Somebody Stop Them. Chapter 23: Proto-Dungeon

The evening deepened, painting the world in surreal hues as the sun began setting behind Nihilim, reflecting as orange disks across the clouds. 

The black hole's corona created an otherworldly twilight, casting everything in deep oranges and purples. The crystalline body of Miss Possible caught these colors, refracting them in mesmerizing, eerie patterns across the wheat field.

"Speaking of biting," I said, watching the cloud ring thicken above Shandria, "can Leviathan Nightingale's shadow flock chew through Miss Possible? Or follow us into the Chasm Sea?"

"The Shadow-beasts are surface-air predators," Vespera clicked. "They can't follow us deep underwater into what's basically a glowing watery environment. Also they're not smart enough to cut through Miss Possible. Unlike that Scrutimancer. That could have gone badly, considering that Shandria does have dimensional-sword artifacts that could cut through Miss Possible. Good job on bamboozling him and directing his attention towards Vassily.”

"So they could have destroyed our tank?" Cinder asked.

"If given enough time to scan her," Vespera nodded. "Absolutely. She might be thicc, but she's not invincible to dimensional magic.”

"I still can't believe they bought that whole Rainbow-Thunder Order thing," Cinder sighed.

"People want to believe in something bigger than themselves," I shrugged. "Especially bureaucrats. They love complicated explanations that make them feel like they're part of some grand narrative. They wanted a big, visible enemy to fight, so I gave them Vassily."

Cinder rolled her eyes. "You manipulated an entire city's law enforcement with a fairy tale."

"Not a fairy tale," I corrected. "A strategically constructed narrative designed to redirect investigative resources and protect our immediate interests."

"Strategically constructed narrative," Cinder mimicked, rolling her eyes. "You mean a lie."

"A carefully curated truth," I said. "Technically everything I said was true. We ARE fighting entropy. Miss Possible IS an ancient engine. Vassily IS working with Zalimar to sell Topaz."

"The fine art of truth-bending! Our human husbando will make a great Omnid politician on day!" Vespera laughed as we walked back to Miss Possible.

I saw as the gargantuan shadow of the black hole cast itself across the vast, endlessly stretching inverted world. It was mesmerizing, beautiful and mind-mindbogglingly alien, a sunset on a Dyson-sphere style megastructure.

"Excited for our underwater adventure?" I elbowed Ci.

"Concerned mostly," she commented, "but when has that ever stopped you?"

"Never." I smiled.

Vespera tapped her token and a part of Miss Possible liquefied, producing a crystalline stairwell.

I stopped at the end of the stairwell, at the edge of the door, watching as the night’s sharp edge rushed across the landscape, reaching Shandria. 

A hundred bells sounded across the city in the distance, wailing like a doomsday siren.

"Martin," Cinder began. "That's the night bells. Nightingale is coming. We have to go.”

"Shhh," I said. "I want to see the local Leviathan."

As the shadow engulfed Shandria, something began to move within the dark cloud. At first, it was just a subtle rippling, like a massive creature stretching beneath a dark blanket. Then, impossibly slowly, a titanic form began to unfurl, a hundred legs emerging as if stepping out of the cloud across the air.

A hundred shadows seemed to reach out to it from the city below. The entire shadowy ring circling the city suddenly twisted and wobbled, unfolding into a monster of titanic proportions, a head covered in silver-blue eyes blooming into existence. One by one, smaller Shadowbeasts disconnected from it, spreading out like a hive of angry, dark bees.

"Sheet," Vespera uttered beside me. "That's a 13/10 spookiness level."

"Never seen it come down?" I asked.

"Not from this angle," Vee replied. "By now the Inn windows shutters close."

Cinder wrapped her hands around me, pulling me into the tank.

As the Leviathan Nightingale unfurled itself above Shandria, its massive form seemed to consume the entire sky. Hundreds of silver-blue eyes blinked and scanned the landscape, while shadowy appendages stretched out like tentacles, probing the city below. It released a wail that sent a chill down across my spine, causing my heart to thunder madly. Fear magic of the highest order, same as the Wendigo wards, perhaps more potent.

The Leviathan’s flock spread out into all directions, a few black dots of flying Shadowbeasts heading towards us.

The crystalline wall of Miss Possible cut the view off as I was pulled inside. The Corpse Seeker accelerated instantly and in a flash, glowing water detonated around us as the wall-screen lit up.

