The elevator doors opened onto the Casino Floor, and Reed immediately choked.

He didn't choke on smoke or poison gas. He choked on perfume.

The air in the Grand Foyer wasn't violet anymore. It was a hazy, shimmering pink. It smelled like a botanical garden exploded inside a lingerie shop, thick, sweet, and heavy with a biological musk that bypassed the nose and went straight to the libido.

"System," Reed coughed, pulling the collar of his shirt up over his nose. "Report."

[SYSTEM ALERT]

[Status Effect: MASS CHARM (Pollen)]

[Source: Floor 4 Breach]

[Effect: Inhibitions Lowered by 500%. Libido Increased by 500%. Common Sense: 0%.]

"Oh no," Reed whispered.

He stepped out of the elevator and into Caligula's fever dream.

The Casino was no longer a place of high-stakes tension. It was a rave.

At the Blackjack tables, the Bone-Maids had abandoned their stoic dealer personas. One skeleton was currently standing on the table, performing a burlesque routine that involved slowly unhooking her own ribcage while a crowd of merchants cheered and threw gold coins at her pelvis. Click-Clack-Strip.

The Void Bunnies, usually efficient and silent, were now floating lazily through the air, giggling. One of them drifted through a knight's chest armor, paused inside his torso to tickle his heart, and then floated out the other side, leaving the man blushing and clutching his chest in confused ecstasy.

And the Orc Matrons...

"SNU-SNU!" Bertha roared.

Reed watched in horror as the seven-foot Orc Bouncer lifted a struggling (but not too struggling) bard over her head. She didn't throw him out. She threw him onto a velvet couch and flexed her biceps until the seams of her waistcoat exploded, sending buttons flying like shrapnel.

"I SURRENDER!" the Bard yelled, sounding delighted. "CAPTURE ME!"

Even the "Classic Dungeon" feed on the wall monitors showed chaos. In the Hall of Hands, Brin the Rogue wasn't dodging the Spanking Machine anymore. He was standing still, presenting his backside to the mechanical paddle.

"Thank you, Sir!" Brin shouted on the screen. "May I have another?!"

"This is a disaster," Reed muttered. "Profitable, but a disaster."

"Lord Reed!"

The main doors swung open. High Inquisitor Kaelen marched in, flanked by two junior Paladins who immediately stopped, sniffed the air, and looked at each other with very wide eyes.

Kaelen looked furious. She held a stack of papers.

"I have the zoning amendments for the bridge toll!" she announced, marching toward him. "And I demand an explanation for the... the..."

She stopped. She sniffed.

Her eyes dilated.

"It smells like..." Kaelen's voice dropped an octave. She wobbled slightly, her rigid posture melting. "Like sin. And strawberries."

"Don't breathe!" Reed shouted, rushing toward her. "Kaelen, hold your breath! It's pollen! From floor 4"

He was too late. Kaelen took a deep, lung-filling inhale of the pink mist.

She blinked. The angry scowl on her face vanished, replaced by a dreamy, terrifyingly intense smile. The Holy Light radiating from her armor shifted from a cold white to a warm, throbbing gold.

"The wicked," Kaelen whispered, staring at Reed's lips. "They must be... purged."

"Yes," Reed nodded, grabbing her shoulders. "Purged. We need to purge the air. Help me get to the HVAC room. It's behind the bar."

"Purged with... affection," Kaelen corrected. She stepped closer, her metal greaves clanking against his boots. She grabbed his lapels. "I sense heresy in you, Reed. Deep, knotty heresy. I need to massage it out."

"That's not in the codex, Inquisitor!" Reed yelped, trying to pry her off. She was surprisingly strong. "Junior Paladins! Help!"

He looked over Kaelen's shoulder. The two junior Paladins were currently busy. One was slow-dancing with a Void Bunny. The other was being used as a bench-press weight by Bertha.

"You are on your own, Heretic," Kaelen purred. She pinned him against a slot machine. The machine dinged happily, flashing [LOVE] [LOVE] [LOVE].

"Elara!" Reed thought screaming internally. "Ventilation! Now!"

I can't... the ghost whispered in his head, her voice sounding giggle-y. The flowers... they tell such dirty jokes... hee hee...

"Useless," Reed gritted his teeth.

He activated his [Void Shield]. A bubble of translucent violet energy formed around his head, filtering the air. The pink mist receded from his face, giving him clarity.

But Kaelen was inside his guard range.

"You can't hide from the Light," Kaelen whispered. She tried to kiss him.

Reed ducked. Her lips hit the slot machine glass, leaving a smudge.

"HVAC room!" Reed yelled. "We move!"

He grabbed her wrist and dragged her through the chaotic casino floor. He dodged a flying corset (thrown by a Bone-Maid), ducked under a swooping, love-drunk Riva ("SHINY BOSS IS MINE!"), and kicked open the hidden door behind the bar.

The Maintenance Shaft

The noise of the party faded slightly as the heavy steel door slammed shut, but the pink mist was even thicker here. It was being pumped directly from the lower levels.

The room was cramped, filled with massive iron ducts and hissing pipes. At the far end, ten feet up a narrow crawlspace, was the Manual Override Wheel.

"I need to turn that wheel," Reed panted, pointing up. "It reverses the fans and seals the Floor 3 intake."

He turned to Kaelen. "Stay here. Do not touch anything. Do not touch me, yet!"

Kaelen was leaning against the door, sweating. Her pupils were blown wide. She looked like a junkie going through withdrawal and a predator spotting a meal at the same time.

