Days passed. Sev was still waiting on a response from Novice, who had promised to get back to them and then gone silent for several days in a row. From what he'd heard from Misa, Novice was fine, but incredibly busy managing the intricacies of Fendal and Teque. Apparently, their request would take about a week to process, which... sure.

The evacuation to Anderstahl was somehow still proceeding smoothly. Sev was surprised — he'd expected a fight to break out by now, or for the rising tensions between the nobles and the so-called common classes to turn into something ugly. The former rebels, however, were remarkably good at keeping the peace.

And also remarkably good at making sure none of their own stepped out of line.

"I think they're adopting some of the Guild's policies," Vex said, when Sev pointed this out to him. "I heard Helix talking about it with Karix — with my dad. He doesn't believe that the Guild's strategies work so well."

"Did Helix manage to change his mind?" Sev asked, raising an eyebrow, and Vex let out a small laugh.

"He made a little progress," the lizardkin admitted, his expression strangely wistful. "He doesn't get it yet. Not really. But he's... trying? And it's more than I ever expected from him. I almost..."

Vex shook his head and trailed off, choosing to let the sentence die there, and Sev opted not to press. If the lizardkin needed to talk about it, he would; there was an implicit trust there, now. Sev gave Vex a small, reassuring smile, and Vex gave him a grateful one in return before hopping up on his feet.

"Wanna go see how Deri and Misa are doing?" he said brightly. "I hear they're training today. Trying to figure out more of Deri's Remembrances. They can do some pretty cool stuff."

"Why don't you go ahead," Sev said, smiling at his friend. "I'll join you guys later."

"Are you sure?" Vex looked up at him, almost pouting. Sev laughed.

"That look works on Derivan, not me," he said, making a shooing motion with his hand. "I'll just be a minute! I want to check my messages, that's all."

"Fine, fine," Vex said. He took two steps, then turned around and raised a finger. "If I don't see you in ten minutes I'm coming back for you!"

"Yes, yes." Sev waved a hand at Vex. "Go see your boyfriend already!'

Reminding Vex that Derivan was his boyfriend always worked a treat. The lizardkin immediately darted off, weaving with surprising agility through the crowd.

Or not surprising, really. His Agility stat was monstrously high at this point.

Sev glanced over his system. He hadn't been lying, although he'd also wanted a moment to himself so he could prepare. Derivan's Remembrances...

Remembrance was an appropriate term. Many of them really did feel like a tribute to the cultures or the people they were from. The problem was that across his lifetimes, Sev had met many of those people, many of those cultures. The first time he sat through Derivan testing his Remembrances, he'd lasted up until the third item Derivan pulled out that was a deeply personal belonging of a close friend that had since been erased.

Then he'd had to excuse himself.

"It's too damn easy to blame myself," Sev muttered into the air. "But it's not my fault, is it? I didn't fail them. I just... didn't save them."

There was no answer to be had for him, of course, and the weight on his shoulders did not change. Sev sighed. He knew what his friends would say to him, and he knew that they were right; he had done everything he could. It was too easy to fall into the trap of thinking he could have done more.

"Alright, I definitely need a distraction," Sev said out loud, and then glanced to his system. He might as well check his messages like he said he would —

There was a new one from the Guildmaster. Huh.

He still had trouble remembering her by her name, even though she'd told them what it was. Probably an effect of her specific set of skills. He could remember it with effort if he tried — Alyssa — but for the most part, he still just thought of her as 'the Guildmaster'.

[You're passing by a village that could really use your help,] she had sent. [I can't spare any other adventurers at the moment or I wouldn't ask you. We're getting reports of some really abnormal activity from the dungeon near Halis. Think you can make a small detour while the Elyrans go ahead?]

[We can do that,] Sev sent back, feeling — oddly enough — relieved. A task was a distraction, and dungeons were something he was familiar with. [I'll get my team and keep you updated. Anything we should be aware of?]

