

They’d lost the way back.

Rose wasn’t the team’s leader. No one had elected her and no one would listen to her. Why should they? She was just a noob. Just a low level nobody who was brand new to the world of [Broken Horizons]. Just a kid.

“We’ve gotta get in there.” She didn’t wait to see if anyone would follow her. She knew Jamal would and if the rest did too that would be great, but the call she felt was too strong to be ignored.

The teleport effect had dropped her party on the western side of [Sky’s Edge], where the land began to turn to barren, blasted hills before jutting upwards into the broken mountains which rose so far over head. The remnants of a mystic circle remained at the landing site, fragments of obsidian which crackled with rainbow lightning. If there’d once been a control system it had long since been scavenged or rotted away but the bank of the low hill which separated them from the town was drawn in an even enough curve that it could have been manufactured to contain the circle’s energies.

Rip was up and over the hill before she heard the first response to her declaration.

“What’s our priority here?” Lady Midnight asked.

“We need to get the townsfolk and the adventurers out,” Rose said, speaking as Rip Shot. Or maybe it was Rip who said it? Rose didn’t have the time to pay attention to the divisions in her psyche, but the urge to save people and the calm focus which swept over her felt like they came from a place of experience. 

“It looks like the Consortium portaled troops down to the north of the city,” Obby said. “They’re marching down the road now.”

“Why weren’t they portaled directly into the city?” Starchild asked as they reached the outskirts of [Sky’s Edge].

“They’re using [A7 Transports] for this assault,” Jamal said as Matt. “Those can only open portals slowly, so they have to open them far enough away that the defenders can’t wreck them or set an ambush.”

“How can you tell that?” Illuthiz asked.

“I can see them,” Jamal said, and pointed up to an open patch of sky. “They’re up there, well out of range of standard planetary defense systems.”

Rip reached the back of Mister Pendant’s shop and glanced around quickly, taking in the crowd of people who were racing around in the small town. Glancing up, all she could see in the sky above were stars.

Apparently I’ve got telescopic vision now too, Jamal said on their private channel when he saw her searching for the ships.

Good, if you wind up with any other super powers, use ‘em all, Rose said.

Are we going to fight? Jamal asked.

Yeah, Rip said, experiences Rose had never lived again guiding her. The people here are never going to get out on time and we need to make sure the attackers don’t feel like they’re free to wander away and hunt down the refugees.

Fighting these guys one on one is going to be a challenge and the Consortium will have sent at least a platoon to take this place, Matt said, or Rose guessed it was Matt since she heard the same certainty in Jamal’s voice that she felt from Rip.

If we need to ghost run, we ghost run to the ruins we cleared out, Rip said.

It wasn’t the plan Rose wanted to go with. By preference she would have run to the farm house, but Rip knew that if (or when) they were forced back into a ghostly state they wouldn’t be alone, and if the still breathing people were panicked, she couldn’t imagine their ghosts being any calmer. Especially not with the [Hounds of Fate] nipping at their heels.

In the central square of the town, Rose saw a pair of familiar faces.

“Aiemethia! Zibby!” she called out, getting the attention of the two older players.

“Rip Shot? Matt Painting? What are you two doing here?” Aiemethia asked.

“We need to evacuate the town,” Rose said. “You’ve got an army of Consortium troops coming from the north.”

“Yeah, we’ve seen them,” Aiemethia said. “The first wave of scouts were already through here.”

He gestured to the numerous fires which were burning around the town.

“How tough were they?” Lady Midnight asked.

“Don’t know,” Aiemethia said. “They didn’t stay around long enough for anyone to land a hit on them.”

“That doesn’t mean they’re weak,” Matt said. “A disruptive sorte like that is meant to breed confusion and chaos. From a profit perspective, the scouts are under orders to return without damage to keep the cost of operation as low as possible.”

“That’s not going to make evacuating people any easier,” Starchild said.

“Then we need to get started now!” Rip said. “Aie, Zibby, can you two help with that?”

“Sure, where are we supposed to evac to though?” Aiemethia asked.

“We cleared part of the [Ruins of Heaven’s Grave]. It’s got a [Heart Fire] that should still be set for for our use,” Rip said.

