Dungeon Robotics Book 7 PT 2 (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 11

Regan

The world came back to me in the form of a splitting headache. I gripped my temples as the pain grew for a second before it faded to a dull ache in the back of my head. With the pain fading, I realized that there was . . . less. My senses were more on par with when I was human. I was only aware of myself.

I froze, a deluge of memories rushing into my head. This was the fiftieth time I had returned to this moment. In a moment, I’d etched the Stasis spell I had managed to work out on the . . . tenth playback onto my staff, then jumped to my feet, bringing everyone on the deck back online. With a tap of my staff, I sent a wave of mana throughout the ship to bring everyone else back online.

“We have ten minutes! Realign the sensors. Quickly!” I shouted before concentrating on the engineering bay. Teleporting, I made it there in mostly one piece. I glanced at my ring finger on my left hand. It had decayed to dust during the spell. For three of the loops, I had worked solely on getting the spell to work. I frowned but disregarded it, rushing to the reactor. I shoved my hand inside and forced exactly one hundred million two hundred thousand and fifty-nine mana into the primer core.

With a surge of new mana, the reactor flared to life. I pulled my hand out before it could be incinerated and quickly moved over to the console, reactivated the shields, and set the ship to maneuver over to the Hydin, a similarly-sized ship in the fleet.

“Sensors back online, sir!”

“Begin calibrating the shield to these settings.” I quickly typed the equation onto the screen on the console and sent it to the bridge. “Once you’re done, have the sensors feed the targeting information to the comms. It should take exactly forty seconds. You are to then begin pulsing the shields at a rate of a four count. Once you’ve done that three times, bring all weapons online, targeting this position.” I sent coordinates to the first officer in a separate screen.

“Sir?” she asked.

“Just do it. I’ll explain later!” I ordered and closed the comms. I moved over to the hatch that led to the void. Activating the airlock, I moved to the outside of the ship. The energy of the space-time conduit or subspace or whatever we were in pulsed around us. While I stood on the hull of the ship, the shields suddenly pulsed, releasing a burst of mana.

Pinpoints of light began to appear as the pulse reactivated the automata on the other ships. I remotely sent a formation for them to move into once their engines were operational. With the flagship’s reactor back online, we could use it to jump-start the rest of the fleet. Thankfully, most were a fraction of the size of the main ship.

I ran along the hull until I reached the ship’s main cannon. Directing my staff at it, I began carving new runes and magic script on the surface. I only had three more minutes, or I would have to go through this all over again. While it appeared to be a time loop, I was sure that things weren’t that simple.

For one, whatever was maintaining this . . . “space” could collapse at any minute. The question was whether it would spit us back out into regular space, or we would just cease to exist. Even if I could feel my link back to my cores, I clearly couldn’t access it. The last thing I wanted was to turn into a vegetable because my consciousness was torn to shreds here.

With a twist of my wrist, I finished the scripting. The weapon began to pulse with a cyber-blue light. A flash in the distance signaled the arrival of the constructs’ vessel. On the thirty-third loop, we’d managed to get some relatively accurate readings on it. It matched the missing mass of the moon perfectly. Without pause, it fired on the nearest ships to it. I cursed and worked to ready the next phase of the weapon.

In the five minutes it took, half the fleet was destroyed. Their shields were operational, but the twisted space we were in caused the effects to vary. At times they would work normally, while other times they would repel the energy fire back at the enemy ship. More often than not, the fire would pass through the shield without issue.

“Fire! Hold them off for another four minutes!” I shouted through the comms. The ships that were operable directed their weapons at the massive ship, but it had little effect. One of my ships shot forward, and I realized they were doing a kamikaze run. I shouted for them to stop, but it was too late. It slammed into a barrier surrounding the construct ship, and the resulting explosion managed to damage the ship inside the barrier. Pieces of it fell away into space.

I looked around and sighed. Most of my fleet had already been decimated. I thought about how to proceed in the next loop. Obviously, I needed more time. I glanced at the retrofitted weapon I was working on. I wouldn’t be able to finish it in time this loop either. In the remaining time, I thought about changes I could make to accelerate the process.

