The men moved fast, faster than Lexie could gasp.

"Get down!" Jace yelled. Lexie grabbed Dewie and did just that as a loud explosion rocked the atmosphere.

It was followed by another, then another, smoke quickly filling up the room. She heard Jace shout again, meaning one of the men had grabbed him and kept him from setting off more explosives.

At least it had bought Lexie time to open up her inventory. She instantly went for her Defense Deck because she was not about to waste time trying to get her Party Planner's Deck to work. She grabbed <True Windbreaker> and <All-Around Protection>, activating them nearly simultaneously, as gunshots ricocheted around them.

She heard Ava scream as she was hit and grabbed. Lexie's shield only protected her and Dewie, and she tried to target the men with True Windbreaker, but with all the smoke that filled the room, she could barely see anything. A glint of steel hit the shield, and she traced and targeted its source, hoping she hit at least one of their attackers.

Once the wind from the target rushed into a forcefield, she then targeted that at another potential attacker.

A blast of wind pushed them back but she couldn't tell if there was much of an effect because they just kept shooting.

In hindsight, <True Windbreaker> was probably the wrong card to choose, but she didn't have a better one at that moment. <Back to Sender> wouldn't work on all the bullets, and <Can't Touch This> didn't have the reach.

Just then, her shield broke and a bullet pierced through her shoulder.

"Ouch!" She yelled and tried to call up <All-Around Protection> again, but the mana drain was like a dagger to her brain and almost caused her to pass out instantly.

What the heck? Had she used that much mana already?

Maybe since she panicked, it was harder for her to control her mana waste. But she'd expected her Eldritch side to kick in by now, considering she was about to die.

This would be a great time for you to take over, she told Eldritch Lexie.

But quite unusually, the creature was silent.

Lexie's fear spiked even more. What the heck was going on?

Someone grabbed her, pulling her back. She punched and hit him, but it was ineffective. They also dragged Dewie away, who was screaming, "Let me go! Let me go!"

Lexie tried to call her dad, but system communication was down. She kept trying. She screamed, but she didn't know if anyone outside the window could help her. They may not even have heard the commotion due to the forcefield.

Worse, the Eldritch side of her was completely dormant. She couldn't access that power, couldn't feel it.

This was bad. Very bad.

***

Aiden felt a prickle at the back of his neck, his intuition telling him that he was being watched. He was in Hartville, standing in the corner near the crater that had once contained a dungeon. The streets weren't busy. It was evening and only a few people sat outside the nearby coffee shops, talking leisurely.

Although there was recently a disaster here and the press had flooded the area in the following weeks, most of the businesses had gone back to normal. Hartvillians were extremely laid back and chronically attached to their routines. They weren't going to let a little unstable dungeon massacre ruin that.

This part of the street was sectioned off, though. During the day, there was typically a crew of people monitoring it, trying to investigate how the phenomenon occurred.

So far, they had next to nothing. Monty had shared the notes with Aiden from all their investigations and added on the investigators' theories and assumptions. Some of them were as ridiculous as fairy tales.

Their so-called dungeon consultant was a guy Max had often called four-eyed fraud, a man who claimed to have survived a level 10 dungeon completely intact. No one raided Level 10s anymore due to how dangerous they were, but the man said he survived it by praying fervently and invoking the power of the Old Guardians, who he felt were the true rulers and originators of the dungeon. He said they'd saved him as appreciation for his devotion.

Aiden, like Max, felt the man was full of shit, especially because there was no evidence he'd ever even been close to a level 10 dungeon. He was even more sure of the man's deceit when the fraud started selling meditation and spiritual courses that could get one closer to a connection with the Guardians. It was all nonsense, yet the hero association still consulted with him because he was an industry expert on dungeons and he'd won a bunch of scholarly awards for his dungeon research back before he became a nutcase.

Oh well.

