Dungeon Robotics Book 8 PT 1 (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 1

Regan

A few days had passed since I got back to my main core after my near death and brief imprisonment by Destruction and Creation. I would have to hope they weren’t too anger that I managed to leave the way I did. Just trying to clean up the mess that was going on in my aura took a solid day of carefully crafted magic-tech. I had to spend the time though, as I couldn’t have mana resistant beasts popping in and out of my dungeon whenever they felt like it.

My new core was starting to remind me even more of a Dyson sphere. I’d had to create plates of mithril adamantium to house the spell construct that stabilized the space-time fluctuations in the influence of my dungeon. That stopped the creatures from forming cracks. There was still some investigation that was required into the source as it wasn’t a permanent fix.

The energy to power the stabilization was quite high. I had three Fuilum reactors for it alone. The issue, however, was that the mana expenditure continued to rise. It was increasing slowly, but it told me something very wrong was happening outside the space-time field of the planet.

It was an issue that I would need to handle as soon as I could afford to spare the time. For now, I had given out missions to my people to get many of my affairs in order. I was tired of being on the reacting side. It was time to be proactive.

The various objectives were set for the people that I felt were best suited to complete them. I had Puppet and the others heading down to find Louella. They were used to working with each other and I felt like I could trust them to find out what the situation was down in the Beneath. They were taking Rens with them as a sort of guide.

Next, Ezal and her boy toy were back in the valley working to keep order while Louella was gone. Vaihdetta had been prepared relatively well for a long drawn out war with Thonaca thus they were operating almost on autopilot, country style. The glass tablets had been so integrated in their government that I could keep tabs on everything going on. There were a few issue but everything was safe for the moment.

I needed to give Louella credit. She must have known that I would be able to tap into them and she still made the decision to use them in her government. Either way, I was getting the information to Ezal so she could act on it as she saw fit. I felt it was best if the mortals governed themselves.

That being said, I was dealing with the more sinister issue with a small force of Librarians. Elements that had managed to get to the valley thought legitimate means but have since soured into problems. More than one person had illusions of grandeur after they saw the power available to the valley.

The mood in the city had improved after the interdimensional beasts stopped appearing and slaughtering groups of people. Guards also seemed to appreciate the chance to relax some. Having to worry about responding to something that could rip them apart certainly would cause some stress with your job.

“Master. When are we going to leave?”

I glanced at Julie next to me before I turned back to the screen in front of me. “Soon.”

“Father. We need to end these enemies once and for all. Their threat has lasted for much too long.”

Looking to my other side, I grabbed Anubis’s shoulder. “You’re quite right, but we can’t run off into the sunset. Things are not as they should be. Something is working behind the scenes and I can’t tell if it is related to the necromancers, the celestials, some long dead race, or something else that could inhabit this universe.”

He nodded seriously, though I could tell he still wanted to hurry the forces. “I understand. I just worry for the Lady Alara and my brothers and sisters.”

I gave him a smile. Anubis was probably one of my strongest assets against the undead threat, but I would much rather treat him like my son. I might have plenty of ways to create weapons, but I didn’t want that to be my driving force forever on this planet. Thus, it made me glad that he treated the others of the dungeon as his family.

“I know. Soon. There are only a few more things before we leave.”

I turned back to the screen and continued to calibrate the sensors. I had come a long way to fusing Earth technology and Murgin magic. My magic-tech was unique in this world with the constructs of the millennium gone Arcarin race being the only thing closest to it. They were hailed as peace lovers and scholars, but after my encounters with the Construct, I wasn’t sure if that was the truth. Just from Earth, I knew that history had a way of being distorted by the victors.

While I was trapped in the sub-dimension and the time since I returned my satellite network had continued to expand without pause. Faster even, as the addition of the Ly’call in the station had increased my mana absorption for that aura. I had most of the Eruio continent covered by this point.

I was calibrating the satellites to find concentrations of high latent mana. I wanted to map the flows of mana at least in this section of the world as I’d found that most of the cities were built on lay-lines. If the ancients were smart enough to do that, then I might find even larger secrets hidden away. I was tired of things popping out of nowhere thus it was time to be proactive in hunting these issues down.

With a few last formulas entered, I deactivated the screen. It would take a while to analyze everything, just the continent of Eruio was the same size as North and South America merged with a few bits of Africa from Earth. It was a lot of land to cover and the recent incident has already proven that the surface wasn’t everything.

“Ignea.”

My fairy appeared a moment later. “Yes father?”

“Implement the variations once the drills hit the depth to allow them. I can’t sit back and allow my main core’s development to be hindered with the level of the powers that are moving in the world.”

“I will see that it is done. When do you think teleporting will be feasible again? Some of the mortals are cut off from their families that were in Tearfalls.”

“I don’t have a timetable for that. It is expected to be a while. When Izora finishes her project travel should resume to some semblance of normalcy.”

“Got it!”

“How is Glint settling in?” I was worried the fairy would be lost or sad with being separated from his former master’s core. He had Lena and Ignea, but it would still take time.

“Okay for the most part. He likes hanging around Nova of all people.”

“Might be due to their similar elements. Whatever helps with his transition,” I said giving her a shrug. I went through and made sure that everything was settled and would be stable until I returned with Alara. With a nod, I turned to Julie and Anubis. “Time to go.”

I moved us to the newest ship from my assembly lines. The only form of teleporting that remotely still worked. Even with just this, I felt like I got a splitting headache for a moment. It was already harder than the last time I teleported just myself a few hours ago. Much more and I won’t be able to teleport even the small distance between Steel Spire and the valley. If I didn’t have so many more pressing matters, I’d likely turn all my resources towards figuring out the cause.

I shook my head and looked ahead as we stood on the bridge of the vessel. Named Winter, it was ready to take on anything that the Lich core, the core that Alara was heading to deal with, could think to throw at it.  It was probably the safest place out of all my cores besides my main core with I had beefed up again. I made a smirk, every time I claim that, something comes along and proves me wrong.

“Something funny, master?”

I laughed having been caught. “Just thinking how the universe works sometimes.”

“Indeed. Less than a year ago, I was a nobody that murdered for sport. Today, I am master’s instrument of death. Definitely a change for the better.” Julie adopted a face splitting grin before she latched onto my arm. It was to the point that I just ignored her when she did it.

“It really has been less than a year.” I thought about when I arrived in Murgin. It was towards the middle of spring. Now we were halfway through winter. I flexed my hand fascinated by how far I’d come in such a short time. Some of the reports I’d read, gathered from the locals, stated that some dungeons only had thirty or forty floors for decades. “I certainly broke the curve on that one.”

Julie strode forward and threw her arm out. “All forces ready for launch!”

All around us screens flickered as the Third fleet rose into the air from the Steel Spire. Watching the fifty ships ascend, I wondered if it was overkill. I decided better to have more than not enough. Fifty thousand automata between tier two and three should be a nice bat to the face to the necromancers.

“Commence operation!”

With a roar, the ships began to head east. We couldn’t cross the mountains due to the lay line that capped them. My bigger ships could survive it, but some of the smaller vessels would be torn apart in the process. Not to mention what would happen to the beings made from mana and metal. Many of my children would short-circuit. The day detour was the better choice.

“Any news on the whereabouts of,” I paused trying to remember her name, “Helicilia?”

“No. Both the traitor princess and the lich have no definite answers. She could be at their capital, or hiding in a hole,” Julie replied shaking her head. The two had been captured by her when she was working on my challenge for her to cross the dead scar. It was a nice little boon to have some actual higher ups from the necromancer team for once.

I rubbed my chin in thought. “That’s unfortunate. She’s as big a problem as that Cassin. She needs to be dealt with.” I wasn’t comfortable about the fact that necromancers were led by a celestial, but I still hadn’t really gathered much information on them to know how big a threat they are. Given my penchant for making enemies of them, I needed to find out I could pump for answers soon.

As the ships moved towards the pass to the north, I went to check on Wrakras. He was being restrained in the medical ward of the ship. His body was contorting as it was being broken down and reassembled. I’d had to restrain him, or he’d have hurt himself a while ago.

I had started the transformation process for him much like Julie’s only I’d taken a different route. Nanites similar to the ones created to combat the demon race were transforming his body at the molecular level. I wasn’t sure what he would be when it was done, but just in case, I’d placed barriers around the room to keep any more celestials from getting any funny ideas.

On watch was Duilin, the lightning celestial that had sworn to serve me. His body had been tricky. His soul was already past tier four, so the body needed to be in the end zone of tier three to support it. What I ended up with was a robot that reminded me of Thor, the god of lightning in Norse mythology on Earth. Ironically, his weapon of choice was the hammer.

“Any improvement?” I asked once I stood next to him.

“The unholy mana has been cleansed from his body. The changes continue. I have been watching for any of my brothers or sisters, but your barrier is a piece of art. I don’t think anything could see past it even if they wanted to.”

“Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. I will not allow a third time to happen,” I muttered. Just the thought of the shadow being that waltzed into my dungeon while I was fighting Alara and took Reed’s body made me angry. Luckily, the culprit was lying low, but I didn’t plan to trust that would be permanent.

“What do you mean?”

“First there was you, then some shadow celestial snagged a body from my dungeon a few months ago.”

“Hmm, I could think of a few individuals. If you had any details for me to go on, I might be able to narrow it down.”

“I was away for the incident so unfortunately, only he created a portal to what looked like a shadow realm,” I said with a

“Xenio or Cassin then. They loved to stay in that nasty realm,” Duilin replied with a shudder.

“Nasty?”

“Maybe weird is better, everything just feels… wrong. Black and white. Creatures that shouldn’t exist. Have you ever seen a person inside out? Go to the shadow realm.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at his distaste of the place. “Sounds like a nice place to vacation.”

“Quite true. The stories that have been told of the place are enough to cause nightmares. Actually seeing the place has killed people in the past.”

“Noted.” I thought about some of the horror movies they had made back on Earth. I know of a few that had managed to cause heart attacks and seizures. The question was how much did human imagination line up with this world. It would be interesting to find out. I turned back to the window as Wrakras’s body calmed down for the moment. I shifted my gaze to mana to check his body’s progress. “It will be a few more hours at the least. He could have ended it, but he is striving to something new personally. It will take a while.”

