Captain Falrauth and the Sentinels of Liberty crowded the bridge, gripping their weapons in silence. They were about to come up on the Living Cyclone, they could see the dark clouds spinning through the sky already. Soon, they saw the water spout rising up out of the water, surrounded by a small atoll that held its entrance. Under normal circumstances, it would be surrounded by a small city of floating buildings that catered to the dungeon divers, but in times like these they would put out to sea. Still, the sharp-sight of the half-elves could make out a couple of wrecks whose inhabitants failed to flee in time.

The Sentinels steeled themselves. Since the Living Cyclone was between Mirima and the Empire, they thought it best to tackle on their way there. The fight of their lives, with the fate of their home on the line, was about to begin.

Except…no monsters attacked the approaching fleet. The order never came to deploy. Soon, the airships flew past the Living Cyclone without slowing down. Captain Falrauth narrowed his eyes.

“What are you doing? We were to assault the Living Cyclone, were we not?”

One of the Dobhar turned to him, this one with armor like the Queen of the Dobhar’s, including that half-helmet that covered one of the eyes with a glowing artifact of some sort. The Dobhar grinned.

“Oh, My Queen already handled that one. What, did I forget to tell you?”

Captain Falrauth blinked, and then closed his eyes, suppressing a deep sigh. The Dobhar’s wide grin implied that he had not, in fact, ‘forgotten’ to tell them. Then he shook his head and opened his eyes.

No monsters attacked them as they flew beyond the Living Cyclone. And neither he nor the Caelum Aurem could detect a single one on their path up ahead. He had no idea how the Queen of the Dobhar had pacified the dungeon without destroying it…but from all evidence she apparently had done just that.

And that meant one less major threat to Mirima’s survival. But Captain Falrauth did not rest just yet. There was more than one dungeon in the seas around Mirima, and he had no idea how long it had taken the Queen of the Dobhar to address the Living Cyclone. He did not yet hold hope he would find his home in one piece.

Captain Falrauth pursed his lips. They were approaching Mirima, and he could see flashes of light in the distance. Yet…as the scene came into view, he found himself at a loss.

Smoke rose from the cities of his island, blood filled the surrounding waters. He could see the wrecks of sea-ships, while an airship had crashed onto one of the beaches. The Barrier that protected the city was nowhere to be seen, and the sparkling walls of Mirima had a large hole…and yet the white spires remained standing, their polished marble pristine and unblemished. The Sentinels of Liberty who remained behind stood in formation and at the ready at the breach. The walls had been broken, but the monsters had not reached the city or the the people beyond.

And it was readily apparent why.

The skies were filled to the brim with massive glowing magic circles all too familiar to Captain Falrauth. A serpentine sea-dragon towered above the waves in the seas beyond Mirima, its head reaching where an airship might fly. It roared in anger…and in pain.

Because it was losing.

The Queen of the Dobhar flew in the sky. Each of her magic circles rained beams of light onto the monsters below, and had already pushed the smaller monsters back into the sea. The city itself was covered in a massive Barrier that appeared quite different from Mirima’s own. She now focused her attention on the massive beast ahead of her. Her beams fused together into a ray of light as bright as the sun.

And when the light faded, there was a massive hole in the sea-dragon’s head. Its monstrously large body crashed into the water, creating a massive wave that surged towards the shore.

The Queen of the Dobhar’s magic circles shifted, and a massive Barrier redirected the wave back out to sea.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Captain Falrauth…had no idea what to feel. But the Sentinels of Liberty behind him were not so conflicted. Tears filled their eyes, several began to cheer and hug one another, still others simply fell to their knees in relief.

Mirima had been bloodied, but she had survived in one piece.

And all thanks to the foe they had tried to destroy.

Rolling the clock back a bit...

Seero flew over the Southern Sea in the direction of Mirima. The Living Cyclone dungeon was on the way, but Magister Canus had requested she bypass it and head to Mirima directly. The situation there was apparently growing dire, so relieving the city was the higher priority. The airships carrying the Sky Legion and Mirima’s own forces would then attempt to assault, or at least contain, the Living Cyclone while Seero moved on to the Ocean’s Wrath. Ateia’s group would reinforce the defenders at the Banshee’s Cove in the meantime, while 01R's team continued mopping up dungeons in and around Utrad.

