by Matthew Peed
“Understood. I’ll get some more generators sent down.” I looked to Queen, who nodded. She bowed and moved to get it done.
I moved back to my throne and sat down. I was interested to see what Jarvis had come up with in the short time he’d had. He did have quite the dedicated staff working with him. If you wanted a weapon, Jarvis and his team were the ones to go to. If I’d had to think up solutions to all the magic-based things I was having to deal with, I would have probably had a headache.
“What do you have for me, Jarvis?” I sent through comms.
“We have several things that we want to test. First, according to the mortals, specters are a soul that has gained the ability to manifest. This rings many bells, as the mana required does not match the mana visible, mana being strongly tied to the heart and brain of a body,” Jarvis explained while setting up what looked like a workstation.
“Yes, but the soul also has the ability to produce mana under certain conditions,” I said, thinking about Anubis’s ritual for the dryad.
“Indeed, however, the mana levels from an army of this size should be high enough to drown both you and Undead Queen Alara out from the amount of ‘noise’ it would put off,” he explained as he put the finishing touches on his station.
“Therefore?”
“I believe they are merely projections,” Jarvis finished.
I glanced at the map of the floor. If what he said was true, then it could be a problem. We already knew that high-powered light mana did have an effect on the specters, but it was costly and may not be permanent. Anubis could deal with the specters, more because of the fact that he was absorbing their souls when he ripped the unholy mana from them. If the specters’ physical bodies were somewhere that we couldn’t get to, that would make this a nearly impossible floor to get through.
“Can we just avoid combat and drill to the next floor?” Benjamin asked.
“Avoid combat . . .” I murmured.
This was a dungeon. Even with her being controlled, I doubted the necromancers fully understood the rules and laws that went into creating the dungeon. Alara should have made it where a party of adventurers could succeed. Whether it was sneaking through the floor, or . . .
“The bodies have to be on this floor. Given the strength of the specters, being this deep in the dungeon would be like they were trying to talk thirty meters underwater. Their physical links have to be here,” I said.
“Exactly. We just have to find them. We could blow the floor to pieces, but that would require a lot of mana and time. During which we would be under attack from the specters,” Jarvis said, then pressed a few buttons on his station.
I changed the view of the communicator so I could take in the entire workstation. Jarvis had rigged up what looked like a telescope from a stellar observatory. It sat on a hover platform allowing for easy maneuvering. Mana stones lined its body, each with a dense mana scripting. Jarvis channeled some mana to levitate one of the mana cables from the generators and attached it to the device.
“This will find their bodies?” I asked.
“Yes. At your request I have come up with a weapon to be used against the ethereal type of undead. Using light mana, it will strike a specter and follow the ‘cord’ back to the host body. Even if it doesn’t destroy the host body, it will allow us to trace it, and then a good bombardment from the more traditional cannons can finish the work,” he explained excitedly.
“Excellent. Begin your . . . tests as soon as you can.” I laughed at how excited Jarvis was over his toy. Seeing a creator so happy with their creation should make anyone that builds things in the world happy as well.
“As you command, sir,” Jarvis said and turned back to his device.
He didn’t even have to try hard to aim. The specter army was massive and crowded outside the barrier. They were trying to get past it, but the nearly solid level of the light magic continually forced them back. A few of the specters smoked, and parts of their ethereal bodies were noticeably missing from their attempts to get through.
Jarvis activated the device and a beam of energy shot into the mass of ghosts. If I was human, I was sure my ears would have been bleeding from the horrendous screech that was given off. The beam split a few dozen times with each specter it hit, like a ray of light hitting glass. The branching beams sailed off into the distance to impact a large mound on the other side of the floor.
“I bet most of the souls are from adventurers that tried to stop Undead Queen Alara in the early days,” Queen commented.
I rubbed my chin. “I don’t doubt it.”
Zooming one of the cameras in close on a random specter, it was clear that, sure enough, the specter looked like a man in a plate armor from the Middle Ages. Burn marks that I found to be the usual work of unholy magic marred parts of his body. The necromancers had likely inhabited Alara’s dungeon for few years to kill off adventurers and gather her mana quickly. It wasn’t a bad idea to get a still-developing dungeon stronger. Hell, they could have posted quests in the Adventurers Guild to lure people here.
“Should I just destroy them all?” Jarvis asked after his fourth test fire.
The ghost army had learned by the second shot, but light traveled faster than they could dodge, after all. Even with them taking distance and spreading out, Jarvis was still picking them off like flies. I wanted to take out the boss no matter what, and maintaining the barrier against this threat was draining our mana reserves.
“Burn as many as you can,” I ordered.
“Yes, sir.” Jarvis nodded, then started firing much faster.
The energy blasts were smaller and didn’t burn through quite as many, but they were still taking five or six out with each shot. Before long, the ghost army looked more like a ragged band around a defeated queen. The specter queen glared at Jarvis. She was the only one so far that was able to dodge Jarvis’s energy attack. And it was more of a type of teleportation, to be fair.
