"Rickle, what are you doing here?" Hackyon asked, surprised to see the other god in her domain. The room was a massive library filled with books and scrolls overflowing from every bookcase. Magical crystals drifted around the room, lighting the space with a blue tint. The air was heavy with magic and knowledge.

"I have a few questions about the Tower in the Shadows." He sat on a chair beside a desk with his feet on it.

"Why? You have never been interested before." Hackyon walked across the room and sat behind the desk. "What is your interest?"

"I have been wondering about the Core. I have questions about it." Rickle sat up, taking his feet off the desk.

"Of course, what do you want to know?"

"You informed everyone about how the Core was formed to contain that breach thing," Rickle asked, ignoring the other's frustration at the use of such flippant terms.

"Indeed, we did. We felt it was best for all the Gods to understand the importance of the Dungeon Core surviving and being left alone." Hackyon wondered where this was going.

"Well, I was wondering, as luck would have it. What would happen if the Dungeon Core were shattered?"

"As per the terms of the soul contract, we all know the results."

"Yes, yes. Terrible things happen to the soul inhabiting it. My question is, what about the breach?" Rickle looked at Hackyon when he asked the question.

"With the destruction of the Core, the void breach will dissipate. The Core acts as both containment and its means of sustaining itself. All energy will be released back into the world as normal."

Rickle leaned back in the chair, thinking about what had just been said to him. Hackyon was about to ask if there was anything else when he spoke one more question.

"Will it?" It was asked softly, more of an afterthought than a full question from the tone.

"Of course it will. We've all reviewed how the Core was created, and the breach was sealed within it." Hackyon confirmed.

"I do not doubt it," Rickle said as he stood up and started to leave, but turned to the other Goddess. "I ask, as void essence does not follow the same rules as the rest."

Before the other Goddess could reply, he disappeared. The silence in the room was almost deafening as she thought about what had just been said. At first, she was sure of her findings and reasoning. The longer she sat there, the more she thought, and as she thought more about it, the shadow of doubt started to creep into her mind.

Across the room, scrolls and books left the shelves and came at her command. She needed to be sure of her answer.

## ## ## ## ##

Hackyon was now past being worried.

She had dozens of books and even more scrolls. All the open books were scattered across the desk and floor in a chaotic mess. She had spent days thinking about the conversation with Rickle in her mind. His raised question had taken root and was plaguing her to no end.

She reviewed the Soul Contract and everything they knew about the void breach. The conclusion she reached was scaring her the more she processed the data she absorbed.

Rickle might have a point.

What would happen if the Core were destroyed?

When they reviewed the information supplied by Oda, they had to analyse every possible solution and result of any event they could think of. That included the destruction of the Core. Initially, there had been some concern, but she now realised that they had made a fatal assumption. Void essence did not act the same way as the rest that existed in the world.

This now makes her concerned about what would happen if the Core were destroyed.

As she explained to Rickle, if it were a normal core, the energy stored within it would dissipate back into the world. But this Core, and the fact that it contained a spatial breach to an extra-dimensional space that did not follow the same rules, made her realise the flaw of their confidence.

So, she obsessively researched the possible outcomes.

She had come to some conclusions but had no definitive answer. The problem now was that these conclusions were all terrifying in their possible outcomes. The running theme through them all was that the destruction of the Core would be a disaster that would only be measured from horrific to world-ending.

The realisation of this now brought another question, which could be even worse.

Had Oda known when he created the Core?

He knew about the void and how it interacted with different planes. He created the Core and sealed the breach within it. He explained to them that he had done all this to save the world and had planned to create new cores to help remove the void of corruption in their world.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

But now she asked herself what would happen if one or more of the cores he had planned to create had been breached and destroyed. Even one with a small breach would be disastrous.

Her mind was scattered as it grappled with countless possibilities, and new ideas continuously appeared from random places. One of them was another question, which had continued her spiral.

What was happening to the breach within the operational Core?

Thankfully, she could find the answer, and it alleviated some of her concerns. The spatial breach was well-contained and was not expanding. But in her investigation, she discovered something equally as concerning. As the Core expanded, it would put more significant pressure on the spatial breach. It was contained as long as the Core was not compromised. There was no issue; however, if the core was compromised and it broke, the breach would explode outwards, becoming even larger than it was.

Again, she was returned to the question: did Oda know when he created it?

Even touching upon possible answers proved to be a more terrifying possibility than the Core breaching.

She realised she needed to speak to the others. She rose from her desk and left her domain, seeking the heads of the two courts.

## ## ## ## ##

"How confident are we that the werewolf pack is heading in this city's direction?" Elis Goldwind asked. She and her husband sat in her new study in the small Manor house they rented in their son's city. She had hoped to buy the property outright, but the owner proved more stubborn than usual. She was arranging to give herself a more powerful negotiating position when they next met.