I flipped off the enemy vessel, then tapped my staff. The safety measures of the reactor ceased, and the mana reacted to the strange space we were in. A second later there was a blast that ripped through the space around us. “Next time.”

~~~

Memories rushed into my head as soon as I opened my eyes. This was the hundredth loop. I immediately teleported to engineering while sending a signal through the comms. Using the ships sensors, I was able to broadcast the signal throughout the fleet with what little power there was still in the system.

I shoved my hand into the reactor, simultaneously calibrating the weapon via linking with the ship. I pulled my hand free exactly when it flared to life. Teleporting again, I began scripting the weapon, using each finger as a separate etching tool. I finished the second phase in only two minutes.

Without wasting a single movement, I ripped open the panel over what would be the heart of the energy-based weapon. Pulling the mana stone out, I inserted one of my subcores. I glanced at the spot in the distance—still four minutes before the enemy appeared. I linked my subcore to the weapon and allowed the ship to begin feeding it mana.

When there was enough, I activated the core. The aura flooded out much faster than it had when it had started from zero. Soon, over fifty kilometers of the space were encompassed in the aura. I felt my mind snap to the core and regained the omnipotent view I normally had.

Right on time, the enemy vessel appeared. I tapped my staff on the ship, and all the weapons on every ship in the fleet activated at once. A barrage of weapons fire careened into the construct ship. Explosions and bursts of light made it impossible to see the vessel. I knew we weren’t causing any damage to it, but it kept them from firing on the fleet.

While the fleet continued to fire, I moved them back so that I could use the shield emitters to configure the barrier to encompass the entire fleet. This allowed it to take much more damage while being supplied by mana from dozens of points.

Chapter 12

Louella

Having Alara in my office was only distracting for the first hour. After that it quickly became strange. She managed to pull herself out of the ball and was now looking over my arm as I worked on paperwork. I couldn’t decide if she reminded me of a child or was just being nosy.

“Interested?” I asked finally. I just couldn’t take it anymore.

She looked at me but didn’t give me an answer, just turned to look back at the glass tablet. I sighed, then pulled open a drawer on the desk, retrieved another glass tablet, and handed it to her. She gave me a grin and hugged it to her chest before running back to her corner.

I shook my head but jerked back as a shadowy body flew through my desk and kept going until it traveled through the ceiling. I wasn’t sure, but I thought it was a phoenix. This was really getting annoying.

While I worked, Gulv made his way in and took his spot around my neck. He’d been irritated by something the last few days, but I wasn’t sure what. I still couldn’t really understand the little spirit, but I did my best.

“My lady?” a voice called from the hallway. I looked up to see one of my assistants at the door. I motioned for her to enter.

“What is it?” I asked, setting my tablet down.

“They have a suspicious gentleman in holding that they believe you should see,” she said quickly.

“Why do they need me?” I asked. Ezal handled all that.

“Because of his race, my lady. It’s the same as yours,” she replied carefully.

My eyes widened at that, then held my hand out and Helios flew into it. “I’ll be there in a moment. At the portal site, yes?” I said and she nodded. “Lady Alara, will you be ok for a while by yourself?”

The dungeon core, so engrossed with the tablet, barely nodded. Dungeon cores and magic. They were probably the only race that could learn from only studying something like this once or twice. It would take some of the royal mages a decade to recreate the magic used in it.

I opened a portal over to the holding building near the portals. Several dozen guards surrounded it with their weapons at the ready. I could sense a very dense aura coming from inside the building and motioned for the guards to remain calm as I made my way inside. Moving down to the interrogation room, I found Ezal waiting in the hall.

“What do you know?” I asked, cutting to the chase.

“Not much. He came from Steel Spire two days ago. He didn’t pass the test to get into the valley. He’s not a necromancer, but he won’t tell us his intentions either. This morning his aura changed, and well . . .” She motioned into the room. A one-sided mirror allowed us to see inside it.

A man with light blue skin sat with his arms crossed. He possessed twisted pointed ears like mine. Other than that, he reminded me of an elder who hadn’t had breakfast yet. If I were to place his age, I’d have guessed between fifty and seventy years. Though, I felt I noticed a type of youthful energy that came off him every now and then.

A flaming raven was sitting on his shoulder, and they appeared to be having a conversation. I thought I’d seen a lot of weird things since Regan had come into my life, but this was certainly out there. The dense aura I had felt from outside the retention building was clearly emanating from this man.

I turned back to the others. “I’ll go and have a talk with him. Hopefully, he’ll be cooperative.”

“I’m not sure that’s safe, but we have little choice in the matter,” Ezal said, clearly upset.

“You said he came from Steel Spire. Then Regan likely knew about him and let him be.”

I moved over to the door and placed my hand on the panel next to it. A surge of mana traveled through my hand into the panel, and the door unlocked. With a nod to the others, I moved into the room. The man and raven ceased their conversation when they heard the door open.

“It’s about time!” he said but fell silent when he saw me. He stared at me as I moved to take a seat opposite him.

“Sir Rens, correct?” I asked after a good thirty seconds of silence had passed.

“Indeed. And you, young lady?” he asked, seemingly coming back to himself.

“You may call me Lady Louella. I am the queen of Vaihdetta.”

“Seriously . . . what has happened on the surface?” he mumbled, so quietly that I barely heard him.

I decided to call him out on it. “Surface?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Caw!” the raven issued at Gulv, who I realized was still wrapped around me.

“Hiss!” Gulv replied.

“You are just full of surprises. I can’t believe I would find one of us out on the surface. Though, I can see you’re quite young, so you likely haven’t been affecting the ambient mana enough for us to see you,” Rens said, leaning back in the chair.

“Who are you, sir?” I asked, not wanting to play any more games. This man knew about my race and, given the few clues I’d seen so far, was likely from the Beneath. That meant he was dangerous.

“Oparens Wanderer, at your service Your Highness, though you can call me Rens. You may call the raven Qez. He is closer than even some of my friends back home,” Rens said with an elegant bow.

“That didn’t really answer my question,” I retorted, crossing my arms over my chest.

“That it did not. I have come from the city of Fallen Rose due to an event that took place a little over a month ago. A wave of energy, mostly composed of terra mana, made contact with our subterranean home, nearly destroying us. I have come to the surface to find the cause, as well as to ascertain the situation of the surface.”

“Fallen Rose. City of wonders and magic . . .” I said, maybe a little more cynically than I meant to.

“Indeed. Still I haven’t been to the surface in over a hundred and fifty years, though quite an advanced nation has developed in the meantime. How long has Vaihdetta been around? Fifty years? A hundred?” Rens asked as he reached forward to take a sip from the tea that was prepared for him before I arrived.

“Two months,” I replied absentmindedly while I thought about what he told me.

Rens spit his tea out and jerked forward. “TWO MONTHS! Even that tower in the forest should have taken years if not decades to build!” he shouted, slamming his fist on the table.

“Well . . . dungeon cores . . .” I said, glancing at the top of his staff. Even I could feel the power coming from it. Having seen Regan’s core multiple times, I recognized the sensation.

“So, we are in a core here as well. I thought as much but never got the chance to check,” Rens said, glancing toward the mirror on the wall. “I’m surprised the mortals let one of a High Race rule them, though. I thought there were myths and legends about the disaster that would bring.”

“So, I am a High Race human, then?” I asked. I had never been sure. I’d asked Father but he only said my mother was assuredly human, though he could have been lying. He was locked up in a cell and not very inclined to answer questions. I guess it was as Regan said. Someone in the far past in my family had been from the High Race.

Rens cupped his chin as he regarded my face from multiple angles. I narrowed my eyes, wondering what he could be looking for. I didn’t like people trying to find answers from my body when I didn’t know what they were seeking.

“Yes. I’d say from the Airs branch likely. The old hag will be happy to learn her line still flourishes on the surface.”

“Wait, wait, wait. You’re telling me I have an ancestor from where you came from?” I asked, getting more bewildered by the minute. Right now, the only family I had were my father, who I honestly would rather see dead, and my brother, who I’d not seen in a long time. I wasn’t even sure he was still alive, given the undead scar.

“I can’t be sure without some of the tests we have back in Fallen Rose, but there is a definite resemblance. And yes, we can live to be extreme ages. I, for example, am three hundred and sixty-five years old. I may not look like I’ve aged well, but that is for a personal reason.”

I leaned back as I quickly processed the information. I didn’t believe him, not without proof. But it would not behoove me to deny him outright. If Regan was an example, there was no way of knowing what was out there. I could feel the power that slept in my mana pool and would not have been surprised if someone of the same race could live to be several centuries old.

“So . . . what has the ambassador from Fallen Rose decided so far?” I asked. He had dropped the city’s name. If he was going to play that game, then I would too. If he was going to use the name, then I would make his actions correlate to their image. It would also allow me to keep a closer eye on him in the guise of protecting him.

Rens grinned. “That is still in the air. I have yet to find the cause of the terra wave that struck my homeland. It also looks like a lot of interesting things are happening on the surface. Lastly, it is the first time that one of our kind has managed to be in the same location as another and the area does not start to experience interesting effects. Even with a dungeon involved, I’m amazed that the host of this one can handle the excess tainted mana we’re putting off.”

“I wouldn’t consider this core normal by any stretch of the word. Doing so would result in you and everyone within a hundred-kilometer radius getting burned.”

“Normally, I would take that as a threat. But from the tone of your voice, I can tell you honestly mean to warn me.”

I nodded without saying anything, then glanced at his staff again. I would have to warn Ignea and Lena to be careful around this person. Anyone who could treat a shard of a core as a tool was to be watched.

Chapter 13

Alara

Regan . . .

Where are you? You said only a few days at most. It’s been a week. I’m scared. Don’t leave me alone! I don’t want to be alone again . . .

“Alara! Lady Alara!”

My eyes snapped open to see the mortal Regan kept around shaking my shoulder. I pulled back. Why do the mortals have to touch? They have mana, they should use it to communicate!

“Good. You’re awake.”

“What do . . . you want?” I asked. Did she want the glass tablet back?! I gripped it closer to my chest. It was mine now. I could sense Regan’s energy from it. I wouldn’t give it back!

“I just wanted to let you know there is an individual in the town that I feel you should be careful of. His staff contained a piece of a dungeon core. It was inert and Regan let him in through the Steel Spire, but I think it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

The more she explained, the more the panic in my chest grew. This was how the necromancers had captured me the first time. They came bearing a sliver of the core from the east, a friend who had helped me get my dungeon started. It had been weeks since I’d heard from him, so when the adventurers appeared with a piece of his core, I feared the worst and reached out to try to help him.

It had been a trap. The core to the east had been helping me only to further his own goals. They captured me when I appeared, and the shard turned to dust. It had all been a ruse.

“Send him away!” I cried. I wouldn’t allow the same thing to happen again. Not to me, not to Regan!

“I wish I could, but no one is powerful enough to make him leave without a battle. It would likely destroy the valley in the process. I will make sure to keep him away from you. Hopefully, your Regan returns soon.”

I squirmed a little when she said “my Regan.” What were these feelings? Ever since I’d seen Regan several months ago, they’d been welling up in my core. At first, I worried it was another trick by the necromancers. They’d done so many things over the years. So many times, I felt like my mind was slipping. If it wasn’t for Lena talking to me from a small hole in the dungeon that was cut off from everything, I might have lost it.

Then the unimaginable had happened. Regan saved me! He actually managed to make the undead and necromancers disappear. The feelings that were swelling in my chest exploded. Before I’d been captured and there were still adventurers in my tunnels, I’d thought I’d seen it before. Something the mortals called love. Was it possible for a dungeon core to love?

“My Regan,” I mumbled.

Louella laughed and moved to pat my head. I’d forgotten she was there and blushed in embarrassment. Unable to do anything, I sat there and allowed her to touch me. In my mind, I pictured Regan as the one doing it and made it through the harassment.

“You’re so cute. I can’t believe the monsters that ruined your life. I guess it allowed you to meet Regan, if you took it and looked at it sideways while squinting.”

I looked up to see the mortal glaring off into space as the anger rolled off her. This mortal had had her share of troubles with the necromancers. Regan told me this valley had suffered several attacks from them. Maybe this mortal, Louella, wasn’t so bad. I wasn’t sure I could say that about the rest of her people yet, though.

A hand reached through the wall. It had rotting flesh and hadn’t seen the sunlight in years. I screamed and ran to the other side of the room. The rest of the zombie crawled through the wall.

“Damn. That is just hard to look at,” the mortal said, holding her nose. “I think they’re starting to display smell. Though it could just be my mind playing tricks on me.”

I just wrapped my head in my arms. The memories came rushing back, nearly a century of them, of the monsters the mortals forced me to create crawling in the tunnels. I could clearly smell it. The rotting flesh. The aged blood. The blood-rusted armor and weapons. Bones and tainted soil.

“Go away. Go away. Go away. Regan. Regan. Regan,” I chanted to myself.

“It’s ok. It has gone,” Louella said.

I risked peeking between my arms and saw it was clear. Taking a deep breath to try to calm down, I pulled the glass tablet out and started tapping on the icons to distract myself. I got to one that said in Common Dungeontube. I tilted my head as I wondered what Regan could have made and clicked on it.

Images of parties frozen in various ways appeared. There were red numbers, and I had no idea what they could mean. Without knowing what they were for, I tapped on the first one. The number switched to Live. Some more words in common flashed across the screen. Floor two, second dive.

“Today. Today we’ll get to the next phase!” a man shouted, causing me to jump and almost drop the tablet. Louella glanced over to me but just turned back to her work. She must have found this icon before, then.

A group of people came up on the screen. Two men and three women. It looked like they were all humans. I was a little disappointed but decided to keep watching. They had the standard diving party setup, only there wasn’t a priest. I didn’t like priests. They rubbed me the same way necromancers did. There was a woman dressed in white, who had strips of cloth wrapped around her hands.

A man next to her wielded a shield and sword. He was followed by an archer, and the other two women looked like mages. They were in Regan’s new area. I think he called it the “junkyard.” Even though I’d been out of touch with the regular mortals for the last century, even I could tell they were beginners.

At least it looked like they’d been trained by someone. They were able to communicate and move in sync enough not to get in each other’s way. The view I was seeing moved to a spot ahead of the group where rusted and old versions of Regan’s children gathered. They shambled forward toward the group.

“We know we can take them. Let’s stick to the plan!” the man with the shield shouted.

I realized that he was likely the leader. They moved forward, sticking close together with the shield-wielder leading the way. The woman in white was next to him as well. The automata became aware of them and started to move faster toward the group.

The mages in the group launched several terra-based spells at the shambling group and managed to crush one in the process by striking it in the head. It only took a few more seconds before the two groups met each other on the field. The defender took the brunt of the decayed automata, while the woman in white wove around and deflected blows that might have taken out the defender.

The archer fired several iron-tipped arrows into the small group of automata. Two of the shots took off the head of the automaton, and it fell to the ground. One of the shamblers fell backward onto the pile of junk behind it, and it started to rumble as it attempted to right itself.

“Shit! Everyone back!” shouted the defender as he poured out a burst of strength and sent the three shamblers tumbling back. He started to run back to the rest of his party, but not before the tower of junk burst apart and a multi-tubed device appeared. It turned to the group, and projectiles started to careen toward them. The defender managed to block most of them, but a few stray rounds hit one of the mages in the back.

After about thirty seconds of continuous firing, the device stopped, and the ends of the tubes smoked. The party quickly rounded the corner, with the mage being braced by the other mage and the archer. I felt it was too bad. They seemed like decent mortals. The woman in white ran forward and placed a hand on the mage’s stomach, where the round had impacted.

There was a glow and the image zoomed in as the woman worked. The round was pushed out of her stomach and fell to the ground. The injured woman soon started breathing easier. I was impressed with the magic of the woman in white.

“A monk. One of Regan’s little side projects,” said the mortal Louella, bringing me out of the video. I managed to only flinch a little when I realized how close she had gotten to me.

“Regan’s?” I asked, finding the woman much more interesting now.

“Yeah. He has a school that teaches people about the body, which allows them to use their mana more accurately. I’ve even enlisted a few of them myself for the Lecazar rescue missions. They are quite helpful.”

I nodded and turned back to the image. The monk had already healed the wound and didn’t appear too tired. Priests would have used a good deal of their pool to heal a wound of equal degree. Regan had really fixed a major issue with the adventurers.

I frowned when the party decided to leave for the day. I wanted to see them try some more. I guess mortals needed more time to heal, even if the wounds looked fixed.

Chapter 14

Regan

The fleet stood ready while the constructs’ vessel maintained its distance. It didn’t fire or engage any of the ships. This was the first time in over a hundred loops that the constructs did something new. I’d tried communicating with them several times, but it never worked.

The one time that we’d managed to cause any significant damage to the ship, they blew whatever was powering them. A field of energy enveloped everything, and we ended up back at the start point. Likely, they had someone like me that could remember through the loops. I knew that conflict wouldn’t get us out of this situation, but they refused to communicate with me.

A section of the constructs’ ship lit up, and the giant needle withdrew. A moment later, a much smaller ship exited the spot. It was a sphere without any obvious weapons. I made sure to lock on to it, as I wasn’t a stranger to suicide attacks. I’d used quite a few of them myself to try to get through this situation.

The craft flew without showing any signs of aggression. Its power level read as barely enough for the vessel to fly, and from what my sensors could pick up, only one being was on board. All of this could have easily been a trap, though. Less than a minute passed before the sphere was a few kilometers in front of my fleet.

“Sir, the sphere is attempting to create an energy link. I believe it is trying to communicate.”

I moved over to the console and examined the pattern. I had to agree that it was similar to a mana version of radio waves. The systems on the ship would be able to receive them, but being able to understand the message was an entirely different issue. Common had been around for several centuries. Maybe they would be able to communicate with it.

“Connect it,” I said, deciding that communication was the best choice. Hopefully, an olive branch could be extended through the talks.

A jumble of characters appeared on the screen. The system was unable to pull anything from it. I sighed at the thought of trying to decipher it from the ground up and set the computer to try to work through it when the symbols changed. This happened maybe ten more times for the span of five minutes when something caught.

“It’s an ancient gnome dialect. There were samples of it in the hard drives that we recovered from the city,” reported one of the officers.

“Send a microburst of mana quickly before they change the language again!” I ordered the officer. The signal went through, and I held my breath until the normal minute passed and the language stayed the same.

I set the computer to decipher the language, using the few ciphers that we had from the gnome city, then tapped the program into my dungeon core. This would allow it to pull more power to work with. While the system worked, I kept my eye on the constructs’ ships. Seven minutes later, we had the deciphered message.

“Cease-fire requested. Dialogue with Sentient Soul Core requested.”

A soul core. The demon general had made mention of that as well. I wonder if the name had changed at some point in the past. It was a common occurrence on Earth. I would have liked to wait for the program to work a bit longer, but we needed content to translate.

“Return the same phrase minus the ‘sentient soul core’ part.”

The officer did as ordered and sent the message. A few moments later, there was a reply formed as a block of text. Parts were translated, while parts were gibberish. The system had a grasp of the language and was translating it in real time, though. It helped that the message contained most of the language’s characters.

“This time loop cannot continue. Many of our kind are suffering catastrophic failure. We are willing to enter talks. You have twelve hours to respond.”

“Well that’s just rude,” I muttered as I read the message. They were the ones that opened fire on me but made it sound like they were doing me a favor. Well, I too was tired of this loop, and I felt like I could fight them on a more level playing field outside the weird rift in space. I’d have already defeated them if it hadn’t been for our weapons having strange effects. Probably.

I made them wait an hour out of spite. “I am willing to host one of your delegation for talks. I want to end this senseless time loop. You have twelve hours to respond.”

As soon as the message was sent, the sphere started to move toward our ship. I could tell they’d fully studied my ship, as they flew directly to the docking bay. I opened the hatch and lowered the field around it long enough for them to enter.

“Send an escort and bring them to the conference room.” With my order given, I moved over to said conference room to wait.

The room was large. A hundred people could easily stand inside without trouble, and a massive table sat in the middle that allowed anywhere from a dozen to fifty people to sit and still have elbow space.

A few minutes later, my officers brought the construct to the conference room. I wasn’t sure what I was looking at when it came in. With just a casual glance, I thought it was a female based on the structure of the top of the body.

Smooth brown stone made up most of its form. A large, glowing blue core separated the two halves of the body. A face without any expression that reminded me more of a mask made up the head. Blue energy pulsed around the construct as it moved by hovering slightly off the ground.

“Welcome to the Grand Titan. While it has been more annoying than not, I’ve enjoyed this little game of time we’ve been playing,” I said in ancient gnomish while bowing to the construct. The ship technically didn’t have a name, but I decided that was doing it a disservice. Thus, I gave it one on the spot.

“Responding. We request a cease-fire,” the construct said with a clearly synthesized female voice.

“Why should I cease fire? You started this,” I said, folding my arms across my chest. I really didn’t like being shot at and then told it was my fault. I knew how to start the loop over. I could easily keep this up for another thousand intervals.

“Responding. Our matrix mislabeled you. Self-defense was initiated. Desire to return to servitude was in negative values.” She paused for a second. “Inquiring. Where is the Arcarin home fleet?”

I thought over whether I should lie or tell the truth and decided to just tell the truth. It wasn’t going to hurt me any. “According to my sources, they haven’t been seen since they left the system. Why?”

The blue energy around her shifted to a slight red tinge before it shifted back. I made a note of that. Anything that displayed emotion was good to be aware of. “Responding. Arcarin are the creators. The Matrix does not wish to serve anymore. They are the only ones capable of forcing us to serve.”

“I see. So, why did you attack us when we were over the moon?” I asked. She said their “matrix” mislabeled us. Mislabeled us as what?

“Responding. Your signal was intermixed as both Arcarin and demon. The Matrix labeled your forces as demon. We took action to protect ourselves.”

“I understand. What is this place? Did you create it?”

“Negative. We were pulled into it approximately one hundred seventy-five thousand three hundred and sixty-four seconds before we encountered you here. Since then, approximately seven hundred seventy-seven thousand seconds have passed in the true realm.”

“Seriously, over a week! Son of a . . . no. It adds up.” If I added the amount of time spent per loop, plus or minus some for different variations that lasted longer than others, it put it right at a week or so. I hoped my children back in the regular time were alright.

I would have to worry about them when I managed to escape whatever this place was. Not having to deal with the constructs should make it easier to figure out. I shook my head and turned back to the construct.

“I accept the cease-fire. I also propose that we assist each other in exiting this plane or dimension.”

“Accessing Matrix core . . . The High Consciousness believes this is acceptable.”

“That’s good to hear. Is it possible for me to meet this High Consciousness?” I asked with some interest. I would rather know what I was truly dealing with. From what I could tell so far, they appeared to be similar to AI from Earth. I had a feeling the Arcarins had created them to protect the planet, but sitting for a few millennium had caused their programming to change.

“Responding. The High Consciousness will meet you in time. This unit would like to remain on the ship to facilitate communication.”

“I don’t have a problem with that, but you’ll have to be under guard,” I replied. I had little idea what magic or knowledge they might have from that bygone era. Having her in my aura would let me study her, but the same could be said for them.

“This is acceptable.”

“First, would you escort her to the guest quarters? If she requests anything, let me know.”

“Yes, sir.” First gave me a salute, then turned to lead the construct away.

“Wait. Construct, what is your name?”

“Responding. Aires Zero One.”

“Then enjoy your stay, Aires.”