“I will be here to watch until the end. Just do me a favor and keep that Julie woman away from me.”

“You called?” the person in question said as she wrapped her arms around mine. With her increase in power, if I wasn’t paying attention, she could sneak up on even me.

Duilin quickly made a smile. “I was just saying that it would be better if you stayed near the master. You never know when he might need your assistance with something.”

Julie made a wide grin. “You are absolutely correct!” she exclaimed as she tightened her grip on me.

I just released a breath of steam. “I’ll leave him to you then Duilin,” I said as I turned and started heading back to the bridge. Julie refusing to release me the entire way.

Chapter 2

Helicilia

This is a nightmare. Those accursed metal creatures had managed to cut the undead scar in half. The only saving grace was that I had made it through the pass before they managed to do so. Now I was sitting in the capital unable to do a thing about the situation. It was like the world was rejecting us. To make matters worse, none of the masters were able to call on Cassin anymore.

While I glared at my desk wondering what we needed to do to turn this around the door burst open. I raised my glare at the person who was about to die for their foolishness. Jin and Fin stood on either side of the double door breathing heavily, a state I’d never seen them exhibit.

“What is the meaning of this!?”

“Mistress! The dungeon!” Before Fin was able to finish his sentence, a blade burst from his chest. Jin screamed and ran inside. The blade pulled free and Fin’s dead body dropped to the ground. Only to rise to its feet a second later, the green flames of undeath emitting from his eyes.

I activated a barrier that was built into an old dungeon core. It flashed around the room before any of the undead could get in the room. That didn’t stop them from starting to beat it with their weapons. “Jin! What is going on!?” I shouted.

Jin collapsed to the ground with her head in her hands. “The dungeon! He’s gone mad! Tzulxuc already slaughtered all the lesser necromancers. We had no choice but to flee here.”

“Tzulxuc! I know you can hear me! What is the meaning of this!?” I shouted into the air around me.

There was silence for a few heartbeats then a dark laughed sounded all around us. “You and your associates have outlived your usefulness. Fool, I have been nothing more than a pawn in a higher powers game. I’ll show everyone that you do not treat Tzulxuc as a tool!”

A pressure suddenly appeared around the barrier much like a hand threatening to break an egg. I figured we had less than a minute before the lich was able to force his way through. I dropped in my chair. The world threatening to fade to darkness. It was ironic that I would be killed by the undead. Fin just started to sob. She would be no help.

Help? I gulped as I thought about the one way, I might be able to survive this. “Tzulxuc! I don’t want to die. Thus, I would like to bind myself to the dungeon!”

The pressure around the barrier dropped considerably. I held my breath as I waited for his decision. “That is an interesting idea. Yes! I will make you my pawn! You will know the feeling I have suffered.” I ground my teeth to keep from retorting. I knew exactly how he felt. Cassin had been using all the necromancers as pawns.

I put on a smile knowing he could see me. “Yes. Teach me.”

“Then as a matter of good faith lower your barrier and I’ll do as you want.”

I hesitated, but the pressure started to increase again letting me know that he would get through it one way or another. I waved my hand over the sigil and the barrier vanished. The undead at the door rushed in and aimed their weapons at me but made no other movement.

“There! Your turn to uphold our bargain.”

“As you wish!” Orbs of mana formed around me. I could feel such dense dark and unholy mana coming from the that I worried about whether my body could take it. “Put some blood in the orb and you’ll bind yourself to the dungeon.”

Taking a letter opener off my desk, I did as instructed. The green ball of unholy mana floating in front of me flashed red before the dozen other orbs all flew into my body with incredibly searing pain. I couldn’t hold back the scream that tore from my body. My body started to violently change.

It must have lasted nearly ten minutes before I felt that pain start to subside. That’s when I heard something. A small laugh. Painfully, I managed to turn my head to see Jin standing over the barrier stone. Suddenly, she started to laugh insanely.

“Fool? You’re all fools! Time for me to get my revenge!” Jin’s body burst in a spray of gore covering every inch of the room in flesh and blood. A woman made from what appeared to be shadows stood in her place. The mana in the room reached a new peak as she dove into the dungeon core crystal.

