Dungeon Robotic Book 8 PT 3 (Patreon)

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

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

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

Chapter 21

Regan

After resting with Alara for a few hours, I spent the rest of the day working on her dungeon. I was taking my time on the rest as I didn’t want to worry her. I surprised myself when I realized again how much I cared for her. I felt much better once her dungeon was clear of unholy mana.

We were sitting in Alara’s core room. She held my hands and looked like she wanted to do something to relieve the pain, though we could only let time heal them. Thankfully, there wasn’t so much pain as a numbness. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Now you are back to hundred percent,” I said.

Alara curled up on my lap and leaned into my chest. I smiled as I just enjoyed the moment. I was sure I could just enjoy this for a hundred years if I could. It wasn’t long before Alara was asleep. I would have petted her hair but my hands were still smoking slightly from earlier.

We sat like that for probably seven or eight hours. Alara’s avatar needed sleep before to recover from the tole the unholy mana placed on her in her dungeon. Right now, it was likely because she was just that relaxed. I played my role as bed but let my mind work. I moved throughout my dungeons to make sure everything was good and to find areas that might need improvement.

The link to the other continent was forming slowly, but surely. While whatever was causing teleporting to cease functioning was also interfering with me being able to move my mind between more cores easily, I was working on ways to counter it. The transponders were one way that I might work around it for my cores up here that were all relatively close to each other.

My next goal would be to test if I could alter some of the satellites already in orbit to work as transponders. The Orbital Station might be self-sufficient, but I feared what might happen if they encounter the threat that was coming without me being able to get there to assist. Many of my automata would likely perish in whatever confrontation that ensued. I couldn’t allow that, as they were basically my children.

I would need to go to Steel Spire or create a new Tower where I can build a sort of uplink. I would have to deal with lag as I moved from one core to the next depending on my current location, but it would be seconds compared to the days it took to move my mind currently. My avatar would be left behind as well, but I could create another that was less… godly.

While I was observing my dungeons, I sensed some people enter the lowest floor of my main dungeon. I noticed mainly because they were putting off enough mana to put the town to shame. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to call them walking nukes. I also sensed someone that had been missing for a few weeks amongst the party.

“Alara.”

She instantly snapped awake. “What is it, my love?”

I smiled. “I have guests in my dungeon. Louella was with them.”

“Your mortal. Okay. I’ll come with you!”

“Well, she’s not really my…” I just let it drop and started the hopscotch process that would get us back to my main dungeon. I got a message stating what I already knew as we moved. We appeared in the center tower of the geode that I created in the Beneath. With a quick glance, I found the quarters she was staying in and moved us over there.

Knocking on the door, a boy answered who had wolf features. He was putting off more mana that I expected from someone his age, but less than the other people in his party. “Can I help you?”

“I am Regan. I am here to see Louella,” I replied.

“Lord Regan? I never expected the dungeon host to come to us,” he muttered as he opened the door fully. I looked around as we entered the room.

Louella was sitting on a couch brushing the hair of another girl. The girl had similar features to the boy that opened the door leading me to believe they were siblings. A man walked in from another room that looked like your everyday playboy. That was until I looked at him with my other senses.

“I will question why a celestial is in my dungeon later. Considering you’re with Louella, I will take that as you mean no harm,” I said looking the guy over. He might be hiding his true features with powerful magic, but in my dungeon things like that don’t work. He had three sets of wings with each being a different type.

“Damn. What was that three seconds? I think you’re the first person to see through my magic so quickly,” said the man as he dropped into a chair.

“I know you! You’re Regan right?!” Louella shouted as she pointed at me.

“Yes. You are probably the person that should know that best on this planet,” I replied tilting my head as I looked at her.

“Sorry. My head is a mess. I could barely remember my own name a few weeks ago.”

I snapped my attention to her and scanned her. While I got quite a few readings, I would need to a much more thorough scan to make sure of my findings. One thing was certain. She was close to no longer being mortal. “What happened? You finally decide to go full elemental?” I asked with a chuckle.

“That didn’t take long, but something is telling me that’s not surprising,” Louella replied shaking her head.

I looked the two siblings over again to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Other than obviously being High race beastkin, I didn’t notice anything with the boy. The girl, however, appeared to have another soul attached to her that was leeching out her mana. It looked like it had been so long that the original soul was struggling to continue to fight the infestation.

The soul noticed that I was looking at it and the girl screamed as she held her head. The soul had attempted to bury itself deeper into the originals. “Oh no you don’t!” I said as I rushed over to the girl. The boy shouted but I was too busy to listen. I wrapped my hand with spirit mana that shifted it to an ethereal form. I reached into the girl, feeling bad about the horrified look she was giving me. I grabbed the soul and prepared to pull.

Using my free hand, I created a barely more than frame automaton. Pulling the soul while using mana to protect the girl’s soul, I yanked it free of her. The girl collapsed but her original pale skin instantly started to darken to the golden brown like her brother’s. I turned and slammed the soul into the automaton before it could escape.

“Well, that was close,” I said looking around the room. Alara had a hold on the boy who was struggling to get at me. Louella and the man were staring at me. Both had the ability to see what I had done, with the man being a celestial of some type, and Louella being partial elemental.

“What have you done to her!? I’ll kill you!” shouted the boy. Various parts of his body were starting to change before my eyes. A werewolf?

Louella shook herself and rushed over to the boy. “Yuno! Its okay. He helped her. Look! Her skin matches yours now. Something was inside her.” Her word appeared to help a little as he took a deep breath.

The girl roused after a moment and sat up. Alara released Yuno and he rushed over to the girl. “Sara! Are you alright?”

“Brother. I feel different. Like something that has haunted me for the last decade has lifted from my shoulders.”

“That is actually very close to the truth.” I looked at the automaton. “How long are you going to pretend to be empty. I’ll do myself a favor and melt you down,” I said.

The metal frame shook before it placed both its hands on its head. “I was soooo close! Thirteen years! For thirteen years, I worked to make that girl a perfect new host for my soul!”

“That’s not very nice of you,” I said tapping the blank face plate. “I had another old soul try the same thing. Duilin, poor guy. You’ll never see him again.”

“Duilin! What did you do to the Lightning Emperor!? No! What are you going to do to me?!” The automaton took a bashful stance as it covered its nonexistent parts. “Anything but that you cretin!”

A branch suddenly stabbed through the chest of the automaton. I turned to see Alara glaring at the thing. “One more word about my Regan and you’ll be turned into a cog!”

“Yes.” It replied simply.

“For the time being, I’ll deal with you later.” I snapped my fingers and teleported the junk automaton to a sealed room. I had plenty of them due to encounters with people that were like this. I turned back to the rest of the room. “Sorry about that. I worried that the parasite might harm the girl after it saw that I noticed it. I would have informed you had there been more time. I apologize,” I said bowing to Yuno.

“No. I understand. Thank you for helping her.”

“Now.” I turned to Louella. “What to do about fixing you?”

Chapter 22

Louella

I jumped as Regan addressed me. After what I had just witnessed, I knew that if anyone could help me it would be him, but that still didn’t help to control the nervousness I felt of meeting the only person I could remember. As soon as I saw him, the vague image I had solidified into a striking image.

“Are you… Are you able to help me?” I asked concerned. “Everyone else said it would require going to a source of great mana.”

Regan bent down to look me in the eyes. “Yes. I can see where they’re coming from. That’s actually a good idea.” He paused and I felt like he was looking into my soul. “My question is why you are allowing the mana to fight over you?”

“What do you mean? I haven’t had much say in the matter.” I peered inside myself to watch the flaming pillars form from the globes of floating magma that were in between the two oceans of mana. Arcs of lightning would lurch from the oceans and strike the pillars. After I had found the staff, it had calmed down, but being in the dense mana of the dungeon had caused it to start acting up again.

“It is your body. Even if the manas appear different, they are from the same source. Namely, you.”

“I thought Glorious put the fire mana inside me?” I asked and turned to Nero who was the one that said as such.

“If he put mana inside you it would have killed you. No, he might have changed your shell a bit, but the soul and the mind are the ones that control the mana. He just made the conducting material better suited to fire rather than lightning.”

I screwed up my face as I tried to understand what he told me. It was best to think of it like metal conducting lightning. Some did it better than others. Like how my staff was made from silver which could conduct lightning every well. I paused as I thought about how I knew that.

Turning back to Regan after coming out of my thoughts. “I… think I understand. So, you’re telling me that since there is fire mana inside me, then I should be able to wield it just as well as the lightning mana?”

“In a nutshell,” he replied giving me a thumbs up. “Though probably not as well. You have had close to fifteen years to practice with lightning after all.”

“What exactly does this mean for me though?”

“Well I want to run a few more scans to be sure. Wouldn’t want to cause you to explode would we?”

I grimaced and shook my head at the imagery. “Please no.”

Regan looked at the rest of my group. “You guys going to be okay for a while?”

“This is one of the best rooms I’ve ever stayed it. It would be prefect if there was some wine and women,” Nero said as he leaned back in the chair. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think that chair was a throne, the way he was treating it.

“I can help with the first,” Regan replied then snapped his fingers. There was a thud in the other room along with a small mana fluctuation. “I just made this place two days ago. I haven’t had time to stock it.”

“Dungeons really are the best,” Nero said as he hopped up and moved to the kitchen.

“Now,” Regan said and held out his hand. The girl with him had a firm lock on his other arm.

She noticed me looking. “Only for today mortal.”

I took Regan’s hand and before I could even blink, found myself in an entirely new place. While the room that we were staying in had glass and wood that made it welcoming, this place was mainly white metal and possessed a large amount of light. I had to squint to see. Regan turned and started heading down one of the hallways.

I quickly followed. There were windows that peered in on various things happening. In one room, there was what looked like a glass bowl that floated in the middle of the room. I gulped as it appeared to be full of blood. Regan must have heard me as he turned to look at it as well.

“Ah. That would be your old friend. Quin.”

“What happened? Is her blood worth that much to keep it around even if she’s no longer around?” I asked a bit disturbed.

“What?” Regan asked looking at me with a questioning expression. “Oh, right. Memory loss.” He tapped on the wall and a panel came out. “Quin. Wake up. I have guests.”

The blood started to move and a hand formed that gave the glass a rude gesture. “The blood is alive?!” I asked surprised.

“Yep. She tried to kill you a couple times so don’t worry too much about her. You got her in the end.”

“I… see.”

I closed my eyes and turned to continue following Regan. I really wanted my memories back. I was tired of not knowing what I and everyone else around me had accomplished. We eventually came to a large room that had a something set up in the center that had several disks in each direction.

“I would have moved us directly here, but I have wards set up to prevent teleporting. Had a few of my things walk out over the months from beings that don’t know not to touch things.”

“Nothing too dangerous I hope,” I said.

“Well, one was a body that I’m pretty sure a celestial took over. Not sure what said celestial’s agenda is, but I’m ramping up my celestial defenses whenever I can. Now! Let’s get to work.”

The next few hours flew by as Regan did his scans and tests. I could feel my mana act up during different tests. At times, the fire mana would be reacting, at others it would be the lightning. I did everything I was told to as I wanted to get fixed once and for all.

Finally, Regan turned off the latest machine and gave me a grin. “Alright. I’m sure we can fix you. I got three options for you.”

“Three. That’s quite a lot.”

He shrugged. “I say three but for the most part they are about the same.” He held up a finger. “First. We can channel enough electricity into you while you cultivate to flush out the fire mana. This would essentially put up back to where you were before Glorious got his hands on you. This is the safest route, and would finish your transformation into an elemental.”

