Day Five we reached the saddleback and could head uphill.

  It turned out that the Eaters didn’t much go up the hills, stumpy legs and all not wanting to climb upwards, and the numbers of Summons was much higher down in the Valley.

  Except after we’d cleaned them off, of course.

  That naturally meant we had to clear them off the southern slopes of the saddleback, or the Eaters would head uphill to the closest convenient food. It wasn’t that difficult, except we had to time it after an Eater wave went past the hardpoint we left behind, or we would be caught in the middle of the climb by the next incoming wave… and then, possibly the horde on the northern side of the saddleback responding to all the activity up at the top!

  So, we had to advance up the saddleback, clear it of anything that might attract the Eaters to investigate up instead of staying along the emptied valley below, make sure there were no Eaters watching on the other side, clear the top of the saddleback, and then head up along the ridgeline before the wave of Eaters on the northern side came munching by.

  We watched Eater waves run by first on the south, pounding along on their two thick and stubby legs for the distance, facing an open area that they likely were not used to. But there were no distractions and bright colors to the right to guide them up to us, and the Fiuns and the Viamontians we’d freed we’d kept with us, behind us, and they stayed low and quiet as the Eaters thundered past down below on their endless eating circuit.

  The Eaters to the north soon followed, taking more time because they were eating through things instead of just running by, but I could make up a low wall and a walkway to block their view and keep our advance easier and more certain as we headed up the ridgeline towards the central peak and the Dungeon at the top.

  There were still more Summons up here of multiple types that should have been fighting one another, but they were lower in number and scattered across the ridgeline, fairly easy to handle, and so we actually made decent progress.

  The traumatized Fiun with their cranial glands regrown were in absolutely no shape to do any fighting, nor were they at all comfortable with the armored Viamontians around who had herded them up and along to the medics who had torn the things out of their heads and driven them mad.

  They’d likely never trust blue-skinned people ever again, which basically meant the Roaches were assigned to hold the rear and watch over them, with Thera and Nippo staying with them, their magical Auras reassuring them that these paler-skinned Isparians were not the utter arseholes that the men with blue skin were.

  It also meant we could not vacate them to the same area, but we’d figured that out yesterday, and it wasn’t an issue. Amusingly enough, I brought them with me to Mayoi.

  Warm, sunny, and it was by the sea. For now, it was a fine place to leave them, but serious discussions were going on with the idea of leaving Freebooter Island to the Fiun as a homeland. They definitely had the magical chops to do okay there, especially if we could finally clear out the T’Thuun Taint.

  If not, given how quickly they flocked down to the warm seas, there was little doubt they’d just settle along the Tou-Tou Peninsula and be perfectly happy to stay there.

  The Cursed Dead were actually totally acceptable to them as magical beings, very interesting in the eyes of those who were quicker to regain their reason, and not competition for any kind of food or shelter. Indeed, the Cursed were quick to help the Fiuns find places to settle in, while I made tons of small, but normal houses they could adapt to their own styles and care, which weren’t too different from most humanoid standards.

  The Viamontians in Baishi, true to their Oaths, reported to the Great Mother of the Bellenesse and began working on restoring the town and surrounding area for its settlers. Not having to eat as yet, although they started to force themselves to, they were cheap labor that was devoted to the tasks put forward to them… and when they saw how few Viamontians were left, even more determined to reclaim their mortality.

  Life went on.

  -------

  It was a tunnel going down into the rock.

  The Eaters might have seen some of the fighting up here, steel being flashy and spells going off from the Viamontian Casters (not a single one of whom had been freed, for multiple reasons), but we were thousands of feet up and so didn’t draw any attention.

  The entry to the Dungeon was a long slope going down into the mountain. It was slick, ice and snow-covered rock that got absolutely no traffic whatsoever.

  The Summons around the Dungeon had been particularly intense, and numbered four Hands among them.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Not a single Viamontian Summons around the Dungeon was found worthy of being released. All of them were Corcosi vassals and/or had Red Auras, as if whoever had been guarding this place of banishment were loyalists who would keep it secure from anyone seeking to get to Sir Bellas.

  “Mick, Highnesses, continue the purging down the ridge, slow and careful. There should be no Eater waves coming up this way,” Briggs said, watching me as I pulled a hardpoint up around the hole in the ground. “Ryin, Kris, and I are going down there for Bellas. Ryin can bring us all out without having to retrace all of our steps. We’re going to do a full and fast clear of the Dungeon, Seal all Spawn Points, and Ryin will get us an egress point straight out the side of the mountain. We’ll Seal this top entry behind us, and if we ever want to make use of the place, we’ll have a different way to get to it.”

  The Mick nodded at the hand-off. “Master Oswald, I give ye absolute leave to halt us an’ wait quietly for them to catch up.”

