The past few hours were like a blur. Tanisha could only make out bits and pieces between panic and adrenaline. Bjorn and Fuyumi were both in critical condition. Bjorn had done something that stopped the Guardian but it affected his soul. His body was breaking down faster than his natural healing. Ivoi had to place him in stasis with constant rejuvenation to keep him alive. He floated inside one of the medical tubes, the liquid within a dark, almost crimson red from the ceaseless loss of blood.
"His natural healing is being supplemented by the aether," Ivoi said as she floated over to her side. "Once his magic returns, the process should stabilize."
Tanisha had placed a hand on the glass separating her from her familiar. Her eyes softened as they fell to Anasuya, curled protectively beside the tank. Tanisha then turned to look at the other patient being looked after. Fuyumi had come through the worst of her recovery but had not regained consciousness.
The initial attack on the group from the Guardian was far more powerful than it had any right to be. It had wanted to eliminate all of them with one strike but Fuyumi was more powerful than it had anticipated. Still her injuries would have been fatal on any one else. Her right arm both lungs, part of her spine and heart had all been severely damaged. If not for her mage body and her mana density she would be dead.
"She will live." Ivoi said solemnly. "I will be able to reattach her arm and we can regrow or replicate most of her internal organs because she is a modified human. However, she won't be able to leave the lab. I will have to connect her to our systems as she will likely become unable to wield mana."
"Wait, what do you mean?" Aurelius asked.
"Her body was damaged to the point that much of it will have to be remade. Currently she regulated her temperature and corporeal nature with mana. However mana in all its applications are forbidden for me to replicate. Which means—"
"Anything you regenerate will not have mana veins." Tanisha's eyes opened wide in disbelief. "Just like how we lost mana based enchantments on our weapons when they were repaired."
"Wait but Tanisha, your potions? We can just give her those. That won't affect her mana veins." Aurelius said.
Tanisha shook her head, frustration and helplessness weighing her down.
"I would need to make a rejuvenation potion at the superior level and I don't… I can't." Tanisha's eyes darted around as she searched for an answer. Nothing came and her shoulder slumped. "I don't even know the recipe or even how to start making something like that."
"Why not? I thought you knew all about alchemy? Or chemistry or whatever." Aurelius said, his voice cracking in frustration. "We can't leave her here. We can't take away her magic?" He punched the wall. "We were just supposed to test its defenses and get out. Why wasn't I faster?"
Tanisha couldn't think of anything to say as Aurelius knelt next to Fuyumi's bedside. His eyes locked onto her as his jaw set. She turned and saw Anasuya was curled up next to the tank with Bjorn inside. Tanisha could feel the bond that he was hurting. She hesitantly walked over to him pushing as much reassurance through to him as she could muster. She sat next to Anasuya, the small reptile pushed into her as she sat in silence.
***
Tanisha wasn't sure how long it had been when Aurelius stood up abruptly. He walked over to her his hand outstretched. She looked at it in confusion for a moment. When she looked at his gaze she saw resolve. She saw someone that wanted to finish this.
They didn't need to say anything; they both knew what needed to be done. They were here for a reason and they had to stop the facility from self-destructing. Every moment mattered even if her body felt weighed down by lead.
Tanisha nodded and set the sleeping Anasuya in her lap carefully down and took his hand. This was the end.
The walk was silent at first but as they drew closer to the powerplant they slowed their pace and spoke only in short tactical exclamations. They believed the Guardian was dead but they wouldn't be careless, not now.
They passed the shattered remnants of the Guardian and moved deeper into the facility. Corridors and compounds twisted in an industrial labyrinth of unknown wires, pipes, and scorched metal. Finally, they arrived at a door: a blast door scarred and scored, the evidence of failed attempts to breach it etched deep into its surface. Aetheric enchantments pulsed around the structure, intricate and unfamiliar. Tanisha's eyes traced each symbol, absorbing its complexity.
"Hey over here." Aurelius called, snapping her from her study.
She had never seen these types of enchantments. But it wasn't important. Aurelius found the console and promptly placed his hand down.
"Access denied," an automated voice intoned.
