A new river flowed through the desert, washing away the sand before it. The surging rapids were filled to the brim with all manner of aquatic monsters, pouring out a swirling vortex at the bottom of a new pond.

Many miles away and underground, 00EW continued grinding up the ground ahead. Seero ordered the halt, and everyone got to work. Amulius’s team took up positions. The veteran Exploratore began setting up traps, Aulus began casting wards, and Cominia engraved magic circles into the floor. Nolnyth took a position to the side, ready to cast her magic or flee as the situation required. Taog and Estrith conducted scans with their advanced sensors while Agedia sharpened her lance.

Eventually, Amulius nodded at Ateia. Seero opened a portal to the Primary Home Base, and stepped through while Ateia stirred up her Holy mana.

And then the roof of the tunnel exploded.

High-Archon Vommik floated in the sky and watched as his Sunfall spell demolished the ground, the bright ball of mana smashing into the underground tunnel before exploding into blinding light. He scoffed.

So this was the Queen of the Dobhar? Someone so praised and feared, who had the Heralds of the New Dawn crawling to him with their tails between their legs? She had not even responded to his spell at all. It was pathetic, but he should not have been surprised that one praised by the lesser races turned out to be a disappointment.

Still, it was strange for someone capable of killing Archons and destroying corrupted dungeons to be done in so easily. The High-Archon narrowed his eyes as he searched for traps. He motioned towards one of his Archons and several of his retinue. The Archons floated in the air around him, while his ten-thousand strong personal guard marched on the ground below.

“Go on, find what remains of their corpses and bring them to me. I wish to toss their broken bodies upon the walls of their pathetic empire.”

The Archon flew down, and a squad of the guards set out to accompany them. He kept his eyes peeled as his servants moved to execute his command.

Meanwhile, Seero had not responded to the attack because she was not present in the Material Plane at all. Instead, she appeared in the Realm of Deluge once more…only to be greeted by high-pitched laughter.

“I have to admit, of all the ways you could have been handling our dungeons, attacking from the Realms of Mana was not one I had ever expected.”

Deeper in the Realm, just ahead of Seero, the Herald of Rain appeared. She had a sneer on her face.

“But you’ve miscalculated. I may fear confronting a hero when they are blessed by the power of Aelea itself, but now you’re in my arena. This is the very Realm that granted me my power and now you’ll…”

Seero simply ignored her, and continued with the corrupted dungeon termination protocols. After all, the method in question had kept away denizens of the Realms in the past, so Seero calculated it would also work against any mana-based attack the Herald of Rain could pull off. So, she used the Equalizer to clear some of the water ahead, and tossed an Anti-Mana Bomb at the Herald of Rain.

The Herald screamed as the rainbow wave passed over her…and then began gargling as water filled her throat. It appeared her safety in the Realm was contingent on her shield of the Realm’s own mana…which had just been dispelled. She quickly activated a spell and vanished even as Seero channeled her Holy mana to create a new Material Plane patch.

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The Sun Elves had just landed on the ground and stepped towards the smoking crater. But as they approached, the ground opened up beneath them as a massive beam of light pierced through one of the elven warriors. The Archon leading them sprung into action as another beam opened fire, retaliating with a burst of sunlight from above that set the entire crater ablaze. When the fire died down, some of the rocks and debris had melted away, revealing a glowing dome reminiscent of an anti-Archon formation barrier. The Archon scowled.

Within the dome stood a large, metallic golem in the shape of an Arachne, covered in glowing circuitry. At the center of its chest was bright, glowing mana core, beyond anything that ever came out of a monster.

Inside the golem, Lilussees grunted.

“Ugh. This is, like, so much e-word. I, like, need a year or two off after this, or something, ok?”

Even as she complained, the golem’s eyes glowed and its hands swung about. The giant Prismatic Dome circle shifted into a Prismatic Bombardment circle, opening fire with a fused Dark-Holy Beam. The Archon countered with a Sun Beam of his own, the two spells colliding mid-air.

