The infinity dungeon 264

Chapter 264

“Clearly my power is not enough if a priest can suppress a portal just like that,” Michael said, kicking the wall. 

Around him, the bodies of the priests were scattered and broken. The battle that had ensued when he had arrived had not been pretty. The spiral allowed him to counter their Faith magic, absorbing it as it left their bodies, but they could still use it to empower themselves and produce effects in the outside world. Even without its cheat-like properties, the Faith the bishop could wield had been enough to turn the fight ugly.

Beside Michael, David panted and clenched his teeth. “You say that, but I was close to useless. Tell me, Michael, how much power do you wield when outside the domain?”

“Without the Origin system, close to three gold of mana and half a gold of mana-only aura.”

He crouched and picked up the shard David had seen before he was attacked from the ground. It looked exactly like the missing shards of the Don’s broken mirror.

“And what about with the Origin system?” David asked.

Michael studied the shard, taking a moment to reply. “It only gives me access to the skills,” he said. “And it’s unstable. I’m not using it yet, not unless it’s an emergency.”

“Emergency, you say. Which means that there is power to be taken from it, not just skills.” David countered.

Michael looked at him, ignoring the shard for a moment. “Yes, there is. There are also lines I will not be crossing, and taking the power from people hooked to the system is one such line.”

“Good,” David said with a nod. “So, what’s that shard about?”

To properly study it, they had to bring it back to Site 00 and let Johanne have her way with it for a full day. She eagerly vanished into the Valley with it, muttering excitedly to herself and commandeering a whole squadron of researchers and several dozen Icarus instances to help her.

When she returned, Michael had to use the spiral to clean the taint from her.

“And now, all we have to do is wait,” he said. “Icarus and I are uploading the signature to the surveillance network.”

The silver room at the top of the control tower felt empty despite the people present, and the ever-increasing amount of devices, computers, furniture and even a snack bar. David was currently helping himself to a beer after having worked up his thirst during a dungeon delve to increase his own power.

“What about the attacks to Site 00?” he asked.

Travis had Icarus pull up some images. “They just threw themselves at us, trying to do as much damage as they could as quickly as they could.”

“They wanted me to use the spiral immediately,” Michael said, turning away from the window, only for Travis to take his place.

“Why?” David asked.

Trevor hummed. “They wanted to keep you busy.”

“They thought you couldn’t use the spiral in two places at the same time!” Jennifer exclaimed from beside him.

“And I can’t!” Michael said. “But it took me three seconds to kill them all here and then go to David. What were they thinking? This is my domain, for fuck’s sake.”

“Honestly, things might be changing too quickly for them to keep up,” David said. “And, Michael, had it taken you ten seconds they would have killed me.”

“Maybe,” Michael replied. “They are acting erratically, though.”

“No,” Travis interjected. When the room quieted down, he explained. “Not even I have the full picture, but Icarus showed me some of what he sees. They are moving not only against us, but against the whole world. Governments, agencies, infiltrations and enough money to boggle the mind. Yes, even my mind. They opened up the IOR–the Vatican’s bank–coffers. The church is mobilizing, a behemoth waking up from a centuries long slumber. An organization bigger than even us, even with all of my and Icarus’s pet projects and undercover agents. They, unlike us, have had two millennia to build their power. It might look like they are stumbling, but all we see is the tip of the iceberg.”

David snorted. “How are they coordinating–”

“We have something,” Icarus’s voice boomed.

Michael’s eyes went vacant for a moment. “The shard just activated. Icarus.”

“On it,” the AI said. “Projecting on the screen now.”

In the hologram that appeared, they could see Don Casellaro’s face.

“Michael Lexington,” the man said.

“Don Casellaro.”

The man smiled. “We finally speak. You were incapacitated, last time I called. Or so the man behind you said. Had he lied, perhaps?”

Behind him, Travis's face was contorted in barely restrained rage. “Fuck you.”

“So hostile,” the don snickered.

Travis snapped. “You dared manipulate my mind.”

David also burst into view. “And mine. We will make you pay for that.”

“Pay?” the Don laughed. “I should be the one making you pay. I know you killed my pet.”

“The Renegade?”

“Bah. The one you called Technomancer,” he said. “The man was useful, and you killed him in cold blood.”

“What of it?” Michael demanded. “We are at war. You pretty much just admitted he was a plant in my organization.”

The don laughed again. 

“Keep him occupied,” Johanne told Michael over the comms. “Icarus and I are tracking him. Signal is coming from Rome, but we need more time to trace the magic of the shard back to its source.”

“Gloat in your victories all you want,” the don said. “And yes, you killed the lost little lamb that you so mockingly call Renegade. You never even bothered to learn his real name, have you? Perhaps I should have given him more dungeon magic, perhaps he would have killed you then.”

Below the don’s face, a map appeared. It depicted the city of Rome, but then zoomed in on the Vatican.

“He was mine to guide back to the shepherd,” the don continued. “You broke his path of redemption, who will pay for him?”

“What do you want?” asked Michael. “Stop playing games. You are sending priests to their deaths against us, and for what?”

The don’s face changed. “What deaths? You speak lies, but it is to be expected of a heretic such as you. You don’t see it, the path that must be walked. You will pay, and soon.”

The image vanished. Moments later, Johanne informed them that the shard back at the lab had exploded, managing to break three layers of containment shield and wounding three people. 

Michael manipulated the magic of the domain and healed them from afar, while David banged his fists on the table. “We need to go on the offensive,” he said. “Travis, why the fuck are you grinning like that?”

“Because, my dear friend,” Travis said as he looked up from his tablet. “It looks like we are going to do just that.”

With a swipe of his finger, he projected what was on his tablet for everyone to see. Dots were appearing on several maps, the biggest of which showed the whole North America continent.

“Icarus is locating more shards as we speak,” he said. “All over the world. It’s time for our counterattack.”

***

The counterattack was way much less exciting than it sounded. Michael spent most of his days in the silver room, only occasionally teleporting out to help a team against a sudden attack. The rest of the time, he worked on the Origin system while remaining at the ready should anything happen that required his attention.

He did not even teleport out to gather more materials, after the only time he had done that somehow the don managed to ambush a team and kill seven Vanguard men and two Operators.

Teams came back with shards, which were put under lock and key, protected by so many shields that it was impossible to even see them through the blue haze of energy. Soon, they ran out of easy targets, and the fights became bloody. The shards were protected, hidden or otherwise unreachable, especially those outside of the US.

Days passed. Michael kept watching, and kept working on the Origin system. It quickly became, in his mind, the key to everything. The key to fight back against the don and the church, to bring peace to the world, and to finally put the threat of magic and of the dungeon under control.

Only then would he be able to sleep.