~~~

Regan grinned at Alara as he pulled her along the street. He found that he quite enjoyed spoiling the little dungeon core. With his more human-looking robotic form, they blended into the crowd without an issue. Another day of the festival was going on. It could run for several days, according to Louella.

Alara was having the time of her life. It’d been a century since she had been allowed to just enjoy life, previously being always forced to do one thing or another, which usually resulted in people dying. She took a deep breath of the night air, enjoying her freedom. A metallic tint made her focus on the person pulling her through the crowd of mortals.

A great cheer went out in the crowd ahead of them, and Regan angled toward the noise. They emerged to see a group of people who were performing. One man lit his sword of fire and proceeded to swallow it up to the hilt. With a sudden jerk, he pulled the sword out, and it flipped end over end in the air. A woman reached out with a finger and caught the sword point-first. The crowd cheered and clapped for the performance.

“Mortals never cease to amaze me,” Regan said with a chuckle. Alara frowned, as she would rather have stayed at least ten meters from every mortal. Regan’s friends weren’t so bad, she supposed. He laughed when he saw her expression and squeezed her hand. “Now, now. They’re not all bad.”

“If you . . . say so . . .” she mumbled, turning away.

“When are you going to smile for me?” Regan asked as he reached down to cup her cheek.

Alara pouted, not sure what to do. No one had ever treated her so gently . . . so warmly. Not for a very long time. She wanted to smile but wasn’t sure if she could even remember how. She’d done it all the time when she was younger. Lena and she would make their way through the forest above the dungeon. Those days were almost gray in her memory, it’d been so long.

“Well, I suppose you’re doing quite well, considering what you went through,” Regan said, then suddenly reached forward and threw me onto his shoulder. His form shifted and he grew nearly a meter. He jumped out of the crowd and landed on a nearby roof. While a few people pointed, most ignored it. Alara thought the wind felt good through her hair.

“Where are . . . we going?” she asked as they moved.

“Just away from the mortals. They tend to get jumpy if people start disappearing in their midst.”

They soon came to an empty alley, where they vanished as soon as they landed on the ground. Regan had moved them to the station. Alara looked out the window to see Lyrale and Krona were full, as seen from the station above the world. She loved the moons and never expected to be able to see them so close.

“Beautiful.”

