"How come I don''t sense anything? It looks like a weird black building and that''s it." Yulong said, gazing up at the ether generating building I had just finished creating a few hours ago.


    "Because I haven''t activated it yet. I''ve been waiting for them to arrive."


    I jutted my thumb behind us, toward the Demons climbing up onto the mountain. I felt a surge of anger at the sight of two Satyrs'' in their midst, which is something they both quickly picked up on.


    After pulling the large dark red crystallized wagons -that were full of mummified corpses- up to us, they let go of the handles and stared at me. They were clearly waiting to see if I was going to attack them, and it was obvious from their attitudes that they didn''t care one way or the other.


    "Rei..." Shizue said, low enough that it was barely audible.


    I sighed, "I know, I know." I waved the two Satyr away, "Go on, get out of here. And thanks for the... Corpses." God only knows where they got them from, and I''m probably better off not knowing.


    All of the Demons turned around and immediately began to descend the mountain.


    I''ve been making an effort to ignore all of the Demons around us since they arrived, but I just can''t help but be annoyed whenever I see a Satyr. I think I might hate them more than anything else in the universe? If I made a list they''d definitely be in the top three.


    "Oh right, did you end up finishing the translation, Yulong?"


    He had only arrived at my camp a few minutes ago, and before talking about my building he was inside of Shizue''s soul realm, finishing the work I had given him... I don''t even remember when. It feels like ages ago at this point, but it was probably only a couple of months.


    He nodded with a rare smile on his face, "I did! You want to read it all now, or later?"


    I stood up and walked over to the carts, grabbing a few bodies at random before dragging them toward my ether building. "I''ll check it out in a bit. First though, I need to raise some Liches. I haven''t tested it yet, but I''m sure they''re able to build anything that I can build."


    I walked through the buildings open entrance and dropped the five corpses onto the ground. The only thing inside the main hall was a thin black pipe-like item sticking out of the floor.


    Connecting to the entire building is surprisingly annoying, so I came up with this connector that has tiny threads of black blood flowing through the entire structure. Merely touching it allows me to feel the entire building in its entirety as if it''s another part of my body.


    I grabbed the ''pipe'' and told the building to activate. I could feel the building come alive as it began to vibrate. A small hum rang through the halls as all of the rooms filled up black ethereal sacks.


    "There''s a lot of space in here wasted. Was this really the best option?" Yulong asked after walking inside.


    "Yes. I tested many different types of buildings while I was waiting for the Leviathan, and once the sacks grew past a certain point, they became unstable."


    Yulong walked into one of the hallways and peered into a nearby room, "And these rooms are sized to their maximum capacity?"


    "A little below it as a just in case. They explode when they become unstable, so even one of these sacks rupturing would wipe out half the building. And I''ve found it''s important that they are inside of something. Those entrances are about all I''d risk and they''re only there in case I need access to the sacks."


    I continued, "But that''s why there isn''t any sacks out here in the ''wasted space'' as you called it. The outside of the building is armored and would be extremely hard to destroy, so anyone who wants to destroy this place would need to come in through the front door. That''s another reason I created this decent-sized main hall. Any assaults would need to be far more powerful than me to push through the defenders I create and reach the sacks."


    While I was talking to him I had told the five corpses to turn into Liches. It wasn''t long before they fully formed and I felt a massive amount of mana drain out of me, but it was quickly rectified as I swapped their flows over to the building.


    I was going to say something to Yulong when something weird happened. I felt the Liches all designate one Lich as a receiver of sorts. All of the ether was flowing through him. So instead of each Lich getting their fuel from the building, they were all now receiving it from the Lich they all chose as their leader.


    ... Every time I raise them they end up surprising me. There''s still so little I know about them.


    Before I could even give them any orders the Liches walked out of the building and split up. One went to the west side of the mountain, another to the east, and three of them moved about one hundred feet away from the ether building.


    I watched as all five of them began to build something. I pinged them and two images were sent back to me. The three were building another generator, while the other two were building walls.