“NO!” Tzulxuc shouted before the world turned sideways, as the room I was in was torn to shreds by the massive amount of mana that was released. Still unable to move, I was pulled into the ball of shadows that was rippling out from the core. My head collided with something and the world went black.

~~~

I groaned as the world came back to me. I wasn’t sure how long I was out, but that wasn’t the first thing on my mind. I could feel that my soul was bound to someone, but it wasn’t who I expected it to be. I looked up and saw the woman made from shadows. After looking at her close to a minute, I realized it was the Specter Queen that commanded the Specter army. I’d gotten a report she’d been defeated, but considering it had come from Jin, that was suspect now.

“Good you’re awake!” I felt something grip my body as I as started to float. Shadows rippling off her like cloth, she sat on a grand throne as Specters moved around her. “I wasn’t about to let the old bastard have you. No. You’re going to serve me for the rest of your duration on this Miserable plane!”

“Why?” I asked barely able to get the single word out from the pain I was feeling.

“Why!? Because the monsters you, that crusty lich, and the piece of shit celestial Cassin created tore my village to pieces then forced me to serve you along with the souls of my family for six decades! You have to pay for the wrongdoings of your forebears as you’ve done a wonderful job upholding the family business.”

I tried to struggle to free myself, but only after a moment did I feel a ball of heat deep in my chest. “What did… you do to me?” I asked with a gasp.

“You don’t suffer damnation without learning a few tricks. There is a ball of my shadows inside your heart. If I die, or you attempt to betray me, well,” she said then made a bursting motion with her hands.

I just starred at her for a minute than dropped my head. It looked like no matter what I would never truly be in power. Cassin, then Tzulxuc, now this person. I would always be doomed to suffer like this.

I looked back at her. “Very well. I can see that my fate is sealed. I will serve you.”

“Good.” The pressure holding me vanished and I fell to the ground. I pushed up from the ground and got to my feet. Now that I was adjusting to the body and wasn’t worried about getting crushed, I could feel the immense power filling me. If I had known this was the reward for binding myself, I might have done it a long time ago.

“What is the plan now, mistress?”

“Survive,” she replied. A second later the room we were in shook. “Tzulxuc didn’t take too kindly to me ripping half of his aura from him. We’ll need to kill him.”

“Kill him?! He’s a tier four dungeon core with over two hundred years of experience. How the fuck do you plan to do that?!” I yelled only to drop to the ground as pain flared in my chest.

“Don’t worry. We’re about to get some help.”

“Help?”

Chapter 3

Alara

“We’ll be there in an hour.”

I nodded. “Thank you, Jarvis. Hopefully, we can finish this… and head home. The scouts say that it is a field dungeon?”

“Yes. That will mean we can enter via the sky much easier than it was in your case. If Sir had allowed us to drop a Starfall, we could have ended this in a moment, but given the damage we caused with the first. He has ordered it sealed.”

“That hurt,” I said as the memories of the weapon that fell from the sky flashed through my head. It managed to cut through nearly half of my dungeon in seconds and completely obliterated the top twenty floors. I felt like someone had ripped my limbs off and started to beat me with them. Actually, the necromancers had done that to me, and it hadn’t hurt as much as Regan’s weapon.

“My apologies for the sir. He just wanted to get to your core as quickly as possible.”

“I know. He has apologized… many times since then.” Regan had done a lot to help me. I knew he only had good intentions when using the weapon. He had just underestimated its power. Not the first time I’d seen that happen over my life.

“Visuals coming in!”

I turned towards the screen and saw the Northern Capital Selmore in front of us. Or at least, part of it. A sphere of darkness dominated a large section of the old city. Specters could be seen flying around the phenomena. Black arcs of mana covered the sky around the capital.

I stood from my seat and moved closer to the screen trying to get a better view. “What is going on?” I asked the officer.

“Unknown. If the readings are accurate, there are two dungeon cores there.”

“That’s not possible. How could a dungeon core get that close? Once their aura touch, they get locked in place,” Jarvis said. He moved to another terminal and started going through the data.

“I can sense two… minds close by. I believe… the officer is correct,” I said with a shake of my head.

“Should we stop the advance?” Liz asked worriedly.

“It’s too late,” I replied. A moment later, Alpha came to a violent stop as the aura of the core made contact with the aura around the city.

“We should have another two kilometers before we contact the aura!” Jarvis shouted getting agitated for the first time.

“The situation has obviously changed. We need to stay back until we can get some information on what exactly is happening,” Wilson said from Liz’s side.

“Looks like I’m about… to find out,” I commented before my mind slipped into the dungeon communication link.

After my side formed, a tree with Regan’s circuits engraved on the surface. Likely due to me using his core at the moment. I looked up expecting to see the lich. What I got was the Specter Queen from when Regan freed my dungeon a few months ago.

She sat on a throne that appeared to be made from living shadows. I thought I could see faces form as if something was trapped in the shadows. The rest of her side was blank. A black canvas that hadn’t been painted with color yet.

“Lady Alara. I was not expecting to see you again. Where is the one that core belongs to?”

“He allowed me… to borrow his core. What is going… on here?”

She ignored me and started muttering to herself. “Damn it. This wasn’t part of my plan! I was hoping the one that defeated you was coming!”

“You got me! What is going… on!?” I said with some anger.

“REVENGE! I am going to kill those that caused this to happen to me!”

“That doesn’t answer… my question,” I replied. I wish Regan was here. He had a talent when it came to dealing with crazy females. Myself included. I missed him.

She glared at me for a second. “I fused with a dormant dungeon core and ripped part of the lich, Tzulxuc’s aura from him. I want us to join forces and kill this bastard once and for all.”

I looked her over but decided she wasn’t lying. She didn’t have much to gain from lying other than her own life. This was would put pressure on the lich core either way. I would have to watch my back until this was over. I wasn’t a stranger to not trusting people. The only being I would fully trust would be Regan.

“Very well. We will help… you. For now. Do anything to betray… this trust and you’ll find that… Regan’s children are Very capable.”

She seemed to calm down. “Of course, Lady Alara. I knew that you were like me. Trapped and being used against your own will. I have no reason to fight with you.” I narrowed my eyes are how fast she backed down. Something was happening in the background.

“Then I will talk to you on the other side.” The link broke and I slumped back in my seat as the bridge of the Alpha washed over me. I quickly sat back up and turned to Jarvis. “The second core is on our side for the moment. It is the Specter Queen from… my dungeon. She is seeking revenge… against the lich.”

“Fighting amongst themselves will make it easier for us,” Jarvis said with a nod.

“Yes. We need to secure our position for now. I think she is more danger… than she lets on. She shouldn’t rely on her to be a wall… against the lich.”

“As you say, Ma’am,” Jarvis bowed then started giving out orders. I hadn’t intended to take command from him but with there being two cores, I needed to be able to respond to any changes that might happen.

The forces we brought started to land in the forest around us which was about seven kilometers from the ruined capital. There were minor undead that blocked our path, but they were cut to pieces and burned for extra measure as we moved through the outer layer of the dungeon. As the lich was a field dungeon, the layers of his dungeon acted like floors. They would get more difficult the further we got.

Regan’s tanks, I thought that’s what he called them, and the floating city’s turrets started bombarding the castle. Their weapons were able to cross the distance easily. At seven kilometers, the rounds would generally miss their intended target, but given the target was the entire city. Any damage they did was fine.

Mechs moved among the ground forces dealing with any of the giant undead. Weapons that looked like a sword only with teeth that moved rapidly along the edge would rip the undead to pieces. As I looked at the destruction and the ease with which they carved through the enemy force, I realized that Regan’s forces excelled at frontal assaults like this compared to the tunnels and caves of my dungeon.

After about an hour, the area around Alpha was cleared of all hostiles and they were setting up a camp for the rest of the forces to land with greater safety. I was impressed with how fast Regan’s forces worked. It was almost comparable to a dungeon core with how fast the stone walls went up around the camp.

The foothold had been finished when Spare asked. “Where are the airships?”

Jarvis looked up from the console where he was working. “We have readings from the other side of the capital that appears the specters are keeping them occupied. Those floating pieces of wood are like target practice for them after all.”

“Make sure you scan for them. They knew how to go invisible when they blocked your path to me. I doubt they’d forgotten that little skill,” I said tightening my gripped hands.

I turned my gaze over to the Sphere of darkness and saw that the battle over there was even more intense. Spells were causing explosions and we could see groups of undead fighting each other. It seemed the Specter Queen had some control over them. Whether she would be able to maintain that control against a lich remained to be seen.

We needed to get further in while she was occupying them. Plus, the more pressure we put on them out here, the more of a chance we give our potential ally. With the foothold established we had could start cutting into the real dungeon. This area had only just recently been claimed as the undead were weaker than weak.

I turned to Benjamin as he was the more military minded of the captains. “How long until we push… through the next layer?”

“Aye. We’re going for a full clear as we don’t want to get flanked. This is going to take us some time, but the further in we go the less area we have to cover. I wager five hours to reach the city, Miss.”

“I see. Keep me posted.” Not that I would need to be told. I was doing my best to watch every part of the battle that I was able to see with my dungeon sense. I had to do my best to make sure as many of Regan’s children make it home as possible.

Chapter 4

Regan

“Northern pass coming into sight!”

“I see Queen really went to work on the place,” I commented as I took it in.

“You did leave her in charge,” Anubis replied.

A wall that spanned the entire width of the pass and easily rose two hundred meters appeared in front of us. While the wall was solid, it reminded me of a spider’s web, the way it was connected to the pass walls. Looking further north, I saw an identical wall a few kilometers up the pass. What almost appeared a small industrial era city sat between the two walls. Smoke drifted from hundreds of smokestacks.

The area in front of the wall that we could see had been turned into a blast zone. Artillery fire and mortar shells turned any undead that wandered into the area into ash. If there wasn’t magic in this world. I doubted anything would ever be able to penetrate this fortress.

Just south of that, began the undead scar. The large chasm that extended all the way south to the ruined Lecazar capital. That was one terrifying spell that spoke volumes about what advancing magic could leave to. The only saving grace was that it had been more brute force over finesse.

“I’m going to check on her. Continue on and I’ll join up with you momentarily.”

“Yes, Master,” Julie replied while Anubis nodded.

I moved out onto the deck of the ship then tried to teleport down just to see if it would work in this short distance. It felt like it started to activate but given how weak it appeared. I decided to forgo the teleportation. Last thing I needed was for my body to fail to reappear. I jumped into the air and activated my flight spell that I created on the other continent. It was only a few kilometers. I could cross that in seconds.

I broke the sound barrier just before I came to a stop above a tall building was close to three to four hundred meters tall. Made from a dark metal, it looked quite imposing as a sort of Steampunk, diesel punk, and medieval combination. I was truly impressed with it.

I landed on a balcony towards the top of the building. Queen opened the door as soon as my feet touched the ground. She hadn’t changed much since I’d created her several months ago. She had broken through to tier three, but that was only to be expected given her connection with metal. Parts of her spider half were made from mithril now, while her human upper half used a softer plastic to give the impression of skin. Her multiple eyes glistened in the light as I walked over to her.

“Monarch! A pleasure to have you drop in.”

“It’s good to see you Queen. I like what you’ve done with the place.” We walked into what appeared to be an office. Metal threads crisscrossed their way across the room. A few of her daughters worked on consoles around the room.

Queen bowed. “You honor me with your words.”

“You’ve earned my praise. I’d like to hear how it’s going.” I moved over to a couch that was placed in the room either due to her planning to host guests in the future or because it was a sort of impression that people find for this type of room.

“All is proceeding well. The force from the Beneath passed here about a week ago and we constructed this place as soon as they did so. Our numbers grow daily, and we should start to cleanse the southern areas in about a month.”

“Very good. Is there anything you need from me?”

“Not at this time. The mana generators we have are more than enough for our numbers to create the materials we need. This will have to be adjusted in the future but given Lady Izora’s mission you will not have to oversee that yourself.”

“Excellent. How is Izora’s job coming along?”

“She is making good time. Though you did give her some very top of the line automata. The tracks should reach us in a few days.”

“Good.” I thought about anything else that I needed to check on, but from what I heard and saw as I was heading in, Queen had everything in hand. It was good to help, but I didn’t want to spoil them. She didn’t ask for help thus I wouldn’t push her. She was smart enough not to withhold anything that could result in danger later. “My forces will reach the northern capital in a day. While I’m not sure what the situation is there, I think we will be occupied for close to a week.”

I wish I could just drop Starfall on them. I really didn’t want to cause another Terra wave. We still didn’t know all the consequences of the first one. One issue at a time, I guess. I’d thought of a few ways to counteract the wave, but they were hard to implement if we were engaged in battle.

“I understand. I have been sending my reports to Steel Spire every twenty-four hours. The switch from mana-based messaging to radio has improved the quality of the messages as you theorized.”

I nodded then looked outside. Her city was a nice hive of activity. “What did you name this little nest of yours?”

“I decided to keep it simple and just called it Spider’s Keep,” Queen said with a grin as she stroked one of her spider legs.

“Fair enough. I like it.”

“Thank you, Monarch.”

I checked the sky and saw that quite some time had passed. The fleet would already be close to the exit of the pass. I could easily check up with them, but once they left the pass we were technically in enemy territory. “Keep up the good work. I’ll check on you in a week.”

I walked back out to the balcony and jumped into the sky. With a boom, I shot towards the fleet. Close to half an hour later, I caught up with them. Ominous black clouds were in our path, but I wasn’t too worried about them. If any lightning struck my airships, it would just be converted into mana to fuel the mana batteries.

Julie rushed up to me as soon as I walked through the bridge door. “Welcome back, master!”

“Thank you. Did anything happen while I was gone?”

“No. It was boring,” she replied with a pout.

I chuckled at her expression as I patted her head. “That’s probably for the best.”

“Yes master!” she replied with her face splitting grin. I moved passed her over to my standard throne at the center of the bridge. The airships entered the storm as rain and lightning started to buffet the vessels.

“Wonderful day for a drive,” I mumbled leaning to place my chin on my hand.

“Indeed. I sense magic at work by someone that underestimates you, father,” Anubis commented from next to me. I raised my eyebrow at that. Anubis was probably the only person among my children that knew any type of soul magic. He could detect things that otherwise went unnoticed.

“Everyone underestimates me. That’s why no one has been able to respond properly this entire time.”

One of the fore turrets on the ship twisted and unleashed a stream of rounds into the clouds. A massive undead bird riddled with holes slammed into the deck before the wind from the storm pulled it off. “Looks like someone is expecting us,” I said with a laugh. Why they would have any forces in this area rather than dealing with Alara who should have already reached the capital was baffling. “Be careful. Something doesn’t smell right.”

“Yes, father.”

“Yes, master.”

We continued through the storm as the turrets on the ship would fire into the clouds at random. Usually a huge bird or monster that had been turned into an undead would tumble to the ground as a result. We were relying on the ship’s point defense as the storm was affecting the sensors, but it was still smooth sailing. The other vessels in the Third Fleet were having much the same experience.

This lasted for nearly half an hour with us creeping through the storm. Eventually, we reached a clearing in the storm which reminded me of the eye of a hurricane. We saw a group of airships that appeared to be waiting for us.

“They really must be fools if they are going against master like this,” Julie said with a sneer.

“I agree. We decimated all their forces when we traversed to Lady Alara. I would think they had learned their lesson,” Anubis added with a shake of his head.

I couldn’t help but laugh at their overconfidence. “Now, now you two. We need to at least let them try. Maybe they think we’re a different force.”

Putting on a more serious expression, I started scanning the enemy ships to see if they really were fools as Julie proposes. We knew they had ways to communicate over long distance, so they knew my ships dominated them a few months ago. I raised a metal eyebrow when I found there were no living on the first ship.

Soon, I found it was the same for other dozen ships. Not a single living person to be seen. Plenty of undead, but that wasn’t unusual for necromancer ships. I wasn’t sure what their game plan here was, considering I had Anubis who was the archenemy of undead.

I connected to one of the long-range cameras and zoomed in on the ships. The undead packed the deck in neat rows. Consisting mainly of gnomes, it looked like they had been given a warm welcome when they reached the lich core. I wouldn’t show them mercy though if any living remained. As for the undead gnomes, the mercy would me destroying their corpses.

My fleet finished emerging from the storm into the eye. I could only assume the storm was to prevent my ion cannons from obliterating the fleet and to give them at least a chance to fight. Once we came to a stop on the opposite side of the clearing, the undead started to react.

They began beating their weapons on their shields or their longbows and staffs on the ground. Other than that, they made no reaction to attack. We waited for nearly five minutes without a sign of aggression. I couldn’t think of a time when the necromancers announced themselves like this. It just wasn’t their style.

A large cloud of darkness grew in front of the lead ship. I premiered the defense shield in case it was an attack, but something was telling me it wasn’t. When the cloud grew to be about fifty meters in diameter, the surface smoothed to that similar to glass. A face I hadn’t seen in a while appeared while sitting on a throne.

“Hello boy,” the lich said with a smirk. The sound emerged from the cloud a bit roughly, but I could tell that he was using magic that he’d never considered before. That made him dangerous.

I copied him creating a white cloud that did the same. “Old man. I was wondering who the welcome party was from. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised.”

“Fair enough. I left this here a while ago hoping to catch you before you reached my center of power. At least now it can serve another purpose.” The lich shook his head with a laugh likely at the irony of it. I wasn’t sure what he was getting at.

I leaned back in my seat as I thought about why he would contact me in such a way. I knew Alara had already gotten to his core and they were currently locked in battle. Surely, he wasn’t hoping that I fall back. That would be laughable, and I didn’t see the dusty bag of bones to be the sort. “Well? What do you want to talk about? I’m on my way to fight you on the field as you requested.”

“The situation has changed. I would like to end this fighting before it is too late,” the lich said with a bit of apprehensiveness.

“Explain.”

“The real enemy is Cassin. His goal is complete. We’ve all been played by him. I the biggest fool of them all.”

“Didn’t you offer everything up to him to live forever? Why should I believe this isn’t another one of your plots?”

“Because if you don’t, we’ll all die whether we like it or not,” he said with a nasty grin.

Chapter 5

Louella

My head hurt constantly. My beloved Glourios said I was still recovering. I wanted to believe him, but it only got worse as time passed. It felt like something inside me was calling to me from the ceiling of the cave. When I mentioned it to Glourios, he told me to ignore it in a harsh tone.

I decided to get out of the palace to clear my head. “My love. I am going for a walk. Would you like to come with me?” I asked.

Glourios was sitting in his throne working on a spell and only shook his head. I pouted but went off without him. The palace alone took me a few minutes to get out from. It occupied half of the cavern that he had claimed as our kingdom.

Walking for a while did help clear my head. In the back of my mind I noticed that the further I was from Glourios the less it hurt but that couldn’t be true. He was my beloved. With my mind in disarray, I accidently wandered quite a way from the palace and found myself in one of the tunnels around the cavern.

I glanced back at the flaming palace then decided to keep going for a bit longer. I placed my hand on the wall and caused a scorch mark to mark my way back. I wouldn’t want to get lost and cause trouble for my beloved.

After about twenty or so minutes, I started to feel a pull from deeper in the tunnel. Curiosity got the better of me and I turned down the path. A deep sense of familiarity overtook me, and I started hurrying my steps. Eventually, I found I was running, and I could run fast. The walls of the tunnel streaked by almost turning into blurs.

I skidded to a stop as I reached the sensation. A staff was melted into the wall completely embedded. It was trembling but the melted stone covered most it like chains on a prisoner. “I know you,” I mumbled without meaning too then reached forward to place my hand on the staff.

Lightning flooded the cave as my hand touched the surface of the staff. I wasn’t worried though. I knew that lightning could never hurt me. I placed my free hand on the melted stone and turned it to slag, pulling the staff free. I noticed a whiteness, glancing at my hand, my red skin had started to flake revealing a snow-white paleness underneath.

As I stared at it, vague memories flashed through my mind. The faces were blurred but I knew these people were important to me. I collapsed to the ground at the rush of memories. Closing my eyes, I focused on the man made of metal. I wasn’t sure why, but he was important to me for some reason.

His face was the clearest of the images with only one other person being close. Skimming through the memories, the man almost always had a grin or smirk when I was dealing with him. We appeared to have a decent relationship with him teasing me every now and then, but always helping me when I needed it.

I curled my arms around the staff as the memories brought tears to my eyes. “Regan…” At that moment, it felt like my mind shattered as pain ripped through my head. I fell forward and blacked out.

