Dungeon Robotics Chapter 147

Hey everyone! I'm back. It was good to get away from home for a while. I will admit its nice to work from home, but you get almost zero stimulation. Got a good amount of writing done as well.  that said, how would you guys feel about on a week on Azaria? I got some work done on that story. 

P.s. Face hurts from the sunburn though haha. 

Regan

I patted my chest to clear my indigestion. Forcing all Frusoga energy to a single point hadn’t been easy but absorbing it all gave me a nice little boost of mana. Looking down, Glourios’s forces were starting to fall back. As I figured, Frusoga had acted like a beacon for him to channel his power to the lower level fire elementals. 

There was still energy flowing through the torrent of fire raging through the tunnels outside my dungeon, but it was back to a level I could handle with the dungeon walls. Our forces pushed the enemy back swiftly and held them as the walls restored themselves. My mana was being drained holding back Glourios’s flame outside the tunnel.

“We need to deal with the source of our problems,” I said to the gathered group. I focused on the transponders that Puppet placed in the tunnels for me. My incorporating that, I could use the marker I created from Louella’s memories to teleport a group close to Glourios’s heart. It would be dangerous though. The marker was already at the maximum range for the transponder.

“You need someone fire doesn’t bother. I volunteer to go,” Soza said landing next to me. I took her in for a moment as she had taken an Eastern dragon form from Earth. I didn’t think those existed on Murgin as the only dragon’s I had seen were more of the western variety.

“Thank you.”

“I still need to thank the bastard for the trouble he caused me,” Louella said cracking her knuckles. The sun spirits all copied her taking it from menacing to cute in a span of a second. “I’m definitely going.”

“If master orders it, then I shall go,” Julie said kneeling in front of me.

“I know you’re going my love, so I will be going along with you,” Alara said hopping down next to me from her mech and taking my hand. 

“Thank you.” I looked around. “Everyone that wants to go step forward,” I shouted otherwise we might be here all day. 

Everyone stepped forward. Even the goblins and gnomes that would have little chance of surviving such a battle. They had already suffered quite a few loses just from the earlier battle. While I respected their act of bravery, I couldn’t ask them to suffer more. 

“The gnomes stand with you, my lord,” Izora said kneeling next to Julie. She caused a chain reaction and the close to six thousand gnomes that where behind her followed suit. 

“Don’t be forgetting us, boss! The mechanized units of Goblin Haven stand with you!” Tony shouted and all the mechs cheered. “We’d follow you into hell and back!”

I looked everyone over, and contentment filled my chest. When I was on Earth, I had tried so hard at one point to connect with someone. Even a machine, in the case of Watcher. Who knew I would have to come to another plane of existence to find it?

“Very well! We will all go pay a visit to our neighbor!” I jumped into the air and pointed my sword at a point in front of the armies. With effort, I used the links provided by the transponders to create a portal to the tunnel just outside of Glourios’s nest. Forming two pillars on either side, I made it so the portal couldn’t close unless it was destroyed. 

I dived toward the portal leading the charge. Emerging from the other side, the heat reached increasingly dangerous levels. I channeled some mana to bring the temperature down to manageable levels. The others started to appear. Alara came through carrying a doll and I realized that she’d shrunk her mech to take it with her.

Thinking of the goblin mechs about to appear, I began enlarging the tunnel. Pulling the rock from the ceiling and walls, I quickly absorbed it as I moved forward. “I doubt he won’t notice my use of teleporting magic. Expect company in any second.” 

Soza, back in her elven form, moved forward along with Louella. “Let’s see him get past us,” Louella said as she started pulling in all the heat from the tunnel. It was soon cold enough for breath to fog up. 

“Save some for me,” Soza said.

We moved down the tunnel and soon emerged into the cavern that I saw in Louella’s memories. They hadn’t done it justice. Giant red crystals that appeared to house pure fire mana pulsed slowly from the ceiling and slagitites around a massive castle made from stone, magma, and pure fire. A sea of flame raged around the pillar the castle sat on. 

“Nice place,” I said.

“Remembers me of home, the Dungeon lords love this sort of setup,” Soza commented taking it in. “At least if my mother was to be believed.”

“Good to know,” I replied, rubbing my neck.

“Dungeon lords?” Louella asked confused.

“Just a bunch of dungeon cores that are monster based. They can’t become celestials for one reason or another.”

“Let me guess. They’re evil.”

I snapped my fingers and grinned. “You got it!” 

A rumbling started across the cavern as a giant several times bigger than the Frusoga rose from the top of the flaming sea. His mana was off the charts, so much so, that he had to be pulling it from somewhere much like a dungeon core might. If the cave was already fire mana inclined, then we might actually be in a magma chamber of a volcano or something similar. 

“I’m glad you could join me!” The giant’s voice reverberated around the chamber causing some of the mortals in the group to grab their ears. “My beloved. I knew you would return to me. I realize that I failed to convert you completely. I will not make the same mistake.”

Louella flared her mana becoming as bright as the sun. “I’d like to see you try it, bastard!”

I placed my hand on her shoulder. “Now. Now. You’re just giving him what he wants.”

“Can you turn him into a gem like Frusoga? I want to have him hold my paperwork on my desk for the next hundred years.”

“Sure. I’ll do my best,” I said laughing at the idea.

Glourios dropped his hands into the magma under him and pulled out two sabers that had to be at least fifteen to twenty meters long each. I moved my senses to my mech that was sitting over the entrance to my dungeon. I teleported it down here and merged with it. Starfall thrumming as it absorbed mana around it after I fused my new sword with it. The hum of the mana generators coming online. 

