Chapter 80: Mother vs Mother
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Chapter 80: Mother vs Mother
The thick sickly purple haze was seeping in despite Nu’s best efforts. Delta hovered over the Circus room with uncertainty. The Spider mana ducked one way but split at the last second, gaining ground as Nu was stuck as one being. His use of fake information boxes and pulling on Delta’s Mana had only worked for so long.
The deep hunger and excitement that infected the Spider Mana grew eager as Nu slipped up at a crucial moment, the purple mana was about to breach into the main room of the second floor and who knew what that would do for the Queen.
The flow of Spiders was slow but if she got closer to Delta’s core... she might start being able to do some real nasty things with the existing spiders or making something worse.
Wilhelm growled as he limped out of the room. The corpse of the Titan Spider left behind. The giant silver ape’s body was covered in countless bite marks and holes where sharp legs had pierced his beautiful fur, staining it red. The ape was deeply injured and Delta could only urge him to retreat.
The rush of the Queen’s Mana washed over Nu and the box began to fritz and smoke.
“No!” Delta cried and dove without hesitation towards him.
“Let him go, you monster!” she demanded. Oddly the purple haze was startled and something Delta hadn’t noticed before rushed forward. Passive orange motes of light that had been either moved by Nu or devoured by the Queen suddenly roared to action crashing hard against the Queen. The smell of burning mushrooms and nature smashed against the feeling of mad hunger.
The Dungeon around Delta seemed to suddenly break like a fragile piece of stained glass. The image she was used to; creation filtered through pieces of coloured glass and angles was stripped away as the universe laid bare before her.
Her Dungeon stretched to infinite possibilities and space... how small Delta was so far.
The scene she saw was like a shimmering mass of Mana. There was nothing physical here... nothing quite real or fake.
This was a chessboard of another kind. A view from just the two Queens... the two mothers.
Delta at one end of the system and existence... the Queen at the other.
Her core was a star in the constantly churning sea of colours. Her star blazed orange and in the same galaxy... the same solar system was a growing mass of ugly black holes and eyes. From her sun rotated two planets. One a deep green orb of pride, too distant to cut the growing cancer on Delta’s existence, the other a brown planet with green seas. It guarded her sun with bristled fury. Volcanoes exploded on her surface, continents shook, and the visage of Wyin was exposed to Delta’s eye.
Delta wasn’t bound to walls, floors, and rock. Her existence, her creation, her very meaning blazed around in this sea of Mana and purpose. Her monsters, all of them, floated around her boss monsters like flickering moons or soaring comets.
Ready to defend her light to their end.
Delta felt oddly calm as she watched the growing cancer... the Spider Queen swing with sickly black swarms of slime. Easily, she flicked a desire and a solar flare from her light easily repelled it.
She thought of only one thing. To defend her worlds, defend her system, to defeat this invader!
She screamed in challenge as some primal part of her demanded action. Inside her sun, the number 4 glowed a deep red in warning to the approaching Queen.
---
Nu felt oddly displaced as Delta’s warm light suddenly dove into the Spider Queen’s Mana and his worry faded.
Delta just... merged with the very Dungeon air and walls and water... Delta and Dungeon were one and Nu couldn’t even find a way to contact her mind. At the same time, the Spider Queen had also stopped advancing. Nu watched with fascination as the the very base of all Dungeon existence, the Mana, began to attack the purple Mana.
Like an immune system response that had turned on at Delta’s sudden offense. He felt the Dungeon shake and he spun to float outside.
At his failure to stop the Queen, she had evolved another damn Titan Spider! Unlike people... monsters did not lock him nor did it seem that the Dungeon prevented invading monsters from upgrading themselves in response.
The looming force was doing its best to ram down the suddenly sealed stone doors to Wyin’s chamber. A few bees and Devina seemed to be trying to take it down but it wasn’t enough. Without Delta’s awareness, her monsters seemed to be struggling to deal with the sudden absence of their mother, worry clouding their actions as they tried to win the physical battle of the Dungeon.
This would not do.
“Sys, I need higher control to handle the forces!” he pinged the System but the feminine voice that was usually so cheery came back with a snap.
“Authority is not to be managed right now! I am preventing corruption. Delta... Delta? Delta is... oh...” Sys faltered as for the first time she seemed to fully analyze the situation.
