Dungeon Robotics (Book 7): Collapse

by Matthew Peed

  “Well, Mister Rens, I don’t know what rock you’ve been under for the last few years, but you’ve cleared the test. You’re free to enter the city.”

  “Thank you. What exactly were you testing?” I asked, removing my hands from the pad.

  “That is none of your concern. Just be happy you passed,” Carmon said, turning the device off.

  I laughed softly. This was a very interesting place. I was about to walk out of the room when I had a thought. “We are in a dungeon, correct?”

  “Yes. But the city is a noncombat zone. Any action taken against the dungeon will result in immediate retaliation. Remember that,” she said and folded her arms over her chest.

  I nodded before leaving the guardhouse. I was fascinated that a dungeon was working so closely with mortals. The dungeons down in the Beneath wanted nothing more than to devour anything that stepped in their midst. Though, now that I thought about it, we had never tried to reach out to the hosts.

  I moved down the street with some interesting thoughts bouncing around my mind.

  Chapter 5

  Louella

  I was annoyed. That was the easiest way to describe my mood. The cause of my annoyance was a certain man named Nero. It had been two days since I’d met the party, and he wouldn’t leave me alone. At one point, I was forced to have him escorted away by my guards. The whole time he was quoting poetry.

  “Your beauty is as lovely as the rays of light as the sunlight plays in the clouds,” Nero said before they turned the corner of the street.

  “What the hell is wrong with him?” I asked, rubbing my temple. Most people would have gotten the hint by now that I wasn’t interested. Certainly not if they kept up this insanity.

  “I’ve known him almost ten years now, and I’m still not sure,” Yuno said, staring after his teammate. “He’s been with a lot of women over the years, but I’ve never seen him this bad.”

  “Should I take that as a compliment?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “Maybe?” Yuno replied, scratching his head.

  “By the way, where is your sister?”

  “She’s at the inn. She doesn’t handle the sunlight well.”

  “That’s too bad. I wanted to get to know her better,” I said and smiled softly. Ezal and I could have done with some girl talk. We had our friends in the city, but a certain distance had formed since the recent events. Plus, most of them were too busy to really take the time to just sit around and talk.

  “I’ll let her know. I can’t pretend to know what will draw her attention from one moment to the next.”

  “Sounds like you have it rough.”

  “You have no idea,” he mumbled under his breath. I bet he thought I couldn’t hear him.

  He sighed, which then morphed into a groan as he left to go collect Nero after his hours spent in jail. I wasn’t one to punish someone for their passion, but I hoped a while in lockup would allow him to calm down. I watched Yuno walk away until he turned the corner.

  “What do I have up next?” I asked my main guard.

  “My lady, a meeting with Skywood is scheduled. We are inspecting the shop he opened.”

