The giant dancing scorpion burst out of the wall, and looked at the two newcomers with interest.

“[By the Words] [fiddling] [snacks],” Cazza shrieked, while the Chosen One instantly drew his Sacred Sword.

“It’s okay!” Qube shouted, throwing up her hand to stay the two men. “This Boss is our friend!”

“Your friend?” The Dev stared at Qube blankly. “How the [fiddle] is the Light Temple Boss your friend?”

“Sewer Bard helped!” Qube beamed. The Chosen One turned to the Bard, sword still drawn.

“Did he now?” he asked, a strange undercurrent to his words. “Did you happen to use that spell I asked you not to?”

“Of course not, Noble Patron!” Sewer Bard said, sounding genuinely offended. “This was a different spell!”

“Oh,” the Chosen One said, lowering the point of his sword. “Like an animal taming one? That explains the scarabs, but not the mummies. Which was super creepy, by the way, walking into a room with a bunch of those just standing about.”

“Di’ he have an animal tamin’ one?” Cazza asked. “I don’ remember.”

“You wouldn’t remember anything at the moment,” the Chosen One said, diverted from his questioning by his fellow otherworldly person.

“True, but I’d ‘member makin’ a giant [fiddling] scorpion you could turn friendly,” the Dev said, quite reasonably from Qube’s perspective.

“Did you make the scorpion?” she asked, curious. The Dev attempted, and failed, to straighten himself upright.

“Tha’s right!” he said proudly. “I made most of the enemies you fight! An’ I did all the Bosses!”

“You made them?” Qube asked, eyes sparkling in admiration. The Dev preened.

“Yeah,” he said. “‘S more of a side thing, though, cuz originally I was supposed to be dealin’ with how to integrate—” the Dev broke off and squinted at Qube. “‘m not supposed to tell you.”

The idea that all of the enemies they’d made were nothing more than a side thing was a terrifying notion. Just how powerful was the almost definitely drunk being swaying before her? He pointed at her, and she flinched. The Chosen One noticed her movement.

“Youse was gonna get me to tell you things. You’re sneaky.”

“Cazza,” the Hero said warningly.

“Anyway,” the Dev continued, waving at the patiently waiting scorpion, “this fella is supposed to be in a sandnado, an’ you gotta get rid of tha’, and then he tunnels like a tricky little [bit] and you gotta get on his back and stabbity stab stab.” The Dev mimed violently thrusting a sword down. The scorpion backed away from him, and Squiggles hissed. The Dev pointed at Squiggles.

“An’ tha’ one,” he said, before squinting even harder. “Tha’ one —”

“So you managed to befriend the Boss,” the Chosen One said, looking at Qube with a lopsided smile. “Of course you did.”

“An’ we woulda seen it if you’d jus’ let me —”

“Cazza, I swear to [Golden Prophecy], if you don’t stop talking —”

Qube had never seen the Chosen One interact with someone from his world before. As the two of them devolved into yelling at each other about “actually trying to do the right thing”, and “being a boring piece of [snacks],” she reflected that, on the whole, she shouldn’t have been surprised at how it was going.

It was nice to know that it wasn’t just their world that the Chosen One treated lightly. He didn’t even treat the Devs with any respect.

“I’d remember tha’!” the Dev yelled at the Saviour of all Human and Human-Adjacent Beings.

“You barely remember to wear pants!” the Hero shouted back at one of the creators of their world.

Although, given the sample of Devs she’d experienced, it wouldn’t surprise her to find out that the Chosen One was considered fairly normal by his peers.

The argument was interrupted as the scorpion tapped the floor of the chamber and looked at the party with an inquisitive tilt to its head. Once it was sure it had their attention, it tapped again more insistently.

“Cazza, did you lot put the tomb underneath the Boss room?” Qube heard the Chosen One ask the Dev in an undertone. It was strange, but something about the way he spoke was different when he was addressing the Cazza Dev. It was almost as if his accent shifted slightly, to more closely match the Dev’s.

She didn’t like it. It made it seem like her Chosen One was a different Chosen One around other people. Which, logically, yes, he had a whole other life in the realm of the Devs that she knew nothing about (Did he have parents? Siblings? Did he have a name? He must have a name, but she … didn’t want to know it. Not yet.) but it still made her feel oddly tense.

