Dungeon Robotics Book 5 PT 3 (Patreon)

1. If Amazon sends me a breach in contract message, I will be pulling them back down (Sorry!)

2. These Chapters are unedited. Edited version is on Amazon

3. I am putting these up for people to enjoy the Dungeon Robotic universe from the beginning.

Chapter 21

Regan

“Alara, my dear. I’m here,” I said through the mech’s comms.

I stood in the middle of the floor, Alara’s creation only two hundred meters in front of me. I was surprised when Alara herself had gone inside the creation, but it was probably for the same reason I needed to pilot mine, to power it. My avatar fused with the mech, so it was more like I was larger. It was disorienting to say the least.

Alara’s creation almost looked like a mech itself now with its armor. It reminded me of an anime I’d watched on Earth that was made a hundred years before I was born. If I remembered correctly, the mech’s name started with an E. They were basically giant humans with armor.

“Re . . . gan . . .” a voice answered from the giant. Red sparks flashed from the chest. She screamed as she reached up to grab her head. Obviously, the control was still very much in place, even fused with that thing.

“I hear you. We just need to fight to the death once,” I said and took a stance.

A strong magic current cascaded down my arm, and a magical rune formed in my hand. There was a loud boom as something from the ceiling started slamming against the walls of the tunnel, then the mithril rod that formed the core of Starfall quickly made its way down to me. It embedded into the ground with a thunderous crash right in front of me.

I reached forward and grabbed it. The mithril started to morph, taking the shape of a twenty-meter-long sword. It would take too much mana to try to do anything else with it, but as a weapon it would be plenty. I looked toward Alara and motioned towards her the classic ‘come at me’ motion with my free hand.

Alara fell forward and slammed both of her hands into the ground. There was a surge of nature mana, and a gnarled black tree grew in front of her. When it was about forty meters tall, she grabbed it, breaking it off at the bottom. Another ripple of mana flowed through it as it sharpened into a spear.

With a roar that echoed throughout the entire floor, she kicked off the ground and charged me. The ground cratered under her, creating a circle of destruction that was at least fifty meters in diameter. Just that alone told me that she’d packed enough mana in the legs to leave a city devastated. This would be difficult.

I channeled mana into my left arm, forming a mana shield, then kicked off as well and returned her advance. I had a bit more finesse than her and only caused a twenty-or-so-meter crater to form. I had my forces nearby that I didn’t want to damage, after all.

With us being a hundred meters tall, it took only a few strides to close the distance. Alara went with a lunge as I shifted my shield into her path. We collided with a BOOM! I brought Starfall around to cut across her right side. Before the blade met, the tree spear grew an offshoot that slammed into the sword, throwing off my aim. I lifted my foot and kicked. With her dealing with my shield and sword, my foot connected with her stomach. With a surge of mana, I sent her flying back.

The ground was torn apart as she slid. Not giving her a chance to recover, I activated some shoulder mounts. Two beams of energy sliced through the ground. When they met Alara, a barrier formed around her that caused the beams to bend off into the distance. When they hit the ground, two explosions rocked the floor. I ground my teeth, but I already knew that dealing with a dungeon host would be a headache.

Alara pushed off against the ground, cracking it as she did so. She swung her arm around at me, winging all the boulders she had created as she moved her massive form toward me. I braced myself behind my shield, each boulder pulling more mana from me than I expected. The barrage finally ended, and I charged her.

The ground broke every time I stepped, making the footing dangerous at times. I brought Starfall around and aimed for her waist. She pulled her spear around to meet the blade. I narrowed my shield to a pinpoint and slashed down on her. The now energy blade stabbed through her leg. With agility that belied her size, she twisted her body and slammed her foot against my lower leg.

With a grunt of pain—as the mech was literally me right now—I was forced to rip the energy blade free of her leg. Using the momentum, I brought around the energy blade, aiming for her spear. She twisted her body, bringing her spear up to guard against the attack. I mentally grinned and amplified the mana in the blade.

The blade sliced clean through the spear, as generally happens when you use vibration to literally rend the atoms of the object you’re attacking. A bit of earth science to help me in this fight of titans.

Taking advantage of her damaged weapon, I brought Starfall around. The blade sank into her armor, then deep into her shoulder. Red blood sprayed from the wound before quickly stopping. Alara reached over and pulled the blade free while kicking back to gain distance.

“Going to make this difficult,” I groaned.

Alara threw the remainder of her spear away. It crashed to the ground and dug a massive furrow. It had to weigh several tons. An aura formed over her fists as she channeled mana into them. I readjusted my shield and braced myself. With a roar, she jumped at me and brought her fist down on my shield, forcing me back several dozen meters. She pounded on the shield, each hit causing a shock wave to boom out.

I hunkered down, receiving her blows for several seconds. My mana wouldn’t hold out if I just took it, however, so I opened some pods along the legs of the mech. Beams of energy sliced through the ground under Alara. It glowed red for a moment before it exploded into the air. She stumbled due to the attack.

Just as she fell back on the ground, thorns of rock shot out at me. I countered the best I could but there were hundreds of the thorns. The mech’s armor was able to withstand most of the attack, but a few managed to hit the leg joints.

I frowned as I sensed her start to build mana in her body. Not wanting to take the chance, I threw Starfall like a spear. The blade impaled her through the stomach, nailing her to the ground. The throw contained enough energy to break the sound barrier. The ground spiderwebbed as half the dungeon floor cratered.

I glanced behind me but shouldn’t have worried. Anubis, Queen, Vetur, and most of the other named automata were channeling mana into a barrier to protect my other forces. I would have to reward them even more after this was all over.

Channeling my mana, I forced Starfall to change into a chain that wrapped around the giant. Alara immediately started to struggle, showing her strength as even the mithril alloy was straining to hold her. I rushed forward, channeling mana into my hands. Morphing them into claws, I shoved them through the armor of the giant and around where Alara had fused.

Creating a dense multidimensional barrier field that cut off all outside influence, I isolated the area of cut-off flesh. The giant instantly stopped moving. I was impressed that it was still showing life even with its heart basically cut out. Lifting the barrier up to eye level, I concentrated and removed all the flesh surrounding Alara with quick laser bursts.

Finally, Alara was visible, though thoroughly covered in blood. Green lines pulsed inside her skin from the collar around her neck. She was balled in the center of the dimensional pocket. Red tears ran down her cheeks. This fight was much more painful for her than me, after all.

“There you are,” I said softly.

I made my way back to the defense line, which had suffered a bit of damage caused by the shock waves and earthquakes from our battle. Everyone looked mostly unharmed though. Kneeling, I placed the dimensional pocket gently on the ground, then linked it to the force’s mana grid. With that done I turned back around, facing the core.

“Any readings from the castle?” I asked, double-checking the mech.

“There were spikes of mana during the battle, but we can’t be sure if it was caused by the host or the necromancers,” Jarvis reported quickly.

“I would prefer to take the core without shattering it. Jarvis, I want you to maintain the dimensional pocket. As long as she is in there, they can’t control her,” I ordered. “Queen, ready the forces to move forward. Anubis and Vetur, you two lead the forces and follow me.”

“As you command!” they yelled, then went to work.

I started heading toward Alara’s core a few minutes later with a large detachment following me. Anubis and Vetur rode the mech’s shoulders. When we were about halfway there, I sensed something surge from the necromancer castle. It was an energy level that rivaled Nova back home. Surely there wasn’t that much mana left in Alara’s core.

“Something is about to happen,” I said, holding my hand up to stop the advance.

A rumble started to build from the center of the floor. Soon it spread through the entire floor, and even the upper floor forces reported quakes. I ordered everyone to fall back to the defense line. Arcs of energy started to fill the air around Alara’s core.

I rushed back to the defense line and created as big a barrier as I could. I was almost a moment too late—a wave of energy rippled out from the core, decimating everything in its path. The wave collided with the barrier, instantly forming cracks. I boosted the mana output of the reactor to full. It would only last about thirty seconds before it exploded.

A massive pillar of mana formed at Alara’s core and lanced straight up. Ten seconds later the wave passed. My mech was melted in the center and along parts of the arms, rendered basically inoperable now. I quickly left it and made my way over to check on Alara. Thankfully, her dimensional pocket was still intact. I breathed a sigh of relief until I saw she was screaming in pain.

Turning back toward Alara’s core, I found the center of the dungeon gone. A crater was all that remained of the castle. After a quick check I found that everyone was alright with only some slight mana burns caused by the passing energy wave. We needed to hurry in case Alara’s avatar could no longer support itself.

We made our way over to see if anything remained. I held out hope, as Alara’s avatar was still in my dimensional pocket. Generally, hosts couldn’t exist without their core. When we reached the edge of the crater, I had to whistle when I saw the crater went nearly a kilometer into the ground. We couldn’t find any remains of anything living or undead in the area.

I sent a burst of pure mana into the crater. At a point toward the bottom, the mana was absorbed by something wedged in a crack. I shot off toward the spot and slammed my hand into the crack, grabbing the source of the mana absorption. It was a sliver barely larger than the tip of a finger. Ignea once told me that a dungeon could come back from an even smaller sliver.

Gently pulling the sliver back toward me, I checked my mana reserve. It was at its lowest point in months at barely over two hundred thousand. I carefully channeled mana into the sliver. Using pure mana was a task in itself. However, I didn’t want to tax her core by using tainted or attributed mana. I briefly thought about using nature mana, but I wasn’t exactly good at that branch.

“Monarch, I don’t sense any unholy mana from the sliver,” Queen said as she met up with me. She was walking on the side of the crater as if walking down the road.

I explained my theory. “Yes. I believe the necromancers utilized some type of ritual using her core as a part of it. This sliver is probably the only part of her core that wasn’t completely corrupted. Her heart if you will.”

“Is this a good thing?” Queen asked.

“Of the various methods I was planning to try, this was the last I wanted to try. As long as I can remove the collar from her or just allow her avatar to ‘die,’ then she should be free. Her core is no longer bound, after all.”

