I went down the revolving staircase. I wanted to slide down but I didn''t know what would be waiting for me. It was quite a long staircase. I can''t imagine that guards take these. I reached the bottom of the stairwell and came out of a huge pillar. I looked around and saw some guards waiting to the side of the pillar. I observed them and it seemed that they were waiting for an elevator… I hate this place, so there was an elevator! This layer didn''t seem to pretend it was outside, there was a proper ceiling and it did seem to be lower than the one on layer 8 but it was still high, I estimate it at 2 km high, layer 8 was twice as high. This layer at least used its verticality and it started to look a bit more like a stereotypical prison although instead of houses these looked like apartments stacked on each other. I pickpocketed more guards and again the candy and useless stuff.


    The radius and height of this layer should be smaller so the deeper I go the easier it should be to find out how to get to the lower layers. I still didn''t feel heavier. My jumps were less floaty though, I guess gravity does work on me although to a certain extent. I wonder how Gregory is doing. The guards seemed to be waiting for an eternity for the elevator but that looks like it from my perception. I saw some walking up to them in slow motion and they seemed to struggle against gravity. I wonder how fast I would need to run to become imperceptible to them. I’m not sure how the physics works out here but if I run at full speed like this to them, I seem way faster than I already am. Could I reach the speed of light from their point of reference? Since I don''t know how this all will work, I just decided to stay in stealth. I sneaked around some more. I noticed that it was still dark everything was moving so slow, it was kind of interesting. I spotted more candy shops. I was wondering what was going on with the candy shops. These things were uncomfortable but I really wanted to know what the deal was with them. If they are an adversary, I want to know about it now and not when we are trying to escape. No guards nearby.


    I stepped into the candy shop. I looked around. There were shelves filled with different types of candy even a cotton candy machine at the side. It was quite a colorful array. The smell of all this candy gave me the feeling that just smelling them would give me diabetes. The thing was looking directly at me even though I was still in stealth. I had a clone on standby to [shadow swap] to. I looked at it and it really did look like a human but even without inspecting it with my Elgards eyes, I could tell it wasn''t. What other race could this be? Not a shapeshifter, they don''t give off this uncanny feeling, and they also can''t see through stealth. Some race that can mimic humans and can see through stealth and illusions. I could only come up with nine-tail spirit foxes and a four-fingered Ray Chameleon. This thing had 5 fingers though, these chameleons can mimic humans but they can’t make hands with 5 fingers. They also do a better job of mimicking the feel of a human. I was out of ideas. I dropped out of stealth and the vibe of this thing changed.


    Maybe I was wrong, maybe it didn''t see me while I was in stealth but something else gave away that I was standing here. We had a stare-off. The thing seemed to become hostile but didn''t act. Maybe it was trying to intimidate me. I got an ID card I swiped from a guard a while ago. And attempted to buy candy. It didn''t let me buy the candy.


    Interesting. Well since it was intimidating me, I think it''s fair if I intimidate it back. The thing grew another pair of arms and spewed fire at me out of its mouth. Well, that was unexpected. It crawled over the counter on all fours, excuse me all six, in a creepy manner. I was resistant to the fire but I realized why this thing was so unsettling. This fire wasn''t magic. I could smell some type of fuel. I got an inkling of what this thing is. It started chopping at me. These chops were lightning infused but this wasn''t magic either. I couldn''t see what was going on inside its body and I realized why.


    This thing was an artificial lifeform made out of ancient technology. The more it went into its battle mode the less human it appeared. I evaded its lightning chops and ignored the fire it kept spitting. The chops seemed to pack a punch and this thing was torching its own store. The store was ablaze and the diabetes smell of melting candy together with the smell of burnt sugar and fuel started to permeate the shop. I wonder if there is any chance that this goes by unnoticed. I then realized something obvious that I missed. These things move at the same rate as me! Aren’t these things affected by gravity or time dilation? I noticed that the fire seemed to be burning in slow motion but the fire the thing was spitting out, seemed to be at normal speed. How was something like this called again? I tried thinking back to movies and games but I was too busy dodging the lightning chops, these were fast and precise. My eyes couldn''t help with spotting its preliminary movements so I had to use my dynamic vision to evade these. This is actually harder than dealing with living creatures. Nothing about its posture or muscles give away what it’s going to do. It also wasn''t using magic so I couldn''t interrupt or cancel out anything. Why does life keep throwing enemies at me that are a pain in the ass! I decided to leave the shop.