    I asked if they wanted me to make more Liches, and a resounding negative ping was sent back. The only explanation I received was them highlighting the ''head'' Lich that was receiving all of the ether through a ping. I then tried asking ''What does that mean?'', but again the only response was of them highlighting that very same Lich again.


    Eve''s mech walked up next to me. I could hear the buzz of her speakers as she activated them, "So what now? How much longer do we need to wait?" As she spoke I could hear a large amount of static. It was so loud I had barely made out half of what she had even said. "Ugh, sorry Rei. I''m getting a lot of interference ever since that building of yours began pumping out ether."


    "That is not what it''s doing, mistress." Shizue said. I looked behind me and saw her rubbing the outside walls of the ether building.


    "What do you mean? It''s generating ether right now. I can feel it, and there''s no way in hell I could power five Liches by myself even with my crazy high regen."


    "Ahh, I don''t mean to say it isn''t producing ether, just that it''s not generating it all on its own." She looked at me and continued, "It''s mostly pulling in ether from its surroundings. It may be producing some on its own, but I can see the ether in the area and from very far away being sucked in toward your building here."


    "Wait, so that means its dependent on the amount of ether in an area?"


    Shizue shrugged, "I don''t know. I''m only telling you what I can see and feel happening around us."


    I don''t feel anything like that, but my senses are more fine tuned for souls, not pure ether.


    I looked at the ether building.


    ... Well, I''m not sure what that changes, but I hope it can keep generating ether until we''ve killed Atraxu.


    I walked over to Shizue and sat down, placing my back against the building''s outer wall. "Alright, mind showing me what he found?"


    Shizue nodded and sat down next to me before reaching out to grab my hand. Soon after that we were back in her soul realm, which was currently projecting Yulong''s bedroom/office.


    "A fitting location I suppose."


    Shizue chuckled and motioned toward the chair I had sat in the last time we were in his room. In front of it was a book with the same decals the books in the Abyss'' Museum had.


    "Fitting again, yes?" She asked.


    "There''s only one though, unlike the dozens I saw in the Museum. Is this just a single translation, or all of the books put into one for simplicity?"


    "All in one."


    He really did it all huh? I won''t read it all now, but there are some key parts I''d love some answers to.


    I sat down in the recliner and kicked it back after picking up the book. It was massive but weightless thanks to us being in her soul realm.


    The first page was like most books - a table of contents. While I knew there had been a lot of books in the Museum, I was still surprised at the amount of pages there were. It was well over six hundred thousand.


    "You made this book in your soul realm after he translated the language I assume?"


    Shizue walked over to the couch and laid down on it with her feet pointing in my direction so she could look at me. "Of course. And I highlighted the parts that I believe you''ll find interesting."


    I had noticed the yellow marks over certain chapters in the table of contents, and while most I could understand from the chapter names alone(like Atraxu''s), a few had names I didn''t recognize.


    I flipped open to the first highlighted chapter - ''Chapter 72 - The Wardens.'' There were several pages full of illustrations at the start, and a few of them I recognized right away. The empty suit of armor with hands in the shapes of cones(or bells), and the Human-like girl with the monstrous head made of ivory.


    After reading it for a bit, I was able to finally understand why that suit of armor was constantly attacking us from behind. The entire time we were on Veca, we thought it was waiting for chances to ambush us, but the words I was reading in their books told an entirely different story. A rather simple one at that.


    "So it was attacking us because it was ''protecting'' the servants of the Abyss... But there were times it didn''t attack us as well? Like those times when we were fighting those zombified Demons. Although it did back up that zombified Lion-abomination we fought... Perhaps even as a moving corpse the Lion was still seen as an ally? And on the other end, a Demon is still a Demon to this, uh..."


    I looked at the book again, searching for a name until I found it. "''Galadion'' is its name it seems. And oh, there''s titles for them? ''Galadion - The Eternal Keeper''... Interesting." I continued, "And listen to this! It says Galadion is immortal when the Abyss'' fog is present. So that means after we cut its hands off it went into hibernation for a bit and had them repaired in the fog apparently."


    Shizue smiled and laughed a little, "You want me to actually respond to you, or are you just talking out loud for my benefit?"