I wasn’t sure about giving up my mortality, but if that was the first option, I likely didn’t have much choice. The later options were usually worse after all. “Okay, next one?”

He held up another finger. “Second, and the most dangerous one is we do the same thing only with fire mana. Your body is at tier three, and you would have to cultivate enough fire mana to replace your lightning mana. It would take several days to several months.”

I cringed at the thought of being surrounded by fire for that long a period of time. “Not that one then. The last one?”

He dropped his hand instead of raising another finger. “Third and the option that I feel is most interesting. We combine your manas. Sadly, I’m not sure what exactly will happen.”

“Combine? How would we do that?”

“Using fire mana in conjunction with yours, I will create a micro sun. Then using your lightning mana, you will turn your body into a plasma. If you can balance the heat and the electrical charge. You could reach a power that has never been seen on this world.”

“What are my chances with this option?”

“Better than the second, but a lot less than the first.”

I thought about it then turned to him. “Can you save me if it looks like its about to fail?”

His red eyes lit up and he looked down at the girl next to him. I wasn’t sure if they were communicating or he was just thinking about it. I felt a little jealous that the girl was taking his attention but managed to ignore it with some deep breathes. Finally, he turned back to me. “It would be difficult but given our history and friendship. I will endeavor to do everything I can. Which might, I warn you, result in you getting a shiny new body like this,” he said as he tapped his chest.

I smiled at the warning. At least I will feel better going through with such a change knowing that I will still get to exist. “Very well. Option three then.”

“As always. I like your spirit. Would you like to start right away?”

I nodded. I wanted to get my memories back and I wanted to be in control of my body again. Regan led us to an even larger spherical room. “Wait here Louella. You too Alara.” He said as he motioned for me and the girl to wait while he moved to the center of the room.

“He cares deeply for you, mortal Louella.” I jumped as that was the first time Alara had spoken to me.

“Thank you. I’m not sure given the state of my mind but I think I care deeply for him as well.” I said watching as Regan worked. “He was the only person I remembered after all.”

Alara made a pout that was extremely cute on her. I couldn’t place her age. She looked to be just starting her womanhood, but there was something aged about her as well. “He’s mine and I will fight for him.”

“Umm. I’m not sure if it’s a romantic feeling I have. If I had to place it.” I searched my damaged and partial memories and feelings. As I told her, romantic wasn’t the word I would use when I thought about the feelings I had for Regan. They were certainly love, but different. “Maybe… fatherly? Yeah, I think I see his as a father or maybe a grandfather.” Though to be honest, I wasn’t sure about that.

“Parental. I don’t know that. I will have to ask Regan if that is safe,” Alara said putting her hands of her hips.

“Um, sure.”

A wave of heat interrupted the moment. I turned from Alara to see a ball of glowing light in the center of the room. Beams of energy lanced into it as I felt a magnetic field around the outside that held it all together. Words that I knew but wasn’t sure where I learned them were popping into my head one after another.

A gravitational wave echoed out next that pushed Alara and me back a few centimeters. I gulped as I realized I would be walking into that thing. The brightness of the sphere would have been dying the room white if it weren’t for a blacking shroud that was hanging a distance from the sphere. Regan had created a spell or something similar that was pulling all the light into itself.

Regan walked back over to us with a grin. “I made it more authentic then I’d planned as I’d been wanting to create a sun here for a while but wasn’t sure of the ramification of doing so. This gave me an excuse.”

“Glad I could help,” I said staring at the sphere. The energy moving across its surface slowly. I felt like it should have been a thousand times bigger, but even at this size, was still awe inspiring.

“Is it safe?” Alara asked the question I was too afraid to ask.

“If anyone but her and maybe, three other people I knew were to get near that they would melt instantly to then be crushed. So no. It is not safe.”

“Lovely. What should I do?”

“Head into the sphere. As you move closer balance your mana. Do not try to enter until you feel you are ready. Just take your time. That beauty isn’t going anywhere.”

I gave him a nod, then turned to head toward the sphere. After a few meters, each step grew heavier. For the first time since I partially got my memories back. I started to use my mana. If it really was part of me, then they should work together to make sure I survived this.

While initially the heat didn’t faze me as I grew closer, I began to feel the effects. I used my new fire mana to pull the heat in and channel it around myself. There was a charge in the air. Using my lightning mana, I controlled that and used it to contain the heat. I was doing a decent job, but it was hard to say the energies inside me were balanced.

I took another step forward when there was another gravity wave. Before I could react, the new energy flowed into me as my lightning aura failed to repel it. I grimaced as I thought I was about to fail when I realized that the new energy was causing a reaction in my body that was in the process of breaking down. The last thing I realized was I was pulled into the sphere.

Chapter 23

Regan

The artificial sun only took a bit to make work. I just had to create an environment that promoted pressured fusion. I went ahead and used some of my Adherent mana to make it a bit more self-sustaining. I wanted it to be here after Louella was finished transforming after all.

Everything was going much like I anticipated. Louella made her way closer to the artificial sun quickly. In fact, I was worried it was a bit too fast. I had warned her not to push herself and the last thing I wanted was for her to throw herself into the artificial sun.

When there was another gravity wave, I saw that something wasn’t right. A moment later, Louella appeared to be pulled into the artificial sun. That definitely wasn’t part of the plan. I rushed over to the sun to see what the hell was going on. Worst case scenario, I would be making Louella a new body here in a minute.

I shoved my hand into the artificial sun to better get an idea of what was happening inside. Letting my senses spread throughout the sun, I found more than just Louella inside. There appeared to be a colony or gathering of some sort of entity that was flowing around her. When I tried to wrap my aura around her body to check her condition, the entities swarmed around the tendril and ate it! They absorbed the energy as if it was nothing.

The energy was sent back at me with enough force that I was almost blasted from the spot. I returned the favor and reabsorbed the energy. As I did so, I examined it to see if I could find out what was going on. My energy had been changed, but it wasn’t into anything I had seen before. If I had to label the change, I would say partially celestial, and partially elemental.

I felt a hand on my back and saw Alara standing behind me looking worried. “We may have a problem.”

“Louella?” she asked, worry written on her expression.

Looking back into the pulsing sun. It took a few seconds, but I did see her chest move. The fact she was breathing in an environment like this meant she had already ceased being mortal. Whether she would be the Louella that we knew when she emerged was still to be seen. I gave Alara a smile as I didn’t want her to worry. “She is still in one piece.”

The next twelve hours were interesting. Stressful, but interesting. I refused to remove my hand as I watched the events unfolding in front of me. One of the stressful parts, was I had to enlarge the room as the sun doubled in size. The level of energy at play inside was quite awe inspiring. Mainly for the fact that it was all produced solely by the sun and Louella rather than gathered from hundreds of thousands of people.

At the six-hour mark, Louella’s body vaporized. The heat inside the artificial sun had reached temperatures that worried me as my electromagnetic shielding wasn’t up to the job. I had already begun reinforcing it with mana and it was holding steady, but for how long I wasn’t sure. I would have pulled the plug had I not felt a connection to her still. I knew her mind was still at there in the midst of the sun.

I felt the sun start to expand again as the fusion taking place accelerated. If it wasn’t for the runoff energy I was getting, I might not have been able to contain the radiation and heat from the artificial sun. “Alara. It would be best if you leave. I’m not sure what is going to happen.”

“I will stay. This body isn’t an issue, and the mortal is more important,” she replied as placed her hand on my back. I nodded with a smile then turned back to the expanding sun.

By this point, I had ruled out that the entities were a danger to Louella. In fact, I was sure they were trying to help her transform. My biggest question was their origin, and the relationship that will formed with Louella’s change. For the moment, I was focusing on making sure the artificial sun didn’t go supernova. That wouldn’t be good for, well, Murgin.

At the fifteen-hour mark, the sun pulsed differently then it had been. It had expanded to the roughly a kilometer in diameter. I’d had to completely alter my labs to handle the change. I braced for another period of expansion, but instead it pulsed again and started to condense. The yellow glow grew brighter until it was that a bright white light.

I pulled away from the sun, as I knew whatever it was doing it was in the final stages. I had to make sure the rest of the dungeon, or rather the planet, didn’t suffer due to the change. I grabbed Alara around the waist and leapt back to the outer wall of the containment sphere. I amped up the shielding as much as I could, but it had already been close to the maximum from before. I could have to fundamentally change the laws of physics to make it stronger.

The artificial sun continued to condense until it was just a bit bigger than a person. In fact, I thought it might be a bit smaller than Louella had been. She was tall compared to women on Earth. It wasn’t long before the sphere morphed into the silhouette of a woman. I could feel my link to Louella from the being.

The remaining light suddenly flooded around her and several other silhouettes formed around her. They were about the size of Ignea and Glint, but as they were still more light than anything, I couldn’t make out any details. I was still getting a sort of mixed vibe of elemental and celestial energy. Might Louella have skipped past go and gone straight to celestial?

The woman shaped light started to crack and soon Louella was visible, though her blue pale skin was changed. As light cocoon broke from around her, the pieces didn’t vanish. They stopped falling and started to levitate around her like moons. They soon took the form of small girls that were probably no bigger than a few centimeters each though they looked like full-fledged women that all seemed to echo Louella’s features.

Louella herself landed on the platform that slowly started to melt until I quickly reinforced it. She was breathing in deeply and I could feel the heat around her dying by the second. Her body which had a yellow-orange glow slowly faded until only a golden skin tone remained.

She took one finally large breath that even seemed to affect the gravity as everything was sort of pulled into herself before she opened her eyes. The normal red pupils that had often reminded me of my own were gone. In their place was a glow of a sun. That slowly faded as well as she blinked. Still, her pupils had turned to a ring of bright yellow. Her hair had turned to sort of plasma state.

“Louella? You in there?” I asked carefully. I could feel a connection, but it wasn’t an uncommon occurrence for someone to hijack bodies in this world.

Looking Louella over now that all the changes had settled, I was surprised to only find her High tier four. She was higher, on the tier scale this universe worked with, than me now but given how much mana and pure energy was raging inside the artificial sun, I would have assumed she’d gone much higher.

Louella blinked again before she looked at me. “Yes. That was… a trip.”

“I’d imagine. Do you have all your memories back?” I asked. That was my second worry that this would all have been for naught if she couldn’t recall her life.

“Yes. These beings helped me,” she replied as the dozen tiny elementals, fairies, or spirits all crowded around her face and touched her cheek.

“Can explain what happened?” I asked my curiosity at the unknown getting the better of me.

“Well, to start, these girls are technically your children… our children?” Louella said. A part of me was still happy to see that she could still blush as she said it. The dozen or so beings turned to me with wide eyes before they rushed over and started doing the same thing they had been with her, touching my face and hair. I could sense immense curiosity and intelligence from them.

I didn’t fail to notice the angry Alara right next to me. Rather anger wasn’t the right emotion, I think it was more jealousy then anger. I would definitely have to make it up to her later. For now, I filed away her ridiculously cute pout in a folder, which given the sort of being I was, I was actually able to do.

“Start from where you were pulled into the artificial sun,” I said wanting the full story.

Chapter 24

Louella

I held my eyes closed once I was pulled into the ball of reminded me of liquid fire. I wasn’t feeling any pain, but I thought that was just because my nerves had already been melted. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore and opened them. It was captivating to say the least!