“We’re taking the kids and level 1’s here into a dungeon?” Zibby asked.

“It’s got multiple exits,” Rip said. “If the Consortium tries to chase us in there, we can flee and sic the mobs we haven’t taken care of on them.” 

Zibby sighed. “It’s probably better than putting them up against trained soldiers. Come on, let’s get the kids moving.”

She pulled Aiemethia away towards one of the buildings which was no longer on fire. From the clatter inside it, Rose guessed that it was where the various “young” players had been gathered.

She winced at that. A lot of people probably would have considered her and Jamal “young players”, but after adventuring with Pillowcase and Alice, she couldn’t think of herself like that anymore.

“How long till the Consortium’s forces are here?” she asked.

“No more than a couple of minutes,” Matt said. “They’ll send a sacrificial force in first to probe our defenses and inflict whatever casualties surprise aggression can get them.”

“Then we need to ready for them when they get here,” Rip said. “And we need to get everyone else out by then. Spread out and tell people to run south. We can collect them on the farside of town and cut southwest to stay away from the troops.”

No one argued, and in the press of the moment, Rose didn’t find that surprising. It wasn’t until she found herself running to the hastily assembled barricades to the north with Jamal by her side that she noticed everyone except him had followed her orders.

We need talk to everyone into leaving, she said.

Yeah, that includes the adventurers at the barricade, Jamal said. 

I can handle them, Rose said.

I know you can, Jamal said. I just don’t want to get separated in the fighting.

I was kind of hoping you’d lead the others away.

And leave you alone against the Consortium? Yeah, that’s not happening. If we have to ghost run to the [Heart Fire] then we’re ghost running together.

I love you, Rose said.

Same to you, Jamal said.

When we get out of this, I’ve got to find a nice girl to hook you up with.

I am all in favor of you playing wingman for me, but I’m betting we’re going to have bigger problems for a while than finding me a date.

Aren’t battlefield hookups a thing?  Rose asked.

That’s taking the whole “enemies to lovers” thing a little far isn’t it?

Before Rose could respond, one of the adventurers on the barricades hailed them.

“Hey guys! Reinforcements are here!” Kammie Anne Do shouted.

The seven other people crouched behind the ramshackle pile of carts and broken housing materials looked up, evaluating Rip and Matt with eyes filled with the shards of shattered hopes.

“We’re not,” Rip said. “We’re here to get you out, not to beat back the Consortium.”

“What do you mean?” Battler X asked. “Where can we go?”

“There’s a dungeon area that our team cleared out,” Rip said. “We can retreat to there. It’s much more defensible than this town is.”

“We can’t go into the dungeons around here!” Battler X said. “They’re filled with high level monsters! We’ll get slaughtered and have to come back here anyways.”

“There’s a [Heart Fire] in the dungeon we’re taking you to,” Rip said. “We can respawn there if we need.”

“And the monsters aren’t that bad,” Matt said. “We took on the area we’re going to lead you to with a party of four and made it through to one of the mini-bosses.”

“We’ll never get away though,” Battler X said.

“Not anymore! They’re here!” Kammie said, pointing up the road to where it rose to the top of a hill.

The [Clothworks] in the Consortium’s advance force moved like wraiths, silent except for the unearthly scream of their [Battlecry].

Rose felt a chill spread through her, freezing her down to the marrow of her bones.

“It’s a debuff,” Matt said. “Cleanse it off if you can.”

“[Multishot],” Rip called out. She could feel the debuff disrupting her aim but she loosed her shot anyways, striking two of the oncoming [Clothworks].

Around her the other defenders struggled to respond. Some had collapsed to the road, their strength completely stolen away by the [Battlecry]. Others, like Matt, seemed to be able to shake it off better than Rip had.

“[Casting spell: Lesser Spectral Wounds].” Matt’s spell hit the lead [Clothwork] with enough force to send the [Soldier] tumbling face first into the dirt.

“[Flame Shot].” Rip didn’t waste the opportunity Matt had opened for her, pin cushioning the [Clothwork] to the ground through the head before it could rise.

Rather than dropping still though, the enemy twitched and writhed, agony screaming through each of its movements.

