Seero made her way to the first target on her list: the Haunted Mausoleum. This dungeon was unique as the only approved undead dungeon in the Northern Empire. Undead dungeons represented a unique threat, as their access to necromancy would allow them to quickly spiral out of control in the event they went rogue. As such, even undead dungeons that ‘behaved’ by Imperial standards were subjugated without mercy.

Yet, not all. One such dungeon was permitted to exist in each of the three parts of the Empire. And that was because such a dungeon provided a steady source of Dark attribute mana cores, with a specific affinity for Death Magic. A source that did not require vast quantities of death to maintain. Such a dungeon could, thus, enable the Imperial Necrotorum to practice their craft without the need to inflict death upon the local populace, a key requirement for their acceptance into Imperial society. The mana cores and loot from an undead dungeon could even be used to form artificial corpses, reducing the necessity to gather them from…natural sources.

So one such dungeon was permitted to exist, after the Empire had subjugated it and forced its master into a strict contract. The Imperial Necrotorum also kept careful tabs on it, utilizing such missions as training for when they were called to handle wild undead and rogue necromancers.

The problem now was that one dungeon had to supply the Necrotorum for the entire Northern Empire, and so had grown to become one of the largest dungeons in the continent. A dungeon that was now pouring all the undead it could produce out into the world, without any specific orders or organization.

Should such a horde spread into the countryside, it would quickly grow to become an existential threat. One that, by design, would appear in the Imperial Heartland, close to some of its largest Legion bases. The very bases that were currently being used to evacuate the nearby farms and cities…

The Imperial Necrotorum was now all that stood between the Empire and an undead apocalypse.

The Haunted Mausoleum was located in the mountains separating Utrad from the Imperial Heartland, in a rocky region lacking resources to mine or soil to farm. A massive stone gate adorned with skulls stood carved into the mountain, opening to reveal the black vortex of a dungeon entrance. Surrounding this gate were walls that towered halfway up the mountain, with all of the mightiest fortifications the Empire could produce.

At the foot of these walls was a sea of rotting flesh, as undead of every type climbed on top of each other to reach the walls.

And at the top, the death mages of the Empire were putting to use all their skills and expertise in managing the undead.

The walls glowed with eerie purple light as their enchantments activated, creating a decay field in the area between the walls and the dungeon. Countless undead wasted away and crumbled into ash.

The stronger undead pushed past the field towards the wall, clawing at it even as ash streamed from their bodies. But those that contacted the walls fell to pieces, as a Death Magic counterspell interfered with the magic holding their bodies together.

But still, the most powerful among them ignored such measures. Abominations formed from multiple corpses pounded on the glowing stone. Deadly ghouls and bat-like creatures climbed and flew to the top of the walls. An undead wyvern took to the skies.

These the Necrotorum had no choice but to face with undead of their own. Skeletal warriors battled against rotting flesh. A war of the dead that would decide the fate of the living.

For now, the Necrotorum was holding. As long as the enchantments remained active and the skeletons kept coming, they would hold.

But only that.

The plan for this contingency was that the Necrotorum would hold while the Empire planned a full-scale response. The Legion would be mobilized in its entirety to reinforce the line, while the Empire assembled the finest assault force it could muster. The wisest mages of the Southern Realms, elite veterans of the Eastern Legions, the most courageous of the Knight Orders, and the most cunning of the Exploratores would all be gathered. The response would not be limited to the Empire’s own, champions from allied tribes and the most elite mercenaries that could be hired would be gathered as well. And every single hero or wielder of Holy mana that could be found would be gathered together. The most powerful individuals of the generation would be assembled, and only then, with the full support of the entire Necrotorum, would they assault the dungeon.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

But that plan wasn’t going to happen.

With dungeons going rogue across the Empire, the Legion could not be assembled. Every legion, garrison, and outpost was on their own to hold the line against whatever dungeons happened to be nearby. Reinforcements could not be spared. Likewise, the South had spent its forces against Turannia, and the East was under a full-scale assault by the Empire of the Sun. No response was coming, much less one powerful enough to subjugate one of the largest and most dangerous dungeons in the entire continent.

So the Necrotorum could do naught but hold…and time was running out. With each moment that passed, its stockpiles of mana cores and corpses were dwindling. The wall's enchantments could not be maintained indefinitely, and the flow of skeletons would eventually slow to a crawl.

They were locked into a war of attrition with an undead dungeon, the worst possible opponent for such a fight. They would lose. They would be overrun.

