Dungeon Robotics 113

Hey Guys! Sorry for not uploading yesterday. I came down with something and could barely think. So here is the missing DR chapter intended for yesterday!

Regan

“Northern pass coming into sight!”

“I see Queen really went to work on the place,” I commented as I took it in.

“You did leave her in charge,” Anubis replied.

A wall that spanned the entire width of the pass and easily rose two hundred meters appeared in front of us. Looking further north, I saw an identical wall a few kilometers up the pass. What almost appeared a small industrial era city sat between the two walls. Smoke drifted from hundreds of smokestacks.

The area in front of the wall that we could see had been turned into a blast zone. Artillery fire and mortar shells turned any undead that wandered into the area into ash. If there wasn’t magic in this world. I doubted anything would ever be able to penetrate this fortress. 

“I’m going to check on her. Continue on and I’ll join up with you momentarily.”

“Yes, Master,” Julie replied while Anubis nodded.

I moved out onto the deck of the ship then tried to teleport down just to see if it would work in this short distance. It felt like it started to activate but given how weak it appeared. I decided to forgo the teleportation. I jumped into the air and activated my flight spell that I created on the other continent. It was only a few kilometers. I could cross that in seconds.

I broke the sound barrier just before I came to a stop above a tall building was close to three to four hundred meters tall. Made from a dark metal, it looked quite imposing as a sort of Steampunk, diesel punk, and medieval combination. I was truly impressed with it. 

I landed on a blancy towards the top of the building. Queen opened the door as soon as my feet touched the ground. She hadn’t changed much since I’d created her several months ago. She had broken through to tier three, but that was only to be expected given her connection with metal. 

Parts of her spider half were made from mithril now, while her human upper half used a softer plastic to give the impression of skin. Her multiple eyes glistened in the light as I walked to her. 

“Monarch! A pleasure to have you drop in.”

“It’s good to see you Queen. I like what you’ve done with the place.” We walked into what appeared to be an office. Metal threads crisscrossed their way across the room. A few of her daughters worked on consoles around the room.

Queen bowed. “You honor me with your words.”

“You’ve earned my praise. I’d like to hear how its going.” I moved over to a couch that was placed in the room either due to her planning to host guests in the future or because it was a sort of impression that people find for this type of room.

“All is proceeding well. The force from the Beneath passed here about a week ago and we constructed this place as soon as they did so. Our numbers grow daily and we should start to cleanse the southern areas in about a month.”

“Very good. Is there any thing you need from me?” 

“Not at this time. The mana generators we have are more than enough for our numbers to create the materials we need. This will have to be adjusted in the future, but given Lady Izora’s mission you will not have to oversee that yourself.”

“Excellent. How is Izora’s job coming along?” 

“She is making good time. Though you did give her some very top of the line automata. The tracks should reach us in a few days.”

“Good.” I thought about anything else that I needed to check on, but from what I heard and saw as I was heading in, Queen had everything in hand. It was good to help, but I didn’t want to spoil them. She didn’t ask for help thus I wouldn’t push her. She was smart enough not to withhold anything that could result in danger later. “My forces will reach the northern capital in a day. While I’m not sure what the situation is there, I think we will be occupied for close to a week.”

I wish I could just drop Starfall on them. I really didn’t want to cause another Terra wave. We still didn’t know all the consequences of the first one. One issue at a time, I guess. I’d thought of a few ways to counter act the wave, but they were hard to implement if we were engaged in battle.

“I understand. I have been sending my reports to Steel Spire every twenty-four hours. The switch from mana-based messaging to radio has improved the quality of the messages as you theorized.”

I nodded then looked outside. Her city was a nice hive of activity. “What did you name this little nest of yours?”

“I decided to keep it simple and just called it Spider’s Keep,” Queen said with a grin as she stroked one of her spider legs.

“Fair enough. I like it.”

“Thank you, Monarch.”

I checked the sky and saw that quite some time had passed. The fleet would already be close to the exit of the pass. I could easily check up with them, but once they left the pass we were technically in enemy territory. “Keep up the good work. I’ll check on you in a week.”

I walked back out to the balcony and jumped into the sky. With a boom, I shot towards the fleet. Close to half an hour later, I caught up with them. Ominous black clouds were in our path, but I wasn’t too worried about them. If any lightning struck my airships, it would just be converted into mana to fuel the mana batteries.

Julie rushed up to me as soon as I walked through the bridge door. “Welcome back, master!”