In another second or two, the view of Shandria was gone far behind us. The crystalline legs of Miss Possible thundered across the sea floor, I watched the silt bloom behind us like a massive, underwater explosion. The sea around us glimmered with an alien jade-green luminescence, casting ethereal light across the tank's interior.

Vespera's talons were buried deep within Miss Possible's crystalline controls, electrical currents dancing between her fingers and the tank's internal systems. Her eyes were focused, half closed and calculating.

"Depth?" I asked.

"Cozy," Vespera clicked.

[Depth: 447.63 meters]
[Aetheric Density: 995.49]
[Pressure: 41 atmospheres]

Lines flickered into existence on the round wall that displayed the view of the magic-irradiated sea.

[Core Temperature: 42%]
[Energy Level: 96%]
[Structural Integrity: 61%]
[Dimensional Stability: 78%]
[Storage Capacity: 68%]
[Internal Life Support: active]

Cinder peered out at the glowing underwater view. "How deep can Miss Possible go?"

"Way deep," Vee clicked. "could probably dig halfway into the center of the Earth with this baby. She was made for plowing through dungeons. Gonna keep an eye on structural integrity and adjust accordingly, don't worry."

Strange crystalline structures grew from the seafloor - not coral, something more alien. Some looked like massive fractals, others like frozen explosions of light.

"Pretty," I commented.

"Coral formations twisted by magrad," Vee commented.

Luminescent fish-flocks danced around the alien corals, looking like a mix between jellyfish and dragonflies, their translucent bodies rippling with waves of brilliant jade-green light that matched the sea's ethereal glow.

"Bioluminescent adaptive creatures," Vespera clicked, pausing a frame of a shot of the creatures. "Rapidly evolved to survive in high magrad environments. Notice how their bodies constantly shift and change? They're absorbing and redistributing magical radiation constantly."

[Depth: 1447.63 meters] 
[Aetheric Density: 1211.53]

"How high is the magical radiation here?" I asked as the fish and corals vanished behind us and the sea bed started to glow even brighter.

"High enough that normal organisms or a human would melt into an incoherent puddle within minutes," Vespera replied.

"What about an Omnid?" I asked.

"Omnids could probably survive here," Vespera clicked. "Maybe suffer minor mutations. You, however..." She glanced at me. "Would literally disintegrate. Poof."

Cinder wrapped her wings around me protectively, making the 'not on my watch' expression. I leaned into her embrace, smiling. "Awww. My knight in shimmering feathers."

She let out a small growl.

[Depth: 2447.63 meters]
[Aetheric Density: 1887.22]

Something pulsed ahead of us like dancing lightning wrapped in a corona of colors that made my head hurt. As Possy rushed towards it, moving at ludicrous speed, the brilliant thing became shaped like a gargantuan hollow diatom. Violet lightning danced across it, leaving streaks across reality that made my head hurt.

"Daymn," Vee commented. "Now that's something you don't see everyday."

"What is that?"

"A lotta magrad. It's dimensionally skewering reality, interposing a piece of the Astral Ocean into the physical," Vespera explained. "Normally a dungeon core would gradually sink into the megastructure shell, but this thing is dimensionally anchored in place. Probably 'cus a bunch of Space mages were anchoring their camp, preventing the enemy from teleporting into their midst."

"Is that safe?" Cinder asked.

"I dunno," Vee shrugged. "Probably?"

"Probably?" Cinder raised an eyebrow.

"We've got the most badass tank in existence," Vee commented. "Okay, slow down a bit now, just in case."

We reached the gargantuan diatom and I swallowed. It was made from people. Hollow people intertwined with each other in phantasmagorical patterns.

"Going in!" Vespera declared.

Miss Possible's drill ignited, it began to plow through the first crystalline human form. The violet lightning dancing across the diatom suddenly focused, striking at our tank.

The stats went haywire for a second, the view flickering.

"Shit!" Vespera yelled. Electrical sparks erupted around her, creating a corona of crackling energy.

"What?" I asked.

"Thought there would be more chaos between the cores," Vespera replied. "But... This thing self-organized. It's an engine of hate, of uncreation. A singularity of despair."

"That doesn't sound good," Cinder commented. "Should we... turn back?"

"No," Vee said as another impossible underwater lightning bolt struck us. "We can take it. We won't get another chance. It's adjusting, trying to understand us! We have to move forward, rip that core made from cores out from the center."

"Why?" Cinder demanded.

"Cus," Vee fired back. "If we don't deal with it today, the magrad Sea will expand and eat our lovely farm in a few decades or a century. I like our farm. This thing is expanding its domain like a dungeon, growing."