“Delta is being a damn good Dungeon Core right now so stop wasting precious nanoseconds and give me the damn control modulation!” Nu snapped back. There was a pause.
“Be careful, last time you went kind nuts,” she warned. There was a feeling of influxed Mana and Nu’s box, his lovely box... grew legs.
Damn it.
The torso formed next, then arms, eyes, and that damn fur called hair.
He floated there, a midnight blue human male. Urgh, Delta must have soaked too deeply into the authority seat to allow anything but a human shape at this point. He flexed his fingers and what seemed like empty space between orange motes of Mana, midnight blue ones popped into existence.
“Attention, you idiotic, overgrown children. Delta is busy and I will not tolerate her coming back to see you all dead or worse... making me look bad! Now get your minds into the fight and DESTROY THE TITAN SPIDER BEFORE I FIGURE OUT IF THIS BODY CAN HAVE A DAMN BRAIN ANEURYSM!” Nu growled all over the floor.
There was a few precious seconds of pause before the army of Bees began to swarm the Spider. Rale and Luna weren’t far behind. He felt Bob dragging a fair amount of the spiders into the water, his fear now gone, replaced by determination!
Even his damn little crabs snipped off legs where they could.
That was more how Nu liked it!
---
Delta watched as her Sun seemed to grow a shadow.
A demonically blue and cold star that sat conjoined to her own blazing sun, tiny but visible.
The star didn’t scare Delta, in fact... she felt even better with it around.
“Trickery! Foul core, change your colour all you like. You will be mine,” the black mass promised gleefully.
Voices. Words. Delta actually found them a little distasteful in this state. Were her intent and emotions not visible? Did it have to resort to such base taunting? Could it not display the most simple of expressions with her feelings?
This Queen was really beginning to irk her.
“Fine, let’s talk. You should go home, stop killing your kids, and seal the tunnel. I’m being very nice right now but I won’t tolerate you killing my children,” Delta called out, tendrils of solar flares arched with her voice, creating vibrant waves of force. The black mass laughed.
“Children? They are drones to an end. My real children will be born when I use your heart as a nest. My domain will eclipse your Dungeon and together they will form an Abyss!” the howl came back and the black mass was actually beginning to take a form.
A torso and rough head formed first but the Queen was slowly becoming more concrete with her image. Delta felt a pulse of rage hit her.
Her sun blazed hot and red.
“Drones? They’re dying for you! They love you!” Delta yelled, the feeling of the fanatical devotion the Spiders fought with only too clear. The Universe around them grew colder as the Queen merely looked bored. Yes... she had her eight eyes now.
“Love? How pointless. There is only power and they fear my power. It is their world. I peered into your realm. Sickly webs you spin with love and promises. Your ‘children’ will die knowing you have failed them in their moment of death. A sweet soup I will drink,” the Queen mocked.
“You.. are a monster,” Delta whispered. The Queen brushed long silvery hair out of her cold face. A crown of spindly legs formed around her head. A cloak of regal black covering her nude body.
“No more than you. We are both Mothers of monsters. You merely lie to yourself. Pity... sad,” came the response as she lashed out with countless more dark waves of spiders, each ready to die for their Mot... their creator.
Delta only stared at the cold, cruel brutality of the being before her.
Her planets seemed to slow, the comets, and moons seemed to pause to wait for Delta’s response.
Her planets, her rocks, her children, her friends, her family... her home.
“Just lay down and die to the superior mother!” the Queen laughed into the darkness of the Universe.
Delta looked up and held up one finger.
“First off,” she stated and a burning pillar of flame exploded from her sun and the waves were burned to a crisp. The Queen looked startled.
“You are no mother. If there was child protective services on this planet, I’d have them here so fast I’d cause a rip in the time space continuum then shove you into the rip with pleasure,” she walked forward and behind her, the Sun began to expand as her planets, comets, and moons fled inside, taking shelter and becoming covered in her protection. The blue sun began to orbit like a moon around her own.
“How... no! You were not this powerful!” the Queen choked. Delta held up a second finger and her sun began to consume all in it’s path as it expanded more.
“Second off. You are such a cliche of a horrid villain that I am actually ashamed that you came to my dungeon. You’re boring, uninteresting and have no depths beyond ‘woo I’m so evil’. Please, I do not have time to waste on such a one-act pony spider,” Delta announced. The Queen began to spin,trying to spread out a wall of darkness to appear bigger but she had retreated.