"Highly. If it continues along its present course, it will reach the mountains to the north today or tomorrow. From there, they will follow the river down to the great lake in the centre of the mountain range. There are three possible ways they can go after that." Hector explained to his wife.

"It's not this river way off the main one?"

"It is, but I would not count that as a certainty of the pack following the main river. We both know of all the strange occurrences around this city since its founding, with the discovery of the dungeon." He pointed out to his wife.

"Yes, Hector, I have to agree with you on that." Elis turned her head and looked out the window. "What is the amount of silver he has in reserve?"

"Quite a lot. The boy started stockpiling as soon as he realised what was happening in the north and has been trying to limit the amount of silver leaving the city while keeping the economy running."

"Well, that proves it. I seriously underestimated that boy, and that was a mistake." Her husband snorted at her words, drawing her attention back to him.

"My dear wife, that is only the 4th time in all the years we've been married that I've heard you admit to making a mistake." He grinned at her as he said it.

"Don't get used to it, husband, but even I can make mistakes now and again." Back to the window and the view of the cityscape beyond. "Are we ready?"

"Yes. I've ensured we brought in extra silver bars to cover city needs. If, by some minor miracle, the pack doesn't come this way, we can easily sell that silver to any other local power that needs it and still make quite a large profit."

"Excellent. Has he made any other attempts to communicate with the Dungeon Core?" She asked. Through their agent, Amya, they discovered that their son had somehow managed to establish a line of communication and was using it to his advantage.

"Not yet. He seems hesitant to do this as he has not paid off his debt from acquiring the platinum coins." Hector knew his wife would ask and had kept himself up to date on that particular issue.

"Smart boy. Getting indebted to such beings is never a good idea, as they can hold that debt far longer than any mortal could." Hector would have sworn he heard a note of pride in his wife's voice, but was wise enough not to point it out. After all these years of marriage, he knew how far he could push his wife.

"At least we now know how he is able to communicate with the dungeon."

"That is true. It took her long enough to get that information to us. But in the end, it was useless, as the communication crystal was set to only him." Elis sighed as she spoke. "Imagine what we could have done if we had access to such a resource."

"What do you want us to do going forward?"

"For now, we continue as we have been. We strengthen our influence within the city. It is providing many interesting trading opportunities by itself, let alone what is coming from the dungeon." She turned her attention back to her husband and was now all business.

"Amya has requested that we allow her to leave. She believes that she has done everything she can for us here."

"Hhhmmm." Elis closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Not yet. But tell her that her time is fast approaching."

"I understand."

## ## ## ## ##

"Are you sure, Hackyon?" Asked Nictor, his voice filled with concern. "We cannot move against or even accuse him of anything unless we are 100% certain. The chaos we could unleash would put the whole plane into jeopardy."

"I am certain, Nictor. Oda has purposefully misled us about the dangers of that breach within the Core. If it were to shatter, that breach can explode to several times its original size." Hackyon was clearly shaking with fear and horror at what she was saying.

"What is wrong with him?" Xandus snarled, her usual composure gone. "He has never done something so reckless or stupid before."

"That's not all." This brought the attention of the two heads of the courts back to her. "Imagine if he had gone through with what he had planned and created many more of these void cores. Each one of them, as they "levelled", would become a means to create new breaches."

The sheer scale of the disaster could have brought both gods to a chilling conclusion. With the discovery of the Core and its dungeon, they had narrowly avoided an even bigger disaster than the Folly. One or two of those cores shattering could have caused a cascade effect through the mortal plane, ultimately leading to its destruction.

But that puts them to an even more terrifying question.

Did Oda already know this?

"Hackyon, say nothing to no one. Return to your domain and act like everything is as it should be. We will discuss the matter and then come to you." Nictor said to the Goddess of magic. She nodded her head and disappeared. She was more aligned with Xandus and her court of light, but she did not object to this.

"What do we do now?" Xandus asked him, and for the first time in the countless millennia he had known her, he heard true fear in her voice.

"I do not know. If Oda has somehow caused this crisis, we are in serious trouble. If his ignorance or Folly has manufactured it, we are in far worse trouble." He spoke truly to her.

"Are we powerful enough to face him?" She asked the question that they were both thinking.

"Together, we are not enough. We will need at least three other members of the 3rd tier to support us in this." He was already doing the calculations in his mind before she had asked.

"Do we have enough support to do that?"

"Unless we can find concrete proof either way, no. But I think we will have more support with the vicious information alone. I am hesitant, however, of releasing it just yet as it would give time for Oda to put out counter-narratives and take measures to shore up his support."

"Then we need to have Hackyon continue her investigation."

Both heads of the courts looked at each other. Since the start, they had been in opposition but occasionally found themselves with common ground, but this was the first time in all their existence that they were openly discussing challenging Oda.

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