Worthy Core

Somewhat rested and refreshed after downing a few potions, Lady Cerise Darktouched made her way down the stairs and into the core chamber hidden below, willing herself into presenting an air of calm and elegance as she did so. She was an Enigmatic Emissary, after all, it wouldn't do to meet with a dungeon master looking tired and worn-down, even if she had just been fighting for her life. When she stepped into the room itself she spotted Sincere standing there, waiting for her, but the woman wasn't surprised.

"You would be the Core Guardian, then? Sincere, yes? Your profile was rather...interesting reading, I must say."

The waiting demon smiles at his guest. "I did always have my fans and followers within the Domain, didn't I? Tell me, Lady Darktouched - are we ready to call this test of yours complete, and move on to more pleasant conversation, or must this contest continue to the end?"

Cerise shakes her head. "I shall lay hands on the core itself as I announce my judgment. If you wish to stand aside as I do so..."

Sincere snorts in response. "Allow someone who's threatened the core's destruction to come into contact with the object? Even though I have faith in our performance so far, it's a risk we cannot allow. Which you know, of course, which means you only announced your intentions because you want this to be a fight to the end."

"Such are the wishes of my sovereign. I do regret that we cannot spend more time in conversation, you seem to be an interesting scholar of some repute by all reports. But the evening is late, and I am tired...so."

"...So."

The two stare at each other for a moment, and then within the blink of an eye the two demonic mages move. Sincere casts a spell at the woman, temporal magics to slow her down, but Cerise disperses it easily with a counterspell. Rather than fire off one of her own however, the succubus suddenly blinks forward, quickly swooping behind the man and planting a dagger between his ribs. Sincere gasps as he attempts to turn and grab at her, but Cerise holds him tightly around the neck with one arm as she bleeds him out.

"Assassination skills were once a important part of my job description - it's been some time since I last had to dust them off, however. I have to admit, I am a little disappointed. I expected...more. But you're drained, aren't you? Your mana is so empty after a single spell? Xenia chose poorly when giving you your new form." Sincere makes no response other than wet gurgles, but she was expecting nothing more, and when his struggling ceases she simply allows his body to collapse to the floor. "Suppose I cannot complain, however. It would be best to have the unpleasant portion of this task finished with."

After turning around to face the seashell statue containing the core, Cerise simply blasts it with an arcane bolt rather than bother searching for the mechanism to open it. The top half of the shell flies apart, rubble scattering across the room, and she takes a moment to admire the polished, swirling orb sitting on what remains.

She then fires a second bolt, destroying it utterly.

"Really, Xenia? I suppose that may fool a Fighter-type, but anyone with the least bit of mana-sense would be able to tell that was nothing but a decoy. A true dungeon core lights up like a beacon to those with the skills to see it." She fires off one more bolt, destroying more of the statue, and revealing the actual core buried within the statue's base. "Also, the fact that the stone is as weak as rotten wood is a bit of a giveaway as well. Your dungeon limitations don't allow you to hide your core more securely yet, do they?"

Sighing, she steps forward and kneels slightly to lay one hand on Xenia's actual form. "Now, where were we? Master of Worthy Dungeon, today I -"

Cerise stops in shock as she finds herself back at the entrance to the core chamber. Quickly looking around, she finds Sincere's corpse still where she left it, but the seashell statue is suddenly whole again. "What? How did...wait." Casting a quick ritual, arcane symbols eventually become revealed to her, marking out a circle encompassing perhaps a fifth of the room - and sealing her in with the core. "This...it couldn't be." Turning around, she attempts to reach out through the doorway back towards the fourth floor with one hand, but quickly pulls back in pain, hissing. As she examines the tips of her fingers she finds part of her nails missing and even a bit of her skin, this time causing her to hiss in frustration rather than pain.

"A temporal bubble!? That's...ah. So that would be why your Guardian was so drained, wasn't he? It's a powerful and rare magic, I admit to being impressed. But, Xenia..." Facing once again towards the center of the chamber, she casts one more ritual, and this time after it completes, Xenia's black-and-white avatar stands before her. "...You have made a terrible mistake."

Shrugging and giving a mischievous grin, Xenia responds unrepentantly. "Wouldn't be the first time."

Cerise frowns, apparently not feeling in the mood for joking around. "This spell is beyond my ability to properly counter. If I try, I'll likely only make it break down faster. Worse, its fail-state is 'collapse'. As the mana drains the bubble will shrink, eventually killing me if I remain here."

Xenia whistles. "Sounds bad! Guess you're in kind of a pickle, then."