Flows like that in water swam around me that were comprised on what felt like pure energy. I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t being torn apart by the massive amount of energy. That was when I felt someone answer my question only not in words, but in feeling. I received an image of myself, only there was something invisible wrapped around me.

‘You’re protecting me?’ I sent and got back a resounding we in reply. I soon got another feeling or sensation that they needed my help. They were born… wrong, was the best translation that I could put on the sensation I was getting. I sent an image of myself helping them but not being sure how.

The next few hours went by faster than any time I had ever experienced. The beings in the sun taught me about balancing all the forces at play in here. They appeared to do it at an instinctual level. I could feel my power was growing as my understanding of what they were teaching me grew. The beings around me also seemed to grow in power in response.

To balance the two forces, I had to employ a third force, gravity. The beings showed me how to use this force using my own mana. Employing gravity, I was able to bring the forces at war inside to balance. Even then, I had to hold the reigns the entire time. If I relaxed, they started warring again.

They showed me that I had to bring it to a point that the three forces would balance each other. It took me a while to understand, but finally with the use of gravity, I was able to put them into a sort of triangle of one balancing the other. The moment I hit that pinpoint spot, my physical form vaporized. However, I still felt no pain and didn’t even worry about the fact that I was baring my soul to these beings.

That was also the moment that all my memories flooded back into my mind. If I wasn’t in my current state of being, I knew that I likely would have been overwhelmed from the rush. The beings spun around me and reminded me that it was dangerous to let my mind wander in here. The forces might be balancing themselves, but that could change with the influence of the sun.

I needed to recreate my body to be able to leave the sun. The beings showed me images of the form they were supposed to take. I sent my acknowledgement and worked to create the form with all the energy at play. I found that I could easily have reached a level that I’d never even heard spoken of, but I would have to take all the energy in the sun, effectively killing all the beings in here with me.

It might have only been a few hours, but time was funny in here and it felt like I’d known them for years. They were like children to me. I shared the energy with them, creating their bodies one by one as they couldn’t complete this step themselves. There were sixteen of them in total which they told me was a lot less then there normally would be. Regan had used his Adherent mana when creating this sun and had brought them into existence making them basically his children, but my mana and energy had been thoroughly infused with them making them part of me as well.

“And that’s it,” I said as a bunch of the sun spirits sat on my shoulder.

“Damn.” Regan looked at the center of the room where only a small ball of light that was barely larger than a person still remained. Even with all the spirits gone from it there was still a residual reaction. “I would have liked to have done with on a planetary scale.”

“You almost leveled the area, so maybe much later,” Alara said patting his arm.

“Leveled the mountain?” I asked then actually looked around to see that the sphere we had started in was much larger than before.

“Don’t worry about it,” Regan said and held his hand out. One of the Spirits landed on his palm and seemed to smack it. “High five to you too.”

Alara narrowed her eyes and I saw she was restraining herself quite a bit. I hope I hadn’t gotten him into too much trouble. My feelings had gotten a little clearer to myself with my memories back and I realized there was a time I might have been for it, but Alara interrupted those ideas with how devoted Regan was to her. Still, that didn’t change the fact I was happy about these children.

Thinking of them, I got a sensation of hunger. I chuckled. “You guys just ate more energy then most people see in their lives.” I held out my hand and created a ball of plasma. I kept the energy low so that it only glowed a deep red. The spirits swarmed over and started to feast on it by taking handfuls of the stuff.

“Neat. Plasma spirits, or would fusion spirits be better?” Regan said as he watched. “It looks like they are taking in the plasma and using it to fuel the small fusion that is happening at the center of each of them.”

“Sun spirits. They are usually born when a sun is. There wasn’t enough energy in your artificial sun to finish the creation of their physical forms as well as there was no guiding force.”

“Hmm, that makes sense. Suns are usually millions of times bigger. As for guidance, that’s something related to this universe.”

The spirits finished eating then started to drift around me. I looked around as I sorted my memories over the last few weeks. I would need to thank the Argent Lords later. The adventurers really did me a great service by protecting me and bringing me back here. Nero might rub me the wrong way, but if he was willing to go this far out of his way then there must be a bit of seriousness to his claims.

“Who’s running my Queendom while I was gone?” I asked concerned that things were going to be a nightmare when I return. With Regan’s help, a lot of the city ran itself but there was the church not to mention a war with Thonaca that wasn’t going to just go away with me being gone. I knew Regan would let the city fall apart, but he was rather busy with his own affairs.

“Ezal. She and all the surviving members of your border defense made it back to the city. She’s been running it with Valamar’s help ever since.”

“Valamar? I thought he was on a testosterone fueled quest for revenge?”

Regan burst out laughing and kept it up for nearly a minute before he finally stopped. I crossed my arms with a raised eyebrow. “Apologies. He heard about the attack and rushed to save her. He jumped through one of your portals and didn’t think that you might still be around. Ezal doesn’t blame him, but he does feel slightly responsible for leaving you when he might have changed the course of those events.”

“Ah. I see. Well,” I said as I held out my hand and one of the spirits landed on it. “I don’t care about what happened. It led to these children.”

“Would you like me to take you back to the city, or back to the group that helped you here. Personally, I would rather you stay to help me with the negotiations with the Fallen Rose and Nefelume.”

“I will stay. I know Ezal has it covered. She was with me from day one and knows how I like things. A few more hours shouldn’t hurt her.”

“Thank you.” Regan grabbed Alara’s hand and was about to snap his fingers. Something he liked to do when teleporting people when he paused. “You don’t want to see your old friend Quin, do you?”

“Not particularly. Is there a reason I should talk to her?”

“Well. She just hasn’t answered any of my questions lately,” Regan said waving his hand like it was a small matter.

“Are they important? I can if you want me to,” I said moving over to the pair. I had to be careful. My body possessed so much energy, I felt I could send myself a few hundred meters into the air with a simple step.

“About the military makeup of the Deorus.”

“Why do you need to know that?” I asked pausing mid-step. “The demons have been gone for a millennium.”

Regan crossed his arms while nodding. “Yes, but Murgin only defeated their expedition forces. They were powerful enough to get here once, I don’t want to take any chances.”

“I see. Okay, let’s go talk to Quin.”

“First!” Alara said grabbing me by the hand as I walked past her. “You need clothes.”

I looked down and saw that I was indeed nude as the day I was born, though that could technically be today given what just happened. I blushed which sent Regan on another laughing spree. I held out my hand to the dungeon core. “Cloths.”

“As you wish, your loftiness,” he replied with a bow.

I was about to scuff at him when cloths started to materialize before my eyes. Last time he made me cloths, they were ready in a blink of an eye. Since they were forming in such a slow fashion, he must really be putting some serious mana into their creation. While it only took him a minute to create the outfit, a speed which would put most tailors to shame, he was a dungeon core. That was unbelievably slow.

“That… that looks amazing,” I commented.

“Only the finest, since I did almost kill you,” Regan said with a chuckle.

I took the outfit gingerly, while the sun spirits swarmed around it. Just the feel of the fabric made me moan in pleasure. It was so soft, I felt like I might fall asleep just putting it on. The sun spirits also appeared to enjoy the feel as they rubbed their bodies against it. That earned another chuckle from Regan as he made mini version for all the girls.

While they really didn’t have any features that would make one feel indecent, they were still obviously girls from their shapes. He didn’t get as elaborate as he did for mine. He gave them all individual outfits that seemed to suit each of them.

“Thank you!” I purred as I quickly put the clothes on.

“I took a little from all the cultures here on the continent, since I think it won’t be long before you represent them all.” He formed a mirror so I could take in the full effect.

I nodded as I saw what he meant. The top was similar to my last outfit from him in being a tight fitted armored dress. I was thankful that he wasn’t showing off my cleavage. Some armorers liked to leave that exposed unless it was full plate. It shifted as it moved down to a style close to Izora’s country’s. A kimono, I believe.

The way it was connected still allowed me to move easily. Altogether, it made an impression of culture and majesty which what Regan was going for. He kept it blue mostly shades of blue and white that gave one the impression they were looking at a cloud.

It wasn’t only a masterpiece in design, I could tell this thing could take a hit and would snicker at whatever had tried to damage it. Knowing Regan, it might actually snicker too. The mana flowing through it was high enough that I was sure tier two and lower mages couldn’t even consider trying to hurt me. Not that my new body would allow that anyways.

“It’s lovely,” I heard Alara say though I thought it might have been through gritted teeth.

“She does wear it well,” Regan replied with his hand on his chin as he looked me over. “I still think the flower dress I made for you is better though,” he added quickly grabbing her around the waist and picking her up princess style.

Alara squirmed before she buried her face in his shoulder. “Are you guys going to flirt all day or are we going to talk to Quin?”

Regan looked between me and Alara. “I don’ know. It’s a hard choice.” I threw my hands up and left down the passage that had appeared while we were talking without them.

Chapter 25

Regan

I stared after Louella then looked back to Alara. “I think she’s jealous,” I said with a snicker. Alara proceeded to smack me over the head.

“You are going to make a child with me.”

I coughed, surprised at what had come out of her mouth. “Um, right now?” If I remember correctly, we would have to give up half our cultivation base to make a child as dungeon cores. Of course, that was a dungeon core offspring. We could make children that weren’t dungeon cores, but I don’t think that had the same sort of power that shew was going for.

“No. I know its dangerous right now,” Alara replied looking at her hands. Sadness rolled off her like a physical force.

“I’m raising all sorts of flags saying this,” I mumbled then looked Alara in the eyes, “but when everything is over and it looks like there will be actual peace for a time, then yes. I will make a child with you.” I leaned down and kissed her, hopefully calming her down a bit.

We pulled apart though we were both reluctant. “What do you mean by flags?”

I smiled as I started down the passage to catch up with Louella. “Its something from my old world. There were games that people played where your goal was to raise flags that showed your progression through the game.”

“I see.” Alara cuddled in closer. “I would like to see your world someday.”

“If it was interplanetary, I think it could happen someday, but as its in a different universe it might be a bit harder.”

I remised about my old world, the conversation bringing it to the surface of my thoughts for the first time in months. I was usually so busy that I didn’t have time to think about it. I wonder how things have progressed since then. If time was traveling the same speed then the machines should have set up a colony on Mars by now. The humans should have took their first steps to bringing Earth back to normal. I just hoped they learned from their mistakes and put war behind them.

I cleared the thoughts away. I likely wouldn’t ever find out unless I asked Creation next time I saw him. I probably should be saying if, but I just knew it was more a long the lines of when. I was still surprised Destruction and Creation allowed me to escape. While it certainly wasn’t easy, it wasn’t nearly as hard as they could have made it.

We caught up with Louella outside Quin’s cell. It was dangerous for anyone of flesh and blood to go near her, but the three of us should be plenty strong enough to deal with her. Two of use were either constructs of mana and the last while she was technically made from flesh, I wasn’t sure it was real flesh.

I placed my hand on the panel. “Quin. We’re back.”

This time the puddle of blood formed an actual body. She sat in the bowl looking at the wall. “If you’re going to keep me here, at least give me something to do! I’m so damn bored!”

“Just be glad you’re not with my other prisoners. I don’t torture in the traditional way, but its plenty affective,” I sent back. The necromancers that I had locked up is Steel Spire were likely never going to be able to return to society. Even if I found a way to strip them of their unholy mana, they were so broken now that there was no saving them.

“Keeping me bored all day is an affective torture method.”