    Android, yes that''s the word! Android! The android followed me on all six and kept spitting fire at me. Can it at least pretend to be human and follow me on its legs?! I then realized that that candy shop might be able to bring me to the lower layer. I ran back into the burning candy shop while narrowly evading the lightning chops. I looked around but couldn''t find any sign of an elevator or a staircase. I sent the clone that was on standby to another shop to check it out. Clone 3 was still looking for Ted and Gregory. I threw an illusion on the small plaza since nobody seemed to have noticed this chaos yet. I don’t want to be caught yet. Now that I have a better idea of what this android is I have a better chance of undoing everything that happened here. The only issue is this android. I can undo this area with the shop fixed. I would probably pick this thing apart and hope I understand it enough to return the shop owner. I took out potato peeler 3.0 and tried to parry a chop but it got shattered. … You got to be kidding me!


    I dodged a follow-up chop and ignored the fire it shot at me. This thing is extremely sturdy and strong. I guess I can’t cut it. I took out another sword and tried to figure out what wavelength I needed to cut it. Well, ancient technology is cheating! It keeps changing! These guys really knew how to build shit! I evaded the chops that became faster and faster. It seemed to have adapted and stopped shooting fire at me. These things can learn?! This is a problem, the longer I fight it the higher the chance gets that it will kill me. I focused and kept evading the chops. The wavelength has a certain pattern it repeats. It is quite a long pattern but nothing I can''t deal with.


    I imbued my random nameless sword with lightning and cut off 2 of its arms. The blade chipped and had cracks running through it. My hand hurt a bit because even with matching wavelengths this was tough to cut. This sword could take one more slash. I wonder if it would stop moving after I cut off its head, it is not a real human so there should be no reason it would have a weakness as obvious as that. I needed to position myself so I could cut off both of its arms and head in one slash. The easiest way would be if it would try a 2 handed smash on me. How do I get this android to do that? I have to make it run out of lightning. Raishin has a skill that could act as a lightning rod but I don’t know it. I looked at the arms laying on the ground. They should conduct lightning if they are using lightning. I picked up the 2 arms and used [accel step] it made it easier for me to dodge the chops. It seemed to have issues adapting to my new speed. Good! I realize that without the [time ring] these things would destroy anything that comes here and tries to break out inmates. It moves as if it''s in a normal time flow but any normal person would be slowed down. These ancients surely don''t mess around.


    I ran dark blue lightning through the arms and zapped the android. Because of these arms, I had a longer range and didn''t have to come close to it. I tried to fry its circuits if they have any. I could also be charging it, in that case, I will have to go back to try and short-circuit it. It would shift to hand-to-hand combat then. I think. It didn''t seem to work. I tried to make it a short circuit but this was quite hard to do. I did some extra [accel steps]. I imbued the arm I was holding with purple lightning, matched the wavelength, and disarmed it by chopping off its right arm. Maybe I should quit being a sword master and become an arm master.


    I am armed and ready! Ted would love this pun. I gave the android a purple lightning slap but it didn''t seem to do much. I guess that was to be expected, these things are tanky. I went for another chop to get rid of its remaining arm but it dodged. It seemed to be accustomed to my speed. I used 3 more [accel steps] and it couldn''t keep up anymore. I’m so glad that I’m wearing high-quality shoes. But for the sake of my shoes, I should wrap this up. I used [Shadow bind] and chopped off its arm, its legs, and its head. I circulated some nature magic. I wasn’t getting nauseous yet but just in case. I looked at the parts that I laid out on the ground. I had slung one arm over my left shoulder but the others were laid down on the ground. I tried to pry the parts open but they were quite tough. I don''t know how to get these open without destroying what''s inside.


    When I thought that I should give up on figuring this android out I heard a weird beep. It was in a frequency humans normally can''t hear but since I’m a fox I could hear it. Yes, this is bad. I jumped back and the torso exploded in some weird green cartoonish-looking fire and it took out all its parts except for the arm I had slung over my shoulder. The fire went out by itself after 2 seconds and left nothing behind besides a crater. Well, this sucks. I looked at the arm that survived. It didn''t show any sign of exploding. I decided to store this since this was quite a useful weapon.


