Isabelle sighed. "Get in line," she said, raising her mace. "I've got a lot of people who want to kill me. You're not even in the top ten."

  She charged, her feet pounding against the rocky ground. She was a blur of motion, her mace a silver arc of death. Oglo's beef jerky dragon, seeing her approach, let out a pathetic, wheezing screech and tried to take flight, but its wings were too damaged. It could only manage a few fluttering hops before collapsing in a heap of scales and despair.

  ['Runt Dragon' is dead]

  Woah. A runt dragon. Isabelle wanted to loot the damned thing so fucking bad, but she needed to deal with Oglo first. Preferably before some of the other Oglo replicants managed to finish scaling the mountainside and come in to attack her yet again.

  For now, Oglo was alone. Vulnerable. He scrambled backward, his hands scrabbling at the loose rock. "No, no, no," he whimpered, his bravado gone, replaced by a raw, primal fear.

  Isabelle stood over him, her mace held high, its silver head gleaming in the sunlight. "Any last words?" she asked, her voice cold.

  "You're a monster," Oglo said, tears streaming down his face. "A chaotic, destructive monster. You bring nothing but pain and suffering to this world. You are a cancer."

  Isabelle paused, her mace still poised to strike. The words hit her with an unexpected force. A monster. A cancer. She'd been called a lot of things in her life, but this felt different. It wasn't just an insult. It was an accusation. A judgment.

  She looked at him, at the terror in his eyes, at the ruins of his tower in the distance, at the smoking crater where his Praetorians had been. She had done all this. She had brought this chaos. This destruction. Was he right?

  Then, a new notification popped into her vision, one that wasn't about combat or damage or death. It was something else. Something more.

  [Objective: Learn about Oglo Replicants from Oglo]

  Oh, that was right. Isabelle still had that quest active to learn more about the Oglo replicants. She was still getting used to having her quest requests processing through her system now that it was cleansed and merged with the Choxian system.

  "Alright, Oglo, it's time to explain some shit to me," said Isabelle. "What do you know about Oglo Prime?"

  Oglo's sobs stopped. He looked at her, a flicker of something in his eyes. Not hope, not defiance, but a strange, hollow curiosity. "Oglo Prime?" he said, his voice barely a whisper. "He is... he was... the first. The blueprint. The perfect specimen."

  "And you? Who are you?" said Isabelle.

  "I am Oglo," he said, his voice gaining a sliver of its former confidence. "I am a copy. A replication. We are all copies. Flawed, imperfect copies, but copies nonetheless. We are legion. We are the gears of the Spire."

  "Gears in the spire?" said Isabelle. "That's some cheesy fucking poetry, my friend."

  "He's not your friend," said Tahsi Junior from off in the distance. Ignis and the two kobolds had not fully fled as Isabelle had commanded. Instead, they'd landed on a nearby ledge, watching the confrontation unfold.

  "What are you doing? I told you to get out of here!" yelled Isabelle at them, her anger flaring.

  "We were worried!" said Ignis. "And we wanted to make sure you didn't need any help."

  "I don't need any help!" said Isabelle. "And if you're going to hang around, at least keep your mouths shut!"

  She turned back to Oglo, her patience wearing thin. "Start talking. What's with all the replicants? Are you guys like robots or something?"

  "We are not robots," Oglo said, his voice filled with a strange mix of pride and resentment. "We are biological. Organic. But we are grown, not born. Cultivated in vats of nutrient-rich gel, imprinted with the memories and skills of the original. We are designed for specific tasks, for specific roles within the grand clockwork of society."

  "Grown in vats?" said Isabelle, her mind reeling. That explained the identical bodies, the blank expressions. They weren't clones in the traditional sense. They were manufactured. A product.

  "What's with the system, then? How the fuck do you have a system that lets you spawn guards at will? Are you a Player Character, too?" said Isabelle.

  "System?" Oglo scoffed. "We have no need for your system. We have the Spire and its system coursing through our blood. The Spire is our god, our commander, our sustenance. It provides the energy, the directives, the purpose. I am an Archon, a high-level controller with access to the Spire's defensive protocols. The Praetorians are not spawned. They are assembled. Teleported from their holding bays deep within the Spire's core."

  Isabelle's eyes widened. It all clicked into place. The Clockwork Spire wasn't just a building. It was a giant, organic computer. A server. And Oglo and his replicants were its programs. Its processes.

  "So if the Spire is destroyed..." she said. Isabelle was suddenly realizing that even in its wreckage, something of the Clockwork Spire was clearly persisting.

  "Then the collective consciousness is severed," Oglo finished, a look of profound sadness on his face. "Each unit is left to its own devices. A fate worse than death for a being designed for unity. For order."

