The warning of the imminent collapse of the other dungeon buffeted my attention. I cut to the chase.
“Adventurers, I’m sorry to interrupt your run, but I need your help.”
“Who the hell are you?” shouted Todd suspiciously.
“I’m the Dungeon Keeper. My name’s Jeremy. There’s no time to explain further. The mansion is under attack by the Technomancer. In a few moments, that door is going to open and his cyborg army is going to come through into this chamber.”
“The Technomancer?” said Josh in wonder. He nudged his little brother. “Told you so.”
“More mobs will spawn,” I told them. “But they’ll be fighting the Technomancer’s goons. You’ll need to fight alongside them for as long as you can. If you’re about to be overwhelmed I think I can extract you, but I need you to buy me as much time as you can.”
I didn’t give them a chance to question me. “Get ready!” I ordered them, and reached for my overview.
It was tricky to open a doorway between the two portal dungeons, but I managed it.
The whole space rocked and shook, and the adventurers—all except Sarah—were knocked off their feet. The glass roof of the Castle Hall dungeon shook, and a few bits of glass fell and smashed to the ground, but it worked.
A huge entrance opened through to the packed Granite Cave dungeon, and the sheer pressure of cyborgs inside forced them through into the Castle Hall.
“Holy fuckin shitballs!” yelled Todd in horror. “I never fully believed it! Look at those monsters!”
The front ranks of the solid horde or cyborgs came howling up the hall, tripping over the smashed tables and clambering over each other as they moved up the hall. I sprinted to the dais, threw a gun to Sarah and one to Todd, and fired a volley at the advancing host.
The cyborgs boiled around the feet of three huge dreadnoughts, and a detachment of flamethrower soldiers came up behind, loosing jets of swift-burning flame around the hall.
I swept my hand from right to left, drawing on Kyrine’s summoning power, and two hundred mail-clad knights appeared, blocking the way of the swarm. The cyborgs halted, pushing against one another then unifying and attacking the summoned force.
They moved like ants, I thought. And then the thought struck me. Like ants. Like the borg. Like a hive mind!
Shit, that was it! They were not individuals. They were all being controlled from a single source, a single will that was driving them all. And that will must be the Technomancer himself.
Where was he? If I could get to him…
“Jeremy,” said Kyrine in my mind. She sounded relieved. “The Granite Cave dungeon has stabilized for the moment, but more cyborgs are coming up from the road. They’ve blasted breaches in the wall and they’re coming in from all sides.”
I turned to Sarah. “Hold here for as long as you can. When you can’t hold out any longer, shout my name and I’ll come and get you.”
“What is your name?” Sarah asked.
I stood tall, looking her in the eye. “Jeremy Parker, Dungeon Keeper,” I said proudly, then disappeared back into the Sentient Dungeon awareness.
The Sentient Dungeon view was now stretched over both portal dungeons. In Granite Cave, fire had spread throughout the chamber, and bodies lay everywhere. Mobs were appearing as quickly as the cyborgs could cut them down, but at one wall, protected by the rest of their forces, a team of dreadnoughts were smashing their way through the wall.
“They want to get through, to break the integrity of the dungeon and get into the mansion. What are they after?”
“They seek the Dungeon Core,” Kyrine’s voice said with certainty. “If the Technomancer can gain control of it, he can use it as a power source, enslaving the dungeon’s mighty summoning ability to his own uses.”
“I’m not going to let that happen,” I vowed.
I expanded my awareness to take in the whole mansion and the grounds. This was new to me, but as the dungeon keeper I could get an overview of the whole scene, almost like Kyrine herself.
“You are increasing in power every day,” Kyrine purred, and I smiled. Even in the midst of this dangerous battle she still took the time to be proud of me and my progress.
Outside, the situation was bad. My wild creatures had been driven off or killed, and the cyborgs had blown massive holes in the outer wall with some magical blasting device. The Technomancer had brought up his reserves, cyborgs riding motorbikes and others flooding in on foot, armed with all kinds of weapons.
“He can’t be controlling this remotely, surely?” I thought. I looked out over the crowd. What would I do if I were in his shoes? I would disguise myself as one of the cyborgs and hide within the crowd. That way, there would be no way to detect him. If it was as I thought, and the Technomancer himself was the key to defeating the army, then he was by far the weakest link in the chain. If I could take him out, I would cut the head off the monster he had created and brought to my door.
I scanned the heads of the seething crowd, my heart sinking. Could we beat this force? I didn’t think so. If he was disguised in the crowd, how could I find him and kill him?
Then I heard a new sound.
“A chopper!” I exclaimed.
Above the mansion, flying low, a black helicopter came slowly into view. It hovered above the battle, and I knew.
“That’s him. That’s the Technomancer. He must be controlling the battle from there. If I can just get to him…”
“Jeremy Parker! Jeremy Parker!” The scream was Sarah Windvane’s voice, and it was full of terror.
“Sooner than I thought,” I muttered. Even as