“True. I could find ways to make it more enjoyable for you,” I replied then pressed another button on the panel. Spots along the wall lit up before streaks of flame jetted across most of the free space in the cell. Only the exact center was safe, but even then, the heat in the room will soon reach levels that would kill most mortals.

“You know this doesn’t bother me!” Quin shouted. It was true, while her body would certainly take on burns and she could feel all the pain that came with them, the moment the heat dropped enough she could repair the damage quite quickly. While she had said the she was on the lower end of the demon caste, if that was the case it would make dealing with a demon invasion a nightmare and one that could be close to unwinnable.

I removed my hand from the panel and turned to Louella. “As you can see, not getting much from her.”

Louella snickered and all the little spirits around her mimicked her. “Sounds like you guys are getting along swimmingly.”

I sighed then placed my hand back on the panel. “You willing to talk today?”

“Just release the poison, so I can end this suffering!” Quin shouted back draping herself over the glass chair like a drama queen.

“She wants to die?” Louella asked with a skepticism in her voice.

“Yeah. Or at least that’s what she’s portraying. I left her down here for a few weeks, and I guess the boredom is getting to her.”

“Just give her something to do.”

“It’s not that easy. Anything I put in there gives her something to use to escape.” Quin was pretty versed in magic. Few people were her match after she had been alive for over a thousand years. I had to seal the room completely to make sure she didn’t escape.

“Can you make one of these walls transparent and still maintain the protective spells around it?”

I shrugged as I didn’t see the point. “I suppose.”

“Just make one of the walls transparent then add one of this Apps over here at least she can watch something.”

“That’s a great idea! I’m ashamed that I didn’t think of it myself.” I quickly made the changes. Then pressed on the panel. “Alright, I have a deal for you. I’ll relieve your boredom if you answer my questions, but first a peace offering,” I called in before I pressed another button turning off the flames and another that materialized a cow inside the room. The cow had barely finished forming before Quin wrapped her liquid form around it.

There wasn’t a trace of the animal once as she reformed into her human shape, only instead of being child-sized she was closer to teen sized. “God. I haven’t had anything to eat in weeks. That really hits the spot,” she said licking her fingers, though I didn’t see the point considering there was nothing on them.

“You willing to talk?”

“First, I want to know that you actually have something that will help relieve my boredom. I’d hate to agree to this and only get to see a clock or something equally mundane.”

“Fair enough.” I went ahead and had the wall change so that she could see through it. On the wall, I turned on my DungeonTube. I made it so that adventurers could learn from others. Only the first twenty floors are free to watch. You had to pay mana to watch anything deeper. Otherwise people might attempt to clear floors they weren’t ready for. It was sort of a benchmark and a way to make some extra mana on the side.

I made it so that a spell would track her line of sight so that she could select videos while making sure to disable all the other features. It was mainly communication, but I didn’t want her talking to anyone that she might try to convince to help her.

“That is amazing! Is it similar to Crystal sendings?” Quin exclaimed as she watched the video I pulled up as an example. A party was working their way through the junkyard level at the top of the dungeon.

“Sort of.” I paused the video. “Now. Do we have a deal?”

“Yeah. Yeah. Though I need remind you that a thousand years or more have passed. My information is a bit outdated.”

“That’s not a problem. Your society was already advanced when you came here. If I know the history, I might be able to predict how it developed.”

“I see.”

The next two hours passed quickly as I recorded everything she told me. As I thought from the answers I got from before she turned suicidal, Deorus was similar to Earth with only a few dynamic changes. Mainly there were individuals that couldn’t be killed. The chaste is based on your level of mortality.

As there were several ways to kill her, Quin was ranked quite low, but given her regeneration and other mimic abilities, she made a great infiltration unit that was sent ahead of the other soldiers. What I found interesting was that the Demons didn’t age and they found it incredibly hard to reproduce.

“You say incredibly hard, so if a thousand years go by, how much would your population increase?” I asked after I heard that.

“Increase?!” Quin parroted before she broke into laughter. It took a moment for her to calm down. “Unless something changed. There wouldn’t be an increase. We barely reproduce enough to replace the members that are killed during infighting. With the world spirit dead, I honestly find it hard to believe they are still alive.”

“I have reason to believe they have found another way to get here. I just don’t know how many they are bringing this time.”

“I guess our great leaders couldn’t stomach a defeat and are coming for round two. Typical.”

“You’re sure that there is no other way for your kind to get here?” Louella asked.

“Why fix something that had been working for t of thousands of years?”

“True.”

“They were smart enough to make and use the first method, I don’t doubt they are smart enough to come up with another method. Thank you for the information of the military force. I will prepare as if at least triple this is coming.” I pointed at the screen. “Just look at what you want to watch. The screen will register it after five seconds.”

With our questioning done, we moved to the only zone in my lab floor that you can teleport in and out from. I took us back to the hotel that the automaton had put Louella and the group she was traveling with. A quick glance through the structure showed the members were enjoying themselves.

Louella knocked on the door were the three adventurers were staying before she made her way in. Yuno had a large smile and the girl Sara appeared to be enjoying herself they danced to some music that was playing. Some Jazz which I wasn’t sure existed in this world. Nero sat in the same chair as before reading one of the books that came with the hotel room. I had sort of just stocked it, so I wasn’t sure what it was about. I only knew it wasn’t anything dangerous as those are all black marked in my mind.

The two stopped and rushed over when they saw Louella. The girl threw herself at Louella and they hugged affectionally. Nero got up and made his way over right behind the pair.

“Yuno, Sara, Nero. Thank you for the help you’ve given me the last couple of weeks. I’m not sure what would have happened if not for you guys.”

“Then you’re all better?” Sara asked her.

“Yep! I remember everything including that I had Nero sent to jail for his continued efforts to court me.” She looked up at the man who was rubbing the back of his head. “Still. I’m not sure I can thank you enough for helping me. I might consider that dinner you were asking about.”

“Really!?” Nero turned to Yuno and smacked him on the shoulder. “See. I told you good things would happen!”

I moved forward. “Since you have done Queen Louella a service. As her friend I will give you a reward each for your help.”

“We can’t! You’ve already done us an equally great service by helping my sister.”

“Now, now. That was that. I would have done that for anyone that had asked. If good deeds aren’t rewarded then there is less of a reason to do them.”

“Then,” Nero said seriously causing everyone to turn to him. “Help me get back to Celestia so I can kill a certain bitch.”

Chapter 26

Louella

Silence reigned as we all processed what Nero had just said. Thanks to Regan, I knew he was a celestial, but that raised the question of how he came to be outside of Celestia. Celestials weren’t supposed to be able to enter this plane of existence easily. The church of Lelune explained that this was why her followers in Celestia couldn’t help out in times of great misery.

“That is an interesting and not to mention tall order. I have been wanting to visit Celestia for a while now myself,” Regan said with a nod. “Very well. Let’s make this happen soon. Do you have a time limit?”

“Within a hundred years,” Nero replied his frown growing even deeper.

“Ah, I think I know who your target is. I must say that woman has some issues,” Regan said with a chuckle.

“How are you going to get to Celestia? Surely you’re not already about to reach tier five?” I asked wondering what all I had missed in my time down in the Beneath. I knew he had reached tier four, but I wasn’t surprised by that. I thought he’d actually been a bit slow to go from three to four given his nature of breaking the natural order of things.

“No. But, just like any place that exists, there is more than one way to get there. Plus, given that our friend is here with us like this. I have a feeling that Celestia is more of an illusion. A fancy prison to keep beings that have more power than they should locked up.”

“My father used to say that. That Celestia was a prison. I never really understood what he meant.”

“How did you reach Celestia?” I asked curious. You had to have a large following of worshippers or at least inherit one when the person ascends to tier five. I couldn’t imagine Nero being able to manage all that.

“Ah, I’m unique!” he replied pointing at himself with a large grin. “When most children are born they start at the same starting point. That is almost always the case unless your parents are ridiculously strong and some of their cultivation carries over to you in the womb.”

“Right.” I remember my father telling me that I was slightly above average when I was born. I was still well in tier one, but that always made me feel better. Maybe my mother had something to do with it.

“My parents were supremo strong, like end the world strong. Thus, I was born at tier four and inside Celestia.”

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Yuno said with a hand on his face. I gave him a look and he shrugged. “I mean can you see this man calmly cultivating for years to reach the level of strength he has?”

I glanced at Nero then back at Yuno. “I guess you have a point.”

“While I don’t typically mind people talking about me. They usually have the courtesy to wait until I’m not in the room,” Nero said with a huff as he crossed his arms over his chest. I had to be careful not to laugh considering he was quite handsome, so it only made it worse. To add another nail, the sun spirits copied him and started to huff as well.

“All in good feeling,” I replied waving him off. “To make it up to you I’ll even go to two dinners.”

“Deal!” Nero shouted before I could say I was just kidding. I smiled and just let it go.

“This is all very fun and should be a tv show. We have other things to worry about. If you guys are all settled and ready. I would like to talk to the leaders of the party you came in with,” Regan stated moving out of the room.

I turned back to Nero. “Nero would you mind coming along? I think having you there might make everything a bit smoother since you talked to them before and they seemed to respect what you told them.”

“Of course,” he answered with a bow.

We moved out into the hall where Regan was walking towards another set of doors. Two guards, one a high human the other a Dark Elf stood outside. They appeared quite nervous being in the strange environment and to be honest, this was one of the nicest places I had ever seen. That was with a castle built by Regan. He really out did himself with this place.

“Evening gentlemen! We were hoping the Lords would be up for some talks,” Regan said holding his hands out nonthreateningly.

“Nero. Who are these individuals?” one of the guards asked looking at Regan and Alara. When he turned his gaze on me, I was surprised. I didn’t think my appearance had changed all that much. The sun spirits buzzed around me like they had unlimited energy.

“You are in the presence of Lord Regan, locals call him the Machine Father. Otherwise known as the dungeon core. The woman latched onto him is another dungeon core though I have not been privileged to hear her name. Lastly, you have Queen Louella, returned to full facilities.” I just shook my head at the introduction. Nero had managed to make it all sound sarcastic.

The guards did look skeptical, but the High human nodded. “Very well. I will inform the Lords. One moment.”

Once he left, Regan gave the Dark Elf a once over. “Tell me. Do you know how the dark elf race came into being?”

“Excuse me?”

“No, well. Your aura is very similar to another person I know.”

“I’m sorry. The dark elf creation is a well-known tale. One day, two elven brothers came to a cave. One wanted to stay in the light, the other wanted to explore the dark cave. The separated and have since been of two different clans since shortly after the elven race came into being.”

That was the story told by the elves on the surface as well. There wasn’t much anger between the two races. They generally just left the other alone. Though, I do know that some surface elves are jealous that since entering the Beneath their brethren have much higher mana. Though, that was only the case for elves in positions of power usually.

“I see. Thank you for sharing,” Regan said.

A moment later, the door opened, and the guard motioned for us to join him. We made our way into what appeared to be another hallway that had several rooms attached. It appeared to be a suite for visiting dignitaries and their retainers. I knew some lords in Lecazar would travel with several nobles and housing them was always a headache for the lords they visited.

At the end of the call was a set of double doors. Another pair of guards stood on either side, but the doors were open and we were shown in. The two lords sat at a table that was set for a feast. If you went by their actions, you’d think they’d never had anything so delicious. Knowing the abilities of Regan’s people, that was most certainly the case.

We took a seat on the opposite side of the large oval table. A door that had a guard next to it opened, and an automaton came out before making its way over to us. I could barely tell it was an automaton at first, but some lines on the face that I felt were intentional gave it away. Otherwise, it was a perfect looking maid.

