The Core's Origin

When things changed, they changed very, very quickly, and the core was able to observe it all.

As weeks had passed, it had noticed a strangeness to the humans who lived south of the desert. They acted a bit different, and though the core did not understand that difference, it was still able to pick up on it. People were irritable. They smiled less, slept less, and some of the soldiers would frequently stare off into the distance.

The officers became stricter, handing out punishments for infractions that would previously have merited nothing more than a sharp word. The people around the soldiers all seemed to cling to those close to them, whether they be friends, family, or lovers.

None of it made sense to the core, but it had also started to feel a bit of pressure itself.

This was not the figurative, emotional pressure that was assaulting the humans, but a tangible pressure in the ambient mana, and even within the core’s Concepts of life and growth.

It was odd, and the core could not determine the source of the pressure, but oddly enough, the pressure did not seem to be targeted. The best comparison was the pressure given off by storm clouds right before the heavens unleashed their fury upon the earth below, but that was also not a pressure that the core was familiar with.

The tipping point to everything was the day that the Savaren Empire invaded Farun.

Thousands of soldiers poured across the desert, supported by supply trains of food, water, and other supplies. At this point, the full might of the empire was mobilized, and it was all being sent against a relatively small northern neighbor, with whom there had been no animosity or conflict for more than three generations.

The day that the empire’s forces entered Farun, they were naturally met with fierce resistance from the kingdom’s soldiers. The war with Tamar had been put on hold the moment that Farun had learned of the soldiers headed towards them from the south.

The rapid end to the invasion of Tamar shocked the nation so badly that they took nearly a week to react, mostly because the war had impaired their intelligence sources to the point that they had failed to glean anything about the army being sent towards Farun.

As for Tamar, the people started rebuilding and reinforcing the borders. Regardless of whether Farun or the Savaren Empire won their war, Tamar intended to be ready.

The northern invasion was not all that happened that day, as the moment that fighting broke out at Farun’s border, another invasion was launched. While this second invading force was much smaller, if anything, it was even more powerful than the armies to the north.

Yur’s Saintess led priests and priestesses from the entire pantheon in an assault to destroy the dungeon outside of Sercen.

The priests and priestesses had no desire to start a war against the empire, but Yur had ordered the dungeon be destroyed for encroaching upon her sovereignty. This was why they had waited for the empire to be fully focused on the northern invasion, as it would mean weaker protections for the dungeon. Offending the empire and declaring war on the empire were entirely different concepts, and the clergy did not want to burn any bridges.

Destroying the dungeon and delivering a formal censor from the united pantheon would be enough to see Yur’s will carried out. After all, the Savaren Empire was taking advantage of some blasphemer, not deliberately conducting blasphemy themselves.

However, oddly enough, despite all of the information gathering the clergy had conducted, and even the divine messages from the gods themselves to ensure success, the clergy did not understand that the camp around the entrance to the dungeon was not there to protect the dungeon. No, not at all. Instead, those soldiers were there to protect the empire from the wrath of the dungeon, should something similar to the incident in Farun reoccur where nearly all who had been inside the dungeon had been killed.

After learning that it was possible for a dungeon to go wild, the Savaren Empire had made sure that there would at least be a warning if something happened in the dungeon near Sercen.

All of this meant that the clergy and the temples’ warriors essentially walked into the dungeon unhindered by the empire’s military, much to their surprise.

Of course, the core had noticed such a large gathering of mana users close to the dungeon, and had even made preparations for the possibility that they would launch an assault like the one its undead dungeon had suffered.

A group of just over 100 humans entered the dungeon and pressed through the first level. They hacked their way through the thick undergrowth, and while there were a few minor attacks, with the number of mage priests and healers present, no one was seriously injured or even impaired.

It took no more than an hour for the expedition to reach the second layer, which was where the military did the vast majority of their training.

Due to having pulled away from the secular powers in recent months, the clergy were largely ignorant as to what to expect from the dungeon, though all members of the expedition avoided any and all rewards offered by the dungeon.

There was surprise and a bit of confusion as they started to encounter the various elementals, but the mage priests were able to handle such opponents easily, so long as they selected their targets by which affinity best countered the elementals.