While Aiden was not a Guardian denier, he was not a worshipper either. He believed they existed, but felt many of the stories about them were exaggerated. They were probably powerful beings that inhabited the earth before humans and subsequently got defeated by them. That was all there was to it. There was no evidence these creatures were divine and omnipotent, as people thought. They had their magic, which they often lent to humans who acted as their champions, but had they been as powerful as people said they were, they wouldn't have been defeated so thoroughly.

People just liked to use them as an explanation for inexplicable occurrences. They were also good for moral stories taught to children. But Aiden himself didn't believe the Guardians had anything to do with this. Nevertheless, if there was a slim chance they did, he would figure it out.

Maybe whatever secret he discovered about these dungeons would help him when he went in to save Max and Lara. If they were still alive, that is.

No, don't think like that. Have some faith. They'll be alive.

He aggressively tamped down his pessimism, though it didn't come naturally to him. Aiden wasn't good at having faith. He was good at solving puzzles. He needed to focus on that right now.

He'd figured that going back to the crime scene might help him find something that they'd missed. This whole tragedy was so strange from start to finish.

First, how had the dungeon spawned right as system access went down? Any call being made at that point had been suddenly hung up. Piecing together security footage tracking exactly when the minor earthquake hit showed that system access had gone down, not even a millisecond before. It had happened simultaneously. How?

Were they magically linked? Was a system jammer preset to activate when the dungeon spawned? If so, then how? How did they know? Even with a dungeon in place, no one could calculate exactly when an unstable dungeon would complete spawning. It was different each time, and many mages and scientists had tried to develop equations for it, but none of them had succeeded.

Could the mastermind behind this have created an equation to predict the spawning of the dungeon? Or did they control it? If they were powerful enough to plant a dungeon underground, they were probably powerful enough to control its spawning, no?

But gosh, that's a ridiculous thought. It's extremely improbable, too.

The only other option was that someone had been somewhere close watching. They had seen exactly when the dungeon spawned and had turned off system communication then.

That was more likely, considering they had spawned the dungeon in a remote area, where it wouldn't be detected until it was too late. But they would have had to be extremely fast to pull it off. And how did they get the system not to alert the association that the dungeon had spawned?

If his daughter hadn't felt the dungeon spawning, the death toll would have been much higher. If Dewie hadn't gotten away and alerted the [Heroes]...he didn't want to imagine what would have happened then.

He glanced around. Someone might have been sitting in one of those empty stores, watching everything unfold. Perhaps they'd left a clue behind, some kind of magic signature that he could sense.

He felt that prickle again and heard footsteps walking up to him.

"Do you have a tracker on me?" he asked Monty without turning around.

"I would be stupid not to," Monty said.

"Hmm," Aiden responded. He hadn't sensed the tracker, which meant that it wasn't a normal tracker. Monty had to have tagged his psychic register somehow and used teleportation orbs to appear here. Drat. A psychic tracker would be hard to get rid of.

Nevertheless, Aiden was impressed at the ingenuity of such a thing, and if it were anyone else, he would have been impressed enough to ask him about it.

But he was annoyed at being tagged like a dog and didn't want to have a conversation with Monty of all people.

Aiden still hadn't forgiven the other man for what he'd done. He typically wasn't the type to hold a grudge, but in this case, he thought he might hold this grudge for the rest of his life.

Aiden could never forget that Monty was one of the people who had helped contain him. Monty in particular had delayed him and prevented him from entering the dungeon on time. If only he'd gone in on time, if Monty hadn't invaded his pathways and slowed him down...

Maybe Lara would already be with them.

He was still holding out hope that she was alive. Naem had warned him that she might not be the same as he expected because lasting more than two years inside a dungeon would have changed her significantly. She might not be the Lara he remembered, but that was fine. He would take her in any form she came.

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Every time he closed his eyes, he still thought of her. Sometimes he had good dreams like the first time he'd baked her a cake, or when they'd gone adventuring with her crew, or when he'd asked her to marry him while deep in a dragon's den, sure they were about to die.