Suddenly, a massive influx of mana hit my mind. All my connections were returned, and I instantly realized that massive damage had been done to my main dungeon. I couldn’t just leave Alara’s core here, however. I didn’t trust that the dungeon was safe, but I couldn’t pull her core from there. Nova was about to engage in battle with what looked like a black dragon. I went ahead and linked all the mana being generated by the space station to him.

I grimaced in pain when his blast ripped through several floors. Just before the beam hit a section of the goblin city, I managed to teleport the goblins in the area of the blast to safety. It wouldn’t do to have Nova accidentally killing nearly a hundred goblins. Looking back to the fight, I saw he had disabled the attacker. I would let them handle it for now unless they managed to reach my core.

“Alara!” a voice said suddenly.

Anubis and Vetur spun toward the sound with their weapons raised. We didn’t see anything for a moment until a small form flew from the side of the floor. I didn’t sense any taint at all from it, which was amazing considering where we were. I held up my arm for them to lower their weapons.

Finally, a fairy that was a bit smaller than Ignea flew up to us. She looked like a flying plant, with brown and green skin and leaves for wings. Twigs extended from her forehead forming tiny horns. Green tears were running liberally from her eyes.

“Stop! Who are you?” I demanded, though I felt I knew the answer.

“Oh, Great Master! I am Alara’s dungeon fairy, Lena!” Lena answered with a bow in the air.

“Lena, then. Can you tell me how you’ve managed to stay untainted this whole time?” I asked. I would not be falling for a trap this late in the game.

Lena burst into tears. “This is all my fault!” she cried.

“If you would explain,” I said, forming a table for us to sit at. I kept Alara’s core close to my chest as I channeled mana into it.

“Those . . . those . . . monsters captured me! They used me to lure my sweet mother out of her dungeon. She . . . she should have abandoned me!” Her tears grew worse.

“Calm down. I know Alara would never abandon one of her own, because I’m the same way with my children,” I said with a calming tone. “So, what happened after that?”

“They attached something to her. To make it worse they released me and forced me to watch as they did terrible things in her dungeon. Mother saved me. She created a hole in the dungeon that was safe for me to live in. That’s when I knew there was still hope! I maintained my link to Mother so that one day if someone ever managed to defeat the monsters and shatter her core, I could save a part of her.” She had to repeat several parts of her story, as she was crying so hard she grew difficult to understand at times.

“So, I have you to thank for protecting this,” I said, holding out the sliver of Alara’s core.

“Mother!” Lena cried, holding out her hands to the core.

“Lena, you have a link with Alara, correct?” I asked and got a nod. “Your mother’s avatar is still controlled by the monsters. The easiest way to break their control is to destroy the avatar, but I don’t want to do that if her core can’t handle it.”

“I can tell you when it will be safe!” Lena said, hitting her chest with her hand.

“Good to hear!” I smiled and reached out my hand. Lena landed on it, and I enveloped her in the aura of mana that was around the sliver. She gently lifted Alara’s core, hugging it to her.

Looking around the floor I was on, I found a massive amount of tainted mana still. If I allowed Alara’s recovering core to absorb this, it would defeat the purpose. I checked my mana. It would be a few days before I could create a system like I’d done for Alpha. For now, I could go with the system I’d done for my main dungeon. It was cheaper and less efficient, but it would protect her core until I got the better version down here.

“Great One! What year is it?” Lena asked suddenly.

I tilted my head. “Mana Era 2769,” I answered.

“We’ve been trapped for a hundred and fourteen years, then,” Lena said, her wings dropping noticeably.

“That sounds about right. Ah, tell me. Where have all the necromancers gone?” I asked.

“My connection with the rest of the dungeon was only returned completely a few minutes ago, but I sensed a tremendous number of deaths just before that massive spell took place. They also had a teleport matrix with the old north capital, so they could have fled,” Lena answered.

“Lovely. I knew we would have to deal with the old capital, but this is just getting old,” I said with a sigh. Lena tilted her head, making a cute confused expression. I smiled and patted her head. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of your mother first.”

Chapter 22

Izora

Hatsu, Alphonso, and I entered Grandma Ku’s house while the rest waited outside. It was a very neat place with a wooden table set in the middle. Grandma Ku lived alone, from what I knew. But since she had lived here her whole life, she wasn’t at risk of losing it to a younger person.

She led us to the table, then excused herself to brew some tea. I made myself comfortable, nostalgic for the mats of the floor. Lord Regan liked the main continent’s way of things, with chairs and high tables. I would need to see if I could persuade him to change a few customs of his place to be more like home when I get back.

A few minutes later, Grandma Ku returned with the tea and served us all in porcelain cups. When I took mine, I truly felt like I had returned home. We all sat in silence as we sipped our tea. Alphonso was having an interesting time, he burned his mouth when he chugged it. I took one more sip, then set the cup on the table.

“Grandma Ku, tell me, what is wrong?” I asked, looking her in the eye.

“Strange things . . . nightmare things,” she said, glancing around, then dropping her voice to a whisper. “At first it was just some of the men. They were called for an audience with the king. They were gone for a full day before they returned. Everything seemed fine, but they were . . . different.”

“Different? Different how?”

“It was hard to tell at first. They acted like they were just tired or stressed. We all know the king has declared war on the necromancers, but after so many years, most of us have really forgotten what that means.”

“Are you sure they aren’t just stressed like you first thought? If my father has conscripted them into service, that would explain it.”

“Aye, I thought that too and left it alone. But people who haven’t gone to the king have started showing signs similar to the first few who saw him. I’m just an old lady and know nothing of the ways of magic or technology, but even I can tell something isn’t as it should be,” Grandma Ku said with the deepest frown I’d ever seen her make.

“I promise to find out the cause!” I said, rising and bowing to her.

“Thank you, Your Highness. Hopefully, it is just these old bones conjuring up ghosts in the night.”

I talked to Grandma Ku for a few more minutes before we left. The mystery of my home was growing foggier by the moment, and I didn’t like it. What could my father have possibly been doing to cause this? I glanced around the few people out on the street, but most walked with their heads down and avoided each other. Only the guards appeared normal, and even they stood stiffly at attention.

Turning, I started walking toward the gate to the next circle. I only made it a few steps when Sasori caught my arm. I looked at her, but she was looking around as if trying to find something.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Someone has been watching us. They’re good though, and I can only just barely detect them,” she explained, releasing my arm.

“Understood. Everyone keep an eye . . .” A peal of thunder cut me off as a streak of lightning from the storm outside collided with the barrier around the city. What I’d always thought of as a clear wall turned blue as ripples of mana vibrated along the barrier. “It looks like the storm is getting worse. We need to hurry to the castle so I can complete my task from Lord Regan.”

“That would be wise,” Tsuzuki said, observing the storm with a critical eye. “I’ve studied the maelstrom for many years. I believe the storm caused by the terra wave might soon reach that level. If Jade Wind is in the middle of both of them, I’m not sure we will survive. Even if we do, we won’t be able to leave.”

“You heard him. Let’s go,” I said, turning back around and heading for the gate.

The rest of the circles showed increasing tension the closer to the castle we went. People obviously avoided us in the fourth and third circle. The streets were completely empty of people on the second circle. I was really growing worried about what could cause such a thing.

“Hmm. Why is it smoking? Factories?” Alphonso asked.

His question caught me off guard, as I hadn’t seen anything even moving on this circle. Sure enough, smoke rose from places all over the street. I frowned at the situation, then morphed my cape into my wings. With a powerful flap, I took off into the sky, heading for the first fire. A few seconds later, what looked like a riot came into view. I tried to see what was going on, but there was too much chaos. With no other choice, I angled down, aiming right for the center of the chaos. I took off like a speeding bullet.

When I was roughly ten meters from the ground, I righted my direction and infused mana into my wings, causing a massive gust that knocked several dozen gnomes over. That was when everyone realized I was there. The fighting slowed to a stop as everyone stared at me.

“What is the meaning of this?!” I shouted, looking around.

Everyone looked down, no one volunteering to answer. Finally, a young gnomish woman stepped forward from the crowd. She couldn’t have been more than fifteen, though there were signs of fighting all over her body, all very fresh. Her clothing showed her as an apprentice magic technician.

“Is that you, Princess Izora?” the girl asked. Her voice was weak but underlined by a courage that I felt someone so young shouldn’t need.

“Indeed! I have returned home!” I answered, channeling mana into my voice to let it carry. Hovering in the air, I hoped I struck an impressive image.

“Praise to the fates! Please! Stop the king! His Majesty has gone mad!” the girl cried, falling completely flat to the ground.

“What do you mean?!” I asked with more force than I intended.

“He is preforming strange magic on the people! They return as if dolls, with no will of their own!” she cried.

I glared at the rest of the people in the street. As if spurred on by her, they each nodded, and dropped to the ground, bowing fully. I turned to the other side and noticed that the people they were fighting indeed had a . . . blank look to them.

“You there! What is your name?” I pointed to one of the men in the front.

“. . .”

“Answer me!” I shouted angrily. The man turned his gaze toward me. I thought he was about to answer when I sensed a surge of mana. I held my hand out, forming a barrier of ice right as a shard of metal nearly twenty centimeters long pierced through it. I growled, then threw a ball of ice at the man, turning him into a statue. It started to crack as the man inside worked to get free, regardless of the pain he must have been in.

“There is no reasoning with them! They only respond to the king!” someone in the crowd shouted.

“What is going on?” I mumbled to myself.

Glancing up the street, I found there were almost twenty of the mindless ones. I wanted to just incapacitate them, but I wasn’t sure it would last long. Without many options and with a heavy heart, I channeled mana into a spell. A moment later, beams of energy fired from my wings, piercing the hearts of the mindless. Even then they still stood and tried to retaliate for several seconds before they collapsed.

