Dungeon Robotic Book 8 PT 4 (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 31

Puppet

I glanced around the tunnel corner. A dwarven patrol marched with little regard for the noise they were creating. A stark difference compared to the other members of the Beneath that we’d met so far. The fire elementals and the dwarves were engaging in a war that challenged everything in the Beneath.

I could understand the fire elementals. They were relatively mindless and only a higher ranked ones would show any intelligence. I wasn’t sure without some evidence, but I assumed it required a decent amount of mana to either summon or call one of the intelligent ones to his command. Either way, they generally attacked anything that moved.

The dwarves, however, were much more intelligent than that according to the reports and information we’d gotten from the Dark elves and Fallen Rose members. They were almost acting as bad as the elements and were attacking at the slightest provocation. Which was usually just coming into eyesight of them.

That being said, they had expanded their territory nearly threefold in the last two months alone. I, for one, was taking that with a grain of salt. While the group we met had been trustworthy so far, I wasn’t about to let them dictate who I point my sword at until I have all the facts.

I motioned for the others to fall back. The dwarves might be making enough noise to drown out everything in a ten-kilometer radius, but I wasn’t going to take any chances. We moved back until the sound of marching was just a dull thud every few seconds.

“If we don’t hurry, we won’t reach the Seal before they claim it as their territory,” Z2 said and I nodded.

“Yeah. I hate to do it, but we might have to fight our way through.”

“Unless we kill them all, more information about our weapons will be leaked back. They are already able to resist your blade and my bullets,” Z2 commented.

It was a frustrating fact. Starting with the encounter while taking Louella to Father, they had steadily gotten better at countering our weapons. We’d only skirmished three times total. That was a scary level of adaption but shows the skills and prowess of the dwarves. Either way, it made us reluctant to engage them too much.

We debated for a minute more, but the sound of the patrol faded, and we were able to move through the tunnel without coming to blows. Father had requested us to gather information on the Greater Elemental Glourios as well as the Seal that appeared to be his target. It was taking longer than I liked, but we were making headway in penetrating the area.

I wasn’t sure how far down the tunnel we managed to make it before there was a loud explosion from back the way we came. Judging from the vibrations, it had to be the elementals and the dwarves going at it. So at least we had that going for us. Azra quickly created a stone wall to block any effects that might make their way down the tunnel to us.

Soon we came to a fork in the path. I turned to the one person that could claimed they could feel the magical aura of the Seal. As long as we were heading in the general direction, I had no reason not to trust them. “Alright, Lean. Which way?”

He moved up and peered down each tunnel before I saw him close his eyes and concentrate. A second later he opened them and pointed down the left tunnel. “This way.”

“Got it.” I moved over to the wall and used some mana to shift the stone without breaking it. I carefully inserted a condensed transponder before sealing the opening so that it looked like nothing had happened. Father had given me the blueprint to create them and it would allow us to teleport out in an emergency as well as give him the ability to send an army at a moment’s notice.

Moving down the tunnel, we soon started encountering ruined buildings that were carved out of the tunnel wall. We soon felt like we were walking down a street rather than a cave tunnel as the ceiling gradually moved up. It wasn’t long before we were in a cavern rather than a true tunnel.

“We are getting close,” Lean commented looking around.

While I couldn’t detect what, there was a certain… sinister aura about the area. I wasn’t surprised that something evil was sealed nearby. My question was what could generate enough an aura sinister enough to escape the seal and make its way out here.

“I thought there were supposed to be undead,” Azra commented and we all looked at her with narrowed eyes.

Almost if on que, a terrible moan echoed through the cavern. Figures started to emerge from inside the houses as green light started spilling out through the area. While some of them certainly looked like the mortal races I knew of, the ones that had a truly impressive aura looked off in certain ways.

While humanoid, they had large heads, with a range of what looked like gems embedded in their skulls. While it could be a result of their undeath, their hands only possessed three long fingers. Mana practically washed from them placing them well into tier three.

We backed up carefully as their numbers soon reached into the thousands. One of the undead raised what I had thought was a busted sword, and a particle beam sliced through the air. I barely managed to get a barrier up in time and even then, only barely managed to deflect the attack before it burned through my head.

“Fall back!”

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Azra said leveling her shield in front of us. Undead were spilling from the houses we’d passed but they were of the more traditional variety. Z2 and Natsuko were tearing through them with ease, as Z2 used her sword and speed to destroy their heads, while Natsuko focused on control burst from a machine gun mode.

I sensed another beam rip through the air and threw a barrier over Azra’s shield to reinforce it just in time. The beam slammed into the shield with enough force to send us flying back down the tunnel. Natsuo quickly created a floating shield out of mithril plates that received another beam attack that rebounded up and struck the ceiling.

Boulders and debris started falling blocking the passage. I helped Azra, who was smoking slightly from the mana overload, up and we quickly made our way back down the passage. Lean was helping Z2 and Natsuko deal with the stragglers that were on our side of the cave in.

Once we were past the last of the houses, I had Azra collapse the ceiling here as well. We didn’t have much information on whether the undead chased enemies, but given their power, they likely never had to before.

“That beam spell was on par with something father would use,” Z2 said as we took a breather.

“Funny, that’s exactly what I was thinking. Something doesn’t add up here,” I said. I pulled the communication device from my chest cavity.

It took several seconds, but soon father appeared. “Puppet. What is it? Are you okay?”

“Yes, though only barely. We found the outskirts of the Seal. The undead used a particle beam weapon. Nearly lost my head.”

“Spell or technology?” father asked with a serious tone.

“Sorry. We didn’t have time to confirm. We retreated immediately once we saw that we couldn’t counter it. It was only the out skirts, but the undead were already well into tier three.”

“I see. Very well. Place a transponder and fall back. We’ll deal with the Seal after we deal with Glourios.” The line paused for a second. “I’m glad you’re all okay. See you when you return.”

We nodded then the line went dead. I put the device away then repeated the process of placing a transponder in the wall. Once finished, I felt the link to the dungeon form though it was the thinnest of connection. With a thought, we all teleported back to the new city that was connected to the Beneath.

Chapter 32

Regan

After finishing my tests with the array, I moved a bit further outside the station’s influence and looked at the planet. The Eruio Continent which housed my main core was directly in front of me, or under me depending on how I looked at the orb. Looking past it, no matter which way I turned my sight, the Maelstrom raged just off the coast by a few hundred kilometers.

The storm managed to cover what appeared to be over ninety percent of the ocean surface. From the instruments on the station, the storm easily reached the Mesosphere of the planet. Given that Murgin was several times larger than Earth that put the storm several hundred kilometers in the atmosphere. It reminded me of the Big Red Spot on Jupiter.

Looking at the planet, I had two options to get my network up and running. I could modify my satellites to act as transponders or build a facility on the moon that would bounce the signal. The problem with the second option was that it would be subject to the moon’s orbit, which unlike my station was not locked in place.

I decided to hold off on the moon base for the moment and started moving along the satellites modifying them as I went. Unlike the array, I didn’t need quite as strong a signal to get through the atmosphere. With line of sight and the lack of interference from the planet, I could make a link much easier. Plus, there was already the existing link that fed back to the station that would serve to amplify the link.

I was working on the third satellite when I got a message from Puppet. Holding my hand out, a projection of the group appeared. I was a bit worried when I saw Azra literally smoking in the background. None of them were too hurt though and they reported that they found the perimeter of the Seal.

I closed my hand when they finished their report. That was a close call. I would need to upgrade their defense capabilities soon. Their group only had Azra for defense and Natsuo as a backup. We could never be too careful.

Still. For the undead to have magic on that scale. The reports were understated in my opinion. I could see now that most of the people that went there likely died before they could gather any useful information. My question was where the power originated from. Was it caused by the evil locked away or by the people that locked the evil away?

“Not enough information.”

I went back to work on the satellites. I was at the seventh and close to the Ly’call moon when I sensed a tremendous mana wave forming quite a distance from the planet. Looking in the direction it was originating from, my sight was quickly blocked by the moon. The mana had shifted to physical energy as it came in contact with the moon.

I sent a warning to the station and quickly shifted the aim of all the satellites towards the moon. I waited as what I feared happened. The increasing physical energy overwhelmed the gravity of the moon and cracks the size of canyons started to appear. The glow of the still partially molten core spilled out from under the surface as the friction of the pieces started to heat them all up.

There was an explosion that sent a shockwave rippling through the area around the moon. I quickly linked with the station core and created barriers on all the satellites. Even then that was enough for a few of the closer ones as they vanished, ripped apart by the force of the wave. Once the wave passed, I took in the situation.

The moon had split into four large chunks by this point. Their opposing gravity causing them to smash and collide as they began to coalesce. That caused hundreds of thousands of pieces ranging from a pebble to the size of skyscrapers to start to rain towards the planet. I connected to my entire network. “All ships! Prepare for short range teleportation!”