    "Probably the latter."


    I then flipped through the chapter until I found the section about the ivory monster girl in the Museum.


    "Esha - The Lord''s Caretaker..."


    Her backstory was nowhere near what I had been expecting. Turns out there was a reason most of her body was that of a Human girls. It''s because she originally was a Human girl that lived in a farmhouse that just so happened to be in the area where the Abyss first appeared on Earth. One of the main two Gods took the souls of everyone they had just killed and gave them new life.


    It looked like that was what normally happened anyway, but in this case the deceased were given preferential treatment, which is what lead to the creation of Esha and even a Minor God. The Minor God was the Human Female one with long black hair and blood pouring out of her eyes.


    I flipped to her page(which was also highlighted - probably because of her zombie spawn we had to constantly battle); ''Kagisha - The Dreadkeep'' was her name. Long story short, she had been buried alive after her eyes were ripped out and she just so happened to still be alive when the Abyss arrived. She''s part of ''The Wardens'', so that''s why most things killed around the Ancient City were being resurrected by her as temporary defenders.


    The next highlighted section was in relation to the multi-faced God that kept popping up everywhere. It unfortunately had a rather vague explanation for what it was, but what I did understand was that it wasn''t a God at all.


    And just like how Kagisha was part of The Wardens, this monster was part of ''The Corruptors''. There were only a few Gods and whatever the hell served them below them in the list, and while their abilities varied, they were all designed for one single purpose. To spread the Abyss. And it seemed that the multi-faced monster was one of their tools they created when they wanted to get something done. It would take on the properties of the God who created it, which is why the one in Arcadia had the ability to curse others.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    There were no Major Gods in this group, only a few minors, including one that I had only seen a single time. The God with a head made of black smoke that had dozens of eyes on it. It was a negligent God apparently. Not much was known about it, but every now and then it''d assist the Abyss by spreading its essence through an area, which slowly allowed him to take control of its inhabitants until they ascended to the final level - which was complete subjugation. Apparently there were many ways to avoid this, but he was unrelated to our current issues so I put it aside for now. The only time I had actually seen this God''s handiwork was when he took over Victoria.


    Most importantly right now, was the multi-faced God. People back in Arcadia had been scanned, and seventeen people were found to have cursed marks on them. Those seventeen? All Humans. And in that group was Uncle Irvine''s ex-wife and daughter. Although Luna had already healed Nia and was now cleansing her mother against her wishes. It was a mandate though, and a necessary one at that. These were all marks left by whatever was inside of Evette.


    The people who were cursed were all questioned as to how it happened, but not a single one had a good explanation. Only Nia''s mother produced something even vaguely resembling a clue. She had eaten in the Lounge one time before seeing off Irvine on a mission of his, and it was around a month after that when she went blind. She had only pretended to know who was responsible so she could shut her Father up. If she had no idea, Bertram would''ve caused all sorts of hell until he either found the culprit or was ejected out of Arcadia.


    As for what the purpose of the curses was, nobody knows, but since the God who had created this specific multi-faced monster had the title of ''The Cursebearer'', and that he was part of a group whose whole purpose was to spread the Abyss, it''s at at least a given that they were trying to take over Arcadia with it somehow.


    "Hey, Shizue. Why were only the Humans cursed? There wasn''t a single Elf on the affected list."


    "... You really don''t know?" She quirked an eyebrow.


    "No? Should I?"


    Shizue thought on it for a bit before responding solemnly, "... You''re right, you wouldn''t have known. You''ve had almost no contact with Elves and only just returned to Arcadia." She continued, "Rei, I saw in your memories that Lord Arkaios explained why he created the Elves, although at the time you didn''t know he was talking about Elves. But when you found him here in Arcadia, did you ever wonder why he created the Elves?"


    ... I did not. I probably should have, but every now and then the finer details slip by me.


    Shizue put a hand up to her mouth and giggled, "Judging from the look on your face, I''d say the answer is ''No!''. But don''t worry, the answer is surprisingly simple. Elves are far more resilient than Humans, however, the offset is that our mana capabilities are much smaller. Like fifty-percent smaller on average, which is a problem with these Arcane tools, but they were designed for Humans and Shin''dorai long ago so we can''t exactly blame the creators."