The good dreams made him not want to wake up.

The bad ones, where she did nothing but scream and die over and over again, made him never want to sleep again.

He just didn't want her to be in pain anymore. He couldn't stand it.

"Hello?" Monty waved a hand in front of his face, his voice like an annoying gnat. "Are you still there?"

Aiden resigned and sighed. "Did anyone in the stores see anything?"

"No. All the stores were closed."

"Do you know why they were closed?

"Yes. One closed down for a funeral, the other one had a mice infestation, all the employees in this other one fell sick suddenly, the owner of the one next door to that won the lottery…"

"And it's not at all suspicious to you that this all happened at the same time."

"It is, but we couldn't find a link between all those instances," Monty said. "Vacek is talking to the Fae, trying to suss out any involvement. We also have our top investigators and an arithmancer-in-training looking into it, and she can't find any common ground there."

"Arithmancer-in-training?"

"Yes," he sighed. "Unfortunately, Lucy Frank is missing. Her schedule showed that she was working in Axiara, District 4, but she was not there. No one knows where she is."

Aiden frowned. "Who sent her to District 4?"

"Noel Barnes, but we suspect he was acting under the orders of Creevy. Noel's one of the [Heroes] who are trying to get Vacek out of the association."

"I see." Aiden was vaguely worried about the arithmancer. The fact that she was missing was concerning.

"There were no [Heroes] in this part of Hartville on that day, correct? No law enforcement close by."

"No. Some were sent on different missions, some were indisposed and had called in sick. A couple were on the way but didn't make it in time."

"I see." That in itself was unusual. Even with the association being stretched thin, at least one of the [Heroes] should have been in Hartville due to the grand scale of the match that was being held, and the crowd that would be there. Maybe if the [Heroes] had been here, patrolling as usual, they would have discovered something was wrong earlier. Or maybe if the store owners had been here, one of them would have seen something too.

This could have been avoidable if everything had worked as normal. The problem was that it hadn't. Everything that could have gone wrong had gone wrong all to create a perfect storm.

There had to be a link somewhere. There was no way that by random coincidence all those stores closed. Someone had to be watching from somewhere, and pulling the strings. Who? Were they human or Fae? Or Eldritch? Why?

Aiden began walking towards the closest store, the one on his immediate left, and heard Monty following him.

"You don't need to come with me."

Monty continued walking anyway, causing Aiden to nearly roll his eyes like his daughter would. Speaking of Lexie, he had only texted her once this morning. He needed to check in to see how she was doing. Was she sleeping well? He hoped so. He hoped she wasn't studying into the night, like she used to.

He sighed. She probably wasn't. He would need to tell Stein to keep a closer eye on her.

Thinking about his daughter made him smile. He hoped she wasn't having a hard time. He knew how tough the first few years of the academy would be, and they would be harder for Lexie.

Luckily, Journeyman and Co. assured him they would never let it go too far. He also knew his little girl was tougher than she looked, so he tried not to worry too much, even though he worried anyway.

Aiden walked closer when he felt it again, the prickle of being watched. He'd assumed it was Monty, but Monty was right next to him. So who could be watching?

He glanced around but didn't see anything.

He started heading into the building but paused when he saw an incoming call from his daughter.

Monty walked ahead of him, and in the reflection of his boot, Aiden saw something that made him frown. He blinked again and there it was, the shimmering line that extended across the doorway.

A trigger wire.

"Monty!" Aiden screamed and threw up his forcefield simultaneously, just as an explosion rocked the earth.

***

Big Fish coffee shop had terrible coffee.

Vulcan still choked it down to look as normal as possible, because he didn't want to be the guy sitting in a coffee shop not drinking coffee. That would be tacky.

As he sat there, he smiled to himself. This was the part he enjoyed, watching all his hard work come together, watching them chase their tails constantly, never able to make sense of anything, or even to find him.