“Would you like anything to eat or drink?”

“Just some juice and maybe some fruit,” I replied while Regan and Alara just waved her off. Nero as for some ridiculous order that took a full minute for him to get out all the way. “Do you really need all that?”

“I haven’t had a good meal in weeks. I will take advantage of this while I can,” he replied sticking his nose in the air, obviously doing his best to make it seem like he was entitled. I just laughed at the hilarious action.

Turning from Nero to the Lords, I stood up. “Lord Ferinight, Lord Ondre. I want to thank you for helping me reach my destination. Your help allowed us to reach this place much easier than had we been forced to travel the Beneath on our own.” I stepped back and bowed to show I really meant what I said. I might still be in a dark tunnel questioning everything that was going on around me if we hadn’t run into their group.

“We are happy to see that you are well,” Lord Ferinight said then turned to Regan and I retook my seat. “And lord host. This place is a wonder. Is it really true that we can trade for food grown on his floor and other above, or even things from the surface?”

Regan nodded. “Indeed. As you can tell, I want this place to be a center of trade and talks for not only the Beneath but also for the surface races. I feel this system put in by someone is working to keep everyone apart. While it has worked for a long time, I feel there is an approaching danger that we won’t be able to handle if we’re all divided.”

“I see. Any idea what this danger might be?” Lord Ondre asked. I wasn’t sure but something in his voice told me that he knew more than he was letting on. Though I could just be growing paranoid thanks to my visit with Quin and the talks with Nero a few minutes ago.

“Deorus.”

“You must be joking. Its been almost two thousand years since the Demon wars. We barely managed to break their hold on our planet the first time!” Lord Ondre said shaking his head in denial.

Regan laughed and leaned forward lacing his fingers together. “There is a saying from where I come from. If at first you don’t succeed, try again.”

“A good saying. One that some people I know would do well to think about going forward,” Lord Ferinight said with a chuckle. “That said, I am inclined to agree with Lord Ondre. While our records of that time aren’t in the best of shape, we still know that while it took everything we had to defeat the demons and force close their portals. They were left with nothing that could help them return. That sort of travel takes mana on the scale of a planet after all.”

“I am sure that is the case as well, but as I’ve repeated over the past few days. A society capable of doing something like this is capable of coming up with another method of such travel,” Regan said rubbing his temple and Alara patted his other hand. She likely had been with every time he’d explained it so far.

The two lords looked at each other sharing a look. “This is all more of conjecture at the moment. We have very little authority to form an alliance, which is what we assume you are aiming to do. Not to mention, that while threats from another realm are certainly a problem. We have problems down here.”

Regan looked to me with a raised eyebrow. I nodded in reply. “He’s right. The High dwarves attacked us on the way here, and then of course, there is Glorious that tried to change my body.”

“He didn’t do anything did he?” Regan asked.

I blushed at the implied direction of his question but shook my head. “No. He was busy trying to reach his master. I think he planned to use me more as a conduit for more power.”

Regan nodded then turned back to the lords. “We will see what is happening with the Beneath. While I don’t want to get involved with the High Dwarves, Glorious is a home-grown problem. We will handle him.”

“He is set up several hundred kilometers above the Seal. Even if fire in the undead’s weakness, he will have trouble getting to the Seal quickly.”

“Best not to dilly-dally then,” Regan said.

Chapter 27

Regan

The talks with the lords went about as expected. I was a bit disappointed they seemed unwilling to believe that the Demons could possibly return. Sure, it was only a theory, and if it wasn’t the demons and some other threat, at least we would be prepared then if they encountered a separated force on the planet that was more determined to kill each other.

One thing I was absolutely sure of. Something was coming and in universe were magic and monsters were real, I didn’t want to be caught without a way to defend against the coming danger. Hell, it could be something capable of eating the planet itself and we’d all be screwed.

I cleared the thoughts and looked at the lords. “Feel free to stay here until the problem is handled or return to your peoples to report about this place. All good things I’m sure,” I said with a grin. I noticed Louella sigh and had to suppress a chuckle.

Lord Ferinight cleared his throat before he replied. I couldn’t help but wonder if he wanted to stay longer. That was generally the reaction to things I created. “We will be deciding what to do soon. If we leave, we were wondering if we could leave from the east. It would help us avoid many of the obstacles in the way of reaching our homes.”

“Sure. There is an entrance to the city in each of the cardinal directions. I have changed the security protocols so that it is easier for people to approach, but I would still stress caution when approaching one of the entrances.”

“Understood.”

I stood up with Alara. “Well then,” I said nodding my head to them and making my way out. Louella and Nero followed behind, though Nero left on his own back to his group. Once we were down the hall a bit, I looked to Louella. “Not bad for first contact. Or I guess second contact if you count Rens.”

“How is the he?” Louella asked while we walked. “I had asked him to help protect the town before I left. Strange creatures were appearing and wreaking havoc.”

“Yes. That was partially my fault, but I’ve fixed it. As for Rens, I might have scared him a bit a few weeks ago. His staff was a shard of a dungeon core after all.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Louella mumbled as she shook her head. The sun spirits mimicking her. Those little girls were going to end up annoying someone. Though, I felt sorry for anyone that tried to pick a fight with them. Even though the were barely bigger than a hand, they were packed with enough mana to give most tier three people a run for their money. If they worked as a group, they were likely to be even more dangerous.

“Do you want me to send you back to the city? I’m sure there are a few people that would be more than happy to see you.”

“Yeah. I would appreciate that.”

I waved and sent her to her room in the castle. I made sure to message the automata that work the castle to inform Ezal and Valamar so they don’t think there is an intruder. That done, I turned to Alara. “Finally alone,” I said reaching down to take her hand and bringing it to my lips to place a kiss on the back of it.

“You’re important, thus always busy,” Alara said but she was looking away and I could almost hear the pout in her voice.

“I’m important and you’re important to me. Thus by the law of importance, your more important.”

Alara snickered before she turned back to me. “I’m not sure that’s a real thing, but I’ll believe you for now.”

I’m not sure how it happened, but we eventually made it to my core room. I suppose as a dungeon core, being near my body was calming. Ever since I made this avatar body, I was finding I spent more time in it then as the consciousness as the dungeon. I was still fully aware of most of what went on in my halls, but it was still strange at times.

I spent the rest of the evening with Alara. In the morning, she returned to her dungeon. She had fully reclaimed it with my help, but that meant that she would need to develop it more. Being in my dungeon and being around the mortals had given her a lot of ideas that she wanted to add to her dungeon.

We were also talking about her creating a sub dungeon like mine. While they did take some mana to accelerate their growth, they were useful in moving around among other things. There were also a few experiments I wanted to test with her help, but that could wait for down the road.

Waving to Alara as her avatar broke into dust, I turned to the east and moved over to Steel Spire. It was close enough that I didn’t even need to work about a transponder, but the link between my main core and this one was probably the most solid of them all, besides the core at the center of Louella city.

I looked at the surroundings from the top of the platform. This world was beautiful even if I was more inclined towards modern architecture. I could still appreciate the beauty of nature that hadn’t been strangled by humans yet. My time with Alara only served to strengthen my admiration.

Turning from the beauty, I looked upon another form of beauty. Steel Spire was fifteen hundred meters in the air. Only a few buildings ever reached this height on Earth, and I’d managed to do it within a few months of arriving on this planet. Looking back, I couldn’t help but wonder how my situation might be different if I had toned it down a bit back when I was starting out.

I created my jets and flew up to the top of the tower. I needed to create a special array so that I could bypass the interference that was plaguing my teleport and portal spells. I would have to create a matching array on the station, but I could reach it manually with my avatar body. My flight back at the other continent showed I could reach tremendous speeds and altitude with this body.

Had it been Earth, I would have escaped the atmosphere during that test, but Murgin was several times the size of Earth. That included its atmosphere. There had to be some form of magic, or the inclusion of magic allowed the planet to reach such a massive size and still allow life to flourish. The fact that gravity still clocked in at about the same as Earth’s was only the first hint of this fact.

Work on the array went quickly. I already had the transponder’s blueprint, it just needed to be modified to make it the distance of the station. By incorporating light magic and technology, I could easy handle that. Soon, three massive dishes stood at the top of the tower, with an assortment equipment making it quite a sight.

I leaned back to take in my handy work. “Not bad for a day’s work,” I said with a chuckle. Then laughed as I thought about the fact that I was about to send my mind through what basically amounted to a satellite uplink. It reminded me of the virtual reality games that I played for a time while trapped in that prison of a tower.

I still needed to create a receiver on the station, but that would only take a moment now that I’d built it once. My nature as a dungeon core allowed me to reproduce things in a fashion that put most craftsmen to shame.

“Master!” I turned when I realized that Julie was standing behind me.

“Julie. How goes the hunt in the north?” I had assigned her and Anubis to track down any remaining necromancer cells. It was a grueling task that would likely take them months. I did wonder why she was here, but I was sure she was about to tell me that herself.

“It is proceeding well. The dungeons of the north have assisted us in this endeavor with many of them coming out of hiding. As you yourself are aware, nothing is better than having a dungeon when checking lands.”

“Isn’t that the truth. Then what brings you here?”

“I came at Duilin’s beckoning,” she spit at the name. Julie generally didn’t like being ordered around. Likely, she had only agreed since it would allow her to see me. Given her nature, I might need to devote some time to her every now and then, so she didn’t lose it. She cleared her throat. “Duilin believes that Wrakras is about to awaken. I was the only that could travel fast enough to bring you word. We were near the border checking the old Dwarven city after all.”

“About time. I was being to wonder if he was trying to make up for lost time. That’s good to hear. We will fly over to make sure nothing happens.”

Julie squealed in joy as she hopped up and did some sort of dance. I just watched on until she calmed down. “Right away! I would nothing more than to fly with you, master!”

I glanced back at the array, but decided that Wrakras was more important. Depending on how he took his body, he would be a force to reckon with. We were needing more of those as the days moved on. I moved into the air and Julie joined me with her giant black wings. “Right then. Lead the way.”

Julie took off, and I quickly followed her. It wasn’t long before there was a sonic boom as we broke the sound barrier. Julie seemed determined to show off so I allowed her free reign and kept pace with her. Soon we were going speeds that would have allowed for escape of the planet’s gravity. I always enjoyed actually pushing my body to the limit like this.

We reached the mountain pass in less than an hour. A true feat given the distance of the location. The dead scar flashing under us. Looking down, I saw that the undead the Beneath Expedition forces by the trolls and Kobolds had already been recreated. I would need to find more ways to get the unholy mana that tainted this area under control or it might snowball into an even bigger issue.

Following the pass, we eventually made it to the north territories. Julie turned further east. We crossed between fifteen hundred and two hundred thousand kilometers which reminded me just how large the continent was compared to the continents on Earth. It wasn’t long before part of the fleet came into view.

A large ruined city was under it. It made Louella’s city look like a toy. The city covered the land from edge to edge of my vision. I couldn’t even imagine how long it would take to survey the place. Not to mention, it was a dwarven city, so there was even more underground.

“Did this place have a name?” I asked as we came to a stop midair. I couldn’t help it, the sight was that breath taking. On the portion of the wall we could see, there were massive statues that seemed to rebel against time even with the damage they’d suffered over the years. Only that, but I could feel magic radiating from just about ever direction in the city.