"Mandatory inspection," Kaelen mumbled, unbuckling her sword belt and letting it drop with a clang. "The confined space regulations require... close contact."

"No regulations!" Reed snapped. "Stay!"

He jumped, grabbing the lip of the vent shaft, and pulled himself up.

He crawled into the metal tunnel. It was tight, barely wide enough for his shoulders. He army-crawled toward the wheel, his knees banging against the metal.

Scrape. Scrape.

Reed froze. He looked back over his shoulder.

Kaelen was crawling after him.

In the narrow shaft, there was no room to stand. No room to fight. Just room to crawl.

"Kaelen, get out!" Reed shouted, his voice echoing in the tin duct.

"You're stuck," Kaelen whispered. Her voice echoed right behind his boots. "Stuck and full of sin. I'm coming to save you, Dungeon Daddy!"

"I don't need saving! I need ventilation!"

Reed scrambled faster. He reached the wheel. It was rusted, stuck tight.

"Gah!" He grabbed it with both hands, straining. "Turn, you piece of crap!"

Something grabbed his ankle.

"Found you," Kaelen hummed.

She crawled over his legs. In the cramped space, she had to press herself flat against his back to move forward. The weight of her plate armor pressed him down into the metal.

"Kaelen!" Reed wheezed. "You are crushing the Dungeon Lord!"

"Heavy pressure is calming," she murmured into his ear. She had crawled all the way up his back and was now essentially piggybacking him in a 2x2 metal tube.

She wrapped her arms around his neck. She nuzzled her face into the crook of his shoulder, inhaling deeply.

"You smell like Void," she whispered, her hot breath sending shivers down his spine. "It makes me dizzy. I want to bite it."

"Don't bite the Void!" Reed yelled, straining against the wheel. It creaked. It moved an inch.

Kaelen's hands wandered. One hand gripped his shoulder. The other slid down his chest, dangerously close to the Void Shard... and other things.

"This armor is in the way," Kaelen complained. She started trying to undo the buckles of Reed's coat. "We need skin-to-skin contact for... purification transfer."

"There is no such thing as purification transfer!" Reed grunted.

The pollen was getting to her brain. The "Steam" addiction was mixing with the aphrodisiac, creating a feedback loop where she believed that sex was a holy duty.

"Hold still," she commanded, nibbling on his earlobe. "Let the Light enter you."

"NOT NOW!"

Reed channeled his mana.

[SKILL: OVERLORD STRENGTH]

He surged with violet power. He ignored the woman nibbling on his neck. He ignored the hand slipping under his shirt. He focused entirely on the rusted iron wheel.

"SEAL!" Reed roared.

He wrenched the wheel.

SCREEEEEECH-CLANG.

The valve slammed shut.

Deep in the bowels of the dungeon, massive gears shifted. The hum of the fans changed pitch.

WHOOSH.

The airflow reversed.

Instead of sucking air from the garden, the fans blasted fresh, cold mountain air from the surface into the vents.

The pink mist swirled violently and was sucked away. A blast of cold, clean oxygen hit them in the face.

"Gah!" Kaelen gasped as the fresh air hit her.

She blinked. She shook her head.

The pink haze in her eyes cleared.

She looked down.

She was lying on top of Reed in a cramped ventilation shaft. Her hand was halfway down his pants. Her mouth was on his neck. Her legs were tangled with his.

Silence stretched in the metal tube.

"Status report," Reed wheezed from beneath her.

Kaelen slowly, carefully, removed her hand from his trousers. She pushed herself up as far as the ceiling allowed, her face turning a color that defied the visible spectrum.

"I..." Kaelen squeaked. "I appear to be... conducting a... structural integrity test."

"Is that what we're calling it?" Reed asked dryly.

"The test is complete!" Kaelen shouted. "Integrity is... firm! Very firm! Retreating!"

She scrambled backward, sliding down the shaft in a reverse-crawl of pure shame.

"I will never speak of this!" her voice echoed as she fell out of the vent opening with a loud CLANG.

Reed rested his forehead against the cold metal of the duct.

"System," he whispered. "Lock the door."

[QUEST COMPLETE: THE POLLEN COUNT]

[Reward: Crisis Averted.]

[Reward: Kaelen Shame Level: MAX.]

[Reward: Blue Mana Spike (From the confused guests).]

Ten minutes later, the Casino Floor was quiet. Or rather, quieter.

The guests were waking up from their haze, confused, happy, and significantly poorer. The Bone-Maids were reattaching their ribs. The Orcs were finding spare shirts.

Maira met Reed at the bottom of the stairs. She looked unruffled, though she was furiously erasing a section of her ledger titled "Unauthorized Lewdness."

"Report," Reed said, buttoning his coat.

"The pollen has cleared," Maira stated. "The guests believe it was a 'Special Event' called 'The Hour of Passion.' Tips are up 600%."

"And the staff?"

"Confused. Seraphine is currently trying to figure out why she is holding a bouquet of dead roses. Luma is... trying to scrub lipstick off a suit of armor."

"And Kaelen?"

Maira pointed to the exit.

The High Inquisitor was speed-walking across the bridge, back toward the town. She wasn't looking back.

"She said she needs to go to Confession," Maira noted. "For a week."

Reed sighed, watching her go.

"We have three days," Reed murmured, looking down at the floorboards, knowing the Garden was waiting beneath them. "Next time, the plants won't send pollen. They'll send teeth."

He turned back to the War Room.

"Get Grika. Tell her to bring the weed whacker. It's time to farm."

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