And with them, the Empire.

That is, until the sky lit up.

“Status Update: Target located. Engaging re-termination protocols.”

Seero Supercharged a Prismatic Bombardment circle and opened fire. And within each Beam circle in the strategic spell, she tried to combine not two but three attributes together, combining Holy, Light, and Recovery as per recommendations by Imperial records related to the undead.

The horde vanished under a rain of beams.

The weakest undead vanished by mere proximity to the beams. The strongest barely lasted enough for the Imperial Necrotorum to see them fade. Even some of the Necrotorum’s own skeletons were destroyed if too close to the enemy.

Within seconds, the field was clear.

Seero wasted no time and flew straight into the dungeon, leaving the Necrotorum to stare at a field of ashes…that happened to be glowing with golden and silver light.

In the mountains between Utrad and the Imperial Heartland, a mighty tree grew on top of one of the tallest mountains. Its roots dug deep into the mountain, its white trunk and branches swayed in the powerful winds blowing all around it. And in its branches nested countless monsters.

This was the Howling Peak dungeon.

Born at the top of a mountain range, the dungeon had little to feed upon in its youth. As a result, it naturally became aggressive, sending out raiding parties to search the mountains for prey, and spreading its influence into the world beyond instead of building hidden rooms within itself.

Eventually, its raids reached the Empire, and began to terrorize the settlements in the mountains.

But its high and remote location prevented the usual response. It took an airship and a full contingent of Sky Knights to even reach the dungeon, and at that point the dungeon’s army was vast. The campaign lasted for months as the Empire’s forces tried and tried and tried again to destroy the dungeon.

It was at that point that the Empire realized the dungeon had ceased its raids.

With regular visitors by powerful foes, contributing their mana in its field of influence, the dungeon was no longer starved for growth. And the Empire realized that the dungeon was useful to train its flying forces and to acquire materials for flying and Wind Magic artifacts.

As a result, a tense but stable equilibrium was reached.

An equilibrium that was now broken.

The dungeon’s monsters spread out from the mountains once more, no longer in organized raids but in mighty flocks, hampering the nearby legions’ attempts at evacuation and defense. While the flocks ruled the skies, the Imperial roads could no longer be traveled safely. And so, many centuries of legionnaires were trapped in garrisons, hiding behind walls and fortifications, unable to move to where they were desperately needed.

And so it would remain, for the Empire could not gather the Sky Knights or airships necessary to assault the remote dungeon once more.

Or so it seemed, until moments ago.

Now, explosions rang out in the center of a flock of harpies. A fleet of humanoid drone-golems flew information, firing beam spells and machine guns at the screeching monsters. 01R and the other cyborg monsters flew at their lead. The rat himself shot through the skies, sinking two Light Blades into the neck of a wyvern. The monster roared and then fell from the sky.

“Show-teach them the strength of the Wise-Mighty-Gracious Boss-Queen’s servants!”

Seero’s monster roared in response. 00B flew through the air with powerful rocket-boosters, slamming head-on into lighter harpies and knocking them from the sky. The Cyber-Forest Tender rode on his back, lashing out with metal-coated branches and launching rocket-propelled thorns. The Sacred Otterkin ‘swam’ through the sky as Estrith had taught him to do in water, firing spear-guns attached to his forearms at a large bird monster. 02R, the Cyber-Rat Anointed Gunner, was laughing as he held a tiny minigun on his shoulder, firing small but extremely poisonous projectiles all around him. A hawk monster dove at him from above, but suddenly tumbled and fell from the sky, wrapped in the Cyber-Spider Sacred Stalker 01S’s invisible webs.

And high in the sky above them all, Lilussees lay on her pillow in her magic jet once more. A Prismatic Bombardment Magic circle appeared below her as her ritual drones moved into position. A hail of beams fell from above, providing cover for the monsters below.

She yawned as she plopped down against the pillow.

“Hm, can I sleep? Like, I think I can sleep. I’m going to, like, put my ‘organic components’ to sleep. So, like, wake me if something happens, or something. Or not. Actually, like, please don’t.”

The pilot rat’s voice came in on the comms.

“Yes-yes, Eldest Sister!”

Lilussees thus tasked her cybernetic components with ‘autonomous combat support’ and then initiated standby-sentry mode on her organic half.

But with the CELIU network automatically feeding her cybernetic half with targeting data and the jet’s special computers lending her extra computing resources, the barrage of strategic magic didn’t lessen in the slightest.