Emerilia Series Box Set 4

by Michael Chatfield

  Malsour and Bob were bent over their consoles, glancing at another console with a Mirror of Communication on it. Information was being fed from the anchor through the Mirror of Communication and back to the teleportation array.

  Dave pointed to a modified portal that was off to the side of the room. In total, there were three portals in the room: one connected to Pandora’s box, and two others—one of which would stay in this room and the other that would be put on the ice planet in the Nal system. This last portal was moved into the center of the teleportation array.

  “We’ve got a connection!” Bob said as his and Malsour’s hands moved over the consoles.

  Power once again surged through the room as the remaining vault soul gems dimmed with the power output. This time, the power-up process was a lot more simple with less of the coded banks being connected as the teleportation array wasn’t doing all the work, but the anchor was helping out.

  The portal disappeared in a flash.

  Malsour smacked a button. “Establishing connection to the ice planet!” Malsour said as the dormant portal started to whir with power, its complicated inner runes and circuits quickly changing over.

  It took less than a minute but to everyone in that room it seemed like an hour. If they were to make it to the ice planet, they would still have to hope that they would find hydrogen. If they didn’t or this portal didn’t connect, then it would be impossible for them to continue their ongoing projects.

  This was their only hope to continue their work.

  The portal’s main components stopped moving as a wormhole event horizon appeared in the center of the portal’s ring. An ice planet was visible on the other side.

  Everyone in the room whooped and yelled for joy. Koi looked around at her crazy uncles and father.

  All of them moved to the portal and stopped before it.

  “We’re going to be the first sentient people in the history of the known universe to step on this planet,” Bob said. All of them looked at the portal with shining eyes.

  All of them, even Steve, had taken ideas, theories, and hopes throughout their lives and their time on Emerilia. Through their hard work, they had created and done things that many would have thought of as impossible.

  Now they were once again standing at the doorway to the next part of their future.

  Even Steve stood there solemnly. All of them thought of the path they had traveled up till this point and the distance they still had to go in order to bring their plans to fruition.

  “Well, let’s go and check it out.” Dave smiled and looked to Steve and Malsour—his friends, his family, his brothers. His eyes moved to Bob and that mischievous look in his eyes and the pride that was on his face.

  Bob had guided Dave, helped him to break free from the lie that was Earth; he was closer to Dave than his father on Earth had ever been.

  With faces filled with smiles, they created Mana shields around themselves to trap in the air as they looked toward the portal and walked through the event horizon.

  They exited the portal to a barren wasteland. There were ice tornados that sparkled in the limited light that made it to the planet. They were larger than entire towns as they moved lazily across the skies.

  The land wasn’t even and flat. Crevasses, gorges, and peaks made of frozen materials as well as stone and metals created a breathtaking view. They all stopped to look out over the untouched planet, never having seen anything like it in their lives.

  Dave cocked his head to the side as he detected something with his Touch of the Land. Since he had trained with it so many years ago on Cliff-Hill, he cast the spell nearly automatically. “Well, looks like Edwards was right on the money.” Dave laughed as he pulled out a large cylinder on a spike.

  He threw it up in the air, halting its movement with his hand before lowering his hand quickly. The spike dug deep into the ice; the cylinder started to rotate in small sections. If one was to use their arcane sight, they would see that it emitted massive pulses that mapped out the area, similar to the Touch of the Land spell that Dave had modified.

  “What do you mean?” Bob asked.

  “I think I’ve detected a vein of hydrogen nearby, though the sensor unit will let us know soon enough. For now, let’s get this base established. I’m going to drop Koi off with her grandmother and then I’ll come back to help you all,” Dave said.

  “It’s building time!” Steve clapped his hands together.

  Koi let out a miserable cry, not liking the noise.

  “Oh, sorry, little Koi. Uncle Steve didn’t mean it.” Steve went from hardy crystal man to apologetic uncle in a split second.