The scorpion cracked open the floor, and this time the tinkly, sparkly music Qube could hear got distinctly louder. Approaching the newly-formed hole, she couldn’t see anything different, but the closer she got the louder the music was. The scorpion, pleased that she seemed to be getting the message, suddenly launched itself full speed into the ground, forcing it wide open.

The Chosen One followed her, then frowned as he tilted his head to listen.

“Wait, were you guys seriously that lazy?” he asked the Cazza Dev. The Dev just shrugged and grinned at him. The Hero sighed.

Taking hold of her courage, Qube turned to the others.

“Well,” she said bravely, “as the leader of this room, I say we follow our new friend, and go to the pharaoh’s tomb!” The others all nodded, and gathered behind her, ready to follow. Sucking in a deep breath, Qube jumped.

“Wait a min’,” she heard the Cazza Dev say, just as she jumped, “what did she mean leader?”

Then the world was filled with sparkles.

---

Qube stepped out of the portal, and into another sandstone room. This one was like a smaller version of the reversed pyramid from outside, or a funnel. There was an upside-down triangle door carved into the wall, with a set of scales in front of it. On one side of the scales was a golden crown. On the other there was a curved dagger.

On the dagger scale, the words blood to reinforce were carved, while on the other was written gold to break.

“You know, just in case they didn’t get the message from the giant poem in the other place,” the Chosen One said with a snort as he walked out of the portal next to Qube. Cazza was slightly behind him, but had started to look a little ill.

“Well, I suppose it’s nice of them to make sure no one was uncertain,” Qube said, but without any real conviction. She had this terrible feeling of pressure in the back of her mind as she tried to grapple with what was being asked of them.

“Would you like me to help you?” she asked the Cazza Dev as the other companions all stepped out of the portal. “You seem unwell,” she added.

The Cazza Dev shook his head, then covered his mouth.

“Intriguing,” Definitely Bad Guy said, turning and examining the teleportation circle they’d just come through. “It appears that the portals, or at the very least this one, was located underneath the Boss’s main domain. This potentially means that, as long as we manage to subdue whatever Bosses we come across in the future, we should be able to access the portals if we merely choose to dig.”

“A pity it meant we could not receive the Bestowals,” Sewer Bard lamented.

“A worthy sacrifice, to ensure such a sweet creature’s life,” Sexy Screamy Spider Lady said chastisingly. Qube noticed that the scorpion hadn’t joined them in this new room.

“Wait, wha’s a sweet creature?” the Cazza Dev asked, bewildered, taking his hand away from his mouth. “Is it you?” he asked Sexy Screamy Spider Lady.

The Hunter looked down at the Dev.

“Do you want me to be… sweet?” she asked in a breathy voice. The Dev seemed to be struggling to keep his eyes open.

“Never been with a spider before,” he said, peering up at her. Sexy Screamy Spider Lady smiled. Or, rather, her fangs became visible.

The Chosen One rolled his eyes, and gestured towards the Save Point.

“You should probably go sleep it off,” he said to Cazza.

“Wha’, you no longer desire my company?” Cazza said in mock hurt, placing his hand against his heart in a move so similar to Sewer Bard that Qube caught her breath. Out of the corner of her eye she saw that Sewer Bard had also witnessed the move.

“If I may be so bold,” the Bard said, stepping forward and giving the Dev a short bow. “It would bring me great pleasure if you could spare the time to return to our world when you are feeling more the thing.”

The Cazza Dev dropped his pose, and gave the Bard a distracted smile.

“No worries,” he said vaguely. “By the way, how long you been in?” he asked the Chosen One. “Forgot to check.”

“Go to sleep, Cazza,” the Chosen One said firmly. Cazza looked at the Fighter out of the side of his eye, a mixture of clumsiness and cunning that was very strange to see on Warwick’s face.

“Imma go check,” he said.

“Don’t you dare—” the Chosen One said angrily.

The Dev touched the Save Point, and was gone. The Chosen One seemed to flicker in place for a moment, before stabilising himself. Once he was solid, Qube noticed that he looked a lot healthier than he had a moment before. Like he’d actually had a good night’s rest.