Injuries still started to increase, though the only sign of that was the slowly depleting mana reserves of the healers. Everyone remained in top physical form, right up to the moment they reached the guardian of the level.

As the soldiers had previously seen from a distance, the ancient forest level of the dungeon was protected by a unicorn. The beasts were too powerful for the core to allow more than one to be on the second level, though it had never had the opportunity to test the beasts’ abilities out against the humans. The soldiers had avoided delving too deep into the dungeon, content with reaping the rewards they knew they could reliably obtain from the first two levels.

The humans just stared at the large horned horse for a long moment of silence, before finally, one of the youngest warriors whispered to the veteran next to him, “What is that?”

The older man shifted awkwardly, and glanced around. He had no idea what he was looking at. The beast was taller than any horse they had seen before, if not by too much at nearly three paces tall, but it had a horn growing from its forehead that was nearly a pace long, hooves that seemed to almost be silver, and a beard on its chin like a goat.

On top of that, there was a disturbing level of intelligence visible in the beast’s eyes as it stared back at the humans.

Eventually, the Saintess regained her composure, and she ordered, “It does not matter what manner of abomination the beast may be, put it down so that we may move on!”

However, the moment the warriors moved their weapons to attack, the beast reacted. Its head dropped, and it danced forward, skewering a warrior on its horn before the man was even able to swing his weapon.

By the time the others had the chance to react, the unicorn was once more out of reach. It shook its large head, tossing the limp form from its horn and scattering a spatter of blood.

Not a hint of red stained the horn or hide of the unicorn, as though any sort of impurity was repelled by the glorious white creature.

The stunned silence was broken by a sharp yell, “Gabriel!”

One of the warriors stepped forward to avenge his friend, only to be pulled back by the two warriors next to him.

The expedition had faced resistance from the dungeon, but nothing that had truly challenged them or felt dangerous, so their first casualty shocked them all. None had been prepared to see someone die so quickly. None of the healers had had any opportunity to save the man, and none of the mage priests had been able to release even a single spell. The beast had moved too quickly and attacked too ruthlessly.

Yur had ordered the expedition to destroy the dungeon, so as her Saintess, Evelyn was the final authority. She stepped forward a bit so that she could better observe the horse-like creature. She casually took in the corpse that some of the warriors were staring at, and quickly pieced together what had happened, despite not having seen it for herself.

“Fighters, surround it with shields. Priests, slow it with whatever you can before we try to bring it down. It’s too fast to deal with, so we need to take care of that first. Aim for the legs and belly first. We knew things would get more difficult, so we can’t falter here.”

The warriors were roused from their stunned state. They were typically temple guards or enforcers of the temples’ will. They rarely saw any real violence or threat, and they had never faced dangerous beasts like those in the dungeon. Most of them had never before dealt with anything more than other humans, so seeing one of their own put down so quickly shook them badly.

The mage priests also responded quickly, and while it was impossible to fully surround the unicorn, they were able to cut it off on three sides, and with the cavern wall to the last side, they had the beast trapped.

Spells flew, but while shields were raised, Evelyn made sure that the warriors did not directly engage the creature. Despite assurances from various people, she felt that this dungeon was not going to be nearly as simple or as short as most people were assuming.

To begin with, the two levels they had nearly completed already were much larger than anything they had heard of from the other dungeons that had been discovered, and the creatures were also unknown mysteries. Whoever or whatever was behind these dungeons was clearly developing their work and improving, and after Death’s Matriarch had destroyed the one dungeon, Evelyn felt certain that additional precautions must have been put into place to prevent the same fate from befalling the new dungeon.

The priests turned the ground to mud in an attempt to slow the beast and take away any sort of sure footing, but the creature stomped across the mud as though it was solid ground.

The unicorn did not attack again, seeming to want to see what the humans would do next. Ice spells were used, as well as more earth spells. Rock tombs appeared, and fields of ice, but nothing seemed to slow the beast at all.

As soon as the spells started to appear, the unicorn started to move. It danced about the area it had been restricted to, though not at all in a manner that demonstrated the slightest hint of fear. It seemed to be enjoying itself, though it also appeared to be searching for something.

Seconds passed, but nothing changed. The unicorn ignored any attempt to slow or hinder it, and continued to dance about the area just out of reach of the warriors’ weapons.