Meanwhile, another hole opened up in the ground underneath the Sun Elf warriors escorting the Archon. Amulius leapt out and unleashed a Holy-imbued arrow, while Cominia created a Firewall. The fire didn’t do much against the Sun Elves, but it made the arrows harder to see, and one of the warriors failed to evade. Agedia and Estrith then leapt straight through the flames, stabbing another warrior each with their spears, while Taog appeared out of the shadow of another and stabbed through his opponents chest.

Finally…a metallic rat-golem much like Lilussees’ shot from the hole in the ground and rocketed towards the Archon in the sky.

“FEEL-EXPERIENCE THE POWER OF THE SERVANTS OF THE WISE-MIGHTY-GRACIOUS BOSS-QUEEN, YES-YES!”

R shot through the sky inside the golem with a mighty lance in its hand, coated in Holy and Light mana. He swung his weapon up, striking the feet of the Archon. A barrier appeared around the Archon before cracking and shattering, forcing the Archon to evade. But in doing so, he dropped his beam spell, and the Dark-Holy Beam shot forward. Lilussees easily adjusted the angle of her attack, and the beam pierced right through the Archon’s remaining defenses.

High-Archon Vommik grit his teeth as he watched the exchange. The loss of yet another Archon displeased him, but that wasn’t the worst of it. Yes, he did not expect his first attack to kill the Queen of the Dobhar outright, and he anticipated she would have something planned. Yet, for one of the spells reserved only for the mightiest of Sun Elves not to have claimed even a single life?! That was impossible.

If word of this got out, he would be the laughing stock of the Council. This could not stand.

“Kill them!”

Seero had, of course, detected the High-Archon’s army long before it arrived. Her scouting drone-golems had identified a formation leaving the frontlines when it first set out, in-fact. However, she had not gotten confirmation on if the Herald of Rain was traveling with the force, so she decided to delay responding. She instead covered their location in a Spatial Angling Barrier before she began the dungeon termination protocol, and deployed Lilussees to add a more conventional barrier of her own.

Along with a brand new weapon that Melion had just finished testing.

A hollow drone-golem that could accept a pilot…and that was powered by a dungeon core. A suit that would protect its wearer with all the powerful defenses of a dungeon, including Spatial Angling and automatic regeneration of damaged structures.

And that could channel its mana directly into its pilot-master, granting them the mana quantity, density, and regeneration that only a dungeon core could provide.

As such, the High-Archon’s assault had failed to reach its target, and then Lilussees counterattacked with high-density fused and Supercharged Beams. The dungeon suit was also a drone-golem that automatically lent its processors to Lilussees’ spellcasting, greatly improving her Supercharge efficiency.

Albeit, at an undesirable amount of e-word for her components.

R, meanwhile, attacked with his own suit, and a special weapon. The Lance of Vlatugni, the enchanted weapon from Corvanus’s Imperial Treasury that was handed over to Seero by Princess Caecilla, which thanks to the suit’s larger size 01R could now handle.

A moment after this exchange, Seero returned to the Material Plane. Her sensors searched for the Herald of Rain…and found her. In the middle of the High-Archon’s army was a newly constructed artificial lake. It was surrounded by hooded individuals, and a massive magic circle was carved on the bottom.

The Herald of Rain appeared there, coughing and gurgling. One of the hooded figures casted a Water spell to pull her to the surface, where she coughed and gagged as she tried to clear the water in her lungs.

Meanwhile, Seero, Ateia, and Taog’s robotic eyes all turned red. With the Herald of Rain located and her plans revealed and countered, Seero could now proceed with the operation with full confidence.

“Status Report: All targets located. Angry Command: All units, terminate all confirmed hostiles with extreme prejudice.”

And then the sky lit up with a dozen Prismatic Bombardment circles, Supercharged to the limit.