The spectacle distracted Rip enough that when her shoulder blossomed into a sea of pain and fire, she was at a loss for what could have happened.

“What the hell are those!” Battler X hit the ground next to her.

“[Plasma lancers],” Matt said. “We need better cover or more mobility.”

Around them, bolts of light were blasting the barricade into explosive and flaming fragments.

“Go mobile,” Rose said. “I’ll hold them back.”

“You’re down to critical health,” Matt said.

“Not for long,” Lady Midnight said. “[Casting spell: Minor Blood Channel]”

“We got the others on the move,” Starchild said. “Obby is leading them away.”

“How do we get out of here?” Kammie asked.

“As ghosts,” Rip said. “We’ve got to buy them time. Wait, are you still playing from Earth?”

“No,” Battler X said. “We all got killed in the first dungeon we tried.”

“Good,” Rip said, rising back to her feet and peering over the wall of vines Starchild was repeatedly conjuring to reinforce the remnants of the barricades. “We can buy time for the people who aren’t trapped here yet then.”

The [Plasma Lancers] were shredding Starchild’s conjured vines but the concealment they provided let Rip, Matt, and Kammie send back a continuous volley of return fire. More [Battlecries] rang out from the [Clothwork] but Rose felt Rip’s determination rise inside her. Elven hearts touched on eternity, and no supernaturally induced fear was going to sap her strength.

“How the escape going?” she asked on the party channel, without taking her eyes off the incoming advanced force.

“We’re still in town but I think we have everyone,” Obby said. “Some of the adventurers managed to pick up a few levels too. I’ve got them on the flanks to watch for monster attacks.”

“Good. We’ll catch up to you as soon as there’s an opening for us to flee,” Rip said.

“I’d tell you to stay safe, but that’s be a waste wouldn’t it?” Obby asked.

“I don’t think we’ve been in the same zip code as safety in a long time,” Rose said.

“Give ‘em hell then! And Rose, if you ever need me, just give a yell. My real name’s Way, and if you ever call for help, I’ll be there.”

Rose wanted to murder someone. Not anyone in specific, and not the first person she could get her hands on. Just the first person who deserved it that she could find. Fortunately for her, a demon was leading her right towards such an individual. As well as probably a hundred or more similar individuals.

“This is the fastest route to the outerlands,” Illuthiz said. “If we need to retreat, this will not be the path we take to return.”

“Why’s that?” Rose asked, speaking a Rip Shot so that everyone could hear.

“It’s not defensible enough,” Illuthiz said. “My people will seal this passage up once we are through it.”

“That’s good thinking,” Obby said.

They and the rest of Rose’s party were jogging down a wide tunnel which slanted upwards. The black rock floor was carved into long steps, as though meant to aid giant’s three times Rip’s height, but with half the ability to lift their legs. The walls weren’t natural either, being carved with intricate pictograms depicting stylized people and distorted geometric patterns.

If Rose had the time she might have spent it puzzling over the images looking for hidden meanings or clues to some deeper mystery, but time was of the essence, and the images flew past in a blue.

Being at the head of the pack of adventurers left Rose with the odd feeling that she’d wound up in charge after Pillowcase dove into the pit to the [Sunless Deeps] and Lost Alice had stayed behind to bring her home. She brushed that idea aside though. Obby was also at the front along with the demon Illuthiz. If anyone was going to be their leader now, the higher level tank character definitely made the most sense.

“How fast can we get to [Sky’s Edge]?” Rip asked, as Rose started doing the mental math on how much time they would have to convince people to flee to the “safety” of an active dungeon area.

“It depends if the apparatus is working out not,” Illuthiz said. Despite being a demon, she didn’t seem to possess supernatural stamina. Rose guessed that might be because she was a low level demon, but she wondered if it spoke to something more specific too. Illuthiz had been patrolling and seemed to know how to fight, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t also this world’s equivalent of a coach potato, or a bookworm.

“What apparatus?” Lady Midnight asked.

Rose was glad they had a healer along with them, but it already felt weird that it wasn’t Lost Alice filling that role. They hadn’t been together long, Alice, Pillowcase, her and Jamal but they had all died together so that meant something didn’t it?

