Dungeon Robotics 10-17

Good Morning!

Chapter 17

Regan

With a feeling of defeat, I teleported everyone back to my dungeon. I sent Nova and Anubis off to be properly repaired before I concentrated looking over my massive empire of a dungeon aura in search of Alara. I mentally breathed a sigh of relief when I found her in her core room.

With a thought, I appeared in front of her. She had her arms and legs curled up around her as she was bundled into a ball. Now that I was in the room with her, I could hear her quiet sobs.

“My sweet,” I said reaching out.

She jerked her head up so fast that if she was a mortal, I was sure she would have suffered brain damage from the jarring motion. “REGAN!” She cried before tackling me in a diving hug. With the body I was using, she easily overpowered me and parts of it started to spark and creak from the pressure.

I managed to pry an arm free and gently stroked her hair until she calmed down some. With a sigh, I pulled her head up so she was looking at me. “I’m sorry. I should have been more prepared. I have grown too overconfident as of late.” It was true now that I stopped to think about it. Why else would I attack one of the most dangerous locations in the Beneath with just a few of my children. Sure, they were all powerful, but when their lives were on the line, I should be and do better.

The ease with which I had defeated the demon generals and everything else that had gotten in my path so far made me feel, well, invincible. I was just given a nice reminder that I was not. If Kala had been unleashed in my dungeon, she could very well have continued her path of destruction until she reached my core. There was nothing in here that would stop her for more than a second. I was sure of that.

“There was nothing… I could… do,” Alara said in between sobs. “She might as… well have… killed… you.” She managed to tighten her grip around me, and oil leaked from some of the weaker parts of the body. It looked like my soldiers needed a few upgrades as well.

“If we’re talking about heart attacks. I almost had one when she slapped you,” I retorted. “That’s not something I ever want to experience again.”

We ended up staying like that for almost two hours. She finally pulled back and wiped her tears away. With a sniff she looked at me. “What’s with the weird body?”

I coughed, rubbing the back of my head. “Was sort of pressed. I didn’t want to use the avatar spell in case it just recreated my old body. I need to upgrade since it lost.”

“I guess that makes since. The others!” she suddenly exclaimed surprising me. “Are the others alright?!”

I quickly took her hand as she seemed like she wanted to rush from the room back down to the Beneath without waiting for an answer. “Yes, my love. They are fine. Anubis and Nova were hurt, but the rest suffered mostly just bruises or what amounts to a bruise for robots and mana exhaustion. Otherwise though, they are fine.”

She blew out of breath in relief and relaxed falling into my arms. “Good. That’s good. I was worried since I couldn’t get back without you.”

I chuckled and stroked her hair with affection. “That’s why you’re the best wife.” Standing up, I glanced down at my body which was partially crushed. The body wouldn’t last much longer if I was a good judge of the matter. I placed my hand on Alara’s shoulder. “Will you be okay?”

She nodded and gave me a grin. She looked like she had a few things to think about herself, so I left her to herself. With a thought, I was back in my core room and the body I was using collapsed to the ground sparking and ceasing to function. I looked down at it before I absorbed it back into the dungeon.

After that I pulled my body from the pocket dimension and it landed with a much louder thud. The metal was quite dense but weighted much less than it looked like it should. I looked at my caved in stomach, chest and head. I could only lament at the loss. I didn’t plan to allow it to happen again.

With a wave of my hand, I absorbed all the materials back into my dungeon. Turning away to plan my next move, I suddenly convulsed. My core actually convulsed! I didn’t know that was possible. Arcs of mana lanced from it around the room. I frantically searched for the source until I found it.

On a piece of metal that once was part of my chest plate, there was a single drop of blood. I tried to stop it, but it was already too late. My dungeon absorbed the material like it did anything else that entered its domain and was flagged as an enemy. It felt like my head split into factures again and again. I couldn’t even scream in pain.

The blood didn’t stay absorbed for long. Like it had a mind of its own, it forced my mana to writhe before it surged out of my core. A form much like the one from earlier in the Beneath took shape, but that was the least of my problems. Much like my last avatar body, I could feel my mind binding to this body. Sadly, there was little I could do about it. I was a complete passenger to whatever the hell was happening. I thought things couldn’t get worse, but I found I was wrong.

My links to my sub-cores froze, no… everything froze. However, this wasn’t like when Creation talked to me. This was something entirely different. Something inside my core was changing. I did what was equivalent to stabbing my leg with a pen only in my mental state and regained some control. My soul was probably going to hate for the pain later, but this wasn’t something I could let the universe control as it willed.

I investigated the phenomenon as fast as I could. The realization finally hit me. I had unintentionally broken through to tier five. It appeared whatever magic that was involved in taking mortals to Celestia was trying to create shackles on me. That was not about to happen on my watch! The gods of this universe had already failed when I reached tier three. I wasn’t about to let some mindless magic spell do what they couldn’t!

I concentrated on all my magic knowledge and looked for the ambient magic. Anything of this scale had to operate on that wavelength. Much like the goblins that were corrupted at birth. Whatever this was, was working from there. It took longer than I cared for, but I finally found what I was looking for. An ancient magic script similar to my own magic that was working its way around and through my core.