    I guess this section will have to do without its candy vendor. This is sure to cause problems so I will have to get out of here after I fix this with my illusion. I shattered the illusion and everything turned back to normal except for the android. Time to get out of here! I used [Shadow swap] with clone 2 and went to look for a way to move to the next layer. I decided to check out the watchtowers on this layer but decided to sleep in an empty cell. Only one floor in these and the bed was less comfy as those on layer 8 which makes sense because the crimes the inmates committed here are probably more severe.


    I wonder though how they determined this, this layer had someone here for fraud and Raishin is on layer 2 for chilling with Ella. I don''t think anything makes sense, he should probably be in layer 9 or 8. Things would have been so much easier if he was on layer 9 or 8… these androids worry me though, I’m sure this is not the last of them, these are just candy vendors. Why do candy vendors need to be so strong… I couldn''t feel comfortable in this bed so I just curled up in my tails. I know I''m supposed to find information but I still feel like I’m going too slow, this is my second night here, and time keeps ticking for Raishin. I don’t feel like I had enough information. Determined to find out more about this place I fell asleep.


    <hr>


    I woke up and headed outside. My clone was being lazy again. I also felt that more energy was draining from me. I guess Ted and Gregory made it to the next layer. Hmm, this is a problem in one or 2 more layers my energy will get drained at a rate that will be problematic over a large period of time. I think we grossly underestimated how difficult this would be. I thought: get in, fetch him in perhaps 4-5 hours and get out. Clone 3 reached a watchtower. It found some interesting information. It had the map of this layer. It was a magical map and it had several types of markings on them that I couldn''t identify. From this map, I knew where the nearest watchtower to me was.


    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    All the candy shops were marked but also places that I assume where the inmates are doing hard labor. And also, other facilities. I saw an icon that I recognized, it''s the icon that''s used to represent electronium. Ugh, I bet they’re also enslaving spirits. I guess I’ll hop by that place, maybe the spirits know more about this place. Clone 3 wasn''t alone in the watchtower. There was 1 higher-ranking guard in the watchtower but he was slacking off.


    Clone 3 found some information about the inmates in its section. I wasn’t interested in the details of the inmates. They seemed to have an extensive registry of inmates it even included their race and magic affinities. Clone 3 sorted the inmates by race, only humans, hmm, sorted by magic affinity. None had spatiotemporal affinity or frost magic, meh useless. Clone 3 did find something that looked like an elevator. It took the elevator down to layer 6. Now that I know how to get to the next layer, I need to save some spirits. Society needs to find another way to power its devices.


    I arrived there just before 10:00, so when all the inmates would leave their cells. One thing I did notice was that on this floor there was an odd mix of modern and ancient technology. It was difficult to see but it seemed that the ancient technology was running on a different energy than the modern parts. I assume the scientists couldn''t figure out what energy this prison was running on or how to use it so they added their spirit slavery plant to it. I''m wondering if doing this right now is a good idea, this certainly will have a large impact. And as I''ve learned from Ainahs’ blackout it’s going to take a while for them to fix this. Maybe this place was powering the teleporters I messed with on layer 9. If I take this plant down now the lightning orbs, I placed in it, might run out before we escape. Ugh, this sucks. If I knew how long it would take to save Raishin I could leave an appropriate lightning orb behind. I decided to make another clone and this one would stay hidden here and refresh the lightning orbs when they ran out. Humans can’t see spirits so as long as the system is working, they won’t notice anything. I sneaked in but I got met with a nasty surprise.


    This whole place was run by androids. Yeah, this is a problem. My clone and I were in stealth but they again seemed to notice that we were there. I know now they don’t see us but something is tipping them off about our location. There seemed to be some real humans that seemed to manage the androids. The humans didn''t seem to notice that the androids were reacting to us. I had to find out what the problem was. I suddenly remembered my time in the Corund dungeon, the golems reacted to magic. At this moment I’m giving off slight traces of mana because mana is leaking out of me to feed the rings of Gregory and Ted. I masked this trail with shadow magic and the androids went back to their normal behavior. So, the thing with shadow magic is, just like Gregory uses it to absorb magic, I can do that too with shadow magic, the only difference is that once I mask or absorb mana with shadow magic it''s gone, I can’t use it. Only shadowcats can use the energy stored in the shadows. So, in theory, if I absorb a mana blast with a shadow and I hand the shadow over to Gregory he can unleash the energy. The reason why shadow magic is so useful for assassins is mainly because of this trait of shadow magic.


