The Reservoir Dungeon did indeed have upgraded Undead stationed within it, and easily five times the number as before.

  For some reason that didn’t help them very much, imagine that.

  But that was only the top level. The second level was occupied by olthoi, of all things.

  They had somehow managed to paint their ecology all over everything, so we Burned it all away with vivus, wiping them all out patiently. Still had no reason why they were tolerated within here, but we calmly proceeded through the entire place, Burning away the black-green ooze and mold on the walls, Sealing all the Spawn Points, and making our way down to the third level.

  This way was fairly obvious, a ramp entry point with a circular set of hallways extending around it, with one way down to the last level. A couple stray olthoi nymphs were down here, and then it was decidedly old-school gas golums, a couple Elementals… and an umbris shade?

  The Mick just shrugged as she Burned en vivus. He had no idea why the umbris was tolerated down here, either…

  As another example of the batshit insanity of these places, the way down to the Repair Golem was a jump. Not stairs, not a ramp, but a jump. Sure, they just used a Portal at the bottom to get back up, so if you were a magic-rich society, who cared? But… seriously?

  I was so offended I Shaped ladder rungs into the side of the shaft as we came down, sliding along the wall to the left, because not only did you have to jump, but if you jumped straight ahead or to the right, you jumped right down onto a lava pool with no way out.

  Some magma and vapor golums later, and we were at the Repair Golum… which looked like any other magma golum, but Assay’d special, so it was obviously a version of an NPC.

  The Mick handed over the Pyreal Bar with the easy attitude of having done this many other times, while I was not nearly so confident. There was no Portal out, and so…

  There was a slot in the wall, into which the Repair Golem fed the Bar. Something ground together and cranked loud and metallic, dragging the Bar away and out of sight, doing something that cleared up the cooling mechanisms for the Foundry and opened up the flow of power to there…

  The cranking, clanking, and really, really loud grinding nose, combined with the protests and squealing sounds, were really not remembered by any of the old-timers watching this process. Had someone messed with something else, or had the Fall done something?

  I flicked up the Dimension Door as the room about us began to shake. With no hesitation whatsoever, everyone bailed.

  As I tumbled through one side of the Door and to my feet, a plume of hot gas and molten rock blew out the other side, almost catching Briggs and Gros before the former could spin the latter out of the way. Then the Door was closed, the ground was jumping, and all nine people here went booking back north.

  Yeah, an illusion of Kris came running along with us, courtesy of that person in the mirror. Distant eyes watched us as we ran rather urgently away from the ground that was starting to fracture as the mana-reinforcement below the Reservoir Dungeon failed, and molten rock had its normal effect on empty spaces and normal stone with great energy and verve.

  We all did pause to survey the sinkhole opening behind us as whole chunks of the surface fell away into the pit that the Dungeon was turning into, the mounded hill there destabilizing and its pillbox entry with the Diamond Golum guards falling off sideways and sloughing off into the lava rising rather violently for the surface above.

  “Hey, Lord Mick,” Briggs rumbled genially. “This looks like a really uncontrolled Pyric Mana surge to me.”

  “Aye, that be… fuck,” the Black Aluvian slapped his forehead. “We be havin’ t’ fight our way all down through the Foundry again, don’t we?” he cursed in exasperation.

  “And we don’t want to keep Kris waiting overlong,” Briggs sighed. “How’s your mana, Ryin?”

  “Down only twenty percent. I can get through the Dungeon, I’m sure. But Tenkarrdun… we don’t know what is going to happen, and I’d prefer to be at full strength for that,” I admitted.

  “Expecting trouble, Magos?” King Borelean asked, turning around to consider our route back up to the Foundry. The Points had all respawned, of course.

  “It was the critical part of the quest, and there’s a fifty-foot Elemental Lord sitting down there waiting for us. Just what kind of energy release is going to break Aerefalle’s Wards this time, and how is it going to happen? How much influence does Aerefalle have with the Lord? And where is Scold?”

  We still hadn’t found the renegade magma golem.

  “He could be in the back end o’ the Foundry,” Lord Mick offered unconvincingly.

  “The Foundry is not where the power is,” I rebutted. “He probably doesn’t want to interact with the Elementals again after being rebuffed twice. He’ll go directly after the Empyrean mechanisms.”

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  “He’s going after the Behemoth?” Elysa spoke up abruptly, the Queen Mother’s blue eyes focused. “That’s… a waste of time? The Behemoth is nowhere near as tough as he is…”

  “A Behemoth with Minor Blackfire Stones, when we know that Major Blackfire Stones are produced by the mechanisms here, and lesser Stones are subordinate to more powerful ones,” I said mildly. “Of a Behemoth presiding over a broken and malfunctioning system.”

  “A Behemoth with Major Stones instead of Minor,” Briggs considered. “Assuming resonance among the Stones, that could easily be a thousand times tougher than the original, could it not?”

  “And if there are Greater or Supreme Blackfire Stones, they will likely be in the possession of whatever commands the Behemoth, because those are far, far too weak to be the primary control golums of the volcano,” I agreed.

  “Gor, a proper boss fight, then?” the Mick wondered aloud.

