Without a doubt. An immense amount of energy radiated from the depths of the tower. Yet, despite having a functional core. The tower had no dungeon defenses. The monsters did not respawn. All of the critters in the tower were descendants of the real deal. Numerous as the mere result of natural reproduction.

“Could it truly be?” Aurelia asked.

‘YES, YES, YES. There is no mistake. Without a doubt, we believe it has to be one of the ancient cores, now get it now!’ The Witch of Despair said.

‘I already abandoned two potential witches twenty floors ago, which by the way, you all bothered me to help. And now you wish I hurry even more? There is physical limitations in how fast I can reach the bottom floor,’ Aurelia said.

‘Then, we suggest you abandon your body,’ The Witch of Whispers said.

‘No.’ Aurelia responded.

The witches were always desperate. Having lived centuries outside of their physical bodies, they did not understand the mundane limitations of time.

But this was different. Even Aurelia herself could not help but feel drawn towards the energy of the core. If she was not mistaken, then, obtaining it would allow her to break through the ceiling of the 9th circle and perhaps be more powerful than the Archmage himself.

It took two hours to descend all the way to the bottom floor. Having ran through countless critters and inhabitants of the tower.

Standing in front of the Golden gates of the Boss room gave Aurelia a feeling of catharsis.

When she pushed gates open. She was met by the fiery golden eyes of a half-masked red-haired woman clad in full mithril armor.

The black-golden obsidian color of her armor gave away the fact that she was once a highly decorated member of the Overlord’s army.

But something felt wrong. She had no mana signature. Even for a humanoid automata, it was unheard of for them to have no mana signatures. Unless…

Aurelia looked with more curiosity and there it was. The core. Glowing with the intensity of the sun, attached to the torso of the mithril armor.

‘Impossible,’ The Witch of Despair said. ‘To think the Overlord has such a mastery over The Laws, that he could make an automata out of a core. Beware. We believe this not a normal automata. This automata, core-machine, has to be one of the seven calamities described by the book of Davos. Aurelia, do not try to study it, just kill it immediately,’

‘We agree with sister. Kill the automata. Sacrifice your body if necessary,’ The Witch of Whispers said.

‘Sacrifice my body? I am not interested in joining you hags on your Eternal Dream.’

‘Sister. Do not speak such heresies. The flesh is temporary, but knowledge is eternal!’ The Witch of Melancholy said.

Aurelia ignored the voices in her head and focused on the automata that glared at her with both curiosity and intense anger. The flashy armor and ornaments that the automate wore were a small glimpse to the glory of the centuries past. It was very doubtful that humanity would ever reach such a peak ever again. As such, it brought great pain to Aurelia to have to destroy such a relic. To do so, was a crime that no archaeologist would ever forgive. But her sisters cared little.

“Outsider, identify yourself at once!” The Automata said.

Aurelia waved at the automata, and bowed.

“Aurelia Amuliana, at your service,” Aurelia said. “I am nothing but a mere Archaeologist from a humble family.”

“Lies. My records show otherwise. Year 237. Lucius Amuliana, magi of the 2nd order. Charged with treason for his implication on the Crimson Plot. How do you respond to these charges?!”

Aurelia laughed. “Ah, what can I say, the Amuliana family it is just as numerous as it is ancient. It is no surprise that one of my ancestors was around the time of the magi.”

“What is so funny? This is a serious crime. The minimum punishment is bloodline extermination. If you do not wish to defend yourself against the charges that I have levied here, then I must proceed to execute you. I do not sense any runes in you. So you are clearly not here to fight.”

“Runes?” Aurelia smiled. “Ha! You must have no idea then. Do you even know how much time has passed? The Overlord has been dead for more than half a millennium now! His armies vanquished, his towers submerged in valleys of ash, his legacy forgotten. Meanwhile, my ancestor, how humiliating of him to flame out on 2nd circle magic. I will show you real magic!”

Aurelia threw a chant-less fireball of the 9th order at the Automata. Engulfing half of the room in a blazing inferno.

The automata stood her ground firm.

“How dare! How dare you! This tower is the sacred property of the Overlord, for this vandalism, I, Vesper - Commander of the 11th Legion will cut you down!”

The dungeon core immediately sprinted forward and launched a fiery discharge of mana-infused lightning strikes.

Aurelia observed carefully as she dodged the attacks using wind magic to jump a few meters back.

“Magi, you coward! Do not run away! Do you have no shame!”

