80: Mother vs Mother

“Ready!” she promised. Nu hesitated for a few seconds.

“You... really are a good Core... a... friend... even,” he mumbled and the white mass slipped past before Delta could even think of a response.

It was like she was swallowing an ocean. It just kept coming and coming, bitter and cold. She gulped and it felt like she couldn’t push forward to reach the purchase button. The waves of Mana and Dp earned for the fight overwhelmed her and almost promised to push her so far down into darkness, she would never come back.

She fought, she screamed, and she clawed forward towards the only colour.

The fading blue smile of knowing. Knowing that Delta was going to be just fine.

That was enough to make the last few inches possible. The knowledge that she had people waiting for her.

She had spiders to fix... a tunnel to look at...

Dear lord, what if Adventurers came? She’d never live down the state she was in.

Her finger smashed the screen as her body threatened to pop with the sheer resources gathering in her tight frame.

The message was clear.

“Don’t let it be... dragons for the third floor... please,” she mumbled and sweet warm orange overtook her senses as everything began to shake.

---

Nu was flung out of the core room as the Dungeon shook and shuddered. Space and dimensions shifted wildly to connect the Second floor to this new space. Nu wasn’t sure what was going on, but the space felt... different than the first to the second floor.

Delta was cleanly absorbed back into the core and his human form lingered. He was confused why until Sys appeared with information.

Sys began to flicker badly and Nu went to grab her.

Error. Repurposed area.

Nu pursed his lips.

This was Delta’s fault somehow... if not...it was just her damned luck.

Behind the core, stairs formed. Cold stone things that radiated darkness and the feeling of disturbing something alien.

That was when the truly strangest thing of all happened in Nu’s short experience.

A lizard-like creature sprinted up the stairs, looking around in crazed amazement.

“A Dungeon! Excellent! Come, come! No time to waste!” the thing almost sang. From behind him came the sounds of rattling and clacking. The lizard turned with a slow crazed smile.

“Not today, you spooky bastards!” he howled and hurled a glowing red orb down the stairs. A wave of fire and heat roared over the stairs and stained the stone black with soot. The lizard creature... a kobold turned with a shake of his head.

“They’ll be back,” he told the room. Nu tried to speak but his voice had faded. The Kobold sniffed around Delta’s core with a long interested sniff.

He began to juggle his damn grenades and looked thoughtful as he made all the orbs just vanish down his sleeve.

“The name is... Jack,” he said, tasting the words as if not one had asked his name for a long time.

“I’ve been down there for about... 40 years? No... 30!... 50? Ah, who cares but thank gods, you came, you beautiful thing!” Jack hugged Delta’s core causing Nu to growl and use the last of his strength to send an order.

The doors open to the core.

The group of Rale, Devina, Renny, Luna, Giant, and Gramps made the Kobold pause. Instead of looking worried, the damn thing looked even more overjoyed!

“Yes! Best day ever since I learned how to turn creep moss into edible food!” he yelled. He gained that mad glint in his eyes again.

“So is it time to settle the score?” he grinned.

Nu stared for a long moment, he looked to see more Mana gathering in the core. The dent used to buy the third floor still filling up but much slower.

“Delta... hurry back. I don’t want to deal with this,” he whispered, almost begging as Luna kicked the damn Kobold back down the stairs in surprise.

Nu just wanted a nice water level with mecha sharks and sword-wielding Octopi... was that too much to ask for?