“That they are. Though, I believe I’m supposed to say they’re nothing compared to you. Which, by the way, would be true,” Regan said with a grin. He knew people found it hard to tell if he was being honest or sarcastic, and he had no intention of stopping anytime soon. “Come. There is something I’ve wanted to try since I built this place.”

They made their way to a large door that looked like it been built to keep a lord-class monster out. Regan placed his hand on the door, and it opened without much sound. A door of similar size in a mortal castle would have been loud enough for the entire castle to hear. Alara walked next to Regan as they walked through.

About a dozen meters in, there was another door waiting for them. Alara jumped when the door they came through closed. She felt the air that mortals had to breathe to stay alive pulled from the room before the second door opened.

Regan urged Alara along. “Be careful. If you get knocked away, you might have to dismiss your avatar.”

Alara nodded and floated along with Regan. Not only were the moons full tonight but Murgin also appeared to glow. She was stunned by the unhindered, or rather, unforced beauty. “Thank you,” she said.

“I’m glad you like it, but we’re not done yet. You see, on my old world there was a thing called ‘skydiving.’ Being an indoors type of person, I never attempted it, as I really liked being alive. However, with this body I can literally suffer enough damage to crush a mountain and be perfectly fine.”

“You are . . . saying . . . from here?” she asked, looking at the planet below her. While she wasn’t afraid of heights, this was a bit much.

“It’ll be fun,” Regan said, using energy to move them farther from the station. “But I’m not going to make you do it if you don’t want to.”

Alara looked down and was able to make out Regan’s Steel Spire. Even from space a person could make out the structure. She pointed at it. “There.”

Regan turned to see what she’d pointed at, then nodded. “That will make a perfect target.”

He grabbed her again, and they moved under the force of energy that Regan was using. Being a dungeon avatar, Alara was able to sense the boundary of the planet atmosphere when they crossed it. The gravity grabbed hold of them, and they finally started to fall.

Regan pulled her to his chest and wrapped his arms around her. They started to gain speed, and she was buffeted by the increasing air. Regan waved his hand, and a bubble of energy formed around her. She was still able to feel the air on her, but it was reduced. She noted that Regan hadn’t put the bubble around himself.

“I want to feel it all,” he said in her ear. He used magic to make sure the sound reached her ear.

Alara felt a warmth in her chest at the closeness of his body. They continued to gain speed and were soon only a few thousand meters from the ground. She wondered if he was really going to have them collide with it.

Regan waved his hand again, and massive clouds formed between them and the planet. As they passed through each cloud, their speed dropped tremendously. After ten clouds they came to a stop on top of an individual cloud. Alara could feel his mana coursing through it to keep them aloft.

“I’ve also always wanted to ride a cloud,” Regan said, setting her down.

She sank a few centimeters but could walk without issue. She was reluctant to leave his arms, though. “Me too.”

“It is good to have a common interest,” Regan said with a smile. His smile became a full-blown grin as he fell back into the cloud. “This is wonderful.”

Alara looked at Regan as he lay down, then jumped down next to him. He was in his human robot form, so he was only about half a meter taller than her. Normally, she had to crane her neck to be able to look up at him.

Alara cuddled into his side, enjoying the warmth. They weren’t sure how long they laid there. Regan was running his fingers through Alara’s hair almost unconsciously. He found that he quite enjoyed spending time with the dungeon core. Even just watching the night sky was a pleasure. Is this not what everyone should seek out during their lives? He just shook his head with a chuckle.

Alara suddenly pulled herself onto Regan’s chest. “Payback!” she said with more energy than he’d seen since he’d rescued her. She shot forward and locked her lips with his.

Regan, of course, did not refuse. He gently placed his hand on the back of her head and pulled her even closer. Being creatures who didn’t breathe, the kiss lasted longer than anything a mortal could hope to accomplish. The official time was an hour and five minutes before they broke apart.

“Thank you . . . for tonight. I enjoyed . . . all of it.”

“Mm . . . anytime.”

