Dungeon Robotics 10-11

Good Morning!

Chapter 11

Regan

I took in the group in front of me. Anubis and Julie were already here and were easy to select, I called for Nova as well since he would be able to repel the attacks of the zombies. I went ahead and brought Duilin over as well. He was lazing around on the station without much to do now that the wild dungeons had been handled.

Puppet and the others would be coming along since they knew the area of the Seal. Alara was tagging along as well, even though I really tried to get her to wait here for me. Her stubbornness was getting stronger, though that was likely due to my influence. At their suggestion, I grabbed Nero as well. He had a fair amount of knowledge about Murgin. He wasn’t too pleased about the forced labor, but he didn’t say a word about my overhanded method.

“Is everyone ready?” I asked, my anger at the attack still at the forefront.

“We’re ready. Let’s go show who’s-who’s boss,” Anubis cheered excitedly. It had been a few weeks since he had gotten some fighting in. He must have been dying of boredom.

I got nods from the others then looked at Alara. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay behind?”

“For the last time, Reg. No!” she said clearly angry. Her frown softened though and she took my hand. “I love you and it is better for us to be together to help one and another in case something happens.”

I sighed and wrapped my arm around her waist. “I can’t win against you,” I replied with a smirk before I gave her a quick kiss. I turned back to the rest of the group. “Alright, I’m going to teleport us just outside the Seal. It was heavily trapped before, I’m sure now it will be even worse. Nova, I want you to take point. You’re armor and scales should protect you the best. The enemy uses condensed light in the form of lasers. You are familiar with the concept.”

“Of course. The light is my weapon. No one wields it like I do,” Nova exclaimed with a heavy fist to his shield.

“Good. Puppet, Z2. Your group will hang back and assist where its needed. I hate to say this, but even with the upgrades I gave you last time, the danger is still very real.”

“We have this father. We’ll handle support,” Puppet replied tapping the hilt of his katana.

“Everyone else is offense.” I gave one of my more sinister grins. “Crush everything in your path. I want to be home for supper.”

With a gesture, I opened the path to a spot just outside the Seal. I checked before sending anyone through to make sure the teleport itself was safe. Anyone with the intelligence and ability might find a way to trap any sort of spatial movement. When I was sure it was safe, I went through first with Nova then the others. We could take just about anything that might be thrown at us, after all. I knew for sure that I could survive a hydrogen bomb if need be, and I was confident that Nova could as well.

Stepping out of the landing zone, as it were, I looked around. The caves around me were glowing with magic. Almost like veins pulsing with blood. Something in the Seal was actively pulling mana from the Beneath. If it was whatever was sealed inside, then it might be partially our fault given that we weakened the Seal when we dealt with Glourios.

“That’s new,” Puppet said once he was next to me.

“Yes. It looks like something awoke. There are still two sources that are supposedly powering the Seal. I would think whoever built it in the first place would be smart enough to create redundancies, but ten thousand years might just be too long for them to keep working,” I said walking forward.

A ruined city spread out in front of me. I nearly gasped while looking it over, feeling a strange connection with the place. I chuckled when I saw hints of Earth design mixed in with fantasy vibes this world had. Structures that were well past the limits of the normal construction abilities of the current people of Murgin spread out for quite a way.

The cavern that the Seal occupied was easily able to house a mountain if one wanted to put one here. I could make out the ceiling only due to an artificial light source that appeared to mimic the sun. Though, from what I could see it had weakened considerably since its creation.

Further into the cavern and into the city, areas that had seen many battles started appearing. In the back of the cavern, there was a crater where everything was just missing. From what I could tell there wasn’t even any debris. The scene reminded me of what an implosion or a blackhole might do. I could only hope that whatever caused it was on the attacking side and not the defenders.

I held out my hand and sent a pulse of mana through the crater. No doubt it would give away our position, but I had a feeling that they already knew we were here. I allowed the mana to construct a map in my mind with areas of high mana concentration. It took longer than I expected, but after a few minutes it was finally done.