I tightened my grip then gestured around me. This was really going to tax not only my mana, but the new links I’d just established. I moved the large ships first as they could serve as shields against the debris. The first of the debris had entered the range of the satellites and they began firing as rapidly as they could.

The first of my fleet arrived and I was joined by Duilin, Julie, and Izora. “Master! What happened?” Julie asked. Her suit closed around her mouth to allow her to breath. She could be in the void of space for nearly eight hours before she would need to recharge the air, which she could do with some mana if necessary.

“Something broke the damn moon!” I responded through gritted teeth. I was channeling a ton of mana at the moment and couldn’t afford to let my concentration slip. “Deal with the debris that is incoming!”

There was a storm of laser and plasma firing through the air as the ships and satellites began destroying the moon fragments. Even with the concentrated effort of close to three hundred satellites and the forty ships that I had managed to teleport so far, chunks were making it past the line. Most had been small so far and quickly burned up in the atmosphere.

It was a stalemate for nearly five minutes, and we were starting to turn the tables as I had all my ships working to take out the debris. Looking back to the moon, the four large chunks were still in the middle of a planetary tug-of-war with each other. I wasn’t well versed in planetary mechanics but something like this could take years to settle. The planet would be enjoying daily meteor showers.

One of the chunks turned out to be weaker than the others as one of the impacts caused it to fracture even more. In only a few seconds, it exploded into an entire new rain of death. Millions of shards were blasted toward the planet and thus the curtain of my ships and satellites which were quickly burning through not only our ammunition but also mana.

One of the pieces turned into a molten ball from all the forces at play. It streaked towards one of my carriers. The ship unleashed a full barrage on the incoming moon chunk, but only managed to split it in two, with one going under the ship, the second half tearing tore the back end like it was paper.

Something like that would put a hole in the planet big enough for a city to fit. I quickly formed a portal with the other one pointing back at the debris of moon. The moon chunk that was large enough to be an island was flung back into the mess it came from. Its passage even pulling some of the smaller chunks along with it.

Gravity. That was the answer, I just needed to throw enough of it at the center to pull the four chunks of moon back together while also overcoming the energy causing them to rebound when the collided.

“You guys handle this. I’m going to try and stop this.” Julie and Duilin nodded as they used their magic to break the moon chunks around them to dust. I accelerated into the insanity that was the meteor storm around me. The moon was roughly five hundred thousand kilometers away, give or take a few. I could use line of sight teleporting to up to fifty thousand, but the inference was stopping me from doing more. It would be a dangerous game of leapfrog to get close enough to attempt anything.

Looking through the field of destruction, I spotted an area that was as clear of debris as it was going to get. With a breath, I vanished and reappeared in under a second. A moon rock the size of a van struck me full on just as I appeared. I punched out and shattered the annoying thing into a thousand pieces.

That was how the next minute went. A shard of stone that I found hard to believe was naturally occurring nearly took my left arm off. It was at the closest site, so I wagered it was something the moon’s core might have been made from. Shockwaves from the collisions that were occurring all around me were equal to some of the blows I took from the Demon general.

Pulling my staff from my sub-dimension, I created a barrier around me. The debris was starting to really hammer me around and if I wanted to create a spell to control this mess, I couldn’t afford to be distracted. With that done, I looked at to the center of the shattered moon to see what I was working with.

My dungeon senses went into overdrive as they worked out the mass, gravity, velocity, and other important information of all the debris flying through the void in front of me. The main problem was the explosion had given the various chunks too much kinetic energy and they were sticking together once they collided thus adding more energy to the equation.

Creating something to not only bring them together, but hold them together wasn’t beyond my capabilities, I could create a blackhole after all. The problem was the mana cost. I only had my internal reverse to use.

I glanced at my staff then and an idea sparked. I extended my hand and pulled a sub-core from my sub-dimension. I fused the core to the staff then aimed for the center of the moon. With a lunge, I sent it flying into the shattered moon’s core. Everything that came touched the staff was absorbed by my sub-core.

It soon arrived piercing through the partially still molten core. The core activated and its aura tore out. I wasn’t sure what would happen, but I was finding out. Much like the sub-core at Jade Wind the energy rushing into the core threatened to tear it apart. The only difference was that my consciousness was here, and I could control it to some extent.

The core broke through tiers one and two in a matter of seconds. Much like the station core, the aura expanded in a sphere until it was roughly the same size the moon had previously been with a radius close to two thousand kilometers. Just a bit bigger than Earth’s moon.

Using the core and the moon fragments, I increased the gravity of my new moon core. The ejected pieces slowly came to a stop before they began falling back towards the moon. Turning to take in the damage caused by the event, I found my fleet had survived with only one ship being destroyed, the automata onboard were being ferried over to other ships. Over half of the fleet had suffered other damages and it would take us time to repair.

Teleporting back to the others, I found Duilin and Julie nearly out of mana but without injuries. I would have been impressed if something without intent managed to hurt either of them. “That was fun,” I said coming to a stop next to them.

“What caused it?” Duilin asked looking back to the planet. There was a meteor shower, but nearly all the debris that made it past them was small enough that it would burn up in the atmosphere. It would make a night light show for a few days.

“I don’t know, but I plan to find out.”

Chapter 33

Louella

Once I returned to my room, I dropped onto my bed. I felt like that last two days had been more like two months. I felt as energized as I had in the morning, but at the same time wanted to just sleep the day away. The sun spirits were zipping around the room exploring every centimeter of the place with their boundless energy.

I had a lot of work to do now that I was back. Ezal was getting further along in her pregnancy that I couldn’t have her go to the battlefield anymore. Even the battle at the border had been pushing a bit and I only allowed it as we were desperate with Regan missing. Once she had the child, it would be only right for her to raise them.

I was happy with how well Ezal had handled the affairs of the city while I was gone. It might do to shift her permanently to managing it. That line of work would enable her to stay here with her child and be safer. I wasn’t sure if she would go for it, but I didn’t plan to give her the option of refusing as it was for her own good.

I was staring off into space with nothing particular on my mind when a rushed knock came at the door. It almost sounded panicked. I jumped up and opened the door. One of the guards stood with a terrified look in their eye. “What is it?” I asked concerned.

“Your… your majesty! You need to look at the sky immediately!” She said barely getting the words out.

I narrowed my eyes but quickly moved to the balcony. Ly’call should be in the sky tonight. Looking up, I saw the moon was certainly in the sky, parts of it anyways. Streaks of light were falling across the night sky which would have been beautiful had the image of the moon cracking into pieces not been so terrifying.

“What new horror is this?!” I muttered taking in the sight.

A moment later Ezal and Valamar showed up but were speechless. I tried to contact Regan, but something interfered with the link. There was nothing we could do but watch after all. The parts of the moon appeared to be slamming into each sending more large pieces flying in every direction. I could only imagine how much debris must be flying in the area around the moon.

We watched for several hours. At one point something happened at the center of the moon and the pieces that we could see started to flow back to the moon and it reformed if slightly smaller than before. I also felt a strange connection to it that I couldn’t understand.

“This is strange. I feel a… bond to it now,” Ezal commented.

“You too? So do I,” I said. There were still hundreds of streaks of light, but they were burning up before they hit the ground, so I didn’t feel we needed to worry about them anymore. Moving back into my room, I grabbed one of the glass tablets from the side table. I sent a message asking for the situation in the city from the advisers.

They sent back that the city was actually calm for the most part. The only people causing a ruckus was the Lelune supporters at the church calling it an omen. Everyone else felt that Regan or myself would protect them and while nervous had mostly just enjoyed the night show.

“Go figure,” Ezal said with a chuckle when I told her what the advisers said.

“I think so much stuff as happened around here that people are growing desensitized,” Valamar added shaking his head.

“Barely any of that was my fault.”

“Never said it was.”

There was a pulsation of mana and Regan, Julie and Duilin appeared. There was a coating of ice of his body that quickly melted forming a puddle of water on the floor. He dropped into the couch with a sigh. “You would not BELIEVE the night I had,” he said rubbing his neck.

“So, you did have something to do with the moon exploding,” I said, sighing as I placed a hand on my face. The sun spirits were flying around him touching and poking at places that were still coating in ice.

“Nope. I’m innocent this time. I did save the planet though. You don’t know how much destruction something like that could have caused.”

“Do you think it was an attack by the force you’ve been telling us about?”

“It could be. I have my people looking into it, but we haven’t been able to tell if it was on purpose or an inadvertent effect of the spatial anomaly that is happening around the planet right now. When I learn more, I’ll be sure to let you know.” He paused and closed his eyes for a moment. “Your citizens appear to be handling this all quite well.”

“They have grown used to it,” I said with a shrug.

“I see. Well, I have to get back to work.” There was a pop and the three of them were gone. I just shook my head at Regan’s actions.

“Since you’re here, I want to talk to you Ezal.”

“What is your highness.”

“I want to make you my viceroy. You will govern the city and will be second only to me.” I glanced at Valamar. “Sorry.”

