Silvia and Modak were standing back together. The Roxie unit, the one that was still alive, was still standing there, quietly staring at Silvia. It was only following the command that it was given; to watch Silvia and kill her if she tried anything dumb. But Silvia hadn't tried anything. Modak was the one that killed the other Roxie.

  "Can't you just... I don't know, do the same thing with this one?" she whispered, but Modak immediately shook his head.

  "No, of course I can't. For one, I would definitely break my hand... But also, the only reason I could do that was because of that magic from the speakers. Plus, I knew what exactly I had to do to make it go into overload like that. But a regular one?" Modak whispered back, shaking his head, "No, I need you to just paint, okay?"

  "But I don't get how this would help us, just... I don't even know how I did it before. And the robot would definitely attack us before then," Silvia pointed out. Hell, it was even a shock that the Roxie hadn't reacted when Modak took down the other one. Then again, Richard was very clear that it shouldn't interfere.

  The orc leaned in, whispering to her, "It's clearly some kind of skill that lets you draw whatever you want into the world, right? So you can make whatever we need. Walls, a cage, or even a massive rock falling on top of it."

  Silvia quickly shook her head, "No, that's not... I don't really think that's how it works... I'm not sure if I can draw something that's strong enough to hold out against Roxie..."

  The orc thought for a moment, "... Okay, so, different plan, then. But... it's pretty realistic, right? Your drawings, I mean? What's the range on your painting?"

  "Uhm... I don't know, that's a good question.. But why..?"

  Modak looked around. There were a few places nearby that you could hide behind, like some low walls or fences. And so, Modak leaned in and whispered the new plan to Silvia. It might be a long shot, and it sounded almost like some kind of cartoon, but they just had to give it a go. It was really the only idea that either of them had in the first place.

  "... Okay, fine," Silvia finally agreed after some convincing, "Just block its line of sight, and I'll try, yeah?"

  Modak smiled lightly. This would be extremely dangerous. If the robot saw through what they were trying to do, it might see it as an escape-attempt and attack them. And if that happened, they basically had no recourse anymore.

  And so, Modak was careful. He between Silvia and the Roxie unit, always shifting just so slightly whenever the robot would try to adjust its perspective. Meanwhile, Silvia grabbed her brush and dunked it into the small porcelain pots hanging off her apron. She got the right colour, then slowly closed one of her eyes, staring into the distance. Like painting a tiny detail onto a larger canvas, she pressed the tip of her brush into the air, carefully moving it along. after adjusting the colour a couple of times, Silvia had drawn something that at least she found pretty good.

  It was a drawing of herself standing in the distance. Quietly, she tapped Modak's arm, and the orc quickly moved on to the next part. He let out a loud groan and stretched out his arms wide, making as much noise as he could while moving around the Roxie. Specifically, he went over to pick up something off the ground; a piece of wood that seemed like you could swing it quite well.

  Of course, he wasn't stupid enough to attack the Roxie, but it was more than enough to distract the robot for a few moment. It focused on him for a few moments, and in the meantime, Silvia hid behind one of the low walls.

  The moment he could tell that Silvia was hidden, Modak let out an exaggerated gasp, "Wait, Silvia!"

  The Roxie unit turned around to the place where Modak was looking, and couldn't see Silvia standing there anymore. Instead, it could only see her far away in the distance. Without a moment's hesitation, it started sprinting forward at full speed.

  "Oh thank the gods these things are dumb as bricks," Modak grumbled, as Silvia stood up. The two of them immediately started to run. They had to try and hide out somewhere.

  "Are you sure we'll be safe if we just go into one of the buildings? Don't you think it's going to find us again if it tries?"

  Modak didn't quite know what to say. It did seem like these robots had access to some kind of sensors, but it was also clear that they weren't using them all the time. They might be pretty processing-intense. Modak couldn't see any other real reason why they weren't turned on all the time. But if the Roxie was searching for them, it would use it, and sniff them out immediately. That was the assumption, at least.

  "I don't know, these things are so confusing. It feels like Richie was high when he designed them," Modak said, running ahead of Silvia, "We just need to find a safe spot and hope that Ryan can get us out of here in the next couple of minutes!"

  "Isn't that a big of a long shot?" she asked, "And when the hell did you start running so fast?"

  Modak didn't quite pay attention to that question. He was still trying to think about what they could do. Where could they hide? What could they do to restrict the Roxie from finding them?