Rose wasn’t sure. It might have been more a matter that Pillow and Alice took them in, immediately and without question. With that and the things they’d already been through, Rose felt like she could trust Pillow and Alice more than she could usually afford to trust anyone except Jamal.

“Outside the main gates there’s a mystic circle. If I can get the machinery around it to fire up, and if there’s enough ambient mana collected in it, we should be able to teleport just outside of your town,” Illuthiz said.

“I don’t remember seeing any mystic circles outside of [Sky’s Edge],” Lady Midnight said. “Is the destination concealed, or is this a one-way trip?”

Obby chuckled at that.

“It’ll definitely be a one-way trip,” she said. “I mean, when would the developers ever make thing easy on the players, right?”

“I’m afraid she’s right,” Illuthiz said. “When we experimented with the portal, we did so at night and still were almost discovered. If there’s a return portal, it’s not near the arrival spot. Our warriors had to return through the path which I will lead you back once we are ready to flee the city.”

“Not all of us will be able to join you on that path,” Starchild said. “As your [Commander] said, we cannot bring the residents of [Sky’s Edge] back to your abode.”

“We’ll need to send someone back,” Rip said. “Just so Lost Alice doesn’t wind up having to play the telephone game to relay everything we see and decide to do.”

“We’re the best setup for that,” Pete said through Starchild’s voice. “If you four can lead the people in town to the ruins you’ll have all the team roles covered, and Starchild can handle any solo encounters we run into following Illuthiz back to her home.”

“There’s no guarantee encounters you run into will be solo encounters,” Lady Midnight said. “Let’s not plan on breaking up at all until we know what we’re facing.”

Rose saw the wisdom in that and that had another flash of insight from Rip.

“Illuthiz, would you be willing to follow us to the part of the dungeon we’re planning to relocate the people from [Sky’s Edge] to?” she asked. “We don’t need or want that to be a secret from your people.”

That’s going to be more dangerous for her though, Jamal said, speaking on their private chat channel.

 I know, and I think she does too, it’s why I’m asking now rather that later, Rose said.

“I will evaluate the situation when we arrive in your town as well,” Illuthiz said. “I do not rule out that course of action yet though.”

That’s about the best we could have hope for, Rose said to Jamal.

They came to the end of the tunnel where two doors stood ajar. From their scale and the emptiness of the cavernous space at the end of the tunnel, Rose felt like she was standing in an aircraft hanger. Through the door a thin crescent of moonlight bathed the air in a silvery light with enough illumination that Rose could see the squad of a half dozen demons who were camped near the entrance.

“Are they coming with us?” she asked.

“No. They will remain here to guard this approach to our base,” Illuthiz said. “They will not let anyone back in until our [Commander] gives her approval.”

“Not even you?” Jamal asked as Matt Painting. 

“Especially not me,” Illuthiz said.

Rose began to raise her hand in confusion, but stopped.

Yawlorna ordered Illuthiz to return via another route, Rip said, piecing together the reason behind Illuthiz’s words, The only reason Illuthiz would be at this door would be if she was a fake or was being coerced.

Rose savored the words as they rolled around her mind. She knew Rip was right. She knew she was right. For everything else that was wrong and terrifying about what had happened to her and Jamal, there was something intoxicating about getting to actually be someone like Rip.

As her thoughts and Rip’s blended together…except it wasn’t even really a blending. Rip was her. She was Rip. As much as she was Rose. It didn’t feel like two different paints swirling together to make a new color. It felt like those colors had always been there, voiceless, inside her and that living in Rip’s body was bringing an awareness of each side to the other.

“If they see anyone coming towards the gate who’s not wearing Consortium insignia, can you have those guards give you a shout?” Rose asked. “If it’s other players, and you can give us their names, we should be able to contact them and tell them where to go. Otherwise they might try to bash the doors down and that’s not going to do anyone any good.”

“Would they be able to?” Illuthiz asked.

“No, but that’s never stopped players from trying anything before,” Obby said.

“I’ll let them know then,” Illuthiz said.

Rose saw her hail the guard squad as they got closer while gesturing for the rest of them to continue on. Since neither Rose nor anyone else in the party was interested in wasting time, they passed through the ten-foot wide “narrow gap” between the two doors without slowing their jogging pace at all.