~~~

“I’m telling you it’s coming from over here!”

“I would think he would keep her locked up in the flaming palace not out here in the caves.”

The sound of voices echoed around me as I groaned. Opening my eyes, I pushed myself up, only to regret doing so when a surge of pain spiked through my head. I collapsed back to the ground unable to muster the strength to sit up.

“I heard something up ahead. The smell is getting stronger as well.”

I cracked open an eye and gritted my teeth through the pain to see who was approaching. Three silhouettes rounded the corner then rushed over to my side when they saw me. “Lady Louella! My love has brought us to your side so that we might save you!”

Looking over the man, I couldn’t recall who it was. “Who are you? You called me Lady Louella. My name is Louella?” I asked. That sounded familiar though there was so much pain in my head right now I couldn’t be completely sure. Something about the man was slightly off putting though.

“My lady. Do you not remember your most faithful knight?” the tall man asked kneeling in front of me.

“No… Where are we?” I asked looking around. I couldn’t remember how I’d gotten here. I adjusted my position and realized that I was gripping a staff. Something was telling me not to let it go no matter what. Looking at it, the pain in my head started to recede slightly.

“We’re in the Beneath, my lady. During the evacuation of the soldiers we saw that you still remained and did not enter the portal you formed for us. Before we could get you to safety, the flaming giant took you and thus we followed you.”

“Flaming giant?” The image of a palace made of flames and a man sitting on a throne caused another spike of pain. A metal gear quickly replaced it taking away the pain. I looked to the three. “Do you three know of Regan?”

“Vaihdetta’s guardian deity, I think,” the boy behind the tall man said. “You’ve met us before, but my name is Yuno, my sister Sara, and the annoying one is Nero.” Yuno didn’t bother me as much as Nero.

“Thank you, Yuno. So where are we exactly?” I asked placing my head on the cool metal of the staff.

“The Beneath. The labyrinth of caves under the surface of the world,” Nero said.

“We were mainly trying to find you. We can’t get out the way we came in,” Yuno said shaking his head.

“I know you can fly but it wouldn’t be wise for you to use mana unless absolutely necessary. You might rip your body apart,” Nero commented. I felt he didn’t like not being the main participant in the conversation.

I looked inside before I realized what I was doing to check my mana pool and almost vomited from what I saw there was just so much going on. Two pools covered the floor and ceiling of the space with a ball of flames floating between the two. Lightning arced between the pools which fed heat to the ball in the center. I could tell the ball of flames was slowly growing.

I likened it to a war as juts of flame would explode from the ball only to be countered by an arc of lightning. I could instinctually tell they were fighting for dominance even as the thing containing them, my body, failed to handle the conflict. A single thought entered my mind even though I don’t know why it did. “Regan can help me. We must find Regan,” I said with almost a plead.

“I’m not sure if anyone can help you, but we’re going to get you home. Do not worry,” Nero said. “For now, concentrate on controlling your mana. No matter how it got there, it’s your now.”

I nodded weakly and peered inside again. I tried to get the flames to stop but that only seemed to encourage them and increased their speed formation. Stopping that path, I turned to the lightning and tried to get that to behave. It grew excited at first but greatly calmed down as it realized that it was hurting me. Without the lightning feeding it as much heat, the flames stopped growing as quickly.

“I think its handled for now,” I said. With the manas calmed down, my head stopped hurting as much.

“Good.” Nero turned to Yuno. “Do your thing.”

Yuno groaned and I looked at him curiously as to why when I heard horrible cracks and pops from his body. His head appeared to shift to that of a partial wolf. He bent to the ground and pulled in a deep breath and caused all the air in the cave to shift slightly. He did this for what felt like an hour before he shifted back.

“I think I got it. I detected an area of strong undead, nothing like we’ve dealt with on the surface. There were also traces of other races. How should we proceed?”

“We need to avoid the Seal. As for the races, well, it depends on how their feeling if we meet them. We’d all be fine being high races. Go ahead and lead us towards that area for now,” Nero replied.

“Got it.” Yuno moved to the end of the tunnel and peered around the corner. With a nod back to us he moved on. Nero held out a hand to help me up and I took it carefully. I knew he was helping me, but something felt off about him still.

I started to head down the cave when I realized that Sara hadn’t said anything the entire time. “Hi.”

“Hi! This is fun! Not every day we met someone with no memories.” The words seemed to come out in a flood like she had been holding them in.

“Glad I could help,” I said with a raised eyebrow.

Sara grabbed my hand and pulled me along behind the two. While I couldn’t even remember if Louella truly was my name, something inside me said I could trust these three. I just hoped that was truly the case.

Chapter 6

Alara

After almost a week of constant battle, we were still nowhere closer to a resolution then before. Tzulxuc was much more resilient than we first figured considering he was fighting a two-front war. The Specter Queen was holding her own, but however she’d become a dungeon core was not a normal path and her power was limited.

I was holding back as I didn’t want to risk Regan’s children more than necessary. That being said, little remained of the castle. Constant bombardment had reduced it to rubble. The only thing truly left standing was a tower that was at the exact center. It was made from something the artillery rounds couldn’t damage from his distance.

Tzulxuc’s undead forces were also adapting to the situation. Before the specters were ripping them apart, but he had made changes that allowed them to fight back. It was scary what backing someone into a corner could do. He also had over two hundred years of experience to pull from making him even more dangerous.

