A distant rumble interrupts me. I stop spectating the adventurer's delve in order to locate the source of the sound. There's no sign of anything in the Wildwood, nor does anything stand out to me in Green Valley--but the antechamber? Something horrible has happened.

  I can see a group of humans in fancy armor strewn about the antechamber. The door to Green Valley is buried under rubble, and the spatial connection between the antechamber and Green Valley has been severed completely. The rocky structure of the antechamber is in complete disarray. Was there an explosion?

  The men rise from the ground mostly intact. Their leader starts spouting nonsense

  "Our prayers were answered, Men! The hellscape can be cleansed!"

  Confusion wracks my mind as I watch the dust settle. There are no signs of an explosive, no bombs nor items with which to light a fuse. I can't see any sulfur or residual materials an explosion this big should leave behind.

  What I do find, is a rosary.

  The ornate golden rosary is strange to say the least. While at a glance it appears to be a religious symbol, there is more to it. Mana is interwoven into the object. I can't figure out what it is meant to do as the mana is so dense and unfamiliar. This is not my mana.

  I didn't think humans had any access to mana, but I stand corrected!

  This object clearly is enchanted to do something...

  The leader of these armored men--who appear to be paladins--retrieves the rosary and stores it away with utmost care. If this rosary somehow caused the explosion then I should reevaluate humanity's power to harm me.

  Their mention of 'cleansing a hellscape' certainly doesn't ease my nerves. The paladins start to collect themselves and shake the grit from their armor, and it is at that moment a group of adventurers steps out of the Wildwood and into the antechamber.

  The group of men look confused by the state of the antechamber. They gawk at the rubble where the door to Green Valley once stood and turn to regard the paladins. The paladin leader draws himself up and marches right up to the group.

  "Tell me, heathens, how did you enter that door?"

  "What? We reserved a delve slot, of course?"

  "Move aside. We must enter and cleanse this infernal den."

  Confused and not wanting any trouble, the group of adventurers moves aside. They don't want a fight and since they were already on their way out of the dungeon they have no issue simply walking away. The paladin leader approaches the door to the Wildwood, and is stopped due to not having visited the door in Green Valley first. He frowns, pulling out the enchanted rosary.

  I watch him whisper to his god quietly. The mana in the rosary seems to thrum and pulse with his words, reacting to the sounds in a manner I don't fully understand. Then the rock surrounding the door to the Wildwood starts to crack. The sight of mana moving to destroy is frightening--I can't quite tell where its coming from, but it is not related to the rosary. Something far from here is touching and pushing on the door blocking the paladin's path.

  Strangely, the mana isn't being manipulated to open the barrier.

  Whatever is controlling the mana is simply shoving it at the problem in a brute force attack.

  The ground is shaking around the door. If I don't do something now, it will break the door in its entirety. While this won't really affect me beyond some mana being used for repairs, it will certainly affect the adventurers. There is a party trapped in Green Valley right now--It would be horribly inconvenient if the adventurers in the forest temple wound up stuck as well!

  I act before the damage can worsen. Mana pushed from my core reinforces the structure of the antechamber, battling against foreign mana being used for the opposite purpose. My grip on my mana isn't as strong as whatever I'm up against. I'm fighting a losing battle, but I don't need to win this tug of war. I use some mana to make a hole in the rules of my dungeon. The door to the Wildwood no longer has any limitations, simply functioning as a connection from the antechamber to the Wildwood. Now the paladins can enter freely.

  When I let go of my grip on the door the quaking stops.

  Whatever was trying to destroy the door has stopped, sensing the obstacle is gone.

  "God has opened the way forward!"

  The leader of the paladins doesn't seem to realize I opened the barrier for them. This raises several questions about how they have a mana infused object, and how they're calling for aid from something far from this place.

  Is it another dungeon core like myself? Or are they actually getting help directly from God?

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  My attention returns to the Paladins as they march through the now unlocked door to the Wildwood. They are awestruck for a few moments by the scale of the highbark. The smell of the forest and the calls of wildlife catch the pious men completely off guard.

  The leader is the first to regain his senses. He scowls at his surroundings before calling out to his men, attempting to get them back in the headspace for 'cleansing.'

  "Do not falter, men! Remember that we are in the devil's lands, and nothing is as it seems!"

  If I was in my body I would be rolling my eyes. The paladins all fall in line, cheering their leader's name as they form into a tight group. The leader produces a few concerning items from his satchel: Oil, flint, and steel. I hadn't noticed them before, as they'd been tucked away in his bag.

  "Kill everything! Leave nothing alive in this wretched place!"

