Seero noticed her conversation partner freeze up, and go silent for what she calculated as an abnormal length of time for the average Imperial.

“Query: Has friendly Nonus detected an anomaly?”

She perceived Nonus shaking his head through the CELIU network.

“No, it’s just…I was already surprised when I heard about this spell database, but with the dungeon diving I didn’t have a chance to explore it fully. Now that I’m looking at it in more depth…what you have here is beyond incredible, Your Majesty. I heard tales of Archmages and High Archon who could adjust their spells on the fly, but to see this ‘modular spellcasting’ in detail is…And not only that, you have a full copy of the Grimoire of Arofinas Leolar, half the Imperial Academy’s Library, and a full selection of working Spatial Magic spells. And then…you say these records over here came directly from the Aesdes?”

“Affirmative.”

Nonus’s cybernetic components reported a decrease in the boy’s blood levels within organic processing hardware, but he managed to avoid activating emergency standby-sentry mode.

“Is this the Blessed Land? Are you actually the Lord of Magic and Knowledge, Your Majesty?”

“Negative.”

Seero was speaking with Nonus over the CELIU network as she made her way to the next target. While purifying the dungeons on her list was of the utmost priority for the survival of her allies, it was not the only task Seero needed to address. Of major concern was the fact that the loss of the Aesdes Systems included the Dungeon System. A dungeon core’s abilities were immensely complex. Adding a room required creating a subspace in the boundary of the Material plane while connecting said room to the core tightly enough that it would not fall into either the Material Plane or the Source. Summoning a monster involved connecting to the Realms of Mana to pull a willing consciousness from it into a body created from scratch via magic, with significantly more safeguards and variables involved than the Summoning Magic spells utilized by the Empire. Even creating a trap involved reshaping the dungeon walls, which Seero had already discovered utilized complex Spatial Magic in their construction, not to mention the magic required to create matter if the trap was physical.

The Dungeon System abstracted all of these complex functions away into a simple UI, with the core handling all of these details via instructions built into it by Shialnor. But as a result, that meant the vast majority of dungeon masters had no idea how their dungeon cores actually worked. And so, once that system became unavailable to them, they had no clue how to work their dungeons, or interact with their cores beyond the most basic functions. And attempting some of those feats manually was…ill-advised.

For Seero this wasn’t a significant issue, as her cyborg-dungeon core hybrid nature allowed her to utilize her dungeon core’s mana in more direct applications. But for her subordinate dungeons, this was nothing short of complete paralysis. The rooms and traps they had would continue to function, and the monsters they had when the system cut off still obeyed their commands. But they couldn’t build any more rooms, couldn’t lay any more traps, couldn’t adjust the dungeon layout, couldn’t create any more items, and couldn’t summon anymore monsters. They were left purely with what they had, and lost the endless reserves that made dungeons so dangerous.

They were vulnerable. Especially those like the Imperial Family’s dungeon and the Haunted Mausoleum who had spent some of their monsters trying to stop the monster hordes and maintain their deals with the Empire.

These dungeons, in particular, were of immense strategic and economic importance to the Empire, and so needed to be defended now that Seero had purified them. Most concerningly, the Heralds of the New Dawn were still at large, and had a method to fully corrupt a dungeon if they could reach its core. So leaving powerful dungeons relatively empty presented an unacceptable vulnerability.

In the short term, Seero could deploy drone-golems as reinforcements, but these had limits in terms of their maximum potential and hindered the growth of Seero’s own forces. Likewise, the need for reinforcements would only grow as Seero purified more and more dungeons, putting strain on their production lines. As such, the best solution would be for Seero to reimplement some of the Dungeon System functions. That would enable the new subordinate cores to defend themselves.

Seero began with monster summoning, as she had far more relevant data. She had summoned many monsters, but had never created a trap, after all. Likewise, monster summoning involved transporting a consciousness from the Realms of Mana to a dungeon through its core, and Seero had first-hand observations of transit between the Realms of Mana, dungeons, and material planes in both formally organized and improvised scenarios.

Still, she had no experience with Summoning magic circles, and so was missing a key piece of data to begin the process. But, fortunately, the CELIU network now included someone who did. Nonus had been close with Senior Mage Faustus, the Imperial Academy’s expert on Summoning Magic. Since Summoning was a dangerous school, Faustus had focused mainly on instruction and theoretical research, to which Nonus’s condition had not been a barrier. As such, Nonus had more opportunities to participate in Faustus’s work than with other Senior Mages, and so had gathered quite a bit of knowledge on the art.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

As a result, Nonus’s memory included a great deal of specific Summoning magic circles, as well as a wealth of theoretical knowledge on that school. Seero was now requesting his instruction on the field, in order to fill in that last gap necessary to reimplement monster summoning.