    "Can you be more specific than ''resilient''?"


    "We are far more hardy when it comes to super low or high temperatures. We resist magic to a certain degree, and it''s nearly impossible to curse us. We have to purposely allow the curse to affect us." She continued, "Although, I feel like that Deathbringer you fought will still manage to curse us when it comes time to fight them. I''m not looking forward to that..."


    I sighed as I flipped to Atraxu''s chapter.


    "You know, it''s rather sad, but I''ve never, not once, thought about what it meant to be another race. Except now that you told me this, you have me wondering things like; ''Do the Kitsune also have special attributes?''"


    "Of course! They''re heavily resilient against elemental magic, but it varies from person to person. And their downside is that their personal enhancements don''t fully guard them against physical attacks. Instead of just taking impact damage until their mana gives out, they take some real damage as well. Although again, it varies per person, and is generally skewed to be the opposite of whatever their elemental resistance is. Basically, it balances itself out."


    Unbelievable... Something so basic and I had no idea all these years. There were two Kitsune''s in my original crew, and they never said anything about this. But they were also orphans or children stolen from the nearby villages, so maybe like me they just didn''t know? Although this does explain why my mana capacity is rather bad compared to my insane regen.


    Two large illustrations of Atraxu were front and center in his chapter. I had seen one them previously in the Museum, but the disgust at the sight of his sickening figure had not faded even a little over the years.


    He was also, up until now, the only God I had seen that was all by himself. He wasn''t part of any Greater God''s or Minor God''s family.


    "''The God of Evolution''... I was close. I had been referring to him as ''The God of Change''."


    His section was beyond vague. It almost read like he was supposed to be tasked with creating new species for the Abyss, but from what I had seen of him, he was far more interested in technology, so the ''Evolution'' could be anything that advanced the Abyss in a positive direction.


    After that there were only two remaining sections worth reading. It explained how there was a little part of his soul that was full of essences. Soul essences of everything he had ever encountered in person with one of his slivers. He could then use those essences to try and ''evolve'' them as he saw fit.


    And the last bit was in relation to how some of the God''s splinters need time to connect to their main soul in the Abyss after splitting off. In other words, when I first met Atraxu, he couldn''t remember anything that happened to his past sliver. For a while he was acting on instinct and just assisting his brethren until he remembered everything about Caedrus.


    I closed the book. "Well, the part about his memories could go either way. Whether he remembered or not, the Abyss surely remembered the purge. So they were going to attack Termia one way or the other. But it might explain why he was so delayed in coming to Caedrus?"


    She pointed at the book, "Speaking of Termia, you forgot one part."


    "? Which part?"


    "The Gods you saw in that fiery realm. You know, the one inside Victoria''s mirror?" She continued, "I thought you''d be interested in them but I guess not. Anyway, they are both an assault and defensive force for the Abyss, so if they come here we''re going to have a really hard time repelling them."


    She brought my memory of Termia up after the Abyss had claimed it. "They first assault and decimate an area that the Abyss wants to claim, and then they defend it until their objective is complete. In this case, destroying the wellspring would mean killing the planet so they''re not going to do that. Instead, they''re going to defend it indefinitely, which should mean they''ll leave us alone, but there''s no guarantee there. We don''t know how the fight in Termia is going right now."


    "All I know is that it sounds like either side winning would be bad for us. The purge might kill me forever, that''s what happened to The Black God right? Assuming it really is dead forever..."


    I opened the book back up and brought it to The Black God''s chapter. I was obviously interested in it, but some part of me was afraid of reading it so I was planning on putting it off, however, Shizue bringing up the purge knocked unease out of me. This was really something I should know about sooner than later.


    "''Naza''shier - The Dark Architect''... So she was part of the builder''s family huh? Makes sense to me."


    The answer to my question proved I was both wrong and right at the same time. She was in fact dead ''forever''. However, that''s because she can only resurrect while connected to The Abyss. In other words, if one of her brethren brings her back to The Abyss, she will reconnect and be reborn all on her own.