“City of Iron Hammer. Once the greatest city that a dwarf could visit. Legend has it that a mithril mine allowed it to grow to this size.”

“A mithril mine?” Taking in the sight, I certainly believed that something of that value would be required for it to reach this size. A few minutes passed as I admired the view.

“Wrakras, master?”

I looked away from the sight and nodded. We flew over to the ship that housed the man. I’d had left him back at the dungeon if I’d known it would take him this long. One of the deck workers ran over to meet us as we touched down on the deck. “Machine Father.”

“Good work. Do you know if Wrakras has awoken yet?”

“Negative, he was still in the process during my last update.”

I nodded and thanked him. All the automata on a particular ship got an update of situations happening onboard every half hour. That kept things running efficiently. The captain and several of the officers had the ability to issue an early update if it was necessary. There was almost minute by minute updates during combat.

Julie and I made our way down to the area that Wrakras was being watched. Duilin came into sight right where I left him as we rounded a corner. I could feel plenty of mana radiating out from Wrakras’s room. The unholy element had been removed and much like Julie, the dark element had been enhanced.

“You sure he’s about to awaken?” I asked as I moved to stand next to Duilin. “If so, there is a battle that needs both of you.”

I still wasn’t sure of the extent of the Greater Elemental Glourios and his minions. I could walk right over them as I had of many of the forces on Murgin already, or they could be a whole new playing field. I wanted as many of my forces as I could.

“Trust me. He is close. His mana pattern shifted early in the day. And before you ask, no there has been no outside influence.”

“Good. I hate when my things are taken by others.”

“You know, many people might find the fact you call them things offensive, but I can tell you say it in a way that means you care,” Duilin said deadpan while having not budged a single muscle.

“Are you… are you being sarcastic?” I asked.

Duilin burst out laughing reminding me of a Viking or something similar. “Come on, boss!” he shouted slapping my back. I had to wave Julie off as an almost physical wave of ‘pissed off’ radiated from her.

I put some force into my arm and returned the favor, maybe accidentally causing Duilin’s head to smash into the wall. Though, he was a mechanical construct like me, so it didn’t do much other than dent the wall. I could tell he was about to respond when a pulse of mana from the other side of the wall drew our attention. Wrakras had sat up and was looking around.

Chapter 28

Louella

I looked around my room and couldn’t help but feel it had been longer than a few weeks. Even though most of it was exactly as I left it when I heard that Thonaca was attacking. I slid my hand along my desk finding the nostalgic feeling I was getting strange. A rush of footsteps told me someone was at the door just before it burst open and Ezal, looking very pregnant.

“Louella!” she shouted as she rushed at me.

I met her halfway and hugged her carefully. The sun spirits joined in as they all attempted to hug her with their tiny forms. With a smile, I broke the hug and took her in. Just like the room, it felt like it had been several months and not weeks since I last saw her. Another set of footsteps echoed just before the door was thrown in again and Valamar stepped in.

He looked much different than the last time I saw him. I knew Regan had mentioned that he’d altered him at his request to gain more power, but this was a bit much to take in. Mainly the fact that he had four arms now. “Louella! I am certainly glad to see you alive and well.”

“You, too. Never thought I’d see a man back from the dead. How is Bruce taking that?”

“The lug is doing fine. Watches me and Ezal like a hawk though. I’m worried the man might have permanent issues now.”

I laughed at that then looked back to Ezal who was silently crying as she held my hands. “And how much longer are you going to make me wait to see your baby?”

She snorted which didn’t helped her face much. I grabbed a cloth and dried her tears. “Not much, I wager. Any day now,” she replied. We moved to the couch and took a seat. Now that her tears had mostly stopped, she took in my appearance and all the sun spirits around me. “Why do these ladies look like mini you?”

“They were sort of born with my help. I suppose their sort of like your staff, Regan and I brought them into the world together. His mana and my will.”

Ezal sighed and shook her head before she looked down. “Just couldn’t let me be the first, could you?”

I held up my hands worried I’d upset her, but she jerked her head up with a grin then started laughing presumably at my expression. “Don’t worry. I understand that these things generally happen outside your control.”

“You little minx. You had me worried,” I said with a sigh as I dropped back in the couch.

“I must say, your mana pressure is almost overwhelming though. I think some of the lower tiered people are going to have a hard time being in the same room as you,” Valamar said interrupting our back and forth.

“I knew it was stronger, but is it that much so?”

I concentrated and focused on my aura. Sure enough, it was like I was trying to crush the room with my force. While I could contain it to an extent, there was no way to reign it in completely. This was one of the reason that the higher races were forced to live in the Beneath. If we weren’t in Regan’s dungeon right now, there would be all sorts of abnormal changes happening around me to due to the influx of my mana.

“Now that you mention it. I do feel like I’m being smothered. I can resist it but only a bit,” Ezal commented.

“I’ll need to speak with Lord Regan about something that can hopefully dampen the effects. Hard to be Queen if I cannot meet with my subjects,” I said shaking my head. “Speaking of. How is the situation here?”

“To be honest, it got tense around here for a few days after your disappearance. It was lucky that we only suffered minimal loss during the defense of the border or there would have been a civil war in the valley. We had the force to put down the problems before they grew to big to contain. Too many self-entitled nobles that lost everything in Lecazar and some of the fanatics at the church causing problems.”

“How is Thonaca responding to their loss?”

“Well that’s the thing. They are claiming they defeated you in a stunning move that brought our forces to their knees by taking credit for the fire elemental that we inadvertently summoned.”

“Figures. We will probably have to march ourselves and smack the grin right off the king’s face before they would say otherwise. I’m sure the church is backing them all the way.”

Ezal nodded with a frown that answered my statement. “They didn’t suffer as my causalities as they should have while the Elemental was raging above the surface. Our spies have reported that they only lost close to a hundred thousand of their forces. That’s including the ones we defeated with our forces. Something just doesn’t add up.”

It wouldn’t surprise me if the church was hiding more secrets than they let on. There was also the problem that many of their locations were infested with necromancers. Who knows what kind of unholy magic they might be using in their halls. “What was the final count of the enemy force that attacked us?”

“The numbers might not be accurate but close to three hundred thousand. They rushed the valley, so it wasn’t their full strength. Our recent reports have it that they’ve already recovered their numbers.”

“I’m sure they commoners aren’t happy about being drafted to fight a war in the middle of winter. Do you think they’ll hold off until spring like we originally thought?”

Valamar leaned forward this time. “Its hard to be sure, but I believe so. The king is already claiming victory. Without you there to refute the claims the people are believing that he was just in his actions.”

“Well then!” I said standing up sharply. “It sounds like we need a party.”

The next few hours moved quickly. I employed Regan’s automata to hurry everything and the party was ready in un-mortal speeds. I stood on the balcony overlooking the city and found that my senses had vastly improved. I could hear people talking on the streets with ease, and if I focused on someone, my vision would zoom in on them as well as my hearing.

I would have to blink to return my sight and hearing to normal. The benefit, I supposed, was that I had nearly perfect control over it. I could set my senses to whatever level of sensitivity that I wanted. I just wasn’t sure if it was from my transformation into a elemental or from reaching tier four.

“You guys enjoying that?” I asked looking at the sun spirits. They were basking in the evening glow of the sunlight. I found they were pulling the energy in and converting it to their own. Not that they needed anymore energy, but I wasn’t going to tell them to stop.

After a moment, it looked like they had their fill as they started flying towards me. I nearly jumped as one rubbed up against me and I felt a rush of energy flow into me. It looked like they were sharing it with me. Soon all fifteen had shared their energy with me and I felt energized like I had just woken up from a very good night’s sleep.

“Thank you.” I gave each one a kiss on the forehead.

There was a fluctuation in the mana behind me. I braced myself, but I recognized it as Regan’s pattern. He stepped out with two men, or automata. One reminded me of an ancient god of lightning that was talked about in children’s stories. The other was a handsome man with long black hair. His pale skin seemed to draw in the light around him.

“We heard there was a party and I thought we should drop by,” Regan said moving from behind the two. There was another fluctuation in the mana and Alara appeared in the air before she slammed into Regan.

“Regan!” The two men moved out of the way as he was knocked over. “Regan!”

“Alara. While I’m happier than anything to see you after a day apart, we have an audience.”

“Don’t care!”

The two men ignored them and moved over to me. “So, I hear you brought ole Glourios back huh?” the large man asked. “Ah, Duilin’s the name. We sort of met before.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Yes. The old soul that tried to take over my body.”

“Guilty.” He held up his hands. “Hey, the boss has helped me out though. So, no hard feelings I hope.”

“If Regan vouches for you then I suppose,” I replied then turned to the other man. “You look familiar.”

“I would hope so.” A familiar voice came out of the man’s mouth.

“Wrakras!” I exclaimed. “You look… good.”

“Master helped me acquire a new body, as well as a new power.” He looked me over which felt much different now that he was so handsome. Maybe I was a bit shallower than I thought. I coughed to clear the thought. “You look quite different yourself, your majesty.”

“Thank you. Not sure I would do it again if offered to be honest.”

“Sun spirits! Damn! This place gets more interesting every second,” Duilin shouted as one of the girls was circling him.

“What do you know about sun spirits?”

“Not much. Really only their existence. They usually only live in the sun after all. Where’s their mother spirit?”

“Mother spirit?” I mouthed then thought about it. “Probably me,” I answered.

Duilin looked at me with a critical eye. “Yes, I can see the touching of sun energy on you. The undead are going to loath you.”

“Why?”

He laughed which managed to shake the room. “Because unlike the light magic, you’ll make true light. Cleansing light.”

“Well isn’t that an unexpected boon,” Regan said as he walked up to the group. Alara was hanging on his back from his neck. She had a very pleased grin on her face.

“A walking anti-undead weapon is nice to have around,” Alara added.

“Thanks,” I said with an exasperated smile. “Time to get this party started. I want those assholes from Thonaca to be able to hear it.”

“I could make that happen,” Regan said with a straight face.

“No, wait what? Really?”

He burst out laughing with Alara joining in. I shook my head at his joke then turned back to the balcony. Channeling some mana, I took to the air. Soon, I was above the entire city, with Regan next to me. He created a platform out of something transparent. While it looked like glass, it felt a hundred times stronger than that.

“First we need to do something about that mana pressure or you might cause more than a few hearts to stop during the party.”

“I’ve been trying to suppress it, but the moment I relax it rushes out. Think you can whip up something like last time with my dress?”

Regan looked at me with a critical eye. “It would be difficult to suppress this constantly. Let me see your staff.” I held Helios out to him. He placed his hand on my head and I felt some of my mana leave my body though it was quickly replaced. The silver staff soon turned gold as it was infused with my aura. He handed it back to me.

While I was holding the staff, my mana pressure was reduced to a more manageable point. When I released the staff, my aura spiked again. “That’s going to give someone a nasty surprise on the battlefield.”

“All part of the fun,” Regan said then gestured with a sweeping motion to the city. “The stage is set. Whenever you’re ready.”

“People of Vaihdetta!” I started and my voice was amplified to reach ever person in the city. Soon I found heads popping out of windows and streams of people crowding the street. “Thank you for loyalty in these troublesome times. Rumors of my death have been circulating as of late. I wanted to assure everyone that I am very much alive!”

I gathered some of my mana then sent a bolt of golden lightning into the air. It arced straight up until it struck Regan’s barrier where it scattered in every direction. Soon, the golden lightning made it bright as day. To top it off, I released my full mana pressure that I was keeping contained. It was like the gravity in the valley increased by a few fold. “I am alive and much more powerful. I assert again that everyone under my banner will see my protection and their freedom for suppression.”