Suddenly, the beast’s eyes lit up, and it moved unlike anything it had shown before. Light flashed, the creature was simply there, across the opening it had been restricted to, its horn pointing downwards. It had avoided a warrior’s shield by attacking from above, and with a flick of the unicorn’s head, another warrior was gone, exposing one of the priestesses responsible for healing the various fighters.

The woman was badly shaken, but by the time the warrior in front of her had been tossed aside, the ones on either side shifted slightly, closing the opening.

For the first time, a flicker of emotion appeared in the beast’s eyes, and its head thrashed like that of a stallion as it whinnied. The sound was beautiful and terrible, like the combination of a beautiful song and a horrifying scream.

Again the creature moved in some mysterious manner that seemed more like teleportation than movement, and another warrior was tossed aside. However, this one had managed to keep his shield in place, so while he was thrown aside, he was merely banged up, rather than dead.

The warriors shifted to protect the exposed priestess, and this time, the unicorn finally grew truly enraged.

It reared up, whinnying and thrashing its legs. At that instant, a spell flashed, and struck the beast in the belly.

It crashed back to the ground with all four legs and snorted, stomping its legs, despite the trickle of silver blood that spilled from its wounded belly, a spike of stone still embedded there.

Everit’s eyes flared with realization. “It wants the women!”

The beast turned towards the sound, its eyes blazing with rage. However, its eyes seemed to almost bounce off of Everit, and immediately latched onto Evelyn.

Again, the beast moved, instantly appearing at the shield wall that protected the Saintess, but this time, both the warriors and Everit himself were ready.

Spears shot forward and swords flashed through the air. The beast pulled back almost instantly, but silver blood poured from its wounded shoulders and neck.

After that, the unicorn quickly fell, succumbing to its injuries and blood loss.

As it collapsed to the ground, Evelyn finally turned to Everit. “What did you mean, it wants the women?”

The Champion tried to keep the contempt out of his voice at needing to explain the obvious. “It only attacked the men who were between it and the priestesses, and it became enraged when it was prevented from approaching the women. Not once did it attack a woman, not even one of the warriors, and it seemed drawn to the younger, or younger looking, priestesses.”

Evelyn grew thoughtful at that information, but while she considered it, the warriors approached the fallen beast that was breathing its last.

As the creature lay dying, one of the warriors stretched out a hand to touch the silver blood. It was clearly abnormal, and the man felt the consistency of the blood, and then even smelled it.

Unlike the warriors, some of the mage priests who were present were able to sense that the creature’s blood contained a high concentration of mana, which just made things even more confusing: mana was not stored in the blood of creatures, but in a core that formed in beasts that were capable of wielding mana.

Some of the other members of the expedition looked around, and they quickly saw a plinth near a hole in the cavern wall.

They ignored the writing above the opening, as well as the gemstones available for taking from the bowl carved into the top of the plinth. They all knew their duty and their mission, and it was not to be rewarded or swayed by the dungeon, but to carry out the will of the gods and destroy the entire place.

They gathered their dead, and after a few moments to rest, continued forward.

In this dungeon, the tunnels between the various caverns descended at a much sharper angle, and were also a bit longer. This was because the core had decided to make each area a separate vertical level as the dungeon continued deeper underground.

When the expedition emerged from the tunnel, they found themselves on the side of a slope, a dark forest spreading out below them. This time, they were able to see the expanse of the cavern, as they had a free view above the trees to the far wall.

The cavern extended for miles in all directions, and looked like a bowl with a forest at the bottom. Even as soon as they emerged from the tunnel, the expedition could see their exit across the cavern, though the jagged outcroppings of rock that rose from the midst of the trees showed that it would not be an easy path to get to their destination.

The expedition made camp, as they had already spent a full day in the dungeon and they needed to be well rested before they continued further. None of them even noticed that they were already following the rhythm of the dungeon, unconsciously acknowledging the false day and night cycle that held sway in the underground caverns by the light of the false sky overhead.

In fact, of the gods observing their followers’ expedition, only Anba realized that the day cycle of the dungeon did not perfectly match that of the world above. The core had extended the cycles in this new dungeon, and days in the third level were about a tenth longer than above ground, and that difference only grew more exaggerated the deeper the levels.