“Thank you. Did anything happen while I was gone?”

“No. It was boring,” she replied with a pout. 

I chuckled at her expression as I patted her head. “That’s probably for the best.”

“Yes master!” she replied with a face splitting grin. I moved passed her over to my standard throne at the center of the bridge. The airships entered the storm as rain and lightning started to buffeted the vessels. 

“Wonderful day for a drive,” I mumbled leaning to place my chin on my hand. 

“Indeed. I sense magic at work by someone that underestimates you, father,” Anubis commented from next to me.

“Everyone underestimates me. That’s why no one has been able to respond properly this entire time.”

One of the fore turrets on the ship twisted and unleashed a stream of rounds into the clouds. A massive undead bird riddled with holes slammed into the deck before the wind from the storm pulled it off. “Looks like someone is expecting us,” I said with a laugh. Why they would have any force in this area rather than dealing with Alara who should have already reached the capital was baffling. “Be careful. Something doesn’t smell right.”

“Yes, father.”

“Yes, master.”

We continued through the storm as the turrets on the ship would fire into the clouds at random. Usually a huge bird or monster that had been turned into an undead would tumble to the ground as a result. We were relying on the ship’s point defense as the storm was affecting the sensors.

This lasted for nearly half an hour with us creeping through the storm. Eventually, we reached a clearing in the storm which reminded me of the eye of a hurricane. We saw a group of airships that appeared to be waiting for us. 

“They really must be fools if they are going against master like this,” Julie said with a sneer. 

“I agree. We decimated all their forces when we traversed to Lady Alara. I would think they had learned their lesson,” Anubis added with a shake of his head.

I couldn’t help but laugh at their overconfidence. “Now, now you two. We need to at least let them try. Maybe they think we’re a different force.”

Putting on a more serious expression, I started scanning the enemy ships to see if they really were fools as Julie proposes. We knew they had ways to communicate over long distance so they knew my ships dominated them a few months ago. I raised a metal eyebrow when I found there were no living on the first ship. 

Soon, I found it was the same for other dozen ships. Not a single living person to be seen. Plenty of undead, but that wasn’t unusual for necromancer ships. I wasn’t sure what their game plan here was, considering I had Anubis who was the archenemy of undead. 

I connected to one of the long-range cameras and zoomed in on the ships. The undead packed the deck in neat rows. Consisting mainly of gnomes, it looked like they had been given a warm welcome when they reached the lich core. I wouldn’t show them mercy though.

My fleet finished emerging from the storm into the eye. I could only assume the storm was to prevent my ion cannons from obliterating the fleet and to give them at least a chance to fight. Once we came to a stop on the opposite side of the clearing, the undead started to react.

They began beating their weapons on their shields or their longbows and staffs on the ground. Other than that, they made no reaction to attack. We waited for nearly five minutes without a sign of aggression. I couldn’t think of a time when the necromancers announced themselves like this. It just wasn’t their style.

A large cloud of darkness grew in front of the lead ship. I premiered the defense shield in case it was an attack, but something was telling me it wasn’t. When the cloud grew to be about fifty meters in diameter, the surface smoothed to that similar to glass. A face I hadn’t seen in a while appeared while sitting on a throne.

“Hello boy,” the lich said with a smirk. The sound emerged from the cloud a bit roughly, but I could tell that he was using magic that he’d never considered before. That made him dangerous. 

I copied him creating a white cloud that did the same. “Old man. I was wondering who the welcome party was from. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised.”

“Fair enough. I left this here a while ago hoping to catch you before you reached my center of power. At least it can serve another purpose.” The lich shook his head with a laugh likely at the irony of it. I wasn’t sure what he was getting at.

I leaned back in my seat as I thought about why he would contact me in such a way. I knew Alara had already gotten to his core and they were currently locked in battle. Surely, he wasn’t hoping that I fall back. That would be laughable, and I didn’t see the dusty bag of bones to be the sort. “Well? What do you want to talk about? I’m on my way to fight you on the field as you requested.” 

“The situation has changed. I would like to end this fighting before it is too late,” the lich said with a bit of apprehensiveness. 

“Explain.”

“The real enemy is Cassin. His goal is complete. We’ve all been played by him. I the biggest fool of them all.”

“Didn’t you offer everything up to him to live forever? Why should I believe this isn’t another one of your plots?”

“Because if you don’t we’ll all die whether we like it or not,” he said with a nasty grin.