Tanisha placed her hand down and got the same message. She held her staff and placed it against the console. She could feel her aether as malleable as mana. Her control over the higher plane energy with an Angel Core still shocked her. She focused her mind on the inner mechanism of the door. It was by far the most complex lock she had come across in the facility.
Before she could really focus on the door there was movement behind them. Tanisha pulled her mind from the mechanism and saw the Guardian shambling towards them. It no longer had the early smooth motion or speed of their previous encounter. Metal plates broke off as it drew closer from either battle damage or time.
Only scraps of the Guardian's armor remained; what was left was a being of gold. Tall and thin with four arms instead of two. The Guardian was a facade, whatever this thing became was the real protector of the facility's core. A halo of light formed behind it as metal formed into spheres.
Aurelius stepped in front of Tanisha, shielding her sword in hand.
"We are going to have to take this thing out for good." Aurelius growled.
"I am right behind you." Tanisha said.
Power surrounded both of them as they prepared spells and techniques. However the machine bypassed them, blades forming at the tips of its four hands. Flickering with unstable aether, they drove each into the door. They cut deeply and with little resistance. The machine didn't stop until it opened a hole large enough for a person to get through.
"What's it doing?" Aurelius asked.
"Opening a door for us?" Tanisha questioned.
"Why would it do that?" Aurelius said. "Are we sure this thing takes us to the core and not into a trap? Can you see what is on the other side of that door?"
"My scan doesn't show any hostiles or anything." Tanisha said.
Once the machine was done the blades vanished into golden flecks of light. The halo dispersed and the rings that floated behind it dropped to the ground. The machine's head drooped then the entire being collapsed.
"What in the world was that?" Aurelius questioned. "It tried to kill us, now it opens a door for us?"
Tanisha held out her staff and rosegold lightning arched from its end striking the false guardian ceaselessly. She wasn't willing to see if it was just playing dead this time. This thing hurt Bjorn; she was going to make sure it was dead.
"Let's make sure it stays down this time?" Tanisha yelled.
She continued the assault until she was nearly out of magic, only then did she stop. The machine was red hot, scorched and cracked but no other visible signs that it was truly dead.
Wait a second. I know how I can tell if it is dead.
She opened her Status menu and she saw she had leveled up.
Unassigned Cultivation Points Distribution
You have leveled up 3 time(s) before assigning your UCP.
You have 30 UCP
You have not appeased your heritage no additional benefits
Please assign all UCP within 5 day(s) or UCP will be automatically assigned.
Assign [yes/no]
Tanisha decided to keep the points in reserve for now. She had five days to make that decision. The most important thing was she wouldn't be given points less the android was actually dead this time. She was level 99 and with just one more she would be even closer to becoming a Dagda.
"Now that my status shows percentages I should remember to use that to determine if what I fight is actually dead." Tanisha muttered to herself.
"What was that?" Aurelius asked. "It stopped moving a while ago. Should I cut off its head or something?"
"It's dead. But yeah, let's at least do that just in case." Tanisha said.
The two expected it to take a while to take off the Guardian's head. It was made from some extremely strong metal. What they didn't expect was for it to shatter into dust on the first swing of Aurelius's sword.
"Uh…" Aurelius said. "Huh… it just broke like that."
"Wow, you have really been working out, Speedy." Tanisha said.
"That wasn't me." Aurelius admitted. "It just fell apart."
"We'll ask Ivoi about it after we save the world, yeah?" Tanisha said.
They walked into the facility through the cut out doorway the machine made for them. The inside lights came on as soon as they stepped in. There was just a long hallway going deeper. Redlights started to flash as they quickened their pace. Reaching the end expecting a panel or something to open the door but it opened on its own. The room beyond was like nothing either of them had ever seen.
Dozens of control terminals encircled a vast central dais, their crimson screens bathing the space in a blood-red glow. The central platform was sealed within layered aetheric barriers and heavy, blast-resistant glass. Massive conduits fed into it from above and below, channeling impossible amounts of magical energy. The air shimmered with living geometry—fractals of light spiraling endlessly from a singular point at the center of the chaos.
"You don't remember what Ivoi and Laxy said?" Tanisha asked, sprinting toward the nearest console.