  “Well, it’s about time that I used my power.” Bob held out his hands, his palms facing upward, closed his eyes and tilted his head back slightly.

  The ground shook as a tunnel appeared. A mountain of ice in blocks appeared on the surface of the planet as the ground beneath their feet started to move. Bob didn’t use his power on Emerilia, or even in the different secret bases they had. But here on an ice planet, without anyone watching, he was free to do as he wanted.

  He floated into the air, looking like God in the middle of his domain.

  Dave’s face went pale as everyone looked at Bob in awe.

  There weren’t many changes to the surface of the planet but underneath. He wasn’t creating just a simple facility. He was creating a city. From his hand, a soul gem construct appeared, racing off into the tunnel that had been created.

  He pulled metal and stone from the surrounding area, pulling them through the ice and forming it around the area he had hollowed out. He created a square city with spikes reaching outward to stick out into the surrounding ice.

  From the metal and stone that was gathering, he made the superstructure for different areas.

  A hydrogen and elemental refinery formed, as well as an area for the portal to sit in. There was housing as well as laboratories and space for more portals to be positioned. There were fusion reactor rooms and tunnels appeared that dug deep into the ice. Anything that wasn’t needed was compressed into ice blocks and pushed to the surface.

  Even if they didn’t get hydrogen from these materials, they could use the other elements for their other projects or store them for later.

  Bob reached out his hand and power surged out of his body. His unleashed aura was dominating, many times more powerful than Fire’s. He poured power in the soul gem construct within the city. It was wrapping around the stone and metal structure that would be the refinery.

  The soul gem expanded rapidly, quickly filling out. It wasn’t able to grow as fast as Bob put power into the soul gem, instead storing it. He’d provided enough power to get the refinery built from the soul gem construct and start on the other facilities.

  “I didn’t think...” Malsour said.

  “What—that I practiced magic?” Bob laughed. “I might not do quests or go out and destroy things. However, I have been studying it for an incredibly long time and using the information that the people of Emerilia have come up with to make my own spells and develop my own magic. How did you think that I kept the Datskun running with just that one fusion reactor? I had a whole hell of a lot more portals than it could sustain.”

  “You were using your own power to fuel portals?” Steve asked.

  “Yup,” Bob said with a sly grin.

  Dave shook his head. This power—he’d never expected that Bob would be this powerful. “Do you have access to a divine well?” Dave asked suddenly.

  “No, I don’t. This power is all from my own reserves. However, I have been storing my power in the portals on my ship as well as the vault soul gems that you made,” Bob said.

  A way point appeared in everyone’s vision, including a prompt.

  Dave clicked on the prompt.

  Hydrogen found!

  In your scan, a vein of frozen hydrogen has been found. For a list of other materials found, please refer to your sensor unit’s menu.

  Malsour let out a
laugh as the others smiled.

  “Seems that I will be able to send you back with a gift,” Bob said.

  Once again, the ice shook; however, the ground under Malsour, Steve, and Dave’s feet didn’t move an inch.

  Gray smoke wrapped around Bob. Lines of highly compressed runes covered his body, gray smoke wafting off them. Bob’s outreached hand shook; runic lines covered his face as his eyes were a dark gray.

  “Rise!” Bob’s voice carried with it an incomparable power. Dave went pale as the vein of frozen hydrogen moved through the ice. A tunnel appeared above it as it flowed out from where it had rested for unknown millions of years. It was pulled up from the ground and formed into one-foot by one-foot by one-foot boxes that rapidly flew from the small opening toward the group.

  The control, the power—it left the others in shock as the blocks formed an orderly line.

  “Open your bag of holding,” Bob said.

  “Steve, take Koi,” Dave said.

  Steve’s hands changed so that they were smaller—he was now able to change his crystal body however he wanted to—gently taking Koi as if she were his own child.

  Dave pulled off his bag of holding as hydrogen blocks waited in the air. He opened the top and the blocks flew into the bag.