Outside the tunnel, the brilliant panoply of stars and nebula and stellar nurseries in all colors and brightnesses spread over their heads, while on the group a dark cluster of machines sat around a circle which occasionally emitted purple and blue sparks.

Beside the mystic circle, and up to the main gates, ran a road wide and flat enough to serve as a modern highway to Rose’s eyes. 

The [High Beyond] was, in essence a floating rock. It’s features were irregular, with [Star’s Edge] sitting near to one of the edges which formed a sheer cliff  to drop to the [Fallen Kingdoms] far below. It was an odd placement but not a particularly questionable one given the [High Beyond’s] available geography. 

The exit from the demon’s base though spoke to a different chapter of the [High Beyond’s] history. The wide road was clearly intended to run for miles as a major thoroughfare, perhaps through many lands. 

And perhaps it once had.

Rose looked out over it though and found it shattered less than a quarter mile from the gate. Below it’s jagged edge lay the same precipice as the one beyond [Sky’s Edge].

Something terrible had once happened here and Rose found her exhilaration at being Rip muted in the face of the certainty that something terrible was going to happen again. 

“I can get this working,” Jamal said as Matt Painting to the group.

“You can?” Lady Midnight asked.

“Caster class [Artifax] in the Consortium are given a lot of basic arcane knowledge when they’re constructed,” Jamal said. “I’m not a full mechanic or anything but this system was designed to pretty simple I think.”

“It won’t work if there hasn’t been enough mana collected by its power grid,” Illuthiz said, catching up to them.

“That’s not going to be a problem,” Jamal said. “There’s a main feed line for it here.” He held up a cable which ran from the machinery for a few dozen yards to the stone wall of the cliff  they would have to scale if the mystic circle didn’t work.

“We think that must have been severed,” Illuthiz said. “We’ve never been able to detect a mana flow from it.”

“I’m pretty sure you’re right,” Jamal said. “I’m not seeing any active mana passing through it at the moment.”

You can see magic? Rose asked.

Yeah, I guess so? Jamal said. I think this body can do a lot of things. And I’m having these weird flashes.

What kind of flashes? Rose asked. Like memories? Or like new insights?

I don’t know, Jamal said, I don’t want to really look at them too much.

Why? What’s wrong with them? Rose asked.

I shouldn’t know this stuff, Jamal said.

Wait, why not?

Why should I? I mean, when did I learn how to cast spells for real? Or what a [Caustic Coercive Mana Flow] was? Or how to talk to demons?

That’s all stuff Matt knows though right?

But Matt’s not real. It’s just me. Isn’t it? I mean, I’m still real right? I’m still me?

Jamal Michael Clark. How long have I known you? Since we were too little to know our own names, right? Do you think some imposter could fool me? Do you think I don’t know my best friend in the whole world when I see him? Do you think putting on a metal body and learning a few new skills could possibly turn you into someone who wasn’t still the best guy I have ever known?

Okay, okay, don’t go getting all sappy on me, Jamal said.

I’ll get as sappy as I need to, Rose said. Seriously, I know this is different. We’re different. But we’re still ourselves. Or maybe ourselves and a bit more than that?

Like we’re older? Yeah, I guess I could work with that.

Good. Cause you’ve got work to do, and we’ve got people to save!

Rose saw Matt’s head shake a bit as Jamal cleared out his doubts.

“There’s no mana in here now, but it’s still a viable conduit to pass power into the [Transit Generator],” Jamal said.

“Sounds like it’s time for us to all get in the circle then,” Obby said.

The small party clustered together in the center of the circle leaving enough room that several dozen more bodies could have joined them if anyone else was coming.

It’s just us, Rose thought and watched as Jamal released the energy of a partially cast spell to power up the teleportation effect.

Motes of blue light rose from the circle and began to swirl around them, flaring and changing until a rainbow engulfed them and then vanished, leaving them at the outskirts of [Sky’s Edge].

Which was burning.

Tessa fell, the air around her burning as she passed from a mystical land high above the world, to the [Sunless Deeps] far below it. Her day wasn’t going quite how she’d expected it to, but it was still better than the one most of the rest of the world was experiencing.