“It would be an honor to be engaged to the Viceroy of Vaihdetta,” he said bowing to Ezal.

“Who will command your army?”

I threw another glance to Valamar which only prompted a chuckle. “Do I get a say in this?”

“Sure. I’ll let you pick out a nice house to spend your marriage.”

He laughed with two of his four arms holding his stomach. “Very well. I shall serve you officially. I suppose Bruce will be happy. Ever since he found out I was alive. The poor man has been struggling with staying here and returning to my service.”

“I’m glad that’s settled. I would have hated to lose Bruce. He’s the person getting all the soldiers into shape.”

“When do you want to have the wedding?” I asked then grinned. “I need to tie you to my queendom as soon as possible.”

“Whenever it would please my bride,” Valamar said causing Ezal to blush.

“After the baby comes. I want to wear a lovely dress,” Ezal said then hid her face behind her hands.

Valamar and I laughed, and we all put the harrowing night behind us. Sometimes ignorance is bliss after all. We chatted for an hour or two before the two of them left. The sun spirits had shown an interest in Ezal’s stomach and had been constantly placing their tiny ears against it to listen for the baby. They seemed a little sad once they left.

“Don’t worry. You’ll see plenty of her.”

I was staring at the wall while I tried to decide what I needed to do first today, when there was a swirl of dust. Alara appeared looking around. “Where’s Regan? I sensed him here a while ago.”

“Sorry. He’s already moved on to his next task. He just came to tell me about the meteor shower from last night. That, and he stopped the moon from breaking.”

She pouted and let her head fall. “I knew I should have come sooner.”

“What kept you from coming?”

She looked at me then brightened up considerably. “You might be able to help me!” she said, rushing over to grab my hands. “You do manage all these mortals,” she made a face like she just smelled something nasty, “and don’t seem to have much trouble.”

“Whoa there. What help do you need?” I asked thrown by the sudden energy she was putting off.

“I got some mortals in my dungeon now. They came during the snows in the north. They got along while they were wandering, but now that they are in my dungeon, they seem to argue the minute I leave them alone.”

“I don’t mind helping, but shouldn’t you ask Regan for help?”

She fidgeted with her fingers “My love is so busy right now. I know he would help but that might mean that he can’t focus on other tasks that need his attention.”

“I understand. Alright. I’ll help!” I knew I had tasks that needed my attention around the city, but honestly, I was more a figurehead. Ezal was handling all the domestic affairs in line with my vision of the country. If I stepped in, I would be taking from the platform she had established over the few weeks that I was gone.

No, it would be better for me to allow her to handle it all. Plus, by almost forcing it upon her, she won’t be able to get out of it when the child was born. She was talented on and off the battlefield. I still felt better leaving her here in the city if another war were to break out.

“Good!” Alara said before I had even finished really thinking about it. She grabbed me around the waist in a hug and the world changed around me several times as fields covered in snow and surrounded by trees flashed by. At one place, there was a tall golden tree that almost seemed to touch the sky.

After a few more seconds, I found myself in a cave with a large tree that reached the ceiling. Motes of light floated lazily around the room. Alara had taken me by surprise and none of the sun spirits had been with me. Looking around worriedly, I found only two of them that I guess had managed to latch on before we teleported.

“Are you sisters going to be okay?” I asked them as they landed on my shoulders. I got an image of the room we had been in currently on fire as one of the sun spirits panicked. “Can you tell them I’m alright.”

The girl nodded before she closed her eyes. I sensed some form of talking between the spirits and the image she was showing me calmed down as the fires vanished leaving a lot of the room only slightly scorched. Thankfully, the room had been by bedroom and nothing of value had been damaged.

“Alara! You can’t just teleport us like that. I needed to tell my people where I was going,” I said to the dungeon host.

She pouted again and looked to the side not wanting to meet my eyes. “I didn’t want you changing your mind. You are mortal after all.”

“You know me better than that. I wouldn’t have changed my mind.” I sighed then shook my head. “What’s done is done.”

She cheered up and gave me a smile. “I’ll be more careful next time. Come! I want you to meet someone!”

Chapter 34

Regan

After checking up on Louella and the other areas that housed mortals that I was entitled to protect, I soon found myself back out in space. The moon event had interrupted my work on the satellites. Not to mention damaged the network to a degree. I would have to reposition several of them for the link I wanted to form to work now.

“Machine Father.”

I paused my work. “What is it, Siasho?”

“We’ve figured out the cause of the moon incident.”

“Go ahead.” I concentrated fully on what she was saying.

“The spatial anomaly we’ve been tracking grew by a factor of five. The increased energy intersected with the moon’s gravity as well as partially reached into part of the moon similarly to what happened on Krona. The moon couldn’t handle the loss of material which caused the structure to suffer a critical collapse.”

“I see. So we can be sure it wasn’t an intentional attack?”

“The chances aren’t zero, but the required mana for something like this is off the charts.”

“Very well. Continue monitoring the situation. Plot the course of the anomaly and make sure that nothing else while intersect it. Factor in a growth of at least two hundred times.”

“Understood.”

The line went silent, and I got back to work. I was over the maelstrom right now, with the Fuizol Continent in sight. In sight in orbital terms anyways. While I was eager to reconnect with my core on the continent, there was a small amount of dread as well. Mainly due to the fact that I would have to deal with the Soza situation.

I had offered to try and make Nova more powerful, but the dragon straight up refused. Said it would go against dragon standards. I wanted to beat my head on the wall. He might have the form of a dragon, but he was more robot than flesh. Still, the mind was a powerful factor when dealing with one’s power. If he refused to allow me to help, then I could do more harm than good by forcing it.

Six more satellites later, I final reached the Fuizol continent. The titan could be seen from my altitude. At least from orbit it didn’t look like anything had changed, but I would find out when I get down there if that was true or not. I glanced at the last satellite to make sure I modified it correctly. It had to serve as an array to get through the atmosphere of the planet after all.

I cracked my neck before I started dropping towards the planet aiming for my core. I loved magic as it allowed me to cancel out the friction from the air. I quickly gained velocity and was streaking towards the ship at speeds that would tear most things apart.

All fun things have to come to end though, and I put on the breaks. I went from fifty thousand kilometers a second to zero at breakneck speed as I arrived just above the ship. Looking around, I checked on the area to see if anything had changed. Other than the village looking more like a town now with much newer buildings, everything was as I left it.

As I started descending towards the ship, there was an explosion of fire right next to me. The next thing I knew, I was being crushed by a bright red scaly body. “Husband! You’re finally back!”

As I feared, her lying next to my core for nearly a month had increased her strength by even more. Even with my adamantium body, I couldn’t pry her off me. “Soza! It’s good to see you too, but you’re crushing me. Please release me.”

The constriction vanished and she floated around me. “Apologizes. I was so happy to see you that I may have overreacted.”

“Oh! You bested me! I guess I’m out of the contract!” I said trying to sound serious.

“You’re so funny, husband. Don’t think I can’t see how much your power has grown since we last saw each other. The only way out of this is if your son can beat me.”

I shrugged with a sigh. “Sorry, had to try. How has everything been here?”

“Quiet. Those stone creatures won’t shut up, but I’ve learned to ignore them. Your metal children have grown quite skilled in besting them.”

“I guess I’m not surprised they’ve tried to go free. I thought I asked you to help though?”

“I did!” Soza said with an incredulous look like I had just asked about her honor. “But your children told me they had it.”

“Alright. I believe you.” I didn’t put it past the bunch I had to leave here. They were war models that I designed for fighting the constructs when we’d went to Krona to deal with them. They probably enjoyed getting to use the constructs as target practice.

I started moving toward the ship again. Soza exploded into flame before she reformed in her elf form. She left her wings though and easily kept pace with me as we descended. A group of automata waited for me as we landed. They were the command units that oversaw the ships.

“Machine Father,” the intoned in only the way that machines or strange cults could.

“I’m back. I hear the constructs have been giving you trouble?”

The main leader stepped forward presumably to answer for the group. “Negative. There have been three attempts by the Construct forces to escape from the barrier prison all of which have failed. They have not matched our adaptability yet, thus we can still cope with them.”

“Glad to hear you guys are holding up fine. I’m going to build an array that will allow me sustained connection between my cores. I will only be a few seconds away after today.”

“Understood. Do you need us to assist in any way?”

I just gave him a grin before I shook my head. They nodded and moved back inside. Soon it was only Soza and me on the deck of the ship. I glanced around trying to decide the bast place to put the array. Of all my sub-cores this was probably the least undefended of them all. I would need change that.

I settled on a spot in the middle of the ship, that was just a plate of armor with nothing else on it. It was away from most of the weapons and other communications equipment. With a wave of my hand, the array I’d built several times already formed from mana.

“This will allow me to talk to you no matter when?” Soza asked looking the equipment over.

“I suppose. It allows me to do more than just talk. I can teleport myself or others using the transmission.”