"I remember computer talk," Aurelius said dryly. "Didn't understand a word of it. I fight things, and lead the team to fight things, remember?"
"It's actually pretty simple from here. I just need a moment." Tanisha said.
She pressed the end of her staff against the console and she focused pure aether into the device. The system recognized her presence instantly. The red warning screen flickered to a neutral gray, and lines of code scrolled past.
She typed the command which would roughly translate into, 'command: transfer the power of the aether core to Creation energy. Code Blackout.' It was the exact phrase she was told to type.
She sat there looking at the screen for a long time as nothing seemed to happen. Then text scrawled across the screen which she couldn't make out most of it. She did learn some of the language during her free time thanks to Laxy and Ivoi but not nearly enough to understand what was likely technical data.
"Was that it?" Aurelius asked.
"I don't know." Tanisha said.
One by one the dozens of screens at the other stations transitioned from red to a neutral blue each one held even more data.
***
He had been called by many names across the eons, names whispered with awe and terror. Once, he was the Devourer of Heavens, the Immortal Serpent who chased the stars and swallowed the holy sons of the sky. Once, mortals and True Immortals alike trembled to speak his true name, lest it draw his gaze. They called him the Gate to the Underworld, the Endless Coil, The Great Serpent, a shadow on the edge of eternity. That was an age long gone, his legend crumbled into myth.
It would have been almost comical, if it weren't so tragic, to see him now. The one who had devoured suns, diminished and clinging to the frayed edges of immortality. He had power enough for one last gambit, one final strike to claw his way back into the fullness of his divine self. Through his avatar, he could already feel the Divide weakening. The rift between planes whispered to him, its cracks spreading like veins of light in black stone. This was his chance. He would not wait another millennium. Beyond that, even for him, there lay only oblivion.
But then, something went wrong.
The Divide, just as he was poised to tear it open, began to heal. The cracks to the Infernal Planes sealed themselves like wounds closing. It was as if reality fought back, knitting shut. His eyes widened, his coils trembled, and a roar tore from his throat was half hiss, half scream. It was a sound of disbelief that shook the firmament.
The world quaked under the wrath of the Great Serpent.
He surged from the ground, an eruption of immortal force tearing a jagged maw through the earth. Fire blossomed behind him as mountains crumbled under his ascent. In a heartbeat he had crossed into the Chaos Lands, his massive body gliding like a storm front. The corruption of that desolate place curled around him as if it were venomous fog clawing at his scales. It was an insidious poison, a blight he would not let corrupt him.
And at the eye of the storm the rift. It was a place where the world folded in upon itself, where immortality hung close enough to taste. His avatar poured power into the breach, forcing it wider, straining to hold it open. But the Divide resisted, its healing relentless.
He didn't understand. His plan was unraveling before his very eyes.
He coiled around a mountain range, a god-serpent a mile long, eyes glowing as his divine senses scoured the landscape. Then he saw the truth at the edges of his power.
Beneath him lay an Angel Facility. At its core, the source of his undoing. Not armies, not Gods, not some rival True Immortal. Two mortals. Two insects daring to block his return to the Higher Planes.
The Devourer of Heaven hissed, and the skies split. Lightning slashed the clouds, his voice booming across earth and sky.
"I am the one who eats the heavens. I am Ả̸̞P̵͙̄͝Ọ̷̩̋P̶͕̀͝Ḥ̴̢̑̽Ì̷͚͍̃S̵̱͊."
The hiss became a scream, and the scream became a storm.
"Mortals dare hinder the machinations of the Divine? No. They are fools."
He reared up and struck, driving himself downward. The earth shattered like glass. Aetheric wards sparked and snapped under his scales, enchanted metals and stones crumpled like paper beneath his weight. Layer by layer, he ripped through their protections, devouring defenses as he had once devoured stars.
He burst into the underworld of their design: a sprawling subterranean city, a ghost of mortal ambition, abandoned after wars long passed. Skybridges toppled, towers collapsed, and dust rose in choking clouds as his titanic bulk shook the ruins.
But he did not care for the city.
His focus was singular. This facility held the key to his ascension and he would see it used for that purpose.