“Are you goddamn insane!” Lisa didn’t limit her question to their private channel. She didn’t even limit it to the party only channel.

“The plasma sheath around me suggests the answer is probably yes,” Tessa said. She had to respond on their party’s channel since speaking aloud was effectively impossible with the wind whipping by her at mach speeds.

Shouldn’t we be, you know, incinerated by this? she wondered to herself.

The pit we leapt into seems to have been a transit portal, Pillowcase replied. I don’t think we’re passing through this space in a purely physical manner.

Then why are we covered in fire? Tessa asked, finding that she wasn’t as emotionally invested in the question as she’d imagined she would be.

“What the hell! We can’t see your health bar while you’re zoning. What is happening!” Lisa sounded ready to leap into the pit after Tessa but cooler heads were likely holding her back.

“I’m ok,” Tessa said. “There’s some kind of energy field around me, so the fire’s not roasting me. If this was still the game, I’d say the devs had setup a really nice light show for the return to the regular zones, but I think this might be something new. I mean, normally we can’t talk while zoning right?”

“You had better survive this so I can kill you myself,” Lisa said.

“Thanks, I love you too,” Tessa said. She’d meant the words as a sarcastic quip but instantly regretted letting them tumble out of her lips. 

They weren’t true of course. 

She just had a little crush.

And, the sarcasm would make it clear it was a joke.

Wouldn’t it?

Wasn’t it?

Tessa crashed into a lake of lava and then into something mercifully hard and unyielding.

***

Lisa had to check that she wasn’t breathing literal streams of fire when she exhaled.

Of all the stupid…

Splitting up the party was monumentally idiotic. Nothing was more likely to guarantee a total party kill than that, except, maybe, for jumping into a part of the dungeon that contained enemies of unknown level, ability, and aggressiveness.

How the hell could she!

People were edging slowly away from her. It didn’t bother Lisa. People should move away from bombs that were ready to explode.

Though if she was being fair – which she did not at all feel like being – she could kind of see what Tessa had been thinking.

“What has your leader done?” Yawlorna asked, rising to her full demonic height in concern.

“Jumped into the pit,” Rip said, pointing out the obvious, and buying time for Lisa to put her head together.

“She is suicidal?” Yawlorna asked.

Probably! Lisa thought but kept that observation to herself.

“She’s doing reconnaissance,” she answered as Lost Alice. “It’s risky but less so for her than if we all went.”

Less risky. The words felt like poison in her mouth. She could die. For real. Her heart felt like a ball of barbwire emotions. How could she leave?

Lisa forced herself to breathe. Technically as a vampire she didn’t need to. Sort of. She couldn’t remember all of the lore on [Broken Horizons] various species of vampire, but the act of forcing air in and out of her lungs in slow, deliberate breaths, seemed to produce the same calming effect that it did with her human body.

“We have not agreed to anything yet though,” Yawlorna said, the tension around her eyes radiating down into stiff shoulders and clenched fists.

“She knows you don’t trust us,” Obby said. “This is her giving you a reason to.”

“Proof by deeds not words,” Matt said, nodding in agreement.

“Maybe we should join her?” Rip asked.

“No,” Lisa said. “If we all went and what’s down there is too high level for us, we’d have even less chance to escaping without being noticed.”

“So, we’re just going to sit around here and wait for her to get back?” Rip asked, and for a moment Lisa wanted to smack her.

Then she noticed how Rip was almost hovering over her chair, muscles tensed with barely restrained nervous energy, eyes locked on the pit in the center of the room. She was ready, eager even, to follow Pillowcase to hell. Matt was ready too. One word and the two of them would be over the side. Just like Lisa would be. They were in this together.

“We can do better than that,” Lisa said and turned her gaze to Yawlorna. “You’ve got monster problems up here too, right? We’ll clean those up while Pillowcase scouts.”

“Why would you do this?” Yawlorna asked, not hiding her look of bafflement.

“Because Pillowcase is right,” Lisa said, hating that it was true, but knowing that if they didn’t commit to the plan fully it could all fall apart. “We’re better off if we work together. The Consortium has attacked this world once already, but that was just a small taste of what they’re going to send against us.”