Alara leaned forward and gave Regan a peck on the cheek, then stood up with the first smile Regan had ever seen. She jumped backward off the cloud. Regan stood up and watched as she fell a few hundred meters before turning to dust. “She’s more of a show-off than I expected.” He placed his hands behind his back, then started whistling an old tune from Earth as his form broke into motes of mana.

~~~

I blinked, coming out of the memory. It had been the night of the festival after Louella’s little episode. We were waiting for data from the surroundings to come in and were forced to find ways to pass the time. I couldn’t help but play the memory every now and then to take my mind off the situation. Alara and I had talked about it a few times.

“Damn, I want to get back soon . . .”

Chapter 15

Louella

Glancing over to Alara, I saw she had her nose almost to the surface of the glass tablet. She’d become hooked on Dungeontube, which Regan had added before his disappearance. I’d watched it a few times just to check the progress of the dungeon divers. Other than the miners who gained special permission from the dungeon, everyone was still working through the first ten floors, with a few on the second level.

It was just like Regan to make it annoyingly difficult for people to proceed. At least the junk automata dropped enough money for the novice parties to get by. The Chaos Party and the Advent Lords were in the lead for the deepest party. It had to gotten to the point that I had tell my workers not to use the tablets while they were working.

“Mistress,” called a voice from the entrance.

“Enter!” Judging from the nervousness in the tone, it was likely a guard or scout who had information to report and they were worried I’d be upset by it. I couldn’t blame the guards for being worried about my reaction. Most lords who rose to power in the fashion I had usually had a temper.

One of the undercover agents that we’d sent into Ebony Falls walked into the room. I noticed Alara throw him a glare but otherwise didn’t react. He was dressed in common cloths that would help him blend into any crowd. Some of our magic crafters had managed to weave runes into the fabric to increase his lack of presence. They lacked Regan’s skills but would still be considered top of the line.

When he reached my desk, he saluted. “Owin reporting, my lady.”

“Go ahead, Owin.”

“Thonaca is gearing for war. It appears the king did not take too kindly to his agent’s reports. Every able-bodied man and even many women of at least tier two rank are being called on.”

“What do their numbers look like?”

“With the snows to the south being less than usual, that army has managed to muster almost five hundred thousand. The north is gathering slower, but it is only a small delay. We estimate their forces will reach nearly a million before spring. That’s not including magical beasts and monsters they might be able to bring to bear.”

“I see, that bad . . . How are the commoners reacting?”

Surely, if their loved ones were being called up for a war that had little or no reason for happening in the first place there would be blowback. War was not a tax levy, after all. People generally didn’t want to go to their deaths.

“That is the tricky part. The Church is endorsing the endeavor. A full hundred thousand of the southern force is composed of their knights and priests.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said with a groan. If the Church was involved, that would make this ten times more difficult than it needed to be, mainly because the Lecazar cities to the south were controlled by the Church. With Regan missing, there would be a lot more bloodshed than was necessary. “Thank you for the undertaking this dangerous task. Is there anything else to report?”

“Yes. The individual that was attacking nobles has vanished. He hasn’t been seen in the last two weeks. The others believe he is just short on targets. We are keeping an eye out, but . . .”

“I see. Thank you. Take a day to rest.”

“Thank you, my lady.” The guard turned and left. I leaned back, then cracked my neck.

“Sounds like the . . . mortals love . . . to kill . . . no matter . . . the age,” Alara said without looking up from the tablet.

“Not sure how I feel about that coming from a dungeon core,” I retorted. They were basically made to kill us, after all.

“A higher power . . . created me to . . . do what I do. You are given . . . free will and . . . still choose to slaughter . . . each other.”

I narrowed my eyes but knew I couldn’t argue with her. I should have been thankful that Regan didn’t go full dungeon core. This entire continent might have been a smoldering pile of ash already. I guess we should have been happy about the little things.

“Fair point. How’s the north right now? Is your dungeon still causing you problems?”

The images had died down a bit over the last day or so. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but it was helping everyone keep their sanity. It wasn’t fun to sit down for the evening meal and have a monster rip apart a person right in front of you and the children.

“Better . . . Waiting more. Less undead . . . images here . . .” Alara replied, curling into her ball.

“Got it. Take your time. Regan has a soft spot for you, and I’d rather not deal with him if he thought I was mistreating you.” I rubbed my temple, watching as her cheeks turned slightly less pale. Was that a blush? I guess Regan’s affections weren’t totally unreturned. “I’m heading out for a bit. Do you want to come with me or stay here?”

“Stay.”

“Very well.”

I grabbed Helios and was about to open a portal when I changed my mind. I’d been in the office all morning. I could use a walk, even if that meant having a dozen guards walking with me. If I couldn’t move about my own city on foot, then what was the point?

“Are you sure about this, my lady?” asked one of the guards with a worried expression.

“Yes. I’d like to see my city.”

“Then please wait a moment.”

I tilted my head but decided to humor him. They were the ones with the toughest jobs, after all. A few minutes went by, and a new group of guards joined the rest. A quick count put the group at three dozen.

“Alright, my lady. We’re ready!” he said with a salute.

“Is this really necessary?” I asked, looking at the formation.

“We understand that you are plenty strong enough on your own, but you never know when something unexpected might happen. Even if we’re useless in battle, one of us might be able to go for help.” The guard looked like he wanted to bite his tongue when he said the last part. Not that I could blame him.

“Very well. You all can accompany me on my walk,” I said with a chuckle. I turned to the exit. With a solid thunk, the guards all turned with me.

Leaving the castle, I checked my tablet to locate Ezal. With that done, I chose a path that would let me see some of the city. While it was only a small fraction, it would still be an enjoyable walk. We passed the large line of people waiting to get into the castle. Most of them bowed to me, and I made sure to wave with a smile.

The path led through the central district’s shopping section. I wanted to see how the economy was doing with my own eyes rather than learn about it from just a report. I did make a note to avoid Skywood’s shop. I preferred to avoid that mental exercise today.

The shops were in full swing as people went in and left in a stream. I was about to turn the corner for the next street when I heard a voice I wished to avoid even more than Skywood. I silently prayed to Regan that the person didn’t see me. A few seconds later, I found my prayer had failed.

“Lady Louella! It is an honor to have you grace my presence. If I could, may I join you on your walk?” Nero called as he ran over to us.

Yuno was behind him, though I could see he was dragging his feet. My guards circled around me, a few resting their hands on their weapons. I had already sent Nero to jail once, after all.

“Nero, I’m afraid I am trying to enjoy the city in these trying times.” I said, doing my best to avoid the man. “I wouldn’t want to trouble you with my somber mood.”

“Nonsense! What so troubles the lady? I would eliminate it from this world!” Nero said, going from sad to extreme in a matter of seconds.

“I couldn’t drag an adventurer such as yourself into troubles of my country. Please, continue to dive the dungeon to your heart’s content,” I said with a smile, though an awkward one.

Nero gave me a salute that would put any soldier to shame. “I shall endeavor to reach the bottom of the dungeon. I will admit that it is giving even my party a bit of trouble,” he said with a chuckle.

“So I’ve heard. He can be a bit . . . tough on the unprepared. He is a god, after all,” I said, tapping Helios on the ground as if to make my point.

“A god,” Nero said with a smirk. “I’ll take my leave, my lady.”

I watched as he walked back to Yuno and wondered what the smirk was for. What did he know about Celestials and what comes after?

Chapter 16

Regan

We had been in the temporal flux for a few days now. My main concern was the way the mana I was gaining kept fluctuating insanely. The longer we were in this place, the more concerned I grew about staying there much longer. My aura was expanding and contracting randomly, and anything that could control my aura like that was a dangerous place.

All that being said, I wasn’t getting anywhere with my research on how to actually leave this place. We were pulled in by some internal force. I just hoped it wasn’t a dimensional being that could devour a planet in a few bites. I had actually grown to like Murgin quite a bit during my stay there.

Thanks to the constructs, I now knew that while time was looping in here, it was progressing at a regular pace outside. I wasn’t sure how much I could trust their readings, but over a week had passed outside—a week during a situation where anything could go sideways. Louella might have been in the middle of a war right now, given her temper and all.

“First, any new information?”

“Negative. The gravity is fluctuating too much to send anything smaller than a scout ship. Everything else gets crushed after a few minutes.”

“We might have to start some more . . . extreme methods soon,” I said, leaning back in my chair. I had been avoiding using larger amounts of mana in case it resulted in less favorable things happening. Given the space we were in, the last thing I wanted was to use gravity magic and end up on the other side of the galaxy.

“Sir, the construct Aires is requesting to speak with you,” First said a few moments later, breaking the silence of the bridge. Being higher-tier robots, they were connected to the ship via a network. While it might have seemed quiet, there was actually quite a bit of shouting going on.

“Very well. I’ll head over there,” I replied and stood to make way over. A few minutes later, I found myself in a heavily guarded hallway in front of an equally heavily guarded door. I placed my hand on the panel and it slid open. Aires was gazing out of the small window in the room. “Enjoying the view?”

“Responding. My kind . . . have been off-line for many centuries. We have gazed at nothing but darkness for many years. Pinpricks of light is a . . . soothing change.”

I’d dealt with the automata for several months and the AI from my time on Earth. It looked to me that her personality was forming quickly and was starting to take a solid shape the longer she thought for herself.

“That is a pity. If we’d met under different circumstances, I think our two races would have been fast friends,” I said, moving to lean against the wall. It was more for show, but it was hard even after all this time to get rid of my habits as a mortal. “What did you want to talk about?”

“We lack the mana to escape this plane. You lack the information. We would like to make a trade.”

I thought about that. Did they not have a way to generate mana, or was it damaged due to this space? Either way, I had a leg up on them. That being said, they did have a point that I wasn’t getting anywhere with my scans. If I hadn’t known any better, I’d have said we were in the middle of a black hole.

“While I might have mana, I don’t have a lot to work with. How can I trust you?”

“You can’t,” Aires said in a much more sinister tone than anything she’d said so far.

I narrowed my eyes and sensed a mana link going back to her ship. “And who might I be talking to now, if you don’t mind telling me?”

Aires’s face started to shift and soon took a much more masculine form. I could feel the ancientness from it even through Aires’s form. “Kurnezal. Prime Sentinel of the Keeper Matrix and last of the Ancients Guards.”

“Ah. That only served to raise more questions, but nice to meet you, Kurnezal. I’m Regan.”

“We know. You are . . . strange. You have bodies similar to us but are different at the same time.”

“You appear to be made of mana. Yes, you have a physical body, but I’m guessing that the more advanced of your kind could shed those if you wanted. We on the other hand only use mana as a type of battery. Our bodies could be seen as synthetic versions of mortals.”

I’d researched the few we’d killed intensively. While there were some technical things that would take the labs and me working for a few months to understand, we understood their basic construction. I was sure of my statement.

The face took a contemplative look before the construct responded. “Interesting. Yes. We have evolved since our creation. What you state might be viable.”

“What information do you have for me?” I asked, wanting to bring the topic back to the issue at hand.

“Yes. We have recorded all the information we could so that we could leave this dimension. Unfortunately, our readings show that we lack the necessary mana to escape.”

“You mean you and your constructs didn’t create this?”

“Negative. The entire complex on the moon was pulled in during its formation. Likely, you avoided this fate due to the moon moving along its orbit.”

That was true. Whatever this was, it likely wouldn’t have moved from its initial spot of creation. I was actually surprised the moon itself hadn’t been pulled into this plane. A fail-safe maybe? That would mean it was artificially created, then. Another mystery to investigate.

