Azaria 2-13

Good morning everyone! 

Chapter 13: Not my… Okay it was my Fault!

Azaria

The crack in the sky grew to the point that it was directly over the dungeon but stopped doing anything else after that. The red blood-like liquid fell from the sky much like rain would. I gripped my hands nervously as the area around my dungeon began to be saturated in the red water.

I flew over and grabbed Starburst’s shoulders as I tried to keep myself calm. Panicking would do little to help me. It was better to get answers. “What is it?”

He seemed to look inside himself for a few long moments before he opened his mouth. There was soon a smile as he continued. “There are any number of levels of existence in the universe. Thankfully, due to this I’m allowed to speak about it now. I’m not sure which realm this leads to, but going by the sinister vides I’m getting from the red water. It can’t be a good one.”

I nodded getting most of it. After being a dungeon core for almost two months, it was easier to accept certain things I would have once thought insane. “I’m getting Aether from the red stuff, but it feels… wrong. Different.”

Starburst tapped his chin for a second then placed a calming hand exactly where my head would be. He did his thing and I could feel him touching me. It went a long way to calming me down. “Energy from another plane is generally better left alone, but given that you have little choice, go ahead and absorb it. It might be helpful down the road.”

“It won’t make me go insane?”

“You will be fine. I’ll make sure of it. The question, however, is what is going to come next,” he said patting my head again then moving to look out of the window at the sky. I joined him, not that I needed to do so physically. The crack had stopped growing lengthwise, but was slowly widening.

“I suddenly feel like making something a bit more combat oriented,” I said backing away from the window. I wasn’t sure but I swore I felt something looking at me from the other side of the crack. If I was the cause of this, and I was pretty sure I was, then they might be coming after me. The first floor was useless against human divers. Some alien force would probably walk right over it.

“It would be a good place to sink all that energy you’re getting from the blood water,” Starburst suggested before I could fly away.

“Good idea,” I said flying forward and kissing him on the cheek. I flew down to the amusement park floor, mainly to have the space to work. I concentrated on the vague images I remembered from the boys that played with figurines in my old class. I never got the appeal, but even I could admire the craftsmanship that went into some of them. There was one game that I heard them talking about that had an empire that spanned the universe but it had orcs, goblins, and other races often seen in fantasy rather than science fiction.

I remembered them being large men that worked in groups, not that I could recall the more specific details. I spread my arms and focused. Letting the magic do all the heavy lifting, I pictured the figurines that the boys had been showing each other. I was thinking about the men ones when the image of a tall and deadly looking female flashed through my head. The magic I had been building latched onto the image and went from there. Before it went to crazy, I made sure to specify that I wanted them able to fight at capacity outside my dungeon.

Soon a woman a full head taller than Emalia stood before me. She was beautiful with silver hair that flowed to her back. Thick armor that looked battle worn covered her from head to foot with her helmet in her hand. I thought the armor was supposed to be black or red, but likely due to my influence, it was a nice pink color. A sword that had looked more like a chainsaw rested on her waist which made her look just as deadly.

I had to look several times to finally find the creases that a figurine like her would have on her neck, everything else was covered by armor after all. Otherwise, she looked exactly like a human. The magic sank into her head and was soon completed. She blinked as she came to life and looked around. While she did so, I checked her status.

Commander Ophelia

Level: 10

Type: Manipulator

Abilities: Call to Arms

Purged by Fire

For the Core

Deadly Force

All for One

“Ophelia?” I asked carefully. Starburst never said anything about what might happen if something I summoned was higher level than I was. Hopefully, I everything would be good since I doubted anyone would want to willing serve me. I was just a simple girl, well, a simple core.

“Empress!” Ophelia cried as she kneeled quite accurately toward my position.

“Can you sense me?” I asked since Starburst has been the only one so far.

Ophelia got up and bowed her head with a fist to her heart. “Of course. Your presence wraps around me, but I can locate you with my eye closed. Your greatness is beyond words.”