“It was?” Rip asked on the private party channel.

“The attack in the opening cinematic for the expansion? That was a teaser for the new events that were supposed to come along,” Lisa said.

“Didn’t the GM we talked to say they’d turned off the game events though?” Matt asked.

“That’s probably not going to stop the Consortium who are here from launching attacks on their own,” Obby said.

“Why wouldn’t they get rid of the Consortium entirely if they were turning off the events?” Lady Midnight asked.

“Probably for the same reason they didn’t remove the rest of the mobs from the game,” Rip said. “Didn’t they lose a GM when he tried to use his admin powers?”

“This is so messed up,” Lady Midnight said.

“Welcome to life, virtual or otherwise,” Lisa said.

“We can’t fight the Consortium for you,” Yawlorna said. “We couldn’t before we came here and there are even fewer of us now.”

“We don’t need you to fight the Consortium,” Starchild said. “Not directly.”

“Depending what sort of troops they send, we probably can’t fight them either,” Matt said and looked over to Rip. “Remember the [Wraithwings]?”

“Yeah, we’ve already run into an attack that we couldn’t begin to handle,” Rip said.

“Then what do you want from us?” Yawlorna said.

“Intelligence,” Lisa said. “Tell us what you know about the [Ruins of Heaven’s Grave]. Share what you learn going forward, and let us know if you do see any Consortium forces dropping in. No one said they’ll attack openly again. They could just as easily send in secret strike teams to take out the adventuring parties who opposed them last time.”

Lisa knew they’d be better off integrating the demons in with the adventurers who were based out of [Sky’s Edge] but that would take a leap of faith neither side seemed ready to make.

Yawlorna turned to confer with Balegritz, Hermeziz and Illuthiz. 

“Doing some monster clearing here may be good for us,” Pete said on the private team chat. “We can get back to leveling while we wait for Pillowcase to return.”

“That’s true,” Obby said. “The creatures here shouldn’t be too dangerous for us. Not if the demons are able to hold them off.”

Lisa had volunteered the idea mostly because it was what they’d talked about earlier. The more she thought about it though, the less she wanted to try fighting without her tank. As a bigger group they had more firepower to take down monsters with, and Obby was, in theory at least, a stronger tank than Pillowcase, but in practice those factors tended to matter less than having teammates you could rely on, and the party, as it stood, was split 50/50 between people she knew and people she hadn’t fought with yet.

She was just about to suggest they split into two smaller teams when Illuthiz broke away from the huddled conference the senior demons were in.

“So they’re still debating but I’m guessing we’re out of time for that,” she said, moving to stand in front of Lost Alice as though Lisa was the new leader of the party.

“What’s happened?” Lisa asked, her cold, undead stomache turning at the thought of Tessa having been eaten by some new horror that would rise up and consume them all.

“Your town,” Illuthiz said. “It’s under attack.”

Lisa’s thoughts whipped around hard enough to give her a moment of mental whiplash.

My town? The Earth’s under attack now too? What the hell am I supposed to do about that?

“[Sky’s Edge]?” Obby asked, and the dominoes began to fall into place for Lisa as her thoughts shifted in the correct direction.

“Yes. There’s fighting there now. It looks like the town threw up some barricades and there’s some people like you there,” Illuthiz said.

“Who or what are they fighting?” Lisa asked, cursing because she was sure she could guess the answer.

“We’re not sure,” Illuthiz said. “Our [Far Seer] can scry the town, but whatever’s attacking it is shield from their remote eyes.”

“It’s the Consortium,” Matt said without a hint of uncertainty.

“Their troops have cloaking devices?” Rip asked.

“Sort of,” Matt said. “Each [Squad Leader] carries an [Uplink Beacon]. It allows the Consortium’s [Central Command] to monitor the status of the units in real time and it broadcasts a disruption wave to make remote tracking of them by others impossible.”

“Not impossible,” Obby said. “That’s the propaganda they feed to their grunts. It’s just more difficult. There’s plenty of [Seers] in the [Fallen Kingdoms] who can see them remotely just fine.”

“How do you know this?” Yawlorna asked.

“Matt Painting, this body, it was manufactured by the Consortium,” Matt said. “When I claimed it, I got all the data they built into it.”