  Isabelle looked at him, at the pathetic, broken creature at her feet. He wasn't just a villain. He was a victim. A product of a system he couldn't control, a purpose he couldn't escape. She felt a strange pang of something. Pity? Empathy? It was an unfamiliar and uncomfortable feeling.

  She lowered her mace. "I'm not going to kill you, Oglo."

  He looked up at her, his eyes wide with disbelief. "You're not? But why? After all I've done? After all this?"

  "Because you're not the real enemy," said Isabelle, her voice low. "You're just a cog in a much bigger, much more fucked-up machine. And besides, I think you're going to be a lot more useful to me alive than dead."

  "Useful? How?"

  "You're going to help me find Oglo A," said Isabelle. "Whoever the fuck that is. If Oglo Prime was the first, I'm not really sure how there would be an Oglo A, but I'm sure it'll all make sense. Eventually."

  Oglo stared at her, a storm of emotions raging behind his gear-shaped eyes. Fear, confusion, a glimmer of something else. Hope? Or perhaps just the desperate need for a new purpose, a new directive in a world that had suddenly lost its meaning.

  "Oglo A is... a legend," he said, his voice hesitant. "A myth. No one has seen him in weeks. He is said to reside in the inner sanctum of the Spire, bathing in the source of its power. But of course, it's all gone now."

  "Is it?" said Isabelle with a sigh. "Maybe its husk is gone. But its heart... its core... I bet that's still intact. Otherwise, by your own admission, you and the forty something thousand replicants crawling up this mountain right now wouldn't be alive. Couldn't be alive, even."

  "Touche," said Oglo. Before another moment could pass, he leapt towards Isabelle, brandishing a crooked dagger.

  [Critical hit]

  [You've been staggered]

  [You've been poisoned]

  "What the fuck, Oglo!" said Isabelle, rolling her eyes. She was, quite frankly, not even that surprised. "You are a stubborn motherfucker."

  [You are poisoned]

  [You take 5 hp damage]

  [You take 5 hp damage]

  "I serve no one but the Spire's legacy!" Oglo shrieked, lunging again with surprising speed. He was a cornered animal, and desperation had given him a vicious new edge.

  Isabelle sidestepped, the silver mace flashing. She didn't aim for a kill, just a disabling blow. The mace connected with Oglo's wrist with a sickening crack. The dagger went flying, skittering off the edge of the cliff.

  "Your Spire is a steaming pile of rat shit!" Isabelle yelled back, her own anger flaring. The brief moment of pity had evaporated, replaced by the cold, hard reality of survival. "Its legacy is dust! And you're about to join it if you don't pull your head out of your ass!"

  But Oglo was beyond reason. He charged, head down, like a bull. He was surprisingly strong, and the impact sent them both tumbling to the ground. They wrestled on the rocky ledge, a messy, undignified brawl. Oglo was all flailing limbs and desperate grabs, while Isabelle tried to bring her mace to bear, the poisoned wound in her side throbbing with a dull, persistent fire.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  [You are poisoned]

  [You take 5 hp damage]

  [Stamina 98%]

  "You will not defile the sanctum!" he roared, his fingers digging into her shoulders.

  "There is no fucking sanctum!" she screamed back, shoving him off her. She scrambled to her feet, her breath coming in ragged gasps. The world was starting to spin a little, the edges of her vision blurring. The poison.

  [You are poisoned]

  [You take 5 hp damage]

  She had to end this. Now.

  Isabelle raised her mace, her hand trembling slightly. But before she could strike, a shadow fell over them. It was Ignis. She had landed silently behind Oglo, her massive form blotting out the sun.

  "Get away from her," the dragon growled, her voice a low, dangerous rumble that vibrated through the rock.

  Oglo froze, his eyes wide with terror. He slowly turned to face the dragon, the fight draining out of him in an instant.

  "I... I..." Oglo said with a stammer.

  Ignis didn't give him a chance to finish. With a swift, deliberate movement, she reached down and pinned him to the ground with one massive claw, pressing him into the dirt with irresistible force. He squirmed and struggled, but it was useless. He was caught.

  "Is he going to be a problem?" Ignis said with a huff, not even looking at Oglo, her gaze fixed on Isabelle.

  [You are poisoned]

  [You take 5 hp damage]

  Isabelle clutched her side, the pain worsening. "He's a problem," she grunted. "But he's also a solution. Just... just keep him there. I need to... I need a potion."

  Isabelle quick equipped a healing potion and drank it quickly.

  [Potion of Greater Health drunken]

  [+20 hp]

  [You are no longer poisoned]

  The effect was immediate. A wave of cool energy washed over her, soothing the burning in her veins and knitting the torn flesh. The poison was neutralized, the pain receding.

  Isabelle took a deep, steadying breath, the world coming back into focus. She walked over to Oglo, who was still pinned helplessly under Ignis's claw.