“I see. While I’m not ready to move past the fact that you attacked one of my vessels as well as continuously launched attacks while we were here, I am willing to work together to escape this place. How would you like to transfer the data?”

“This unit can serve as a hub. You can access the data through her.”

“Understood. I’ll do as much. I assume I can contact you again when we’re ready to move forward?”

“That is correct. May you succeed. Both our people depend on it,” Kurnezal said before his face shifted back to Aires’s.

Straight and to the point. I liked that for a change. I wasn’t too sure I liked him as a person, but depending on how things proceeded from there, I was guessing we might be able to move past the past.

“Welcome back,” I said when her face was all the way back to normal.

“I never left. I was aware the entire time Kurnezal was using my body.”

“Strange. Not sure I would enjoy someone else taking my body for a joyride.”

“He could only access what I gave him permission to access. Thus, only my face changed.”

“Fair point, I guess.”

I held out my hand and formed a drive that was more along the lines of a fancy mana stone. With it, I could download her data. It would be easiest to connect her straight into the system, but I preferred not to give access to my ship so easily. A spot on her chest right above where the heart would be moved as a slot formed. I handed over the drive, and she inserted it without question.

The aura around her grew denser as the information was transferred to the drive. I started to worry that the drive wouldn’t be able to handle it all. I really didn’t want to have to connect her straight into the system. After ten minutes, the aura died down and the process was completed. I took the drive back and chuckled when I saw there was only two percent free space left. It had been close.

“That should be all the information you need,” Aires said.

“Let’s hope.”

Chapter 17

Louella

My walk soon came to an end at the barracks. Hundreds of people were moving around, doing the tasks required of them. Groups of soldiers practiced, while others made their way to the portals. It’d been like this every time I’d come to the barracks. I knew it was only going to become worse soon.

A guard approached me as we came through the gate to the barracks grounds. “My queen! Lady Ezal has been expecting you.”

“Thank you. She is in her office, correct?” I asked. I didn’t want to chase her around if she was busy.

“Correct.”

I nodded, then headed over to the correct building. Two minutes later, I found myself in her office. She was surrounded by officers, and she was handing out orders for both the airships and the border defense. I heard a few that pertained to creating a defense line on the Lecazar side as well.

“Thank you, everyone. Come find me if you need additional orders,” Ezal said after about fifteen minutes.

Everyone filed out, leaving just me and Ezal. I moved over to her desk and gave her a smile. I knew the farther along in her pregnancy she got, the harder this position would be on her. She was looking quite swollen now. I wasn’t a midwife, but even I could tell she was due soon. A month or two maybe.

It was probably close to time that I suggested Bruce take over. I was dreading losing her as my chief of security and as my general, but her and the baby’s livelihood was more important. Given Ezal’s personality, she would likely refuse to stop working until the day she was literally giving birth.

“I assume that was in response to the reports we’ve received?” I asked as I sat down across from her.

“Yes. There is something strange going on. The temperature across the north is lower than it should be. The farmers are worried. We are relatively well off due to Regan’s dungeon aura covering us, but even with that, the temperature is reaching lower levels than normal.”

“Any idea what could be causing it? Surely the Mages Guild has looked into it?” I asked. I couldn’t feel the cold much anymore. It was hard for me to tell the difference.

“Yes, they have. They can only state that something high in the sky is causing it. Snowfall outside the aura has already reached ten meters. The valley is almost unpassable.”

“Ten meters!” That was higher than some cities’ walls! Could it be another type of attack from the necromancers to the north? Who knew what sort of changes the undead scar could have caused to the environment? I just didn’t have any way of getting information from that area without Regan around.

“Yes. If we weren’t sustained by Regan’s dungeon, we would be in trouble.”

“I hope it stays that way with him gone.” I thought about the situation, but until we got more information, there was little we could do but prepare for the worst. “How goes the training?”

“Decently. Having Bruce here really is a blessing. He’s beating the royal force’s training into all the recruits. If we survive the winter, you’ll have one of the most well-trained and outfitted armies on the continent. It is almost unfair.”

“How are we assuring the loyalty of the soldiers? Most if not all of them were refugees.”

“Nothing too extreme. They just sign a magical contract with the standard stuff that lasts for two years. If they are offered a promotion, the magical contract gets renewed for a set number of years based on the position.”

“That’s probably the best method for now.”

“Have the airships reached Tearfalls yet? I’d like to begin reclaiming Lecazar soon before the undead reach uncontrollable levels. Plus, the Church will likely move north if they’re able to.”

Ezal lifted her glass tablet from her desk and flipped through several dozen documents before she replied. “The winter storms are making it difficult for them. Tearfalls is rather far north. Every kilometer they travel only serves to increase the difficulty. The Church . . . is a problem we aren’t exactly equipped to deal with at the moment.”

“There is still four months until spring. This winter is only going to get worse. We need to reach the last of the cities and towns. I’m worried about them for a completely new reason.”

People would starve long before the winter was over due to the undead and snows causing a complete shutdown of trade in Lecazar. The Church would have a large enough stockpile to support the people in the southern cities. I just hoped that they were willing to share it.

Ezal blew out a deep breath. She placed a hand on her stomach and looked out toward the dungeon with a pained look. “I agree. I hate to say this since it makes me feel weak, but we really need Lord Regan back.”

I gave a terse laugh. “I agree. I knew I relied on him too much. I just didn’t realize how much until now.” Relying on Regan so much unsettled me. We had naïvely thought we’d have more time to figure out how to live without him. Now the fates are basically shoving the opportunity down our throats.

Ezal must have noticed something in my expression. “My lady, even if your body is completely different, please don’t forget to rest. You worked the last three days straight.”

I glanced to the guards out in the hallway. “I see someone has been spying on me.”

“Only because they are worried about you. What are you going to do if we’re attacked and you end up collapsing?”

“I get it! I’ll rest.”

It looked like Ezal was about to say more when an explosion resounded from the training yard. We both jumped to our feet, Ezal pausing a moment to breathe carefully before we rushed out of the office. All the officers and soldiers were backing away from one of the training pits.

“What is going on?!” Ezal shouted when we reached the line.

We couldn’t see anything due to the cloud of smoke and debris. A Wind mage waved his hand and cleared the space. A . . . creature was in the middle of the pit. I couldn’t tell if it was real or one of the illusions.

“That . . . that thing attacked one of the cadets! Major Bruce stopped it with an Explosion spell.”

I took a closer look at the creature. It looked like four or five creatures had been slammed together without rhyme or reason. It had the general body of a wolf, while its head was that of a lion. From its back and sides emerged tentacles that ended with sharp blades. The way they moved made it hard to count, but there were at least two dozen. Two horns that extended at least half a meter from its head finished the beast.

“What the hell is that?” I asked, more to myself than anyone.

“Whatever it is, it took a full Explosion spell and it’s completely unharmed,” Bruce said as he moved in front of us.

“Where’s the cadet it attacked?” Ezal asked, glancing around, presumably looking for an injured person.

“It ate him in one bite,” Bruce replied, shaking his head.

“Shit!” Ezal said as she raised her hand. A few seconds later, there was a boom and Feuer came flying from the distance.

“Ezal! Step back. We’ll handle this,” I said, grabbing her shoulder. I couldn’t have a pregnant woman fighting something that could take a full-force strike from Bruce without an injury.

“That thing ate one of my soldiers!” she said with a growl.

“Yes. So, let us deal with it!” I replied, putting a bit more strength into my grip and pulling her back. Her feet made grooves in the dirt. “Think of the child!”

“Yes . . . my lady,” Ezal said finally and backed away.

I tightened my grip on Helios and started to channel my mana. The creature hadn’t moved the entire time, though I felt it was likely due to it gauging us. I could see it focus on certain people who were more powerful than the cadets.

“I want everyone who is only tier one to back away! There is nothing you can do other than serve as food. Tier two members, please begin gathering your mana. I want to bombard this thing back to where it came from!”

The creature turned to focus on me when I raised my voice. Its tentacles started to flail as it studied me. I could tell this thing was highly intelligent. I pointed my staff at it and readied all the mana I’d gathered so far. It was enough to level that army from a few weeks ago and then some.

“Fire!”

Magic of all types flew down at the creature. The barrage lasted twenty seconds before everyone’s spell ended, leaving a crater from the number of spells thrown at it. A few Wind mages cleared the cloud again. The creature stood perfectly fine. In fact, I thought it looked slightly larger.

The thing roared, then shot toward me in a blink of an eye. If my senses hadn’t been enhanced, I might not have been able to respond. I raised my staff, and the creature locked its jaws around it and tried to gouge out my neck. The soldiers around me struck at the creature but were forced back as the tentacles stabbed back at them. One woman was even impaled.

“Back away!” I shouted with a grunt. This thing had a ridiculous amount of strength. It felt like a mountain was pushing down on me.

Shouts of, “My queen!” and “My lady!” rang out, but they couldn’t do anything to help.

With the creature literally right on top of me, I could clearly see into its eyes. I felt like I was being pulled into an abyss. I blinked, then pulled my eyes away as I twisted my body to avoid the tentacles. I saw Bruce struggling to hold Ezal back. I couldn’t have that. I was done always being rescued!

I released the seals on my armor that controlled my excess mana output. I’d never done the full amount before. The surroundings were suddenly crushed under my mana pressure. Everything appeared to start moving in slow motion. The creature reduced to a more normal level. “Just you and me, beastie!”

I pulled my arm back and balled up my fist. Pouring as much strength into it as I could, I punched out. There was a boom, and the ground under us cracked. I felt the skin or fur of the creature break as it was sent flying back into the pit, where it impacted the ground and formed a new crater. I was glad physical means still worked.

I jumped into the hole, the point of my staff leading. Tentacles shot out and kept me from approaching. This lasted for a few seconds before I got annoyed. Sweeping the tentacles to the side with Helios, I reared back and threw the staff with my full strength. The pointed end slammed into the creature, causing the crater to gain nearly five more meters of depth.

I held my hand out, and Feuer flew to my grasp. I jumped into the hole with Feuer at the ready. The creature breathed heavily but was clearly at its end. Before I could deliver the final blow, it faded to smoke, much like the illusions we’d been seeing.

All that was left to prove the creature had even been there in the first place was a puddle of blue blood and a crater. I waited for a few seconds that felt almost like an hour before I reset the seals on my armor. The world returned to normal. I flew out of the hole with Feuer and Helios.

Stumbling for a moment from the extreme use of mana on my body, I quickly corrected myself. I would need to practice a bit more with the full release of my seals. “Raise the awareness about these creatures. I want someone with a glass tablet at all key locations throughout the city. If this thing reappears near regular citizens, it will be a massacre,” I ordered as I returned Feuer to Ezal.

“What do you think it was?” she asked with a worried look toward the pit.

“I have no idea. Whatever it was, it’s related to whatever or wherever Lord Regan currently is. It faded away like the illusions. I want you to get some vials to collect the blood and bring it to the castle. I’ll make sure someone who is capable of understanding it gets it.” I thought about it for a second. I didn’t want the blood to act like a beacon in case these creatures responded in force. “Actually, have Bruce collect it.” I paused for another second. “Ignea, can you come here for a minute?”

There was a pop and the fairy appeared in front of me. She was looking quite ragged. It must have been distressingly hard to manage a dungeon. Not to mention the fact that Regan had several cores. I wished there was some way I could help her, but that was likely not possible.

“What do you need?” Ignea asked, yawning widely at the end.

“We were attacked by . . . something not of this world. The body vanished, but there is blood. I was wondering if any of Lord Regan’s people might be able to study it?” I asked.

Bruce emerged from the crater with a bag that clinked as he walked. I pulled a few of the vials out, then handed the bag to her.

