“Wave Shot!”

Condescend Essence explodes, sending a streaking wave of razor sharp, heated air slicing through the creatures groaning after Lavinia and Hera. Heads roll, gold spills and acidic puss scalds the earth of the dungeon as Lavinia pulls on Hera’s arm and she pulls on Mark’s.

“Uuuhh, mi su casa! Mi su casa!” Mark yells out as he has since Lavinia executed the first of these creatures. Hera turns around to shush him but instead fires ice shards from her fingertips, following up with a cast of lightning chaining through dozens of the overgrown moss monsters chasing after them.

Stack after stack of gold, silver, bronze and other riches beyond knowing collapse, breaking the hive of geometric structures holding them together as more of the creatures charge free.

Lavinia halts her blind run as a mound collapses ahead, releasing four more of the creatures and attracting more with its rumble. Flaring Essence through her eyes she glares at them, “Inspect!” [Undead Mossmen]

Her eyes narrow at the results, these creatures have no names, they have no mind either. Their movements are slow but they’re strong enough to break through weights of metals and tear through the cascades and buildings burying them. Her [Wave Shot] earlier did little to stop them. It made them slower but they’re persistent as even after being sliced in half dozens continue crawling after them with their lower torsos independently chasing as blindly as Lavinia’s been running.

“Can’t you portal us out of here?” Lavinia cries out over the chorus of groans and moans, how the creatures even managed to let out sounds is beyond her. Several have lost their heads to Hera’s Elemental Magics or have always been so disfigured.

“That’s what I’ve been trying, Mark no!” Hera unleashes another bolt of purple lightning into the compressing crowd of yellow Undead, it fries thirteen in rapid succession and she snatches Mark back from their still grasping claws.

Lavinia growls down at the man smacking his head and screaming gibberish to himself. Without him she could easily charge out of here with little to no resistance. The [Undead Mossmen] are strong but slow, they couldn’t hope to keep up with Lavinia’s [Crimson Blink].

Wait, can I use Crimson Blink with people? “Reais Smite!” Lavinia tears her fist through three of the [Undead Mossmen] their bodies are thicker than the tree bark in Ruishia’s forest but her knuckles barrel through unopposed. She’s never thought to use [Crimson Blink] with another person, in fact, she rarely thinks of other people when fighting and [Crimson Blink] has strictly been a battle Perk unlike [Inspect].

Stacks of treasure farther in the room than she can see continue to collapse and release more [Undead Mossmen]. Hera snatches her hand and pulls her with Mark as a Mossman suddenly leaps over its mates, body degrading faster than any other it sprinkles an acidic puss. It lands with a wet thud, splattering itself all over so its contents eat the ground.

Hera skids to a halt, whirls her staff at the growing horde and mutters words beyond Lavinia’s understanding. A wind billows through from somewhere, summoned to answer Hera’s call and thicken above their heads into dark clouds that thunder and pour a dousing rain upon the [Undead Mossmen].

Finished with her spell Hera runs back to Lavinia and Mark who struggles against Lavinia’s foot on his leg, “Ehhh, Mi casa!”

“That should hold them off for a while.” Hera says and true enough the brainless creatures struggle against the combination of the rain and their own acidic puss. The rains slide their puss off their body, neutralizing it to an extent as both burn and turn the ground smooth and slippery. The [Undead Mossmen] fall on themselves like idiots.

Lavinia lets out a relaxed breath but doesn’t let the Essence flowing through her pathways settle. After seeing the barefoot woman and that grinning red skull man on the way, she expects much worse to challenge them before she’s free of these dungeons.

“Come here Mark, please, listen to me.” Hera grunts as her would-be King resists her. The man is as old as Hera was when Lavinia first met her, younger even. His eyes held no wrinkles and certainly no wisdom, his only words being babble even Hera doesn't understand. He smacks Hera in the face, scrambles away, trips and lands face first in the dirt only to sit up and search the pile of metals poured from a mound all while babbling nonsense.

Lavinia glances back at the horde, they’ve grown in the seconds she’s relaxed and soon they’ll grow past the range of the rain clouds Hera summoned. Or perhaps they’ll outlast the clouds entirely, either way, she wants out of here.