“Then I want to see your true body.”

“My main core. I guess that’s possible.” I placed a hand on my chin as I thought about it. I needed to either bring Nova here or take her to my dungeon for them to fight. The floating islands are probably the best location for that to take place anyways. “Yes. You will accompany to my main core.”

“Excellent!” Soza clapped her hands before she rushed me and grabbed my arms. “I’m happy to finally get to take a trip with you husband!”

“Yay!” I said sarcastically, though it was lost on her.

“Yay indeed. What are you waiting for? Let’s go!”

“Soon. I want to check on the village.”

“The meat bags?” she said with a tone that told me exactly how much she thought about the mortals.

“I’ll have you know there are a lot more of the mortals back at my main core,” I commented with a raised eyebrow.

“The meat bags!” she said again with a cheerful tone.

“How about you just wait here,” I said, shaking my head.

I leapt into the air and flew towards the village. They had guards on the cliff walls watching for monsters that attempted to climb up to the village. Though, now that everything was in my aura, I doubt any had tried. Especially since the ships turned the area below the peninsula into a scorched wasteland when they exited the portal.

I noticed the kid that I was brave enough to confront me as I moved towards the cliff. Deciding he would be as good as any, I moved towards him. The others guarding the cliff looked on worriedly, but they seemed to remember from before. The kid looked more shocked then worried that I was approaching him. “Yo’ei, right?”

“Umm. Yeah. Zhu host.”

I chuckled then landed next to him and took a seat. “Just call me Regan. I have enough people calling me master and lord that it is nice to have someone just address me by my name every now and then.”

“I’m not sure the elders would like that, but since you’re the one telling me to do so I shall, Regan.”

“Every good. How has life in your village changed?”

“The automata you’ve left helped us restore our lives to normal. Many people still are not used to the large structure that defies logic, floating in the distance, but we are adjusting.”

“I apologize for that. If I could move it, I would. A threat resides under it and so we must do what we must.”

“If you say so. I thought I dreamed of going down there and finding out the secrets of the world. Now, I wish life would return to how it was a few months ago when I was a child that stared at the clouds daydreaming.”

“Youth and the trials of becoming an adult.”

We lapsed into silence for a few seconds before another guard walked over. “Zhu host. Is everything okay?”

“Yes. I was just checking with the boy on how the village and his people were. I can see I have overstayed my welcome and are making the rest of you uncomfortable, so I shall take my leave.”

“Nonsense! You are always welcome here,” the guard said quickly while shaking his head nervously.

“Don’t worry. I’m a rather levelheaded guy and don’t level villages for the most part. I do have plenty of work to do, so I shall take my leave all the same.” I pushed off from the side of the cliff and fell before I used my spells to take flight.

Once back on the ship, I moved over to where Soza stood. “Ready?”

“Of course, husband.” I placed my hand on her shoulder and we teleported over to my main dungeon.

Chapter 35

Louella

Alara moved me through her dungeon much like Regan, only she was less… delicate with her teleporting. When we reached the floor, I felt like I needed to empty my stomach which was the first time I’d felt like that in months. Regan was a perfectionist after all and had quickly improved his teleporting skills.

Once my queasiness went away, I took in the sight around me. There was village in the distance that was surrounded by a few farms and vineyards, though most of those looked unused. Only one showed any color. I noticed people moving about, but there was a sense of wrongness that perfused through the town. Like they weren’t sure what they were supposed to be doing, or they were trying to fake it.

Alara grabbed my hand and pulled me over towards the vineyard. A small house sat to the side that looked like someone had attempted to clean it but gave up halfway through the process. When we were a couple paces from the house, Alara released my hand.

“Wait here. She is skittish.”

Alara made her way into the building and I heard another girl’s voice, even at the barely the level of a whisper that she was talking.

“Alara. What is it?” a girl said tensely.

The question was simple, but something told me that it took the girl a great deal of effort to say it. The voice sounded adult, but the tone was more in line with that of a child.

“I brought someone to meet you.”

“Is it… Lord Re… Reg… Regan?” asked the girl. She seemed to have trouble saying Regan’s name. I think the main reason she asked was Alara likely talked a lot about him.

“No.” Alara poked her head out of one of the windows and waved for me.

I moved into the room, where I found a fox-kin that was wearing rags of leather armor. I didn’t fail to notice the unholy taint coming from her. I knew about Regan’s beast-kin colony in his dungeon. This must be something similar. The girl instantly hid behind Alara.

Stopping just inside the door, I kneeled so I was lower than her. Not sure if it would matter much. “Hello.”

“H… Hi.”

I turned my gaze to Alara. “I’m not sure how much help I’ll be. Regan has Ren for his dungeon’s beast-kin village.”

“I know. I mainly wanted you to meet Minna. That and I was going to see if I should separate the three tribes that are on this floor. I’m just not sure if it will help much.”

“I see.” I tried to think how I would handle it. Separating the various tribes is certainly one route she could go. She would be required to spread her attention across various floors to make sure they didn’t get into trouble. With them all concentrated on one floor she didn’t have to worry about that.

Spreading my senses around, I could tell that this floor was essentially safe for mortals. That likely couldn’t be said about the rest of the dungeon. Not only would she have to either convert three floors to nearly safe havens. She would need to worry about the corrupted beast-kin wandering into floors where they couldn’t protect themselves.

While I thought about the problem, one of the sun spirits flew over to Minna. Thankfully, the beast-kin wasn’t scared of her. The sun spirit landed on her head between her fox ears and there was a surge of mana as the room lit up. I jumped up worried about the spirit and Mina, but as I watched all the taint vanished from the girl.

“What? What is going on? Where am I?” Minna asked, her voice and eye looking around with much clearer.

“Minna?! Are you alright?” Alara asked.

“Alara? Everything is so… hazy. I feel like a veil was placed over my eyes from a young age and I had to constantly fight to peer through it.”

The sun spirit flew back over to me. “What did you do? Are you okay?” I got an image of her taking the tainted mana and replacing it with some of her own. She then moved the tainted mana out into the dungeon as she knew the dungeon was skilled at cleansing it. “Alara. Are you okay getting a burst of tainted mana like that?”

She looked at me then closed her eyes. “Yes. It was barely noticeable at a single person’s level.”

“That’s good. Wouldn’t want you getting corrupted in the process.”

Minna suddenly started crying and pulled herself into a ball. “Minna! What’s wrong?” Alara asked. I was glad that she was taking an interest in other mortals and of her own initiative.

“The memories of my parents’ deaths. So many people died to the undead in the north.”

“Yes. What has happened up here has been more than a tragedy. It is hard to even put words to it,” I commented.

“At least you are still alive. Regan has taught me to look toward the future,” Alara said and I nodded in agreement.

“My brother escaped with me. He might still be alive.”

“You are the only fox-kin here, but my Regan has nearly a city of beast-kin in his dungeon. There is a chance he was taken there.”

Minna smiled as some hope filled her eyes. “If you’ll excuse me Lady Alara, I am feeling rather tired.”

“You can keep calling me Alara.”

Minna bobbed her head then laid in her bed as Alara and I went outside. “At least we have a solution to some of your problem. If they regain their minds, they will be a lot easier to work with.”

“I agree, but I’m going to hold off until I talk to Regan. Don’t let you spirits do that anymore,” Alara said looking serious.

“Why? Isn’t it better for them to get their minds back?” I asked not seeing the issue.

Alara looked around before she teleported us back to her core room. “I didn’t want to say anything where she could hear us. I’m not sure the exact reason but Minna became one of my dungeon monsters during the exchange of mana. I’m not sure how many of you mortals would appreciate that happening without their knowledge.”

“Okay, yeah. That could cause more than a little resentment in a few mortals.” I turned to the spirits and sent a clear ‘don’t do that without permission again’ message. “Is there anything else you want me to help with?”

“Any suggestions?”

“I figure you’re giving them housing since the village was there, and I would hope that included food.”

“They like to hunt.”

“I see. Clothing would probably be a good idea. Just from Minna’s appearance, she looked pretty bad off.”

“I didn’t know what to create.”

“Given the state of their minds, I assume as long as it’s better than the rags they’re wearing they won’t have too much to complain about, and even if they did. It is not your responsibility to make them happy. Just give them the resources to stay alive.”

“You have a point.”

I spent the next few hours helping Alara understand what little I knew about governing. Of course, all the knowledge I had was geared toward rational thinking mortals and humans. Beast-kin had certain traits that required special attention, but I wouldn’t be much help in that regard.

“Thank you. This will help out a lot in the future. The necromancers didn’t exactly have a light hand when it came to their idea of governing. There was a reason most of the people in my dungeon were undead.”

“I’m just glad I was able to help.”

“I guess I should send you back…” Alara stopped mid word as she peered off seemingly at random. Her face slowly transformed into what I thought a demon’s might look. I was several times more powerful than her now, but I still backed away a few steps.

“Are you alright?”