Sev was only halfway to Derivan and the others when the Guildmaster replied. [There are reports of Void-infected monsters with Void aspect skills. You're probably the only team that can actually deal with those.]

[Is this happening anywhere else?] Sev asked, suddenly worried.

[Not that we are aware of. I'll send you an update if we get any more reports.] A short pause. [Be careful. Those aren't the only anomalies that have been reported in the area. The dungeon's boundaries are fluctuating and the geography within is unstable. We don't have any good information otherwise because most of the people that have gone in have died.]

Well, that wasn't encouraging. [I'll keep you updated in case you need to send anyone after us,] Sev sent back, hoping his dryness would translate into text. Then he paused and added it anyway. [Assume I said that in the dryest tone of voice imaginable.]

The Guildmaster didn't deign that one with a response, which was probably fair. Sev shifted his attention to the raucous sounds of his teammates-slash-family, who were just about now coming into view.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Somehow Sev wasn't entirely surprised to see Vex sitting on Derivan's shoulders.

"Guys," he called out. He let the divine domain of Sound carry his voice, which was technically an abuse of the power, but the Goddess of Sound, it turned out, delighted in this sort of use of her domain. "We've got a mission."

"A mission besides the one that we're on already?" Misa asked, raising an eyebrow and gesturing to the Elyrans milling around.

"Yes," Sev said plainly. "The refugees don't need us to guard them every step of the way, and we can portal back to them with Shift if there's an emergency. But the Guild doesn't have enough people to send around, and apparently we're uniquely suited to solve this particular problem."

"What problem's that?" Vex asked. Sev looked up at the lizardkin, blinking away the sun in his eyes. It was weird to be talking up to Vex, for once; he was used to the lizardkin being significantly shorter than all of them.

"Rogue dungeon," Sev said simply. "Something's going haywire over at Halis and we're the best team to figure it out. It's got Void-aspect monsters and everything, so we're going to have to be careful."

"Well, shit," Misa said. Sev noted that despite her words being grave, she was having trouble hiding the grin on her face. "Guess we gotta deal with this, then."

"...You're just itching for a fight, aren't you," Sev deadpanned.

"I haven't had a good fight in weeks, and the Void isn't a problem I can usually punch in the face," Misa said, folding her arms.

"Yeah! Punch the Void in the face!" Vex cheered.

Sev stared at him, then at Misa. "...Did you get him drunk?"

"No, he got himself drunk, because Helix told him he couldn't hold his alcohol," Misa said. She looked amused.

"I've been gone for all of five minutes," Sev grumbled. He poked Vex in the small of his back, washing him over with a sobering spell that made the wizard sit up straight with a gasp. "Come on."

Halis wasn't far from where they'd set up camp. With a minor speed buff from Sev and Vex combined, they made it to the village in a little under half an hour, and Sev immediately realized that something was wrong.

"Stop," he ordered. Derivan had already stopped, and was holding a hand out to prevent Vex from stepping forward any further. Misa took a second longer to parse the instruction, but stopped before she crossed the boundary and into the dungeon.

This wasn't a village anymore. The entirety of Halis was under the domain of the dungeon.

"This wasn't what the Guildmaster said," Sev muttered, mostly to himself. "She mentioned the dungeon boundaries fluctuating, but she would've said something if it had managed to absorb the entire village."

"It is likely to be a recent change." Derivan's eyes glowed gently as he scanned the area in front of them, presumably using Shift to determine the exact dungeon boundary. Sev could sense that something was wrong, because he could sense an area ahead where the domain of divinity simply cut off, like a deadzone to the gods — and even that was a problem. Dungeons were not impermeable to divinity. Healing spells had always had their full effect within a dungeon.

"The line is here," Derivan added, using a spark of mana to trace a web of lines over the dungeon boundary. "The dungeon appears to have a compromised reality anchor. I am analyzing it with Patch."

