“Well, as I see it, they’re not going to repent,” the other replied.
No one had time to say anything when the two sets of armor moved in gray blurs.
A hell fiend unleashed their flame ray. The warrior’s shield blocked it, throwing the light outward and making them look like a meteor as their shield plowed through that ray and hit the fiend.
With a lightning-fast strike, the hell fiend was torn apart; the warrior blurred once again. The Emerilian fighters didn’t have time to react to the warrior as they headed for their next target.
The hell fiends unleashed their Fire ray attacks constantly. Red beams hit the warriors’ Mana barriers around their bodies.
They’re only Level 150 creatures...how is this possible? The mother didn’t know that Gurren and Lox in their armor had fought Level 400 beasts in Ashal’s wilderness to get used to how they worked.
Fire rays illuminated the air within the massive cavern, hitting the gray blurs. Two more auras erupted and the Fire rays were cut off immediately.
“Well, that wasn’t pleasant,” the female leader in the sky said.
Zeli was looking at shock at the two warriors who had killed three of her people already. There was only five left, including her. “I didn’t mean to—”
“You prey on the weak and use them for your own means. What kind of person would I be to let you stay in Emerilia, where my child lives?” The leader casually lifted her hand, casting Fire ray.
It cut through the sky.
Zeli used her own Fire ray spell but with a wave of the leader’s hand, it dissipated. Zeli could only scream out as the Fire ray blasted through her.
The leader and the other woman in the sky fired off their own Fire rays, killing off the remaining hell fiends. They had shown their true colors and these two knew that to show mercy to those who liked to see others suffering was asking for them to cause trouble later.
“For those of you remaining, you are all now prisoners of war,” the female leader said.
“But we’re not part of an army!” one yelled out.
“Well, you’re stupid enough to join a group that wants nothing more than to turn this city into a battlefield for their own enjoyment. Don’t tell me you didn’t know what the hell fiends did in the past?” one of the warriors yelled back.
“If you want to keep fighting, we’ll happily greet you,” the other warrior said.
With that, the Emerilian forces quickly laid down their weapons.
“Good. I’ve sent a message to the mage’s guild. They’re sending an overseer here.” The female leader descended from the sky. Her aura retracted as she moved to where the mother and her family was.
“Sorry about that. Before I was interrupted, I was giving you terms,” the woman said with a kind smile. It was hard to think that just moments ago she had killed off the hell fiends.
The mother bowed slightly, feeling that unless she had a lot more blood essence she wouldn’t be able to fight off this woman and her people.
“So, right, you got released from prison and you’re back on Emerilia.”
“That’s one kick-ass castle,” one of the warriors said.
“Heh, Malsour would probably try to outdo it,” the other woman said.
“Gurren, Induca—time and place.” The woman sighed. “Sorry. Though it is a cool castle. Impressive for you to make it. Oh, and my name is Deia.” Deia smiled.
“I am called Yemi, though many refer to me as the mother,” Yemi said with a slight smile. “My daughter, Gilez, and I made the castle.”
“Impressive, though they’re not as strong as Malsour. How did you do it?” the last warrior asked. As Yemi looked to him, his name, Lox, appeared above his head.
“We have our ways. We don’t want to give away all our secrets to people, sorry,” Yemi said.
Lox laughed. “No worries. Us dwarves are used to having a few secrets, too.”
Dwarf? But his armor is massive! Yemi shook her head. A lot has changed since we were banished from Emerilia.
“Okay, well, as I was saying, we haven’t had any reports of you doing anything really. Heard that there were less animals in the area and I can sense that there are animals within your castle. Those blood-red gems you had were made from blood, so I’m guessing you’re using animals to get that essence?” Deia asked.
“Yes,” Yemi said, not daring to lie.
“Well, okay, so as long as you keep doing that then I think everything should be fine.” Deia shrugged.
“Uh, Deia, I sent a message to Malsour about who we’d found. Bob sent a message back.” Induca passed over a Mirror of Communication.
Deia checked the message on the Mirror of Communication. “Okay, so it seems that my husband and his friends would also like to offer you or your people a job if they would be interested?”
“A job?” Yemi asked, hesitant.
“Malsour seems to know quite a bit about your race. He says that you’re some of the strongest manipulators of the Dark arts if you have enough blood essence. We have an underground city called Terra and other facilities underground that we’re looking to expand. We have drills, but there’s always a place for those skilled in manipulating rock and other Dark materials,” Deia said.
“Terra, as in the place controlled by the Stone Raiders?” Yemi said. Her children had been able to gather a good amount of information on Emerilia. One of the things that most people talked about was the underground city Terra and the Stone Raiders.
“You’re probably hesitant about it all, so we can offer for a few of you to come and check out Terra and meet with the others if some of you are interested. If you do agree to help us, then you will be given a residence within Terra. It’s a lot less dangerous than being here. We’ve got all kinds of races and people, so you should be fine. There are people selling all manner of goods so it would be easier for you to acquire blood essence,” Deia said.