  “Very good. Let’s go then, before something else pops up that delays us,” I said, turning on my heel to follow him.

  ~~~

  “Your Highness! Welcome! Welcome!” Skywood said as he motioned us into his shop. “I must tell you, I haven’t opened a shop myself in years. It has been quite fun. If fact, I feel twenty years younger.”

  “That is good to hear. Though, I fear you will outlive us all at this rate,” I said, looking around the shop.

  It was a very nice-looking establishment and obviously designed for the higher-paying clientele. A few sitting areas were positioned around the store. Luxury material covered the chairs, and the products were on display in glass cases, jewelry, some weapons, a few materials, and a few odds and ends. The enchanted items were likely stored in the back and only shown at request.

  There were three floors, with each floor managing to get nicer. When we reached the top floor, Skywood gestured to a sitting area. I nodded in thanks and moved over to take a seat, with my guards taking up positions in various places in the room. It was their attempt to give me privacy for something like this.

  “I never expected that you would form a country while I stayed here during the winter. Though, I must say I am pleased to be here.”

  “I am not keeping you here. Please feel free to head back to Thonaca whenever,” I said.

  One of Skywood’s servants brought out a pot of tea and some snacks. A member of my guard moved forward to test it, but I waved him back. He looked like he wanted to argue, but I glared at him. He nodded and stepped back.

  Skywood observed this and said, “I’m glad you have some level of trust in me.”

  “That really has little to do with it. I have a feeling that if I died, everyone would regret the change that would happen to this area,” I said, taking a bite out of one of the little sandwiches. Judging from the quality, Skywood must have had his cook study at Regan’s library.

  “You are talking about the dungeon, yes?”

  “Yup,” I replied with a nod.

  “Just how powerful is this core?”

  I leaned back and thought about the question. I really couldn’t think of a good way to explain Regan’s power anymore, so I shrugged and pointed up. “I’ve seen the stars from the side.”

  “From the side?” Skywood asked, clearly confused.

  “Maybe you’ll see yourself someday. Just trust me when I see he could easily level everything in about two thousand kilometers.”

  “Surely you jest,” Skywood said with a small chuckle.

  I merely bit into another sandwich, then took a sip of tea. I had to admit, Skywood had some good stuff. Glancing up, I saw that his complexion was slightly pale. Did the great Skywood finally find something he couldn’t handle? I thought with a snicker.

  I decided to change the topic. “How has business been treating you?”

  “Very well. The adventurers bring in quite a large amount of gold from the dungeon. Normally, I service the noble clientele, but with the dungeon, I was able to expand my range a bit.”

  “I’m glad to hear that. Maybe I should buy something,” I said, glancing around. I really didn’t see anything I particularly wanted. Though, it might have been good for relations.

  “OH! Please. Please. I would be greatly honored if Your Highness partook in one of my wares,” Skywood said, jumping to his feet. I could almost see the switch to merchant mode.

  He led me around the shop, but as I’d expected, I didn’t see anything I really needed or wanted. If I went near the weapons, Helios gave me an angry vibe. The clothes would likely burn off if I tried to use my lightning, which ruled those out. The jewelry wouldn’t hurt, but I was never one to have a lot of bits and pieces hanging off me.

  I was about to give up when something caught my eye in one of the side rooms. Walking over, I found several products for babies and mothers. The image of Ezal popped into my head. She was getting close to her time, and I wasn’t sure she’d even started getting ready. Though most of that is my fault, I thought, looking to the side with a sigh.

  “Elder Skywood, I would like to purchase everything here. Can you have it sent to my castle?” I asked, gesturing to the goods.

  “Of course. These must be for the famous Flaming Star?”

  Tilting my head, I asked, “Flaming Star?”

  “I supposed she has a lot of nicknames, but I mean Miss Ezal,” he said with a chuckle.

  I nodded. “Ah. Yes, it is.”

  “Very good. That comes to three white-gold coins.” He rubbed his hands together.

  One of my guards moved forward and paid him. I nodded my thanks. “It was a pleasure to see your business. I hope good fortunes continue for you,” I said and turned to leave.

  “I as well,” Skywood called.

  Out on the street, I quickly boarded the ca
rriage. It was time to head back to the castle to deal with the more mundane matters of the day. While we made our way through town, I pulled out the glass tablet and read through the reports to get ahead for when I got to the castle. It was only fifteen or twenty minutes, but with my increased senses and processing speed, I could read five or six of them before we got there.

  “Noble estate destroyed by a six-armed individual possessing magic on another scale. Identity unknown. Advisement: extremely dangerous!” I read out loud when I got to the report from one of the scouts. Going through the finer details, I found the nobles were suspected of working with necromancers. After the individual had left the premises, weapons capable of detecting unholy mana were left.

  “Third estate in the last two months. I wonder what this is?” I mumbled. I would need to ask Regan when I got the chance. At least the individual was targeting necromancers. For now, that was. It looked like it was a good idea to send scouts to other cities. With the glass tablets, they could get us information like this in minutes rather than days.

  I swiped to the next report. “Thonaca marshaling its forces.” I would need to check the border fort when I got back. Thonaca could marshal a large force if they were given enough time. I grimaced at the thought of this turning into a war, though I was prepared when I made my decision.

  As I walked through the entrance of the castle, assistants swarmed me, needing my approval or instruction on various matters. At times like this, I was thankful for the improvement my body was given when I’d changed. Otherwise, I doubted I would have been able to handle this.

  “Get the Mages Guild to send one. No, we are not having a government-backed brothel. If she asks again, send her to the jail for a few days. Send a few guards to deal with it.”

  After an hour, I’d finally dealt with all the urgent matters and reached my desk. With a wave of my hand, the walls appeared around it. When I was alone, I leaned forward and put my head on my arms. I couldn’t help but exhale at the momentary quiet. I stayed like that for a few minutes, then sat back up. Slapping my cheeks, I got to work.

  Chapter 6

  Regan

  With the preparations for the worst-case scenario completed, I was up at the station, handling the last-minute items. There was only a few more days until the moon called Krona would be near our location. I would rather deal with it further out than over the area that I claimed as my own.

  “Alright, Ignea. Take care of things . . .” I started to say when I felt a surge of mana that I had only felt once so far. Turning my eye to Steel Spire, I saw a man flying near it. He possessed the same blue skin and pointed ears that Louella did. There weren’t any lightning tattoos, but I did sense several runes on his person.

  I watched for a few minutes. When he cooperated with the guards, I decided to let him run free. That core was set to recall Julie if it was in danger. Not to mention, there were plenty of other defenses built in.

  “Father?” Ignea asked.

  “Sorry, got distracted by something.” I said, patting her head, then moved to the station.

  “Creator, the fleet is ready to go.”

  “Very good.” It might have been overkill, but a handful of drones were able to tear through one of my ships. I wasn’t taking any chances with this. I had a full fleet prepared for whatever was to come of this venture.

  All along the station, bay doors opened. The docking clamps holding the ships were released with a loud banging, and the ships began pulling out slowly. Ranging in size between two and seven hundred meters long, the fleet’s ships started to move away from the station. Their design was a little generic, but I was going for quantity rather than pleasing aesthetics.

  Using Beta’s through Theta’s designs, which I’d made for the captains during the north mission as blueprints, all the ships were based on them. Mainly large modular components to increase their ability to adapt. They certainly weren’t ugly, just . . . square or rectangular. The various components on their hulls added to the image, so they definitely weren’t floating boxes.

  “Jarvis, keep an eye on the station. Hopefully, this is finished in a few hours.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  I nodded and teleported to the lead ship, a carrier that I actually put some work into. Coming in at a kilometer in length and roughly a hundred meters in width, it was the pride of the fleet. Carrying a force of almost a thousand, it was a moving fortress capable of repairing and re-creating my soldiers.

  I pulled a subcore from a subdimension, planning on placing it when we were farther from the planet. It never hurt to have an edge in a battle. Using my aura would give me the advantage. I was dealing with something that was able to get to space, unless it started on the moon, but I highly doubted that was the case.

  I already knew from the Ly’call that the unknown were placed there by something or someone, and I planned to look a little deeper into their story. If the unknown were placed there by the same people who’d placed the Ly’call, then it would be interesting to see what it was about. Well, either way I would have to get there and deal with it.

  “Let us get underway. I want to be there in two hours,” I said, taking a seat. The ship started to thrum as the engines activated. We began moving toward the green and red moon. “Make sure to have all the sensors set to full power. I don’t want those golem drones to get on one of our ships.”