“Flee to the docks! My men will protect you!” I ordered the crowd. I pulled a short-range communication device from my coat. “Captain, take command of the dock sector. Something is happening in the city. We will treat that as our command center for now.”

“Yes, Princess!” a reply crackled back.

The others soon caught up to me while the citizens fled around us. I waited to make sure there were not anymore mindless ones. I wanted to go confront my father right that moment, but my duty was to my people. I needed to make sure they were safe.

We made our way around the first circle. People were out in force to try to protect their loved ones. After an hour we managed to suppress five instants of the mindless ones and sent all the victims to the docks. The guards there had already been suppressed and were being held in case there was any way to reason with them.

When we were sure the first circle was clear, I used my authentication as the princess to seal the gates. The king would have to come out himself to open them, and they were durable enough to take a beating from any below tier three for several days. That should keep the other circles safe until we could figure out what was happening.

When we came back to the docks, there was a skirmish taking place at the gate. A few mindless ones, which I assumed came from the other circles, were assaulting the dock gates. Not wanting this to turn more bloody than it already had, I moved in and quickly froze all the aggressors. I used just enough mana to lock them in place without outright killing them.

“Captain! Please tell me you have some information as to what the hell is going on?” I demanded when I landed on the Raiu’s deck.

“Princess. Unfortunately, I have no idea. We tried interrogating the prisoners, but . . .” He trailed off as he pointed to a spot where a large blood smear covered at least four meters of deck, along with charred wood.

“What the hell?”

“When we asked about the king, he detonated his mana pool. We’re lucky we had a mage who could put a barrier around him, or half the ship would be gone right now.”

“So, we can’t get answers from the traitors. That just leaves going straight to the source,” I said, pounding a fist on the deck. What in Lord Regan’s name are you doing, Father?! I gripped the pendant Lord Regan gave me hard enough my knuckles turned white.

My Royal Guard and enough regular guards who wouldn’t threaten the safety of the docks quickly assembled, making a forty-strong force. It was a little . . . very weak to try to break through the castle defenses. I would have to do my best so that we all made it back alive. These people may have sworn an oath to die for me, but that didn’t mean I wanted them to honor it on their home soil.

“Captain Shido, I have no idea how this is going to turn out. Please start evacuating all the citizens into airships. If it is a plague of some kind, we will have to abandon Jade Wind. If an enemy has somehow made their way into the city and they prove my match, then there is no reason for us to give them even more soldiers for whatever they plan,” I said seriously.

“As you wish. However, I pray that we do not have to abandon the city,” Captain Shido said with a bow.

“As do I.”

Chapter 23

Louella

“Father is back. From what I can tell, he won his battle and is leaving this to Nova for now,” Ignea said right after Nova’s announcement.

“That is good news. But why isn’t he coming back to his dungeon?” I asked.

Nova was powerful, but this was basically Regan’s body. He was putting a lot of trust in Nova to protect his core. I wasn’t sure I could do the same if something like this was happening to me. I shook my head and refocused on the fight that was currently at a standstill.

“I can’t tell much from the link. We’ll just have to ask him when he comes back. I do sense that he is channeling his mana into something. He might not be able to pull away from that if it’s important to him,” Ignea said, orbiting me a few times.

I nodded and turned back to the two dragons. The black dragon was still leaking shadows, but they were slowing. She was tier three, after all. It would be surprising if she couldn’t repair that amount of damage. Even I could channel mana to repair damage to my body if I needed to. A need hadn’t arisen yet, and I hoped to keep it that way.

“A new home? What is wrong with your old lair?” Nova asked.

“Destroyed . . . long ago . . .” the black dragon gasped out.

“What is your name?”

The black dragon bared her teeth at Nova. “Morka,” she hissed out.

Nova made a noise as if considering something. “Very well. You can be one of my females. This one is great and plans to have many,” Nova said, speaking of himself.

I gaped at the sudden declaration. Then remembered the few lessons about dragons back at the academy, which told me that this was actually in line with regular dragon behavior.

“Do you think Regan will approve?” I whispered to Ignea.

“I don’t think he will really care as long as Nova is able to control her,” she whispered back. “Father is rather lenient about those kinds of things.”

“So, there will be two dragons a stone’s-throw away from my town. Lovely!” I said, throwing my hands up.

“Actually . . . there are three—if you count Zuthon over in the forest. Though, he is technically a land dragon so less powerful,” Ignea said with a wide smile and a glint in her eye.

“Remind me to smack Regan over the head when I see him next time,” I mumbled.

“Never!” Morka roared, pulling my attention back to the fight. She charged at Nova, shadows forming a cloak around her.

“I don’t think I gave you the option!” Nova roared back and mimicked Morka in her charge. He was soon as bright as the noonday sun. I squinted through the pain, as I felt this was important to watch.

There were only a few hundred meters between the two and they quickly collided. Nova brought his head around and bit down on Morka’s neck. Shadow sprayed from the wound as she roared in pain. She wrapped her neck around Nova’s and returned the favor by biting into his flank. The sound of grinding metal filled the space.

Nova’s wings came around and angled toward Morka, the bladed ends looking menacing. With a moment of tension, the two came to a stop, still biting down heavily on each other. They seemed to stare at each other, silently communicating something before Nova’s wings moved, piercing deep into Morka’s flanks. Morka released Nova and roared in pain until she came to a stop. At first, I thought she was dead, but her chest rose a few seconds later as she breathed in. Nova gripped her in his claws, then turned toward us.

“I will take my prize. She will need to be educated on how to conduct herself around her king. When the Creator returns, please tell him that I will formally ask permission to keep her then,” Nova said.

I knew that was in line with dragon society, but the thought of having my fate decided just by losing a fight—well, I guess in most cases that was actually the case. The frontier wasn’t exactly safe for women or men either. I shuddered at some of the horror stories I’d heard about bandits.

“Roger!” Ignea said with a wave.

He bowed his head, then turned back to the hole he’d ripped in the wall. He flew off with his prize, quickly vanishing from sight.

“I guess that’s the end of that?” I asked Ignea.

“Yes. I think it best for you to return to town. I’m sure the incident has rattled quite a few of the mortals,” Ignea said. She tapped my head, and I found myself on the surface, or at least at the bottom of the crater. I looked around, but Ignea was nowhere to be seen.

Jumping into the air, I made my way toward the town. I was really falling in love with flying. While it served its purpose to get me from place to place, I found I enjoyed the freedom it gave me. Lightning users weren’t usually able to fly. Another thing I needed to thank Regan for—placing information of electromagnetism in his library.

Flying over town, I took in the damage caused by the last two day’s events. Not only was there the massive terra wave from late last night, but there was the damage caused by the Celestial . . . dragon attacking Regan’s dungeon. There were collapsed buildings, damaged roads, and a list of other problems in the town. Around it, places that weren’t protected by the mages, the ground was torn apart, looking like a giant claw had gouged out sections. Then there was the new addition of the strange terra landforms from where the wall had been created.