  "Come on, Modak, think..!" he whispered to himself. However, he quickly felt himself pulled back as Silvia grabbed his sleeve from behind him.

  "I've got an idea!" she exclaimed, staring at something that wasn't all too far away. Modak followed her line of sight, "We just get it onto that somehow!"

  Modak was confused, until he realized what she was looking at. It was the largest rollercoaster in the park. The one that was literally fast enough to kill people, and had even led to Ryan looking extremely rough afterward.

  "Silvia, you're an absolute genius," Modak grinned broadly, as the two friends began to run toward the tall structure. By the time they got there, they were certain that the Roxie unit realised it had been tricked, and was trying to get back at them. Modak and Silvia rushed through the queuing area, soon reaching the ride's actual cart. It was bulging up and down slightly, like it was breathing. Ryan had said these things were alive, but seeing it in person was still another thing.

  "Okay, now how do we do this?" Silvia asked, staring at Modak, who simply shrugged.

  "I-I don't know, this was your idea!"

  "But you're the smart one!"

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Modak hesitated. He wasn't sure what to do or say right now, like unfamiliar words were stuck in his throat. He could hear the metallic, running footsteps of something approaching through the queue, and could soon see the Roxie unit. And at that point, Modak basically just worked off instinct.

  It came sprinting at them, its hand turned into a spike it was going to try and stab right through Silvia. But Modak stepped in front of her. The robot didn't care; it would kill Modak as well, without hesitation.

  However, there was one thing that the orc wanted to rely on for now. At just the right moment, he pulled back his arm and swung his fist forward. Obviously, in a direct impact between a sprinting hunk of metal and an injured orc, the former would easily win. But this Roxie witnessed Modak destroy another one of its kind, an upgraded sort, with just a single punch. Even if it didn't attack Modak earlier because of Richard's cocky command, it had to see Modak's punch as some kind of threat.

  And so, instead of just plowing through him, the Roxie did something else. It cancelled its movement in the middle of the air, and slowly fell down. But Modak had mistimed the punch. the Roxie was a step behind the rollercoaster, and hadn't dropped onto it like he had hoped.

  Before he could even think about the consequences of his mistake, Silvia swung her brush through the air, drawing thick chains that were connected to the Roxie unit's leg as well as the restraints of the rollercoaster.

  Both the robot and Modak realised what happened at the same time. And while the Roxie jumped forward to try and attack Silvia, Modak just kicked the rollercoaster with his foot. The bestial cart immediately seemed to react and shot forward like some kind of hyper-fast racecar.

  Though it got way, way too close for comfort, the Roxie was soon dragged away by the rollercoaster, and was now going to enjoy a fun little ride.

  Modak and Silvia both stepped outside, seeing the robot hanging off the back of the cart. And then, Silvia took a deep breath and blew it out again as the ride entered its first major descent. Like blowing away some dust on her desk, she blew away the chains she painted. The robot, no longer attached to the cart, slammed into the ground at a velocity that it wasn't able to get rid of with the energy transformer. The pair were even able to see some of her parts be flung all the way back to where they were standing.

  They looked at each other with slightly shocked expressions.

  "I... can't believe that just worked." Modak started. Silvia agreed.

  "Me neither."

  Their shock soon turned into broad grins, as they hugged each other in relief that they were still alive, "Silvia, you're fucking brilliant!"

  "Okay, you listen to me now, yeah?" Richard was breathing intensely, clearly in a lot of pain, "I don't care what kind of tricks you're trying to pull here right now, but this is over! I'm going to destroy this fucking dungeon, get the original corruption, and then I'm going to kill you! Do you get that, you absolute-"

  "Just shut up! What do you want from me, it's not my fault that your own guy shot you!"

  "Oh, you know it is!" he pointed the gun at Ryan, "That kid, is that the core? Just give it to me!"

  Ryan tightened his protective grasp of the boy. Of course, his goal had been to destroy the core in the first place, but he couldn't bare do that now that he knew what form it took. He wasn't some kind of psycho, and he wouldn't just give up a little kid to Richard.

  "I'm not going to do that," he said, but Richard just started laughing as he waved his gun around.

  "Are you fucking kidding me? The knight in scuffed armour, at it again!" the gnome's laugh stopped scarily fast as he pressed the barrel of the gun against Ryan's forehead, "Who the hell do you think you are? Trying to make yourself seem big? Like you're some kind of huge, important son of a bitch!"