The fact that it was Aiden Sparrowfoot doing the chasing made it all the more fun.

Vulcan's job had gotten boring lately, but times like this made it worth it. As a challenge to himself, he'd planted the bomb and set it to go off right when Aiden walked in and not with the trigger, which had simply been there to misdirect any investigation. From the simulations, he knew the exact time Aiden would walk into the building. Aiden would walk in first, and then the other one would follow. The bomb would activate, and Aiden would throw up his shield, but it would be too late. He'd be blasted and burned, severely injured. Not dead, of course, since Vulcan still needed him alive for the final stage.

But he did want Aiden out of commission for some time, so he could focus on taking out Lexie Sparrowfoot.

The problem, he decided, with getting rid of Lexie (apart from the fact that he couldn't kill her directly) was that she simply had too many powerful people protecting her. Too many times, even in his simulations, one of them would jump out and save her at the last minute. Aiden had saved her in real life the last two times.

So he needed to go–at least for some time.

As the explosion sent the area into minor chaos, people ran to and from it. The cowards ran for cover, and the curious ran to investigate.

Vulcan was part of the latter group.

He technically wasn't supposed to be here, but he couldn't resist. He liked watching powerful men get taken down a peg. He was also flattered that the great Archmage Aiden Sparrowfoot was investigating him and Vulcan was giving him the runaround. Vulcan wasn't just outsmarting Aiden. He was also outsmarting one of the most powerful men in the world, Dominic Vacek, and the entire Heroes Association.

His ego was officially through the roof.

Vulcan went closer as the dust and debris cleared, posing as a silent, concerned citizen.

"Is everyone alright?" an elderly woman from their group yelled out. "We're calling for help!"

"This neighborhood has simply gone to hell," one man muttered. "Why us? Why are we the target? What are the [Heroes] doing about it?"

As the dust finished clearing, Vulcan tuned the whining man out, wiping his eyes because he was unable to believe what he was seeing.

Something was wrong.

His heart began racing.

Something was very wrong.

Aiden Sparrowfoot wasn't injured. Neither he nor his friend was injured. They were simply startled and lying on the floor.

It can't be, Vulcan thought. This…this wasn't supposed to happen. They were supposed to be bleeding, burned, and unconscious. It was supposed to take Aiden a few months to wake up and a year to completely heal. He would bear the scars for more years to come.

So why the hell were they here, awake, and unharmed?!

No. Vulcan's thoughts were loud, raucous. Was it her? Did she do this? How could she when she wasn't even anywhere close?!

"Are you two okay?" The older lady asked again, in her voice of irritating concern. She wasn't talking to Vulcan, although he was certainly not okay. He felt sick to his stomach!

"Yes," Aiden answered. He put his hoodie back over his head and said, "Sorry, we were surveying the crime scene and think we activated a hidden trigger that the [villains] left behind. Right, Monty?"

The other man was pale and shell-shocked but managed to nod.

"Hang on," the man next to Vulcan said to Aiden. "You look familiar…"

Aiden gave him a placating gaze, but before he said anything, his gaze switched to Vulcan. The placating gaze died.

Aiden frowned deeply at him, and there was almost recognition in his eyes.

"You," he said.

It was the second shock Vulcan received that evening.

Aiden wasn't supposed to recognize him. They'd never met, and as far as he knew, Lexie couldn't remember him either. Or could she?

Maybe she did. Maybe she'd told him about their meeting in Old Moulding, and described him to her father. None of his visions had ever warned him of that! Damn it.

This was bad. Very bad.

Vulcan spun around and began walking away, but Aiden said, "Hey, you. Stop right there."

Shit. He didn't know what to do. This never happened in his run through. Should he stop or should he continue? Could he pretend like this was a mistake?

