Something had alerted the heathens to The Order's arrival, making the planned surprise attack fail before it had even begun.

And yet, Hephetrius Hydrus didn't mind the deviation from the original plan all that much. They were still winning, after all! If more loyal followers had to die for the cause than calculated, then so be it.

For the good of the goddess!

The first wave of heathens had been a small dozen or so people. Few enough that The Order had decided to simply initiate them all. Hephetrius and his fellow cardinal, Melanie Pierce, had ensured they had more than two dozen archbishops, bishops, and high priests with them for that reason exactly.

For it was much better to defeat their enemies by converting them to their own cause.

Additionally, this crusade had been joined by several hundred members of The Order of The Broken Goddess, who didn't have the ability to initiate others, but was nonetheless useful in keeping heathens still for conversion.

These members were largely new members collected during the journey to the goddess's main prison. And as they had been traveling on the human side of the border between first Pasan and Mammalia, then Windin and Mammalia, the many new members were primarily humans, secondarily beastkin with only a couple of handfuls of other species in the mix.

As they had been more focused on bolstering their numbers than anything else, the new members were originally of a mixed quality.

Not anymore. Now only the best of them remained to serve the goddess.

One of whom was a speedy little female human, likely a decade younger than his own old age of 62. Or maybe she was two decades younger? Humans generally lived about two decades longer than centaurs, so Hephetrius couldn't tell her age for sure.

Nonetheless, the female human had secured the elf who had arrived on a dawon for him. Due to the human's relatively higher level and excellent speed, she had been one of a couple of dozens to receive one of their Enchanted Mana Suppressing Bracelets to use on their Int opponents. The Bracelet would start blocking access to nearly all of the wearer's mana and would grip hold on that mana so well, no one could simply pull it off again. It had to be broken off instead.

Which naturally meant the things were one time use only, which was a shame.

Getting it on a resisting opponent was surprisingly easy, he had heard, as the opening in the bangle style Bracelet was big enough to slap over most wrists with no issues and with the grip on the target's mana, it wouldn't fall off.

The Bracelet wasn't built with giants in mind, but luckily the heathens here didn't seem to include many, if any, of those.

With the elf in question initiated, the problem of her aggressive steed quickly became a thing of the past as the elf ordered it to heel. Additionally, as a member of The Order, there was no longer any reason to keep the Bracelet on her, and Hephetrius called for its removal.

The battle had stalled at this point as The Order got ready for another wave of heathens.

But with the Bracelet off, the elf was quick to offer to lead them around the settlement, so they could avoid having to waste time on any more heathens, and instead go to the Dungeon immediately.

"What a wonderful plan!" Hephetrius exclaimed, before ordering the rest to follow them.

This Dungeon might have a reputation as being odd and unusual. But that won't help it against The Song of Liberation!

The centaur looked down at the Enchanted Orb at the top of the staff he was holding with a smile some might call evil.

The Song of Liberation might have been misnamed once upon a time, when its goal was to turn loyal followers of the broken goddess into heathens. But after the prophet herself broke into the artificer's home to convert him shortly after its creation, he, with enlightenment from the goddess and her prophet, could finally make the artifact correctly.

Hephetrius let himself remember those days for a bit as he followed the elf.

The Order of The Broken Goddess was small compared to the amount of heathens in the world and as such needed to hide their existence - for now - to survive. Only once before now had they considered themselves discovered.

But back then they had had the prophet.

The Song of Liberation will get us through this. The prophet had this made for this exact reason: So we wouldn't need her to succeed.

So, be free, sinners of the afterlife! Let no Dungeon control your actions and force you to guard your goddess!

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

Not good. Not good.

The moment Zina had stated her doubts about it being more prisoners, I had begun preparing for an attack. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot I could do, as I tended to use my mana the moment I had enough for whatever I was currently working on.

It's gonna be okay. I have a lot more Floors than before and this time I remembered to only allow four people in at a time.

Right, Status?

Personal Status Level: 59+ Needed number of killed or redeemed sapients with original karma levels of 25% or lower: 2,839/5,000 EXP: 178,605,135,918 Next mana payment for level up: 0/212,000 Mana: 2,935/26,500 Mana regeneration: 9,275 per hour Floors: 28/30 Allowed number of sapients in each Floor: 4 Floor Details Achievements Mission Dungeon Rules

Yeah, I did. And they shouldn't be able to overpower me with only four members.

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I listened carefully to everything Zina heard and hoped for the best.

There wasn't anything I could do before the cult entered my Dungeon, after all.

You've been Hypnotized again, haven't you?

Yep! Now you're leading them right to me.

It's okay. I'll take care of it! Dealing with this cult is kinda my specialty by now!

…

An 'allow all'-tool? I suppose that will speed it all up. I'm just gonna win by overwhelming you with my respawning creatures as it cancels out my limit too.

…

Song of Liberation? Never heard of that before. Doesn't sound like something a cult of mind control would use.

The 'allow all'-tool was soon placed on the back of my Dungeon Portal and activated. For the next 24 hours any number of sapients could enter my Dungeon at once, but at the same time I wasn't limited to a certain number of total levels of my creatures on each Floor.