    I could use frost magic to do the same but frost magic can''t mask mana trails it just slurps it up. Shadow magic is a bit more flexible in this. This is the first time I had to mask mana with shadow magic because normally I can use frost magic for this. If I use frost magic, Gregory and Ted will get subjected to the time dilation. I saved this in my archive. It is good that the androids don’t attack the moment they noticed me. I’m pretty sure I would have died right here if that was the case, 1 android is fine, but over 300 androids? Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. It was still interesting to see how the androids were moving way faster than the slow-motion humans. Clone 4 and I went over to the area that had the generator. The problem here was that it was guarded by 5 androids. These seemed made for combat. This… is a problem. A candy vendor android almost made me sweat, a combat android is probably going to kick my ass. I only have 1 android arm. Maybe I should try to chop off an arm of these androids so my clone could fight too.


    I inspected the large room that had the generator, the pods that imprisoned the spirits, and the androids. My clone and I sneaked over to one android. This android was relatively isolated from the other androids. I took out the android arm, imbued it with purple lightning, and chopped off the androids right arm, I handed over the arm to my clone and cast a 7-layer illusion over the whole room. The other androids got put on alert and I followed up by chopping off the head of the android. It still moved but it seemed to be unable to locate me and my clone. Clone 4 distracted the 2 android furthest away from me while I would take on the 2 closest to me. The half-defeated android was trying to chop at something but it wasn’t hitting anything. These androids didn''t spawn 2 extra arms but they did seem to be pulling out swords. I flicked a frost marble next to an android and used [turning leaf] on it and swapped the marble with the one-armed android that was chopping and the android with the swords got hit by the chop.


    The sword android started to fight the one-armed android but the one-armed android couldn''t defend itself and got chopped into pieces. I guess that could be me if I’m not careful. I went up to the chopped-up android and took its other arm. I am dual-wielding ancient arms now! Jokes aside, I think these arms are the only things able to have a chance of blocking these swords. I used [accel step] and tried to chop off the androids arm but it almost chopped off mine. This thing was fast! I dodged another sword slash. But it left a shallow cut on my cheek. I got a blow in but it didn''t seem to do much. The other android was also putting pressure on me. I used [Shadow bind] on both of them. It didn''t seem to hold them for too long but this gave me enough time for me to chop off an arm of the android closest to me. I picked up the sword and inspected it. It seemed to be made out of ancient technology. It should be sturdier than the swords I use.


    I tried to parry another sword slash and the sword got cut in half. I got a shallow cut on my chest. Maybe I should imbue it with mana… I dodged the second android and went into stealth and masked myself with shadow magic. The androids seemed confused and I chopped off the arm and head of the android with one arm. One of the arms I was using as a weapon got its hand shattered. I threw the broken arm at the other android. I looked over at my clone and it also defeated an android but it got its arm chopped off. I can’t blame him. Another narrow dodge and another shallow cut on me. I used 3 more [accel steps] and shattered the other arm weapon on this android. It put a deep dent in the head of the android and its accuracy dropped. I jumped back and picked up the other sword of the android I defeated earlier. I imbued the sword with purple lightning and started parrying the sword slashes of the android.


    This was an educational exchange. I thought I was pretty decent at sword fighting but this exchange taught me a lot. I’m not that great, although reading the body language and position of the opponent is important, it seems that it was carrying me quite hard. Against this android, which doesn''t have all these I was doing quite poorly, I was still holding out because I busted its accuracy by denting its head. It was still adapting to my fighting style and speed.


    My clone chopped off the arm of the last android it was fighting but its weapon arm also shattered and the android used this short surprise that my clone had to pierce its heart. Yikes, I dodged a sword lunge that was aimed at my heart and it pierced my shoulder. The other android headed over to me. I covered my hands in frost, grabbed the sword and pulled it out of my shoulder, and flipped to the side with my hands still on the sword to evade the sword slash of the other android. It followed up but hit the android I was fighting the whole time after I landed behind it. I took a sword out of my dimensional pocket, charged it with purple lightning, and delivered a strong slash at the back of the android. After taking those 2 slashes the android seemed to act oddly and I heard that high beep again, by blade shattered as usual. I jumped back and it exploded in green cartoonish flames and took the other android with it.