Regan stepped forward and raised his arms. I wasn’t sure what he was planning until above the valley dozens then hundreds of airships started to appear. It was quite the display and soon the sky was blocked by the mass of vessels. The concentration of mana in the area grew to levels that probably would have caused adverse effects had we not been in a dungeon field.

“The Queen of Vaihdetta has spoken. As the Machine Father, she has my protection and support. If you foolish mortals wish to continue to press your luck, then one day do not blame me if fire rains and metal replaces flesh. It is only her life that protects you from this fate.”

I felt mana pulse from one of the ships then a beam of energy lanced through the air towards where the fort had been. Soon, there was an explosion that formed a dome of flames that broke apart quickly. I was a bit worried we’d have another Glourios, but I also knew that Regan was more aware of mana taint than anyone as a dungeon core.

My senses let me pick up the worry and tense atmosphere among the people. I flew up to attract everyone’s attention to me. “My people. My friends and family. As long as I live, I live for all of you. Vaihdetta will grow and prosper that is set in stone. How big and wonderous it grows to be? That is determined by all of you. One person can only do so much after all.” I paused for effect. “But enough of the heavy stuff. For tonight, we celebrate my return!”

The sun spirits all flew up and light flooded out of them. All around the city, Regan’s children moved to set up feasts and drink. Music and light spilled from places around the city that Regan set up. The music was light and upbeat. It made one want to dance with your loved ones. It seemed to call for a good time and for everyone to forget the hardships of life.

Regan moved up next to me. “That went well.”

“Were you serious?”

“Very.” With that he vanished.

I shook my head and flew down to the crowd. I planned to see as much of my city tonight as I could. My people needed to know that I was back. Plus, I wanted to enjoy the sight and knowledge of what I was always fighting for. I didn’t want the city to be a blank sheet that faded to numbers and figures on a sheet while I sat on my throne in my castle.

People rushed up to me and I addressed each person. Some of them wanted me to bless their children, homes, or farms. At least for the children, I would touch their foreheads and say a prayer to Regan. He was well on his way to becoming a true god. I understood the links a little better now and knew that people believe in him went a long way to getting him there.

The sun spirits also appeared to be having a fun time. They would play with the children. Some playing tag or other innocent games. I wasn’t sure how many people I talked to this night, but each was bright in my mind. The party was well received, and many people had a good time with their friends and families. All in all, it was a good night.

Chapter 29

Regan

I teleported back to the balcony where the others stood. I felt that the speech would leave a strong impression on everyone watching, which was just about everyone in the valley since I used my dungeon to make sure everyone heard every word said. Even still I was sure there were going to be pockets of people that resisted Louella, just because they believe in Lelune, who was currently our biggest obstacle in getting all the people in the valley to cooperate.

“You two can join the party if you’d like,” I said looking at Duilin and Wrakras.

Wrakras suddenly kneeled in front of me looking more serious than I thought the man was capable of looking. Coupled with his new good looks, he was quite the weapon in the visual department. “Master. I would like to return to my task of protecting the girl… the queen.”

“Oh? Why is that?”

“Truly?” He paused as if mulling something over. “When I was a boy, I once saw the Emperor. Despite the lords and the actions of some of his children, the emperor was a noble person. I felt that from the queen. I want to make sure nothing happens to her.”

I took in Wrakras. It was hard to believe that less than a year ago this man had tried to take me prisoner. I was a firm believer that people could change, though. He had proven himself several times over in protecting Louella and following her orders. It wasn’t a lie to say that I trusted him.

“Very well. However, the final decision lies with her.”

“Thank you, master.” Wrakras stood up and stepped backward into a portal of liquid shadow. I scanned it quickly and found it linked to the same realm that my lower floor connected with. I would need to talk to him about the properties inside.

“Now.” I turned to look at Duilin. “What about you?”

“This body able to taste mead?”

“Not quite like how your mortal body would have been able to and you won’t get drunk but yes.”

“Excellent!” He charged the balcony, then leapt easily clearing the distance to the street. With a roar of laughter, he made his way over to the nearest place giving alcohol away.

“I find I quite enjoy him. He is rather simple and a nice change of pace.”

“My love. Are you going to leave those up there?” Alara asked pointing at the sky full airships.

“Haha. I’ve been caught.” I waved my hand and the ships ‘performed’ a jump leaving the sky clear. It was just a large-scale illusion to strike a bit of fear into the mortals to listen to Louella. Even the explosion was an illusion. I basically just turned the dome around the valley into a giant television.

“Naughty, but I still love you,” Alara said planting a kiss on my cheek.

“I was going to tell you later. I didn’t want to ruin Louella’s big moment.”

“What are you going to do now?”

“While we could join the party. I’ve been putting off going to the station for too long.”

“Okay. I have some things to handle back in my dungeon. Will I be able to use the bridge you’re building to reach the station myself?”

“Yes. Due to the bond our dungeons share you should be able to. Just let me test it before you do though. I would hate for anything to happen to you.”

“Yes, I know, my love.” She whipped around my neck and stole a kiss before she faded into sand in the wind.

I chuckled at her actions. She was getting more playful by the day. Though that might be her true nature. I stared up at the night sky then just shook my head before I moved back to Steel Spire. It was time to leave the atmosphere and get up to the station.

I layered mana over my body then changed my feet to create rockets. Getting into a superhero pose, I blasted into the sky. Murgin’s atmosphere was over twice as encompassing as Earth’s but using magic, I could cut out most of the factors that would keep me from leaving the planet. It still took me several minutes to reach the altitude of the station, my satellites coming into view before it did.

I felt gravity’s pull less and less until it was barely a tug. I oriented with the station and accelerated in its direction. Soon, I could feel the sensation of being in my core’s aura. Though it was much too soon. I reached my core’s aura roughly a thousand kilometers from the core itself. A good chunk of Murgin’s Thermosphere was in the sphere. I came to a stop then teleported to the station’s core.

Taking in the changed core, I realized what happened. It had reached tier three end before my main core broke through to tier four. When that happened, the already ready to break through core, changed with all the mana it was getting from outside the atmosphere. Rather than the blue energy that my main core was emitting, this one was emitting an almost purple light it was so dark from the sphere. This one reminded me even more so of a Dyson sphere.

Now that my link was solid with it, I was getting all the information on various things happening in the station. For one, the Ly’call population had increased a hundredfold, and were taking up two whole housing districts. The gnome population was the same as when the portal system imploded which was a good thing. They were in a third district alongside the goblins.

Good thing I installed all those systems to keep any mortals living on the station alive. Had I been supplying the air, it might have vanished when my links were blocked by the disturbance. That would have been a slow and horrible death for all the air breathing members of the community on my station.

I teleported over to the bridge. The large facility had several hundred automata working around the clock to track and control all the functions of the station. The First of the station, Siasho if I remember correctly, would be the only one that could authorize anything that happened in the station. There was a murmur once I appeared. I noticed that there was much more individuality since the last time I was here.

That was generally the case if I left my automata alone for periods of times. Their personalities and unique traits would start emerging. Especially for these units as I created them to grow with that in mind. I was always studying how my children could become better after all.

“Machine Father! We’re so pleased to finally have you return.”

“Siasho. There was unexpected trouble at the moon location. The main fleet was put out on the other side of the planet and even more trouble ensued.” I waved my hand to dismiss it. “Tell me the happenings of the station.”

“Yes, father. The ships you sent right before your… departure arrived at the Ly’call moon and provided aid as instructed. It was about two weeks ago that the strange temporal flux that swallowed you and the others up started to sheer the side of the moon. None of the infrastructure was in danger, but an unforeseen side effect was the little atmosphere the moon had was pulled in by the gravity.”

“Which you then ordered an evacuation. Very good. Did you manage to get everyone off the moon?”

“Yes. Some quakes during the last of the ferries caused a few Ly’call to lose their lives, but we managed to get most of them off before it was too late.”

“Good job. I will need to apologize to the elder. I promised him that I would save his people, but I wasn’t any help.”

“You might not have been here, but we wouldn’t have rescued them had you not told us to protect them. We are your children and handled it as we felt you would.”

Looking around the bridge, I saw the other officers were nodding along with Siasho. A feeling of pride welled in my chest. I was happy to see my creations, my children developing along this path. My children on Earth took a much bloodier path to reach even a partial understanding with the others on their planet. Though, in hindsight, the guilt lies with me. How could a human create something better than a human if he failed at being human?

I grinned and patted Siasho on the shoulder. “Very good. I am so proud of you all. Keep up the good work.”

They all saluted with a closed fist to their chest in prefect harmony before turning back to their stations. I moved over to the throne like chair and placed a hand on the back. It had been a while since I sat here.

“Machine father?” Siasho asked probably due to my hesitation.

“It’s nothing. The last couple weeks were dangerous, not just for me but for all of my children I brought along with me. I need to do better.”

“As I’ve heard you say before. Information is key.”

I gave her a smile. “That it is.” I dropped my hand from the throne. “I’ll be creating a network array on the station to further link my cores. The temporal interference is even interfering with my consciousness being able to transfer between cores. I’ve modified the transponders from the Northern lands to allow short-range teleporting, but I must stay in my avatar body.”

“Do you need any assistance from construction?”

“No. I have the blueprint saved in my mind. It will only take me a few minutes.”

“Understood.”

I was about to teleport when I thought about what might be the source of the interference. “How has the mapping of the solar system gone?”

“It is finished. The sun is a type M. There are fifteen planets. Though Murgin is the only that appears to have a habitable atmosphere. Of the fifteen, nine are gas giants. The other seven are rocky. Murgin is actually the smallest of the rock planets at least from our observations. We are smack in the middle of the goldilocks zone at approximately two hundred ten million kilometers from the star. The nearest planet is seventy million kilometers.”

“Fascinating. With magic involved, I’m curious to see if any other life might have formed on the other planets.”

“We aren’t receiving or detecting any signals that might indicate as such, but we have begun work on scanning the galaxy for stars that could potential support life.”

“Keep me informed. I’ll want to take a look at those reports later.”

I teleported to the bottom of the station. While the top looked like a city with bubbles of air covering large buildings that rivaled skyscrapers back on Earth, the bottom was mostly flat. There were massive ion thrusters that could move the station. Currently, it was locked in place due to the core, but I was the best at breaking things. I would eventually figure out how to move it.

Moving toward the center, I overlaid the blueprint for my array onto a clear spot. I would have to remove some instruments to allow the array to fit. That was easy as a dungeon core. With a wave of my hand the equipment was stored away and replaced it with the array. My mana dropped by a few million, but that was a drop in the bucket.

Switching to dungeon awareness mode, I linked the array to my core so that it would be fed power. With a bit more manipulation, the array activated and after a few seconds I felt a link with the array on Steel Spire. There were a few seconds of lag, but I could mentally sense everything happening in the core’s influence.

I created a few biological samples then teleported them to the other core. Mentally, I could connect but I didn’t want to send any mortals in case something… bad happened. When I detected them alive and well, I knew it was fully ready. I snapped my fingers for affect and teleported down to Steel Spire. Other than the few seconds delay, everything worked wonderfully.

“Now for the rest of my cores.”

Chapter 30

Louella

I helped a few stragglers return home as the sun came over the mountain. I wasn’t sure I ever felt so… at home. I had always tried to make it feel like home, but a lot of the time I felt like an outsider. I knew that was the case a year ago, but most of the people living in the valley have only called it home for a few months maybe that fact let me feel a bit more comfortable.