  Another line of blocks rushed down into the tunnel toward the city that Bob was building, moving to the refinery that was still growing.

  The stream of hydrogen blocks into Dave’s bag stopped.

  “When you go back, send over some of the carts. I’ll be back in a bit. It’s been some time since I’ve been able to test out my magic. I want to see how much I can do,” Bob said with a wide smile.

  “Okay.” Dave had a big smile on his face at the hydrogen blocks in his bag. They could get hopefully a few more months of hydrogen from it all. Their power consumption was truly too massive.

  Now, however, they had gained themselves time. Within just a half hour, they’d found a decent vein. Dave hoped that they could find another dozen like it so they would no longer have to worry about power. Dave slung his bag over his shoulders.

  “Well, I don’t think that there’s much use in me staying around either. So, I’m gonna go see what the rest of Party Zero is up to,” Steve said.

  “I’ll stay here,” Malsour said.

  “All right, well, let’s head back then,” Dave said. Steve was still cradling Koi, who was now having a hard time keeping her eyes open.

  Dave looked around once more. There wasn’t much to tell what they had done but through his Touch of the Land, he could feel the growing city.

  Once again they would be free to work on their projects. Now we just need to mine a few asteroids. Good thing I did it before in a past life. With a smile on his face, he and Steve walked back through the teleport pad, reaching Nal, and then through the other portal back to Pandora’s box.

  ***

  Dave arrived in the Densaou Ring of Fire using the teleportation array. With Fire’s stealth runes, the Jukal could no longer see what was going on inside.

  There was a lot of movement going on in the normally sedate area around the volcanoes that the dragons called their home. That was due to the growing Nalheim cities.

  “Dave!” Oson’Mal called out from the living room where he was reading a book and watching over his son. Desmond was in a cart, currently playing around with the baubles mounted to the wheeled contraption.

  “Hey, Mal, could you look after Koi for a bit? I’ve got some work to do,” Dave said. He’d passed off the block of hydrogen to one of the moving carts at Pandora’s box, which had taken them directly to one of the refineries.

  Dave was filled with excitement but what they were doing was dangerous so he didn’t want to have Koi with him for the entire thing.

  “Another one wouldn’t be a problem.” The corners of Mal’s eyes wrinkled as he stood and looked to his sleeping granddaughter.

  Dave gently passed her over to Mal as a burst of silent flames formed into a person.

  “Hey, Fire.” Dave smiled.

  “Dave, you seem pretty excited,” Fire said with an amused look. The goddess of Fire probably wasn’t used to being greeted so familiarly.

  “Well, we just got a portal to the ice planet in the Nal system sorted out and we got enough hydrogen to hopefully run our reactors for a few more weeks, possibly a couple of months!” Dave said excitedly.

  “Oh, the ice planet, already?” Fire said, her shock clear. “Well, would you be interested in taking Water with you?”

  “Water? Why would he want to come?” Dave asked.

  “Well, he’s pretty much reached the end of what he can learn from the Per’Ush islands, and he really wants to try out his powers but not reveal them to the rest of the Pantheon,” Fire said.

  “Sure. If he wants to come, he’s welcome to do so,” Dave said.

  “I’ll let him know and send him to you.” Fire opened her interface.

  Dave got a request for a party chat; he accessed it. “Hey, babe.” Dave smiled.

  “Hi, Dave,” Deia said. He could tell that she was smiling as she was talking. “Where are you?”

  “I’m at your mom and dad’s, though I’m heading back to Pandora as soon as possible. What’s up?” Dave asked.

  “I’m bringing a bunch of people who are apparently really good at working with Dark Mana. I was thinking that they could help out you and the others in making the third section of the city, or with your other jobs that are underground. I’ve talked to Malsour and he’s excited by the idea. He’s going to meet with them first.”