“I don’t care,” Aurelia said. As she cut her own palm open with her obsidian blade. Every drop of blood turned into a skeleton as soon as it touched the floor.

“Blood magic!? Without runes!?” Vesper asked. “What trickery is this!?”

To conjure undead without the need of corpses, it was truly a legendary feat not seen outside of the Mythical age.

“I came here to kill you, not to explain you how modern magic works,” Aurelia said, as she commanded her army of skeletons to attack. Half a hundred in number the skeleton army descended upon Vesper like a swarm.

‘Child, we believe you are getting cocky. You are fighting an opponent of a calamity class. We told you to kill her before she adapts,’ The Witch of Despair said.

‘You do not make the rules here, I do.’

‘But we are hundred of years older than you!’ The Witch of Melancholy said.

‘And all of you are also dead. Now stop annoying me,’

Aurelia snapped her fingers, and the voices in her head went quiet just in time for the raging scream of the dungeon core to reach her ears.

The dungeon core was demolishing multiple skeletons with a single punch. It was merely enough for a skeleton to be in the vicinity of the skeleton getting punched, for the magical ripples of energy to make them both explode.

Vesper’s attacks were insanely powerful. But she was also hemorrhaging mana with every punch. That was the way she was designed. Maximum damage and minimum sustain. She was designed to cause as much damage as possible as fast as possible to then allow the Overlord to finish the crippled outsiders off.

But that is just not how modern magic combat worked anymore. The automata was ill equipped to fight modern spell-casters that did moderate damage for maximum sustain.

When all the skeletons had fallen, Vesper charged with relentless rage at Aurelia.

“It seems you have learned nothing!” Aurelia shouted, creating a storm of boulders from all across the room then launching the maelstrom at the upcoming Vesper who charged like a bull.

The fury of rocks pelted the core like a meteor storm, but Vesper’s charge did not end. The solid rocks cracked into dust as they hit the mithril armor of the core.

It was on that moment, that Aurelia threw a fireball and the entire room and the upper floors shook at the sound of the roaring explosion.

As the smoke settled. Aurelia coughed. The explosion had cost her her left arm. ‘Nothing that some very minor necromancy could not heal.’ She thought.

“You sure can pack a punch,” Aurelia said, as she picked up her arm and reattached it.

The dungeon core in the other hand, was on its knees. Its Mithril armor half shattered.

“What’s the matter, are you out of mana?” Aurelia asked. Her smug smile forever unchanged, even as her left arm hanged limp as she walked.

It is at that moment that the automata began to cry. Only for Aurelia to laugh.

“You, a mere machine, are afraid to die? Ridiculous. Then cry as much as you want. Because you will die, and having no soul this is the end of your existence,” Aurelia said. “Now, excuse me as I kill you and take your core.”

Aurelia walked up to the defeated core, and yet Vesper did not respond. She remained idle, yet, with anger and bitterness still glowing strong within her eyes.

“What is it?” Aurelia said. “You are starting to piss me off. If you have something to say before I kill you, say it.”

“Noooo!” Vesper shouted.

The shinning reflection of a silver blade appeared on Vesper’s crystal eyes. Aurelia was not fast enough to catch it and was impaled from behind through the torso by a variety of spears. Making the 9th circle magician vomit blood.

Had she had a heart. That would’ve killed her on the spot. For no matter how strong a magi was, they were still human.

Except Aurelia was not human and now her smile was gone.

“Leave the Goddess alone!” One of the goblins shouted.

“Die outsider, die! You only have yourself to blame for this!” Another goblin shouted.

“Please, no. Please. Run!” Vesper shouted. But the goblins did not listen.

Infuriated that she had not noticed the goblins coming to defend the core, Aurelia snapped her fingers and broke the bones of majority of the goblins, for they lacked magic resistance.

Using her own blood, Aurelia created a blood blade that cut threw the rest of the goblins. In turn, this made it rain blood. Which Aurelia used to regenerate some of the damage she took.

‘See, sister! We warned you! We did!’ The Witch of Despair said.

‘We told you. But you do not listen!’ The Witch of Whispers said.

Aurelia did not respond to the voices. She began scanning the ruins of the room for the core. But Vesper was nowhere to be found. Aurelia tried to sense the mana of the core, but given that it was very little, it was hard to pinpoint with exactitude. Only one thing was very clear, The core was making her way up.

“Ohohohoh, what a naughty child. Let the hunt begin,” Aurelia said.