The cavern was huge, but almost perfectly spherical. There were lines carved into the cavern that powered a great spell. Dozens of lines that stretched out of view were feeding mana to the construction. There was a line that was the size of a tree compared to the branch like smaller veins that was obviously dead. Mana still trickled in, but it was at a horrendous pace. When I compared the direction of the line to my map of the Beneath, I found it matched up perfectly with the lave cavern that Glourios was calling home.

“I’m surprised we haven’t been attacked yet,” Puppet commented and I was tempted to smack him over the head.

“Don’t say that, ever!” I shouted but it was already too late. Nearly two dozen red lights flashed through the space between us and the city and carved into the wall around us while Nova and I threw up a quick barrier protecting the other.

Slamming my foot on the ground, I caused a large wave of stone to ripple in the direction of the attackers. The beams still cut through the stone, but it did its job and hindered their sight long enough for us to regroup. Alara drew her sword and I had to blink as it had changed considerably since I last saw it.

The skull now had a bright red rose growing from the mouth, and two blue flowers of some type growing from the eye sockets. The once black blade had green tendrils that appeared to burrow their way through the metal like roots of a tree. Rather than corruption, it emitted a large aura of nature, while still retaining its deadliness. I knew she had been burying it in her dungeon, but I guess the changes were deeper than I first thought.

“Nice blade, love,” I said with a smile.

She gave me a small smile and made a few swings with the weapon. “Thanks. I dug it up since you claimed this was particularly dangerous and found it like this.”

Using the stone wave as a spear point, we managed to cross the distance to the city without much difficulty. That was when the battle reached another level though, as we started being shot at from windows and down streets. Nova was able to block the attacks, and Puppet had coated his swords much like I had early back in my dungeon. The lasers were being reflected without damaging his weapons. At least for now.

I pointed my staff and sent an attack of my own toward the nearest zombie soldier. I saw the moment the barrier snapped to life but unlike before my attack went through with ease. The zombie started to melt horrendously. It eventually fell to the ground reduced to a pile of dust.

Grinning, I was pleased that my nanites worked so well. I had pulled them from my weapons vault as it were, since I had so much trouble when I was on my home court. I couldn’t be sure the enemy wouldn’t adapt to them, but it was better to use my full strength from the start and reduce their numbers.

Spending clouds of nanites at the other zombie soldiers attacking us, it was only a few seconds before the street grew quiet. I only had a good coverage of a hundred meters or so, but it would do for now. I held up my staff and the nanites flowed back to me and into a pocket dimension. They were just too dangerous to leave lying around.

“This way,” I said pointing deeper into the city. “I can feel the main source or presence that is controlling the zombies.”

Making our way through the ruin city, I was impressed with what I saw. Thousands, if not, millions of people must have lived here at one point. There were husks of vehicles that appeared to have been self-propelled. If the gnomes had been able to do it, then I’m sure the race that created this city had been able.

There appeared to be more than one influence on the architecture of the city. I could only estimate the time since its creation, but I could see signs that elves and dwarves were involved in its construction, or at least some of the buildings. I did see signs of the same race that built the constructs.

Tapping my chin, I realized that I had put off talking with them for longer than I should have. When I finished here, I would need to pay them a visit. Even if I doubted that they would be willing to speak to me.

The sound of cracking stone was all the warning we had before a group of the zombie soldiers literally burst from the ground. They were intermixed with the group as we had spread out while walking. It made me unable to use my nanites as freely. It was like they were aiming for this moment when we let our guard down.

I swung my staff with force and sent the nearest zombie flying through one of the buildings on the street. “Regroup!” I shouted, moving towards Alara. The one time she wasn’t hanging off me, this happens. Not that she needed my help, she was ducking and weaving as she dodged the lasers of the two zombies that were targeting her. Even as I rushed to her side, she impaled her sword through one of the zombie’s stomachs. A tree exploded out, tearing the thing to pieces.

I brought my staff up on the distracted zombie, striking through its heart. As it struggled to free itself, I reached out and tore its head off before absorbing all of its mana. It quickly turned to ash in my hands. “Are you alright, love?” she asked checking me for any wounds.

“I’m fine. We need to help the others,” I replied with a chuckle.