“Sunrise in ten minutes!”

“Thank you, officer. Be prepared to push. I want the plaza before nightfall!”

The officers responded to my orders and began issuing commands to the rest of the soldiers. A large explosion in the distance signaled either Benjamin or one of the other captains taking down a particularly dangerous undead. We had taken what was once the slums and part of the lower district, but we had much of the city still to fight through before we could reach the castle.

The sun rose and Regan’s children began to push. Their weapons made easy work of the undead with few of the monsters taking more than a few rounds of gunfire. The entire city had been converted to undead and we had to check every nock and cranny to be safe. As even with the bombardment, undead could still be lingering under the destroyed houses and buildings.

Jarvis had drones flying with the various squads so we could observe the situation and make decisions. I wondered what any king would give to have this level of control over a battlefield. We were watching squad B32 when a distress call came from a different squad. We switched to them and saw they had encountered some type of undead that had green fumes leaking from it.

The rounds fired melted before they could do any real damage. Similar reports began to pop up around the battlefield. I had the artillery focus on them but even those rounds failed to completely destroy the undead. It was able to regenerate before another one struck it.

I looked to Jarvis for any information. “Readings indicate tier three! Individual squads are not going to be able to handle them with their current weaponry. Advise pulling back.”

I nodded and issued the order. The units fell back to our captured zones where higher-level defenses had been erected. One of the smog undead moved onto the street and was vaporized by a particle beam that cut through him and the street. After that, the rest kept their distance.

I turned back to Jarvis. “Do we have any units capable… of transporting one of those weapons?”

“Yes. But it would be risky. They are very slow moving and are vulnerable to attacks.”

“Let’s wait until the sun is higher than bombarded… all locations with cannons from the city. We will not be stopped,” I said finally. I wanted to get back home to Regan. He could be back for all I knew and waiting for me.

“Understood. Being charge for long range bombardment.”

I hopped up from my chair and made my way to the top of the central tower. In the core room, Regan’s new core floated surrounded by all its defensive spells. A sphere that glowed with tremendous power. The desire to touch it grew daily likely from missing the person’s touch.

I dropped to the ground and wrapped my arms around my legs. This was all over my head. I just wanted to be back at my grove with Lena. Regan was the take charge person.

I wasn’t sure how long I sat there. Something with the core brought me out of my head. I thought I needed to get back to the bridge and help when I felt arms wrap around me. Panicking, I swung my hand and punched out. I felt a very solid and metal face under my knuckles and opened my eyes to see Regan grinning.

“Miss me?”

“REGAN!” I screamed and spun in his arms to wrap mine around his neck. Before I realized what I was doing, I had planted my lips on his. For being made of metal, his lips were soft. Being avatars and thus made from mana we didn’t have to breath and the kiss last much longer than any mortal could possibly achieve.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Regan said after we finally did break apart.

The fact that he left for over a month after he said he would only be gone a few hours hit me and I smacked him across the face. “Liar! You said you’d be right back!”

“Yeah. I ran into a bit of a problem. I’m sorry,” he said taking my hand and kissing the back of it. “It looks like it wasn’t all bad thou. Your speech has improved.”

I stared at him then tears sprang up unbidden. “I’m sorry. I… I… caused some of your children to die.” I buried my face in his shoulder.

He caressed my head while making calming noises. “I know, but they knew what they were getting into. Jarvis would have never let you bare that burden.”

His comforting only made it worse, even though I knew he was right. Jarvis had made sure from the first moment to tell me it was his idea. That still didn’t make me feel any better. We sat there for who knows how long, well Regan probably knew, but still I didn’t want it to end.

“Come. Let’s go end this battle. One way or another.”

Regan

I led Alara back to the bridge. I was going to help her sit in the throne, but she refused to release me. I just grinned and kept carrying her, not minding her clinginess. I had missed her as well. She could stick to me as much as she wanted.

“Stop all attacks. Keep charging all weapons for the time being. I’m not sure how this will go.”

“Sir! You’ve returned!”

“Jarvis. Thank you for taking care of things in the north while I was gone.”

“Of course, sir,” Jarvis said with a nod.

“Time for some politics,” I mumbled then pulled the cores into the communication dimension. It was the first time with more than two core meeting and the scene was changed accordingly. Likely since we were only using one core, mine and Alara’s mindscapes were partially fused. My futuristic room had hints of plant life. It was an interesting blend.

Then there were the other two. One was so defined I could tell he saw the world in nothing short of black and white. The lich with his castle and throne. On the other side, we had the Specter Queen who appeared sure of herself, but not everything around her. Only her throne was defined while the rest was a blank canvas.

I manifested my adherent mana into the room allowing everything to take a much physical form. We could truly interact here. More importantly, I could force them into a true dialogue by flooding my aura within the room. Both Tzulxuc and the Specter Queen visibly flinched from the sensation.

“Hello. Welcome to the first meeting of Selmore. I am Regan, the Machine Father. This is Alara the Queen of Nature. Tzulxuc, the Lich king. And the Specter Queen. If she would like me to address her by name, then she would do to inform us of it.”

“Kenia,” she replied reluctantly.

“Very well. Kenia, the Specter Queen.” I looked from each of them. “Tzulxuc informs me that a threat much greater than himself is coming. Had I only information from his mouth I would be disinclined to believe him, but that is not the case. Tzulxuc, you have the floor. Please tell us what this threat is.”

The old lich glared at me, but when I flexed my hand and his room started to crack, he dropped it. While I technically couldn’t harm them here, they didn’t know that. It was a bluff that I hoped would be enough to end this battle.

“Cassin. A celestial came to me over two hundred years ago. He turned me into a dungeon and helped me realize my desire for immortality. Unfortunately, his methods were… crude. I became this… thing have about a hundred years. My avatar being my mortal body from before the change. So, I began searching for a way to return to my glorious self.”

He waved his hand and an image of a King in his prime appeared. He would be considered handsome for the people of this world. I could still see parts of the mortal in his lich body.

“That’s when Cassin reached out to me again. He brought me his flock of necromancers. He told me with enough necromantic mana I could return to my former self. Foolish and desperate, I latched onto that idea. I helped the necromancers capture the girl there by luring her avatar out of her dungeon.”

“What has changed?”

“Kenia. Bring that bitch you took from me into this realm.”

She looked to me and I nodded. Waving my hand, I created a temporal link back to her core so she could bring the person’s mind here. A few seconds later, one of my top targets appeared in the meeting space. Helicilia.

“What is going on?! What did you do to me?”

“Quit your whining. I pulled you here so you could talk,” Kenia said with a growl.

“Tzulxuc!” Helicilia cried then spun and saw Alara and me. “I’m dead,” she said with a defeated tone.

“Not yet. Go ahead.” I motioned to Tzulxuc.

“Girl. Tell them who our true master is and what he told you.”

She gulped then dropped to her knees. “Cassin from Deorus. He said his plan was complete.”

“Deorus! The Demon world.” This just got more annoying.

Chapter 7

Regan

The old lich brought forward an interesting subject. Why would Deorus have any play in the matter? Their attempt to move to this world failed thousands of years ago. I also didn’t see why someone would want to return to a dying world. No, this wasn’t as simple as that. The puzzle kept expanding on me, while I worked to place the pieces, I’d barely managed to gather in the first place.

“What plan did he complete exactly?” I asked Helicilia.

“I’m not sure exactly. It was always his desire to corrupt as much of the continent as possible. I don’t know how that would affect anything more than make necromancers stronger.”

The undead scar certainly seemed like that sort of end goal. However, with a little insight from my life on Earth and the desires of her people, I felt it was more along the lines of terraforming. Anything from this planet would be hard-pressed to survive long. The only thing relatively unchanged was the general composition of the air. Even that was tainted by the unholy mana in the deepest parts. If it spread then I could see it affecting the continent at large, then eventually the planet.

Organisms from this world would struggle to survive for long. As was seen with the beast-kin in the north, unholy taint had various effects on the body and mind. Places of safety would slowly shrink over the years if a countermeasure wasn’t developed. Again, the necromancers and their infiltration of the various countries’ governments would work to prevent that.

It was a very long-term plan. One that could take more than one lifetime to complete. I had to give Cassin credit for such an encompassing plan. The question, however, was what the point was if the Demon races couldn’t get back here to Murgin. Although… They had managed to do it once. They could have found a way to do it again.

It was better to be safe than sorry. I cleared my throat and looked directly into Tzulxuc’s eyes across the way. “We find ourselves at a crossroads. We could continue to fight amongst ourselves, and I guarantee you that neither of you will win…”

“Boy, I have been around for centuries longer than you!” Tzulxuc shouted at me. I sighed then waved my hand.

The scene shook as Tzulxuc gasped in pain. Waving my hand again, I created an image of outside. Where Tzulxuc core was at the top of his tower, there was now a large hole that graced its surface. The aftereffects of one of my particle cannons from the fleet’s flagship faded as it was absorbed by the various auras.

“You might be older than me on THIS world, but I have plenty of experience to pull from, don’t you worry. Can we get back to the issue at hand? As I just demonstrated, I can easily end either of your existences. If you would like to continue living you will both stop now.”

I dropped my hand to the arm of the chair and all of them flinched. I glanced at Alara and saw she had a smirk on her face. I guess she like that Tzulxuc got dealt a little krama. “You’re so cool,” she whispered in my ear reminding me of a teenager talking to her boyfriend.

“Anything for you.” I whispered back before turning back to the others. “If Cassin is involved with Deorus then this conflict takes a completely new form. Deorus is a planet of conquerors. I doubt that has changed in the four or five thousand years if it has been that long for them.” Time can get funky in space. What was five thousand years for us, could be five years for them.

“I can’t put aside my revenge! Even for the fate of the planet. I would rather us all die!” Kenia shouted while pointing at Tzulxuc.

“Are you sure you want to press this?” I asked glaring at her. She slowly dropped her hand and sat back in her seat. “I don’t care if you battle it out after whatever is going on with the world is over, I’ll even referee it.”