She didn’t answer. She jerked forward and grabbed my hand before teleporting us. The next moment I found myself in Regan’s floating island floor. I’d only seen it once through the hole between the floors that Nova made back when Morka attacked Regan’s dungeon.

It didn’t take me long to spot what must have caused Alara’s mood swing. Regan stood a few paces in front of us with a woman that seemed to be painted red. From the back, she had two massive wings a large tail and several horns that arced back along the top of her head. She was latched onto his arm with it pinned between two large breasts that made even me jealous and I was relatively comfortable with my chest size.

I glanced to Alara and found almost physical rage coming from her. “Regan! Fancy meeting you here,” I said before something bad happened.

He turned and I was glad that he immediately saw through Alara’s mood. He pulled away from the red woman and moved over to us. “Alara. Louella. Glad you could join us. We have a bit of a show to watch.” He looked like he wanted to say more, but nothing would come out of his mouth. I don’t think I’d ever seen Regan so flustered before. Alara just continued to glare between him and the woman.

“Show?” I asked when Alara didn’t say anything.

A shadow zoomed over us, and I found Nova and Morka circling above us as they slowly made their way down. With a boom, they landed. Nova and Morka both appeared to have gotten stronger since the last time I saw them. I just hoped Regan had something in place in case Morka tried anything should she grow more powerful.

“Nova! You remember what I talked to you about a while ago?” Regan asked turning to the blindingly shiny dragon.

“Yes, father. Is this the woman?” Nova asked turning to the red woman.

“Sure is.”

The red woman walked over and took in Nova. “Husband. Is this the son you told me about? He could barely be counted a teenager back home.”

I looked at Regan in surprise at the way she addressed him. What exactly has he been doing out there?

“We had a deal, Soza. You have to fight him, or your pact is null and void.”

“Oh, very well!” There was an outpouring of heat as flames washed around her. The flames didn’t bother me though and I was able to watch as her body shifted from that of an elf with a few dragon features to a full-blown dragon. She nearly dwarfed Nova by several meters and the power radiating off her was severalfold stronger than his as well.

“I am one of the greatest of father’s children. Just because you are a bit bigger doesn’t mean I will lose!” Nova roared.

“Feel free to have your mate help you, child.” Soza said with a yawn before she took to the air and moved off away.

“Are you sure it’s safe for them to be fighting inside your dungeon?” I asked Regan, worrying the damage might spill outside.

“I’ve already reinforced everything and moved anyone that might be at risk. I’m more worried about Nova. He’s completely outmatched.”

“Can’t you, I don’t know, boost his mana like you did when Morka attacked?”

“I offered, but he’s more stubborn than I’d expected. Claimed it would be disrespectful to the dragon ways.”

“Ah. Yeah, dragons are pretty bad about their honor.”

Regan gave me a glare and I just looked away and started whistling.

The two dragons stared each other down before they both released their breath at the same time. Soza’s flames completely eclipsed Nova’s beam of light, but that didn’t stop it from piercing through like a sword. Nova’s attack hit Soza in the flank, while Soza’s caused several of Nova’s metal plates to melt.

That was only the opening. They charged each other with Nova using his smaller size to his advantage to dodge the bigger Soza. He brought his claws up as she flew under her showering the area in sparks as it was metal on metal. Soza responded by bringing around her tail and sending Nova flying with a solid hit that dented part of his body.

“Is that the best you have!?” Soza roared, causing the air to shake.

“Not even close!” Nova roared back.

They both began pouring mana as Soza went for another flame breath, and every part of Nova’s body began to glow brighter and brighter. Soon, the entire area was dyed white there was so much light. I could hear explosions and horrendous metal tearing as the two continued to duke it out.

There was a flash in the already brighter than day light filled area and Regan jumped in front of us. A beam of light sliced through the island we stood on. It would have sliced it clean in half if it weren’t for Regan’s barrier.

The light started to fade shortly before there were two loud bangs from either side of the island. Looking towards the left first, I saw Nova leaking a strange golden liquid much like blood. He appeared heavily injured and was even missing one of his arms.

Turning to the right, I found Soza in much better shape but breathing heavily. She was only missing a few scale from the looks of it. At this rate, she was going to win.

“I must say, husband. Your son has more than a shiny shell.”

“Nova hasn’t lost yet!” Alara shouted before Regan could say anything.

“Exactly,” Nova said but he sounded exhausted.

“If you wish to continue then we shall,” Soza roared. Flames causing the ground to melt around her.

“Wait!” Regan shouted holding his hand up. I looked at him curiously but then noticed that the walls in the distance seemed to be shaking. Regan looked down. “So. He brings the fight to me then.”

Chapter 36

Regan

“Sorry, but we’re going to have to put this fight on hold. I have a bit more pressing matters to deal with.”

“What is it, my love?” Alara asked worriedly.

“It would appear that Glourios got tired of waiting. He has brought the fight to me.”

I focused on the western entrance to my Beneath city. It had been turned into an ocean of flame and fire. Flames shaped as every beast and man imaginable raged at the barrier. The shockwaves were resounding through the dungeon and it wouldn’t hold long.

“I’ll go with you. I have a bone to pick with him,” Louella said.

“I’m not enthusiastic about fire but, I’ll help as well!” Alara said. She grabbed my hand and I smiled at her. I was almost glad for this interruption since it seemed to distract her. She suddenly pulled me down and put her mouth next to my ear. “We’ll deal with this when we’re done.”

I coughed then smiled. “Yes dear.”

I healed the two dragons with a quick surge of mana then moved the group down to the Beneath city. The others wouldn’t be able to see it, but the western wall was close to collapsing with cracks running through it like a spiderweb. I closed my eyes and concentrated throughout my entirety. I pulled all the people that I thought would be able to help in the coming battle as well as my forces.

As all the figures formed around me, I realized that I had quite a few helpers now. Some of them I never would have expected to work with when I first came to this world, like the necromancers Julie and Wrakras. Not that they’re necromancers anymore, of course. Strange how things went in life.

Then there were my bosses I’d created that sort of never filled that role. Vetur, Anubis, Nova, as well as Puppet and the party. The captains of my fleets: Liz, Wilson, Spare, Benjamin, and Jarvis. I was proud at how strong they had all become over the months. This would be a real test of their strength though.

My followers, Izora and her people. I could feel my link with them as they worshipped me. I would have to do my best to protect them. I had considered grabbing Valamar, but I felt it was better to leave him with his soon to be due bride. And lastly, there was an array of other people that had all earned my respect for their prowess.

“I’m glad you all could join me on short notice. I am about to have some guests. Needless to say, they’re not welcome.” I looked around at the gathered people. “I could not ask for better people to stand against a threat to our lives and safety. This will be our toughest fight yet, but I know that together we can overcome the challenge.”

Waving my hand, my fleet started appearing above us. Some of the ships were still damaged, but they could still help during the fight. The embodying sight of ships was what I was going for though. It might not be as impressive as it was the other night over the valley, but it still possessed a strength that was undeniable.

“Anything for you, master!” Julie shouted and drew a glare from Alara, Izora, Soza, and even Louella.

I cleared my throat as a bang sounded out from the west wall. The fissures along the surface of the wall and ceiling spread further. It wouldn’t be long before they managed to break through. Given that the material I found when I reached the world barrier when expanding my dungeon was reinforcing it, that meant the force coming against us was quite powerful.

“I have come to enjoy and love this world. Those that seek to destroy it must be stopped!” I looked at the gathered crowd making sure to look each in the eyes. “Let us show them that which is good will not be walked over.”

A cheer resounded from everyone gathered. The gnomes, goblins, and automata that worshipped me were particularly strong in their vocalization. I held my hand out to form a new weapon as my staff was now part of the moon. I decided to go with a sword since that had always struck me as a kingly weapon.

A golden hilt formed followed by a blade made from crystal. It was mana made physical in the sense that it took the traits of no particular material. I had wanted to test the formation of something like this, and now seemed to be as good a time as any. Adherent mana radiated from it making everyone look at it in awe.

“We go to war!” I shouted, thrusting the blade into the air.

At that moment, there was another bang before chunks from the wall started collapsing. The heat in the country sized cavern spiked to levels that most mortals would not be able to survive. I tightened my grip on my new sword and swung it in an arc around me. A wave of cool washed against the heat wave and a decent storm started to form where the two forces met.

In the distance, a giant made of flames made his way into the cavern. She locked her gaze on us in less than a second. “My master sends his regards. To the puny mortals that would harbor ideas of stopping his grand plans. He sends me, Frusoga, to punish you.” She held her hand out and a battle-axe made from what appeared to be magma formed as a massive army arrayed itself around her.

I took to the air as I returned my avatar to its normal size of roughly five meters. While it still paled in comparison to the giant, it allowed my aura already dense from being in my dungeon to wash over everything in sight. “Lady giant. Your master is a fool to think such a paltry force can stop me.”