“I’ll carry him.” Lavinia growls. Her progressive levels have made it so she’s only a head and half shorter than the would-be King, her arms weren’t thick with muscle but she hoists the malnourished young man with ease anyway as Essence surges through her being. He kicks and squirms on her shoulder but Lavinia squeezes him in her grip, he shrieks and Hera grimaces but allows Lavinia’s minor lesson in obedience to continue.

“Sorry Mark, it’s for your own good.” Hera taps her staff on the ground, sending a pulse of mana through it and a pillar lifts them some feet in the air, farther than the height of the mounds and the exit. She spreads her legs apart, clasping her staff as though in prayer and begins to mutter in that other language.

Lavinia keeps her grip on the wailing Mark, his word incoherent so she zones him out and watches as Hera’s pathways light up before her very eyes. She sees Hera as a blue skeleton for a moment, Mana bustles through her in torrents as she chants and moulds the power within her centre and then with her staff directs the charge of Mana.

She gestures over their heads and with a confident bark, “Zum!”

Lavinia's clenched heart drops to a pit of disappointment as the expected portal fails to spawn ahead and the power Hera pooled dissipates to nothing.

“The portal won’t work, something, no, someone is blocking my magic. It must be Henry.” Hera says with grim finality, her gaze falls on Mark and she sighs, “We’ll have to do it your way then.”

Lavinia nods and scans the massive room. Their height provides a brilliant vantage point for her to scour the perfect or at least most reasonable escape path. To their left and almost directly below them are the first and largest horde of [Undead Mossmen] falling over their slippery, smoking selves yet making good distance with their push. Right below Hera's pillar is another horde, smaller than the first but quickly filling up with more of the [Undead Mossmen]. They smack headless stumps against the pillar, drooling acidic puss all over it but unlike the ground of this room Hera’s pillar of earth has her Mana flowing through it— melting through won’t be quick and easy.

The entrance where the barefoot woman stood is free, unoccupied as that’s closest to where they started. The stacks there are fallen over and the path is blocked almost entirely by a sea of metals— fording through there with the [Undead Mossmen] after them won’t be ideal and the same applies for the exit. While its closer than the entrance there are more collapsed oceans of glittering metal to ford through. But Lavinia has a thought, a question she’s yet to find the answer to.

“Which way? Back or forth?” Lavinia demands, hoisting Mark to stop him slipping and snatching Hera’s hand as Essence roars within her pathways.

“Eh? I…forth, there’s no turning back now.” Hera says with some hesitation.

Lavinia watches her for a moment, waiting for her to change her mind before shrugging, “I’ll try blinking us there then, hold on to me.”

“You can do that? How? Wait I-!”

But it’s too late. Lavinia’s Essence surges around them in a burst, seeping into the thrashing would-be King’s and Hera’s vessel. Seeking out more Essence and as it finds none it takes their blood instead. In a shroud of Essence and blood, the trio find themselves plummeting ten feet away from the pillar with gold and Mossmen below, “Crimson Blink!”

Another ignition of Essence pulls them ten feet from where they were and Lavinia begins to strain. Pulling three people through space put a cost multiplier on her Perk, but this she expected. Through gritted teeth she commands another blink as they descend closer to the ground, this time it spits them out as close to the exit and ground as they’re going to get.

Lavinia crashes into a sea of metal with Mark who scramble free the instant he gets his footing. She huffs, Essence exhausted from pulling the equivalent of nine uses of [Crimson Blink]. Her reserves of Essence have multiplied over her many levels but for a first attempt at carrying passengers while she blinks, the drain is significant enough she doubts she’ll make it out of these Dungeons without consuming her last Crimson Crystal.

“AH! Rahh! You could’ve warned me! Ouaa!” Hera wails, climbing to the top of the sea of metal to catch an equally screaming Mark. Both of them have burn scars along their skin with blood boiling out of their exposed veins. Hera taps Mark’s head and the wounds vanish along with hers, though her displeasure remains. “Demonic Essence isn’t something humans can naturally contain, not like mana, Lavinia. It hurts.”