Alara tossed her doll down and it expanded until it back to full size. She hopped in and we strode forward. “Making yourselves bigger does not give you a better chance of defeating me! I’m on the gateway of tier six, dungeon cores! You do not threaten me.” Glourios shouted then burst into laughter.

The sea of fire started to writhe as monsters and men started to rush up the slope toward the army. They didn’t give the chance and started firing into the rushing horde. Explosions of ice and water coated the hill only to vanish into steam the next moment. The flaming horde quickly made their way up the hill. 

Alara and I moved toward Glourios with Louella, Julie, Wrakras, Duilin, and Soza moving through the air around our heads. The flaming horde washed over our feet but Glourios must want to put us in our place as they didn’t attempt to block our passage. We soon stood next to the lake of magma and faced Glourios in what reminded me of a raid battle from an old role-playing game from before I was born.

Soza charged ahead of us in her eastern dragon form. “Dragons? A weak failed race!” The sabers dropped from his hands as before they floated up to his head as his body shifted to that of a massive beast. His back was covered in spikes and while he had two wings on his back, they were missing the canvas to left him fly. Glourios grew several times bigger as the magma under him rushed up into his body. “This is the form you should seek!” He roared before a wave of fire left his mouth. 

It washed over us and I felt pieces of my mech start to melt the heat was so intense. I held up my hand and create a shield that absorbed the heat and channeled the mana into my mech’s mana batteries. A fire storm started to rage around us controlled by his will. “I! AM! UNSTOPPABLE!” 

“You are annoying!” I shouted back. I pulled Starfall back and threw it like a spear. The weapon sliced through the air and struck Glourios in the chest. The magma instantly started to harden as the heat and energy were pulled into the weapon. 

Alara charged and brought her own sword around and managed to slice off part of Glourios’s right side. Louella dropped through the air and struck him in head, knocking him back from the force she used. Duilin swung around and slammed his hammer into the back of his head. Julie and Wrakras used their tidal wave of shadows to eat away at his back.

“You think you are hurting me!?” There was a surge of magma from under him and his body instantly recovered. “Taste some ancient magic!” 

I held my hand out and pulled Starfall back to my grip and braced for what might be coming. The flames around Glourios quickly turned white then blue as their mana density increased rapidly. He swung and back handed Soza sending her across the cavern. I didn’t fail to notice that she had received burns from the attack, meaning there was more to heat to his change.

Glourios swung at me, but I countered with Starfall just in time. Parts of the blade started to melt just from the brief contact. My mech’s arm and the parts closest also began to melt. Alara brought her sword around and sliced his hand off, but it reformed in less than a second. Julie sent some shadows at the back of Glourios’s head. He didn’t even respond as the shadows burnt away before they hit him. 

There was a flash as Louella glowed brighter than a star. The sun spirits swung around her like electrons on an atom as they channeled increasingly higher amounts of mana into her. Soon, I couldn’t actually see her body anymore. The spot of light that she had become suddenly streaked at Glourios when it reached his face, his massive body was blasted back against the cavern wall. 

He pushed off and began swiping Louella as she streaked around him. I knew she wouldn’t be able to keep that up for long. Even if she could, Glourios was pulling mana from the magma lake and depending on how saturated this natural source was, it could take months or years before he used it all up.

“We need to destroy the source of his power,” Alara commented as she helped my mech move back. It had been damaged more than I expected from the heat of Glourios’s attack. 

“I know.” I thought about how to force a magma chamber to go inert. We would need to either cause all the magma to erupt or pull the heat and pressure out. I placed my hand on the ground and created a transponder to link with the rest of the network. From there, I added a connection to Starfall.

Aiming for the center of the lake, I threw Starfall. After that, I did what a dungeon core did best. I absorbed all the mana feeding it to all my other cores. My estimate was right as Starfall sank the depth was incredible. The heat and fire mana were being absorbed faster than they could be replaced.

Starfall soon reached the bottom of the magma chamber close to a thousand meters down. Everything began to harden before our eyes. My sub-cores growing quickly from the rapid influx of mana. They had all broken through to tier four and were well on there way up. My main core was also benefiting from the mana, but I focused on making all my sub-cores equally powerful. 

“NO!” An explosion signaled that Glourios caught on to my plan. Louella refused to let up and kept him pinned to the wall.  

Without the source of mana feeding him, his power soon dropped to just over tier four. Powerful, but not much stronger than Frusoga had been. I flew over and created a blackhole in the center of Glourios. I pulled his energy into a gem like Louella had wanted me to do. “I’ll return! You can’t destroy a Sovereign!”

“That’s why I’m not destroying you,” I retorted as his very soul was pulled into the gem. The flaming horde dissipated into motes of flame once Glourios was completely sealed. I glanced at the top of the hill and found the army was burnt and hurting but most of them were alive.

The light in the cavern had dimmed as the magma cooled to stone. There was only a little bit of mana remaining in the chamber. I decided to channel it to everyone that fought with me to heal their wounds and increase their power if they could manage it. Louella flew to where the others were gathering, while I flew over to Soza.

“Husband? I think I see the light. Please come and comfort me,” she said, holding her hand out while back in her elven form. I checked her over to make sure she would be okay. I found a few burns, but nothing her dragon constitution couldn’t heal in a few hours.

“If you can joke about it, I think you’ll be fine,” I replied with a sigh.