Dungeon Robotics (Book 4): Cascade

by Matthew Peed

“Boss?” Darr asked, confusion written in her eyes.

  “Don’t worry about it. Continue,” I said.

  “I used the . . . the mithril for the control matrix in the brain. When I enter the cockpit, it creates a link with me and uses much of my unused mental capacity to operate the rest of the body. I used my own blood when creating the brain matrix so that there is no rejection when linking with it,” she explained, looking at the head of the mech.

  “Fascinating! How long did it take to create the matrix?” I asked, casting my senses throughout the mech. It really was a marvel, the kind that could only be created in a world like this. It was also as close to living that it could get before it just became a golem. It was a delicate balance when creating it, I judged from how she was describing the process.

  “Roughly two weeks for it to be operable. The one in Bervin took almost a month. I was originally trying to find a way for a non-necromancer to take control of the undead. This was the result,” Darr said sheepishly.

  “Next time you have such an amazing idea, just let me know.” I laughed.

  “Yes, boss!” She beamed.

  “For now, just remember my words about this mission,” I said, waving her off.

  She saluted like some of the automata do for me. “Yes, boss!”

  I gestured for her to be on her way. The rest of the crew was waiting for her, as they’d finished loading the supplies during the questioning. She turned, then climbed up to the mech’s cockpit. The armor unfolded like a fold of skin, and she climbed into the oddly red-colored metal cockpit. I thought it was fitting that the operations center was roughly where the heart would have been.

  The was a wave of mana as the mech activated, then Darr—or the Bervin—moved toward the airship. As soon as she was onboard, the clamps holding it to the bay wall were released. The engines flared to life and it took off, heading in the direction of the goblin dungeon. Optical illusion cameras started to display the surroundings, making the airship appear to vanish from sight.

  Once they’d taken off, we did as well, heading toward the next dryad.

  Chapter 28

  Regan

  The journey to the next dryad was not a smooth one. It looked like the necromancers, or at least the entity that had been resisting me since I first started attacking the undead forest, was throwing everything in the area against us. Treants were the main force, only they had been reinforced by multiple levels of magic. It made them much more difficult to deal with.

  Individually, they were still a pushover, but when groups of them got together, it appeared their mana linked to one another. This forced us to deliver a high-yield attack to actually kill one of them. If it was powerful enough, then their linked mana would allow the damaged foe to recover in moments.

  Their offensive capabilities were significantly improved, though still not enough to bother my floating city’s defenses. The rest of the fleet was required to be more aware of their situation to avoid something stupid from happening. The captains took the orders seriously and avoided receiving any damage, but their speed suffered in return.

  We fired artillery into the mass of treants and monsters to burn through their mana. Explosions occurred on a regular basis for nearly ten minutes before things took a turn and the rounds started curving off into the surrounding area. There was no explanation nor cause that I could see.

  “What’s going on?!” I shouted to the bridge crew.

  “Creator, multiple entities detected that are outside the visible spectrum!” the observation officer replied back.

  “Outside the visible spectrum?” I murmured.

  A moment later an earsplitting screech rose from the center of the enemy forces. It must have contained some air mana in it, as the windows on the airships vibrated from the intense sound wave. I stood up quickly.

  “Fire energy weapons! Don’t let up!” I ordered. The screech reminded me of a creature from Earth’s mythology. If they were really the cause, this battle was about to get much harder.

  The bridge crew quickly diverted energy from physical weaponry to the laser turrets, and their rate of fire increased by nearly double. With the less physical rounds no longer throwing debris into the air, the cause of the disturbance was soon made clear. While it was true that they were outside the visible spectrum, it only lasted until a beam of charged mana hit or grazed them.

  “Specters,” I said, looking at the army of ghosts that floated through the air. Their only weakness was light mana, according to the few church records I’d looked over in the town. There were ghosts of all the mortal races, all genders, and it looked like all callings mixed into the massive floating army. As I observed them, I had to wonder if there was something to the fact that the most powerful of specters appeared to be several women among the group.

  It was disconcerting that they would quickly vanish once the energy from the lasers was expended. Three women who dwarfed the other specters rose above the rest of the group. With my mana sense, I could tell the entire army was also linked together, sharing and pulling mana from other sources. That would make this much more difficult.

  One of those that I guessed was a lead specter gestured toward us, then much like a swarm of locusts, the army of ghosts started to charge us in midair. It was almost fascinating to watch them move as if they were running on the ground. The moment passed in less than a second, and I gestured toward the charging enemy.

  “Fire the positron cannons! Don’t allow them to assault the airships!” I ordered quickly.

  Several turrets around the airships opened. Their barrels extended toward the enemy forces. Only a moment later, two dozen beams shot across the distance. I struggled to contain the massive amount of gamma radiation being generated, but the result was worth it. The beams tore through the ranks of ghosts, their forms being destroyed at the atomic level. Some of the specters screamed in what I thought was pain, while others were silent in their death. Thank Creation that the ghosts had an ectoplasm or something similar to their body.