She snorted before she grinned like I was an idiot. “We will see.” She leveled her giant battle-axe at me then roared. The enemy force immediately began to charge.

“We certainly shall.” I swung my sword and pointed at the enemy force. The four dozen ships all directed their weapons towards the flaming monsters and began firing their weapons.

The fields in front of my gathered forces were torn apart by the barrage. If it had been a mortal army, they would have likely been decimated already. I frowned at the less than optimal result of the first barrage, but given what we were fighting, it wasn’t too bad.

The heat-based weapons such as plasma didn’t have any affect, so we switched those off to avoid power drainage. The physical rounds caused some damage to the enemy ranks, but as they were made from fire, if they weren’t killed instantly, that would reform from the damage. The most effective were my magic-enhanced weapons that fired rounds that froze the area around their impacts, but even that wasn’t as affective as I’d hoped.

“Looks like this isn’t going to be a walk in the park,” Louella commented. With her senses she could see much better than the others and thus was able to see the effects so far.

“To be fair, I think most of my battles have been almost too easy so far,” I replied.

She just raised her eyebrow but kept her opinion to herself. “Well? What’s the plan?”

“I’ll handle our giant guest. Vetur. You’ll probably be one of the most effective. I want you and Anubis to handle the east flank. Izora. Take Puppet and the others to the west.” I had some of the others join each party. Then divided up the armies so there was a good mix of all the races present. They would be able to support each other should something happen.

The goblins and their mechs were a great force on the frontlines, while their gnome counterparts were great a support magic and aid. The automata were a jack-of-all-trades, but would fulfill their assigned mission until the end, making them less likely to adapt to the situation.

Alara grabbed my hand. “And me?”

I smiled and returned the squeeze. “While I honestly want you to sit out the battle, that likely isn’t going to happen. I’m going to give you some mana, so recreate your toy from our battle. You’ll have to change it up to use something other than undead of course.”

“I can do that.”

“Louella and Soza. I want you two to assist where needed. The two of you have the greatest mobility, after all.”

“Got it, Regan.”

“Anything for you, husband.”

They leapt into the air and seemed to split it amongst themselves. I turned to the remaining people. “Nova. Hang back and continue to recover your mana. We may need a pinch hitter should things go sideways. You too, Morka.”

Nova growled obviously displeased about being put on the bench, but I didn’t want him charging to his death. He was a son to me after all. I handed out a few more tasks before the gathered people only consisted of me a few others as well as the adventurers that helped Louella reach my city.

“What do you three intend to do?”

“I will assist. Lady Louella owes me a date after all.”

Yuno looked between Nero and me then to his sister. “I’m sorry, but we’re going to sit this one out. My sister is still recovering, and I won’t be able to fight while worrying about her.”

“Fair enough.”