"Stop, I said!" He heard Aiden running after him, and he broke into a run too. Aiden's voice was wholly hostile, and Vulcan didn't have backup. He might be able to take Aiden in a fair fight, but he wasn't sure. He couldn't risk a confrontation without knowing the outcome. He hadn't been in a fight he wasn't certain he would win in ages.

Shit. This was terrible. But this was also exhilarating.

Mid-run, he activated his teleportation orb to take him away.

As he escaped, horror and excitement fought in his gut.

For the first time in a long time, the future had changed drastically.

***

The room had been silent for minutes. All the kids had been tied up in a circle, and the masked gunmen loomed over them. Lexie's shoulder still hurt, but systemic healing was working fast. Mostly, she was trying to use her brain to figure out a way out of this.

She thought the man in front of her looked familiar, but she couldn't place his face. It was like the information was buried deep in her brain and she couldn't get to it.

"Are you a [villain]?" Jace was the first to speak, asking the question.

"No, he's an insurance salesman here to talk to you about your extended warranty." Lexie could hear the eyeroll in Ava's tone. "Of course, he's a [villain]."

"What do you want?" Dewie tried to sound brave, but he looked as spooked as Lexie felt.

"Oh well, isn't that the question of the evening?" The gunman spoke, resting his hand on the but of his assault rifle, which he'd braced on the floor. "We want a lot of things. For now, though, we'll settle with the four of you telling me where the headmaster's office is."

"Why?"

"Why do you think? Because we wanna throw him a party."

When no one said anything, he shook his head and said, "Tough crowd. We want to take down the protective forcefield on the Island, of course. So the rest of our friends can come to the party."

"Can't they just do what you did to get through the forcefield?" Lexie asked.

He narrowed his eyes at Lexie. "Are you being snarky with me right now? Because I gotta tell you, I don't like snarky."

Lexie pressed her lips together, remaining silent.

"No, they cannot," he continued. "Now, tell us what we want to know and we'll tuck you right back into bed. Don't tell us, and we'll have to get the information out of you in a less pleasant way."

They all shivered at that. No one doubted what the less pleasant way was.

"We'll start with this one," he said, pointing at Dewie.

Dewie threw Lexie a panicked look, and she said, "No, don't bother. I'll take you there."

"Don't," Ava said.

When Lexie met her eyes, the other girl said, "They're gonna kill us anyway. Why do we have to make it easier for them?"

They all looked back at the man, who shrugged, "Yes, but torture is so much worse than death."

"You don't have to do that," Lexie insisted. "I'll take you to the headmaster's office."

"Lexie–"

"If we don't tell him, he's gonna torture it out of us anyway. We won't last through that. I definitely won't last through that. I'm going to spill my guts if anyone so much as twists my wrist the wrong way, and I'm not standing for a broken finger or something. I don't have a high pain tolerance." At least not without her Eldritch side, who was still quiet. It was seriously scaring her not to have it there. She was so used to funneling her pain into her Eldritch side that she'd almost forgotten how much pain hurt.

But without powers, she had to use her wits to get herself out of this problem. The way she figured it, the only way out was to give in to their demands for now and then surprise them on the way there. After all, she still had Uncle Max's gun hidden in her inventory. If she could just get the assholes away from the rest of her roommates so they wouldn't get hurt...

"Good," the gunman seemed pleased. "We have a winner."

He went to untie Lexie, but before he could, Jace moved.

He thrust himself forward into one of the assailants, and as the man put up his gun, Jace spat an explosion at him. Literally. A small spark and boom hit him in the chest and sent him flying.

The other two assailants instantly opened fire, and Lexie activated <All Around Protection> and <Return to Sender>, trying to spread it as far as it would go.

Nevertheless, she was already exhausted. She couldn't keep it up for long; her mana wouldn't let her. And once the bullets broke through and hit her in the chest, she knew it was over.

As she lost consciousness, probably bleeding out, a red dot blinked in the corner of her vision...

Words appeared:

Difficulty Level: 3

Overall Score: 35%

Result: Failure.

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