It would take weeks to get all the problems and damage fixed. The thing I was dreading the most was the causality report. The last thing I wanted to do was send more letters to distant families about deceased loved ones. Sighing at the thought, I made my way to the castle.

~~~

“And how many are still missing?” I asked to clarify.

“Thousands, ma’am,” the messenger answered.

I rubbed my temples at the answer. “Alright. Head to the inn. Tell them it’s on me. You deserve a rest for bringing me this news.”

“Thank you, Lady Coates,” the messenger said, bowing as he left.

I turned to Ezal. “It looks like we were the least hit during this . . . event,” I said, pulling the report the messenger delivered across my desk.

“Yes. The bigger cities, or more accurately the ancient cities, all had defenses that activated to protect them. But the towns and villages . . .” Ezal said, letting it trail off.

“Dispatch hawks. Spread the news that we are accepting any and all refugees. They will be provided food and basic necessities. We will guarantee this for three months. I want full patrols in the surrounding areas. There is no telling what that massive amount of mana did to the monster population, and I want to make sure everything is safe for the refugees.”

Monsters might be the least of our problems. If entire towns had been destroyed, there would be a surge in bandits and war bands. Another problem in a time we couldn’t really afford more.

“Understood. What about the dungeon? The Adventurers Guild is currently restricting anyone from entering on account of the damage that it suffered. As you can guess, this is not going to fly for long,” Ezal said, pulling a document from her bag.

“Cassie is just going to have to figure it out. Most of the dungeon’s automata from around the town have moved over to the entrance. If someone really wants to, they can try to fight through those things,” I said with a low chuckle.

People had tried plenty of times to fight Regan’s patrols. They mostly ended in the people getting horribly injured, then being taken to the hospital to be healed, then slapped on their hand. Some people actually found it funny the first couple of times. I even heard there was a group that used the patrols as free training. Of course, they did it when there were few people around, so I wasn’t sure of the validity of the claim.

“I think Regan is rubbing off on you,” Ezal said with a laugh.

I shrugged. “Maybe a little.”

“The Mages Guild and several of the other guilds would still like for the festival to take place. They say the recent events are all the more reason to host it,” Ezal said, handing me a few documents.

“I would like to continue with the festival as well, but is it feasible?” I asked, reading but not really taking in the documents.

“Well . . . from what I have seen it should be. Lord Wintergrasp is making potions for the Terra mages, and they are fixing the large sections of the outer areas first since that is the easiest and takes the least amount of time. If the nobles don’t cause any problems, we will be even better off,” Ezal said.

“I don’t know whether we should count on them to cause trouble or try to trust them to enjoy the festival with the rest of the town,” I said, laying my head on the desk.

Ezal chuckled at my show. “A question that will probably remain as long as the nobility exist.”

“True enough” I sighed.

There came a knock at the door. I glanced over to Ezal, who nodded. She made her way over and asked the guard who it was. I heard her mumble something about Regan and his theatrics. I stood up beside the desk and made myself presentable as the door was swung open by the guards.

Regan walked in, looking the least lethal he had in a while. I didn’t see a single sharp edge on him. If he’d worn regular clothes, I was sure people would mistake him for a human. I almost did a double take to make sure it was him.

Behind him walked a beautiful girl. I couldn’t quite place her race, as she was short like a gnome but had pointed ears like an elf. Her skin was bone white, which was common to the northern humans before we lost touch with them. A black iron crown rested in a nest of pinkish hair.

“Welcome, Regan. I hope everything has calmed down to a decent point for you to be visiting me,” I said.

“Yes. Everything has reached a calm of sorts for the moment,” Regan said, taking a seat on a couch that appeared out of nowhere. The girl quickly joined him, wrapping herself around his arm. Another couch appeared across from him, and he gestured toward it.

“And who is your friend?” I asked, moving over to sit, Ezal joining me.

“May I introduce Alara the undead queen,” Regan said with a gesture to the girl. Both Ezal and I jerked in our seat, turning wide eyes to Regan. “Do not worry. She is harmless and quite sane. As one can be after enduring over a century of torture.”

“I trust you, Regan, but I would advise you to include a bit more heads-up next time you introduce her,” I said, placing a hand over my heart.

“Now where would the fun be in that?” he asked with a chuckle.

“Yeah. Yeah. Other than scaring us, did you have another reason to see me?” I asked, trying not to stare at Alara.

“I did, indeed. And it should be here any moment now.”

I tilted my head but before I could ask, there was a knock at the door. Ezal got up to check it out, and the sound of labored breathing whisked in from outside the door. Ezal escorted in a very flushed messenger who looked like he’d just run a hundred kilometers.

“My Lady Louella!” the messenger gasped as he knelt.

“Forego ceremony. What is it?” I asked, standing up.

“Lecazar . . . Lecazar . . .”

“What about Lecazar?”

The messenger took a deep breath. “Lecazar’s capital burns! A scar of undeath stretches from the north to the capital!” he yelled, then collapsed, foaming from the mouth.

Regan extended his hand, and there was a flow of mana. The man’s appearance improved but he stayed unconscious. Ezal ordered one of the guards to take the man to the hospital.

I twisted to look at Regan. “What does he mean?” My breathing was accelerating despite me trying to control it.

Regan extended his hand palm up. A blue screen like the ones I’d seen on his station formed over it. A map of the continent was displayed, only Lecazar looked much different. From a spot in the north past the mountains down to the location of the capital, there was a black line that looked almost perfectly straight. He did something and the image zoomed in on the capital, or at least what remained of it.

If I had to guess, I would say ninety percent of the city was gone. He zoomed in closer, and we saw undead pulling themselves out of the ground like weeds. The image was clear enough that I was feeling sick just watching the screen. Necromancers were moving around as if they owned the place. Just from the image in front of me, I counted well over a hundred.

“What happened?!” I asked, not wanting to believe the horror.

Regan glanced at Alara before he explained. “The necromancers were planning this for a long time. I’m sure not everything went according to plan thanks to yours truly, and losing Alara probably threw a big wrench in their plans. Alara was ordered to use her core in a ritual that terraformed . . . changed a large section of the continent. I’m not sure of the long-term effects yet.”

I fell back into my seat as I mulled over this news, then looked to Regan and said, “Is there . . . is there anything you can do?!” I hated myself for sounding like I was pleading, but this was out of my league.

Regan considered me for a moment. “Not immediately. I used up most of my mana freeing Alara. Plus, I have to repair the damage caused to my dungeon. You have no idea how it feels to me. A large division of my forces are stationed to protect Alara’s dungeon. As I claim more of the north, this might change, but for now it will be tough to extend myself much farther than the valley and its surroundings,” he said.

Ezal cleared her throat. “Is the town safe from that black dragon Mistress told me about?” she asked. I had honestly completely forgotten about the beast.

“Oh yes! Nova has taken quite a . . . liking to his friend. If you studied dragons, then you know that one dragon ‘claiming’ another is almost as strong as slave magic. I understand that is how they acquire mates, but still,” Regan said, shaking his head. “The claimed one can’t go against the claimer unless they are more powerful. Nova being a dungeon monster, he has plenty of room to grow, whereas Morka has been bottlenecked for several decades,” he explained with a laugh.

“That’s one less worry, then,” Ezal said, leaning back in her seat.

“What should we do?” I asked, more to myself.

“I would keep going in the direction you were before I came. Gather the refugees. Offer shelter. This pass and the valley to the south are the only breaches the undead have to Thonaca. The valley to the south is much more direct to the Thonacan capital. Unless an idiot is in control, then I would direct my forces there. Especially after the trouble we have been giving them.”

I nodded. Yes, we should shore up the defenses until we gained more information. “Alright! Ezal send those missives at once. Even offer safety to the nobles if they are willing to follow my command,” I said, moving to my desk.

I noticed Alara tug on Regan’s coat. She whispered something to him that even with my enhanced hearing I couldn’t make out.

“Alara says they have used most of their cards. They will be desperate. Let’s keep that in mind,” Regan said, nodding at the girl.

“Understood. This is going to be an interesting winter,” I said, pausing to look out the window. The first snows were only a few days away. What changes would the world see once the snow melted in spring?

Chapter 24

Izora

My small force made its way to the first circle gate. I flew up over the gate, but the other side was completely empty. Frowning, I couldn’t detect anyone either. Opening that gate in the magic circuit, we quickly passed through. It was eerie how easily we made it to the castle. The pillar behind it thrummed with power.

I ran a finger over several runes on my gauntlet. Metal swirled out of a piece of armor, forming into my lance, a nifty function I had found while I was bored in my office earlier on the journey. We slowly made our way into the castle entrance but found it empty. I glanced at a timepiece on the wall. Father would be in the throne room at this time if he was still holding to his schedule.

“Let’s stick together. I have no idea what is controlling the people, but we have a better chance of resisting if we work together,” I called back to the rest of the group. I got tense nods in reply but couldn’t blame them. The loss of free will was quite terrifying.

The castle was strangely empty as we made our way to the throne room. Again, I wondered what could have happened to cause this since the last time I’d spoken to my father. Surely the necromancers couldn’t have gotten another foothold in the city since the exodus. It would fit their ways to leave behind members that could cause trouble, but to affect even the king? I found it hard to believe.

We were making our way down the adjoining hallway to the throne room when doors burst open. Soldiers rushed out, aiming air rifles at us, as well as more mundane weapons. We quickly took defensive positions.

“My daughter. It is so nice to see you again,” Father said with a sweet tone as he walked out of one of the rooms. I felt like I was five and was interrupting his duties while I played in his study.

“Father! What is going on?!” I demanded, lowering my weapon a bit despite myself.

“Dear Izora. I have fixed them.” He grabbed one of the guards and shook him. “I realized that mortals just can’t be trusted. We ruled them to the best of our ability for centuries! Centuries! How do they repay us?! By killing Elena!” Father shouted, tears running freely.

“I know, Father, I know! But that doesn’t mean we should strip them of their free will,” I said, shaking my head.

My father didn’t seem to hear me though and continued. “I thought for many weeks on how to avenge your mother. I could wage war on the necromancers, but what is to stop more of my people from joining the enemy? That’s when I found it! A magic practiced by the gnomes of old, deep in the records. Now I . . . we never have to fear betrayal again!” Father screamed with his arms held out.

My father was clearly mad with rage and grief. “This goes against nature! I know we are hurting, but we must look to the future! Please, Father, snap out of it!” I cried.

Father looked back to me, and this time I felt he was actually looking at me. “I see. So, you want to betray me too.” He sighed and rubbed his hand across his face.

“No! I love you, Father. Please come to your senses!”

“Don’t worry, my dear. I will protect you. Even from yourself.”

He gestured toward us, and all the guards rushed forward, while the ones wielding air-rifles maintained their distance in the back. I slammed my foot down with a surge of terra mana, knocking back the rushing guards. Losing a clear shot, the rear lone guards couldn’t fire.

“They’re lost to us! Return the favor!” I ordered. All my guards rushed forward and met the castle guards in a melee. My side was at the obvious disadvantage. For them, the other force weren’t enemies but people who they trained with and knew almost as well as brothers and sisters. While my guards were fighting, they couldn’t avoid the slight hesitation that was present in their swings.

That thought almost made me pause. Since when had I been able to switch gears so quickly? I should have been trying to save these people, not kill them. I gritted my teeth, angry at both the situation and myself, and angry at my father for causing this to happen. I felt something call to me from my lance, but it was more of a dull thrum in my mind.

The pinging sound of bullets crashing into the masonry brought me back to the present. Both sides were taking pot shots between their allies, mine a little more carefully than the others. I turned my lance toward the most crowded part of the enemy line.

“Sorry,” I muttered as I unleashed a torrent of energy into the gathering.

Mana made physical slammed the enemy guards against the wall and down the hall. My forces quickly took the chance to push deeper into the enemy. The next minute there were screaming and muted thuds as my guards dealt fatal blows to their old friends.

Everyone breathed deeply as we checked ourselves. Two of my guards had been killed and a dozen more injured. The throne room was at the end of the hall, but even there lay another trap. I couldn’t stand the idea of losing even more of my people to this craziness.

“Sasori! Hatsu! I want you to hold here. I will confront my father . . . the king alone,” I ordered, taking a step toward the throne room.

“Princess! We cannot allow you to do this!” they both said at almost the same time.

My eyes narrowed. “I don’t believe I require your permission. Now do what I said.”

I turned and jumped into the air. I didn’t have to worry about the ceiling, considering it was almost twenty meters high. Shooting down the hall, I crashed into the throne room. Father stared up at me with a crooked grin that made me wonder if it was actually my father I was looking at.

“Dear Izora! Can’t you see?! Letting them have free will just slows you down. Together we could create an empire that spans the continent. No . . . the world!” he raved, standing with his arms outstretched.

“For what? A world filled with mindless people who just stand around?” I asked with a snort.

“My daughter. I thought I taught you to think further than just the surface. This may be the start, but once the world has been purged, we can start over. Ruled by a single king! A single power! We can shape the minds of future generations to our ideals.”

“I can’t, Father. It would be wrong.” I shook my head. The amount of death and destruction he was proposing was off the scale. Entire countries would burn, and I knew that even if we succeeded, there would just be a smoldering ash-covered land. Besides, Lord Regan would never want something like that to happen.