“How do you expect to control us?” Tzulxuc asked with a smirk.

“Exactly how you controlled Alara here for near a century. It is either that or destruction.” I offered aid to the Constructs and they stepped on it after they were free. I wasn’t about to let that happen again. The lich deserved death. He deserved a fate worse than death, but I didn’t know if he knew anything that might be useful information.

“NO! I refuse!” Tzulxuc shouted. He was taking it exactly as I expected. I started to lift my hand to show that I was serious. I wasn’t going to allow these two freedom to do as they wanted. If he wanted to die, then it would be his own choice. “Wait! How do you expect me to trust you!? You could order me to kill myself once I placed that damn thing on my core!”

“I don’t really think you have much choice in this. Like I said you only have the two options.” I looked over to Kenia. “Do you agree with this?”

She stared at me for a long moment before she nodded slowly. We didn’t have a conflict in the first place. She had no reason to refuse other than her revenge was being forced to be put on hold. “I will accept this, but I still believe it would be better to destroy this monster.” Parts of her body started to phase to ethereal as she glared at the lich. I wondered if it was her anger that was causing it, or she just didn’t have full control over her form.

I argued with the lich for another ten minutes before he finally realized that there was no way out of this. Once I collared these two and moved Kenia’s core to a more suitable place, I will have more automatous cores that can respond to any danger that appears in the area.

This conversation allowed me to connect several dots which I thought were unconnected. The Construct base on the moon was meant as a line of defense against something. If Deorus was still a threat, then with them… out of commission, it fell on me to protect the planet. It might be tomorrow it might be a hundred years from now, but I would need to get us ready for the coming storm, whatever form it might take.

I created three of the collars in the communication dimension. With a flick, they flew over to the two cores and Helicilia. I wasn’t about to allow her free roam either. Just like the Specter Queen, she could easily escape if given the chance. I looked at each of them in the eye. “Put. Them. On.”

The Specter Queen and Helicilia only hesitated for ten or fifteen seconds, but it felt like a few hours. Tzulxuc took even longer, staring at the collar with dread. He was about to place it on his neck when his side of the image started to break up. I thought he was trying to run until I saw the look of almost fear on his face.

The communication dimension broke apart and Alara and I found ourselves back on the bridge. Alarms were blaring that we were under attack. “What’s going on!?”

“The Beneath force we lost track of appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the city and started attacking all forces. We’re tracking a concentration of them near Tzulxuc’s core. Estimated time until they reach it… two minutes!”

“Damn it! They couldn’t have picked a worse time!”

“Do we engage?”

The Beneath was an unknown. I really didn’t want to antagonize an entire civilization that had the average level of a tier four mage on the surface. My choice was made for me when Alpha shook from an impact on its barrier system. An immensely powerful spell had managed to reduce the shield by nearly ten percent, with one strike.

“Return fire! I will not stand here and be slapped in the face!” I turned and placed Alara in the throne. “Hold down the fort. I’m going to go help.”

“Be careful.”

I laughed with a wide grin. “Careful is my middle name!” I quickly made my way to the deck of the ship and jumped into the air. I spread my divine aura out around me and promptly became the main target for the attacking kobold mages. I created an overlay of the battlefield in front of me that highlighted all the active targets. “Time to get some new toys!”

With a sonic boom, I shot towards the largest concentration of the kobolds and Trolls. Spells of all kinds started flying at me. I targeted them and used pinpoint lasers to disrupt the underlying spell construct. Explosions of all the elements rained around me. “Non-lethal or lethal?” I mumbled as I impacted the ground forming a crater around me. “I’ll decide when I hit them.”

Several of the trolls ran at me. Their weapons were crude, but after a quick analysis, I found they could damage even parts of my body. Maybe not the adamantium, but the mithril certainly. I spun my staff, I had managed to recover it from orbit before my teleporting was limited. With a laugh, I morphed it into a minigun. Grinning, I pulled the trigger.

Rounds left the chambers faster than even my mind could count. The first troll to taste its punishment was ripped in half by the innumerable rounds cutting through his body. I kept my hand on the trigger and turned to down the rest of the charging trolls. Bullets being created from my mana.

The hundred or so trolls that had charged me soon laid in pieces around me. Amazingly, anything less than a headshot wasn’t fatal to the creatures. I hefted the minigun and looked for the next target. Around the rim of the crater, the kobolds were working on a large-scale spell. Part of me wanted to see the result but it wasn’t time to take chances. Last thing I wanted was to be sent to a cut off dimension.

I lifted my free hand and snapped my fingers, a hyper decibel sound emanated that caused the kobold’s ears all to burst in a spray of blood. The spell they were working on broke apart with the kobolds getting blasted back from the mana backlash. I looked around but everything was incapacitated for the moment.

“Alpha. Send forces to this position and take anything living into custody. I will go save Tzulxuc if he’s still alive.”

“Understood. Forces should arrive in under two minutes.”

Morphing the minigun into two handguns for close combat. I exploded into the air with a spray of debris and moved over to the tower. I could feel the ‘floors’ as I passed through them, but the undead were dealing with the few trolls and kobolds that had split off from the main group that I had already decimated.

Crashing through the side of the tower, I shot the forehead of a troll that was next to the spot I entered from. Moving up the tower, I took out any enemy forces I came up against. It was scary how fast the Kobolds had already adapted the necromancer and undead’s barrier spell to a version of their own.

Too bad they had never seen armor-piercing rounds. Or guns for that matter. The barriers shattered after two quick rounds. Bursting into the final room, I placed a round in every occupants’ skull. I moved to the Tzulxuc’s core. His body laid broken under the partially cracked core.

“You still with us?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Barely. I can’t form another avatar,” A dismembered voice replied. The cracks on his core started to repair after a few seconds. Though I could see it would take many months for him to fully recover. That time frame might be a little better if he was actually purifying the mana around us. I grabbed the collar off the ground and wrapped it around his core throwing sparks everywhere. I heard a scream of anger.

“Either accept it, or I’ll end this now,” I said placing the barrel of the gun against his core. I knew from my own core that touching it like this sends a wave of dread through your mind. The material the core was made from was quite durable, but my bullets could easily demolish it.

“Fine!” The sparks stopped and the runes on the collar turned golden.

“Very good! I’ll be back in a minute,” I said.

The other core was dealing with the same situation. She was able to defend better as her creatures were ethereal but again the kobolds were amazing at adapting to the situation. I enlarged the hole that I had blasted earlier and jumped into the sky.

Moving over the sphere of shadow, I saw that most of the surprise enemy’s forces were nearly finished. My automata were even more adaptable than the kobolds and had already found the enemy’s weak points. Snipers and large-scale weapons fire made sure the targets stayed down. If my own barrier and shield technology was weaker, that might not be a true story.

I dropped into the sphere of darkness and looked around. A small castle had been created to serve as Kenia’s seat of power. Specters and ghosts were hounding the kobolds to little effect. I shifted my guns to a rifle. With an almost cheat level of ease, I took care of the force threatening her. Since it was a smaller detachment, I went for incapacitation rather than lethal force.

I moved to the top of the battlefield. “Alpha. Status report,” I sent while hovering there.

“Only a few minor spots of resistance remaining… my love,” Alara’s voice sent back.

I perked up at that. With a joyful laugh, I sent back. “Excellent. Send me their locations and I’ll finish this up!”

Chapter 8

Louella

I had been with these three people for the last day and I wasn’t sure that had been a good idea. Something told inside me told me that they were friends, but my head was having a hard time believing that. They were just generally unsafe to be around.

The girl, Sara, had already wandered off three times since we started making for the surface. Each time we would have to make a detour to find her. The crazy part was that she had managed to find an ever more dangerous place each time.

“You guys are insane!” I shouted as they pulled Sara from what looked like a cave full of toxic mushrooms. The air was so thick with smoke I was amazed they could see anything at all. I watched worriedly when I didn’t hear a reply until they burst from the smog coughing heavily. Sara was in Yuno’s arms starring off into space.

Coughing harshly, Nero turned a smile towards me. “Not to worry. Just a bit of Prexin fumes. It is not lethal.” Even as he said it, he started to turn green and retched just around the bend of the tunnel. I pinched my nose as I wanted nothing to do with that.

I moved up to Yuno and Sara, who appeared to be handling it much better than Nero. “Is she okay?” I asked concerned.

Yuno sniffed his sister a few good times. “She smells horrible, but yeah. She is fine. I think the fumes bothered him more than us.”

“Thank god. I was worried about being stuck down here with just him,” I said moving and sitting next to the wall. Yuno laughed which sounded much louder than it probably was in the confined tunnels. The echoing sound took a few seconds to die down, reminding us where we were. I just wished I knew how I got her in the first place.

We waited for everyone to recover. Even though he said it didn’t affect him, I caught him starring at spots for longer than seemed natural. Nero had also retched three more times and didn’t appear to be in any mood to continue. As the only one with any wits, I decided it would be safer to just wait.

I helped out my hand and created a flame. While I could do it like it was second nature, something inside me felt… odd about doing the magic. While playing with the flame, the staff got angry and sent a jolt of lightning into the flame disrupting the magic. Almost second-naturedly, I rotated the lightning in my hand and started playing with it instead.

Was I dual natured? Memories of people controlling more than one element seemed to echo, but I felt this was wrong. Or at least not the case for myself. I moved the lightning and sent it back to the staff. It absorbed it without pause. I chuckled at the greedy staff.

I leaned back and placed my head against the stone as I looked at the ceiling. I would be happy to see the sun again. Why, I wished I knew. Maybe this Regan could help me. I really hoped so. I was tired of not knowing who I was.

Glancing at Yuno, I found him, and his sister had fallen asleep. Sara was an enigma. She acted… like her life didn’t matter but looking at her now with her body wrapped around her brother’s arm. I thought maybe it was all an act so he wouldn’t worry about her as much. I knew she had some sort of disease and that had to be hard to live with.

Moving my gaze over to Nero, the man had finished retching and was slumped next to the wall. I couldn’t tell if he was sleeping or not from this angle. He was also strange. He claimed to love me. Vague images of a man made from flames seemed to imply that he loved me as well. Could I trust them? I just shook my head casting away the images. Love had no place in my head right now.