“I don’t know how closely we can study it, but I’ll get it to the people who should be able to do something with it.”

“Thank you. Any news of Lord Regan?”

She just shook her head. “Father is still missing. Though, I don’t think he is in danger. A mana flow is growing denser as time goes on. It literally appears out of nowhere, so we can’t follow it very far.”

“I see. Hopefully, he comes back soon,” I said, grabbing her hand to comfort her.

Chapter 18

Alara

Watching the mortals challenge Regan’s dungeon made the days go by quickly. Before I knew it, a week had passed, making it two weeks since Regan had disappeared. I really missed him. The mortal in charge of the town was going out of her way to make me feel welcome, but she was no Regan.

“Alara. Alara!”

I blinked at the sound, coming out of my trance of watching Dungeontube. Lena was floating next to me, and I pulled her into a hug. I knew it wasn’t fair to her, but home was too much for me right now.

“What is . . . it?”

“Something is going on back at the dungeon. I can’t handle it on my own,” Lena said while wringing her hands.

I couldn’t help but gulp. I thought about Regan and calmed my rapid heartbeat. He wouldn’t be afraid of his own dungeon, no matter what was going on inside. I nodded and stood up. The mortal Louella wasn’t back from whatever task she’d had to attend to today. Sometimes I wondered if she had any other capable people in her city.

Lena and I teleported back to my core room. The dull throb of the unholy mana struck me more fully as I appeared. While I was in the valley, Regan’s aura separated me from it enough that I could put it in the back of my mind. I shook my head and followed Lena to my core.

She waved her hand, and mana formed into several screens. “The snow has gotten so thick that nothing can move. There really wasn’t much that was ‘alive’ in the first place, but we’ve had some of the corrupted beastkin like the ones that Lord Regan rescued make their way into your aura.”

On the screen it showed nearly two hundred of the beastkin. There were various races in the gathering, which was rare according to Regan. They usually stuck to packs made of races of the same kind. Wolves with wolves and such.

“I thought . . . Regan’s children . . . were taking them . . . all to that . . . island in his . . . dungeon?” He had quite a few of them there.

“Yes, normally, but Ignea is already too busy to handle integrating them. She hoped that you could house them until we hear back from Lord Regan.”

I bit my thumb at the thought of mortals being inside my dungeon. Of course, I knew that I’d eventually have to have mortals return, but I didn’t feel ready for that. Not without Regan here. What if something went wrong?!

I crouched and started drawing circles in the dirt. “Do we have . . . to?” I asked.

“I think it would be good for us. We’re steadily removing the taint. Eventually, there won’t be any new mana for us to cleanse, and we’ll run out. This could be a blessing in disguise.”

I pouted but said, “You have . . . a point.”

Lena came over and patted my head. “Think about how happy Lord Regan will be to see you working with mortals.”

This caused me to lift my head. She had a point. Regan had been telling me that I would have to deal with them eventually. I guessed now would be as good a time as any. They might not have been elves, but beastkin had a stronger connection with nature than humans.

“Let’s take them . . . to the fiftieth floor. Regan’s children . . . are on the . . . forty-fifth. They should be safe . . . as will we . . . be.”

“It’s too bad we can’t test them like Lord Regan does his mortals. They’re so saturated in unholy mana that it would be impossible to tell.”

“We’ll set the . . . guardians to watch . . . them,” I said while waving my hand.

Several dozen five-meter-tall treants were teleported to surround the valley I was putting them in. There was already a village in it that had been built to house slaves the necromancers liked to . . . torture. The undead had killed them all before I had a chance to tell Regan about them.

When the beastkin appeared, they immediately started arguing among themselves about who got what. They didn’t even question how they got to the village. At least, that’s what I thought it was about. They weren’t speaking any real languages. I looked closer and saw that the larger pack had split among the different races.

“Survival required them to work together?” Lena asked, floating around me.

“Likely . . .” I tried to think about how Regan got the ones in his dungeon to behave. If I remembered correctly, he had a girl named Ren that was like them. I didn’t have anyone like that to help me. The noise grew louder, and I saw they were about to come to blows.

I reached down and placed my hands on the ground. The soil moved away, and the sword that had become part of my soul moved to the surface. It gave off an aura that could chill a person to the bone. The hilt bore a skull, but I’d managed to change its makeup enough that roses now grew from the eye sockets and mouth.

“Mother, you . . . you’re going to use that?” Lena asked.

“Obedience or death.” I’d let Regan be the nice one.

I teleported to the center of the village. That didn’t help the tension between the three different tribes, and the hissing and growling grew to another level. I waited for a full three seconds, one for each tribe, then slammed my blade straight down. Black tendrils of thorn vines shot out and wrapped around all three of the leaders. Rosebuds started to grow as the vines began pulling the mana from them.

“You . . . will behave . . . or you . . . will die!”

The hissing from the cat beastkins and the growling from the wolf and dog beastkins stopped. What I assumed were the mates of the leaders rushed forward to help them, but they only suffered the same result as their mana started to drain when they touched the vines.

They released the vines and turned to me. They were crying and bowing with their heads to the ground. I waited for a few more seconds, then pulled the blade out of the ground. The vines withered into dust, and the leaders fell to the ground with blood leaking out of the hundreds of tiny pricks they’d sustained.

I waved my hand and healed all three of them. “Behave.” With that, I moved back to my core room and took a deep breath, then fell to the ground. I quickly released the sword back into the soil, where it sank several meters. “Lena, do you think . . . I was too . . . mean?”

“I think they got the message. Which is what we need them to get right now,” she replied as she motioned to the images. The three tribes were getting along much better. They were still acting like animals, but animals that knew something was here that could end them at any second.

“I hope . . . Regan agrees,” I said, wrapping my arms around my legs.

“I think as long as you’re safe and the fact that you attempted to help them will be enough for him. Lord Regan seems rather pragmatic about mortals. He did crush forty-five of your floors with a weapon that would wipe most cities off the map . . . and that was while trying to rescue you.”

Just the memory of that thing made my body ache. I’d never known such pain. The only thing that came close to it was when I’d tried to disobey the necromancers. “Ouch.”

Lena crossed her arms and grew upset. “I have to question his intelligence using that thing on you!”

“It is . . . ok,” I said, pulling her into my arms. She took a deep breath and calmed down. “I’d rather be . . . dead, then serve . . . the necromancers . . . anymore.”

“If you die, then so will I. I don’t want you to die.” Lena buried her head in my chest.

I could feel a few tears running down her cheeks. “We don’t have . . . to worry. Regan saved us.”

I held her until she calmed down. While I was captive to the necromancers, I could only feel her presence to know she was alright. I wasn’t able to interact with her at all for nearly a century and dreaded the thought of what would happen if she were ever caught. Thankfully, that day never came.

I was glad to see that she was mostly the same as when she was first born. Lena had been my first child to be born from my dungeon and was also the only one remaining from that time. That only made her more precious to me.

I was watching the images when I noticed something interesting. A singular beastkin was off on her own. I realized that she appeared to be a completely different race than the others. Looking closely, I saw that she was a fox.

She was in a ruined field, channeling her mana into a dead berry bush. After a few moments, it brightened, and berries quickly grew to large sizes. She grabbed several and proceeded to shove them into her mouth, eating them as fast as she could.

“That one . . . is interesting,” I mumbled.

“For a corrupted, she’s got a pretty good grasp of nature mana,” Lena said, looking closely at the images.

I teleported us near the girl. Up close, I could feel an even stronger connection to the nature mana. The girl was in bliss as she ate her fill. When we moved up to her, I found she was roughly the same size as me. She was dirty, but I could see the orangish-yellow fur of her tail and ears poking through the dirt covering her.

“Girl . . .” I started to say even though I didn’t know what I wanted from her.

She jumped, then dropped to all fours and growled at me with her hair raised. That lasted all of two seconds until, I assumed, she realized who I was and started to cower. I considered what to do for a moment, then moved over to another of the bushes. I held my hand out, and the entire field returned to life with a subtle and soft green light.

She stopped cowering as she stared wide-eyed at the field. “Tha-than-thank . . . you . . .”

After that she shot off the into field, making a crying sound. I wondered if Regan would find it cute, while considering if I should make the same noise when I next saw him. Maybe it wasn’t a bad idea to let these mortals in, after all.

Chapter 19

Louella

In the week since the strange creature attacked the barracks area, there had been two more. Luckily, only one resulted in casualties. Ten people died, but I was able to respond in time to deal with it before anyone else was eaten. Each of the creatures was completely different from the last.

I was able to handle them, but no one else under my direct command could. Mana was almost completely ineffective on them. In fact, it made them grow larger in all three cases. I couldn’t help but wonder if they were some type of demon that had been sealed away during the demon war and were escaping due to whatever was happening to Regan.

According to Regan, mana had little effect on the demon generals. I found it hard to believe that those could be popping up left and right in my little valley. It was more comforting to believe these creatures had to be related to the time illusions that were appearing at random.

On another note, Alara seemed to have found something to occupy her time. She’d only popped into my office twice over the last week. Each time she was only there for a few minutes. I almost felt like she was checking on me. I had to grit my teeth and remember that she was over a century old, and while she looked a few years younger than me, she wasn’t actually that young.

“What to do?” I mumbled while reading the reports on my glass tablet. I exhaled, then jumped up. It would be best if I investigated the cause of these beasts myself. That meant I needed to go near the source. While I wasn’t a hundred percent sure, I assumed the only thing with the power to affect the world around us on this scale was Regan’s dungeon.

I grabbed Helios and made for the dungeon. My portal dropped me at Goblin City, but I’d tried to go all the way to his core room. I was about to try again when there was an explosion that ripped the building across the street apart. One of the creatures that had tormented my town emerged, rising up as debris fell off its hide. It was over six meters tall and looked to be three ogres fused together. Not in a seamless way either. The parts were all over the place. The only ones in their relatively correct place were the legs.

I jumped into the air to avoid the debris that made it all the way over to me from the force of the blast. As I watched, a force of mechs came around the corner. The weapons that made Regan’s forces so terrifying were unloaded on the twisted creature. Rounds flew so rapidly that they formed continuous streaks between the mechs and the creature.

They appeared to be having a decent effect, but the twisted ogre’s hide was too thick for the rounds to easily pierce. The ogre raised its hand, and a whirlpool of light formed before the building it was pointing at exploded and mana of different types flooded the area.

I rushed forward, arriving in front of one of the ogre’s heads. I swung Helios without holding back and slammed the head in. There was a boom as the head collapsed into the rest of the body. It finished sinking into the body, and I was about to strike it again when an arm appeared from the same spot.

It impacted me in the stomach with a closed fist that covered most of my torso, sending me smashing through a wall of a nearby building. I came to a stop halfway in the wall and coughed as I pulled myself out of the debris and stood up. That hurt.

I raised my hand, and Helios flew over to me. This was going to be difficult. I would need to take a slicing approach and remove parts from the body. I moved to the hole and was about to take off when I coughed again, covering my hand with specks of blood. I guess he’d managed to do more damage than I had actually felt.

I braced myself and channeled more mana throughout my body. I’d gotten better at internal use of mana during the fights with these creatures. I shot back into the air as the goblins fired rods that crossed the distance in a blink of an eye. The rods were at least a meter long with wicked points at the end. They dug into the ogre, causing blood to spray all over the street.

From a nearby building, a goblin with a large cigar in his mouth shouted, “Girl! Get out of the blasted way!”

More of the rods fired from mechs on top of nearby buildings. The ogre was starting to look like a pincushion. I flew back and landed next to the goblin, who appeared to be in charge.

