The Labyrinth Will Not Abide

While a few days passed on the surface with armies slowly being called together, Atlas was sitting alone on a large rock in a boss room; the room was full of scattered stone, some created by the golem and some by the boss. Atlas' body was full of fractures, scorch marks, and spears of stone and ice lodged in various vital points, but of course, that meant nothing to a golem with a movable core.

Atlas was busy studying the core that came from the boss, large and pale with several flecks of different colours swirled within. The golem identified each pinprick of light as the magic the boss, a lesser lich, could cast. Each boss room it found was further than the last, the boss within scaling upwards in difficulty the further away from the safe zone.

The golem checked its status and sighed.

Core: Lapis Crystal, Unknown Soul

Durability: 216/∞

While each boss gave a point of durability and the lesser lich gave an entire five points, the lich was a tough opponent and managed to cause ten points of damage.

On the other hand, the chest left behind seemed to be of the same quality as a floor three chest, containing various cores along with a magical item that Atlas couldn't figure out the use or purpose of. Atlas was most interested in the lich's core in its hand; it hoped that it could use it to figure out how to use other types of magic. Earth magic was nice and all, but it didn't know any real spells, just how to move the energy itself around. It was caught off guard when the boss chanted and conjured stone out of thin air to hurl at the golem, along with fire and ice.

Atlas put the core away and focused on repairing itself, pulling out the uncomfortable spears lodged in its body and expending energy to expedite the mending process. The remains of the boss' magic also deteriorated into nothing without a source of energy to support their existence.

'𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘴𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘴, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘤 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳...'

The golem deliberated its options, and it double-checked the stone tablet that it had to extend. The second floor of the labyrinth was illogically large, but it had managed to map the whole thing. One thing that bothered it was that it was certain that at least two boss rooms overlapped where it had gone on floor 3-Z, meaning space magic was likely at play, this made it worried about the Dungeon Core; not only was it likely powerful or had a strong guardian, disabling the core would likely cause the space magic to fail and rupture. Even without the little it knew about physics told it that was a very bad thing.

Atlas shook its head and prepared to head down the stairs and check what's on the next floor before committing to the path.

The safe room was the same as every other path, but it felt off for some reason. Atlas was wary of the feeling but marked down the 'Floor 3-M' on its tablet and proceeded anyways, weapons at the ready and body kept in the standard form. As soon as the golem crossed the threshold of the door, it realized what was wrong; there was no safe room barrier! It turned around and felt a wave of energy wash over it as a barrier the same strength as the one preventing it from leaving the dungeon appeared in the doorway.

For the second time in one month, energy began flowing dangerously into the labyrinth, guardsmen evacuated nearby citizens, and they established a perimeter outside of the Labyrinth's entrance.

The energy flowed throughout the Labyrinth like a rampaging river; adventurers along the way got chills even if they couldn't sense it, and those that could felt sick. The walls shifted and creaked as the energy moved faster and faster, descending to the second floor and knocking over adventurers and monsters alike as if it were a hurricane. The energy made a bee-line straight for the boss room Atlas had just cleared and flooded down the stairway, passing through the new barrier as if it weren't there.

Atlas felt hot as the energy passed through him and converged on the wall at the end of the hall. The wall, floor, and roof writhed as if they were alive, and the stone began compressing itself and shifting. A humanoid form began taking shape.

A massive leg broke out from the wall and took a step that shook the ground.

"𝗟𝗘𝗘𝗖𝗛!" A deep voice bellowed.

An arm freed itself, the hand curled into a shaking fist.

"𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗜𝗧𝗢𝗥!" It shouted accusatorily at Atlas.

The other arm smashed its way out of the wall and began tearing away the stone covering its chest.

"𝗣𝗔𝗥𝗔𝗦𝗜𝗧𝗘!" It lamented as it tore itself from the wall.

A 20-foot stone figure broke through the wall, head nearly scraping the roof and staring down at Atlas. It pointed its finger at Atlas, taking a step forward while its head took shape, a featureless face like the smaller golem but with a large mouth locked in a permanent grimace showing stone teeth.

"𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗪𝗜𝗟𝗟 𝗕𝗘 𝗘𝗫𝗖𝗜𝗦𝗘𝗗!" It commanded, and distant roars began to sound in response. It began moving towards the stunned Atlas with murderous intent.

The previous scene of it melding itself into the wall came to mind; it knew the Dungeon Core was mad but isn't this overkill!?

Atlas didn't even think of fighting this... avatar of the dungeon, and it began to flee immediately down a different hallway, its own heavy footsteps overshadowed by the quaking steps of the stone avatar as it gave chase. The vibrations could be felt on the second floor even though there was a damping effect from the space magic, along with the accusatory shouts of the avatar. This caused many adventurers to panic and flee, not wanting to stay in the dungeon with whatever the hell the source was.

Captain Saric, along with Vale and Lager, joined the perimeter watch for the entrance with worried looks; they knew whatever was going on was likely related to Atlas, and with the reports from the adventurers, they concluded that the Dungeon Core was going out of its way to the point of expending a ridiculous amount of its own energy along with ambient energy to eliminate something or someone.

Even Dean showed up, but he could only wish the golem good luck, as the guild ordered no one to be allowed in until they had more information. He settled for talking with Captain Saric, exchanging what they knew about the first anomaly known as 'Atlas.'