My own feelings on the matter were amazingly empty. The only person in my head that I could think about was this Regan. Sadly, I could tell there were dozens of feelings mixed together when I thought about him. Happy, annoyed, amazed, sad, thrilled, and more all formed a soup of emotions all centered on the person. I couldn’t tell if love was in there or not.

We rested for a long time before the others roused from their fume fueled slumber. I had tried to rest but my mind just kept spinning its wheels. I had even tried to cultivate but I started to melt the ground around me and decided to stop with a long drawn out sigh. Finally, I ended up closing my eyes just to rest them.

Nero stirring prompted to me open my eyes. He looked mostly recovered by this point. Yuno and Sara woke up next. I pretended to yawn so they wouldn’t worry about me. It wasn’t their fault I couldn’t sleep. I was worried that they didn’t assign someone for a watch, but I was the outsider here.

“Yuno. How long until we reach the surface?”

“With this little detour. Another two or three days.” Sara gave a pout which caused Yuno to pat her head with a soft smile. “Don’t worry.”

“We’ll need to find food soon,” Nero said rubbing his stomach. I bet he felt quite hungry after emptying everything he had in there. He looked at Yuno with a meaningful gaze which only made Yuno blow out an annoyed breath of air.

“I thought you were the ancient one?” Yuno asked with a glare.

“Ancient?” I asked. He didn’t look much older than me. Though there were times when I felt he knew more than he was letting on.

“I’ll make sure to explain later, my dear. It is not something that should be spoke about in the open,” Nero said emphasizing the word spoke with a glare at Yuno.

“I see.” The cave we were in soon grew awkward and Sara was the one that broke the tension. She sneezed of all things which created a blast of wind that knocked her and Yuno back against the wall.

“Let’s focus on getting out of here. As Nero said we need to find food,” Yuno said laughing as he helped his sister up. He moved to the center of the tunnel and did his transformation thing. He was only shifted for a few seconds this time. “I can smell something that I think is edible.” He turned to Nero. “You’ll have to tell me if it is or not when we get to it.”

“You got it!”

We gathered our things and followed Yuno down the tunnel. Personally, everything looked the same. It was pitch black, but Nero had a spell going that cast illumination around the group. If I remembered correctly, he’d had the same spell going since I’d met them. That should take quite a bit of control to be able to have a spell going even in your sleep.

We traveled through the tunnels for another five or six hours before there was a change. Even I could smell the difference in the air. It was less stale. I looked ahead curious to what we would find. I hadn’t eaten anything in almost three days, and I was starting to feel a bit peckish.

Yuno held up his hand for us to come to a stop. Nero and he moved over to the bend in the tunnel and took a look. I made sure to hold Sara’s hand. While I generally liked the girl, I didn’t want her wandering off again.

“I’m sorry,” Sara said catching me by surprise. She hadn’t spoken to me directly the entire time we had traveled together.

“For what?” I asked gently. I moved her over to a ledge and we sat down.

“For the way I am. It feels like there are several people in here sometimes,” Sara said placing her free hand on her head. I gave her a small smile.

I patted her hand. “I know exactly how you feel. I keep getting these flashes of events and people that I feel I should know but don’t. I keep wondering if the person that interacted with those people is still there.”

“I’ve been so cruel to my brother!” She said tears springing to her eyes. “He could be one of the best adventurers on the continent but has to pay for my mistakes.”

I pulled her head into my shoulder, not sure what else to do. “I think your brother loves you very much and that is why he is doing everything in his power to help you. My memories are anything but clear, but I think this Regan should be able to help you. Whenever I think about him, memories of incredible feats flash through my mind.”

“I hope so. I’m tired of hating my own mind,” Sara said with a last sniff. “Are you in love with this Regan?”

I gave her another small smile. “I’m not sure. I’m not sure about anything sadly. Maybe? I certainly feel indebted to him.”

Sara jumped to her feet. “I’ll try hard to control myself. So, we can both meet this Regan!”

I got to my feet to just as the boys were coming back from around the corner. They both had very serious looks which made me worry about what blocked out path. We had only encountered one monster so far and Nero had turned it to slag in seconds. Surely, if it was a monster it wouldn’t be that hard to deal with.

“We have a problem,” Yuno said his eyes going to mine and Sara’s locked hands for only a second. “There is a group of people up ahead.”

“Is that bad?” I asked. I didn’t exactly know the situation down here. Plus, it could be people looking for us.

“Well. It’s a group of dark elves and Fallen rose members. Usually that would be a mix for a long drawn out battle. The fact they were only talking leads me to believe the situation has changed down here. Probably due to your friend, Regan,” Nero said starching his chin.

“Could we try just talking to them?”

“I was actually going to suggest that. I just wish we knew more about why they were out here. This is considered a no-man’s land for the Beneath races.”

“No time like the present!” I said and strode forward. I didn’t hide the sound of my approach and when I was within eyesight of the group, maybe ten minutes from the bend in the tunnel, they were all ready for combat.

I walked forward with my hands in the air. Helios was currently strapped to my back. It had a tendency to make my hands sting. I took in the group much quicker than I thought I should be able. There were nearly two dozen members, with half being dark elves and the others a mix of humans and elves. Though, the humans possessed the same blue hue as me while the elves had a golden sink tone.

“Stay right there! What squad are you affiliated with?!” a man in an azure robe said his voice echoing unnaturally down the tunnel.

I thought about how to answer. Clearly, they thought I was with Fallen Rose. I couldn’t decide if it was safer to let them continue that thought but decided against as I wouldn’t know the first thing about their culture. I cleared my throat. “The surface?”

The man looked to a dark elf that must have been his counterpart in the squad.  She was an ebony beauty and that’s from a distance. In fact, all the dark elves were quite a sight. They whispered something amongst themselves before they lowered their weapons slightly. “We are approaching. If you make any move to attack you will be met with deadly force,” the man called.

“You got it!”

The group moved up until they stopped a few meters from me. The two leaders moved up. “You said the surface. Explain.” I felt it from down the tunnel, but I could really feel it up close. This person was powerful. Glancing at all of them, I felt I was going to be crushed by the pressure of their collective mana. I couldn’t understand how a city of these people living together didn’t feel suffocated all the time.

“My companions and I were pulled to the Beneath during a battle that was taking place on the surface.” I motioned for the others to come out from around the bend. While the rest of the of the people tightened their grips on their weapons, the leaders looked like they weren’t worried about a thing. “We are just trying to find a way to the surface,” I explained then my stomach rumbled loudly. “Well, more urgently food.”

Chapter 9

Regan

After everything had been settled with the cores, I observed the captured trolls and kobolds for a while. I wanted to interact with them, but that was easier said than done considering they wanted to rip me to pieces every time they saw me. I supposed it was only natural given that I massacred their force mostly by myself.

The trolls weren’t much for intelligence but were amazing in the body department. They could easily tear mithril in half if given the chance. It required them having access to their mana, but still was a frightening prospect to think about. The only reason I was able to beat them was the speed at which my minigun fired projectiles. Any slower and they could have recovered the damage before it was fatal.

In fact, I recovered some tissue samples from the dead trolls from the battlefield and found it was still alive. Given a mana supply, I could see it being able to regenerate. A lot of interesting ideas came to mind as I had examined the sample but would have to wait until I had a bit more free time to play around.

“What are we going to do with them?” Anubis asked. We were in the observation room of the cells. I had to get creative to truly lock the creatures up. They just generated too much mana.

If it weren’t for the mana absorbing cuffs and collars, the concentration of mana in the room would likely kill a normal mortal. Not to mention the taint that seeped into the ambient mana as I watched. I saw how it would be near impossible for a civilization of these races to develop on the surface.

The taint from the ambient mana would cause all sorts of mana manifestations to occur. Given enough time, the natural laws that governed the physics of this world would start to bend. Being underground being surrounded by millions of tons of rock and consequently terra mana would greatly dampen the affects.

Terra mana was the one element that there could never be enough of. I had studied magic and the branches of mana extensively since I came to this world. Terra mana was the closest thing to an all-purpose absorber that one could get in this crazy place. Even if it grew to too high levels, it would be absorbed into the ground to strength the planet.

I came out of my thoughts and looked at Anubis. “That is the question, isn’t it?”

“I could try to talk to them. They might respond better if it was someone other than father,” Anubis suggested.

“Yes… Go ahead and try to talk to them. I want to finish this as quickly as possible,” I said with a nob.

If we could settle this, then for all intents and purposes the north would be fully under my control. I was sure there were hidden elements of necromancers that would need to be tracked down, but I could assign Anubis and Julie to it. They were basically designed for that after all.

Anubis moved out of the observation room and strode into the cell. The kobolds immediately started to hiss at him, but at least they didn’t start throwing themselves against the cell bars. He slammed the butt of his scythe on the ground to gather all the attention.

“I want the person in charge of this force!”

The room quieted down as the kobolds looked to one another as if unsure of what he was saying. I knew that wasn’t the case though as Anubis had the dungeon language magic tied into him. He could speak to just about any races on the planet thanks to the person who created the dungeon system.

It took a few minutes, but three kobolds were moved to the front by the others. I couldn’t really tell the creatures apart from the others. These did seem to have a metal armband around their forearm. Anubis locked a chain to their collars and led them out of the cells and into a separate room.

“The master of this place is going to talk you now. You would be wise to remain calm,” Anubis said. He then moved each to a chair and attached the chains to each one. While the kobolds were certainly not strong physically, they knew a tremendous amount of magic. Some spells that barely required any mana. Without all the containment efforts, they would be quite dangerous.

I moved into the room and sat on the other side of the steel table. It all reminded me of the police shows that were popular before Earth really developed virtual reality tech. Once everyone experience being murdered once they became a lot less popular.

“Welcome. My name is Regan. I have a few questions I want to ask you.”

“Deal with evil, we were. Stop us, why did you?” one of the kobolds asked jerking around in his restraints.