He dropped back into his throne, then suddenly surged with mana as purple tendrils formed around him. I knew at the center of my being that to touch one of those would be my doom. I only had a second to decide.

“Sorry, Father!” I cried.

I aimed my lance at him and unleashed a torrent of energy. A beam sliced through the air, slamming into his chest and quickly cutting through him and into the room behind him. If it went farther, I couldn’t tell. An explosion boomed behind him, but it sounded distant. He coughed up a tremendous amount of blood as he looked at the wound.

He gave me a bone-chilling grin as the tendrils started to fill his chest wound. The blood quickly stopped flowing as he stood back up. “That was a good blow, daughter, very fatal. Next time, go for the head.”

Purple tendrils shot toward me, thankfully slow enough for me to avoid. I channeled mana into my lance, and a blade formed between the two prongs. Swinging at the nearest tendril, I was able to slice it clean through. The part that was cut off dissipated into smoke, but the uninjured part regenerated fast enough that it didn’t really matter.

More and more tendrils were forming faster than I was able to keep up with them. It reminded me of the Hydra—for each one I cut off, two took its place. Suddenly, the entire room shifted to the side and my back collided with the ceiling. It felt like the world was collapsing. Though only lasting for a second, it caused the battle to pause.

“What have you done?!” Father shouted, turning around to peer into the hole I’d blasted through the wall earlier.

I couldn’t help but look as well to see small explosions occurring inside. He whirled back around, his grinning face morphing into a rage-filled scowl. Mana rippled off him in waves.

“You will join me whether you like it or not!”

The tendrils increased their speed. I created a mana barrier almost on instinct as one slammed into me from behind. I knew I couldn’t keep this up for much longer. Concentrating on the mana blade, I quickly twisted my body and pulled the blade straight down. It sliced through most of the room—and my father, blood spraying along the cut.

“Forgive me, Father,” I said, lowering to the ground.

He looked at me and smiled. I could see the tainted mana trying and failing to heal him. “Sor . . . ry. My . . . chi . . . ld. I . . . lo . . . ve . . . you, Izora,” he gasped, clarity entering his eyes for a moment. The two halves of him collapsed to the ground almost in slow motion. Blood splashed, covering my boots. I could only stare at them as I tried to suppress the urge to vomit.

Suddenly, a sense of danger overcame me, and I leaped back. I shook my head to clear it and saw that the purple tendrils were still there, even with my father being obviously dead. Hope grew in my heart that he was still alive, but what I heard next crushed that before it could even become a bud.

“Ah! Finally. I was worried he wouldn’t be killed by one of his own flesh,” said a voice that seemed to pull my deepest nightmares from the depths of my soul. “A tedious seal requirement if there ever was one.”

It came from where my father lay. His body twitched and twitched again as he pushed up from the ground. A purple ooze covered his face. I tightened my grip on my weapon, not sure what to do.

“Who . . . what are you?!” I demanded.

“Me? Me . . . what was it again? Ah, Yes. Volrudos. General of the Fourteenth Demon Division at your service,” Volrudos said.

“Demon! What is a demon doing here?!” I asked, though I knew I should be running.

“Forget that. The air has certainly improved in the time since the war,” Volrudos said, taking a deep breath.

Not wanting to give him a chance to fully form, I channeled mana into another beam and aimed for his head. The beam shot toward its target in a blink of an eye. Volrudos didn’t even seem to notice the attack. Right before the beam struck him, however, he backhanded it. The beam bent and sliced through the wall to the right.

“What the hell?!” I growled.

“That won’t work on me. A nice little tip for you. Mana doesn’t work on demons of the general rank,” Volrudos said with a loud laugh.

“That’s not possible!” I said, backing up.

“I could explain it to you, but I don’t really understand it myself. You would have to talk to the geneticists,” the demon said with a shrug. “Now. Thanks to your father’s freeing me, and then your freeing me from him, I will allow you to . . .”

Before he could continue, the world was tilted even more by a loud explosion. The ground dropped for several seconds before it stopped, resulting in me ending up in a crumpled mess. Without any other ideas, I threw Regan’s core to the ground to activate it the way he’d directed me.

“A soul core!” Volrudos shouted from where he also lay in a pile. He still hadn’t regained full control of his body.

There was a boom and it felt like every speck of mana in the area was being sucked into the core. Even the mana that made up Volrudos’s body was being pulled into it. If he’d still been forming his body, this would have been the best chance to destroy him before he became a true threat. I steeled myself to defend the core to the death.

There was another explosion, and the city started to drop again. Screams from parts of the city could be heard even from the throne room. The desire to help my people warred with the need to protect the core as it was created. Hardening my heart, I turned back to face Volrudos.

“You’re not getting past me!” I said, bracing myself.

Suddenly, I was slammed to the ground by a massive amount of energy. At first, I thought it was Volrudos, but when I looked, I found it was the core. I wasn’t sure what was going on but hoped it was Regan saving the city.

As I watched the core, I noticed several hairline cracks along its surface. I suddenly heard Regan’s voice yelling, “Run.” Throwing one glance at Volrudos, who was struggling to get to his feet, I kicked off and took to the sky. I smashed through a window, then accelerated toward the airship.

I left my mystical eye active as I flew and saw one of the scariest manifestations of mana I had ever seen. Mana from both the storm that was recently formed and from the maelstrom was being sucked into the throne room, into the core. I forced myself to turn back and head to the airship.

Slamming on to the deck, I felt the boards crack underneath me. “Get us out of here!” I ordered.

“Citizens are still boarding!” Captain Shido yelled.

I jumped and channeled mana into the dock. The metal bent and twisted as it threw all the people on it onto the ship’s deck. One person had a bad trajectory, and I shot after him, managing to catch him before he went too far. I turned to the tethers and sliced them clear with two beams of energy.

The airship broke from the dock and quickly gained distance. We joined and were joined by several hundred other airships. The storm buffering us slowly died as it was pulled into the center of the city. If I’d had to guess, I’d have said the remainder of the gnomish fleet was there. I just prayed that everyone that could be saved was on the ships.

Turning back to watch the core, I gripped the railing. A sphere of unimaginable energy was forming around the center column. It had already engulfed most of the inner city and continued to grow. Suddenly, the sphere started to shrink. I thought maybe the worst was over, but then recalled the image Lord Regan had showed me.

“BARRIER!” I shouted, amplifying my voice with mana so that all the ships could hear the order.

Not thirty seconds later, the sphere ruptured. Jade Wind was ripped to pieces and the center vaporized instantly. I watched as the wave of energy that reminded me of the sun shot toward the fleet. I collapsed to my knees, knowing there was no way to survive.

My link to Lord Regan suddenly ripped open, and I felt my control slip away. My body shot into the sky, mana rippling off me. I screamed as more mana than I thought my body could handle was channeled through me. A strangely shaped barrier formed around the massive explosion. The shock wave struck the barrier, but instead of taking it directly, the energy was “pushed” away from the fleet.

Like a sword, the energy carved a path through the maelstrom. One of the whitest lights I’d ever seen poured out from within. My eyes felt like they were bleeding from the massive amount of mana I was perceiving all around me. I barely caught a flash from Jade Wind before almost all my senses went black. It was like being in a room but knowing what was going on outside. I could barely perceive the fleet.

Even with Lord Regan protecting the fleet, several vessels burst into flames from the massive amount of energy in the area. Finally, the explosion from Jade Wind was over. Debris rained to the ocean below, unrecognizable charred masses of rock and metal. Lord Regan flew my body back to the airship, then released his control over me. I instantly collapsed to the ground completely spent. The last thing I did as the black closed around my sight was to order a search for any survivors. As futile as it might have been, I refused to give up any hope.

Chapter 25

Regan

I collapsed in front of my core. When Alara reached over to brace me, I smiled at her and accepted her help moving over to my throne. I was surprised when I heard Izora’s prayer, and I was doubly surprised when I nearly passed out from the ungodly amount of mana that had surged into the sub-core she placed.

The maelstrom was a phenomenon that was not naturally created. I learned that in almost five seconds of my core being there. Spell formations unlike anything I had ever seen were inside the storm, and it didn’t help that the storm I’d inadvertently created was also channeled into the core. There was just too much mana for the core to handle at such a level. Maybe if I’d been there personally, but the links between my cores were never able to form enough for me to move there.

“I’m alright. Thank you,” I said, smiling toward her.

“What . . . happened?” Alara asked with a little voice.

She was still unaccustomed to speaking, or rather being allowed to speak. Sometimes she would go into a kind of trance. When I asked her, she told me it was how she kept a small part of herself . . . sane. She would literally tune out the world. If the Buddhist monks back on Earth met her, they would be impressed.

“Some type of demon controlled the king. When Izora killed him, I guess the demon was freed. That’s about all I was able to make out from the memories I saw while I took control of her to create the barrier,” I explained, rubbing my head.

“She . . . survive . . . you taking . . . control?” Alara whispered.

“Barely. Her body was recently changed when she pulled too much of my mana into her. I have a gift for her when she comes back, though.” I patted her head while avoiding the metal crown.

I turned my mental eye toward the north, where the entrance tunnel to my main dungeon was. Now there was a smoldering city. I didn’t have much time to really do the calculations to move everything “gently,” but most of Jade Wind’s living sector was still intact, if a bit roughed up.

In the instant the bare minimum link formed, I was able to sense all the life still remaining in the city. Nearly three hundred thousand people and another fifty or so thousand on the airships. I couldn’t just let all those mana batteries die like that. Seriously, since Izora treated me like a god, then I needed to do godly things every once in a while.

Alara nodded and sat on my lap. Ever since her core recovered to that of about High tier one allowing her to be able to re-form her avatar, she hasn’t left my side. Much to a certain fairy’s disappointment. Lena hadn’t left Alara’s side for the better part of two days while her core recovered, but Alara only stays near me. Alara’s dungeon was all kinds of twisted right now, and she was slowly reclaiming it. Given the size and amount of taint, it would take several weeks if not months to get it more aligned with the actual Alara.

Of the current mysteries left unsolved was the issue of the specter queen. Alara told me she’d never made it down to the bottom floor. Alara had lost track of her, but she wasn’t confident in her ability to recall everything that was happening. Many times, the orders from the necromancers had left her in a fog or haze. Not to mention the fact that having to restart her compounded the issue, to put it gently.

I refocused and tried to feel the link between Izora and me and breathed a sigh of relief when I found it still intact. It was weak, but that was only to be expected. I would have to think of ways to handle her current situation. Preferably, Louella could offer the gnome race sanctuary.

“What should we do about the north ?” I asked, more to myself then Alara.

“Destroy . . . them!” she replied with more energy than I had heard so far.

I patted her head. “Of course. My only concern is that with the state Lecazar is falling into, the leadership of the necromancers will be even harder to track down.”

“Necromancers . . . puppets. Cassin . . . real threat,” she whispered.

“So, our information was correct. We need to hunt a Celestial then.” I rubbed my chin in thought.

“Easy . . . for . . . you,” she said and turned her face up to me. Even though her expression was emotionless, I could still sense the smile in her words.

I grinned at her, then laughed. “Easy as pie.”

I noticed her eyes were drooping, so I picked her up and carried her over to a massive bed, placing her down gently when I realized she was already asleep. She had a lot of recovering to do, in more ways than one. Just the damage to her core would take months to repair. I couldn’t even imagine the damage done to her mind, and that was something that I doubted would ever truly be repaired.

Walking back to my throne, I did something I hadn’t done in a few months. I flooded my main dungeon with my mind so that I could get an accurate read on everything. I was going to have to rebuild as well as expand. My dungeon was really good at testing mortals, but when something that was just too overpowered tested me, they were able to bulldoze through the floors with ease.

The upper floors were throwing my senses out of whack, but with a little brute force I made it work. To put it simply, they were completely gone. I would have to completely re-create them. While I had the town automata protecting the entrance, I was glad the Louella had ordered the Adventurers Guild to restrict access for the time being.

Moving to the deeper floors, I found most of eleven to fifteen were damaged but repairable. I needed to consider when I did the makeover if any new changes would need to be made. I was surprised the fort on floor nine had survived with so little damage but was glad all the same.

Ignea took control of the dungeon before the invader reached the goblin city. There was no damage to that other than the bit that was hit by Nova’s attack. After that was the asteroid mine. It had received little actual damage, but the number of asteroids that were lost would take a while to replenish.

I ran into another problem. With my mana so slow, my resource floors were taking longer to “regrow” the materials. I must have never noticed with my mana levels so high. All my sources of mana were flowing into me, but with so many of my forces in the north, large amounts were being siphoned off to keep them from being tainted.

From there the rest of the floors were unharmed and intact. The beastkin colony that now numbered close to ten thousand was unaware that the dungeon was even attacked. Looking over the various other islands, I could see that everything else seemed to be fine. The only thing that caused me to pause was that Reed’s body was missing.

The spell script around where he’d been stored was also damaged. It looked like it was from the outside. I frowned as I considered the situation. Surely, Morka’s attack wasn’t a diversion to get his body. I mean it had been in my possession for months now. I would have to review the dungeon cameras later to see if they caught anything. I decided to put that off for now and move on to something else.

“Ignea,” I said.

A moment later a little circle formed in the air in front of me. My fairy popped out, looking happier than she had in a while. With this last event, I was truly glad to have her watching the fort.