It was a subtle trap, influencing the humans’ sense of time and their programmed sleep cycles, but the core had already seen how sleep deprivation could impact judgment, and it wanted every aspect of humans to be put to the test as they challenged its dungeons.

Just a few hours later, the short night cycle ended, and the expedition broke camp. While glowing eyes had been seen in the trees, nothing had approached during the night.

After a meal of cold rations, they continued forward, entering the dark shadows of the forest. This level was somewhat similar to the previous ancient forest, though the terrain was far more rugged and broken. The trees were large and old, but there were also outcroppings of rock and areas that did not allow for plants with deeper root systems to grow.

The few streams that were encountered were narrow and dangerous, the water white as it raced over the rocks.

Oddly enough, they did not encounter any creatures for the first hour, but when they stopped for water, they realized something. “Where’s Alice?”

The question was asked calmly enough, as one of the younger priestesses sought her closest companion who had been separated from her as they had traversed the difficult terrain of the broken forest.

However, despite the size of the expedition, the priestess could not find Alice, and worry quickly turned to panic.

Within minutes, the expedition realized that two of the women had disappeared; a priestess and a warrior.

No one had noticed anything at all, and yet two of their members were simply gone.

The humans gathered closer together, growing nervous and wary of the shadows surrounding them. Suddenly, the darkness seemed to conceal hidden movement and unseen dangers, and the prospect of returning to the trees became terrifying to several people’s minds.

However, Evelyn closed her eyes and muttered a prayer. The priestess belonged to Yur, and the goddess should be able to sense her own.

Sure enough, Evelyn’s eyes soon opened, and she stared to the left side of their destination. She had been granted a vague sense of Alice’s location, but that feeling caused the Saintess to frown; Alice was too far away. There was no way to travel through the forest quickly enough to reach that distance, even if Alice had been taken the moment they had entered the shadows of the trees after breaking camp. To have traveled so far, something much, much faster than the humans have had to have carried the woman…

Evelyn’s eyes grew large, and she gestured Everit closer. As Hidde’s Champion, the man had been placed in charge of the warriors, and she needed his counsel. She whispered softly so that no one else could overhear, “She’s been taken at least a day’s journey to the north side of this valley.”

The core had simulated the light of day and night, and that also meant that dawn and dusk were mimicked as well. Despite there being no sun in the sky, the direction that the light of dawn had first appeared had caused the humans to automatically assign the cardinal directions to the cavern.

Unfortunately, those directions were completely wrong.

Everit cocked an eyebrow at the information, but before he could say a word, Evelyn continued, “For her to have been taken so far, something very, very fast and agile would have needed to carry the young woman…”

The Champion instantly hit upon the Saintess’s implication, and he gave a sharp nod of understanding. “Do we take her back, or…?”

Evelyn appeared offended by the mere thought of abandoning one of her priestesses. Yur was not the goddess of battle, but of the earth, fertility, and bounty. Yur did not abandon her people, and neither would Evelyn.

The Champion quickly nodded to the clear decision, and he moved to reorganize the expedition. If there really were more of those giant horned horses, then they needed to keep the women at the center of the group, to prevent them from being taken.

However, how could a giant horse take a person away to begin with? They had no hands or arms, nor any way to physically restrain a person, and no one had heard or seen a thing when Alice had disappeared. It did not make any sense at all.

The mage priests and warriors quickly rearranged themselves with the women at the center of the group, and they started to move “north,” diverting from their original course.

Evelyn could sense Alice’s location, and though they changed course several times, they continued in the same general direction.

As they proceeded, they finally started to see some of the inhabitants of the forest. While they caught a few glimpses of unicorns, unable to ascertain if it was the same beast or not, they were attacked by what seemed to be a giant ape with a club. The beast was more than three paces tall, and with its stocky, muscular body, it had to weigh as much as ten men.

It was brutishly strong, but slow and dumb. The warriors easily evaded each swing of the massive club, and the greatest obstacle to cutting the monster down was the fact that each wound inflicted healed at a visible speed. In fact, after one warrior managed to slice off the creature’s hand, before they could kill the beast, its hand had regrown.