“Because not everything was as it seemed. That core might have valuable information that would be lost if you destroyed him.”

“Protect the evil one, you do?” a different kobold asked though the tone and pitch made it impossible to tell the two apart.

“No. Right now I technically control him. Why do you claim he is evil? Because he uses undead?” A completely different society could have developed interesting ways of understanding the soul of a being. Soul magic was very much a thing in this world. I needed to be aware if they had the ability to manipulate said soul.

“Told us, a girl did. That north capital, terra wave caused. Must be evil. Caused much destruction back home, he did.”

I rubbed my chin at that. While I could allow Tzulxuc to take the blame that would serve in future relations going forward. I’d rather tell them now before they found out through other means that I was the cause.

“Actually. That was my fault. I was trying to save my fellow dungeon core and a spell I used had much wider spread affects than I anticipated.”

“Caused terra wave. You did?” the third kobold asked though I really couldn’t tell the difference between the three.

“Yes. I apologize. If you show me to your city. I would be happy to contribute my mana to rebuilding whatever was destroyed. I would rather we work out our issues before this develops into further conflict.”

“Why help us, would you? Threat we, we aren’t to you,” the first kobold said cocking his head.

“Just because you’re not a threat to me, doesn’t mean that I can just ignore the damage I caused. If we can be associates and avoid the death and destruction that fighting would bring then I am willing to help you.”

I would make sure to set up safety measures so that the same situation doesn’t happen with these races as did the Constructs. I really didn’t feel like being stabbed in the back again. I wanted to wait at least a month before the next time. If we started expanding into the Beneath, then that was a completely new political ballfield that we would have to contend with.

The kobolds turned to each other and had was what looked like a telepathic conversation. This went on for close to five minutes before the center one turned to me. “Discuss with Troll Leader, we will have to. Accept truce, for the moment we do.”

“Good to hear! Tell me. How serious was the damage done to your city?”

“City fine. Tsar palace crushed. Tsar not happy.” The center kobold replied shaking his head.

“Did your… Tsar survive?”

“Tier five Tsar is. Walked away wiping dust off, he did.”

“Tier five. He must be quite,” I started to say when I realized what he said. Tier five? I thought you ascended to celestial once you reached tier five. From what I’d learned it was almost forced upon you by some otherworldly force. “Do your people not ascend to celestial at tier five?”

“Forced that. Ancient people did. Not submit we did.”

Hearing that, I felt like I was one puzzle piece away from understanding the biggest mystery of this planet. I had my suspicions that it involved whatever was going on with the Maelstrom. The fact that free will was such a strong driving force in this world made me question why people were forced to abandon their lives to leave for this Celestia.

“Thank you. Anubis will see you to the Trolls. You will have to bear with me for a few days before I allow you access to your mana again. I will be the first to admit that your peoples are quite powerful and deserve to be feared.”

“Fear natural. Respect earned. Mind, we do not.”

I stood and mentally undid the chains restraining them to their chairs. “Good. Thank you for your time today. May this grow into a fruitful partnership for the both of us.”

Chapter 10

Louella

The Beneath party we encountered took us back to their camp. For now, it looked like they weren’t going to murder us, but that could change quickly. Nero appeared to have some idea of Beneath politics but was seemingly taken aback by the fact the dark elves and the Fallen Rose high races were working together.

The smell of food made all our stomachs growl when we got into the perimeter of the camp. We certainly gained a bit more pep to our step. I almost shed a tear when they led us past the spot the cooking was taking place and to a tent in the back of the cave.

Whoever this tent belonged to was important. I wasn’t sure, but I thought the lining was made from gold and other precious metals. A sigil of a pair of claws laid on the flaps to the entrance of the tent. When we reached it, the leader of the party bayed us to wait while he went inside.

I expected we were going to have to wait, but that didn’t happen. Less than two or three minutes passed before the tent flap opened and we were beckoned inside. An old man and a dark elf sat at a table with a feast set for a king on its surface. I had to be careful or I would start to drool.

We all came to a stop as the pair looked us over. Silence was king as I certainly had no idea who should speak first. I decided to let our hosts make the first move. It seemed like the safest option.

“Welcome to the Beneath, surface dwellers. I am Lord Ferinight. A master of Fallen Rose.” The man gestured to his dark elf companion. “This is Lord Ondre of the house Greywall.”

The two were dressed in fine robes with more enchanted items then I could count. I could see an almost physical aura of mana coming from their bodies. The man had the same blue skin and twisted ears as I did. I felt like he was close to the same age as me, but something inside told me that might not be the case.

The dark elf was also quite handsome, but I knew you could never tell the age of an elf. He could have been twenty years old or four hundred. The dark elf’s ears were a few centimeters longer than a light skinned elf’s. This elf had vivid blond hair that was striking in the dim light of the tent.

“Thank you for your warm welcome. Lord Ferinight, Lord Ondre. We were worried we’d starve before we ran upon your patrol. We know there is no such thing as a free meal so if we can help or repay the debt in some way then we will do so.”

“We have heard some interesting things are happening in the world. High races dwelling on the surface again are the least of our problems. We are still interested in what you’re doing here,” Lord Ferinight said reaching forward to grab a glass of wine.

“The dead stir. The undead that have guarded the Seal for longer than living memory have started to expand their influence. Fire floods the tunnels as none other than Glourios returns to the realm. Maybe our new friend here can explain.” Lord Ondre directed his gaze at me. I gulped as I wasn’t even sure what to tell them.

Nero stepped forward drawing the two lord’s attention. “My Lords. Before you think we’re trying to lie to you. I just want to say the lady here has lost her memories. This is Queen Louella of Vaihdetta, a surface kingdom. There was a great battle that involved many spells. A fire mage used magic that.” He paused as he shook his head with a laugh. “That probably hadn’t been seen in a millennium. Even I tremble at the power she unleashed. Either way, she did not know to control the feedback and the excess fire mana sank into the ambient mana. Glourios used this as a spark for his return.”

“Then why does she bear his mark?” Lord Ondre asked with a gesture at me.

“I don’t know how he came to his decision, but he used ancient magic know only to even a few people of his time to mold her body into what it is now.”

The two lords stared at Nero for a tense moment. I kept count in my head ang we reached five minutes before one of them finally broke the silence. “Very well. I do not sense any falsely from you. Still for her people to leave her behind, she must not be very loved as a Queen,” Lord Ferinight said with a chuckle.

“Quite the contrary. Her people adore her, and it was her sacrifice that saved them all. Not to mention. The soul of metal has appeared.” Nero’s statement caused both of the lords to jump in their seats. I looked at him with a raised eyebrow, but kept my mouth shut. “HE has a keen interest in her majesty.”

“How do you know about the prophecy!?” Lord Ferinight demanded his mana starting to crackle around him.

“That… is none of your concern. Let us just say that I know quite a lot,” Nero replied. He stepped forward again then moved his hands in front of him where we couldn’t see. I felt a small fluctuation in the mana as a glow appeared. The two lords stepped back but nodded.

“We will make sure your needs are met. I wish we could escort you to the surface, but we are bound to our duty here.”

“That is more than sufficient. Thank you.” Nero bowed his head then turned to give me a grin.

“We will call on you later. For now, I’m sure you all would like to rest and eat your fill. Liun. Please escort them to a tent where they might rest.”

“As you command, Lord Ondre.”

We all bowed our thanks to the lords then were escorted out of the tent. The man led us to what must serve as the kitchens in the camp and allowed us to take our fill. I wanted to be reserved but my stomach got the better of me. The two women in the kitchen area also shoved food into our hands even without us saying anything.

The tents they lent us were above most of the others in the camp as well. I was surprised they were going so far out of their way to help us, but whatever Nero had shown them had been effective. I hadn’t truly slept in the past week. Once I had eaten my fill and shown an actual comfortable place to rest. I was out in seconds.

~~~

A town that looked lived in but recently constructed was around me. The road had mud from a recent rain. A few buildings looked to have suffered damage from a fire though which cast an interesting contrast to the scenery.

I blinked and a man was standing in front of me. Shadows of people that I couldn’t make any details out, streamed passed us. The man might have been scary in some regards but I felt… safe with him.

“Oh, that’s right, Congratulations, Miss Viscountess, Hmmm doesn’t seem to roll off the tongue as well as Miss Baroness did,” the man made from metal said grinning.

“Very funny. Just call me Louella,” I replied without a thought sporting a smile of my own.

The metal man swept into a deep bow. “As you so command, My Lady Louella,” he replied before we broke into laughter. The scene started to break apart even as the man started to say something else.

~~~

I snapped awake with images of the metal man, No, his name was Regan, flashing through my head. Whoever he was, he was important to me. Why else would I remember his name before my own? Even when the three said my name was Louella something inside me hadn’t been convinced.

After that dream though. I was sure that it was. I was surer than anything else in my life. I latched onto the dream and refused to let it fade from my memory. So much of everything around me was in flux. I wanted something that I knew was mine.

“Your Grace. Breakfast is ready if you feel up to it.”

I sat up and saw a female dark elf standing at the entrance to the tent. “Thank you. I will be there shortly.”

I got up and straighten myself up as best I could without a mirror. I was sure my hair looked like a mess, but that was the price for sleeping comfortably. I grabbed my staff and moved to join the attendant that stood waiting for me.

She led me to the Lords tent, and I found the others already waiting at a set table. A few more people had joined the two lords from yesterday. I took a deep breath and made my way to the only remaining free spot. Nero looked much cleaner than the last time I saw him. I was impressed he managed to find a way to clean himself in the middle of this camp.

“Welcome, your majesty. I hope you were able to rest well enough last night,” Lord Ferinight addressed me once I sat down. They had given me a spot at the end of the table, I suppose to show me respect.

“Thank you, but call me Louella, or at least Lady Louella. Honestly, I can’t remember being the queen as they say so I’ll feel awkward if you address me as such. Don’t worry. I won’t take it as a disrespect even when my memories come back. Yuno, please remind me if something happens once my memories come back, and I forget I told him that.”

“Yes, your majesty.”

“Very well. Lady Louella. Then we can get to the real discussion.”

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