No Need for a Core?

Kazue tried not to fret as the dungeon waited for the arrival of their invaders. It took hours after the message arrived for the first group to cross into their territory. Without foreknowledge, and if their territory truly began where most thought it did, there would have been nothing to make this group stand out from others. They didn't even head directly to the town, they skirted well clear of the trading post and made their way down to the trail leading up from the main road, and then came back up along the trail to arrive from the same direction as other groups did.

The first notable anomaly was in the third group to arrive. Mordecai was examining magical auras very carefully, but even he missed it at first. One of the people in this group proved to have a new variation of the token that had been used previously to summon enemies deep into their territory, but it had been tucked away deep into their pack. But as they had to sign up for an entry slot that started the next day, they took rooms in the inn.

And placed their bags down. Unattended. In a dungeon's territory.

The entire contents of the bags were analyzed in an instant, and the odd magic of the talisman was noted. She watched as Mordecai crafted a physical replica and imbued it with an aura that would look like the original to most people. A skilled mage or arcane craftsman would be able to tell the difference if they examined it closely.

While he was doing that, Kazue stole all their potions and replaced them with weaker variants, along with subtly sabotaging other items such as arrows.

If they had done this to normal delvers there may have been repercussions for acting against these people in what appeared to be a safe area. But both by their actions and by carrying summoning tokens with the same traits as the previous enemies had used, these groups had shown themselves to be hostile to the dungeon.

And there are no safe spaces for invaders.

Letting these people enter both routes grated on Kazue's sensibilities and instincts; she knew they were not truly here for any reason other than violence. But Mordecai had a plan, even if he was already modifying it with a new idea because of the tokens. The presence of so many hostiles was also rapidly finishing off their deficit and giving Kazue enough mana to expand their prison.

The next twist came shortly after a hundred invaders had entered their outer territory, and the first few groups had started down each path. Cold fury bloomed in Mordecai, drawing Kazue's attention to the new group. As soon as she recognized two of them, her own ire began to simmer.

The oni was easy to spot, and they recognized the bandit Akuma's face immediately. And walking beside him was a man that neither of them had seen before, but whose likeness had been shown to them. Lord Antoine Demidov.

Kazue wanted to claw their eyes out.

She'd never felt so bloodthirsty before. When they'd been invaded before she'd been scared and angry, but she hadn't felt such a personal hatred of another person. It was hard to not order those two to be attacked immediately, but they needed to follow Mordecai's plan if they wanted to make sure they got everyone.

By the next day, the only groups on the signup boards were those of the invaders.

The day after that, the dungeon began the next stage of their plan.

When the invaders in the trading post awoke that morning, they found it deserted by everyone but them and the town emptied of all supplies and merchandise. The contents that belonged to outsiders were carefully marked so that they could be returned, but they would give no spoils to these people.

Antoine gathered a larger group together and sent in a few scouts followed by some heavily armored muscle, and slowly added more groups to investigate. The shrines were deserted, and the path selection chamber was open, but the pedestal was gone. Instead, the third door was revealed, showing the path to hell.

While the mercenaries scouted the entrance to ensure that no traps waited, the rooms remained quiet. It was only when Antoine and Akuma approached the selection chamber than the dungeon showed its hand.

Two pedestals that flanked the opening into the selection chamber activated, one of them being controlled by Mordecai to display his image. "Invaders. Killers. Murderers." Kazue's illusion hissed at them, channeling her genuine anger into this performance.

Mordecai played opposite to her, cool and unflinching. "Last night, one of the groups you sent in made a slip of the tongue. Now that we know part of your plan, well, we can't prevent you from entering. But we can make it unpleasant. As for the portion of your forces already inside the dungeon, we're going to be spending some time sorting them out from the proper delvers. Hopefully, no innocents will get caught in the way. You should find at least some of them joining you in the sewers, where there are no rules restricting groups. And no rules about fair play."

Antoine sneered, "Do you think to trick me with paltry threats, demon spawn? We've come prepared to cleanse the world of your filth, and we'll burn you and your whores to ash. We prepared for this, thanks to Akuma's recounting of your previous encounter. Men, begin!"

They had obviously trained in this maneuver as various troops began unloading alchemical flasks that were rolled down the slope and into the awaiting darkness. Then an array of tower shields was erected before several mages launched fireballs down into the sewer depths.

The results were less spectacular than they might have hoped, though there was still a multistage explosion. It did not, however, propagate down the sewer the way that the invaders had undoubtedly hoped it would.

Mordecai smiled unpleasantly. "We've had time to prepare as well. Don't think we've neglected to evolve some countermeasures ourselves. Oh, and Lord Antoine Demidov, I know exactly who you are. Don't think of running away, or I will hunt you down. So come on little Tony boy, show me what you've got. One of my wives already beat you up once, maybe I should let the other one have a go at you too?"