  With that battle cry the paladin pours the oil over the base of a highbark and lights it ablaze. Whatever is in the oil is very reactive, and the highbark is burning in seconds. It takes time for the flames to spread up the huge tree. The sight of its immense form crackling and breaking apart is simultaneously beautiful and horrible.

  Burning branches fall like missiles to the earth. The paladins are already moving on. More of that potent oil is used to light other highbark on fire. I have a feeling if Silva saw this he would be heartbroken, but he is currently spending time with Gu.

  Oh, now that is interesting... The paladins have just splashed oil on a treant.

  The creaking of wood and groaning of the earth being torn asunder catches the paladins by surprise. The leader stumbles backwards while another paladin beside him falls flat on his ass. The leader stares wide eyed as the tree he just lit on fire starts standing up. The branches bend low in sweeping motions as it attempt to put the fire out-

  Splat! The paladin who was sitting at the foot of the treant is now a red smear against the plant monster's trunk, and it is failing to put out the fire which is spreading higher. Deep pained groans of wood twisting and crackling are filling the forest now. The leader scrambles to his feet and orders his men into action.

  "Draw your blades! This is not a tree, but a demon!"

  His eagerness to kill is misplaced, as the treant is not a foe he can cut with his blade. The huge thing starts to stomp toward the cause of its pain. Cascading dirt and soil create clouds of silt as it charges. Its gnarled roots crush one paladin as he tries to slice the beast. The leader is sent flying by an errant motion of a knotted root.

  Landing with a thud against a nearby highbark, the leader is too dazed to move.

  "For our Holy Father!" A particularly brazen paladin shouts.

  The treant swings its arm like branches down in an attempt to smack the paladin into next week. The movement is too slow to connect, and the paladin laughs as he dodges out of the way. He uses his blade to slash at the bark of the treant. It does little to no damage, leaving chips of bark in its wake.

  An eerie groan is followed by the treant collapsing on itself. The fire is spreading too fast for it to stay on its roots, and its trunk is cracking in several places. The paladin who so deftly dodged moments prior is crushed before he even realizes the treant is falling in his direction. The others are aware enough to move out of the way.

  "We're winning! Kill it while it is down!" Another paladin cries out.

  The leader of the paladins is dazed, his vision swimming as he coughs up bits of dirt from when he got tossed like a rag doll. He looks up to see his paladins attempting to cut up the treant who is burning to death, lying on the ground.

  Intelligence is not one of the core traits of a paladin. This lack of smarts and knowledge has led to the current situation, where several men in heavy metal armor are cooking themselves on the flames of a dying giant. They don't even realize why they're coughing and wheezing so much.

  "Stop!" The paladin leader roars.

  The paladins turn to look at him upon hearing his hoarse shout.

  Unfortunately, it is too late, as one of the younger paladins has already collapsed.

  "Get away from the fire! It is already dead!"

  Hearing his orders, they obey. Four sweaty paladins and their injured leader are all that remain. The flames are spreading rapidly through the dry leaf litter and small brush occupying the forest floor. I watch the leader take a good look around before he comes to a bitter realization.

  "We're going back."

  "What? But we can't go back! We haven't cleansed-"

  "The flames are too great! If we linger any longer we will be swallowed up by the fire!"

  The paladin clams up at that. Their leader is right, at the rate the flames are spreading the forest will be reduced to a smoldering wreck very soon. Smoke is already starting to cloud the canopy above the door to the antechamber.

  There's no energy among the paladins now that their original purpose has been cut short. They march their way back to the door they entered through, and leave behind the burning Wildwood. I'm left with burning questions as to where they came from and the origin of their enchanted rosary.

  For now, I need to mitigate the damage.

  Unfortunately the presence of adventurers in the forest temple limits what I can do. A healthy dose of mana injected into the sky stone results in a shower of rain--but the fire won't be put out by that alone. The canopy of highbark shields much of the flames while the fires burning in the trees themselves are completely sheltered from the weather.

  I'm not sure if I can save the trees that are already mostly charred.

  Silva will not be happy, but the best I can do is modify some of the highbark to be more resistant to flames. Hopefully this will prevent future forest fires.

  Though, the paladins used some kind of special oil to ignite these fires.

  I didn't get to inspect it too closely.

  With the possibility of zealous paladins marching into my dungeon to 'cleanse' me I had better start taking security more seriously. I can't make everything more dangerous, as that would kill too many adventurers, but perhaps more delicate measures can be taken.

  Silva has been toying with the idea of having his own underlings lately. He phrased it differently, saying he wants to follow in his mother's footsteps. If I understood him correctly then perhaps an army of mini Silvas could help deal with future attacks.

  Now what am I going to tell Silva?