    I froze my wounds and looked at the fighting scene. My clone got defeated and the 5 security androids were defeated. I feel like these weren''t even the strongest kinds. I circulated natural energy through my system to speed up my recovery. It didn''t help against the pain in my shoulder though. I made another clone 4. I heard more beeps and the remaining androids exploded. I guess the creator wanted to make sure it was impossible to take it apart and recreate it. I shattered the illusions and returned the area to normal. It didn''t have the security androids but I can just drop an illusion that makes it look like they are here, I will just have to hope that they wouldn''t have to perform their function else the illusion will be easy to see through. I found a control panel and opened the pods. My clone put some [lightning orbs] in some pods and hid them with illusions.


    The escaped lightning spirits thanked me. I asked them if they knew anything about this place. They got captured and brought here about 250 years ago from their power spots. The modern parts were still being constructed then. It was hard to converse with them because they were under the time dilation effect. I briefly deactivated the [time ring] to have a proper conversation with them. They didn''t know much but what they did know was that they saw some strong individuals that seemed to be quite important. They were humans but seemed abnormally strong, their names seemed to be Cygnus, Geminga, Vela, and Cassiopeia they had some interesting characteristics, Cygnus had a suit and looked like a duck or a swan, he has wings too, Geminga had red hair and a beard, an enormous axe made out of ruby and was adorned with gold and other jewels and he wore a lot of bling. Vela was a middle-aged guy that looked like he was wearing curtains and Cassiopeia was a dazzling brunette woman who smelled like cinnamon and talked quite melodically.


    I scratched my head, what is this, a circus? And I didn''t know spirits could smell. According to these spirits, it was memorable because in general humans smell like dirt to them. I asked them what I smelled like to them and they told me that I smelled similar to fresh rainfall. I smelled myself, I didn''t smell anything. I asked them if it was because I use water magic a lot but they didn''t think it was related to that.


    I asked them if they wanted to return to the spirit world or if I needed to bring them to a power spot. They told me it was too much of a pain for me to bring them to a power spot so they wanted to return to the spirit world. How can these spirits be so considerate after being locked up for 250 years? I sent more nature energy to my shoulder and drained their spirit energy and made them return to the spirit world.


    I left the electronium powerplant and headed over to the watchtower but I started to feel a bit weak. I realized that I haven''t eaten anything since we snuck into this prison. I found an empty cell and had some lunch. I ate quite a lot. I haven''t eaten anything for the last 2 days so this is only normal! I rested for half an hour after completely stuffing myself and resumed my journey to the watchtower. Everything was still ok at the electronium power plant. I sneaked inside the watchtower but there didn''t seem to be many higher-ranked guards there. I suddenly realized something. These spirits talked about coming here 250 years ago, is this from their reference frame or mine? I don''t know how slow time moves here; their 250 years could be 120 for the outside world. Maybe these powerful people aren''t around anymore. I don''t think this wishful thinking would do me any good.


    I tried to find information about the employees working here but I could only find information about low-ranked guards. I did find those 4 familiar names though. Vela was in charge of layer 1, Cygnus of layer 2, Geminga on layer 3, and Cassiopeia of layer 4. Layer 5 and higher had a small group of high-ranking guards in charge. The guards in charge of layer 7 seemed to hang out at section 15 in the west wing. Luckily quite far from here but I couldn''t find where these guards were chilling out on other layers. At least I know now that from layer 4 and onward I need to be very careful I don’t feel like running into them. I saw nothing about androids which is currently my biggest problem.


    I think Ted and Gregory won’t have issues with them because they are way more defensive than I am, they''re fast though… maybe they will struggle too. So far, I don’t think there is any reason why they should have encountered any unless they are raiding candy shops or sabotaging power plants. I wonder what their function is, why hire human guards when they can use these androids? Then again, this whole place doesn''t make any sense. As I decided to head over to layer 6, I felt the energy feeding the [time rings] increase. This means they got to layer 5. I hope my clone catches up with them on time to warn them about Casi on layer 4. I took the elevator down. In stealth of course. It was nearing 15:00. I dispelled the clone responsible for monitoring the inmates on layer 8. Clone 4, now clone 3 was lurking in the powerplant, clone 3, now clone 2 was heading over to Ted and Gregory, and clone 1 was ehh. What was it doing? I forgot. I checked on him and he was napping… I sent it to go through watchtowers and find more information.