  The cannons did their part, but the wave of ghosts was still too much for the limited firepower prepared. I had anticipated nonphysical entities being part of the enemy forces, but when I’d failed to see any during my scouting scans, I’d unintentionally written them off. This was a mistake. One that I hoped we made it through.

  It took only a moment before the ghost army was upon the forward airship. The Barrier spell went into overdrive as it repelled the ghosts. At least they were able to stop the ghosts from attacking. I tried to think of a way through this without my forces taking excessive damage.

  “Switch to rapid fire! Don’t worry about going to full charge. That should buy us some time,” I ordered.

  The ghost army hit Alpha’s barrier, forcing it to activate fully. The hexagonal barrier segments started to take stress from the massive number of specters impacting it. I needed to think of a way to neutralize the mana link between the enemy forces. I could fire an ion blast to vaporize everything in the area, but I wasn’t sure what effect that would have on the specters. If I assumed the dryad was the key to the massive amount of entities linked, then that would have to be my target.

  “Hold the line for five minutes,” I ordered, then moved to the station.

  All the satellites the station was creating now had an ion cannon installed so I didn’t have to make a special one for the area. It took longer to build the satellite, but it was worth it in the long run. The network hadn’t reached the area the battle was in yet, so I had to redirect one this direction. It would only take three minutes for it to be in position.

  I accessed the network and had the surveillance satellite already over the dryad record and analyze the information so I could track specter-type enemies in the future. Learn from defeat, as they say. While the battle wasn’t a defeat yet, the fact that they’d managed to surprise me meant I’d lost this round.

  The station automata crewing the controls quickly went to work analyzing the information. The specters gave
off a unique magnetic signature that we could track. From space, we’d only be able to track it when large enough numbers were gathered together that it appeared the local area was being affected. The magnetic signature didn’t reach the level of affecting gravity, but it could cause metal rounds to go off course. Not to mention that they were nonphysical, so the rounds would just go through them had they not been protecting the dryad.

  “Ion cannon in position and ready!”

  “Fire after a ten count,” I ordered, then moved back to the bridge of Alpha.

  A few seconds later, the massive beam descended from the sky directly over the dryad. As the cannon primed, a large barrier, much like the one the necromancers used only on the scale of a small town, formed over the dryad. It possessed at least five layers that were each nearly a meter thick. The cannon finished priming, then unleashed its energy.

  The beam grew to the same thickness as the dryad’s tree as it collided with the barrier. It punched through the first two layers without issue, but the third managed to hold it for a second. The fourth layer held for even longer at three seconds, and it finally hit the last layer. It held as cracks formed over the entire structure, but it didn’t break. I felt the cannon use all its energy as it slowly started to fade.

  Observing the battlefield, I had figured they would work out a solution to the weapon, but I didn’t anticipate that it would happen this quickly. At least the amount of mana in the area was dramatically decreased. The positron turrets were having a much greater affect, completely disintegrating the specters when they were hit. With the specters taking losses, we would have been able to finish them off before we ran out of energy.

  “Are all the dryads going to be different?” I heard from behind me.

  I looked to see Anubis and Vetur standing at the entrance to the bridge. Vetur was observing the battle with great interest. “I wish they’d just give up, but we’re probably the first real competition they’ve ever had. I have to commend them for coming up with ways to repel me so quickly,” I said as I laughed.

  “Father, is it time for me to act yet?” Anubis asked.

  I shook my head. “Not yet. We are still dealing with the ghost army.”

  “Perhaps we should use them?” Anubis asked.

  “I really wanted to wait until we were farther into the Deadlands. They’ve already found a counter for everything I’ve thrown at them so far. I’m worried that they might find a counter to yours as well. At the moment, at most they know I have one soldier with perfect resistance to unholy mana. They might grow a bit more desperate if they see a whole force of them,” I said, considering the situation.

  When I’d been doing my upgrades for the north, I’d used some of Anubis’s materials to make a force of automata similar to him. They were quite powerful, and I wanted to wait in using them. I thought it through before I decided with a nod. I’d rather have him head out than risk losing any of the ships. Beta and Gamma were close to reaching critical with their shields.

  “Alright. Take ten of them with you and counterattack. I’m sure you’ll be immune to anything the specters do to you. Hell, you might be able to kill them just with a touch, but I’d rather be on guard,” I said. I was confident the force could handle the ghosts, and it would look like the special soldiers were limited to the enemy.

  “Yes!” Anubis saluted, then left the bridge.

  I pulled a sword created of a green-tinged black metal out of subspace. Just being out in the air, its hunger for the unholy mana in the distance was palpable. It wasn’t alive, but it definitely wanted to kill undead and unholy. I tossed the sword to Vetur.

  “Go help Anubis. I know you wanted to see some battle yourself,” I said with a chuckle. He’d been biting at the bit to see some action. Especially since I’d pulled him from the main dungeon.

  “Many thanks, Creator,” Vetur bowed, then left as well.

  I felt a new surge of unholy mana from the direction of the dryad. They really were like mini dungeon cores, with their deep wells of mana to draw from. The specters attacking the airships renewed their efforts to break through the barriers. An explosion suddenly went off left of Gamma.

  “Our barrier is reaching max load! It can’t hold much more,” I heard from the comms.