Lavinia blinks at that bit of information but doesn't let her mind sway. She nods and carries her attention to the hordes. The rain Hera summoned is now a drizzle and the [Undead Mossmen] begin to escape its slippery trap in numbers, running over to the pillar to drool against. They didn’t notice us leave. Good.

Hera leads the way once more as they slide down the metals and gemstones to the exit blocked off by its mass. Together they leave the massive room of moaning [Undead Mossmen] behind to approach a wooden bridge stretched over a canyon whose end Lavinia can't make out. Hera and Lavinia share a look before wordlessly marching along, dragging Mark all the way.

The bridge is stable. It wobbles from side to side at their weight but that’s the least of Lavinia’s concerns. Her eyes, enhanced by Essence or not fail to pierce the darkness underneath. A growing dread builds in the back of her mind.

In truth, Lavinia wanted more than anything for Hera to choose to go back to the entrance, to escape the way they came. But that path is likely gone, after all, Hera did confirm these Dungeons rearrange themselves. It’s just as likely the entrance and the exit would have led to this same bridge and unfathomable darkness.

Three bubbles of light surprise Lavinia, Hera releases them with care, her Magelight, “You’re right to be nervous, Lavinia. These Dungeons challenge the heart, soul and body of its challengers but not everything is Henry’s doing.”

Lavinia takes her thoughts without response, grateful for the light and the semblance of silence as Mark’s mumbles turn to soft hums in sync with his footsteps. At least he’s behaving himself.

The light from an exit finds them before Lavinia spots the bridges end itself. Its heat greets them first as well; scalding wafts of steam escape the path leading outward, forcing them back before Hera or Mark can enter. Only Lavinia dares step in for a look as Hera prepares some protection spell.

Her feet scald against sand but she finds it soothing and welcoming. The sweat released from her body seems to steal away the tension and anxiety as she closes her eyes to revel at the heat of the boiling sea before her.

A body of water larger than any lake the previous rooms have presented is the only thing beyond a glass beach. Every part of it boils with an anger that steams to another boundless ceiling, burning the walls— two of which exist in the room. Shelters of earth jut out of the sea at random, the small clumps of boiled rock resemble little islands.

“Geez, I'm baking.” Hera says as she crosses over, looking about for a way out as Lavinia has. “Is there no exit?”

Lavinia opens her mouth to answer but the sea interrupts her as it roars alive, splashing violently against its islands. Sending steam wafting throughout and it’s boiling waters to lap up the glass edge of the beach. Tendrils form out of the steaming sea, winding into a mirage of a skull taking shape above with eyes and teeth of opalescent glass crystals.

“There will be no exit for you…Hera the Wise.”

Essence comes ablaze within Lavinia at the sound of the voice. One she can never forget, one that haunts her dreams and the one she hunts for. She curses herself for being careless with Essence but quickly turns her attention to Hera, the one he mentioned.

She’s less stricken and more protective, clasping Mark’s hand even as he nods along to whatever mindless tune he’s playing in that empty head, “Vanavil! It’s come to this has it? You’d go this far to keep yourself from being usurped?”

The skull of steam continues to shape and soon a mirage of flesh takes shape over it, a crown, jewels and elegance reflect in the steam Henry Vanavil manifests himself in. His face…didn’t look that terrifying. Lavinia stared at the man that had cursed her so long ago, unlike Hera he hadn’t seemed to age much but there is time on his features like any other. He glowers down at them without so much as a frown, he didn’t seem bothered or angered or amused. Henry watched without emotion.

“I do not need to interfere…much. I only need watch, you’ve brought the tool of your own undoing with you, Hera the Wise.” His crystal glass eyes gaze at Lavinia and a shadow of a smirk reaches his lips, “You will have to work harder to be rid of me, strong one. It’s time to work. Kill Hera the Wise, Lavinia.”

Before Lavinia can think her arms go numb, the Essence she charges within her dies and she becomes her thoughts.
[{Curse Mark Invoked!} 1st Commandment Bestowed!]