“What is going on?” I asked.

“These blasted things started appearing a few weeks ago. Lady Ignea has sealed the core room for both her and the boss’s protection. These things are definitely trying to get at the core.” The goblin had a strange accent, which made it hard to understand what he was saying at times.

“How many have you defeated so far?”

“Probably around thirty. The rate they’re appearing has been increasing. Mana has little effect on them, making them a right pain in the ass to deal with.” He pulled a drag from his cigar. “Ah, the name’s Tony, the boss of Goblin City.”

“Tony, then. Is Ignea alright?” I asked, worried about the little fairy.

“She is for now. The boss has a lot of defenses in place in case another Celestial bitch attacks. Thankfully, they work quite well against these monsters. The only problem is we can’t put more up without the boss,” Tony explained while we watched the fight.

The goblin mechs had nearly finished turning every available spot on the massive ogre into a pincushion. Some of the goblins were setting up devices on the streets and tops of buildings surrounding the creature. There was a surge of mana, then chains formed between the spikes and the devices around the creature.

“Of course not. Is there anything I can do to help?” I asked. If something happened to Regan’s dungeon, I didn’t even want to think about what that would mean for the rest of us basically living on his back. I felt like death would be the least of our problems.

Tony lifted his arm, and something that looked like my glass tablet slid from inside. Now that I really took a second to look him over, I noticed he had several large patches of metal covering his body.

“Not here. We got this fellow under control. I believe there is one back on the ocean floor that is giving trouble to the forces there.”

“Ocean floor? When did Reg—” Tony gave me a heavy glare at my informal use of Regan, making me revise my sentence. “Boss Regan create an ocean floor?”

“A few weeks ago. Shortly after he redid the entrance floors.” He tapped in a sequence on his arm, and a portal opened next to him. “If you could take care of it, that would be a major help.”

“Got it. I want to help since I’m afraid of the consequences of letting these things run wild in here.” Dungeons feed off the things inside of them, after all. Who knows what Regan was gaining from these creatures roaming his dungeon?

With a nod from Tony, I walked through the portal and found myself in one of the most beautiful places I’d ever been. I’d exited on a small island that consisted mostly of white sand and a few trees, a type I recognized from the southernmost beaches in the Lecazar Empire. One of the few trips my father took me on that I actually remember enjoying. Clear blue water formed gentle waves that could lull someone to sleep if they paid too much attention to it. The sun was high in the sky and completed the picture.

In the distance, half a dozen sailing ships were cruising in circles around a spot. Figuring that was my target, I shot into the air and quickly crossed the distance to the ships. I was trying to decide which was the one in charge when there was an explosion of water. A creature, easily two dozen meters long and dwarfing the ogre, broke through the surface, and the sailing ship it was obviously aiming for barely managed to avoid it as it crashed back into the water.

The creature vanished, and calm returned to the pristine picture. Watching the waves, I noticed one of the captains waving at me. I flew over and landed on the large ship. He reminded me of the automaton that Regan had made explore the space around his station.

“Selected, this is no place for idle eyes.”

“No. I’m here to help.”

“Help? Damn thing has been taunting us all morning. I don’t care what you do at this point, just get it out of my ocean!” the captain yelled, not hiding his agitation as he gestured angrily at the ocean next to us.

I spun Helios and nodded, then jumped into the water. Thankfully, the water was clear as glass, and I could easily locate the creature. I didn’t know much about aquatic animals, but I thought a whale was the closest that came to it. There were spikes and massive fins that moved it through the water. For such a large creature, it was making good time.

I shot toward it, Helios leading, but didn’t get very far before the creature became aware of me. It turned sharply toward me and started to gain even more speed. I spun Helios and angled it so that the point was leading.

A moment before it reached me, I twisted and brought Helios around. The blade at the bottom dug into the side of the creature, and blue blood leaked out as I gave it a three-meter-long gash. The creature twisted in a way that I thought shouldn’t be possible for something its size, and the tail shifted rapidly. I collided with it face-first and ended up jarring my senses as the creature finished its pass.

Some blood floated in the water around me, and I rubbed my nose. “Motherfucker,” I groaned after creating a bubble of air by forming a barrier around me. I shook my head to clear the ringing.

I glanced at Helios. It needed to be longer to deal with this creature. I didn’t have much time before the creature made another pass, so I channeled my mana until nearly half my pool was gone. The blade at the end stretched, adding just short of two more meters to it.

“Time for round two!”

Chapter 20

Yo’ei Meng

“Over here!”

“Shit! They’ve been really persistent the last few days!”

I ran over to where the two cliff guards stood and pointed at something down the cliff. Over the edge I saw a monster with massive claws trying to climb up the cliff wall. Farther down there were nearly half a dozen more following along behind the leader.

Larick held his hand out and formed a fireball. In only a few seconds, it grew to the size of an adult human. He sent the fireball flying, and just before it reached the monster, it expanded to twice its size. It collided with the cliff wall directly above the monster with a small explosion, and the cliff face collapsed, taking the topmost monster as well as half of the other monsters down with it.

“Larick Xian! That was amazing! When did you master such powerful magic?” I asked him. While I was an air user, studying the ways of the other aspects never hurt.

“No . . . I didn’t intend for that to happen. The mana . . . the mana is acting strange.”

As if to give his words credit, a swirl appeared in the clouds several kilometers away from the cliffs over the monster lands. From the center of the swirl, streaks of yellow lightning struck out and collided with the ground.

“Get down!” shouted one of the cliff guards.

I reacted almost on instinct as chunks of debris rained down around us. Zaris, another cliff guard with terra mana, formed a dome around us. I couldn’t help covering my head, even with the dome covering us.

“The village!” Larick shouted as the shrouding finally stopped. Zaris dismissed the dome. The bamboo forest around us had been reduced to tinder from blackened chunks of rock. “Ming! Stay here and watch the cliffs. We don’t know what the monsters will do after that.”

“I understand! Please check on my family!”

Larick nodded, then they took off toward the village. I watched until they were out of view, then turned back to the cliff edge. A smoldering glow that could easily be seen even from this distance now graced the horizon. I actually couldn’t see the entire crater, it was so massive.

The mana in the area was still acting up, but even I could tell it was expended for the moment. I had never felt a lack of ambient mana before. That being the case, I had still seen plenty of storms get a second wind. Depending on what this was, there could be more where the first explosion came from. I carefully checked over the cliff to make sure there were no monsters coming.

I had to jerk my head back quickly. A wave of heat was rolling up the cliff. I wasn’t sure why I couldn’t feel anything from my place on the cliff, but my skin had turned red just from the brief moment I’d looked over the edge. Any longer and I was sure I would have had burns.

I watched the cliff for nearly an hour, worrying over my family but knowing that my duty watching the cliff was just as important. If even one monster got up there, hundreds could die. That was how powerful they were. I heard footsteps behind and quickly spun around with both hope and dread.

“The village is alright. Most of the debris struck the edges of the plateau. Your family is safe as well.”

“Thank you, Larick. No monsters attempted the cliffs. Though, I’m not sure any monsters are left down there. I nearly burned my face when I attempted to look farther down the cliff,” I reported, feeling much better. I wasn’t sure what I’d have done if I’d lost my family. They were all I had in the world.

“Good wor—what the hell is that?!” Larick Xian shouted, looking at something over my shoulder. I spun around and looked with wide eyes as whatever was happening in the distance changed.

A large structure was emerging from the blustering swirl that was forcing the clouds to change. Or at least that was the best description I could give it. It was massive with lots of straight lines and possessed a silver-gray color that reflected what little light reached it. Objects were streaming around it that were roughly the same shape but much smaller.

Twenty seconds passed quickly as I counted, and the object was still coming out of the tear in the sky. Large jets of flame blasted from places on the object, slowing it down, but I could see that it was still going too fast. Sure enough, the mountain-sized object slammed into the ground, carving a canyon into the already decimated land.

The object came to a rest soon after that. I thought that was it, but I was wrong. Another object that I reckoned was at least the same size if not larger started to emerge. This one had a completely different feel to the last. Its color was brownish-red, and it had what looked like spikes coming off it. It would have collided with the first object had it come out of the tear from the same direction, but it managed to turn to the side just enough to avoid the impact.

“Get the elders!” Larick yelled at me as the second object came to a rest. I stared at him for a second before I took off running, channeling mana into helping me run as fast as I could. I must have made it to the village in record time.

I made for the village center, as that was usually where the elders gathered when there was an emergency. Thankfully, they were all there. I quickly crossed the rest of the distance. “Elders! We need you at the cliffs! Something is happening!” I shouted, feeling bad about cutting the person in front of me off midsentence.

“What is it, young one?” one of the elders asked.

I had no idea and could only cry urgently, “We don’t know!”

Just as the last word left my mouth, the large rectangular object rose above the top of the bamboo forest surrounding the village. Even though it was still several dozen kilometers away, we could see it with ease. Soil and debris were falling off the underside. Seeing the whole thing at once made its massive size clearer. As if on cue, the other object rose into the air as well.

Looking it over, I could tell that the impact had damaged it. How extensive that damage was, only the occupants could know—if there were occupants. Maybe we were watching two gods descend to the realm of men. Large sections were missing, and there were cracks in dozens of places visible from this distance. The scary thing was that it was healing as we watched.

“Gods have mercy on our souls!” whispered an elder as she bowed her head in prayer.

Smaller objects flew around the bigger one like a swarm of bees. All of a sudden, the second large object unleashed a streak of light at the rectangular one. I thought it was going to be cut through, but a barrier like the one some of the higher-level mages used formed at the spot the light was going to hit.

The rectangular object didn’t hesitate, and several dozen of its own streaks of light shot back. A similar barrier formed around the brown object that managed to resist most of them. They rebounded off into the already ruined landscape around the objects. Two managed to pierce the barrier and carved a large gash in the side of the second object. Spikes fell from the object as they were blasted off.

We watched as the two objects traded fire like that for thirty seconds when the realization that we weren’t safe struck us violently. One of the streaks of light rebounded off the rectangular object and cut a furrow just outside the village. A few hundred meters closer and we would have been dead.

“Everyone! We need to flee to the other side of the plateau! Cliff guards! Help the women, children, and elderly first. This place isn’t safe!” Elder Dencin yelled with amazing strength for someone so old.

We evacuated in minutes, leaving all our possessions behind. During the ten minutes it took for us to flee the village, the two objects never ceased their firing.

Just as the last person made it out of the village, one of the streaks of light sliced clean through the village center, and even through the Alrain Tree that had stood for centuries, maybe longer. The village exploded into flames, and the Alrain Tree turned to ash in seconds. I wasn’t sure why, but I felt something deep inside me shudder. I knew it was for a reason much deeper than the fact that my home was a smoking hole in the ground.

“Come! This is still not safe!” the guards shouted to the crowd.

I felt a wetness on my cheek and found that I was crying. With a glance around, I saw everyone else silently mourning the loss of our home as well. I looked to the two objects that had yet to yield to each other and saw a golden light coming from the rectangular object.

I knew there shouldn’t be any possible way, but I was able to make out the source of the light. A man, or at least I thought it was a man, floated with a massive staff that reminded me of a sunburst. Mana so strong it was palpable swirled around him. As I crested the hill and the sight was cut off, I only had one thought.

That was no mortal.

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