A small pause. Sev waited to see what Derivan would find, and Vex looked ahead worriedly at the village of Halis. There were still no signs of life. Misa's fists were clenched, impatience skittering across her expression.

"...The Void is directly interfering with the integrity and self-destruct mechanism in the anchor," Derivan said. There was a clear frown in his voice. "I cannot repair it. Any repair I attempt is immediately dissolved. The infection does not currently appear to be progressing, but it is likely only a matter of time."

"Shit," Sev muttered. "Is there anything we can actually do about it?"

"I suspect delving the dungeon will only make things worse," Derivan said. He paused for a moment, scanning something that was invisible to Sev, and when he spoke again it was with significantly more concern. "If I am interpreting this correctly, the recent domain expansion is almost certainly due to a successful delve. The Void appears to hijack the mechanism used to distribute rewards to distribute itself throughout the anchor."

"That sounds worryingly like it's intelligent," Vex said, shuddering slightly.

"I do not believe that it is." Derivan hesitated. "But the Void may be... echoing the intelligence of the people it has consumed. What it is doing here is not unlike some of the Remembrances I gained from my time in the Void."

"Why now?" Misa demanded. "What's different?"

"Nothing," Sev says quietly. "We can reset the world with the anchors, but we can't reset the Void. It's been growing, and the anchors have been breaking. The system won't be able to keep things intact for much longer."

He took a breath. "We will go in and evacuate the village, if there is anyone left to evacuate. We will not interact with the dungeon more than necessary. Do not accept any dungeon challenges, do not accept any dungeon rewards. In and out as quickly as possible. Derivan, can you sense anyone in the village?"

Derivan shook his head. "The internal geometry is greatly warped," he said. "There are signs of life, but no certain location. I can barely get Shift to work within its boundaries, and I cannot open any portals."

"Alright," Sev said. "Doesn't matter. If we know people are alive, we're going in. I'm going to send an update to the Guildmaster so she knows delving dungeons might make things worse. Sound good?"

Everyone agreed, and together, they stepped through the dungeon boundary.

Xothok stood in front of a massive steel door. Ale— Alyssa was beside him, making a few last-minute checks on her gear. She muttered a low complaint to herself as she realized that yet another one of her daggers had begun to crack and fall apart, small filaments of Void rendering it unusable.

Then she glanced up, as though alerted by the system, and narrowed her eyes. "Shit," she said.

"What?" Xothok asked. Alyssa cursing was almost never a good sign.

"We may not want to complete this dungeon." She glanced up at the iron door, scanning it as if hoping she could find an answer there. "The symptoms here are very similar to what Sev and his crew are experiencing, and they've reported that completing a delve can make the dungeon worse."

"...Isn't the whole point of delves to maintain dungeons?" Xothok asked. He was pretty sure that was what he'd heard in the briefing. Then again, he also hadn't been completely paying attention during the meeting.

"Yep." Alyssa frowned, glancing back down the passage at the way they'd come. It was sealed off — this was a dungeon that sealed them into a bubble of stone as they navigated an invisible maze, the walls opening before them and closing behind them. It corralled them slowly towards the boss room, too. Xothok could sense the passageways in the earth shifting every so often, making it so that every step they took led them further and deeper in.

There was, theoretically, no way to leave.

"Think we have a choice?" Alyssa asked.

Xothok considered the question for a moment. He thought about what he'd come here to do — to reconnect with Alyssa and learn more about how her life had gone. Alyssa had joked about it being... a date? And Xothok had mostly managed to keep a straight face and hide the fact that he was interested.

She'd also shown him up the entire way here, being Platinum and all.

But this dungeon was a maze, and he had been an [Astral Navigator].

"'Course we do." Xothok felt a grin creep up his expression. It had been a long time since he'd felt like he was having an adventure. Getting into this dungeon had felt like a job.

Getting out?

Now that felt like it could be fun.