Last time this had happened, I simply commanded my creatures to go deeper into my Dungeon everytime they respawned to attack the intruders from behind. I saw no reason why that strategy wouldn't work again.

At least… I hadn't at first.

But then the male centaur walking with The Song of Liberation - which took the form of a classic wizards staff with what appeared to be an Enchanted Breakthrough Orb tainted blue - entered my Dungeon.

Uhh?! I thought in confusion as the mental link to all my creatures on the 1st Floor was severed.

So, that’s what it does…

Like a nail cut off, my creatures were no longer a part of me, but they still existed. They were simply no longer considered Dungeon creatures and were instead ordinary versions of that creature.

In a normal Dungeon and under normal circumstances this difference meant that the intruders wouldn't be attacked unprovoked. Dungeon creatures attack to protect their Dungeon Core, while ordinary creatures attack to protect themselves and potentially their territory.

With The Song of Liberation they could still expect to be attacked, but it would happen much less frequently.

In my Dungeon, however, all my creatures - with the exception of my werewolves - were karmic variations, who would attack any and all cult members on sight regardless of whether they were connected to a Dungeon or not. So, in that aspect it had failed.

However, it did create two separate problems for me.

As I had no connection to any of my creatures while they were on the same Floor as the centaur, I couldn't, for the most part, send respawned creatures after them. As the moment a respawned creature entered the Floor in question, they would stop and stay in the first room. They would have little reason to explore the following rooms.

So, while I could overwhelm the cult with creatures while they were in the first room of a Floor, I couldn't keep that up the rest of the time.

And if the creatures of the current Floor didn't notice the cult I couldn't inform them of their location and send them after them, so there was suddenly the chance that the cult would avoid some of my creatures altogether!

But the second and biggest problem The Song of Liberation created for me, was that without control of my creatures I couldn't stop them from attacking Zina and her boyfriend, and the other mind controlled townspeople.

Not that I could have ordered my karmic creatures to not attack what they see as a person with 0% karma level, but I could have ordered them to go after the other people first.

And now I couldn't even do that.

At least 'More Than Allowed' has been maxed out with a 100% increase in Dexterity to my Dungeon creatures.

It only took me a moment to realize that all my creatures on the 1st Floor weren't any faster than normal.

And of course they don't get the Dexterity boost because they don't currently count as Dungeon creatures!

Guess that makes 'Cheaters Only Cheat Themselves' just as useless!

Ahhh!!!

Okay. Back on track. 'Cheaters Only Cheat Themselves’ wouldn't have done much anyway as mind controlled Zina is perfectly prepared to do all my puzzles for them!

First point on the agenda: Figure out how to keep my people alive without risking my own life.

… Hmmm… Maybe a Dungeon Rule? Something to stop my creatures from attacking certain people?

Right! I already have a Rule like that! I just have to declare them a part of my family!

So, I did.

There! That should do it, right?

Chosen Family: The Dungeon Core may choose to see certain sapients as a part of its Dungeon just like its creatures are. The sapient then stops counting as a sapient to the Dungeon's allowed number of sapients per Floor. The sapient can still earn EXP and loot like normal. No sapient with a karma level of 25% or lower can be seen as a part of the Dungeon nor any with evil intentions towards the Dungeon. Currently chosen sapients: The Tribe of Chief Nerok and the populace of Karmaria.

Huh? What are you trying to tell me, System?

I had to read through the Rule a couple of times before I got the message. Uh… Right. I forgot my creatures don't act like Dungeon creatures right now. They aren't going to follow my Rules and they'll absolutely attack each other if they feel threatened.

At least they consider dealing with 0%'ers their first priority.

The cult was done with the first Floor by now. They were annoyed that The Song of Liberation seemingly hadn't done anything, but thought it was simply due to the nature of the specific creatures in question.

Which wasn't wrong.

I naturally ordered my respawned 1st Floor to enter The Forest of Territories on the 2nd, now that The Song of Liberation no longer had any effect on the 1st Floor.

The surprise attack from behind didn't do more than perhaps drain a bit of their energy.

Which was still something!

What if, instead of forcing my creatures to change while not under my control, I force everything in my Dungeon to obey.

System! While in my Dungeon, no harm may come to my chosen family! Make that a Rule!

A Dungeon Rule ensuring no harm comes to your chosen family would inhibit the free will of sapients and as such is not allowed.

Ahhh!!!

What can I do then?

Dungeon God: You have realized that you are (kind of) the god of your own world.

Yes, I get it!

Ahhh!!! If only they could understand they're not actually bad people!

… Wait! That's it!

System! Make it so all karmic creatures in my Dungeon can always see my chosen family's actual karma levels! Not just that of their mind controller!

A Dungeon-Wide Rule to allow family true sight to karmic creatures costs 40,740 mana.

Okay. That's a lot, as always, but my regeneration is much faster than before so it will only take me 5 hours and 4 minutes to have enough.

… Do they have that time though?

I think so…

And if not, I can simply save mana by not doing the Floors they have already left behind. The 1st Floor certainly has no urgent need for this Rule.

Still going to take a couple of hours, though…