    "Did the purge remove her connection too?"


    Shizue shrugged, "It must have. That''s the only explanation I could come up with. Your friend Aresa should be able to answer that for you. We don''t know anything about the purge past ''it kills everything'' after all."


    ... Yeah. The next time I see her I''ll be sure to ask her.


    .........


    "I''m sure they survived in Gaia, Rei." Shizue said, clearly in reaction to the emotions she was feeling from my soul.


    "... I hope so. You never know where you''re going to end up in Gaia after all."


    If they were taken to a realm dominated by Demons or a hostile Eldritch, then all I can do is pray that The Tengu Lord successfully managed to keep them all alive until they could escape.


    I pulled out of her soul realm and looked at Eve''s Mech that was currently watching the Liches work. "Eve! Are they bringing the goods and Luna here or not?"


    Her speakers buzzed, "They''ll be here in an hour! They''re running a little behind. A large contingent of machines attacked the convoy..."


    This close to Arcadia?


    .......


    ... No, that''s a dumb thought to have. Obviously the ''safe zone'' doesn''t exist now that Atraxu has taken control of the AI. They were running on a simple loop of instructions up until now, but that''s no longer the case now that Atraxu is manually controlling them.


    I walked past the group of three Liches building another generator until I was in the middle of the mountain. I then sat down and began building the same tower I had found Naza''Shier''s corpse in.


    <hr>


    "Hey! We''re back, Lord Reimia!" Leon yelled from behind me.


    Luna had already reached me and dove into my soul by the time I had stood up.


    {......}


    What''s wrong??


    I could tell from her soul that she was extremely annoyed and sad at the same time.


    {... Why am I just now seeing you? You couldn''t come down to Bertram''s bar after the reset even once?!}


    I''m... I''m sorry, Luna. I figured even if you did remember after the reset, then you''d know I wouldn''t be avoiding you on purpose. Aside from the time after Atraxu''s assault, I was pretty busy during most of the reset, but I knew I''d be seeing you as soon as you healed Nia.


    {It was easier this time since I knew exactly what to do... And I cleansed her mom too after the mandate came down. She was uh, really mad at first. But she kept her ability after losing the curse, so she wasn''t yelling for long, hehe.}


    "Um, Lord Reimia?" Leon said after approaching me.


    "Yeah?"


    "Where do you want it all?" He pointed toward the boxes being carried up the mountain from the vehicles down below.


    "For now just place em inside that building, BUT, please have them hook up the television before they leave."


    "Understood." Leon bowed before turning around and walking back to the convoy.


    {He''s weird but nice.}


    I thought he''d be an ass, but his Uncle isn''t so bad either, so I suppose the real problem is the family head.


    {Hehe, it''s so funny that they think they''re the owners of Arcadia. Uncle Irvine told me about what you did, ''Captain Reimia''!}


    Just like I knew they would, those tools walked straight into the core room a few hours after I had left Arcadia. And Clover obliged me in making them think they were the new ''Captains''.


    {But um, as funny as it is, why are you doing that?}


    Because one of them, or maybe all of them, know all about Viktor''s past. I suppose it''s not necessary to bring them up and crush them like this, but it''ll make it easier to extract information out of them.


    {No it won''t? Just say you''re doing it cause it''s fun!}


    Sometimes she''s far sharper than she should be.


    After that I kept working on the tower until Leon informed me that the Television was hooked up. I then stood up and ran into the building, swapping the channel until I saw the coverage of the battle taking place near the Daemon''s portal.


    {Whoa! What are those?!}


    Harbingers... This is my first time actually seeing one. I had only heard about the one the Lizardmen and Godwin were fighting near Thule back on Urza.


    I had heard the Demons brought over a Harbinger, but the reports failed to mention that there were two of them. I watched as hundreds to thousands of imps channeled onto a front-facing barrier on the Harbingers. They had to after all, since the Daemons were firing most of their weapons at the behemoths. The amount of explosions, energy rounds, and physical rounds hitting the barriers was ridiculous. From the front it was hard to even tell what the Daemons were firing at thanks to all of the smoke and explosions.