“Duilin, Julie, Wrakras. You’re with me.”

~~~

At the edge of the storm, the two armies faced each other after they came to a standstill. The ships had done what they could, but the effect was dismal. The reason; more flames fueled this army continued to pour in from the entrance they had breached. The dungeon couldn’t repair the damage as the flames continuously melted the stone around the breach. It hadn’t even been a few minutes, but I feared this battle could be quite long if we didn’t deal with the source.

“Are you sure you want to fight? I could take you in as a refugee if you want,” I said to the giant.

“Words will not save you. So, I suggest you stow it,” she replied.

“Very well.” Lightning flashed as thunder ripped through the air. A raging wildfire versus the men and women that planned to put it down. “Let it begin!” With a thrust of my sword, a piercing blue light lanced across the distance and struck the giant in the chest. The flaming magma that made up that part started to freeze but quickly halted. It served its purpose though as my forces began charging. With a swish, I accelerated towards the giant with the other three on my tail.

For a creature that was well over thirty meters tall, she could move quickly. Frusoga brought her battle-axe around in a blink of an eye. I parried but was sent flying, I managed to correctly myself after a few hundred meters. Duilin charged in, reminding me of Thor from Earth legends, of course, that was how I designed his body. He brought his hammer down on the Frusoga’s weapon and lightning exploded out from him.

Julie and Wrakras actually managed to work together to form for sort of black sphere that ate at the flames as it streaked towards Frusoga. She stretched out her hand and it expanded to wrap around the sphere. With a grunt, she crushed it with apparent ease. “Pathetic.”

Chapter 37

Louella

The battle was intense. Goblins using mechs that had been enhanced by gnomes to use weapons that dealt cold and ice damage swarmed the battlefield as beasts and men made of flames washed over them. Without much in the way of physical forms, it was hard to block their advance. The mechs only barely managed to hold the worst of the flaming horde back by using energy shields of some sort.

Moving over the battle, I assisted those that were being overwhelmed. I thought it would be difficult for me to be much help in this fight given my new aspect, but it actually helped out in the end. I didn’t even notice the heat or the fire itself as I dropped down and blocked an attack that would have killed several goblins and gnomes.

With a surge of lightning, I wiped out the pack of flaming beasts before leaping back into the air. There was a boom, on the other side of the battlefield. Turning I found Soza in a different form. She looked more like a giant snake with two legs near her head. She was rolling through her side of the battle literally eating the flames.

“That is going to give her indigestion later,” I mumbled before turning back to my side. I couldn’t be outdone after all.

I placed both my hands in front of me and started creating a spell. It quickly grew to shine brighter than the flames under me. I was about to launch it when my girls joined in and started adding their mana to the spell construct. With a grin, I unleashed it on the flaming monsters below.

Tendrils of lightning ripped through the enemy on this flank. They tore the ground to pieces as the flames died one by one. By the time it was done, I had cleared a five-hundred-meter section of the battle under me. Our forces quickly charged forward to cover the ground and flank the middle section.

“Not bad, but I know you can do more.” I heard in my head. I glanced around but couldn’t figure out the source. I knew it wasn’t Regan as I had his voice and mental tone memorized due to how often he liked to drop in my thoughts.

“Who’s there?!” I growled looking casting my senses out.

There was no reply and the battle had been joined forcing me to drop the issue for the moment. There was a never-ending tide of flame coming from the west tunnel entrance. For every flame monster or man that we destroyed, another took its place.

Everyone was fighting as hard as they could to prevent loss of life on our side of the battle, but there was only so much we could do. The combined number of goblins and gnomes was close to twenty thousand and there was Regan’s thirty or forty thousand automata in the mix. For their part, the automata were sacrificing themselves to save gnome and goblin lives, but that only made the two races fight harder.

Explosions of ice signaled Regan’s daughter Z2 on one side of the battle as she ripped through the enemy. Lean was just as destructive as his shadows absorbed the flaming monsters whole and grew with each one consumed. The rest of the party was equally effective at taking down the elementals.

Izora was leading her royal guards with her usual skill. Her control over multiple elementals allowed her to be almost as destructive as Z2. The flames didn’t appear to affect her with the magic armor that Regan made for her protecting her.

There was a boom, and Regan came flying towards me. He stopped his momentum just next to me. “Hey! Nice day for a war, don’t you think?” The crack of thunder and rain didn’t help his case.

“Do you need some help?” Not to toot my own horn, but I was the most powerful person down here.

He rubbed the back of his neck looking embarrassed. “Probably. Everything tiers three and down just washes off of her.”

“We need to seal the breach, or this battle will be endless,” I said tossing some lightning down in the flame monsters’ ranks. They exploded one by one until the attack ran out of charge.

“We need to deal with Glourios himself. Sealing the breach won’t help for more than a few minutes. Still. He has to be tapping into a source of power for him to be launching such a consistent attack.”

Memories flashed through my head causing a spike of pain. I groaned as I gripped my head. “Source… of… power!” More images flashed. A castle made from flame model stone still in the center of a cavern. Magma flows all around it that made it unbearably hot for any not able to dampen or absorb it. Red crystals that hummed with power hanging from the ceiling. A man standing at the center of it all as mana flowed into him.

“Do you know where he is?” Regan asked placing a hand on my head. His metal fingers brought cooling relief.

“Sort of. It’s all hazy,” I said honestly.

“That’ll be good enough.” He pulled his hand back and held it out. “Do you mind?”

I shook my head against my head again only this time I felt some mana flow into me through our link. A link that had been there for several months. The sounds of the battle faded from my world as my consciousness sank in on itself.

When I opened my eyes, I found I was back in the valley, only it was before the city really started to flourish. The modest manor I had called home for six months before Regan appeared in my life almost made me homesick. The idled life I had before him had been peaceful after all.

I blinked and the scene completely changed to that of the current city. Non-stop and always in a hurry, the people of the city were in a rush to get from point A to point B. To be fair, more than a few things had led to this situation. Several attacks, a small war, a dungeon core that liked to change every ten minutes.

“I just like to keep you on your toes.”

I spun and found Regan next to me. Only he was vastly different from how I knew him. He was an elderly man with white hair that spoke of intelligence rather than age. The only thing that echoed the Regan I knew was a device that seemed to replace his eye.

“Regan?”

“Who else?” He asked then seemed to notice his hand was made of flesh instead of metal. “Ah, I see. This is my body from my last life. I have no idea why it is showing up, but we are in your head so strange things are bound to happen.”

“You look good. I might even be attracted to this form,” I said then clamped my hand over my mouth. “Why the hell did I say that!?”

Regan gave a grin that was exactly like his metal form’s. “Awe, I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“Can we just do what we’re here to do!” I shouted, crossing my arms and turning away from him before I got myself in more trouble.

The image started to change around us, but not before I noticed a massive shadow that towered over everything. I blinked and it was gone. Was it my mind playing tricks on me? The scene morphed until we found ourselves falling down a massive hole. It soon stopped when tunnels of the Beneath appeared.

In a blurred rush, we flew down a series of tunnels until we reached a cavern that paled in comparison to Regan’s underground city but was still massive given that there were millions of tons of stone above us. From there it was much like I saw previously. “Quant little place he found,” Regan said looking around. The image was blurry and looked like it would change at any second.

There was a burst of light and something was flung down the tunnel behind us. A few seconds later, a red version of me came walking out of the cavern and down a tunnel. We were pulled along until we reached a place where the image solidified. I remembered it was when I first recovered Helios and regained some control of myself.

“Does this help?” I asked. My head was starting to feel like it was being pulled through a tiny hole.

“This will work perfectly.” He held his hand out and an orb appeared. I felt Regan go through the process that I had done to place the markers for his teleporters in the past. His only took a few seconds though. “Alright.” He gave me a grin. “See you on the other side.”

The image broke around us as the sounds of the battle rushed back in. I would have vomited had there been anything for me to vomit. That was when I realized I hadn’t eaten anything for several days. Regan held me as I had started to fall.

“That was… horrible!” I said dry heaving.

“Yeah. Next time I’ll make sure not to do that in mid-air.”

There was an explosion drawing our attention. Another giant had joined the fight only this one appeared to be made from metal and wood. She swung a sword that caused a shockwave every time it connected with Frusoga’s battle-axe. It looked like the new giant was working off some rage issues as she rapidly struck out with her sword.

“Is… is that Alara?” I asked coughing to clear my throat.

“Yep. I forget she is actually older than me and knows much more about fighting being born in this world. I’m going to let you go know or we’ll both have hell to pay. She’s been a little jealous lately.”

“Stop showing up with new women,” I retorted then chuckled at his expression. I knew he didn’t do it on purpose, but his personality and demeanor drew people to him.

I moved away from him then we both shot toward the flaming giantess. We needed to finish her, or we wouldn’t be able to move against the real threat. With Alara keeping her occupied, the rest of us were able to surround her and focus on creating a spell to actually bring her down.

I worked on supporting the others since many of my attacks would have only fed the giantess more energy to fight with. Unlike the lower level flame monsters, she would be able to use the heat from my lightning as fuel. I decided to go a route I knew I could do but had only attempted once before during the battle.

Focusing on the atoms, as Regan calls them, and how they were moving. I created a spell that would draw that energy into myself. I wasn’t sure how it would affect the giantess, but at least it wouldn’t feed her any energy. With a heavy blow from Alara, the giantess was knocked back. Julie, Wrakras, Regan and I all unleashed our spells at the same time.

A tidal wave of shadows washed over the left side of Frusoga. The flames vanishing without a trace. My spell lanced into her right side and as if it froze, the fire started falling to the ground in solid chunks. Regan’s spell had the most effect though. There was a single spot that pulled all the remaining flame of the giantess as it condensed into some sort of gem.

He gestured and the gem flew toward him as he swung his sword. The gem shattered then was absorbed into his body. He coughed which caused a few flames to jet from his mouth. “Excuse me.”

Chapter 38

Regan

I patted my chest to clear my indigestion. Forcing all Frusoga energy to a single point hadn’t been easy but absorbing it all gave me a nice little boost of mana. Looking down, Glourios’s forces were starting to fall back. As I figured, Frusoga had acted like a beacon for him to channel his power to the lower level fire elementals.

There was still energy flowing through the torrent of fire raging through the tunnels outside my dungeon, but it was back to a level I could handle with the dungeon walls. Our forces pushed the enemy back swiftly and held them as the walls restored themselves. My mana was being drained holding back Glourios’s flame outside the tunnel.

“We need to deal with the source of our problems,” I said to the gathered group. I focused on the transponders that Puppet placed in the tunnels for me. My incorporating that, I could use the marker I created from Louella’s memories to teleport a group close to Glourios’s heart. It would be dangerous though. The marker was already at the maximum range for the transponder.

“You need someone fire doesn’t bother. I volunteer to go,” Soza said landing next to me. I took her in for a moment as she had taken an Eastern dragon form from Earth. I didn’t think those existed on Murgin as the only dragon’s I had seen were more of the western variety.

“Thank you.”

“I still need to thank the bastard for the trouble he caused me,” Louella said cracking her knuckles. The sun spirits all copied her taking it from menacing to cute in a span of a second. “I’m definitely going.”

“If master orders it, then I shall go,” Julie said kneeling in front of me.

“I know you’re going my love, so I will be going along with you,” Alara said hopping down next to me from her mech and taking my hand.

“Thank you.” I looked around. “Everyone that wants to go step forward,” I shouted otherwise we might be here all day.

Everyone stepped forward. Even the goblins and gnomes that would have little chance of surviving such a battle. They had already suffered quite a few loses just from the earlier battle. While I respected their act of bravery, I couldn’t ask them to suffer more.

“The gnomes stand with you, my lord,” Izora said kneeling next to Julie. She caused a chain reaction and the close to six thousand gnomes that where behind her followed suit.