Delta kept walking forward.
“Enough! I will not be mocked by such a failure of a Dungeon!” the Queen rushed forward and Delta sniffed once and backhanded the wave her fire burning the cloak of darkness and crown that had been forming on the spider woman.
The Queen looked shocked as she touched her orange stained cheek. Delta held up three fingers.
The feeling of drowning halted for a moment.
“Not... a good time to talk. The Mana is coming. The Frogs are throwing what they can into the tunnel but there’s so many... plus the two Titan spiders,” Nu trailed off. Delta’s head began to spin.
“T-two?!” she asked in shocked horror but the Mana began to press again. She shook that question off.
“What can we do? I can’t... I don’t think I can handle that again!” she said in a panic. Nu’s body seemed to be pushed forward by the mass of white Mana gathering behind him.
“The Third Floor... it’s our only chance. If you can purchase it once I begin to leak the Mana... Sys can knock you out and I’ll drain enough Mana on stupid crap you’ll love and then we can get back together and everything can go back to normal!” Nu yelled as his efforts began to cause pain to shoot across the features of his face.
“I can’t leave you to deal with this alon-” she tried to argue but Nu’s deep blue eyes, darker than the rest of him met hers.
“I am just... a Menu. Nothing special. You are the Core. We need you intact,” he panted. Delta reached out and not expecting it... she grabbed Nu’s hand.
He stared for a second as tendrils of white Mana began to float past.
Delta couldn’t move. Nu’s hand was warm... he was real.
To Delta Nu was real.
“You’re special to me... don’t ever forget it. Delta is no good without her Nu,” she explained as the haze of bloated Mana collected in the pit of her stomach.
The fading face of Nu suddenly smirked.
“I know. Honestly, you’d be a wreck without me. But just listen to me... just this once,” he said, his voice turning gentle.
“I’ll be fine. Trust me, hm?” he pushed, a small smile playing around his lips. Delta felt his warm hand becoming fainter and fainter.
“O-okay but if I wake up and you’re gone or injured, I’ll explode my sun on you so hard you’ll have to come back!” she warned seriously. Nu blinked.
“Explode your... sun- No, no time! Are you ready? Do you have the Menu open and ready?” he shouted, startling Delta into action.
Third Floor: 300 DP
“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.
Third Floor Purchased. Thank you for your purchase. Sleep well, Delta.
“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.
Acting Core, please choose a theme for the area.
Lava
Ocean
Mountai-
Sys began to flicker badly and Nu went to grab her.
Error. Repurposed area.
Theme selected. Please pass on my apologies. Unstable energies detected. Floor 3 is invading sealed space.
Theme... The Silent’s Fortress. Main foes determined.
Undead.
New monster granted to Core for the third floor.
Trolls unlocked.
Factors of third floor. Cannot make new rooms, Space is predetermined and allocated. Defeat the enemies to take over rooms! Boss room in use.
Defeat the boss!
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?
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Chapter 80: Mother vs Mother
The thick sickly purple haze was seeping in despite Nu’s best efforts. Delta hovered over the Circus room with uncertainty. The Spider mana ducked one way but split at the last second, gaining ground as Nu was stuck as one being. His use of fake information boxes and pulling on Delta’s Mana had only worked for so long.
The deep hunger and excitement that infected the Spider Mana grew eager as Nu slipped up at a crucial moment, the purple mana was about to breach into the main room of the second floor and who knew what that would do for the Queen.
The flow of Spiders was slow but if she got closer to Delta’s core... she might start being able to do some real nasty things with the existing spiders or making something worse.
Wilhelm growled as he limped out of the room. The corpse of the Titan Spider left behind. The giant silver ape’s body was covered in countless bite marks and holes where sharp legs had pierced his beautiful fur, staining it red. The ape was deeply injured and Delta could only urge him to retreat.
The rush of the Queen’s Mana washed over Nu and the box began to fritz and smoke.
“No!” Delta cried and dove without hesitation towards him.
“Let him go, you monster!” she demanded. Oddly the purple haze was startled and something Delta hadn’t noticed before rushed forward. Passive orange motes of light that had been either moved by Nu or devoured by the Queen suddenly roared to action crashing hard against the Queen. The smell of burning mushrooms and nature smashed against the feeling of mad hunger.