“I feel that you would make a lot of money if you were a trader in any market,” Yemi said.
Deia laughed, her eyes shining.
“I will travel with you to Terra with a number of others,” Yemi said.
“Okay, well, we need to get the overseer to look after this mess.” Deia pointed at the Emerilians that had followed the hell fiends and were now sitting on the ground. “And then hand in our quest to the Lord Governor and we can head off for Terra.”
“Okay.” Yemi nodded.
In a rush of air, several mages dropped through the hole in the roof of their cavern. They looked around for a moment before they headed to where Yemi and Deia were.
“Lady Oson, we came as fast as possible,” one of the mages said in greeting to Deia.
“Thank you for coming. Seems we have some judgement to pass down on this lot.” Deia waved at the Emerilians.
Chapter 25: Ground Breaking
“You’re sure?” Sato looked to Edwards. They were inside Edwards’s new sprawling research and development area that took up part of the newest shipyard.
In here, Edwards and his people were performing miracles every day. However, they had all turned their focus onto the information that Sato had given them.
“I’m sure that this is the best location, down to around a hundred kilometers,” Edwards said.
Sato nodded. “Okay, good.” He took the information chip from Edwards.
“Though some of us while this was going through the servers went and looked up just what this planet is, and well, we kind of found a match,” Edwards said, as if judging how Sato would react to the news.
“Oh?” Sato said, interested.
“Well, using this, we figured out the planet’s composition. Using that, we checked it against the planets and systems that humanity knew of; there weren’t any that matched within the eightieth percentile. So, we moved to the information that Bob gave us on various systems. We found that there were two possible systems. One of them was close enough to some of the stealth sensor systems that Admiral Adams and her crew put into p
lace that we could verify the data. We checked the information and found that it wasn’t a match, so we checked our telescope data. We have recordings of the second possible system’s location.
“We worked through the data through spectral analysis—we had a hit of almost ninety percent. It’s called the Nal system. It’s populated by the Nalheim race, an aggressive species that was dying off. We pulled up a profile of them. They’re the same creatures that the Terra Alliance was fighting in central Ashal,” Edwards said excitedly. “It was actually through those images that we were able to clear up the information that Dave gave us and find out the best location. It seems that somehow Dave and Party Zero are expanding into another star system. This one doesn’t have much more than a few satellites in it and it’s two-thirds the distance that it would be from De’qual to Emerilia.”
“So, the hydrogen—he must be making those fusion reactors,” Sato said.
“Exactly what I was thinking. I wonder what he’s going to do there.”
“Why wonder? Let’s see if Adams can redirect one of the scouts to put a drone in-system so we can look over what’s happening.” Sato pulled out a data pad and tapped out a message.
“We can do that?” Edwards asked.
“Seems that the commander of the Deq’ual system’s armed forces has just approved it, isn’t that odd?” Sato’s mystified look on his face quickly turned into a smile.
“The other thing that I wanted to get you over here for is about this information Dave gave us on teleportation. The servers and my people are working through it but it’s clear that Dave hasn’t given us everything about portals,” Edwards said.
“Why would he do that?” Sato frowned.
“So that we can come to appreciate how awesome and powerful it is? This technology is only known by the Jukal. Dave might know how it works but it’s some complicated stuff. If we just fed it into a computer, then we wouldn’t understand just how powerful this is. The teleport pads are pretty easy, but portals can allow you to cross entire star systems. That must be how the Nalheim were able to reach Emerilia over a distance of tens of light-years. A journey that would take months using our normal faster-than-light space drives,” Edwards said.
“So, he’s basically given us the guide but then is letting us work through it so that we’re not like a kid with a gun,” Sato said. It made sense to him.
“Pretty much,” Edwards said. “Though, if we can get this working, then we can start to set up bases all across known space with much less risk of the Jukal ever detecting us, unless they’re purposefully looking for portals.”
“And if they think that they’re still the only people who have portals, then why would they go looking for them?” Sato’s eyes lit up.
“Well, I didn’t think that way but it makes sense,” Edwards agreed.
“Thanks for letting me know. I’ll go and get this information to Dave, and hopefully Adams and her scouts can get us a view of this Nal system.”
***
Malsour, Bob, and Steve were checking the last parts of the teleportation array.
All of the Nalheim had moved out of the mountain system that they called home.
“Looks like the last of the Nalheim have passed through the portal,” Steve said, linked through the Mirror of Communication to the Aleph scouts that were watching the process from within Goblin Mountain.
“Huh, what the hell?” Steve said.
“What is it?” Malsour asked as he looked to Steve, who had stopped working.
“As soon as the last person was through the portal, it disappeared,” Steve said.
“Hmm, let me check something.” Bob pulled out a Mirror of Communication and opened an interface on it.
“Looks like it was recalled back to that moon where the Jukal military are stationed,” Bob said. “Most of it is automated but there’s still at least one carrier and two battleships located there at all times.”
“They can actually recall them?” Steve asked.