Speaking of home, my father was still locked up in a cell at the jail. I had practically forgotten about him, but my memories returning made me remember. Part of me wanted to rub what had happened in my life in his face. It was thanks to him trying to use me as a pawn and tossing me out when he got a new wife that I came to be where I was. I should thank him.

If there was anything I was sad about when it came to my family, it was that my brother was likely dead. He was a minister in the capital thus was likely killed by the attack. While we weren’t overtly friendly with each other, with each being raised more like a tool with a purpose, I didn’t hate him either. The last time I really spent any time with him was almost ten years ago, after that it was more glances in the hallway as we passed each other from time to time.

With nothing I could do to change the past, I just shook my head. Walking the streets of the city while the sun slowly came up was nice. Only a few people were emerging from their shops as they readied for the day. Most were likely to sleep the day away given how much alcohol was drunk last night.

“You seem sad.” I looked around but didn’t find the source of the voice. “Up here. No one ever thinks to look up.” Looking up, I saw Sophie floating in the air above me. She had grown a little since I last saw her, but she still possessed a sort of out of touch with the world expression. I flew up to the roof she was floating slightly above and joined her to watch the city come awake.

“Sophie. Did you enjoy the celebration?” I asked doing my best to smile for her.

“I watched. Sister has gotten good a tracking me down, so I’ve had to get creative.”

“Don’t you have the whole dungeon to hide away in? Some of the floors are almost the size of nations now.”

“She put together a Lecazar Guild. Its her way of remembering and honoring the place.” Sophie made an annoyed face when she mentioned Lecazar, I guessed the memories of her betrayal were still strong for her.

“Interesting. I’ll have to go see her soon.”

“She has a manor in the south section of the city. They managed to buy it with gold they earned from the dungeon.”

I wanted to comment on the fact that she knew quite a bit for someone that didn’t want to be involved with her family and old nation. Still, the plates and glint of metal from her body told me she was firmly with the dungeon. “I see. Thanks for letting me know. How is Lord Regan treating you?”

“Alright. I haven’t seen him in a few weeks. I mainly spend time with Anna and Gray if I’m not alone or just float around the libraries reading.”

“The elf and golem. Good that you’re learning. Knowledge is power.”

“Are you going to answer my question,” she paused before giving me a sarcastic smile. “You know, since we’re talking about learning.” I couldn’t help but feel I was talking to a tiny Regan.

I coughed before I shrugged. “I was thinking about my family actually. You had a sister betray you, my father basically did the same. My brother is likely dead, and my mother has been gone for almost fifteen years. So, yes I suppose I’m sad.” I looked around at the rising folk that were wiping their windows or sweeping in front of their stores. “But I feel like I can call these people my family.”

Sophie looked around before she shook her head. “How can you trust them? What if someone offers them more power and they betray you?”

“I imagine that is a question that plagues everyone, but if you stop believing in others. You’ll miss out on the ones that won’t betray you. Remember, everyone might have the same question about you after all.”

Sophie stared at me then shook her head. “I will try to consider it, but I think I will have issues trusting anyone. At the least, I doubt anyone will ever truly capture my heart.” With that, I felt a circle of gravity form behind the girl, and she shot off, moving at speeds that would probably kill a mortal.

“Okay! Good talk,” I called after her even though I knew she was long gone. The sun spirits all clustered around me and patted my face. I gave them a smile. “It’s okay.” I took one final look at the sunrise, then turned towards the castle. It was time to get to work.

Dropping down on my balcony, I found Ezal waiting for me. It was still early in the day, so I had to wonder when she had got here. She closed the book she was reading and stood as I walked into the room.

“Your majesty.”

“Ezal. It’s too early in the morning for that. Just call me Louella and sit down! You’re pregnant for Regan’s sake!”

She did as she was told and sat back down. “Sorry, Louella. You’ve just changed so much that it seems like you’re a different person.”

“Well I’m not. You’re my old friend.”

She gave me a smile then bowed her head. “Thank you.”

“So, what’s first on the agenda?”

~~~

The rest of the day flew by, but at the same time I felt that it dragged on. It wasn’t surprising that many of the ex-nobles sought a meeting once they learned that I was not only still alive, but back in the valley with more power than one person should rightfully call their own.

The merchants were happy to see me though. Several of them worried about what would happen if the valley went to someone else. Thonaca was the only other nation on the continent right now. The Lelune Theocracy was still in the process of establishing itself. Hard for a nation to make claims when their entire northern border was overrun with undead.

I was meeting the last person for today. Brine Wintergrasp. He was a big help during the battle with Thonaca by supplying us with potions. Many weren’t used then but rather afterward while my forces were in the ruins of Ferias and holding off the undead. I owed him a large thanks for his service.

“My queen. Please come in!” Brine said as he greeted us himself at the entrance to his manor. Ezal had already rewarded him with some land for his service, but I still want to come personally.

“Thank you, Sir Brine.” I motioned for my guards to remain at the entrance then followed Brine inside. The sun spirits zipped around the hall as we walked. They appeared to enjoy seeing new things.

“You may drop the sir. I have officially requested to be a citizen of Vaihdetta. Whether I become a member of the nobility of your country is still to be seen.”

“I think you’ve done more than enough to earn it. You did technically supply us against your own nation.”

“No! I will not have that. A good noble always earns his rank from the start of his career in the nation. I have already been compensated for my actions by the Fire Bringer.”

“Fire Bringer?”

We reached what I assumed was his sitting lounge. Taking a seat, he asked a maid to bring us some snacks and tea. Honestly, I’d had enough snacks over the day to last me a lifetime, but I couldn’t be rude. Plus, the sun spirits apparently had bottomless pits and could consume whatever was put in front of them.

“Lady Ezal. Stories of her summoning a great fire monster to crush the enemy army have spread throughout the city. She is quite worshipped by the fire mages.”

“I see.” Ezal hadn’t mentioned any of that, but I guess sometimes we need a third person to really see what was said about a person.

We talked for close to an hour. Brine was making some real headway with his potion research. With him joining Vaihdetta, it would be a real blow to Thonaca. He did mention that he had some family that he needed to get out of Thonaca, but their situation wasn’t dire. They would be fine as long as the war didn’t develop much larger.

“I want to start a magic research facility in the city. I was wondering if you’d like to join it. I can promise you greater access to resources.”

Brine didn’t say anything at first. That’s how you knew he was intelligent. He didn’t jump at the offer without considering the risks. “I will consider it. I was offered something similar in Thonaca and in Lecazar but rejected both at the time.”

“Don’t worry. I will not be angry or anything if you say no so, take all the time you need to consider it. I want to push magic and our understanding of the world back to the point it was over a thousand years ago, and then passed that. Lord Regan’s libraries help, but we need to do our own part.”

“On that point, I can say we agree. Alright. I will let you know within a fortnight.”

“Good to hear.”

Glancing at the clock, I found that it was time for me to leave. There was one more place I wanted to go before the day was over. I thanked Brine for the evening and made my way out. My guards took up their positions around me and we made our way to the military district.

Ezal was working hard on managing all the city, but I guess she was still a guard at heart as she had expanded the district to almost twice its size. The area was planned to support about that much expansion, but it was supposed to be a gradual thing that happened over time. Still, war was a constant threat, and I couldn’t blame her for her efforts to protect the city and people.

As we were walking, I noticed there was a strip of what looked like metal that was supported by beams placing it several meters in the air. I sensed mana coming from it but not much to be anything too extreme. “Captain. What is that?”

“One of Regan’s automata announced it. Something called a train. It leads to a large structure that was constructed on the edge of town a few weeks ago. Metal railings extend off towards Lezacar from the structure. I believe it is supposed to allow people to get around the city much faster.”

“Do you know when it will be operational.”

“No, your majesty.”

I nodded and decided to ask Ezal about it later. We soon arrived at the jail which had also grown much larger since the last time I saw it. Patrols and guards were stationed to cover every crevasse of the place. With my absence, a few people thought they could take over as the ruler. Ezal didn’t allow that to fly every long.

One of the guards at the entrance rushed over to me. “Your majesty! How can I be of service?”

“Yes. I would like to visit my father. Duke Coates.”

“Understood, your highness. Follow me.”

We made our way inside. I was always impressed with Regan’s buildings, and the jail was no exception. Most of the rooms were of a better standard than many commoners would be able to enjoy under some lords. The jail was bright and dry as well which allowed many of the prisoners to actually get healthier.

I was led down several hallways and more than half a dozen security checkpoints. I felt like we were in the deepest part of the jail when we finally arrived at my father’s cell. Unlike most of the other cells, this one only had a peep hole, and the rest was solid steel. The words at the entrance to this section made more sense now. High Security.

“Which one is my father’s?” The guard moved to a door and pulled back the peep hole. I glanced through it and saw it was indeed my father. “I want to talk to him.”

Two of the guards moved to either side of the cell and inserted a key. They turned the keys at the exact same time and the lock popped. A third guard twisted the handle while the first two guards held the keys turned. It was an amazing setup that would keep a lot of people from being able to get out.

Once the door was open, a barrier formed in the place of the door. I could tell that I would be able to enter and leave, but the occupant of the cell would receive a nasty surprise if they attempted to touch the barrier. I motioned for my guards to wait for me, as well as the sun spirits.

Stepping into the cell, I got the first real look of my father in several months. The last time I saw him was when he attempted to kill me and my guards when the merchants first arrived. I was a lot weaker than, but still more than a match for my father.

“Who are… you?” father asked weakly. It sounded like he hadn’t spoken in weeks. He was only wearing a black set of cloths, that while some of the best clothing that you could find in a market, they had seen a bit of a rough life. His hair was unkempt, and he had a beard. The cuffs on his arms and legs kept his mana almost to the point of non-existent.

“The queen, but more to the point, you daughter.”

“Louella?” Father’s eye grew wide as he looked more fully at me. “I can see… it. Just barely. What have you changed… into now?”

“That’s neither here nor there. I came because I wanted to ask you something.”

“What?”

“Did you ever see me as more than a pawn?” I asked but then shook my head. It didn’t matter. It was pointless to come here. I turned to leave. With my memories so fresh, and the day of seeing my people, I guess I couldn’t help but ask.

“Yes. No man can have a child without feeling something.” Father said as he sat up and leaned against the wall. “Now that I’ve lost absolutely everything. Ferias is a ruin. My son dead. Lecazar gone. My wife,” He turned and spat at the wall, “Slept with a guard to escape and abandon me here to rot. And my daughter hates me. Ironic isn’t it?”

“Some would say you deserve it.”

“Aye, I will not deny that. I was so caught up in the affairs of the nobles that I was willing to let my daughter be killed. That is why no matter what you decide for me, I will accept it. Keep me here for the rest of my life or take my head on the block. Either is acceptable and understandable.”

“I haven’t decided anything for you. You will understand if I take all this with a few grains of salt.”

My father chuckled then coughed harshly. “No. I understand.”

“I’ll leave you for now. It might be a few months before I remember to visit you again.”

He smiled and nodded. “You look well, daughter. Try not to change again before I see you next.”

I exited my father’s cell and the guards closed and locked it. I turned to the major. “What’s this about his wife sleeping with a guard?”

“That. Yes, we caught them less than an hour after they made a run for it. Lady Ezal ordered them both executed.”

“I see. Too bad I couldn’t be there.”

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