The Dungeon around Delta seemed to suddenly break like a fragile piece of stained glass. The image she was used to; creation filtered through pieces of coloured glass and angles was stripped away as the universe laid bare before her.
Her Dungeon stretched to infinite possibilities and space... how small Delta was so far.
The scene she saw was like a shimmering mass of Mana. There was nothing physical here... nothing quite real or fake.
This was a chessboard of another kind. A view from just the two Queens... the two mothers.
Delta at one end of the system and existence... the Queen at the other.
Her core was a star in the constantly churning sea of colours. Her star blazed orange and in the same galaxy... the same solar system was a growing mass of ugly black holes and eyes. From her sun rotated two planets. One a deep green orb of pride, too distant to cut the growing cancer on Delta’s existence, the other a brown planet with green seas. It guarded her sun with bristled fury. Volcanoes exploded on her surface, continents shook, and the visage of Wyin was exposed to Delta’s eye.
Delta wasn’t bound to walls, floors, and rock. Her existence, her creation, her very meaning blazed around in this sea of Mana and purpose. Her monsters, all of them, floated around her boss monsters like flickering moons or soaring comets.
Ready to defend her light to their end.
Delta felt oddly calm as she watched the growing cancer... the Spider Queen swing with sickly black swarms of slime. Easily, she flicked a desire and a solar flare from her light easily repelled it.
She thought of only one thing. To defend her worlds, defend her system, to defeat this invader!
She screamed in challenge as some primal part of her demanded action. Inside her sun, the number 4 glowed a deep red in warning to the approaching Queen.
---
Nu felt oddly displaced as Delta’s warm light suddenly dove into the Spider Queen’s Mana and his worry faded.
Delta just... merged with the very Dungeon air and walls and water... Delta and Dungeon were one and Nu couldn’t even find a way to contact her mind. At the same time, the Spider Queen had also stopped advancing. Nu watched with fascination as the the very base of all Dungeon existence, the Mana, began to attack the purple Mana.
Like an immune system response that had turned on at Delta’s sudden offense. He felt the Dungeon shake and he spun to float outside.
At his failure to stop the Queen, she had evolved another damn Titan Spider! Unlike people... monsters did not lock him nor did it seem that the Dungeon prevented invading monsters from upgrading themselves in response.
The looming force was doing its best to ram down the suddenly sealed stone doors to Wyin’s chamber. A few bees and Devina seemed to be trying to take it down but it wasn’t enough. Without Delta’s awareness, her monsters seemed to be struggling to deal with the sudden absence of their mother, worry clouding their actions as they tried to win the physical battle of the Dungeon.
This would not do.
“Sys, I need higher control to handle the forces!” he pinged the System but the feminine voice that was usually so cheery came back with a snap.
“Authority is not to be managed right now! I am preventing corruption. Delta... Delta? Delta is... oh...” Sys faltered as for the first time she seemed to fully analyze the situation.
“Delta is being a damn good Dungeon Core right now so stop wasting precious nanoseconds and give me the damn control modulation!” Nu snapped back. There was a pause.
“Be careful, last time you went kind nuts,” she warned. There was a feeling of influxed Mana and Nu’s box, his lovely box... grew legs.
Damn it.
The torso formed next, then arms, eyes, and that damn fur called hair.
He floated there, a midnight blue human male. Urgh, Delta must have soaked too deeply into the authority seat to allow anything but a human shape at this point. He flexed his fingers and what seemed like empty space between orange motes of Mana, midnight blue ones popped into existence.
“Attention, you idiotic, overgrown children. Delta is busy and I will not tolerate her coming back to see you all dead or worse... making me look bad! Now get your minds into the fight and DESTROY THE TITAN SPIDER BEFORE I FIGURE OUT IF THIS BODY CAN HAVE A DAMN BRAIN ANEURYSM!” Nu growled all over the floor.
There was a few precious seconds of pause before the army of Bees began to swarm the Spider. Rale and Luna weren’t far behind. He felt Bob dragging a fair amount of the spiders into the water, his fear now gone, replaced by determination!
Even his damn little crabs snipped off legs where they could.
That was more how Nu liked it!