And with that provocation complete, both illusions cut off. Mordecai had fibbed a touch in his parting words, his phrasing had implied that they'd evolved ice mold, infamous for its dangerous ability to consume heat and fire to fuel its growth. In fact, the alchemical flasks had been part of Kazue's sabotage and his avatar had been present in the sewer in order to counter the blast of fire.

Antoine's response was fairly predictable, and despite Akuma arguing that they should cut their losses, the prideful young lord had to have his way and ordered his troops to make their way into the dungeon. He at least let the professionals do their job, and they set about countering the slick slope before they actually descended. The dungeon couldn't interfere with the frame they put in front of and inside of the doorway or the ropes attached to the framework, at least, so long as any of it was attended. But eventually, the entire group made its way into the sewers, the deadly spikes carefully broken and a path cleared.

While this was going on, the dungeon was dealing with its other hostile visitors. The various groups were either at the rest spot before the library, the rest spot at the entrance of the mushroom forest on the combat side, or otherwise spread throughout those two zones, as everyone from the day before had the time to clear the first three zones. At the same time that the initial selection room was set for the hell path, every entrance and exit to the library and mushroom forest zones opened to the hidden paths they'd constructed so many months ago. And much like the trading post, the floors were emptied of contents. However, their inhabitants remained, though they were hidden for now.

Leaflets fluttered from the ceiling, all saying the same thing. [We know your intentions, you have been separated and divided. Those who surrender will not be harmed. All others will be eliminated as threats. To surrender, gift the dungeon your weapons and armor.]

Most of the invaders in the dungeon were in large enough groups that confidence and peer pressure dominated. However, a couple of the groups were isolated enough that they chose to not risk being able to make it to another group in time, and a handful of individuals were able to slip away to surrender privately. The tunnels that had previously been used to ensure a healer was always nearby were now used to have the dungeon's warriors surround these groups and take the prisoners away. All told, they had eighteen people surrender. A nearly ten percent reduction in enemy forces before they even engaged in combat.

The forces on the non-combat path were ignored for the moment, to encourage them to make their way into the sewers. The forces on the combat path and not in one of the designated safe spaces were engaged as soon as their intentions were clear, and there was no longer any hint of fairness or encounters meant to merely challenge. They were harried and harassed, constantly assaulted by carefully timed waves to give them no opportunity to rest. And their only exit was through the boss room, while they were still being attacked by the regular floor inhabitants. None of the groups that had been scattered through the forest made it past Sarcomaag and Klastoria despite doing their best to simply fight their way through to the open exit.

Those scattered on the library level fared much better, but a little under half of them fell before they made it to the sewer. Biblios and Horace were injured during their participation in the running battle, but they would have fared much worse if the merged groups had made a stand. Of course, those groups would have lost more people too, and unlike them, the dungeon bosses would be back in action in less than twelve hours. So fighting their way past was the wisest move.

The two merged groups in the safe zones both chose to enter the sewers through the entrance near them, rather than fighting across the floor to skip part of the sewer. It was a rational seeming decision, but if they had fought across the floor, uniting with the small scattered groups might have cost them fewer casualties.

The fighting in the sewers was a slog in more ways than one. In favor of the invaders, these groups were already gathered together into larger forces, and their spellcasters could focus their defensive spells on acid, poison, and disease. But these sewers were hostile lands even to the dungeon inhabitants, and the presence of literal fresh meat attracted the attention of every single predatory scavenger in the sewers. Nothing was safe here; even the crystal flowers had become explosive traps, and the crystal shards had to be removed quickly from any survivors for they acted as quick-growing seeds that would consume the flesh they had been embedded in. Meat was much more nutritious than muck or the acidic bodies of slimes and oozes.

The largest group was the one facing the least resistance, and despite the delay caused by making the entrance ramp safer, they were moving more quickly through the hell route than the groups further on. Which was when the next stage of the trap was sprung.

Such a large group had attracted the attention of everything in the sewers, which also meant that they'd cleared out every significant hostile creature in the sewers. The dungeon's inhabitants in the early zones were entirely unoccupied, so now Mordecai gave them something to do. They flooded into the sewers behind the small army and charged forward.

The first waves were not terribly dangerous to the veteran mercenaries who were now formed up into proper ranks, but there were a lot of them and it now meant that the troops were facing a battle on two fronts. Additionally, as the army cleared the sewers of a particular zone, Mordecai could send in the inhabitants of that zone to join the earlier ones, and every twelve hours he had a new wave available.

And finally, once Mordecai had sent in the first of their inhabitants, Kazue sent a rabkin to fly to their borders and signal the troops that had come from Riverbridge and Azeria in response to their request for aid. These were the final backup plans if the invaders proved more dangerous than Mordecai had estimated. For now, the two sets of troops followed their guides, stalking the tail end of the army from the safety of the dungeon's normal paths.

While the invaders slogged their way forward under constant assault, there was still the matter of the talismans to deal with.