However, when a mage priest capable of fire magic attacked, the giant brute quickly fell, releasing deafening screams the entire time.

Unfortunately, that battle hindered them more than they expected, as the troll’s dying scream summoned at least a dozen others that attacked the expedition intermittently as they proceeded through the forest.

The only danger they faced was when two trolls appeared at once, and before they could be dealt with, a third appeared from a different direction. A swift swipe of a club the size of a tree trunk splattered one of Hidde’s priests across half of the expedition, alerting them to the third troll’s presence.

After learning of the beasts’ weakness to fire, each of the trolls was swiftly dealt with.

Unfortunately, Evelyn had overestimated the expedition’s speed, and the day ended before they reached Alice. They had at least an hour more to go, but it was too dangerous to move through the forest in the dark.

They rested during the dungeon’s short night, and first thing in the morning, Evelyn checked on Alice’s location again. The woman was a bit further away, but was still less than two hours’ journey for the expedition.

They encountered a few trolls during that time, and while they still saw some of the unicorns, none attacked the expedition. All the beasts did was stare at the women who traveled surrounded by men.

When they drew near to Alice’s location, Everit took charge. He kept the women protected, but arranged the warriors in a sweeping formation to prevent the suspected unicorn from escaping with Alice.

They inched closer and closer, but what they found shocked them. Alice sat at the center of a beautiful glade, unharmed and smiling contentedly as she stroked the head of the giant beast that lay in her lap.

The entire expedition was completely confused by the sight. They had no idea how to react. If the beast grew upset or aggressive, there was no way that any of them could save Alice before the beast killed her.

Evelyn and Everit glanced at each other, and then over at the Huntress. Irene was staring at the beast, as confused as anyone.

While the leaders of each temple were present on the expedition, Evelyn and Everit had taken command, Evelyn due to being Yur’s Saintess, and Everit because Hidde was the god of battle.

As for Erdil’s Huntress, the woman could track and hunt, but hunting was not the same as fighting. There were aspects of battle, but that was not Erdil’s focus or domain of sovereignty.

On the other hand, hunting quarry through the forest was perfectly in line with Erdil’s aspect, which meant that this was the time to get Irene’s input.

After a moment, the Huntress noticed the attention directed her way. Evelyn and Everit gave the woman questioning glances, and their eyes flickered back to the unicorn.

The confusion left Irene’s eyes. She had not been questioning what to do, but had been trying to understand the beast’s behavior. Hunters needed to understand their quarry, and yet Irene could not understand this beast at all, and that irritated her. Stealing a woman, but not to eat her made absolutely no sense. What was the beast doing? Beasts acted on instinct and the need to survive, yet this beast was not doing anything that would help it survive.

Still, Irene knew what needed to be done, and she unslung her bow and strung in a smooth, practiced movement. Nocking an arrow, the Huntress adjusted her footing automatically, having chosen the ideal location from which to observe or attack the unicorn from a distance.

The beast never so much as twitched as the arrow slid into its chest between its ribs, piercing its heart and ending its life. The unicorn never even opened its eyes as it died, though Alice’s eyes quickly gained a bit of clarity, losing the glaze that had clouded them.

The priestess stared at the beast’s head in her lap in shock, seemingly surprised at its presence, she looked around, bewildered and confused as the warriors and priests stepped forward. “What happened? How did I get here? Why is this beast on top of me?”

The unicorn’s head still rested on Alice’s lap, but with the beast dead, its head weighed more than the woman, and Alice was pinned to the ground.

As Alice’s superior, Evelyn approached her first. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

The young priestess’s brow furrowed, her recent memories a bit blurry. “I remember waking up this morning and breaking camp. I know we entered the forest, and forded at least one stream, but I can’t give any details, as it’s all a bit hazy…

“Wait, there was something! I heard something call me, and I looked up and- and… and then I guess you were all here.”

The people who heard Alice all frowned, as it was clear to them all that the woman had lost an entire day and had no idea what had happened to her. On the other hand, the fact that she knew nothing of what had happened served as evidence that something had been done to her mind, which explained how the beast had stolen her away without the ability to grab or carry her. It seemed that it had called Alice away from the rest of the expedition, and she had done so under some sort of compulsion.