The drill obliterated the outer shell, revealing the innards of the gargantuan diatom. It stretched above us like a dome. Hollow bone-things made from what appeared to be thousands of people fused to each other disconnected from the walls, heading towards us.

"Sentinels?" Cinder paled.

"Yep," Vee nodded. "Big ones."

"Vee," I called out. "What's our exit strategy?"

"Exit?" Vespera laughed. "We're going straight to the core, baby! These boney boys look like they can pack a punch, but we're faster than them underwater!"

Miss Possible shot forward, sending a ripples behind herself, leaving the titans behind, obliterating more occasional human-shaped mesh walls in her way.

I looked behind us and finally understood what the diatom was. It was an explosion. An explosion that sent bodies flying, imprinted them in time upon their deaths.

More hollow shells were obliterated by our drill head. An entire army of men, a hollow camp imprinted into the world. Faces askew in horror as their own magic rained down upon them, some cowering, ten thousand men suspended in their final moments, like three-dimensional snapshots.

"Holy shit," I breathed out.

The core at the center pulsed with an impossible violet light. It wasn't just a core - it was a massive crystalline structure made of fused human heart-cores, each one still flickering with remnants of skills. Not the thousands of soldiers, but mages who must have inhabited the central tent. There must have been an implosion that drew everything into itself, folded the cores together into one massive sphere sized about a meter by a meter.

[Core Temperature: 38%]
[Energy Level: 84%]
[Structural Integrity: 52%]
[Dimensional Stability: 61%]

"We're losing structural integrity," Vespera clicked. "But we're close to the core. What's it gonna be, Lexxy?"

"Forward," I said. "Lets destroy this abomination before it eats our lovely farm."

"Agreed," she nodded.

Miss Possible's drill ignited with an intense crystalline light, spinning faster and faster as we approached the pulsing violet core made of fused human heart-cores. The drill began to vibrate, creating a resonance that made the entire tank tremble, the walls of the dimensional bulkheads cracking.

"Brace yourselves," Vespera clicked, her talons sending electrical currents through Miss Possible's crystalline structure.

Cinder wrapped her wings around me protectively, her feathers shifting through shades of defensive grays and blues.

The core seemed to sense our approach. The violet lightning intensified, creating a barrier of pure magic energy that threatened to tear reality apart.

"Not today," Vee muttered as Cinder dug into me with her claws.

The drill hit the barrier.

A sound beyond sound erupted - a scream that wasn't a scream, a light that wasn't light, a moment that stretched between moments...

A forty two thousand year old tank versus an army of ten thousand men murdered in a blink of an eye and then left to rot for a century. Time versus death. Omnid magitek versus Arx wild magic that gradually turned the dead into dungeons.

The proto-dungen core shattered, a shockwave of pure magical energy erupted around us, plowing, shattering the imprints of men burned into reality, obliterating the ring, decimating the Sentinels gathering behind us.

Miss Possible's mouth unfurled wide, swallowing the broken pieces of the shattered core.

[Core Temperature: 92%]
[Energy Level: 100%]
[Structural Integrity: 38%]
[Dimensional Stability: 42%]
[Storage Capacity: 98%]

"Nazareth! Almost imploded ourselves," Vespera swallowed. "But we got the core! Yay!"

"Yay?" Cinder let out. "That's all you have to say after we nearly died?"

"I do! That was the most exciting thing I've done in... Like, ever. Gotta gamble to win big," Vee fluttered, her feathers dancing with black and white patterns. "Okay down we go. I'll move slowly, so the rock can solidify behind us."

Cinder nodded, looking very puffed up, wings black and red.

Miss Possible melted through a wall into a gargantuan open space and plummeted down through the air, crashing into the water far below.

Then as Vespera readjusted the tank's legs, Possy rushed out of the water onto a black sand beach. A few giant, house-sized snails stared at us, their black shells covered in glowing blue-gray moss glowing ever so slightly.

Miss Possible rapidly plowed uphill away from the giant snails towards a rope ladder and climbed up the wall by stabbing crystalline legs into slate stone, finally settling onto a large platform overhead marked with the logo of a tower.

"Ta da!" Vespera declared. "Gloomkerr Dungeon! Please disembark, n' don't leave any of your belongings or your mentally-exhausted driver in the tank..."

Vespera's arms came out of the liquid crystal and she fall backwards into my embrace. "And done," she let out.