  "Alright, you son of a bitch," she said, her voice cold and steady. "Let's try this again. You're going to take me to this 'inner sanctum'. You're going to help me find this Oglo A. And you're going to do it willingly. Or I'm going to let my friend here see if you're as fireproof as you think you are."

  She looked at Ignis, who bared her teeth in a terrifying grin, a puff of smoke escaping her nostrils.

  Oglo's eyes darted between Isabelle and the dragon, the reality of his situation finally sinking in. His bravado, his devotion, his entire purpose, it had all led to this. To be a prisoner of a chaotic mage and her fire-breathing dragon.

  He let out a long, shuddering sigh, the fight finally gone out of him.

  "The entrance... it's gone," he said, his voice hollow. "Buried under the rubble. But there is another way. A service tunnel. An old maintenance shaft that leads deep into the mountain, to the very foundations of the Spire."

  [Updated: The Nature of the Oglo Replicants]

  [Objective: Get back into the Spire]

  "We better hurry," said Ignis to Isabelle. "The Oglo clones are getting close to the edge of the mountainside. If we don't take this asshole with us now, he's sure to have backup."

  "Fine," said Isabelle. "But I want to get into his runt dragon's inventory." She was hungry for some loot, that much was certain, especially now that Isabelle wasn't liable to loose all her items to corruption.

  Ignis huffed, a solemn agreeance, as Isabelle tied the arms of their captive Oglo and dragged him up on the dragon's scaly back.

  "Oh, hey guys," said Tahsi Senior through a mouthful of rye. "Anybody want some bread? Not including Oglo, of course."

  "Aw, man," said Oglo with a sob.

  "Just kidding, you can have some," said Tahsi Senior, holding out a loaf.

  "Dad!" said Tahsi Junior. "That's the bad guy!"

  "Ah, balls, my bad," said Tahsi Senior. He unequipped the loaf and equipped a small dinner roll. "Here, have a roll instead."

  "Dad!" said Tahsi Junior. "Don't give him a roll!"

  "But my son, it's what I do!" said Tahsi Senior, a small tear forming in his eye.

  "Tahsi, fuck off," said Isabelle with a sigh. "Don't give our enemy any healing bread, okay? And really, I can't believe I'm saying this, but listen to your son."

  "Yea, take that Dad," said Tahsi Junior, flipping Tahsi Senior the bird with both hands.

  "My son!" said Tahsi Senior as he sobbed and swallowed the dinner roll whole.

  Isabelle rolled her eyes as she focused her mind on looting the crumpled runt dragon in the distance.

  Inventory: Runt Dragon

  Dragon Scales x2

  +2 str, +2 const, +5 carry weight

  Raw Essence x2

  n/a

  Dragon scroll

  n/a

  "Holy fucking hell," said Isabelle, her shoulders slumping in disappointment. "Of course it's got nothing."

  It wasn't necessarily nothing, of course. Isabelle was happy to have the Raw Essence, and the Dragon scales and dragon scroll would surely come in handy. Well, okay, maybe the dragon scroll. The jury was still out on the Dragon scales, honestly. Isabelle didn't know what she'd even do with them. She alreaady had armor made out of a better dragon, after all.

  Still, Isabelle took everything. How could she not?

  Inventory: Runt Dragon

  n/a

  "What's it like?" said Tahsi Senior, squinting as he looked at the inventory items fly out of the Runt Dragon's inventory and into Isabelle's by means of system notification.

  "It's like, if your inventory was a piece of shit, and it died, that's what this would be," said Isabelle with a heavy sigh. "Now, let's get out of here before we get swarmed."

  She hopped back onto Ignis's back, settling in behind the bound Oglo. The dragon beat her powerful wings, lifting them from the ledge and into the thin, cold air. They soared over the mountainside, the wind whipping at their faces, the vast expanse of the Clockwork Spire's ruins spread out below them like a shattered god's toy box.

  They flew for what felt like an hour, the landscape a blur of jagged peaks and deep valleys. Oglo, despite his predicament, couldn't help but be impressed by the dragon's grace and power.

  "She is a magnificent specimen," he said, a note of genuine admiration in his voice. "A true marvel of biological engineering. The scales, the wing-to-body ratio, the internal combustion... it's all quite exquisite."

  "Shut up," said Ignis, without turning her head. "And never refer to my gas as 'internal combustion' again. Or I'll drop you."

  Oglo fell silent, huddling into himself. They landed in a small, sheltered canyon, a place hidden from view by towering rock formations. The air was still and quiet, a stark contrast to the chaos they had just left behind.

  [Updated: The Nature of the Oglo Replicants]

  [Objective: Access the service tunnel]

  "So, where's this service tunnel?" Isabelle said, hopping off Ignis's back and untying Oglo.

  Oglo rubbed his wrists, the circulation slowly returning. "It's hidden," he said, his eyes scanning the canyon walls. "Behind a false rockface. Designed to be undetectable from the air."