After the young woman who had noticed Alice’s absence quickly updated the priestess to what had happened, several of the warriors stole pointedly hopeful glances at Evelyn, clearly wanting to rescue their own missing companion.

Unfortunately, without the connection to Yur that her priests and priestesses enjoyed, Evelyn had no means of locating the female warrior within the dungeon.

Trying not to shift uncomfortably from the unusual feeling of helplessness, the Saintess indicated to the other temple leaders that they needed to keep moving. They had brought a decent amount of supplies, but still needed to continue to move so that they would not risk hunger while in the dungeon. They had been given a divine task, and they needed to see it to completion.

Two more days were spent to travel across the rugged forest, the expedition slowed by the battles against the giant trolls, the occasional attempted kidnapping by the unicorns, and other such assaults.

Fortunately, no further losses were suffered, so despite their slowed speed, the expedition’s morale was not further impacted by their travels through the forest.

They rested for the night after their fourth day traveling through the forest, wanting to be well rested before facing the level’s guardian. After facing the first unicorn, they understood that they would be facing something new and very dangerous. They might also gain clues as to what the next level might hold for them.

The next morning, the expedition broke fast and camp in short order, and then continued up the slope for a few minutes as they approached the cavern’s exit. They climbed up to an open area of stone before a massive cave that had a diameter of more than ten paces. It was pitch black inside, which was in a way even more terrifying than if they had been met by some monstrous beast.

Just as the last warrior stepped onto the shelf of the stony slope, the people peering into the dark cave saw two massive glowing eyes open. Each eye appeared to be the size of a man’s head, and they rose up to the roof of the beast’s den.

The humans started edging back from the cave, all growing increasingly nervous about what sort of monster they were facing. A deep growl echoed in the cave, spilling out with enough force to cause the humans’ chests to vibrate. They felt as much as heard when the beast took a step forward, and a scaly head emerged from the top of the cave. The mouth alone was longer than a man was tall, and the head was connected to a long slender neck that snaked out of the cave.

Smoke blew from the lizard’s nostrils as it moved forward, revealing a body that had two powerful rear legs, and clawed wings that looked like those of a bat. The entire creature was a stone-gray color, aside from the scarlet spikes forming a ridge down its spine and decorating the end of its long tail.

The humans froze in place, quivering in terror. This was not a beast they had ever imagined encountering. “D- dragon!”

While the humans would have realized that the wyvern in front of them was not a dragon, had they been calm enough to note the details of the creature, their agitation prevented any sort of cool-headed reaction.

That single shout acted as a trigger, signaling the start of the battle. The wyvern released a narrow burst of flames from its mouth, targeting those in front of it as the rest of the humans started to scatter and flee.

What followed was not a fight, but a massacre. The expedition was a disorganized mess, and almost none of the mage priests were able to erect barriers in time. Shields could stop the flames, but not completely, and they offered no protection at all from the wyvern’s physical attacks.

The people scattered in all directions, some managing to stay together in small groups, but most ran on their own.

The wyvern managed to eliminate or eat about half of the expedition, but stopped attacking the moment the shelf outside of its den was clear. As for the survivors, they fled in various directions, and more got picked off by trolls and unicorns, who lured away several women after eliminating any men who might have been accompanying them.

In the end, Irene managed to reach the tunnel leading upwards with three priests and two warriors. Of the other leaders of the temples, none had survived the initial clash with the wyvern, as they had been the first targets. Only Irene had read the wyvern’s movements and dodged before the attack.

While the expedition had been devastated, the reality was that the wyvern was not an opponent beyond their abilities. The beasts were only capable of one or two flame breaths at a time before they needed to recover, and while their wings and tails were fast, as long as a wyvern remained on the ground, they were relatively clumsy and could be taken down from beneath or from the sides. Their bones were also a bit fragile, as they needed to be light enough to allow for flight.

Unlike dragons, wyverns did not have mastery of magic that they could use to fly, and they instead relied solely on their physical abilities.

With a few barriers erected before the start of the battle to protect them from the initial blast of flames, the expedition would have survived the attack unscathed and then been able to retaliate as soon as the wyvern was reduced to only physical attacks. Unfortunately, their fear had been their undoing.