---
Delta watched as her Sun seemed to grow a shadow.
A demonically blue and cold star that sat conjoined to her own blazing sun, tiny but visible.
The star didn’t scare Delta, in fact... she felt even better with it around.
“Trickery! Foul core, change your colour all you like. You will be mine,” the black mass promised gleefully.
Voices. Words. Delta actually found them a little distasteful in this state. Were her intent and emotions not visible? Did it have to resort to such base taunting? Could it not display the most simple of expressions with her feelings?
This Queen was really beginning to irk her.
“Fine, let’s talk. You should go home, stop killing your kids, and seal the tunnel. I’m being very nice right now but I won’t tolerate you killing my children,” Delta called out, tendrils of solar flares arched with her voice, creating vibrant waves of force. The black mass laughed.
“Children? They are drones to an end. My real children will be born when I use your heart as a nest. My domain will eclipse your Dungeon and together they will form an Abyss!” the howl came back and the black mass was actually beginning to take a form.
A torso and rough head formed first but the Queen was slowly becoming more concrete with her image. Delta felt a pulse of rage hit her.
Her sun blazed hot and red.
“Drones? They’re dying for you! They love you!” Delta yelled, the feeling of the fanatical devotion the Spiders fought with only too clear. The Universe around them grew colder as the Queen merely looked bored. Yes... she had her eight eyes now.
“Love? How pointless. There is only power and they fear my power. It is their world. I peered into your realm. Sickly webs you spin with love and promises. Your ‘children’ will die knowing you have failed them in their moment of death. A sweet soup I will drink,” the Queen mocked.
“You.. are a monster,” Delta whispered. The Queen brushed long silvery hair out of her cold face. A crown of spindly legs formed around her head. A cloak of regal black covering her nude body.
“No more than you. We are both Mothers of monsters. You merely lie to yourself. Pity... sad,” came the response as she lashed out with countless more dark waves of spiders, each ready to die for their Mot... their creator.
Delta only stared at the cold, cruel brutality of the being before her.
Her planets seemed to slow, the comets, and moons seemed to pause to wait for Delta’s response.
Her planets, her rocks, her children, her friends, her family... her home.
“Just lay down and die to the superior mother!” the Queen laughed into the darkness of the Universe.
Delta looked up and held up one finger.
“First off,” she stated and a burning pillar of flame exploded from her sun and the waves were burned to a crisp. The Queen looked startled.
“You are no mother. If there was child protective services on this planet, I’d have them here so fast I’d cause a rip in the time space continuum then shove you into the rip with pleasure,” she walked forward and behind her, the Sun began to expand as her planets, comets, and moons fled inside, taking shelter and becoming covered in her protection. The blue sun began to orbit like a moon around her own.
“How... no! You were not this powerful!” the Queen choked. Delta held up a second finger and her sun began to consume all in it’s path as it expanded more.
“Second off. You are such a cliche of a horrid villain that I am actually ashamed that you came to my dungeon. You’re boring, uninteresting and have no depths beyond ‘woo I’m so evil’. Please, I do not have time to waste on such a one-act pony spider,” Delta announced. The Queen began to spin,trying to spread out a wall of darkness to appear bigger but she had retreated.
Delta kept walking forward.
“Enough! I will not be mocked by such a failure of a Dungeon!” the Queen rushed forward and Delta sniffed once and backhanded the wave her fire burning the cloak of darkness and crown that had been forming on the spider woman.
The Queen looked shocked as she touched her orange stained cheek. Delta held up three fingers.
The feeling of drowning halted for a moment.
“Not... a good time to talk. The Mana is coming. The Frogs are throwing what they can into the tunnel but there’s so many... plus the two Titan spiders,” Nu trailed off. Delta’s head began to spin.
“T-two?!” she asked in shocked horror but the Mana began to press again. She shook that question off.
“What can we do? I can’t... I don’t think I can handle that again!” she said in a panic. Nu’s body seemed to be pushed forward by the mass of white Mana gathering behind him.
“The Third Floor... it’s our only chance. If you can purchase it once I begin to leak the Mana... Sys can knock you out and I’ll drain enough Mana on stupid crap you’ll love and then we can get back together and everything can go back to normal!” Nu yelled as his efforts began to cause pain to shoot across the features of his face.