“You called, Father?” she asked, bobbing in the air.

“Yes. I wanted to thank you for protecting the core. Without you commanding the home fort, all might have been lost. Even with my sub-cores, I don’t want to risk my main one being broken. So again, thank you,” I said, reaching out to pull her in to a hug.

“Father! Of course! It is my duty to protect the core, after all,” she said with a blush covering her metal cheeks. I wasn’t even sure how that was possible.

“When someone does something good, you should never be afraid to praise them,” I replied, patting her head once I let go of her.

She giggled and twirled in the air. “Thank you, Father!”

“Is Nova . . . busy?” I asked.

Ever since he’d acquired his new mate, I had been leery about looking in on him suddenly. I feared I would have some interesting children flying around the dungeon in the future. That was also why moving the core down several dozen floors was near the top of my to-do list.

“No. He said he wanted Morka to rest for several days. I think he almost broke her.” Ignea giggled again. I glanced at her, worried she might have a dirty mind.

“Alright. Let’s go thank him while I have the chance,” I said, motioning for her to land on my shoulder.

“Father . . . are you sure you should leave your core next to her like that?” she asked worriedly.

I looked back toward my core. It had grown since the last time I’d really examined it. Still silver, it was nearly two meters in length and a meter in width. It had gained a multifaceted design when I broke through to tier three. Tendrils of mana floated lazily around it as it hummed with power.

When I’d brought Alara back with me, I used some of the little mana I had to remodel the core room. Its previous form had been meant to yell power to people I brought here or that made it here. Now it had the feel of a spaceship’s core room. A ball of plasma surrounded my core and was contained by a quadruple phase barrier. The plasma was caused by the fusion reaction that was constantly feeding the core with mana.

Nanocarbon plates lined the walls and floor, giving it a soft gray look. I wasn’t sure even Starfall could penetrate this room. I had added links to all my other cores in the event something like with Alara happened and my avatar was stuck at one location. There were other defensive measures, but they needed to be charged more before they would be ready.

“It will be fine,” I said, then teleported us to Nova’s lair.

Curled around a massive pile of gold coins and slightly glowing armor, Nova snored contentedly. I looked around and found Morka curled into a ball next to him. I could see links of magic between the two, which I assumed were what Louella had been talking about. The mate link or whatever.

“Nova! Father is here to see you,” Ignea said as she flew up to smack him on the head. I nearly chuckled at the sight, as his head alone was four times bigger than she was. Nova’s eyes instantly shot open, and he looked over to me.

“Creator,” he said with a yawn.

“Hello, Nova. Sorry to disturb your sleep considering how . . . busy you’ve been that last two days,” I said, placing my hands behind my back.

“For the Creator, I’m always awake. Thank you for sending such a . . . tasty morsel to me. Please, if you find more in the future, do not hesitate to send them to me,” Nova said, licking his lips as he looked over to Morka, who shrank back a bit.

I laughed. “Of course. I’ll make a mental note. I wanted to thank you for defending the core. Though I created you with magic, I think of all of you as my children. I’m glad you protected your brothers and sisters.”

Nova yawned, then readjusted his position. “Thank the little one for waking me up before too much damage was done. I might have slept through it and missed my prize if it wasn’t for her,” Nova said with a giant toothy grin. Ignea did a spin in the air, blushing at the praise.

“I have. All of you performed wonderfully,” I said with a nod.

“Then, I am tired.” In a series of growls that my internal translator said was Dragonish, he said something to Morka. Roughly translated it went something like, “Come warm my bed, woman,” with a bit more . . . color.

“Just don’t go too overboard,” I said, then teleported Ignea and myself to another part of the dungeon.

Floating in the pseudo space of the asteroid floor, I looked around for Nexus and found him free floating some distance away. Ignea followed as I willed myself over, and we quickly met him. When Nexus saw me, he started to fly away.

“Nexus! Stop right there!” I shouted after him. Of course, he immediately came to a stop. I hated to do it but sometimes I had to use the binding control I have over my creations.

“Yesss, Creatorrr,” Nexus said with a raspy voice.

“Why are you running?” I asked.

“Faileddd theee, Creatorrrr,” he replied.

“Who decided that you failed me?” I asked, crossing my arms.

“. . .”

“That’s right. No one did. In fact”—I grabbed his shoulder—“I’m proud of you for holding off one of the most powerful beings on the continent.”

“Nottt failedddd?” Nexus asked, sounding almost afraid.

Ignea flew up and popped him on the forehead. “No, dummy! You and the numbers performed well to protect Father!”

“That’s right. Everyone did well in their duties. It will take a bit, but we will repair and rebuild. We’ll be stronger than ever. Anyone that dares to attack us again will be met with a very untimely end,” I said with a grin.

Nexus nodded and I let him go back to fly around his floor. Teleporting back to the core room, we found everything just as we’d left it. Alara was still sleeping. I looked around, then cracked my metal knuckles.

“What now, Father?” Ignea asked.

“Time to get to work,” I said with a laugh.

Chapter 26

Darr

“Target sighted! ETA five minutes!” the navigator announced as a little town came into sight. Behind it was a hill that rose five hundred meters above the town. Not quite a mountain but well on its way to becoming one. The town that I thought would be a ghost town was all but that. Hundreds of undead moved about the place, and nicer buildings that obviously belonged to necromancers dotted the area.

“What’s the enemy’s strength looking like?” I asked the radar officer.

“Mana readings are all over the place, but nothing over tier two. Most likely the reserve or members that need to prove themselves,” the officer said after examining the monitor in front of him.

“Where’s the highest reading? I want to take that out first,” I asked, leaning over his shoulder to see the readout myself.

In the center of the town, three readings showed Tier Two End. The main cannon should have been more than enough to deal with them if we can caught them unawares. The point defense system covering the ship would be able to protect the ship from the lesser undead.

“Orders, ma’am?” someone asked as I stood back up.

“Time to make Boss Regan proud he created us! All mech pilots gear up. We will begin with a bombardment of the town, destroy everything. Once that is complete, we will move the ship to a central location. From there we will drop the mechs and eliminate anything that moves!”

“Yes, ma’am!” the crew cried with a salute, then went back to work at their stations.

Boss’s stealth magic was easily able to avoid the eyes of the sentries around the town. We maneuvered carefully overhead so that the entire target was in range of the weapons. The ship would turn visible once we began to fire the main cannon, which would require us to act fast.

I ran down to the mech bay and boarded Bervin. The controls came to life and melded to my body. The display soon activated and showed me my surroundings in better clarity than if I was using my own eyes. Data feeds from the other mechs gave me the status of everyone in the group. I could tell in a moment if someone was hurt or worse.

A link to the other twenty mechs in the unit came up. If I focused on one, it would bring up their visual feed. This would allow for greater cooperation on the field. The screens slowly turned green as the other pilots confirmed their status. When they all turned green, I sent the order to commence attack to the bridge crew.

We formed squads of five that would protect each direction as we thinned the undead ranks. I would assist any direction that looked close to being overrun. The mission sounded simple, but that was no reason to push our luck. We would have to adjust to any curveballs that might be thrown at us while down there.

A moment later the ship rocked backward in the air as the main cannon fired nearly straight down. The feed showed a beam of energy arcing to the spot where the higher-tier readings were coming from. It impacted the ground, then an explosion blasted out from the spot as debris was sent flying over the rest of the town.

There was a collective roar from the undead as more of them realized that there was an airship overhead. Turrets around the airship’s hull rang out as they began gunning down the nearby undead that had survived the explosion. The bay doors opened as the airship dropped within ten meters of the ground.

“GO! Make the boss proud!” I shouted, then started forward.

There was an echo of cheering as the rest of the mechs jumped right after me. With a lurch I fell the ten meters, crushing a zombie into paste when I landed. I turned my machine gun toward the rushing horde, and it warmed up before it unleashed a stream of rounds into them. Booms sounded out around me as the others landed and began pumping lead into the oncoming horde. For the next minute, I was sure every goblin pilot had a grin plastered on their face. Once the surrounding horde was dealt with, we gained a few seconds of breathing room to establish our perimeter.

“Ma’am! Tier two reading from the north ! Showing signs of life. Probability of necromancer seventy-five percent,” the airship sent.

The target was highlighted for me on my hub, and I moved to join the north line. Sure enough, the undead in this direction were more coordinated than those in the other were. I switched my weapon to laser. It would burn mana faster, but it would allow me to punch through just about anything under tier three.

A beast of some kind plowed through a building as it rounded the corner to us. The thing was massive at four or five meters. It looked like an ogre that had died and was reanimated. Carrying a massive two-handed sword, it roared as it saw us. Green flames that put off unholy mana readings wreathed the creature. Not giving it a chance to gain distance, I aimed the laser cannon at the beast.

When I pulled the trigger, there was a moment’s pause before a red line streaked down the street. The heated air caused the few windows still remaining in the town to burst into pieces. The energy beam sliced into the ogre’s chest, quickly melting it to slag. The ogre looked down at the hole as it came to a stop in its charge.

As it collapsed, the beam melted the rest of its upper body. I didn’t want to chance that thing getting back up. Shouts sounded out from the line, and I raised my fist to join the cheer, then got back to work.

“Target neutralized! Send me the next one!” I said into the comms.

“Acquiring . . . Target acquired.”

This time it was from the east line. Three dots were highlighted, each reading high-tier two. I quickly joined the line, adding my machine gun to burn down some of the lesser undead rushing us. It wasn’t long before I spotted the targets in my visual feed—two men and a woman from the shape of their bodies. They were casting spells that amplified the undead, along with sending more deadly spells toward the mechs. The unraulium coating on the mechs resisted much of the intended damage the spells would have caused.

The necromancers were using the undead as disposable shields as they funneled most of their mana into their spells. The machine guns were reaching them but were slowly building a wall of undead in front of them. My laser cannon could penetrate it but needed more time to recharge. The armor could only absorb so much unholy taint before it needed to be purged.

Tossing the machine behind the group, I activated the autocannons on each shoulder and pulled the two mana sabers from their sheaths. When I activated the feed, mana was fed into the weapons and two red lines formed over the orichalcum blades. According to the test at the lab, these could cut through just about anything.

“Cover me!” I ordered, then charged into the fast-moving horde.

“Yes!” The other mechs began to spread their fire on the other targets in their sights.

The turrets on my shoulders turned anything that got close to my sides into mincemeat, while anything in front of me was cut in half either vertically or horizontally. Easily covering two meters with each stride, I cut the distance between the necromancers and myself down quickly.

Not thirty seconds after I left the line, I slammed into the wall that had formed from the continuous gunfire. Undead bodies went flying in several directions as I glared down at the necromancers, who stared back up in horror. I swung my right saber, removing all three heads in an instant even with them putting up their barriers at the last second.

“Base, are you receiving all the data properly? Boss will be pleased with the performance our weapons are showing.”

“Don’t worry, ma’am! We would regret to the end of time if we didn’t save this data for future development,” Terry from the bay replied on comms.

“Good goblin! Comms, give me another target!”

“Right away.”

A moment later the airship’s main cannon fired. The beam sliced a path to the west side of the town. Explosions rang out as various buildings and undead were destroyed by the weapon. A cheer went up through the comms at the destruction. I whistled. Actually getting to see the destruction firsthand was much better than witnessing it from the ship.

“Target acquired! Northeast fifty degrees. Six readings. They are barricaded in a building from the looks of it.”

“Understood, comms. Heading out!”

Sheathing one of my sabers, I deployed my hex shield. I let the system plot the shortest route before I took off at groundbreaking speed. The street’s stones shattered with each of my steps, while undead were thrown into the air. The path led through a building, so I cracked my neck and hunched the mech’s shoulder before plowing into and out the other side of the already collapsing building.

I pulverized a path through the town before I came to the targeted building. I wasn’t sure but I thought I may have killed a few weaker necromancers in passing. The building in my sights had a thick barrier around it that I didn’t want to try to run through. I ground to a stop.

“Analyze!” I ordered the airship.

“Multiple mana signatures powering the barrier detected. Unholy mana exceeds threshold. Extreme caution is advised.”

I nodded, then deactivated my hex shield and pulled my second saber back out. Something thudded into the back of my mech. Pulling the feed, I found a large undead wolf that looked to be made from plates of bone. Its teeth managed to pierce the unraulium armor, if only by a few centimeters.

“No free rides!” I shouted as I spun. The wolf stayed latched on even with the violent maneuver. “Fine!”

Turning back to the barrier, I spun again, then body-slammed the wolf into it. Smoke rose as the little flesh still remaining on the wolf melted off. I felt when it lost some of its strength. and I reached back to pull the beast off me. I frowned when I saw a handful of teeth still sticking out of the cuts. With a few quick movements, I crushed the wolf’s head into dust.

I checked and found that my journey among the buildings had damaged my left autocannon, a design flaw that would need to be fixed when I got back. After adding that to the log, I then turned back to the barrier. I modified the mana charge on the sabers so that it was concentrated on the point. Rearing back, I plunged both blades into the barrier. A tremendous number of sparks showered me before they burst past it.

I placed my arm inside the tear. Activating the grenade launcher in the wrist, I launched one into the building. A moment later there was a scream as the necromancers inside panicked before the building exploded. It slowly crumbled as I made sure there were no more signs of life.

“Target eliminated. Send me the next one.”