    However, the Daemons didn''t need to wonder if the Harbingers were still alive, as they could see their large bright-orange mallet heads flying through the air toward them, releasing a kilometer-wide wave of fire around the impact point. Some Daemons were incinerated each time this happened, but most of them were blown off their feet for a few seconds before righting themselves so they could begin firing again.


    {Even with the Harbingers taking most of the attacks the others still can''t get close though...}


    True, and that''s because the Daemons had opened the portal enough to allow the God inside of it to unleash one barrage after another on any enemies that came within a certain distance of the portal. While some of its weaponry was a nightmare to deal with, even its basic ones like rockets were also proving too difficult for our forces to push through. It wasn''t a dozen or a hundred rockets, it was closer to a thousand that would come flying through all parts of the portal and completely obliterate anyone or any mechs that came near it.


    Although, some of them would be saved thanks to that tall mech we found in the shipping bay. The one that I accidentally led the massive Xerath into punching. Turns out it was a mech designed purely for commanding from. Its supportive options were unbelievably good too, like the ability to recall any mechs or power armors linked to it(limited by distance and the amount of Humanoid supporters operating the mech).


    We''ve been calling it the ''Titan'' since it didn''t actually have a name. It was the last mech created before the purge, and the poor bastards were wiped out before they even had a chance to name it.


    The only downside was the amount of power it needed. We needed people rotating in and out of it, and a lot of power cores. Fortunately, both problems were taken care of for the time being. The power core stock between the Clans and those found in the core''s sections were quite high, however, the people issue was solved by the Demons, which was a problem in itself.


    Luna, have you ever heard of ''Succubi'' before?


    {Yes, Mother talked about them. She called them ''Demonic whores'' and that they should be killed on sight.}


    So even Lunaria knew about them... Their new for me, and I''m not sure how to feel about them. They have a really simple design. They just look like ridiculously beautiful women with horns and tails, but the speed at which they integrated themselves into Arcadia was insane. I thought there would be more push back to Demons literally moving into Arcadia, but apparently if any potential threat has a pretty face and nice boobs then that''s all that really matters, cause in less than a week the city had nearly five hundred of them living there.


    {I hate honey traps. Mom does too.}


    ... That is the problem, isn''t it? They have the men and a shockingly large amount of women listening to their every word. Thank god I''m the Captain... If the Clan Leaders had truly become the Captains and then those Succubus'' had corrupted them, then we really would have been fucked. Fortunately, that didn''t happen, so I can eject or kill anyone who tries to harm Arcadia or turn it into a Demonic Spaceship.


    Hmm, I really should keep it a secret that I''m the Captain then... It''s better if the Demons think they need to focus on the Clan Leaders.


    I exited the building and returned to my tower once I was done catching up on the battle near Fort Deus.


    {You''re really going to build a tower here? I thought it''d take forever or something?}


    By myself it would, but look at how fast they''re making the second generator and our walls?


    While it was still nothing more than a stump, I could tell that they were going to complete the building far faster than I had completed the first one, which meant that once they were done they''d back me up. I didn''t plan on building a big one, just a tower big enough to see over the walls and all sides of the mountain.


    Reports had said that there were sightings of machines everywhere up north, and while that worried me a little, I was mostly building it for another reason... One I didn''t fully understand. After I had activated the ether building and summoned the Liches, I suddenly felt like I needed a tower. Not just for fun or a nice vantage point, but my core was telling me it was necessary.


    And so, that''s exactly what I was doing.


    Once I''m done here we''re going to create as many summons as possible, Luna. And that''s when we''ll finally be going on the offensive. The others are unable to hit the Daemons from behind thanks to the machines and Xerath, so we''re going to take the fight to them. If they have to deal with us, then they won''t be able to stop our allies from surrounding the Daemons.


    {Rodger!}


    That''s not all though. Belfos has been draining the extra ether that the Liches aren''t using. He''s going to resurrect long before we attack Atraxu''s forces... Which should give him plenty of time to raise some forces to assist us.