  “Ispar doesn’t really have an equivalent name to the Behemoth, Lord Mick. But in ancient legends on other worlds, the Behemoth is one of the classic almighty monsters, like Leviathans and World Serpents and the like.

  “Nothing you’ve described to me of the thing says ‘Behemoth’ to me. It was more like a random worker golum of a little size dispatched to the top of the volcano to monitor what was going on.”

  “Wow, that be a little too spot on,” the Mick murmured, looking around at the other older folks there, who had similar expressions to his own. “More mind-fuckery, then…”

  “We probably have to fight something actually worthy of defending an Empyrean mechanism that can tap a volcano. Just keep that in the back of your head… and we’re burning daylight here,” Briggs noted.

  Endure was in Hammer form as Briggs turned and led the way, matched by the Axes of the two lugians who moved up to flank him, while us ranged sorts hopped on Disks to maintain visibility and trail after them. The Mick and King Borelean moved to take the circling flank positions, Kris’ Illusion taking up a blocking position I could shift around as needed.

  The illusion was woven with enough Shadow reality that it could actually do minor damage and serve as a flanker for a Wolfpack, which I was happy to do. The grandmother and granddaughter royal archers focused on whoever I Vulned and Imperiled and mercilessly brought it down, generally aiding one of the two Lugian Vanguards who didn’t have the raw offensive power of the others, but whose Shields could stand against almost anything.

  Resigned but confident, we headed back into the fight.

  ----------

  It had been a long and somewhat boring wait after making her way down the Keep to the lower floors.

  There was no communication, save Morse Code tapping on their magebond. The others were hacking their way down through the Foundry again, as it seemed the entire thing had respawned, despite vivic Seals on everything inside, after the power surge that had rocked the entire Keep.

  Kris was up in the shadows of the ceiling of Aerefalle’s own throne chamber. She hadn’t seen the legendary leader of the Winds faction of the undead, but that was not unexpected. Two of her powerful attendants had drifted in and out, using minor magic to clean the place, completely missing Kris up there, waiting patiently against the ceiling, wrapped in a Camouflage Cloak, Null tight and no magic leaking out to be sensed.

  Aerefalle would be called to her Keep when the Wards fell, it was an aspect of the Quest. Whether or not someone could make it down to her was up to them, but she would be here to receive them and fight them if they did show up, as was only proper.

  Aerefalle certainly wasn’t going to die, so showing herself and dealing with intrusive rats was only appropriate if they dared come to her own abode.

  And the only place that was appropriate for her to appear at would be right in front of her own throne, ready to receive any intruders.

  Patient as stone, heartbeat and breathing so slow as to be undetectable, Kris waited patiently in the shadows, while her illusion ran about under the eyes of the undead outside and made sure she was seen elsewhere.

  --------

  Things were a bit tense as Lord Mick handed the Pyreal Bellows over to the Forge Golum at the end of the Foundry.

  As I’d expected, we’d not seen any sign of Scold, despite passing two more lava chambers, and the forges around us were fairly blazing with the torrent of raw pyric mana moving through them.

  Lord Mick had informed us that the chamber flooded with lava once the golum placed the bellows in the primary forge and it began to work. Thus I put up the Dimension Door, and everyone went out through it without even waiting around.

  Which was good, because as we came out on the ground outside, that ground was nice enough to lurch and a very loud and emphatic rumbling start up.

  The trio with heavyfoot stood there like blocks, swaying with the side of the mountain, while the rest of us stayed above the ground or on Disks, looking up at the side of the mountain there to make sure nothing was coming down at us… which, among other things, encouraged the trio of big guys to sit on Disks and the rest of them to follow me as I winged my way back down the trail, occasional rocks and boulders crumbling down from above just to keep us on our toes.

  It also had the pleasant side-effect of knocking all the Summons off their feet and rendering them incapable of fighting or chasing after us as they bounced about and couldn’t stay on their feet.

  -Now this be a whole lot more o’ a show than in the past,- the Mick /remarked on the Fellowship channel, the noise too much to be talking normally, or even shouting. There was a solid plume of ash jetting up thousands of feet from Tenkarrdun, and the lava flows down the southern slopes towards the harbor were solid crimson, not just veined beneath darker magma.

  -There are things in the lava,- Fan /pointed quickly.

  -True magma Elementals. There is a true amount of real Elemental power at play here,- I /said to everyone, not stopping my forward movement. The magma Elementals weren’t affected by the shaking at all, but they could also sense the Elemental Command on Primus, and were hesitant to approach us.

  I was also in red-hot mode, given the amount of local Fire Elementals around, and they weren’t bugging us, either, although they were having a hard time keeping their balance.

  We zipped past golums shaken off their feet like toys, multi-ton bodies bounced around like erector sets, and quite a few dispersed and jiggling Relic Bones stirred up by all the commotion. Fire Elementals and Wisps were scattered all over the place, but they were hesitant to attack on my approach, and the Shields were guarding us from behind as I started up the steep slope towards the top of Tenkarrdun.

  There was a tapping from my Bond with Kris, indicating that Aerefalle still hadn’t shown up…

  ============================

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