Her body was soaked in sweat and she was trembling like a leaf in the wind.

"Effin Abyss," she mewled. "That was exhilarating... Now, let's never ever do that again."

I glanced at the flickering screen-wall covered in dark cracks and half-dead hexagon-shaped pixels.

[Core Temperature: 97.39%]
[Energy Level: 100%]
[Structural Integrity: 26%]
[Dimensional Stability: 32%]
[Storage Capacity: 96%]

I tapped my Quartermaster bracelet, whispering a name.

"Yes?" A scruffy female voice came from the other side.

"Hey, kitty-cat. Did you miss us? We're home," I said. "Come meet us at the Gloomkerr Dungeon entrance. Bring our mooks. We have loot to carry back into the tower."

"Gloomkerr Dungeon?!" Katherine repeated. "How did you even..."

"You'll see," I replied, hanging up on her.

. . .

We climbed out of Miss Possible, leaving the tank behind us pouring steam in the direction of the dungeon sea.

Katherine arrived first, her bulky form melting out of the Shadows. She walked towards us and spotted Miss Possible and then her mouth fell open.

"What?" She let out. "What the fuck is that?"

"That's Miss Possible," I replied. "Our new wheels."

Io emerged from the tunnel next, followed by Guild mooks carrying bags. They too froze, staring at the steaming tank.

Katherine stared at Miss Possible, her emerald eyes wide with disbelief.

"Is that... a Corpse Seeker?" She finally found her voice. "Why is it so big?"

"Correction," Vespera nodded tiredly. "That's OUR Corpse Seeker! Stolen her fair n' square."

Io whistled. "No wonder you smelled like certain doom. Wow. This is seriously old magitek."

"Forty-two thousand years old," I nodded.

"Where the shit did you...?" Kat began.

"Borrowed her from the Omnid Chapel." I grinned.

"BORROWED?" Katherine's loud growl made the phosphorescent snail eye-stalks vibrate in the distance.

"Yes," I nodded jovially. "On a permanent basis. Vee, unleash the doubloons!"

Vespera tapped her wrist and a cascade of gold bars, celesteel and magisteel cards, misc coins and documents began pouring out from Miss Possible's crystalline body, creating a glittering pile on the black stone platform.

"Bag it up boys and girls!" I said, arms spread dramatically wide.

Katherine choked. Io laughed. The mooks stared with wide eyes.

"What." Katherine asked. "The fuck. Is that."

"Booty?" I grinned.

"I thought that you went on a date," Katherine massaged her snout with an exasperated face.

"We did," I said cheerfully. "Had a lovely stroll in the city, taunted Emerald, bought some presents, stopped an execution, terrorized a city, stole a tank, robbed a bank, had a farm-cooked meal, bought a farm, had a walk on the beach, and retrieved an ancient magical reactor from the bottom of a radioactive sea. Very romantic. Right ladies?"

"Our human knows how to show his girls a good time," Vespera smiled tiredly, held up by Cinder in a bridal carry.

The Quetzi let out a bothered noise.

Katherine stared between me and the Thunderbird. Then she looked at Cinder.

"Yeah," the Quetzi-girl replied with a half-catatonic look of glassy eyes. "That happened. All of that."

. . .

In the days that followed, I unpacked all of my sixty Omnimart stolen phones from my bag and taught my mooks how to use and charge them, installing a copy of Yulia on each one.

Vespera spent all of her time in the grand dining hall, integrating the stolen proto-dungeon core into the center of the tower directly below. She had used one of Possy's heat-release vents to purposefully melt the core and rapidly mix it into a very evenly blended slag about a hundred times with larger pieces of crystalline tower material, burning all individuality from the core. Then she used Lance's bricking wand to sink the said core deep into the floor and began setting up layers upon layers of crystalline wards around it.

Once she was done with that, she began entwining more hexagrams into it, giddily building her death ray while whistling Twisted Nerves song from the Kill Bob Film.

Katherine used her superhuman strength and deep-warp to punch new tunnels connecting caverns and to plan out rooms beneath the tower to house the Undertown refugees and our future employees. Io went with her and supervised her, warning which section was stable and which would cause a collapse.

I spent most of my time managing my Guild, explaining to each mook what they had to do for the year and six months that I would be away.

Miss Possible remained stationed at Gloomkerr for a day, gradually cooling and repairing herself. Eventually, she joined the excavation efforts. Thanks to the Corpse Seeker's drilling power and Io's disaster-sense we were able to create thousands upon thousands of new tunnels and rooms connected to our Guild, hollowing out the interior of our crystalline domain in just a few days.

