A bright flash, a moment of disorientation, and the world came back into focus. I took immediate stock of the surrounding room. Striders were lying dead in droves, a dead Strider Queen behind me, and a human was sailing out of the doorway. That had to mean the human came from the Core Room. Why was it there? Where was my throne room, my captains, my axe? “Destroy the int…ruders… My… Mas...ter Piece ahhhhhh.” Then I noticed the telltale red outline in my vision, signalling that the dungeon was out of essence. What was Mistress thinking?! No, there was no time. I had to get rid of these intruders and disperse or Mistress would die. Time was of the essence.

“DARK CALLING!” I roared as I triggered my ultimate Dark Shaman Skill. I had to remove several opponents, and I didn’t have enough time to do it on my own. This would solve that as well as my own death problem without wasting time. Right now, every second wasted was a second that could kill Mistress.

Every single monster in the room was resurrected from the dead. As part of the resurrection, their stats received a temporary multiplier equal to my total class level. Essentially, each of these minions could now go toe to toe with me, the intruders were completely and utterly doomed.

The now resurrected and utterly outraged minions descended upon the Intruders in a frenzy and without mercy as they sliced and diced them to pieces. That was, until Sanctuary was cast, only two intruders remained. A mage and the man who had been sent flying. The mage was casting again, I recognized Emergency Recall. I readied my Edict of Valor to stop him. I cancelled it instantly. Damn, that was too close.

The two intruders and the remains of their friends all disappeared as the magic completed and Sanctuary faded. I instantly turned to the Queen. “My presence here is killing our Mistress, she summoned me in as an act of desperation. Kill me, or she dies!” The queen and her drones didn’t hesitate. My death and passage into darkness once more was instant. The queen and every Strider in range attacked me at once, still beefed up by my Dark Calling. My only wish as death claimed me was that my Mistress would be able to summon me on a more permanent basis soon. I longed to serve by her side once more.

__________

I landed hard on the floor of the Guilds teleport chamber. My injuries superficial because Erem, the foolish but friendly old man, had shielded me with his body. Not so for Rael, who had been mauled severely by one of the smaller Striders after the Minotaur raised the Queen and her minions from the dead. I realized I was in shock given how calm I was. I needed to call for help before I went comatose.

I sent a small projectile to the magic bell calling for emergency healing and resurrection. Causing a loud cacophony to ring through the room and summoned as many attendants as possible. Then I collapsed next to Rael. Only then did I notice he had stopped breathing.

_____

Warmth, color, shapes… Faces… Mordred and Sister Calissa, I slowly sat up. The resurrection altar. Shit, what had happened? Mordred looked at me with a grave expression. He had clearly read my unasked question from my expression. “We failed utterly, I barely got us out of there as the sole survivor of the ordeal.”

Failed? How? I had been mere inches from the Pillar victory in my grasp. What in the world happened? Mordred shook his head, “The Core summoned a Minotaur of some kind. I have never seen it’s like there are no records of it either. The moment it showed you were sent flying out of the Core Room. So, it probably had some sort of skill that prevented intruders from setting foot in there while it lived. Its what happened next I have issue wrapping my head around.”

Mordred helped me to my feet and out of the room, I would need a few days rest to recover from the strain of the resurrection, minimum. Most of the party was there, with support personnel tending to them. So, I had been the last to be resurrected, eh? “The Minotaur used some sort of skill to resurrect every monster in the room. Including the Queen. Only when they came back, they were not the monsters we knew. They had this… red light in their eyes. And their power was beyond belief. Half of us were dead before I even had finished registering what happened.”

Half of the party died in less time than it would take Mordred to realize what was up? Impossible, Striders could hit hard, even kill in one hit from range with their spines if you were unlucky. Or they were suped up on that yellow goop, but killing with 1 strike in Melee? I could not believe that. My denial was short-lived as the rest of the party confirmed it. Their expressions were just as serious as they did.

“The worst thing is, the Minotaur let me go, and I don’t know why. When it saw me cast Emergency Recall, it had an expression of certainty and smugness. As if it knew the spell and could counter it, but then changed its mind halfway through. There is also one other thing that worries me.”

I looked at him, curious. What could possibly be worse? “Alessa is missing, the recall spell should have returned everyone, but she is not accounted for. There is also no response from the Voice Stone when I tried to reach her on it. I scryed her camp, and it’s abandoned. There are also untouched rations that should have been eaten there. Enough for a day or two, which means.”

It dawned on me “Alessa went missing prior to the attack” Mordred nodded. “Knowing Alessa never misses a meal and is a stickler for punctuality, I could narrow it down to the exact time of disappearance. Two days ago she reported five minutes late. However, she seemed fine, and answered all control questions correctly without slipping in a code word for being in distress.”

This was all too weird. Just one mystery after another. “Have you spoken to the guildmaster?” Mordred nodded. “The dungeon has been deemed too dangerous to explore. Until we can learn the nature of the Minotaur and of Alessa’s disappe-”

Mordred paused, and I heard it too. There was a commotion outside. We opened the door. There stood... Alessa? Only, she had the telltale look of someone under the Cores control.

“Calm down humans, I am simply here to return your friend after I… Borrowed her the other day. She is no worse for wear, I assure you. Despite your little Miriam’s attempt to fireball her prison in my Core Room.”

The strange mirror! “Indeed, Rael, the mirror. My last line of defense. Well, this one has outlived its usefulness now. However, I am not a monster, she has not done anything to harm me. So, I will not harm her.”

Alessa dropped like a sack of potatoes, then slowly blinked and opened her eyes. Her expression one of confusion. “Boss? How did I end up here?” The Guild Guards helped her up and gently escorted her inside. There would be questions for her, before her own would be answered.

The aftermath of the expedition was a mess. Alessa’s sudden return, after being examined with all manners of magic to ensure it was the real Alessa. Let us gain some clarity in how the dungeon had been so prepared for us. But it still left more questions than answers. Alessa had been captured when the dungeon’s surface area suddenly expanded. Her mind had been gently, but remorselessly ransacked for all knowledge about the guild. That included the impending attack. That much was clear.

That still did not answer the riddle of the Minotaur, though. Pavol had apparently tried to use his Scour ability to get information on it. Only to be told the monster was too strong to Scour, a split second before his head had literally been lopped off and his book torn to shreds. In fact, the small Striders seemed exceedingly vindictive against his book, for some reason we had yet to fully understand. They had gone to great lengths to tear it asunder beyond hope of repair, Pavol was understandably, devastated. For the half an hour it took him to remember he had three copies.

Whatever that Minotaur was, though it was clear that it was a monster the Core had been reluctant to summon, why? If it had something with that amount of firepower, why not use it? The answer was simple. Upkeep, no dungeon would ever be able to go over upkeep. Except this dungeon had, it had deliberately summoned a monster that sent it over its upkeep. Probably far over its upkeep, for what?

Dungeons were clever, yes, but such a suicidal tactic of mutually assured destruction seemed almost… human. That wasn’t possible. The core was known to be a Sphinx variant of some sort. Besides, who had ever heard about something as ridiculous as a human Core. That would be the day.

Then there was the strange return of Alessa. She was utterly at the Dungeons mercy, yet she was let go. As far as the guild staff could tell she was fine, nothing wrong with her except slightly dehydrated. Then there was the strange speech the Core said before she relinquished Alessa, I couldn’t make heads or tails of it at all.

As it was, the Dungeon was declared a Deathtrap. A dungeon too dangerous to interact with until more information was available. This would hopefully prevent the dungeon from gaining more power than it already had and stop it from gaining even more floors.