~~~

“Everything within a kilometer radius has been eliminated, ma’am. A total of one hundred fourteen high-risk targets have been put down. Thirty more readings were pulled during the battle but were lost during the confrontation. One mech lost, pilot is alive.”

“Gather the mechs. I don’t want to leave anything for the enemy to use. Once you’re done with that, load up and head for the dungeon entrance. If they have another base around here, we can be sure they will be back with reinforcements. I want to get to the dungeon so we can set up a defense,” I said, looking up from Bervin. He had taken quite the beating. The unraulium was doing its job and self-repairing the mech, but it would take some time.

“Yes, ma’am!” The officer saluted and ran off to execute the orders.

Soon two mechs entered the bay doors, dragging another between them. All of them were covered in rotting gore and were soon being washed off. The downed mech was missing an arm and a leg after an undead worm had burst through the ground next to him and torn them off. Luckily, his squad responded and tore the worm apart with energy sabers and machine guns.

Once the bay doors were closed, the airship lifted off and turned toward the dungeon entrance. It was more of a short hop than a flight, as the dungeon was only an hour’s walk from the town. By airship it was a few minutes at most. When the entrance came into view, I had to wonder what kind of resistance the original inhabitants had managed to put up.

Craters of all shapes filled the scenery in a circle nearly two or three hundred meters around the entrance. A solid steel door barred the way into the dungeon, though it was horribly scarred. Half-melted goblin corpses littered the area, though they did look a few days old. Anger still rose in my chest at the sight of our cousins being killed in such a manner.

A few undead shambled around the entrance, but the airship easily dealt with them. We set down in front of the door. With the airship in a more defensible position, we quickly set about erecting permanent defenses around the area. The sensors showed we should be inside the dungeon’s aura. I knew the host must be watching us.

“General Gersa! We are the ones Boss Regan sent to aid you,” I shouted into the night.

When no reply came after a few minutes, I went to help the crew set up the camp. It was probably two hours later when a small hatch on the steel door opened. A little goblin squeezed out and trembled as it looked around. I ordered the crew to keep working while I made my way over to the him.

“Cousin, we are here to help,” I said, hoping he was smart enough to understand.

“General Gersa welcomes yous! Wants you stay here till trust yous more,” the little goblin said almost clearly.

I nodded. “That’s fine. The town to the east has been dealt with, so you should be safe for a while.”

The goblin concurred and ran back to the hatch and disappeared without another word. I chuckled and went back to work. Just then my comms suddenly blared.

“Warning from Boss! Incoming terra wave. Sensors picked it up just after the message. Only it’s stronger than the message states! Five minutes!” the comms officer yelled to everyone.

