They teleported to the heart of the world, using the portal ring that Alklair had given Asmodeos five hundred years ago. What they found was a black creature waiting for them.

No one dared to move towards it. They had not taken the guild with them. The reports of the attack from Huergaz had reached them just as they had been preparing to leave, and they knew that most, if not all, of their guild mates were not ready to tackle the thing.

Leander gripped the fake core. There was a way to force a creature into a dungeon contract against their will, but it was hard work. It was just him and Asmodeos in here. They had snuck out like two thieves in the night, not wanting to risk their friends.

"Are you certain that this could work? I can try to swarm it, instead," Asmodeos offered. Leander shook his head.

"No, this thing is immortal. If I force it into the hourglass, then the war will end. If I can't, and the Father of Monsters takes over me, then, it is good that you are here. Because you would be the only one who would be able to make it out alive," Leander made a couple of steps forward to the creature that had seen the end of an era and wanted to see the end of another one.

The Father of Monsters stood, unmoving. A serene smile on his face.

"Dungeon core?" The voice was guttural, but there was no malice behind it.  "Contract?"

"Yes," Leander spoke. "Your last."

The creature closed its brown eyes and breathed in deeply.

"Too long have I waited. No core was big enough. The little things in the tunnels smashed my core. Why did I survive, when Anne did not?" Leander blinked. The Father of Monsters had been trying to get revenge? Leander sat on the ice, ready to listen.

"Who was Anne?" Leander asked, and he watched as a giant tear fell down the creature's cheek.

"Anne was a crystal, yet, she was not. She had no heart, yet, I could hear it beat every time I was near. She was light, not a single bad thought in her mind. And the little people carved her up, thinking her a simple trinket," the picture came together now, and Leander sucked in a breath.

"Was she the first dungeon core?" Leander wanted to ask if she had been the only one. But that was something he found insensitive.

"The first. The rest are but splinters of her soul. You carry her shattered soul in this," a big claw pointed at the hourglass, and Leander looked at it.

"I do, I suppose. The ghost of a ghost," Leander mused, and the creature nodded. "But, why did you attack Huergaz? Why did you kill so many?"

"I did not attack the green city," the creature told him. "I sensed Anne, yet, I did not sense her. The dungeon core had her mana levels. I rescued the core from a white room. Watch," the creature became smaller, then. About 170 centimeters tall. But, its visage remained the same.

"Neat," Leander commented, and the Father of Monsters bowed his head. "So, you sensed Belle and went to Huergaz? Or, did you try to reach her in the forest first?"

"First in the forest. I just wanted to bask in Anne's mana. I never intended to do anything to stop... Belle's peaceful existence. Then, she had gotten taken to a settlement, and I feared that she will get carved up. As long as she was not hurt, I was not going to kill anyone," Leander nodded. That explained why the boss mob, for what else could the Father of Monsters be, but a boss mob, had barely defended himself.

"I am in love with a piece of your Anne, and he, his name is Armaros now, loves me back," Leander informed the boss mob with a gentle smile.

"I rescued him first, because he thought like Anne," the boss mob told Leander. "A gentle soul, who thought that those he created were his children. A better dungeon core you won't find."

"That is true," the healer agreed. He extended his hand and the Father of Monsters stood. "It is time you went to your Anne."

"It is," the creature agreed. "Take care of Belle and Armaros. Make sure that the dust in the hourglass is put to good use."

"I will," Leander assured him, and the creature touched the hourglass. The mana that flowed within was too much for Leander to contain, so, he began to pour it into the ice. The glacier began to gently melt, and lower itself down. It was like a lift.

Leander had not been to many lifts. They were expensive and almost always extensively used for the nobles. But, he found that he liked it. Asmodeos came to him and sat by him.

"To think, it was all one giant misunderstanding," the necromancer spoke. Leander shook his head.

"I know that, if something happened to my lovers, I would go up in arms against the guilty party, too. That was no misunderstanding. Just a delayed burial and a crime that was punished eons ago," they both stared up in the sky, as the Aurelis Borealis appeared.

"Al would have liked to see this," Asmodeos mused as the ice finally lowered them to the ground. They found that there was something like moss covering it.

"The nations are going to have disputes over who can own the new land," Leander mused. Then, he got an idea, remembering the angel with the white and black wing. "Why shouldn't it be Alcandino's? I won it from its formal ruler."

"With the mana that you now have, no one will try to argue with you," Asmodeos told him, and Leander set up the dungeon grounds. Then, he stood and took out the Alcandino flag out of it and a standard.

The obsidian rhino on the fabric looked strange over the moss, but Leander was happy. If someone wanted to try to take this all away from him, then they would have to face him.

Now, that he had absorbed the Father of Monsters, he got his regenerative ability. Leander took a dagger, and bashed the hourglass with it. Instead of him dying when it cracked, it repaired itself.

Leander smiled. Fake dungeon cores created by this one would have the same ability. No one, not even Death, would ever take his lovers away from him. Now, he just needed to talk them into it. And, share a piece of his soul with Armaros.