“I can’t leave you to deal with this alon-” she tried to argue but Nu’s deep blue eyes, darker than the rest of him met hers.
“I am just... a Menu. Nothing special. You are the Core. We need you intact,” he panted. Delta reached out and not expecting it... she grabbed Nu’s hand.
He stared for a second as tendrils of white Mana began to float past.
Delta couldn’t move. Nu’s hand was warm... he was real.
To Delta Nu was real.
“You’re special to me... don’t ever forget it. Delta is no good without her Nu,” she explained as the haze of bloated Mana collected in the pit of her stomach.
The fading face of Nu suddenly smirked.
“I know. Honestly, you’d be a wreck without me. But just listen to me... just this once,” he said, his voice turning gentle.
“I’ll be fine. Trust me, hm?” he pushed, a small smile playing around his lips. Delta felt his warm hand becoming fainter and fainter.
“O-okay but if I wake up and you’re gone or injured, I’ll explode my sun on you so hard you’ll have to come back!” she warned seriously. Nu blinked.
“Explode your... sun- No, no time! Are you ready? Do you have the Menu open and ready?” he shouted, startling Delta into action.
Third Floor: 300 DP
“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.
Third Floor Purchased. Thank you for your purchase. Sleep well, Delta.
“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.
Acting Core, please choose a theme for the area.
Lava
Ocean
Mountai-
Sys began to flicker badly and Nu went to grab her.
Error. Repurposed area.
Theme selected. Please pass on my apologies. Unstable energies detected. Floor 3 is invading sealed space.
Theme... The Silent’s Fortress. Main foes determined.
Undead.
New monster granted to Core for the third floor.
Trolls unlocked.
Factors of third floor. Cannot make new rooms, Space is predetermined and allocated. Defeat the enemies to take over rooms! Boss room in use.
Defeat the boss!
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?
Chapter 80: Mother vs MotherThe thick sickly purple haze was seeping in despite Nu's best efforts. Delta hovered over the Circus room with uncertainty. The Spider mana ducked one way but split at the last second, gaining ground as Nu was stuck as one being. His use of fake information boxes and pulling on Delta's Mana had only worked for so long.The deep hunger and excitement that infected the Spider Mana grew eager as Nu slipped up at a crucial moment, the purple mana was about to breach into the main room of the second floor and who knew what that would do for the Queen.The flow of Spiders was slow but if she got closer to Delta's core... she might start being able to do some real nasty things with the existing spiders or making something worse.Wilhelm growled as he limped out of the room. The corpse of the Titan Spider left behind. The giant silver ape's body was covered in countless bite marks and holes where sharp legs had pierced his beautiful fur, staining it red. The ape was deeply injured and Delta could only urge him to retreat.The rush of the Queen's Mana washed over Nu and the box began to fritz and smoke.No! Delta cried and dove without hesitation towards him.Let him go, you monster! she demanded. Oddly the purple haze was startled and something Delta hadn't noticed before rushed forward. Passive orange motes of light that had been either moved by Nu or devoured by the Queen suddenly roared to action crashing hard against the Queen. The smell of burning mushrooms and nature smashed against the feeling of mad hunger.The Dungeon around Delta seemed to suddenly break like a fragile piece of stained glass. The image she was used to; creation filtered through pieces of coloured glass and angles was stripped away as the universe laid bare before her.Her Dungeon stretched to infinite possibilities and space... how small Delta was so far.The scene she saw was like a shimmering mass of Mana. There was nothing physical here... nothing quite real or fake.This was a chessboard of another kind. A view from just the two Queens... the two mothers.Delta at one end of the system and existence... the Queen at the other.Her core was a star in the constantly churning sea of colours. Her star blazed orange and in the same galaxy... the same solar system was a growing mass of ugly black holes and eyes. From her sun rotated two planets. One a deep green orb of pride, too distant to cut the growing cancer on Delta's existence, the other a brown planet with green seas. It guarded her sun with bristled fury. Volcanoes exploded on her surface, continents shook, and the visage of Wyin was exposed to Delta's eye.Delta wasn't bound to walls, floors, and rock. Her existence, her creation, her very meaning blazed around in this sea of Mana and purpose. Her monsters, all of them, floated around her boss monsters like flickering moons or soaring comets.Ready to defend her light to their end.Delta felt oddly calm as she watched the growing cancer... the Spider Queen swing with sickly black swarms of slime. Easily, she flicked a desire and a solar flare from her light easily repelled it.She thought of only one thing. To defend her worlds, defend her system, to defeat this invader!She screamed in challenge as some primal part of her demanded action. Inside her sun, the number 4 glowed a deep red in warning to the approaching Queen.