  “Fall back!” I ordered.

  Gamma started to pull away from the front as small explosions occurred along the side of the airship. The ghosts were able to manifest their claws to affect the physical realm. The crew of the ship used smaller positron weapons to deal with the few that managed to make it through the shields, but the ghost army was massive.

  Pieces of the hull started to fall along the path it was taking. I was worried I was about to have to teleport the crew off the airship when a few figures emerged from Alpha. They were using the same tech as Benjamin’s crew to fly. As they cut across the sky toward Gamma, bursts of unholy mana exploded around them. All the ghosts in the area immediately started to target them. Anubis and his soldiers tore through the ghost army like paper.

  “Supporting fire! Don’t let them overwhelm Gamma!” I ordered the fleet.

  Gamma finally got relief from the attacks as all the airships directed their attacks to the ghost army around them. It relieved the stress the barriers were experiencing enough to allow them to recharge a bit. Anubis was absorbing so much unholy mana that great wings made from green shadows formed on his back that allowed him to fly even faster.

  The ghost army finally started to fall back when the giant specter in the back screamed. I also felt the unholy mana in the area drop considerably. The treants were still surrounding the dryad, though, so I figured they must be pulling out their forces that could actually flee in time. I wasn’t taking any chances and ordered everyone to stay on guard.

  I got a message from Louella that she needed my help. I sensed her in my main dungeon and decided that she wasn’t in immediate danger. I told her to wait a few hours. If she died, then that was her limit. The fifteenth floor was a test, after all.

  The fleet moved forward, maintaining artillery fire. Anubis’s company was still pursuing the ghost army, but I quickly ordered them to return. They pulled to a stop, each with black and green wings like Anubis. Studying them, I found they were doing it to stop from being contaminated by the unholy mana.

  “Anubis, are you able to move in, or do I need to reduce them to ash?” I sent to Anubis.

  “We’ll move in closer and I’ll let you know, Father,” Anubis sent back.

  They twisted around, then shot toward the dryad. They were about five hundred meters away when I felt the unholy mana in the area drop to almost nonexistent. I quickly scanned the area and saw it was building up in the dryad. I was immediately reminded of an overload function that some machines did when they were about to self-destruct.

  “Anubis! Get out of there!” I yelled.

  He broke in midair, then turned around toward us. He needed to make it another three hundred meters before I would be able to teleport him back here. I could already tell he wasn’t going to make it.

  “Five seconds until the dryad reaches maximum capacity!” one of the bridge crew shouted.

  “All airships’ barriers to maximum! Gamma, get behind Delta!” I ordered.

  An explosion that reminded me of a hydrogen bomb back on Earth, with a mushroom cloud and everything, went off. I could see the ground shake from the force of the blast. The shock wave hit the fleet, forcing the barriers to maximum instantly. Cracks formed over the hexagrams along the fronts of airships. The heat and nearly solid level of mana hit us next. I reacted quickly, teleporting all the crew from Gamma and only just making it in time.

  Its barrier collapsed, then its hull was torn apart as the mana ripped its way through it. I quickly teleported the mana generator into space, and it exploded with enough force to decimate a small city. Gamma continued exploding as it fell out of the sky. I slammed my fist on the panel, leaving a good dent in the surface.

  “Anubis! Vetur! Either of you
there?” I yelled, my worry growing when I didn’t get a response for nearly a minute. Anubis was like a son to me. The necromancers would pay if they killed him! Screw consequences of war. Vetur was almost the same as he was my first boss. He’d technically died twice already, but I was worried he wouldn’t be able to survive something like this.

  “Master, I have Anubis, but the rest of his company were destroyed in the blast,” Vetur said over the comms.

  “Condition?” I asked, relieved they were alive.

  “Anubis absorbed too much unholy mana at once. It is taking his body time to process,” Vetur messaged.

  “Alright. Head back to the ship. We aren’t going anywhere for the moment,” I sent.

  Chapter 29

  Izora

  I slammed into the wall of the alley as I ran. The mana device was refusing to do what I wanted it to. While I admit it threw me off at first, I’d had years to mess with the thing and I hated the fact that this . . . copy was able to do things that I didn’t even think possible. I tried to remember everything that was recorded in the Grand Library back on Jade Wind, but nothing came to mind that would help me.

  Vern’s lessons kept popping into my head, but my copy wasn’t giving me time to process them. As I ran through the whited-out city, I concentrated on forming the same lattice, but nothing happened. At this point I thought it would have been easier to just fly using air mana . . . Of course! I’m so stupid!

  “You slowed down!” the other me called as a human-size boulder cratered the building next to me. I gulped and pushed off the wall to keep running. I really hated how stubborn I could be at this moment. I was sure I had hurt myself more by falling than by actually getting hit by the other me’s spells.

  “I was worried that you would lose me,” I shouted back.

  A spear made of flames blasted through the wall next to me and continued on its path for several buildings before it exploded. I threw myself forward into a roll to avoid the backwash of heat and debris. I used terra mana to cushion the fall by turning the ground soft. I finished the roll on my feet and ran around the corner.