…once Nonus stopped leaking saliva from his oral cavity, that was.

Uscfrea flew through the air on his repulsors, swinging a Mana Infused minigun towards the sea dragon. The buzzing weapon bombarded the monster with Mana Infused bullets, but even these bounced off the monster’s scales. Uscfrea tossed the weapon towards one of his cyber-otterkin personal guards, and boosted forward, hoisting his axe instead.

The sea dragon replied with its water breath, spitting out a jet of pressurized water that could pierce through a mountain. At the same time, mana leaking off the creature took hold of the water surrounding it, launching a barrage of Water Bolts towards Uscfrea. The Dobhar cursed and fell back. His cybernetic components identified both attacks and so he was able to dodge, the water jet sending up a huge plumb as it crashed back into the sea. But he couldn’t get through the Water Bolts without tanking them head on. His fur may be resistant to magic, but the cybernetic components warned him that the mana-packed dragon magic might be a bit much, even for him.

And his current axe couldn’t cut through the spells. He could utilize some magic of his own, courtesy of His Queen, but he needed his mana to empower his own attacks. It was the better choice to evade and search for another opportunity.

But he was running out of time. Well, not for himself, but the fact was there were three giant monsters on top of the rest of the horde. The kraken’s tentacles had already begun to assault the shore defenses, smashing an artillery emplacement. Drone-golems had flown into range in order to draw its attention while the knights of Governor Aemilia’s retinue and Magister Tiberius were distracting the mega-shark, but at the end of the day Uscfrea was still the most powerful warrior on their side. So he needed to deal with opponent soon and assist the others. He could not battle this sea dragon for days on end as he did with the one in his past.

But as Uscfrea was determining his next angle of approach, the sea dragon’s neck suddenly exploded, leaving a gaping hole. A moment later a thunderous sound assaulted the battlefield.

Miles from the battlefield, an airship floated in the sky. It had no adornment, and its hull was formed of smooth, curved metal rather than the solid and straight stone of the Empire’s craft. There was a large hole directly through its center. And on the bridge, a metallic slime was bouncing up and down.

“It worked! It really worked!”

Melion continued celebrating their success. They and the Master had been brainstorming means to project power at range, and this was initial firing of their first attempt.

A magical railgun.

Railguns could launch a projectile at incredible speeds, enabling them to overcome some magic barriers with raw force. Moreover, the Master had predicted that their mechanics would make them far more amenable to enchantment than gunpowder-based weapons. The electrical propulsion could be powered with Lightning magic, and assisted by Gravity and Air. And if a solid projectile was used, it could be easily formed out of magical materials, and enchanted on its own.

The problem with railguns was power and durability. They needed a lot of power to launch their projectiles, and the sheer forces involved tended to destroy most gun barrels after only a few shots. But both of these were easily solved in the magical world of Aelea.

Lightning Barriers were utilized to form the current, and also formed a shield to protect the rails from the forces and heat generated by the shot at the same time. A weight-reducing Gravity Magic enchantment was applied within the barrel, reducing the weight of the projectile while it was being accelerated and so reducing the force required to get it up to speed. And finally, Metal Magic was used afterwards to restore any damaged rails to full strength.

The projectile itself was formed of magical metals, and could be enchanted as necessary. In this case, since this was the first shot made and targeting a powerful, high-level sea dragon, Melion had kept it simple. A Gravity enchantment that would increase the projectile’s weight within a short distance of the target.

Melion and the Master hoped the synergy of these different enchantments would allow a projectile to deal damage in excess of what a Barrier spell utilizing the same amount of mana could block, even at range, and break the timeless hurdle to beyond-visual-range combat in Aelea.

Whether or not they succeeded at that would require further testing.

But for now, they definitely succeeded at piercing the HP barrier of a sea dragon, no small feat.

Uscfrea pursed his lips as he boosted forward. The sea dragon was injured, but a creature that mighty could endure even such a grave injury. Uscfrea would not give it the chance.

The wounded monster lost notice of Uscfrea, so he arrived before its neck without issue. And then he began swinging his axe into the wound. Since the monster’s HP was focused on repairing the extreme damage, his axe bit deep into flesh.

The sea dragon tried to roar, but coughed and sputtered due to the damage to its windpipe. It lashed out with its arms but couldn’t move too violently as a result of the wound.

And so it was not long before Uscfrea dealt it a mortal blow.

And continue pursing his lips. Without a doubt, this was a major victory, one that would save countless lives on his side.

And yet…he could not help but feel…dissatisfied.