  The Green Hunter acknowledged the gift. “I’ll stop us safely, but not slow us down, MacMikal,” he agreed, taking an interested look down the icy ramp within. “That was not here last time I came through. It was a free-standing Portal, naturally enough. Are you clear on the spawns?”

  “Ruschk, Wisps, tiny Magma Golums, Fiuns, Skeletons, Eaters, senior Viamontian warriors, Shades, and Sir Bellas at the very bottom in a firepit of a room,” Briggs counted them off, and Oswald nodded. “We’ll be fine, and we won’t waste any time. Keep you posted on the progress.”

  “Woop!” Princess Kristie shouted and hopped onto the icy ramp. Instead of walking down it, she just landed on her butt and started to slide as if it was greased.

  Briggs just grinned a big wide smile and stepped after her. Instead of falling down, his armored feet just kind of started sliding, and like he was skating down a hill, he slid after her in a spray of ice.

  I just rolled my eyes as I hopped on my Disk, yanked telekinetically on Briggs, and was pulled after him and zipped down the slide after him, rapidly catching up right behind him as we descended.

  The place was dark, which meant nothing to Devilsight, all ice and stone. Briggs didn’t try to catch up with Kris, as she’d ride the edge of speed she could handle and probably impale anything waiting at the bottom when she got there in a blur of motion. Briggs managed his speed and balance deftly, lightfoot more than enough to ski down the slope under perfect control, and I just stayed in their wake.

  There were Fiuns in here, and I was going to free them, as I had their kin. That and driving a tunnel sideways out of the bottom of the Dungeon were the main reasons I was coming along.

  The two of them certainly didn’t need me to handle the fighting!

  ------

  There was nothing in the Dungeon that was as dangerous as the fighting outside had been. We reached the bottom, Kris already having chewed through three Ruschk and working on a fourth to our right with Quaver chiming and all Firephased over there. Briggs went in the other direction, both of them mapping out the Dungeon together and the winding ice tunnels through the stone there, Endure also going Firephased as he made for the nearest Ruschk.

  The clearing of the top level took only ten minutes or so, and then we ran into the Entropy Wisps which clustered thickly in the lower section of this area, more whirling black balls of negative psychic energy that popped with great speed as the spells they tried to get off kept fizzling in the Null and Sun of the two Forsaken who chewed through them with almost contemptuous ease.

  Once we were past them, the knee-high Magma Golums who were much too tough and strong for their size necessitated a short-term switch to Coldphasing to beat them down.

  They and their Spawn Points were noted and cleared out, Sealed en vivus, and where once a Portal had led to another Dungeon, now another ramp led deeper into the mountain, although not as far from the top as the first one had led.

  Heat was coming up from below, the ice of the top level fading away as it met the upcoming draft, rendering the next level with the Fiuns cool, but not chilling.

  Kris took the Fiuns who came shambling for us with Mercy, while Briggs returned Endure to physical damage to chop into and hack down the Eaters who shared the same halls. I kept the Fiuns sleeping and unconscious by putting them on Disks and trailing them after us.

  We leapt down at the bridge area to the lower hallways, Briggs cleared away the Eaters, and after a quick survey to make sure we missed nothing, we made our way to a room with an inner chamber covering a pit heading down, and no way to come back up.

  If you had Portal magic, why did you need to come back up, after all? Supposedly at one time you could tie to a Portal near the bottom of this place and skip right past all these defenders…

  I put a Mass Restoration on all the unconscious Fiuns on the Disks, watching over them as Briggs and Kris leapt down first, Cloudstepping Sandals catching them lightly just above the floor, while I floated down after them after they were engaged with some remarkably tough skeleton warriors there.

  They hacked and pounded their way through the bones, and split their paths through the halls, while I escorted the Fiuns after them. I waited politely as they beat skeletons to rapidly-vivisizing bones, Sealed their Spawn Points, and we wound down and around through the fairly tight but erratically curving place.

  The final chamber in the middle level had once held nine different Portals, heading to the lowest floors, with one of them delivering you right to the pit you could jump into to reach Sir Bellas’s prison in exile.

  Now, there were only three tunnels heading down and around, one on each of the walls we hadn’t entered through.

  “Logical,” Kris said. “There’s an area with Eaters, an area with shades, and an area with more Viamontians,” Kris said, eyeing the three passages. “By the smell, I’m guessing the Eaters are thataway.” She pointed off to the left of us. “Knights are probably through to the right.”

  “I suggest doing the knights first, so I can survey them and we can wrap up any who can be saved… which I doubt will be any. When we reach the central pit, I can stay there and wait for the two of you to clear the other branches and Seal everything while I watch over our Fiun guests here.”

  Briggs and Kris just glanced at one another, nodded, and we went down to the right.

  ============================

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