  Ryan glared up at Richard, "No, I'm just saying that I won't give the kid to you, okay?" he pointed out, closing his eyes for a moment to hide the flash of colour in them, "Listen, I get it. I want to get out of here too, let's just... try and close the dungeon together, yeah?"

  Richard went from angry to laughing again, "What, you think I'm going to fall for that? This is another one of your tricks, isn't it?"

  "No, it's obviously not one of my tricks," Ryan said, opening his eyes again. He glanced past Richard, seeing that he was calling the Roxies back to him. The cyborg soldier was still alive, trying to push himself off the ground. Maybe Richard took control of him again too, "I just don't want to see you turn into some kind of monster, man! You were a good guy, how could you let this happen to you?"

  "What happened to me? What happened to me?" Richard sighed, "I was infected, and the corruption took me over. At that moment, while my mind was flooded with all the terrible thoughts in the world, I had two choices. One, fight and die to that... thing. Or two, accept it and live a life I never could have imagined. I chose the latter. Now I have power. I have influence. I can do whatever the fuck I want."

  "... What about your family? Your mom, your siblings, don't you..?"

  "Those freeloaders? Hah, yeah, I don't care about them," Richard scoffed as if it were obvious.

  "The... the corruption. If it's some kind of cursed symbiote, then... did it turn into a parasite? Is it controlling you? Is that what's going on?"

  "What? No, what are you talking about, why would it? It doesn't control me, it's just part of me now. You've got one of your own, right? You know how it feels."

  He absolutely did not know. Not even once did Tiar control Ryan's emotions or make him think differently. Of course, Ryan had experienced corruption to some degree before. It was trying to latch onto him, to force a bond, but it wouldn't hold. The dungeon mana that was stuck inside of him protected him for a while, too. And then, Tiar came along and forced out the other symbiote. But Richard didn't reject it. He was the perfect host. The perfect creature to bond to. It... chose Richard for a reason.

  "You're just... you're a psycho. It's not because of the corruption. You're just a maniac, and the corruption gave you an excuse to show that."

  The gnome sighed, "That's what I'm saying, yes. Feeling clever, huh?"

  Ryan glared up at Richard, "Clever enough to realise that the gun you're pointing at me has its safety turned on."

  It was a lie. An obvious one. Richard had literally used it to shoot the tank barely a minute ago. But in his manic state of mind, he didn't realise it, and quickly averted his eyes from Ryan for just a brief moment. Though that moment was enough for Jester to throw Ryan one of the other mana potion bottles.

  Ryan jumped forward and pushed Richard onto the ground, pushing the piscette boy behind himself, while Maximus jumped out of his domain to catch the bottle and pull it open. Gaia also came out, hunching over Ryan and Richard to protect them from the Roxie units' attacks. She also stepped onto Richard's arms, just enough so that he couldn't pull away. Ryan forced the content of the potion into Richard's mouth, but he wouldn't swallow it himself.

  So, following the potion was the horn of shapeless water. Ryan pressed its opening around Richard's mouth, and made water flow out of it and into the gnome's mouth. Basically, he was filling his mouth with water so that the potion was forced down into his belly. Ryan knew that it would take effect almost immediately, and could already see Richard convulsing.

  It was one thing to take a mana potion when you were almost drained, and another to take it when you still had plenty to spare. Mana overload wasn't a pretty thing in any way whatsoever, and that on top of the already-existing side effects of the mana potion? Not pleasant at all.

  Ryan could see the Roxies, which were currently under Richard's own control, drop down onto the ground as if the connection had been destroyed. As though Ryan had cut the threads connecting to the puppets.

  And while Richard still convulsed, Ryan stood up. He unsummoned all the spirits, and behind Gaia, he could see the soldier still standing there. He wasn't fully controlled after all. Ryan expected that he would be shot at immediately, but the soldier's focus was on Richard, who was fighting back against the pain of the potion and the mana overload.

  "... I won't stop you. Just leave, do whatever you want with him," Ryan said, taking a step back to block the piscette boy again.

  The soldier glanced at Ryan and just sneered for a moment. In the end, he leaned down and grabbed Richard by the hair, starting to drag him over the ground. He gave a single nod to Ryan, and then left out the large doors back into the boss room.

  Richard's manic, pained screams were going to be stuck in Ryan's ears forever.

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