I smiled, happier than I thought I would be just from hearing that she could sense me. It wasn’t even sight yet, but it was already better than most of the others in the dungeon. “That’s good to know. We’re going to need your strength soon. I’m going to give you some Aether, so please summon yourself some help.”

“As you command!” I closed my eyes and started channeling my Aether over to her. I had plenty with what was going on upstairs and like Starburst said, I’d rather get rid of it then keep it. I was making sure I wasn’t being affected by it, but you could never be too careful in my opinion.

Ophelia drew her sword then turned to the plaza we were standing nearby. She raised the weapon to the air and shouted. “For the Empress!” A few dozen circles formed in perfect rows in front of us and women similar to her rose from the ground. When they finished forming, I found they were actually a few inches shorter than Ophelia.

“To the top floor,” I said once it looked like the summoning was over.

By this point the crack in the sky was almost as wide as it was wide. I couldn’t get an accurate measurement, but I’d place it at around a few miles. The sky which should have been pitch black by this point was still dyed with an eeire blood-red light. I found Starburst gripping the window frame hard enough that his knuckles were turning white.

“What is it?” I asked concerned about anything that could make it react like that.

“I hope you finished making something that can fight, we’re going to need it. Sanguela Demons are coming.”

“Sanguela demons?” I parroted back the strange word.

“Blood demons. More than a little hassle to deal with. I think your people liked to call them vampires,” Starburst explained. Vampires? Seriously? Would be werewolves next? Well, it probably wasn’t the strangest thing I was going to have to deal with. “You really tapped into one of the worse realms.”

“I don’t think we’ll have much to worry about. None of us have blood,” I said looking past him. A group of people were starting to gather near the tents, the Aether they were giving off making my mouth water. I quickly shook the thoughts that were trying to take root. I took a closer look and found Neo along with the woman in golden armor. Her face was blurred for some reason.

I narrowed my eyes trying to see past whatever was causing the interference but only got a headache for my efforts. A man moved next to her and took her hand. His face was also blurred out. Something about them was familiar but I couldn’t put my finger on it. A few other high level Aether wielders moved near them and I took a moment to observe as much as I could. I might have to deal with these people on a much different playing field.

“Looks like all the top guns have gathered,” I commented to Starburst.

“That might not be a good thing. Depending on the breach, they might just be lambs to the slaughter,” he replied shaking his head.

The sound of cracking pulled our attention back to the sky above us. Like a plane of glass about to shatter, cracks ran over the surface as far as the eye could see. That only lasted for a few moments before the glass shattered. A hole opened in the sky that revealed a blood red moon. There was a boom and large blood colored chains suddenly flew from the hole and soared through the air until the impacted the ground.

They were powerful enough to tear their way through entire buildings as a skyrise was nearly pulverized. Neo jumped into the air with a boom and attempted to knock one off its course, but even he was knocked aside from the energy contained in the chains. He careened through the air and slammed into the ground, forming a crater. I couldn’t tell if he was actually harmed from here though.

One of the chains slammed nearby inside my field. I zoomed over and checked out its energy. Attempting to absorb it did little but pull some of the rust off the surface. If I had a physical form, I would have kicked the bloody thing. A scream drew my attention back to the crack where roots of some sort were growing along the chains. At this rate, they would reach the surface in a few minutes.

Frowning at the thing, I flew back over to Ophelia and Starburst. “We’re going to need more. Wherever this breach leads to, it is not a pushover.” I glared at the people outside as they argued about what to do. I couldn’t do anything outside my dungeon with them standing there. They would assume I was trying to send monsters outside my dungeon. Which was true, but I actually wanted to help.

Sighing at the annoyance, I placed my hand on Ophelia. “Here. Summon more, as many as you can.” I began to channel every drop of Aether I had into her. I couldn’t leave my dungeon. I would need her to do the hard work for me.

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