“Don’t be forgetting us, boss! The mechanized units of Goblin Haven stand with you!” Tony shouted and all the mechs cheered. “We’d follow you into hell and back!”

I looked everyone over, and contentment filled my chest. When I was on Earth, I had tried so hard at one point to connect with someone. Even a machine, in the case of Watcher. Who knew I would have to come to another plane of existence to find it?

“Very well! We will all go pay a visit to our neighbor!” I jumped into the air and pointed my sword at a point in front of the armies. With effort, I used the links provided by the transponders to create a portal to the tunnel just outside of Glourios’s nest. Forming two pillars on either side, I made it so the portal couldn’t close unless it was destroyed.

I dived toward the portal leading the charge. Emerging from the other side, the heat reached increasingly dangerous levels. I channeled some mana to bring the temperature down to manageable levels. The others started to appear. Alara came through carrying a doll and I realized that she’d shrunk her mech to take it with her.

Thinking of the goblin mechs about to appear, I began enlarging the tunnel. Pulling the rock from the ceiling and walls, I quickly absorbed it as I moved forward. “I doubt he won’t notice my use of teleporting magic. Expect company in any second.”

Soza, back in her elven form, moved forward along with Louella. “Let’s see him get past us,” Louella said as she started pulling in all the heat from the tunnel. It was soon cold enough for breath to fog up.

“Save some for me,” Soza said.

We moved down the tunnel and soon emerged into the cavern that I saw in Louella’s memories. They hadn’t done it justice. Giant red crystals that appeared to house pure fire mana pulsed slowly from the ceiling and stalagmite around a massive castle made from stone, magma, and pure fire. A sea of flame raged around the pillar the castle sat on.

“Nice place,” I said.

“Remembers me of home, the Dungeon lords love this sort of setup,” Soza commented taking it in. “At least if my mother was to be believed.”

“Good to know,” I replied, rubbing my neck.

“Dungeon lords?” Louella asked confused.

“Just a bunch of dungeon cores that are monster based. They can’t become celestials for one reason or another.”

“Let me guess. They’re evil.”

I snapped my fingers and grinned. “You got it!”

A rumbling started across the cavern as a giant several times bigger than the Frusoga rose from the top of the flaming sea. His mana was off the charts, so much so, that he had to be pulling it from somewhere much like a dungeon core might. If the cave was already fire mana inclined, then we might actually be in a magma chamber of a volcano or something similar.

“I’m glad you could join me!” The giant’s voice reverberated around the chamber causing some of the mortals in the group to grab their ears. “My beloved. I knew you would return to me. I realize that I failed to convert you completely. I will not make the same mistake.”

Louella flared her mana becoming as bright as the sun. “I’d like to see you try it, bastard!”

I placed my hand on her shoulder. “Now. Now. You’re just giving him what he wants.”

“Can you turn him into a gem like Frusoga? I want to have him hold my paperwork on my desk for the next hundred years.”

“Sure. I’ll do my best,” I said laughing at the idea.

Glourios dropped his hands into the magma under him and pulled out two sabers that had to be at least fifteen to twenty meters long each. I moved my senses to my mech that was sitting over the entrance to my dungeon. I teleported it down here and merged with it. Starfall thrumming as it absorbed mana around it after I fused my new sword with it. The hum of the mana generators coming online.

Alara tossed her doll down and it expanded until it back to full size. She hopped in and we strode forward. “Making yourselves bigger does not give you a better chance of defeating me! I’m on the gateway of tier six, dungeon cores! You do not threaten me.” Glourios shouted then burst into laughter.

The sea of fire started to writhe as monsters and men started to rush up the slope toward the army. They didn’t give the chance and started firing into the rushing horde. Explosions of ice and water coated the hill only to vanish into steam the next moment. The flaming horde quickly made their way up the hill.

Alara and I moved toward Glourios with Louella, Julie, Wrakras, Duilin, and Soza moving through the air around our heads. The flaming horde washed over our feet but Glourios must want to put us in our place as they didn’t attempt to block our passage. We soon stood next to the lake of magma and faced Glourios in what reminded me of a raid battle from an old role-playing game from before I was born.

Soza charged ahead of us in her eastern dragon form. “Dragons? A weak failed race!” The sabers dropped from his hands as before they floated up to his head as his body shifted to that of a massive beast. His back was covered in spikes and while he had two wings on his back, they were missing the canvas to left him fly. Glourios grew several times bigger as the magma under him rushed up into his body. “This is the form you should seek!” He roared before a wave of fire left his mouth.

It washed over us, and I felt pieces of my mech start to melt the heat was so intense. I held up my hand and create a shield that absorbed the heat and channeled the mana into my mech’s mana batteries. A fire storm started to rage around us controlled by his will. “I! AM! UNSTOPPABLE!”

“You are annoying!” I shouted back. I pulled Starfall back and threw it like a spear. The weapon sliced through the air and struck Glourios in the chest. The magma instantly started to harden as the heat and energy were pulled into the weapon.

Alara charged and brought her own sword around and managed to slice off part of Glourios’s right side. Louella dropped through the air and struck him in head, knocking him back from the force she used. Duilin swung around and slammed his hammer into the back of his head. Julie and Wrakras used their tidal wave of shadows to eat away at his back.

“You think you are hurting me!?” There was a surge of magma from under him and his body instantly recovered. “Taste some ancient magic!”

I held my hand out and pulled Starfall back to my grip and braced for what might be coming. The flames around Glourios quickly turned white then blue as their mana density increased rapidly. He swung and back handed Soza sending her across the cavern. I didn’t fail to notice that she had received burns from the attack, meaning there was more to heat to his change.

Glourios swung at me, but I countered with Starfall just in time. Parts of the blade started to melt just from the brief contact. My mech’s arm and the parts closest also began to melt. Alara brought her sword around and sliced his hand off, but it reformed in less than a second. Julie sent some shadows at the back of Glourios’s head. He didn’t even respond as the shadows burnt away before they hit him.

There was a flash as Louella glowed brighter than a star. The sun spirits swung around her like electrons on an atom as they channeled increasingly higher amounts of mana into her. Soon, I couldn’t actually see her body anymore. The spot of light that she had become suddenly streaked at Glourios when it reached his face, his massive body was blasted back against the cavern wall.

He pushed off and began swiping Louella as she streaked around him. I knew she wouldn’t be able to keep that up for long. Even if she could, Glourios was pulling mana from the magma lake and depending on how saturated this natural source was, it could take months or years before he used it all up.

“We need to destroy the source of his power,” Alara commented as she helped my mech move back. It had been damaged more than I expected from the heat of Glourios’s attack.

“I know.” I thought about how to force a magma chamber to go inert. We would need to either cause all the magma to erupt or pull the heat and pressure out. I placed my hand on the ground and created a transponder to link with the rest of the network. From there, I added a connection to Starfall.

Aiming for the center of the lake, I threw Starfall. After that, I did what a dungeon core did best. I absorbed all the mana feeding it to all my other cores. My estimate was right as Starfall sank the depth was incredible. The heat and fire mana were being absorbed faster than they could be replaced.

Starfall soon reached the bottom of the magma chamber close to a thousand meters down. Everything began to harden before our eyes. My sub-cores growing quickly from the rapid influx of mana. They had all broken through to tier four and were well on their way up. My main core was also benefiting from the mana, but I focused on making all my sub-cores equally powerful.

“NO!” An explosion signaled that Glourios caught on to my plan. Louella refused to let up and kept him pinned to the wall.

Without the source of mana feeding him, his power soon dropped to just over tier four. Powerful, but not much stronger than Frusoga had been. I flew over and created a blackhole in the center of Glourios. I pulled his energy into a gem like Louella had wanted me to do. “I’ll return! You can’t destroy a Greater Elemental!”

“That’s why I’m not destroying you,” I retorted as his very soul was pulled into the gem. The flaming horde dissipated into motes of flame once Glourios was completely sealed. I glanced at the top of the hill and found the army was burnt and hurting but most of them were alive.

The light in the cavern had dimmed as the magma cooled to stone. There was only a little bit of mana remaining in the chamber. I decided to channel it to everyone that fought with me to heal their wounds and increase their power if they could manage it. Louella flew to where the others were gathering, while I flew over to Soza.

“Husband? I think I see the light. Please come and comfort me,” she said, holding her hand out while back in her elven form. I checked her over to make sure she would be okay. I found a few burns, but nothing her dragon constitution couldn’t heal in a few hours.

“If you can joke about it, I think you’ll be fine,” I replied with a sigh.

Chapter 39

Louella

I took a deep breath after the sun spirits pulled all their mana back from me. The power had been a rush but not something I wanted to maintain permanently. I gave each of them a kiss on the forehead for their help.

“Thank you, girls.” They each pointed at each other and I somehow got the message in that they wanted names for themselves. Sixteen names would be a handful to memorize but as they were basically my children, I owed it to them to name them. “When we get back.” I promised and they all flew up and hugged my face.

“Here.”

I turned and found Regan holding out a gem that was just a bit bigger than two hand widths. He had taken the liberty of making it a cube shape. I noticed that Duilin backed away from it when he saw it and remembered that Regan trapped him in a cube for a few months.

There was a face in the cube frozen as if stuck in place. “Can he see out of it?” I wouldn’t want him to learn something that might help him escape in the future.

“No. He’s basically frozen in time while in the cube. The only way to free him is if someone does it from this side.”

Everyone was sitting on the ground breathing heavily and taking a break from the fight. It had been short and intense which probably helped save most of the weaker individuals that came with us. These sorts of battles really weren’t Regan forte as he was better at overcoming the enemy with numbers and better technology such as his ships.

The cavern shook and I looked down at the cube nervously, but I was sure it hadn’t come from it. This felt like something else. Regan looked around then I felt his aura spread out. Alara moved over as well helping to boost his senses.

“What is it?” I asked once they came out of their trance.

“I swear. It’s like this planet was built to be a prison. It’s just a prison on top of a prison,” Regan said rubbing his forehead.

“An explanation would be nice.”

He clicked his tongue, more annoyed by what he found then me but still annoyed. “This chamber was part of the damn Seal. I’m sure it’s not the only one, but it was helping to power the bloody thing. By draining it of all its mana and heat rendering it inert, I’ve basically helped Glourios accomplish his goal.”

“The Seal isn’t going to open is it?” Glourios claimed he was trying to free his master. That had to be something even more powerful than him.

“It is hard to say. I would guess… it depended on how determined whatever was kept inside was to get out.”

“Teriso.” We looked over to find Nero descending to where we were. He hadn’t survived the battle unstarched and had a few burns on his chest and arms.

“What exactly is Teriso?” Regan asked then looked over to Duilin. “You said you were singing a song about him a long time ago. What do you know?”

“He was the original World Spirit before he was replaced by the one we have now.”

“If he was a world spirit why did he turn evil?” I asked slightly confused. The world spirit existed to protect the mortals living on the planet.

“Delusions of grandeur?” Nero suggested looking at Duilin who nodded slowly.

“Yeah, that about sums it up. He wanted to be a god. A true god, not one of celestials. A being with the power to create with a thought and equally destroy anything that challenged him.”

“Why does that sound familiar?” Regan asked with a sarcastic tone.

Nero nodded in response. The first dungeons were his experiment into the realm. The details get a bit lost over time, but some of the gods didn’t take too kindly to an upstart trying to get into their territory. I imagine they would lose out somehow. Anyway, there was a battle, yadda-yadda-yadda. He lost and was replaced by the one that won. The dungeons were already part of this universe by that point, but the gods found a way to get some of the mana they created, so they mostly just let it lie after that.”

“So. What you’re telling me, is that I am cleaning up somebody else’s mess since they couldn’t be bothered to finish the damn job?” Regan asked noticeably angry. Not that I blamed him.

“You could always go the path of a normal dungeon,” Nero said, shrugging.

Regan glared at him then like a switch was flipped he made a broad grin. “That means no one can complain when I take this planet for myself. Maybe I can help it last more than a thousand years without something trying to destroy it.”

I closed my eyes and shook my head. Regan’s eyes were serious and that only meant trouble.

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