Illuthiz looked confused.

“I know what this unit used to know,” Matt said.

“Even its loyalty to its masters?” Illuthiz asked.

“I remember that clearly,” Matt said. “Fun fact, the spirit that originally used to animate this body? They absolutely hated their ‘masters’. The Consortium had to rope them in with chains of lightning to ensure the spirit did what they wanted. The spirit was in more or less constant pain, which is why [Metal Mechanoids] are so willing to serve as shock troops and fight to the death. So, yeah, I remember hating the Consortium with ever tiny fiber of my being, and I’m pretty sure if I don’t try real hard, I’m going to spell-murder every last one of them I see, even though I’ve never met one them before.”

Lisa heard the passionate sincerity in Matt’s words and felt her heart freeze in a new direction. Dragging kids into a situation where violence was the only answer wasn’t going to do anything good for them, no matter how justified it might be. She knew she should do everything she could to make sure Matt never came near the Consortium’s troops. Except that wasn’t going to be an option.

The people in [Sky’s Edge] needed them. 

“Urrrggh!” Lisa stiffled the curse she want to release, sublimating it into a groan of pure frustration. “We need to get them out of there.”

“We do?” Lady Midnight asked.

“Yeah, we do,” Matt said. “They’re all low level, I mean even lower than us.”

“Oh yeah, and some of them haven’t been sucked in here yet,” Rip said. “Wait, is the [Heart Fire] chapel safe from an invasion?”

“Not necessarily,” Obby said. “It’s warded against hostile spirits, so the [Hounds of Fate] can’t bother people or spirits near it, but on a physical level it only has whatever defenses the people around it can muster.”

“Dammit. That’s why they’re attacking [Sky’s Edge] first. It’s the one [Heart Fire] that shows up on the map by default,” Lisa said.

“They are trying to cut off our ability to respawn,” Starchild said. “Which means they will eventually come for all of the cities where [Heart Fire] chapels can be found.”

“I don’t know if we can help the other cities here in the [High Beyond], we haven’t managed to make it to any of them yet,” Lady Midnight said.

“If the Consortium is attacking, they won’t be safe either,” Matt said. “But there is a place the Consortium won’t think to look.”

He gestured to the area around them.

“You will bring the Consortium to us if you lead the overland people here,” Yawlorna said.

“We don’t have to lead them here,” Lisa said. “We can bring them into the dungeon we’ve already cleared. If the Consortium tries to chase us into it, they’ll either be fighting on our terms or they’ll be fighting the monsters we avoided.”

“If the Consortium is already attacking the town, it’s going to be a fight to get anyone out of there,” Obby said, a hopeful note rising in her voice.

“Matt, what kind of troops would the Consortium send after a small town like [Sky’s Edge] and, Illuthiz is it?, are the defenders holding out or have they been overrun already?” Lisa asked.

“I don’t know exactly what troops would be there,” Matt said. “Standard Consortium doctrine is to send in troops one to three grades above the rank of suspect hostiles based on the value of the target.”

“What does that translate to in levels?” Rip asked.

“Five to fifteen levels above the defenders,” Obby said. “Usually with a two to one number advantage and long range support if possible. Some [Commanders] will go below that to save costs though.”

“From what our [Far Seer] said, it looked like things had stalemated but there are whispers in the air which suggest more forces are inbound,” Illuthiz said.

Lisa sighed. She cast a glance to the pit.

If we leave…what happens if…

She couldn’t think about that.

But she’s all alone.

“If we’re going to go, it must be now,” Starchild said.

“I’m ready,” Rip said.

“Same here,” Matt said.

“We can climb back up to the farm, unless there’s a faster exit you can show us?” Lisa asked.

“We can do this,” Yawlorna said. “And we will send someone with you to determine if it truly is the Consortium who is attacking.”

“Good,” said Rip. “But we’re not all going.”

“What do you mean?” Yawlorna asked.

“She’s staying,” Rip said, pointing to Lost Alice.

“No. I can’t,” Lisa said, looking around for support but everyone else in her party seemed to be nodding along with Rip.

“You have to,” Rip said, reaching out for Alice’s hand. “You need to make sure she comes back to us.”