She teleported right above the ruined village and dove straight down and into a ruined manor that was in the center of town. Streams of unholy mana broke from the ground around the village, then surged into the house. Before I got a chance to order it blown to pieces, the action was already done. A figure burst from the ruined building and floated into the air.
Jarvis fired his energy cannon at it, but with a flick of the figure’s hand, the beam shattered around her. The specter queen held out her hand, and a massive scythe formed out of shadows. More shadows coalesced around her, turning into a gray dress that would have been fit for royalty. Just before her form was completely covered, I was able to make out a physical body.
“Anubis, what do you see?” I asked.
“Her soul has changed. The dark is eating the unholy from her body. I believe it might be a good idea to wait for the change to finish,” he said. His eyes were glued to the event happening above us.
“I wonder if this is what happens when a monster without loyalty evolves into something stronger than the core can control,” I said, leaning back to watch as well.
“It’s possible, Monarch,” Queen answered.
The shadows continued to ripple around the boss, random spikes of green energy emerging from her body. I had all my sensors and the scanners trained on the specter queen to collect all the data I could. It was rare that I could witness something breaking through. At least where I’m not involved to the point where something wouldn’t explode if I stopped concentrating. As usually was the case when I was helping my creatures reach the next level.
“Still, it’s amazing that she is fighting the unholy mana. Especially this deep in the dungeon,” I murmured. I leaned forward again when it appeared the change was about to be complete. I knew this was a risk to take, but I also felt the knowledge I could gain from this was worth it.
I really want to capture her, I thought. The specter queen was breaking through to tier three. I would be able to control her with a collar with a few adjustments. She gripped her head and screamed, then swun
g her scythe at random, causing massive blasts of energy. One blast of energy struck the wall, creating a large crater. Explosions boomed throughout the floor as the blasts destroyed it.
“Brace!” I yelled when one of the blasts flew toward the frontline barrier, crashing into it and causing cracks to form. I upped the mana flowing into the barrier, and it repaired itself. Eventually, the specter queen calmed down. She floated in the air lethargically, almost as if she was unconscious.
“I don’t sense any unholy mana from her,” Queen said, and Anubis nodded in agreement.
I checked her myself but could only agree with the two. However she’d managed it, she’d changed into an undead form without unholy mana. This led to a number of possibilities that I would have to explore in the future.
I wasn’t sure what triggered her, but the specter queen suddenly screeched and turned away from my forces, shooting toward what felt like a random spot in the dungeon floor. With a blast of shadows, a large chunk of the wall turned to rubble. Rage was rolling off her in almost visible waves.
“Should we let her go?” Jarvis asked.
“I think it would take us a bit more than I would like to commit to take her down, and she obviously is out to kill someone farther down.” I tapped my chin, then nodded. “Yup, just ignore her!” I threw a thumbs-up. An explosion accented it from across the floor.
When the boss left the floor, the speed of the drills increased tremendously. From the scans, it would only take us about twenty minutes to reach the next floor, though I wondered if there would be anything remaining when we got there.
Chapter 17
Louella
“The damaged parts of the city aren’t repairing themselves,” Ezal said, reading from a report.
“I did get the impression that something had Regan occupied.” I sighed, leaning my head on my desk.
“I’ve sent a few runners to have all the adventurers pull out of the dungeon for now. We won’t be able to reach everyone, but we’ve left a message at all the floor entrances we have access to. I don’t want something to happen while Regan is busy,” Ezal said.
I nodded in agreement. While adventurers dying in the dungeon was a matter of fact, there were things down there that I was sure Regan didn’t want the normal mortals to have access to without a fight. Without the host to command the dungeon, someone might manage to stumble beyond what they were prepared or meant to see.
“That’s probably for the best. The prisoners have been moved to the jail, correct? Any new information?” I asked, then took a sip from my drink. Since the terra wave, we’d been cleaning up the damage to the town and hadn’t been able to personally interrogate any more of the prisoners from the attack. Most had been traumatized anyway.
“Nothing more from what the kid told us. They were all on the bottom of the hierarchy and didn’t know much. Of course, that contributed to them surviving.” Ezal chuckled.
“Funny how the fates work.” I chuckled as well. “I suppose I will send a formal complaint to this Duke Neil and the king and demand reparations for the damages caused.”
I leaned back in my chair to look out the window. That was about as far as I could take it. I knew the king would likely back the noble or attempt to sweep it under the table. However, I still had to make a complaint for honor’s sake.
Focusing outside, I observed the town smoking in various places, but it was the dying smoke of old fires. People moved to fix the smaller damage. Most of it would normally be fixed in moments with terra magic, but it hadn’t been working correctly since earlier. The mana acted differently, more excited than normal, causing the spells to react differently than they were supposed to.
“Damages, Mistress?” Ezal asked, pulling my attention back to the office.