“My apologies if I spoke out of turn,” Sewer Bard said diplomatically to the Chosen One.

“Huh? When? Oh, telling Cazza to come back later on. No, that was good thinking,” he said to Sewer Bard, much to the other man’s obvious surprise. “Cazza might be a bit odd, but there’s no one better to have on your side. Would probably be a good idea for Caz to meet you all while at least somewhat sober, too.”

“Oh,” Sewer Bard said, looking a little lost. It was like he’d braced himself for an argument, only to find there was none.

The Chosen One absentmindedly flicked a hand through the Save Point.

“Are you feeling better for your rest?” Qube asked, worriedly. Now that the Chosen One and the Dev were no longer in danger of murdering their new friend, Qube felt her emotions re-engage. A part of her wanted to rush over and check on him, and tell him how much she’d missed him. But the feeling had no real power behind it. It was like someone was pulling a rope that used to be connected to a bell, but had frayed. She felt the faintest chime, but no real call.

“I didn’t fall asleep,” the Chosen One said defensively. “And I was following you guys for a while with Cazza. Trying to get them to keep quiet was a task and a half, believe you me.”

“I’m glad you didn’t fall asleep!” Qube said brightly. “Falling asleep outside of your bed can lead to bad dreams!”

The Chosen One looked at her like she’d grown another head, before a lever seemed to switch in his mind.

“Oh,” he said, “yeah, they’d want you to stop people just trying to sleep anywhere. Apparently, even just resting looked super weird. Although why Caz thinks they can boot me just because ooo there’s a time limit for a reason, yeah, there’s a rule against using it while drunk too, but whatever.” Before Qube could ask any more questions, the Chosen One clapped his hands together and looked out at the party.

“So,” he asked conversationally, “anyone care to explain how you managed to stop all the mobs from aggroing?”

Qube rapidly blinked as she tried to parse the Hero’s meaning.

“Do you mean how we managed to make them non-aggressive?” she ventured.

“Yeah, sorry,” the Chosen One said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Words, yup, should probably use those.”

“It is a new spell,” Definitely Bad Guy said simply.

“Is it a mind control one, like the [Siren Song]?” the Chosen One asked, seemingly casually. However, his whole body tensed.

“No,” Sewer Bard said, smoothly stepping between the Hero and the Mage. “It’s more akin to an illusion or compulsion removal spell. It heals whatever part of the person has been damaged in order to make them act against their own will. In fact, it was only by adding in our fair Healer — ah, I mean our woman of worth’s, [Heal] ability that we were able to befriend the scorpion.”

“Oh, sweet!” the Chosen One said, relaxing. “So it’s kinda like an anti-[Siren’s Song]. I like that! Nice work!”

Both Definitely Bad Guy and Sewer Bard brightened at this affirmation from their leader, and seemed to swell slightly with pride.

“That poem did say something about the pharaoh dude doing bad things, probably included mind control,” the Hero continued. “That’s pretty neat that they let you disrupt it like that. That’s actually kinda unique. Although I dunno how much of that is just cuz you added in a certain someone’s special touch,” he finished, bumping Qube with his shoulder. Definitely Bad Guy frowned slightly.

“Absolutely true,” Sewer Bard said, cutting off whatever Definitely Bad Guy had been about to say. One of the nice things about the party doing the Temple on their own was that Qube had noticed that Sewer Bard, in particular, had really come into his own, and was becoming increasingly confident. Given how much he’d struggled with understanding and accepting his place in the party, it was genuinely heartwarming seeing him stepping up, and almost becoming the second leader.

It was a position Qube could have occupied, had she wished to. But she found that leadership was not really to her taste. She much preferred being support.

On the other hand, Sewer Bard needed to let others talk and not be quite so rude.

“What was it you were going to say, Definitely Bad Guy?” she asked the Mage kindly. He looked at her, then Sewer Bard, and finally the Chosen One. His fingers twitched as he reached for his robe.

“I was wondering,” he said, pulling out his book and flipping through it, keeping his eyes on the pages, “who was going to be in charge of this room?”