  Dave’s smile grew wider. “The good and the bad do come in groups.”

  “What was that?” Deia asked.

  “Nothing.” Dave laughed. “I have something to show you.”

  “Okay, I’ll meet you at the Densaou Ring. I want to see Koi before we go off.”

  From her voice, Dave could tell how much Deia had missed their daughter.

  “I can wait around for a bit,” Dave said.

  “Try not to drink all the whiskey,” Deia muttered.

  “Sorry—you’re breaking up. I’ll talk to you later.” Dave cut the chat.

  “So, want to celebrate reaching another planet?” Mal asked with a wide smile.

  “Well, if you have some of that fine dwarven whiskey around, I might be able to add you onto this little trip,” Dave said.

  “I’m coming as well—never seen another planet,” Fire said.

  “Who’s going to watch the kids?” Dave asked.

  “That would be me.” Denur’s voice passed through the room as she glided toward the apartment. She shrunk in size, turning into her human form as she touched down on the balcony outside of the apartment. Denur had a happy expression on her face as she looked over the sleeping Koi and playing Desmond.

  “All right, well, I’ll go get some of that whiskey,” Mal said.

  ***

  Yemi stepped out of Imend and into Terra. With her senses, she could “see” the masses of people moving through the city. Her eyes went wide as people moved out of the way of Deia and her party.

  They greeted a few people, waving and joking as they passed.

  These are the people who defeated nearly ten hell fiends all by themselves as if they were nothing. Yet here they act as nothing more than normal people.

  One of the Blood Kin gasped as they left the teleport’s hub, coming outside to see the massive sprawling city of Terra with buildings on every surface of the massive cylindrical city.

  Deia led them onward through the city, past the moving people. Yemi and her family members got a few curious glances but many people weren’t all that interested. In the crowds, there were people from nearly every race—eating, bartering, having a drink, or working on something or just admiring the stores and city.

  Lights hovered in the skies, illuminating the city.

  Yemi closed her eyes, taking in the feeling of the warm sun without it burning her. She coughed a few times, as her eyes w
ent wet. It had been so long since she had last seen the sun. It must have been before the experiments that were run on her by a mage group trying to find everlasting life.

  When she had escaped that hellish life of being an experiment, she’d raced toward the exit of the cave they’d kept her in. As soon as she’d been touched by the sun, her skin started to burn and peel, causing her immense pain and making her retreat.

  Here, she could stand under this fake sun and take in its rays without fear.

  The rest of her family looked up at the sun with curious gazes, removing their veils and other covering headdresses that stopped them from getting too burned by the sun.

  “Welcome to Terra,” Deia said as they continued to lead them through the city and toward the larger towers that dominated the landscape.

  A man riding a surfboard of metal appeared over the rooftops and leapt off a roof. Metal came to meet him before he hit the street, speeding up as he charged toward Yemi and her group.

  Yemi and the other Blood Kins’ eyes went wide. The control that the man had over Dark Mana was impressive, much stronger than they had unless they had consumed an impressive amount of blood essence.

  The man came to a stop and turned his surfboard to the side. “Hey guys!” The man grinned.

  “You know how to make one hell of an entrance, Malsour!” Gurren laughed.

  “Hey, I’m a busy guy. Jump up?” Malsour’s surfboard rose above the people on the ground, widening as a set of stairs grew up to the surfboard.

  The others stepped onto the surfboard. After a few moments, Yemi and her family followed.

  “Hello, Yemi, is it? My name is Malsour.” The man took her hand in his as he shook it, a big smile on his face.

  The other Blood Kins’ fangs elongated as well as their hands, their eyes turning red in anger.

  Malsour looked to them but didn’t seem to pay them any heed.

  Yemi herself was stunned by his actions. It had been centuries since anyone had touched her, let alone a man. She pushed a smile onto her face. Malsour looked genuinely confused but not alarmed. From his eyes, Yemi could tell that he was a kind man.