---Nu felt oddly displaced as Delta's warm light suddenly dove into the Spider Queen's Mana and his worry faded.Delta just... merged with the very Dungeon air and walls and water... Delta and Dungeon were one and Nu couldn't even find a way to contact her mind. At the same time, the Spider Queen had also stopped advancing. Nu watched with fascination as the the very base of all Dungeon existence, the Mana, began to attack the purple Mana.Like an immune system response that had turned on at Delta's sudden offense. He felt the Dungeon shake and he spun to float outside.At his failure to stop the Queen, she had evolved another damn Titan Spider! Unlike people... monsters did not lock him nor did it seem that the Dungeon prevented invading monsters from upgrading themselves in response.The looming force was doing its best to ram down the suddenly sealed stone doors to Wyin's chamber. A few bees and Devina seemed to be trying to take it down but it wasn't enough. Without Delta's awareness, her monsters seemed to be struggling to deal with the sudden absence of their mother, worry clouding their actions as they tried to win the physical battle of the Dungeon.This would not do.Sys, I need higher control to handle the forces! he pinged the System but the feminine voice that was usually so cheery came back with a snap.Authority is not to be managed right now! I am preventing corruption. Delta... Delta? Delta is... oh... Sys faltered as for the first time she seemed to fully analyze the situation.Delta is being a damn good Dungeon Core right now so stop wasting precious nanoseconds and give me the damn control modulation! Nu snapped back. There was a pause.Be careful, last time you went kind nuts, she warned. There was a feeling of influxed Mana and Nu's box, his lovely box... grew legs.Damn it.The torso formed next, then arms, eyes, and that damn fur called hair.He floated there, a midnight blue human male. Urgh, Delta must have soaked too deeply into the authority seat to allow anything but a human shape at this point. He flexed his fingers and what seemed like empty space between orange motes of Mana, midnight blue ones popped into existence.Attention, you idiotic, overgrown children. Delta is busy and I will not tolerate her coming back to see you all dead or worse... making me look bad! Now get your minds into the fight and DESTROY THE TITAN SPIDER BEFORE I FIGURE OUT IF THIS BODY CAN HAVE A DAMN BRAIN ANEURYSM! Nu growled all over the floor.There was a few precious seconds of pause before the army of Bees began to swarm the Spider. Rale and Luna weren't far behind. He felt Bob dragging a fair amount of the spiders into the water, his fear now gone, replaced by determination!Even his damn little crabs snipped off legs where they could.That was more how Nu liked it!---Delta watched as her Sun seemed to grow a shadow.A demonically blue and cold star that sat conjoined to her own blazing sun, tiny but visible.The star didn't scare Delta, in fact... she felt even better with it around.Trickery! Foul core, change your colour all you like. You will be mine, the black mass promised gleefully.Voices. Words. Delta actually found them a little distasteful in this state. Were her intent and emotions not visible? Did it have to resort to such base taunting? Could it not display the most simple of expressions with her feelings?This Queen was really beginning to irk her.Fine, let's talk. You should go home, stop killing your kids, and seal the tunnel. I'm being very nice right now but I won't tolerate you killing my children, Delta called out, tendrils of solar flares arched with her voice, creating vibrant waves of force. The black mass laughed.Children? They are drones to an end. My real children will be born when I use your heart as a nest. My domain will eclipse your Dungeon and together they will form an Abyss! the howl came back and the black mass was actually beginning to take a form.A torso and rough head formed first but the Queen was slowly becoming more concrete with her image. Delta felt a pulse of rage hit her.Her sun blazed hot and red.Drones? They're dying for you! They love you! Delta yelled, the feeling of the fanatical devotion the Spiders fought with only too clear. The Universe around them grew colder as the Queen merely looked bored. Yes... she had her eight eyes now.Love? How pointless. There is only power and they fear my power. It is their world. I peered into your realm. Sickly webs you spin with love and promises. Your children' will die knowing you have failed them in their moment of death. A sweet soup I will drink, the