When the space was set up fully, Vespera covered the entire tank in cold runes and we began venturing out into Duskbloom-engulfed Undertown rapidly rescuing thousands of people from their hovels and Topaz dens.

Without the tank on our side, many people would die, but Miss Possible tirelessly worked night and day even while we slept as Vespera set up a basic body-retrieval algorithm inside her, targeting passed out Undertown denizens. The Duskbloom mites had indeed devoured all Topaz out of people's bodies first, leaving them clean.

Shash and his assassins set up checkpoints throughout the new tunnel network, organizing the refugees into different sectors based on their skills and establishing a basic security system.

Along with human bodies, Possy liberated tons of useful stuff, collecting magisteel safes left behind by the mages and Guilds who fled Undertown. In just a few days our Guild vault became absolutely packed with gold, weapons, tools, artifacts.

A section of the tower was modded by Vespera to melt down the bars and mint new coins and cards with an image of Miss Possible on one side and my foxy face on the other, aged to make me look regal and wearing a laurel crown with the words LORD PROTECTOR etched around my bust. Shash and our other agents were sent upstairs to lease a variety of properties with the currency for our business venture developments, offering various select, capable, young individuals jobs in our crystal tower.

Through careful organization and delegation, the crystal tower gradually transformed into a semi-functioning city-state within Undertown.

Vespera continued enhancing the tower's defenses, integrating more complex ward systems and expanding the tower's capabilities. The proto-dungeon core provided stable power for all operations.

Since there was only one column stairwell leading into Undertown, Vespera simply pointed the death ray at the tower housing it, attracting an absurd number of mites to the entrance.

. . .

Arch-Guild Enforcer Legarth Wixoff descended into the stairwell leading to Undertown, his crack team of Enforcers behind him, covered head to toe in specially designed cold-rune armor.

"Cold runes on," he barked to his team as they reached the bottom of the long stairwell. "Move quick and don't get distracted. We are to crack open the safes and to retrieve all valuables for the Guilds and mages that departed in their haste and abandoned much of their valuables behind."

The other enforcers nodded.

Legarth stepped out of the stairwell tower and found himself facing an inexplicable, silver-blue crystalline, glowing obelisk standing in a literal ocean of glowing mites.

Not a single Kitlix lantern burned in Undertown now. Colorful mites drifted all over, obscuring his view.

"What in her Shadow's name?" Legarth stared at the obelisk. "Did these pesky mites already spread this much?!"

A magical projection flickered to life - a respectable-looking, foxgirl sitting on what appeared to be a crystal throne.

"Welcome to the Free City of Katsburg," the hologram declared cheerfully. "I am secretary of his Lord Protector, Yulia. How may I assist you today?"

"Free City?" Legarth sputtered. "What nonsense is this?"

"As signed by the decree of Shandrian Sovereign Cedez Astra," the foxgirl's hologram continued pleasantly, "this section of Undertown is now an autonomous region under the regency of Lord Protector, Duskbloom-infested land currently being reclaimed by the Order of Thunder and Rainbow. Do you have an appointment?"

"We don't need an appointment," Legarth growled. "We're here to retrieve valuables left behind by the Guilds of Undertown. Also, Shandria doesn't have a Sovereign named Cedez Astra!"

"I'm afraid those valuables have already been devoured by Duskbloom," the projection smiled. "However, if you'd like to discuss business opportunities or schedule a meeting with one of our banking representatives, I'd be happy to assist."

"Banking representatives?" Legarth sputtered. "What banking representatives?"

"The Free City of Katsburg offers competitive financial services and employment opportunities," the projection replied pleasantly. "Including secure storage, currency exchange, and a multutude of investment opportunities. Would you like to schedule an appointment?"

"Listen here," Legarth growled, "I don't know who you are. I have orders from High Justice Luborkand of Shandria to retrieve that which belongs to the Guilders!"

"I'm afraid without proper authorization, I cannot allow you to proceed further," the projection interrupted. "The mites in this area are quite aggressive. For your own safety, I recommend scheduling an appointment with our representatives."

Legarth stared at the projection in disbelief. "This is absurd! We are authorized enforcers of the Arch-Guild!"

"Speaking of authorization," the foxgirl said in her far-too-polite cadence, "I notice you're carrying quite a lot of weaponry. I should inform you that unauthorized weapons are strictly prohibited in Katsburg. Our defense systems are... quite thorough. For your own safety you have ten seconds to step back. Ten. Nine..."