“The portals are some of the most important technology to the Jukal. Now that the Nalheim are not here, people are probably going crazy to bid on living on Nal. If they left the portal, then someone might take it. Also, they need to be recharged before they can be used. There is only one recharging station within the same star system as Emerilia,” Bob said.
“So, people will probably be coming to Nal. Doesn’t that mean that we should leave?” Malsour sounded hopeless.
“Leave? The bidding has only just started in earnest. It will probably be another hundred years before the Jukal pick out someone for this planet and then they have to organize everything for the rest of the system. It will take centuries for people to reach here unless they have Jukal drives.” Bob laughed. “They also need to build their own portals here so that they can establish control over whoever comes here.”
This is the power the Jukal hold: they can auction off planets; they have the ability to move from one system to another instantly. Even as someone takes control of this system, it’s no more than they’re leasing it from the Jukal, who can take it back at any time, otherwise denying them ships that can travel faster than light or threatening them with a Jukal fleet. It truly is an unfair system. Malsour let out a sigh as his hope returned. If they had a few centuries, that would be more than enough time!
“Woo-hoo!” Dave yelled, jumping up from where he had been sitting in front of a Mirror of Communication.
Koi, who had been sleeping nearby, let out a cry, annoyed at her father.
“Oh, no, it’s all okay, Koi,” Dave said. No news he had was more precious than his own daughter. He picked up the crying little Koi, bouncing her slightly as he made comforting noises. “You want to sleep again?” Dave asked Koi, who started to calm down a few minutes later.
Malsour, Steve, and Bob were all smiles as they finished off the teleportation array that filled the middle of the open area. A glowing portal showed Pandora’s box on the other side and carts moving various items from portal to portal.
Koi, who was now awake, was sleepily looking around, moving her lips oddly as she stared at the different glowing mage lights.
“So, what was the good news?” Bob asked.
“Sato and Edwards were able to find a place where there’s a high concentration of hydrogen in an area about one hundred kilometers wide.” Dave opened his interface and shared the information with them.
All of them looked at the planetary map as well as a big arrow saying “Hydrogen be here!” with a big red area and a cross over it.
“Looks like a crappy treasure map,” Bob said.
“Classy,” Steve said with approval.
“A few more tests and we can check it out,” Malsour said.
“Hope you brought your snow shoes!” Steve said.
“It’s an ice planet, Steve. How is there going to be snow on an ice planet?” Dave asked.
“Umm, if Deia starts to melt it a bit?” Steve asked.
“She would be melting for centuries to try to change the atmosphere so that it would produce snow!” Dave complained.
“It would still make snow.” Steve shrugged.
“Let’s get these tests done,” Dave said in defeat.
Malsour watched as the teleportation array went through start-up tests. Steve and Dave talked to each other, with Bob looking over their shoulder as they worked to figure out the best coordinates for the teleportation array to create a wormhole.
The teleportation array was more impressive than a portal in many ways as it could teleport items from one location to another over distances as large as a star system. The power usage was hellish, but the portals could only connect to other portals and needed to have the exact positional data between each of them before they could make one connection.
Dave changed Koi’s nappies and fed her some formula. He quickly finished up his fatherly duties, making childish noises that made Koi wave her feet and legs in joy while giggling.
“That’s my princess,” Dave said
with a wide smile, picking up Koi to burp her on his shoulder.
“Teleport array is ready to go,” Malsour said.
“Coordinates are in,” Bob said.
“Who’s a cute little girl—yes, you are!” Steve said, behind Dave as he waved his finger at Koi, who laughed happily.
“The anchor is ready too.” Bob looked to the device that they had used to connect the teleport array in Emerilia to Nal and drop in the first portal.
All of the feet that extended from the base of the anchor had been folded upward, making it look like some kind of missile.
“Well, let’s fire it up,” Dave said as Steve continued to play with Koi, who grasped at his finger.
Bob and Malsour moved to the consoles. The soul gem construct surrounding them and the vault soul gems glowed with power before quickly dimming. The power leeched from them and flowed into the teleportation array.
Runes lit up as the various components of the teleportation array came to life. The heat within the room started to increase before heat exchangers took in the heat, changing it into Mana and feeding it right into the teleportation array once again.
The massive banks of coded sheets started to hum and shake with the power going through them. The runes on the floor in a circular formation started to light up; section by section, they powered up as they reached toward the center of the teleportation array.
Everything was powered up with heat radiating from the teleportation array and the last parts of the runed floor coming to life. Power flowed outward. It was incomparable to the power that had been circulating around the room earlier.
A wormhole appeared above the magical circles. It wasn’t large, about four foot tall and three wide. On the other side, there was a barren landscape of ice.
With a wave of his hand, Dave picked up the anchor with his gravity manipulation. He wasn’t able to do this on Emerilia for fear that the Jukal would see it.
With a flick, the anchor headed through the wormhole that had been created.
It flew through and landed on the other side. As it hit the ground, the feet clamped onto the ground and the runes lit up the body of the anchor. The portal closed as the heat exchangers continued to pull the heat out of the room they were in.
Emerilia Series Box Set 4 Page 37