  He walked over to a seemingly solid wall of rock and ran his hands over its surface. He pressed a specific sequence of stones, a rhythmic tapping that echoed in the stillness. With a low groan, a section of the rockface slid away, revealing a dark, narrow passage leading into the mountain's depths.

  [Spire Service Tunnel unlocked]

  "After you," said Isabelle, gesturing with her mace. "And don't try anything funny. My friend here gets very cranky when she's hungry."

  Oglo shot a nervous glance at Ignis, who was licking her lips, then proceeded into the darkness. The others followed, their footsteps echoing in the confined space. The air grew cooler, damper, the walls slick with moisture. The only light came from a faint, pulsating glow emanating from the rock itself.

  They walked in silence for what felt like an eternity, the path winding deeper and deeper into the mountain's core. The glowing rock grew brighter, casting long, dancing shadows on the walls. The air hummed with a strange energy, a low, thrumming vibration that seemed to resonate in their bones.

  "We're close," Oglo said, his voice hushed, almost reverent. "Can you feel it? The power. The source. It's still here."

  Isabelle rolled her eyes and sighed at the stupid banality of this Oglo replicant's seemingly stupid existence. Even though she could feel it, too. It was a strange, compelling force, a siren's call of pure, unadulterated order. It was everything she stood against, everything she had fought to destroy. But it was also intoxicating. Alluring. And yet, along with all that, it was also deeply stupid. Feeling revenance for something almost totally destroyed? Something that did little other than make Isabelle far more powerful than she'd ever been under the guise of destroying her? What a cruel joke, but the joke wasn't on Isabelle.

  They finally reached the end of the tunnel, a large, circular chamber carved from the living rock. In the center of the chamber was a pulsating orb of energy, a swirling vortex of light and color that seemed to defy the laws of physics. It was beautiful. Terrifying. And utterly mesmerizing.

  "The Core," Oglo breathed, his eyes wide with awe. "The heart of the Spire. The source of all our power."

  Isabelle stared at the Core, her mind racing. This was it. The key to everything. The source of the Oglo replicants, the power behind the Praetorians, the reason for all this chaos and destruction. And it was just... there. Waiting for her.

  "So what now?" said Ignis, her voice a low rumble. "Do we smash it?"

  "No!" Oglo cried out, stepping protectively in front of the Core. "You can't! It's not just a power source. It's a consciousness. A collective mind. To destroy it would be to murder us all. We are connected to it. It is our very essence."

  Isabelle considered this. A collective mind. A consciousness. It was a strange and fascinating concept. A society of individuals linked by a single, unifying thought. A hive mind. A perfect system of order.

  It was also, she realized with a jolt, the ultimate form of control. A prison for the mind. A cage for the soul. Did Oglo even have a soul? Isabelle doubted it. Isabelle hated Oglo's guts, and forty odd thousand of them. And the bastards had caged themselves, inexplicably, to the Spire. Why the fuck did Oglo clone himself, again? Oglo Prime had told her it was about freeing the Spire from the Order of the Unconquered Sun, but she wasn't entirely certain he hadn't been feeding her a line of bullshit, as people in Beaubinte so often seemed to.

  On the other hand, Isabelle also realized that Oglo had said the Core was the Oglo clones' very 'Essence.' What exactly did that mean? Did that mean she could get Raw Essence from the Core to feed her power leveling? Isabelle wondered with a curious intrigue.

  "So how do we find Oglo A?" she said, her eyes fixed on the swirling vortex. "Is he in there? Part of this... collective?"

  "Maybe," said Oglo, a look of uncertainty on his face. "He was the original. The one who first interfaced with the Core. The one who shaped its consciousness. He could have been absorbed into it, become one with the whole. Or he could have found a way to transcend it, to exist outside of its influence. We just don't know."

  "So we go in," said Isabelle, her jaw set. "We find him. We get some answers."

  "It's not that simple," said Oglo, shaking his head. "To enter the Core is to risk losing yourself. To have your mind, your memories, your very identity subsumed by the collective. You could be lost forever. Or worse, you could become a part of it. A cog in the machine you so despise."

  Isabelle looked at the Core, then at her friends. Ignis, her eyes filled with a mixture of curiosity and concern. Tahsi Senior, nervously munching on a bagel he seemed to have conjured from nowhere. Tahsi Junior, trying to look brave but failing miserably.

  "Bet," said Isabelle, standing before the Core. "This isn't the first Dungeon Core I've run into in Beaubinte. Let's fuck shit up."

  "Well, you realize it is a Spire Core, right?" said Oglo. "Not to be pedantic, but they're two slightly different things."

  "Oh, fuck the fuckedy fuck off, Oglo," said Isabelle as she stepped froward into the vortex. "Just fuck the fuckedy fuck off already."