The others were struggling, over a dozen of the things had ambushed us. They had even been clever enough to separate us to make it harder for assistance. Still, most of the people here were hardened warriors from the near constant fighting we’ve seen lately. They were holding their own. The ones struggling the most were Puppet’s group, being well underpowered for these enemies.

Alara tapped my staff and I looked at her then grinned. I took a stance then twisted, she jumped, and I propelled her into the nearest of the zombies. She landed point first with her sword and drove it into the wall of a building. Another tree burst from the zombie. She must be using her sword as a base to bypass the aura of the zombie to grow the tree inside the thing. It was a clever use of nature and without their aura to protect them, the zombies were surprisingly fragile.

I ran over and stabbed my staff through a zombie that was harassing Z2 and Natsuko. Z2 froze it before I drained it of its mana. They thanked me and I glanced around to observe the situation. Anubis and Duilin were able to subdue their opponents, but it wasn’t permanent. Nero also appeared to have his under control.

Julie was harassing her target with a large smile on her face. She might be a masochist for me, but for everyone else she was as sadistic as they come. I shook my head then started moving through the group, absorbing the mana from the restrained zombies.

“That was thrilling,” Anubis commented as he checked his scythe. He looked ready for another attack.

“That was clever,” I corrected him. “I didn’t detect any energy signals until we were on top of them. They can conceal their aura and mana. Let’s stick closer together moving forward. I doubt that was the last trap waiting for us.”

As I stated, we were ambushed ten more times. Each more dangerously than the last. After the last attack, it felt like the entity guiding the zombies was getting desperate. The zombies or rather the foot soldiers weren’t the only thing to attack us. Large brutes that were nearly the size of a two-story building started joining in. Their size wasn’t the only thing ridiculous about them. They could take more than a few hits and had a physical strength that was outside normal bounds. Just swinging their arms caused the walls of the buildings on the street to crack in my cases.

“This is getting dangerous. Perhaps we should retreat?” Nero asked from the back of the group. I wouldn’t call him a coward, never backing down from a fight, but I wouldn’t call him courageous either. Every time we finished fighting, he would start trying to get us to fall back.

“We’re close to the source now,” I said pointing to a large building that stretched from floor to ceiling. All the mana veins as well as magic works all conjoined here. If that wasn’t the goal, I would be very surprised. The building was well insight, but it was well over a kilometer away. Keeping up our guard, we made our way forward.

“Do you mind if I sit this one out?” Nero asked.

I shrugged. “I don’t care, but if you’re attacked out here on your own, we won’t be able to help,” I replied.

“Fine. Fine.”

We soon came to the courtyard that surrounded the tower. Glacning around, I searched for an entrance into the tower, but couldn’t find one. The tower appeared to be carved from a single piece of stone rather than constructed. Before I could try more magical means of searching, the tower pulsed once that rippled out over the city.

“That can’t be good,” Duilin said spinning his hammer and getting into a stance.

I did the same with my staff and Alara stood against me, covering my back. “Whatever comes, we’ll crush them,” I said squeezing Alara’s hand. Tapping my staff on the ground, clouds of nanites washed out around us. The zombies had started to resist them but not fully. It would at least serve to slow the monsters down for a few seconds.

The sound of glass shattering drew my attention to the upper part of the tower. What I thought was a statue or bust, pulled itself free of the stone works of the tower and dropped to the ground. It had to be at least twenty meters tall and possessed four arms each armed with a weapon that was equal to the best I could produce in my dungeon besides maybe my staff.

“Should have just listened to me,” Nero groaned as he cracked his neck. It occurred to me that he might have known about this. He had come from Celestia after all.

“Don’t be baby,” Anubis retorted for me.

I sized up the golem while the sounds of rushed marching reached me next. Outside the nanite cloud, hundreds of zombies and brute were charging in our direction. The forerunners hit the cloud of nanites and were reduced to ash before they fully passed through it. With each zombie that hit the cloud, the next couple made it a few more centimeters through the cloud.

“I don’t like when people use my own tricks against me,” I mumbled annoyed by the adaptiveness of the zombies. That was usually the advantage of my robots. “Whatever. I’ll handle the big guy. Everyone else handle the zombies as they slip through!” Spinning my staff, I charged at the golem.