“Get back in the airship and take it to a hundred meters!” I ordered, running over to the steel door. “Brace your people, General Gersa. A wave of terra mana is going to hit this location in five minutes!”

Message delivered, I ran back and jumped into the open bay door as the airship started to rise and hurried to the bridge. I had them pull up the best image of the wave they could. Several lines of green rippled along the ground as it tore its way toward us. After the wave passed, everything looked fine, but that was only for a few seconds—then the ground exploded. Areas around trees survived with much less damage, but even then it was dangerous.

Finally, the wave reached us. When it collided with General Gersa’s dungeon, it weakened significantly as the dungeon absorbed a large chunk of the mana from the wave. From there it was like a stone was thrown in a pond. The wave broke around it but everything past the dungeon was in less danger. It finally passed out of sight.

“Alright! The camp received some damage, but we need to get back down there and get to work!” I shouted before ordering the airship back down. I had to make Boss proud. It didn’t hurt that I didn’t want to be banished from the dungeon. Where else would I be able to build weapons like Bervin?

Chapter 27

Xenio Blackheart

The smell of a delicious source of mana met me as I journeyed throughout the realm. Travel was different for a disformed soul. When I was a Celestial, it only took thirty seconds to move where I wanted. But as a soul, I could be there in twenty seconds, or it could take me months. This time it had taken months.

I looked down into the crater in front of me. The distinct aura of a dungeon emanated from it, but the host was, in mortal terms, not home. Deciding to take the chance, I moved in. The sweet taste of dark mana was all over the crater, but the calling I was sensing was not the cause of this mess.

Moving along the dungeon, I found an empty void where two dragons were battling. I could tell with a glance who the victor was, so I moved on. The next floor had numerous floating islands. The aura of life emanated strongly from several of them. The source of the calling was located on one that was tucked away in the far side.

When I arrived, I found what looked like a ruin on it. I floated through the walls to look around. Whatever was calling me had saturated the place, making it hard to pinpoint. Looking at things in the old-fashioned way, I traversed the ruin until I came upon a sealed room. The dungeon obviously didn’t trust whatever was inside, as there was no way to enter the room, and I could sense strong magic flowing off the walls.

The dungeon had messed up, however, and had only set it for mortals. I slipped past the wards with ease, my form causing them to malfunction and pop. I finally made it through the wall. If I’d had a mouth, I would have whistled. The walls were nearly two meters thick, made from materials that could buy a small city.

Once my vision stabilized, I could finally see what drew me here. A body lay on a stone table. It was still alive but seemed to be in a coma. The soul had vacated the body weeks if not months ago, leaving it open for the taking. The body’s mana base was a little weak, but a few months should fix that.

It was a male by the looks of it. Something had changed the body to one of living metal. If the insides weren’t still flesh, I would have turned right back around. This body would be hard to kill. The veins alone seemed to be composed of mithril.

I checked one more time to make sure the host was still out before jumping into the body. The sensation of flesh slammed into me, knocking the breath out of my new lungs. I groaned as I sat up. Moving my hand to eye level, I flexed my fingers. A grin broke across my face.

“Finally! That fucking bitch Lelune is going to pay for what she did to me and my brother!”

I stood up. The floor cracked when I jumped down. I had used too much strength.

“Whoops! Well, thank you good dungeon for the new body!” I said with a bow toward where the core was located. I snapped my fingers, and a pool of darkness formed behind me. I smiled, then fell backward into it. Right as I crossed the border, I sensed something I hadn’t since the day my brother was betrayed—if only a little. The sensation of the Flame of Knowledge. I made a mental note to return here when I was stronger and meet the host personally.

Oparens Wanderer

“Master Oparens, here are the reagents you requested,” said a page as he handed over a box. I could never remember their names. If they didn’t reach the next rank in magic by three months, they were expelled, after all. No point in remembering something that would change in three months either way.

“Thank you, young one,” I said, not even paying attention to the boy anymore.

I walked back into my laboratory with a serious expression. After a hundred-plus years of life, I knew myself pretty well. Few things moved me in this city, which seemed to never change. After I set the box on the table, I couldn’t help but break into a grin as I observed the materials inside. Rapturous wood, from a tree on the surface over a thousand kilometers straight up.

A caw came from the other side of the room, where a raven made of flames glared at me like wife who’d found out her husband had cheated on her. I chuckled at him.

“What? Don’t want another friend, Qez?” I asked the grumpy raven.

“Caw!” he squawked with an accusing tone.

“I would never! You are the older brother. You need to guide this new sibling when they form,” I said, with mock surprise.

“Caw,” Qez squawked again, with a tone that said he wasn’t sure about this.

“I know. You and nature won’t get along, but I would appreciate it if you at least tried.”

I moved to the next room and placed the wood in the center of a massive ritual diagram. Articles of nature were represented all around the ten-meter circle. I cut my finger and allowed some blood to pool in a circle on the edge. When there was enough, I quickly bound the cut and moved on to the next step.

Grabbing my staff, I moved to another section of the ritual. I began chanting, working the spell that had taken me thirty years to create. The three gems on the staff began to glow as mana circulated through and between them. Arcs of mana started to manifest as the spell took shape.

All around me, motes of light appeared. I looked around carefully, trying to find the one that had the correct hue. Finally, I found one that almost appeared to be hugging the wood. The spell reached a crescendo, and the world around me froze. Qez was frozen midflight as he moved to another perch.

“Hello, little elemental. Would you like a physical body?” I asked the only thing still moving in the room.

The mote of light floated for a moment before it was sucked into the piece of wood. The world suddenly accelerated around me. I resumed my chant before the spell broke. Mana flowed into the wood as the other materials were absorbed by the central piece. It took the look of melted clay as it started to reshape itself.

A wooden creature soon formed in front of me as the spell came to an end. It stood on four legs extending from a large body. Deadly looking antlers emerged from its head, and it shuddered as the elemental took full control of the body. The mana in the air dropped significantly.

“See, Qez. No problems like the last one. The body didn’t explode,” I said, waving the raven off.

“Caw!” Qez crowed, annoyed.

While I examined the body of my newest companion, the room started to shake. At first, I just ignored it, as the city experienced minor quakes every few days, but this time the shaking didn’t let up. Then a sound that hadn’t been heard in a hundred years since the last great battle buzzed throughout the city.

The loud hum of Rose Bloom city’s shield activating meant that whatever was happening could potentially destroy the city. Rose Bloom had existed for a millennium since the ancestors migrated here after being driven from the surface. With the population being primarily the high races, little could threaten us.

There was a banging at my door, and before I even tried to stumble over, it burst open. “Oparens! A wave of terra mana unlike anything we have ever seen is heading for the city. Hell, it’s heading for, well, everywhere! All the masters are being called to the Central Spire to channel mana into the barrier!” said the voice from the other room, who I recognized as Kolu.

“Let’s go then, Kolu!” I shouted.

I channeled some mana into the air around me and took off, hovering to avoid the shaking. Kolu copied me and we quickly made our way out of the labs. We were soon joined by every master in the city. The Central Spire of the mage district rose above us. I almost stopped and gaped when I saw the barrier that was thought to be impenetrable cracking from the massive amount of energy slamming into it.

The masters gathered around the giant crystal that floated at the top of the spire. Each of the over two hundred masters began channeling our mana into the crystal. The shield pulsed with the influx of mana and the cracks started to recede, as did the shaking the cavern was experiencing.

For a moment I thought the danger had passed, then there was the roar of thunder—something not often heard in this subterranean world. Parts of the ceiling broke off and impacted the shield. I felt like a great hand was pressing down on me when another wave of terra mana struck the shield, this one even stronger than the first.

Even with our massive mana pools, masters started to drop from the sky as they felt the feedback from the shield. There was a pain like a knife driven into my temple, nearly knocking me from the sky as well, but I was able to withstand it. Suddenly, I felt an influx of cooling mana that reduced the pain greatly.

Syi, my water elemental companion, wrapped around my neck and infused me with mana. I nodded my thanks to him, unable to speak for fear of feeling more feedback from the shield. I redoubled my efforts to make up for the masters who were incapacitated.

This time we managed to see the wave that passed the city. A rippling, almost alive, shock wave of energy crawled over the city’s shield to continue past. Its power was reduced, but even several kilometers away, I could tell it was feeding on the natural terra mana of the planet to grow in power.

“Quickly! Before the third wave, channel all your remaining power into the shield!” Grandmaster Gulori shouted, immediately following her own advice.

We barely had time to return the shield to full strength before the last wave hit. If the second had been like a hand pressing down, this one was akin to a god dropping a mountain on us. All the masters were slammed from the sky from the pressure and impacted the ground, making craters surrounding the spire.

The sound of glass breaking echoed around the cavern. I managed to prop myself up, though I wished the impact had knocked me out. The shield was spiderwebbing as it fought to resist the wave. I sent up a silent prayer to any god that might be listening that it would hold out.

The wave finally passed as quickly as it came, parts of the shield missing as it broke. Just as the wave finished passing, the crystal on the spire exploded into fragments that began raining down. I could only gape as I watched the majestic jewel of the city vanish right before my eyes.

A figure suddenly landed next to me. Unlike the rest of us, she had managed to stay in the air. Soon, two more figures landed next to her. They all had a regal force that brooked no argument.

“Master Wanderer,” Grandmaster Gulori said.

“Grandmasters,” I replied, trying to stand up but failing.

“Rest. It’s time for your services. You are the only one who has traveled farther than the Wastes and survived to tell the tale, which earned you your name. With the Grand Shield gone, we cannot afford to leave the city. Go! Seek out the source of this attack and return to us,” Gulori said with a force that made the air crackle.

“As the grandmasters have commanded,” I said, bowing my head, which was about the only part of my body I could move.

The masters nodded before walking away. The new elemental companion I’d summoned before this crazy thing had gone down walked up to me, and I felt a soothing flow of mana enter my body.

“Thanks,” I said before passing out.

Next:

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Pevious:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/43760967