The succubus continues. "...Which means if I wish to save my life, I now must destroy your core, and hope that your creations fade out before they kill me in the process. Or that I gain the power to properly neutralize the trap."

This time the words hit, and Xenia's eyes go wide. "...Oh. Well, you'd have to get through me first!"

Cerise scoffs. "I can dismiss your avatar even more easily than I summoned it. If you wish to be productive - I don't suppose you can dismiss the spell yourself?"

The dungeon master shakes her head. "Oooh, sorry, no. I learned a lot of Sincere's spells when I got him, but this is something he invented recently. Dead-man switch sort of thing, trap that fires off if he dies. Took a lot out of him too, like you noticed."

"Wonderful." Cerise closes her eyes and sighs before continuing. "Xenia...you passed the test. Assuming you're still willing to be as fatal with Challengers as you have been with my own team? You've certainly proven your capability."

The monochrome avatar nods. "If your boss had just taken my word for this, well...none of this woulda been necessary, you know? Yeah, okay, I...kinda had to make a deal to go a little easier on the adventurers. But only for the first three floors! And even then, we've still got an above-average fatality rate! From what Lollyp tells me, anyhow. All this is just...muscle flexing, and I don't really appreciate it to be honest, but I don't wanna cross your boss, either."

"Well, I - " Cerise winces as she suddenly flickers in place, the temporal loop resetting a second time. "Ugh. Does that not bother you?"

Xenia shivers slightly. "Lil weird maybe, but my perceptions cover the entire dungeon, y'know, so it's just like having a finger tingle for a second. Where were we?"

"Yes, well. I suppose this puts me in a bit of a difficult spot now, doesn't it? If you've passed the test, then my orders are to leave you intact. But if I leave you intact, then I die."

The dungeon master chews her lip. "Tough spot, yeah. What are you gonna do?"

"I...am going to think." With that she kneels down and closes her eyes, as if she were going into a meditative state. Xenia peers at her for a bit, but as the succubus remains unmoving, she decides to give the Emissary a bit of space.

 

---

 

After a good fifteen minutes had passed - marked by repeated loops requiring Cerise to return to her kneeling pose - the woman finally speaks even as her eyes remain closed. "There's so many things I've never done, you know?"

Xenia looks up from where she'd been sitting, leaning against her core-concealing statue. "Oh? Too much time spent on the job?"

"For some things, not enough for others. I'm in my sixties, you know, which is quite young for one of my kind. My career still had a glorious road ahead of me - I'd always felt certain that I was marked to reach the heights of Supreme strength one day. Perhaps within twenty years...reaching it before I turned a hundred would have been quite the accomplishment for me."

"Love your gig that much, huh?"

"I enjoy...mattering, I suppose. Even when I was a mere pawn on the board, I was still a pawn who altered the balance of power according to the whims of my sovereign. Guilds, churches, nobility...so many strings I've pulled, and strings I've cut. Nearly every mission I've undertaken has caused ripples across the continent."

Xenia nods. "Suppose I can get that. Even if it does sound a little cutthroat, y'know, literally."

"Indeed. Also, I - " She sighs again as she suffers another reset. "I've...never had children."

Xenia raises a pitch-black eyebrow. "Never found the right partner?"

Cerise smirks at the thought. "Oh, I've found many. But my career wasn't well suited for motherhood, and there was always plenty of time in the future for all that. Once I became Supreme, I'd surely spend more time in Dragon's Jaw directing policy rather than undertaking missions myself, and perhaps...well, who knows."

"Kind of sounds like you're, um...spilling a lot of regrets, here. Come to a decision?"

The succubus purses her lips. "I could lie, you know. Say you cursed the Dragonlord's name and failed the test, and I had to destroy you. There would be disappointment, and it would perhaps be a stain on my own record, given that I arranged our original deal. But I would recover, and more importantly, I would survive."

"Bet you could pull that off, yeah. Will you?"

Cerise finally reopens her eyes and stares into Xenia's, before suddenly pulling her dagger and pointing it at her own chest. "I hope I'm considered worthy, Xenia. Oh, Master of Worthy Dungeon, I willingly - "

The succubus halts, shocked, as Xenia practically leaps across the distance separating the two of them in the blink of an eye and grabs onto the dagger's handle with surprising strength. "No."

Cerise gasps. "I - really? I'm not worthy of your standards?" As her eyes continue to stare into Xenia's, waves of rage and fear wash through them.

Xenia leans down, staring directly back into Cerise's gaze from inches away. "Won't lie, you know? I was really, really tempted. Had plans running through my head and everything. Give you a sexy-ass Vampire Nymph body maybe, set you up as Boss of Floor Five...not sure what you'd be doing there exactly, but pretty sure we'd come up with something fun. But I'm not that much of an asshole."

