Seero flew through dusty crypts, vaporizing zombies, ghouls, and skeletons as they rose from sarcophagi and streamed in from ahead. The Equalizer made short work of any enchanted traps, while Mana Barriers and counterattacks by offensive spells stopped any physical traps dead in their tracks.

And this time, Seero was experimenting with a new capability.

The dungeon near Academiae Civitatem had demonstrated that her mana sensors could be deceived. And she already knew there were countermeasures to radar; while no entities in Aelea had intentionally done so, nonstandard anomalies had disrupted her mundane sensors on several occasions. As a result, it was possible for all of her long-range sensors to be disabled. Even her powerful and comprehensive Dungeon Field had been blocked by the Realm of Eternal Night, and its range was insufficient for pathfinding and long-range detection in any case.

Seero therefore calculated she should expand her options for long-range sensors. She did have the Sensing spell shape, and the mana-based proto-radar from the South’s airships, but these had their drawbacks as well. She had already observed and employed methods to defeat mana-based detection, and these sensors had limits on their range as well.

So Seero did not choose either of these as the focus of her new capability. Instead, she chose the Divination spell.

Once upon a time, the Divination spell had minimal practical use for Seero as a sensor. It provided too much data, and it could not be aimed. Its first use had ended up providing relevant data, but Seero did not know how or by what means to replicate it. Likewise, the spell circle itself was far too complex for Seero to decipher with the limited knowledge she had possessed at the time, and the data overload she experienced warned her against experimenting without understanding.

But now, the situation had changed.

Seero’s processing capabilities and available memory had grown dramatically, and her AI continued to improve upon itself. Her understanding of mana, magic, and Holy mana specifically had also expanded. She had received technical data from Shialnor on how the Aedes's system worked fundamentally, including its skills. And—most importantly—she now had Ateia. The Divination spell had been based off of the Aesdes’ ability to see through the Holy mana flowing through the world. An ability Ateia had learned directly from Colleöne and then refined. And which her cybernetic components had recorded in great detail and then uploaded to the CELIU network.

So Seero now had a practical, firsthand example of how the ability worked. She had a recorded lesson from Colleöne teaching it. She had records of Ateia focusing the ability in order to filter out extraneous data and choose a specific target. And she had recently observed Ateia perform this ability through her own Dungeon Field to scout ahead.

There was more than enough data available for Seero to design a protocol.

Seero activated her new Divination protocol. She formed an unaltered Divination spell circle and triggered it. The spell’s mana reached back towards the dungeon’s entrance, intent on finding and connecting to the world’s Holy mana. Seero reached out with Holy mana of her own, causing the mana to connect to her, and then reshaped it in the manner that Ateia had done previously. She connected the spell into the dungeon’s mana through the contact between her Dungeon Field and the dungeon’s own, then used her own radar signals as a guide and focused the mana along the radio waves.

It took her several tries to get it right, but handing control of her offensive magic circles to the Bombardment team allowed her to focus all of her processing power on the task. Before long, the mana fell into place, and began to flow as Seero intended.

And now…she began receiving visions. Data poured in regarding the dungeon ahead as the Divination mana traveled with her radar waves. And then, instead of attempting to process the entire data package, she set up an analysis protocols to compare output from her radar and mana-sensors with corresponding data from the Divination. In this was, she could quickly verify if her radar and mana-sensors were returning accurate readings.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Her confidence level in her pathfinding improved dramatically. However, it did require a notable proportion of her processing and memory resources, which could reduce her combat effectiveness. At present that was not an issue, so far no hostile encountered in this dungeon had withstood a Supercharged Holy-Recovery-Light Beam, but if one were to appear and ambush her she could not afford a delay in her reaction time.

As such, she took advantage of the stockpiled drone-golems designed for Ritual Casting. These drones focused on maximizing mana output, processing capacity, and networking, and so were highly efficient for Seero’s purposes. She activated and linked to the drones, then shifted the analysis protocol over to their hardware. This freed up her own resources, albeit at the cost of significant delays in the analysis. But Seero had predicted this, and did not find it to be an issue. The point of the Divination protocol was to double-check the readings from her radar and mana-sensors in the context of long-range detection and pathfinding. A small delay would still inform Seero of any discrepancies early enough to investigate and adjust her course, and so did not meaningfully impact the efficiency of the protocol in achieving its objective.

A delay in that protocol was a minor inefficiency; a delay in her response to a sudden crisis could result in her own termination.

With her new capability now running in a reasonably efficient manner, Seero continued her course deeper into the Haunted Mausoleum. She came to a wide cavern that spread out for miles around, with a roof so tall it appeared more like the night sky, with dimly glowing crystals standing in for the moon and stars. A massive cemetery spread out along the ground.

And a massive undead army…promptly vanished under a Prismatic Bombardment.

But then, a roar sounded through the room. It sounded like the roar of massive predator mixed with a piercing shriek by a human in the deepest distress. The sound was filled with mana, and struck something deep within Seero. Her organic components registered a sudden drop in temperature that was not verified by cybernetic sensors, and she felt a primal fear clutch at her heart.

So she purged the hostile mana with Holy mana and then reactivated the emotional controls, rendering her organic components immune to external manipulation.

She quickly identified the source of the attack. At the far end of the chamber, a mighty being had just emerged into the room, having traveled from the very depths of the dungeon. Rotting flesh clung to a massive body, larger than a dinosaur, or even a whale. Skeletal wings spread out far to each side, with tattered, paper-thin flesh barely hanging to the frame. A long neck ended in massive jaws with black teeth the size of swords, and glowing purple flames filled empty eye sockets.

An undead dragon had arrived. The doom of all living things, the epitome of dread.

An undead dragon had three weapons that made it even more dangerous than its living peers. First and foremost was the fear it spread. Its dark and twisted magic combined with the raw power of its draconic heritage spread a deep and primal fear to all that laid sight upon it or heard the sound of its voice. The average soldier would break and run, or stand motionless and paralyzed. Even the strongest and most courageous would struggle to keep their wits about them, hampering their ability to react.

This played into the second point, which was the its resilience. Its undead nature meant it was not easily slain, and so long as it had magic could regenerate from any wounds it received. And the fear it spread would disrupt any attacks, granting it the time to recover from any it did receive.

The final strength was its innate skill in necromancy and death magic. The creature spread death and decay just through the mana leaking out from it, and would raise any fallen in the area as undead.

So the dragon’s mere presence would paralyze the majority of foes, its resilience would allow it to outlast any who could still fight, and as the battle raged the fallen would turn on their peers, quickly tipping the scales. Such a creature had now appeared in Seero's path.

At that point the Prismatic Bombardment beams all fused into one and shot across the room, bringing the light of day to the dark cemetery. The superbeam swallowed the dragon whole.

Not a trace remained when the beam faded.

It turned out fear was irrelevant to a cyborg that could shut off her own emotions at will. And the dragon’s resilience was due to its regeneration and the fact that it didn’t need any of its organs and so had no vital points. But, its resistance against damage in the first place was actually weaker than its living peers, given that most of its scales and flesh had rotted away. So it had little recourse against an opponent with the power to destroy it outright, not to mention that Holy mana would strip it of its ability to regenerate.

And finally…spreading decay and raising the dead is irrelevant if it can’t last past the first blow!

“Status Report: Hostile terminated. Mana signature logged, contingency protocol developed. Area clear from organic intrusion effects. Deactivating emotional controls.”

And so Seero continued into the Haunted Mausoleum...with little delay from any of the monsters streaming towards her.