But as Seero was approaching the Living Cyclone, she decided to run a test. In the Tower of Heroes, she had learned how to subjugate a willing dungeon from beyond its core room. So she decided to test the limits of that approach. What was the maximum range she could interact with a dungeon’s mana, and did it require her to be physically present within a dungeon? And likewise, did she need to make contact with the dungeon master in-person before doing so?

As such, as she began forming Prismatic Bombardment circles to terminate the monsters wandering out of the Living Cyclone, she extended her mana towards the dungeon as well, in the same manner as she had with the Tower of Heroes.

At first, her mana passed through the dungeon without entering into it. The dungeon was, after all, not fully present within the Material Plane. But Seero analyzed the dungeon entrance based on her growing data on Spatial Magic and, cross-referencing with Shialnor’s data, built a basic theory on how dungeon entrances worked. She started emitting Holy Mana, and attempted to sense and connect to the flows of Holy Mana through the world…and through the boundary between the Material Plane and the Source. And thanks to the examples of Ateia, Divination, and her own experiences interacting with that boundary, she managed to succeed. Her mana was able to contact the dungeon in its true location, bypassing the spatial effects that protected it from harm in the Material Plane.

The dungeon recoiled at first, its mana rejecting the foreign intrusion and resisting her. The mana then paused, and a thin stream reached out towards her, carrying some intent.

“Whoa, are you, like, Aesdes?”

Seero attempted to form her mana into a similar connection.

“Negative.”

“Whack. Then, like, you here to kill me, bruh?”

“Uncertain Response: This unit’s objective is the purification of this dungeon. This unit will avoid termination of the dungeon and non-hostile forces if possible due to the dungeon’s strategic value. Would the hostile dungeon master like to surrender? This unit will allow the dungeon master to retain ownership of their dungeon as a subordinate core if so.”

“Whoa. Like, you’re a dungeon master with, like, holy mana? That’s crazy, bruh. But, like, if you got this, then that’s fine. Your mana’s, like, mad scary, so be gentle, yeah?”

And with that, the mana stopped resisting, instead reaching out to form a connection much like the Tower of Heroes had. Seero connected to it, and soon had reached the dungeon core. And ultimately, she was able to purify it, and connect it to her growing network. The dungeon master could now speak to her through the connection.

“Whoa, like, you totally fixed it. That’s crazy, bruh. You’re pretty crazy, huh? Well, like, thanks for that!”

And so Seero managed to purify and subordinate the Living Cyclone remotely without even slowing down her flight path. She flew past and pushed on towards Mirima, terminating the remaining monsters along the way, and sending a message to CELIU units aboard the airship fleet informing them of the change in plans.

Soon thereafter, she arrived at Mirima itself.

Mirima was a large island with city of white marble that covered nearly the entire thing. Said island was currently surrounded by a glowing barrier. Monsters assaulted said barrier, but airships, naval vessels, and soldiers occasionally darted out to harass the attackers. Seero wasn’t sure what resources were stockpiled to maintain said barrier, but by her calculations the monsters wouldn’t break through anytime soon.

Unfortunately, there’s always a bigger fish.

The threat to Mirima at present wasn’t just the dungeon monsters. The large concentration of monsters swimming through the sea attracted other creatures as well. Seero arrived just in time to observe a sea-dragon lift its head from the sea. The dragon had initially been feasting upon the monsters in the water, but a mage from the city struck it with a lightning bolt, drawing its attention inland. It opened its mouth and a torrent of water blasted forward, slamming into the barrier. The barrier, already weakened by the constant pressure, broke under the sudden assault, and the torrent continued to smash through the wall around the city.

It was at that point that Seero arrived, and promptly terminated all threats.

She then used Earth Magic to raise a new wall, temporarily plugging the hole in Mirima’s defenses. At that point, the airship fleet was about to arrive, so Seero considered the objective completed and began to move towards her next target.

Leaving the people of Mirima staring up at the sky.