“Damages. The West Gate Road is in ruins, my people are terrified of another attack, and I have to take care of the dead. Plenty of things I can claim damages for, according to the lords’ war agreement,” I said, tapping the desk. “Even though most of the damage was caused by that strange wave of terra, I couldn’t say it wasn’t part of the duke’s plan to attack me. He would, of course, have more talented mages than me, a measly viscountess.”
“Fair enough.” Ezal nodded, and we heard a knock at the door and turned to see who it was.
Wrakras came in carrying a box loaded with food. I shook my head at how much of a glutton he was. I knew he was partially undead but still couldn’t wrap my head around how his body actually functioned.
“Wrakras, have you heard anything from your master?” I asked.
“The link is still active, but I can’t communicate with him directly. I do sense his mana is being used at a fairly rapid pace. And that’s taking into account how much he pulls in every minute or so.”
“Directly?”
Wrakras pointed to the east. “His tower in the forest has other means of communication. He has been trying to keep the technology level of the valley down since he doesn’t actively control every person who comes through here. He has much more control in his forest tower,” he explained with a shrug.
“Can you get there and find out what is going on?” Ezal asked.
“It’d take me about four hours,” he said and took a bite of what looked like a chicken leg.
“Go ahead. We’ll be fine here. We need to know what’s going on,” I said.
Wrakras nodded, then turned into smoke, box of food and all. Ezal also excused herself to return to her duties. I leaned back in my chair and looked back out the window. So much had changed since I came here that I couldn’t even fathom where my path was heading. I never imagined that the little village I took over several months ago would turn into a budding town.
I sipped my drink as I looked out into the sky. Suddenly, I felt a surge of mana from all around the valley. Hexagrams formed a dome that covered the entire valley. I jumped to my feet, trying to find the cause. It was midafternoon and the sun was just about to set. I managed to see a black dot in the air that was streaking toward the valley from the east.
“What the hell is it now?!” I murmured.
I released some of the draw of my armor so that my senses increased. Like a telescope, my vision magnified, and I could make out what approached the valley: a woman with jet-black wings that stretched several dozen meters in each direction. Darkness poured off her liberally, but I couldn’t sense any unholy mana coming from her.
The woman gave me a bad vibe, but the spear was almost as bad. It was plain looking but carried an energy that matched the woman in scale. She was traveling faster than anything I had ever seen before and came to a stop over the town as a barrier, one of Regan’s, activated.
Before I could blink, the woman vanished. A moment later, the entire valley shook from her impact on the barrier. The barrier didn’t even last a moment, shattering into a thousand pieces. The woman was angled toward the dungeon entrance. In another blink, there was a massive quake when the woman impacted the dungeon. The next thing I saw was raining debris.
I smashed through the window and flew into the air. Channeling as much mana as I could, I vaporized all the debris near me, but it was like the entire mountain was coming down on me. The more I destroyed, the more there was. I struck something with my lightning but failed to completely destroy it. Intense flames from behind me flew past and turned the boulder into ash. Ezal flew in next to me.
“Ezal! Glad you could join me,” I shouted while launching another lightning strike to destroy debris.
“What the hell happened?!” She was throwing fireballs that exploded into spheres and turned everything inside them to ash.
“Something is attacking Regan’s dungeon!” I replied. “It was more powerful than anything I’ve ever seen or heard about.”
The stream of debris finally abated, leaving the town with only minor damage as various mages destroyed it. I had to smile at the people working together to protect their neighbors. I looked at Ezal and she nodded. We took off through the air toward the dung
eon.
Reaching where the entrance used to be, we found only a massive hole in the mountain. It was large enough to fit the town, and parts of the floors that weren’t instantly obliterated still showed. Parts of automatons on the edges were still visible, and smoke rose from blackened areas from where the woman had pulverized her way through the dungeon.
“This is bad, isn’t it?” I asked, rubbing the back of my head.
“Surely Regan would have defenses set inside to deal with invaders,” Ezal said.
“I don’t know. He’s kind of overconfident at times.”
“We better go in and help, then!” Ezal started to move toward the hole.
“No!” I grabbed her shoulder. “I’ll go, you need to stay in the town and protect everyone. Plus, I would never forgive myself for letting a pregnant woman go into battle with something that is powerful enough to do this.”
“But, Mistress!” Ezal frowned.
“No argument! Go back!” I ordered.
She gritted her teeth but placed a hand on her swelling abdomen and nodded. When she’d flown back to the town, I smiled and turned back to the smoldering hole. Right as I started down, Gulv flew to me and wrapped around my neck.
“Coming with me?” I smiled. He rubbed his head against my cheek and chirped.
As I descended into the hole, I was glad that the damage was quickly reduced. It was still quite extensive, but I judged it would be stopped around the fifteenth floor. I wasn’t sure how the machinations of dungeons worked regarding this, but I knew Regan was powerful. Still, Regan would most likely have to redo the upper floors.
I reached the ninth floor—or what remained of it. Most of the floor was gone, but part of the fort remained. I flew over to see if any adventurers were there. We had been evacuating them since earlier, but adventurers didn’t always listen to orders. I heard shouting as I flew up to it.