The Emissary's lips curl into a scowl. "So instead you'll let me be torn apart by a dying spell? You can't seriously be telling me you want me to destroy you, instead."

"Nope! You see...tests can go both ways. And Cerise...you passed." Reaching back with one arm, Xenia snaps her fingers, and a pair of shortcut portals suddenly appear within the room. One within the temporal bubble, one beyond it. "I may not be able to play with the spell, but I can sure as hell play with almost anything else down here, you know? A dungeon master's always got her tricks."

Cerise swears, even as relieved laughter bubbles through her voice. "Oh, you dungeon master bitch."

Xenia smirks. "I may be a little bit of an asshole." Even as she speaks Cerise is already rushing through the portal, not allowing even a sliver of a chance that she could lose the opportunity to escape. The moment she's safely through on the other side, she turns back towards Xenia.

"More than a little! What - why test me like that?"

Xenia walks back over to her, standing face-to-face again before responding. "I've fought Evil before, you know? The capital-E kind. I've been Evil before. Not proud of it, but I've had my rough periods. Faced tyrants, necromancers, eldritch monsters, and yeah, even dragons. And I gotta say, the Dragonlord doesn't exactly have the best reputation around here, from everything I've heard. Enslaved entire species, and still keeps slaves on a smaller scale, ain't that right? Started wars, over and over for centuries. Been the bogeyman that keeps Valleylander and Rainlander kids hiding beneath their bed covers at night."

Cerise frowns at the slander of her lord. "You speak in riddles, but - this continent is the rightful property of the Dragonlord! They're only trying to recover what was stolen from them! And...they gave demons a home. When every other race on this world turned us out, only the Dragonlord took us in. I don't know why your Core Guardian, Sincere, turned his back on the rest of us, but I've heard plenty of tales from my grandparents to know what those old days were like. I am proud of what we have built under their protection, whatever faults they may have."

Xenia nods. "And that's why you pass the test. You're a good woman, Cerise. Cutthroat, like I said, but you'd give up your own life to spare mine, even when you don't gotta. Sure not like I can get on any high horses about having some blood on my hands, anyhow. And if the Dragonlord can earn the loyalty of a good woman...maybe they're someone I can still work with. I'm still not sure I like them, honestly pretty sure I don't, but then I kinda dislike national leaders as a rule. Real shitbirds, nine out of ten times. But our deal is still on - if we don't get any more of these bullshit 'tests', at least."

Cerise considers her words, before finally nodding in response. "Even a test of this sort was a rare occasion. You can count on me to speak in your favor should the topic come up again, I can tell you that." Pausing, she reaches for a pouch at her waist and removes it, before tossing it onto the nearby table. "Some trade goods we brought along, in the event of a favorable conclusion. Including another runespell orb containing an avatar spell. But..." She pauses for a bit, thinking over her next words before she continues. "...I think perhaps I should offer a personal gift as well. Could I trouble you for a blank scroll?"

Raising an eyebrow, Xenia shrugs before summoning one into her hand, charging it with enough mana to turn it into a permanent object. "One scroll, made to order. What use is a blank scroll, though?"

"It allows me to do this." Taking it, Cerise unfurls it and places one palm against its surface. Mana sinks from her hand and into the page, glowing runes forming in abstract patterns, until after several minutes she finishes her work. Sounding a little out of breath, the succubus explains. "Doing this properly would take days of constant effort, but this scroll now contains a weaker version of the spell I use to summon your avatar. It will still last an hour, but can only be used once every few days - perhaps a week. It also lacks the self-contained mana charge of a runespell orb. But on the positive side, you at least don't need to worry about the usual issue of scrolls being single-use items."

Xenia whistles. "That's - shit, that's real good. Thank you! Suppose I should boost up your final loot box a bit before you open it up, just to be fair..."

Cerise chuckles. "It would be appreciated, thank you. I...wish we could part on more soothing terms, as we did on my last visit. But considering everything..."

"Yeah, no, you...you lost folks tonight, I totally get it. But if you ever swing back around, y'know, just to chat, consider yourself in possession of a free pass."

"I'll see what I can do, Master of Worthy Dungeon."

 

---

 

Cerise took a few minutes to collect the items from Xenia's final treasure chest, adding them to another bottomless bag holding the contents of everything her party had collected that night, before making her final farewells and taking the exit portal outside. The moment she left Xenia collapsed into her favorite chair, staring at Sincere's still-bloody corpse on the floor as she did so.

"I really, really...really hate tests."