Queen mocked.You.. are a monster, Delta whispered. The Queen brushed long silvery hair out of her cold face. A crown of spindly legs formed around her head. A cloak of regal black covering her nude body.No more than you. We are both Mothers of monsters. You merely lie to yourself. Pity... sad, came the response as she lashed out with countless more dark waves of spiders, each ready to die for their Mot... their creator.Delta only stared at the cold, cruel brutality of the being before her.Her planets seemed to slow, the comets, and moons seemed to pause to wait for Delta's response.Her planets, her rocks, her children, her friends, her family... her home.Just lay down and die to the superior mother! the Queen laughed into the darkness of the Universe.Delta looked up and held up one finger.First off, she stated and a burning pillar of flame exploded from her sun and the waves were burned to a crisp. The Queen looked startled.You are no mother. If there was child protective services on this planet, I'd have them here so fast I'd cause a rip in the time space continuum then shove you into the rip with pleasure, she walked forward and behind her, the Sun began to expand as her planets, comets, and moons fled inside, taking shelter and becoming covered in her protection. The blue sun began to orbit like a moon around her own.How... no! You were not this powerful! the Queen choked. Delta held up a second finger and her sun began to consume all in it's path as it expanded more.Second off. You are such a cliche of a horrid villain that I am actually ashamed that you came to my dungeon. You're boring, uninteresting and have no depths beyond woo I'm so evil'. Please, I do not have time to waste on such a one-act pony spider, Delta announced. The Queen began to spin,trying to spread out a wall of darkness to appear bigger but she had retreated.Delta kept walking forward.Enough! I will not be mocked by such a failure of a Dungeon! the Queen rushed forward and Delta sniffed once and backhanded the wave her fire burning the cloak of darkness and crown that had been forming on the spider woman.The Queen looked shocked as she touched her orange stained cheek. Delta held up three fingers.The feeling of drowning halted for a moment.Not... a good time to talk. The Mana is coming. The Frogs are throwing what they can into the tunnel but there's so many... plus the two Titan spiders, Nu trailed off. Delta's head began to spin.T-two?! she asked in shocked horror but the Mana began to press again. She shook that question off.What can we do? I can't... I don't think I can handle that again! she said in a panic. Nu's body seemed to be pushed forward by the mass of white Mana gathering behind him.The Third Floor... it's our only chance. If you can purchase it once I begin to leak the Mana... Sys can knock you out and I'll drain enough Mana on stupid crap you'll love and then we can get back together and everything can go back to normal! Nu yelled as his efforts began to cause pain to shoot across the features of his face.I can't leave you to deal with this alon- she tried to argue but Nu's deep blue eyes, darker than the rest of him met hers.I am just... a Menu. Nothing special. You are the Core. We need you intact, he panted. Delta reached out and not expecting it... she grabbed Nu's hand.He stared for a second as tendrils of white Mana began to float past.Delta couldn't move. Nu's hand was warm... he was real.To Delta Nu was real.You're special to me... don't ever forget it. Delta is no good without her Nu, she explained as the haze of bloated Mana collected in the pit of her stomach.The fading face of Nu suddenly smirked.I know. Honestly, you'd be a wreck without me. But just listen to me... just this once, he said, his voice turning gentle.I'll be fine. Trust me, hm? he pushed, a small smile playing around his lips. Delta felt his warm hand becoming fainter and fainter.O-okay but if I wake up and you're gone or injured, I'll explode my sun on you so hard you'll have to come back! she warned seriously. Nu blinked.Explode your... sun- No, no time! Are you ready? Do you have the Menu open and ready? he shouted, startling Delta into action.Third Floor: 300 DP 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.Third Floor Purchased. Thank you for your purchase. Sleep well, Delta. 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.Acting Core, please choose a theme for the area.LavaOceanMountai- Sys began to flicker badly and Nu went to grab her.Error. Repurposed area.Theme selected. Please pass on my apologies. Unstable energies detected. Floor 3 is invading sealed space.Theme... The Silent's Fortress. Main foes determined.Undead.New monster granted to Core for the third floor.Trolls unlocked.Factors of third floor. Cannot make new rooms, Space is predetermined and allocated. Defeat the enemies to take over rooms! Boss room in use.Defeat the boss! 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?