  ~~~

  “Nothing?” I asked, looking over the officer’s shoulder.

  “That’s correct, Creator. Whatever was putting off the energy reading has gone—taking nearly a third of the moon with it.”

  “How did we miss something like that moving?” I asked, stroking my chin. If it physically moved, there would be a trace of it. I’d had my sensors directed at the moon since we’d brought in the damaged ship. I would have figured that if something like that moved via magical means, it would have put off a large mana signature. For it to just vanish like nothing happened was unexpected.

  The fleet moved until the section of the moon where the structure was located was in view. A crater that certainly equaled a third of the moon in size was in prominent view. I wondered how the mortals on the surface of the planet would take that. Given that magic and gods were a strong part of this world, they might have thought it an omen of some sort.

  “Get as much data as you can. We’ll head back once we have everything.” I turned and walked back to my seat, feeling like all the preparations for a drawn-out battle had just been wasted. It was possible the constructs were so aged that they couldn’t handle the mana building in their systems and quite literally imploded.

  “Yes!”

  An hour passed while the instruments were hard at work scanning the moon, the area around it, and everything else we could think of. I was starting to feel it was a waste of a trip. At least the moon Lyrale was only a few hours away, so we could start work on that instead of heading back. I went ahead and sent a few of the smaller ships ahead to at least deliver supplies.

  “Anything?” I asked.

  “Negative. It’s as if something scooped it up and pulled it into another dimension.”

  “Maybe the facility blew due to age. Without any debris, there is really no telling.”

  “The edges of the crater are clean.”

  “Very well. Let’s head over to Lyrale and begin relief operations,” I said, moving back to my chair.

  “Yes, sir.”

  If I had known it was going to be like this, I would have just sent Jarvis. I leaned forward, placing my head in my hand. I supposed it was better to be disappointed every now and then rather than have a large battle. It was too bad that I would not get the chance to learn more about these people. The fact that they could get to space with magic was impressive.

  The fleet turned and changed their heading for Lyrale.

  “Sir! High-level mana reading right in front of us!”

  I jerked my head up to look but only saw the emptiness of space. “What is it?”

  “
There appears to be no physical mass! The reading is steadily increasing.”

  “Pull back! Full reverse,” I ordered quickly.

  The fleet began retreating, but the reading moved as we moved. After about ten seconds of this, I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t going to let us go that easily. I ground my teeth, I couldn’t teleport this large a fleet quickly.

  Almost as if the unknown mana emitter read my thoughts, the deck officer shouted, “Large gravity waves emitting from the fluctuation. It’s—”

  As the officer finished his word, one of the forward ships nearest the mana was crushed into a ball. I whipped my head around and tried to teleport the ships nearest to the anomaly, but the magic failed, the gravity changing in the area too rapidly.

  “Fuck this. Fire!”

  The fleet opened fire with everything we had. Lasers, physical rounds, missiles, and torpedoes fired one after another. They seemingly vanished into nothingness when they reached a certain threshold. Just what the hell were we dealing with?

  “It’s moving!”

  “Evasive maneuvers!” I shouted, knowing it was pointless.

  The . . . thing swallowed the forward ships before they could even move. In perhaps a blink of an eye, the entire fleet was swallowed. I could count the number of times I had lost consciousness on one hand. This would be the fourth time, it seemed. My last thought was that I couldn’t dismiss my avatar.

  ~~~

  Celestia Mountain

  “Lelune . . .” an eerie voice called from the entrance of the white palace.

  Lelune jerked her head up in a mixture of horror and anger. “It can’t be. You’re dead, Xenio.”

  “We both know that is a less than permanent state of being. I see you’ve been busy,” Xenio said, walking into the palace.

  Flashes of white light formed around the edge of the throne room. Figures clad in shining white and silver armor rushed out. The pointed their weapons at him as if daring him to make a move.