Mentally cracking my knuckles, I reached out with my spiritual hands and grabbed the magic like a wrangler. I inspected it faster than any other magic that I had come in contact with since coming to this planet. Thinking fast, I interjected a new order into the spell structure. Whoever created the spellwork might have been able to affect the world, but they must not have considered that people might once again reach this level of skill. They left the magic open to manipulation.

The shackles that were close to latching around me fell away. I traced the spell through the ether. Surprisingly, or rather not surprisingly at all. I found it led back to the Maelstrom. This wasn’t the first evidence that pointed to something hiding inside the storm. Whether the portal to Celestia or the plane itself. I would need to find out soon.

With the crisis averted, I took a deep breath. The world returned to normal around me as time sped up. It had felt like days but had only been about two minutes. I didn’t get a chance to access what all had just happened as there was a popping sound then Ignea appeared in the core room. “FATHER! Are you alright!?” She asked sounding besides herself.

“Ignea, I’m fine,” I said trying to calm her down.

“You just knocked out just about everyone that was in the dungeon. Even the automata were affected and froze. I freaked out thinking something terrible had happened,” she explained slash cried. Making girls cry appeared to be my thing today. I mentally reached out only forming two hands with mana and patted her on the head while wiping away her tears.

“Something very unexpected happen. I would have warned you had I known. Good news though, I reached tier five. You should be proud as a dungeon fairy. I doubt anyone has gotten to tier five so fast,” I said smugly trying to cheer her up.

“Well, you did break all the rules to make it happen,” Ignea said though she did crack a small smile. She took a deep breath and relaxed before she looked around the core room. “Where’s your body, father?”

“A guest from another dimension decided to break it. I was… forced to make another one,” I groaned as I replied.

“Someone managed to beat that thing?” she asked with shock.

“Someone from Hellia. You know anything about it?” I asked hoping to trigger her universe given knowledge. It was like a search browser and you had ask it the right question to get the answers you were looking for.

She shook her head. “Even my knowledge of Celestia was limited to that once people reached tier five, they were supposed to be transported to the new plane. I guess you broke that rule too?” she asked crossing her arms. I knew she was only putting on a show since the last thing she wanted was for me to leave the dungeon permanently.

“Bingo!” I said with a chuckle. “No matter. I’m fine here. Go help the mortals and anyone that looks like they might die due to my mishap. That isn’t fair to them.”

“Understood!” she replied before she vanished.

I cleared my mind and refocused on the moment. I moved from behind my core which was easily able to block her view of me just now. I waved my hand and created a mirror. It looked like I was going to lose my robot cred. I was completely flesh and blood now. Or at least, I thought I was.

I had the same monochrome look as the Hellian, Kala. Shining white hair that went down to the small of my back. That would take some getting used to. I’d been bald since coming to Murgin. A halo that was half black and half white floated above my head. And while I had wings as well, unlike Kala they were composed of feathers and only a single set.

At least my face was on the better side. I was fairly handsome as far as flesh bags go. I might have like my metal face, but this possessed a certain… warmth maybe. It was hard to describe myself objectively. I would need to ask Alara’s opinion later. She was the only one I cared whether or not she liked my face.

My torso was transparent, but instead of organs. It was like staring into a black abyss. It just felt like I was going to be pulled into, well, nothingness. I peered inside, and found it was an actual singularity. I had a fully active blackhole in my chest. My body was pulling most of the energy it was producing into sustaining it.

Examining my body’s actual building block, I found that whatever the hell had been in charge of creating this body had used just about everything at my disposal to do so. I detected traces of my living metal, nanites, the Hellian blood, demon blood, magic circuits, and just about everything else. Looking closely, I found my nails were made from adamantium. I felt some dwarves would have a heart attack if they knew that.

I examined the sample of blood I had absorbed. It was unlike anything I had seen, and that was saying a lot once you had a look at demon blood. Where demon blood resisted everything, Hellian blood appeared to absorb everything that was thrown at it. I’m sure there were plenty more secrets that the blood was hiding, but unlike everything else I absorb, it wasn’t telling me everything instantly.

“I guess this is me,” I said out loud with my new body. My voice sounded much the same. Still deep, but there was an almost hypnotic tone to it. I didn’t detect anything of the sort, but I should carefully check next time I talk to mortals. Wouldn’t want to brainwash anyone I didn’t mean to.

Waving my hand, I created a set of sweeping robes that where pure white. I accented it with magic scripts in the forms of runes. The ensemble looked quite dashing if I did say so myself. While I was being narcissistic in the mirror, I felt a draw of mana from the south. Checking, I found it was Izora. She hadn’t called for me yet, so I wouldn’t jump the gun.

Just to safe, I held out my hand and made a small cut. A few drops of blood leaked out before the wound closed. It was enough though. I concentrated and along with the drops of blood created a long-thin ebony sword that almost appeared to pull the light into it. I gave it a light flick. A second later, there was a ten-kilometer-deep gash in the wall of my core room. I quickly repaired the damage.

“Note to self, don’t play with the sword created from overpowered god material,” I mumbled with a chuckle before sheathing it. I put a binding spell on it so that it didn’t move unintentionally and slice through the floor.

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