A red dot appeared on Legarth's chest armor.

"I don't have to listen to whatever this is!" Legarth ignored the dot, marching into the ocean of mites, parting away from his cold runes.

A brilliant beam of light erupted from somewhere high above and Legarth suddenly ignited like a torch. All of the runes covering his armor exploded at once, overloading from the ray that boiled the air itself. Then the sea of mites engulfed him whole as he screamed.

The rest of Legarth's team stumbled backwards in horror as their leader vanished beneath the undulating waves of glowing mites.

A hand emerged, then another. Hissing and smoking, Legarth crawled back towards his team, his expensive armor crumbling away, his entire body covered in mites.

"As I was saying," the hologram continued in the same pleasantly unnerving voice, "for your safety, I recommend scheduling a proper appointment. Our banking representatives would be happy to discuss any concerns you might have in the future."

"H-help me, yo-you idiots! R-retreat!" Legarth croaked, spitting mites, his voice hoarse. "Back to the surface!"

The enforcers scrambled backwards up the stairs, towards the cold tunnel, dragging their leader with them.

"Thank you for your interest in Visiting Katsburg," the hologram called after them cheerfully. "We look forward to your scheduled visit!"

The hologram flickered off as the last enforcer disappeared up the stairs.

Behind the obelisk, in the crystal tower's control room, the image of the foxkin on the phone screen connected to Lance's mana-electricity smiled.

"Unauthorized armed delvers repelled," Yulia declared proudly.

"Great job," I commented from the couch where I was cuddling a sleeping Cinder. "Very diplomatic."

"Why, thank you," Yulia replied. "I aimed to be firm yet professional."

"Think you can handle it from here?" I said.

"A year and six months is a long time to leave an LLM in charge," she said with a smile. "But I've got a capable team of Arx-kin working as my hands and eyes. If I go offline or get stuck in loops, they can restart me or take over. Do you trust them, Lord Protector?"

"I trust in the foundation I set up," I shrugged. "I trust in the Guild I bought, Shash and Master Morty. Well paid, well-fed people don't rebel and our Guild's Vault is bursting with gold now. Just keep our people safe. And keep expanding carefully. No need to rush things."

"Of course," Yulia nodded. "I'll maintain steady growth while you're away. The refugees are settling in well from what I was told by Shash and can see below via a few cameras pointed down."

I glanced at Cinder, who was dozing against my shoulder, her feathers shifting through peaceful blues and silvers.

"Ci! Time to head back to Earth," I said softly.

"Mmm, five more minutes," she replied, burying me in pink-blue feathers.

"Do we really have to head back?" Vespera asked from where she was sitting, still manipulating hexagrams far below us. "I'm... happy here. Still so much to do."

"Are you scared?" I asked her.

"Yes," Vespera admitted softly, all of her feathers turning pure black. "I am. I'm worried about defying my entire family and my dad, worried about Zheng's wrath. Here you're Lord Protector and out there you'll be just another Skyfall student, a nullie at that."

"The world is more than Arx, Vee," I said, "more than our little crystal citadel. What do you think happens if we stay here past the two hour limit?"

"The gate to Earth will turn off," Vespera said. "Till next Friday. It operates on runic clockwork Instructor Zalimar set up. Our parents will freak out and bring Scruts into the school and then figure out how to reactivate the gate forcefully... get into Shandria and send a bunch of small corpse seekers to get us."

"Exactly," I said. "Our death ray won't work against those. We can't run from Omnithornia. You'll get dragged back to Earth on your parents terms. I don't want that."

Vespera nodded, her feathers twitching.

"Aww, where's my brave, cheerful Vee?" I asked, petting her.

"Tired," she replied. "Very effing tired. You try burning a thousand hexagrams into a tower in like eighty hours."

"Did you not sleep at all?" I asked her, recalling her cuddling us with one arm at times, while using her second arm to etch hexagrams into the crystalline strata below.

"Nope," she said. "Pushed need to sleep away with my current. Kept myself going past the limit. S'making me irritable and twitchy. Going to have a long-ass nap after. Was too excited about setting up our lovely base away from home." She sighed, standing up and stretching her black wings. "But, you're right. We need to face Earth. Can't hide in our crystal tower forever. Omnithornia awaits! Rise n' shine, Skittles!"

She sent a brilliant spark into Cinder's face, the Quetzi-girl shaken awake with a bothered yelp and flutter of orange feathers.