Within the darkness dungeon, Petra established a maze of shadows. Space itself seemed to twist and expand, before giving way to light. Soon, every ‘room’ of her maze was an independent space that she had created, each with a different environment. The first room was a wide hill in the middle of the day, numerous trees dotting the landscape.

In order to pass from room to room within Petra’s dungeon, it was necessary to step on a shadow. Different shadows would lead to different areas, and only the right one would progress forward. If the wrong shadow was chosen, it became more and more difficult to find the way back with every poor choice.

“Amazing…” Creo muttered as he saw the landscape through the vanguard of his forces, a single skeleton. His dungeon specialized in undead, and this was the simplest type that he was able to produce. “So this is your World of Shadows…”

Creo had long since heard of Petra. She was rather famous within the dungeon master community, once she made herself known. The style in which she made her dungeon was something no other master had learned how to replicate. However, that was because no other master possessed Petra’s divine status, a secret she never let spread.

“Sorry, but… I’ll be solving your maze today.” Creo said as he focused. The skeleton that he sent broke apart, each bone rolling out independently, before a wave of bones followed behind it. This was the only plan that he could think of, using as many monsters as he could to map her dungeon.

Whenever a bone fell through a maze, Creo would learn about another layer of shadows. Since each bone was classified as its own monster, this wave tactic had the highest chance of success.

Of course, Petra wouldn’t be idle while he was attacking. Her own monster had similarly moved into Creo’s dungeon, which took the shape of a graveyard. Although, he wasn’t able to fold space in the same way that she did, which resulted in the path being fairly straight forward.

Petra’s monster was incredibly simple. It appeared as if it were a clone of Petra herself, with its body entirely made of shadows. The only parts of its surface that were not pitch black were the eyes and the mouth, which formed into an eerie red grin. When it spoke, its voice echoed in the graveyard.

“Nice, you’re really living up to your name.” The shade spoke, its glowing eyes scanning the surroundings. “If you had created a maze, it would probably take me a while to get through. But, you’re not a maze builder. Which Puppet are you going to use today?”

Creo grit his teeth when he heard that. “You really did your homework, didn’t you?” Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself. As Petra said, Creo’s main fighting force were a type of undead puppet. However, he only had the spiritual energy to create one of them at a time, so it was always a matter of picking the best fighter to send in against his opponent.

“Since you are a darkness specialist… I’ll call the Third Puppet, the Lord of Radiance!” After shouting that, Creo threw one hand up, and one of the many graves within the graveyard seemed to stir. Cracks appeared within the overturned soil, through which a blinding light pierced.

The graveyard’s mist scattered as a human figure rose. There was a pure white cloth wrapped around his eyes, and a white robe draped over his body. In one hand, he held a golden scepter, while the other held a short sword. His feet were bound together with cloth, leaving him to float serenely over the surface.

The puppet’s appearance caused the graveyard to shine, holy light spreading in all directions. Feeling this, the shade let out a hiss of pain, its powers weakening when met with its opposed element. “Hsss… I figured you’d probably have something like this. Everyone’s trying to make countermeasures against me these days.”

“I’ve fought so many people that kept light aeons as their trump cards.” The shade’s voice spoke, the pain slowly lessening as it backed up until it was standing partially behind a tombstone. “But they all fall short at the same point.”

Narrowing his eyes to see through the blinding light, Creo instructed his puppet to attack. Beams of energy shot out, piercing through the body of the shade and seeming to cause it to disintegrate. Yet, its voice continued to echo, now coming from all around him.

“The brightest light… casts the darkest shadow.” Following those words, Creo could hear a faint giggling echoing in the graveyard. He turned his head to look, soon seeing a nearby shadow of a tombstone, cast by the light of the puppet. A pair of glowing red eyes stared back at him. And then another from a different shadow.

In every shadow he saw, the same eyes stared back at him, causing a sense of dread to slowly wash over him. Creo turned around slowly, looking at his own shadow. The eyes were there as well, as was the mouth, but there was more. His shadow looked jagged, with massive wings spreading out on either side.

“You can never escape the darkness, Mister Blanch.” His shadow said, before a clawed hand reached up to grab at his leg, attempting to drag him down into the ground. Into his very own shadow.

Creo’s eyes went wide with alarm, and his hand tightened on his AC unit. On the other end, his bones had explored six different layers of shadows, with over a hundred possibilities found already. He had to admit that there was no way for him to win, and so he abandoned his fight. In another flash of golden light, Creo vanished, signalling the end of the match.

“Status report.” The elven pilot said as she looked at everyone gathered at the table. It had been roughly a year since they landed on Sorii, but she was still in command. Even if this mission lasted one hundred years, this fact would not change. In fact, it was because they expected it to be a long term project.

The first to speak up was a demon with a green badge on his red and black uniform. “Soil cultivation is going fairly slow, Captain Thorne. The algae that we imported from Desbar hasn’t been growing properly.”

The pilot nodded her head at that. “I’ll send a requisition in for some Spican plants. It’s said that they can grow anywhere. Next?”

The next demon that spoke had a silver badge in the shape of a hammer and wrench. “No complaints with the planar gate. With our batteries, we have enough to use it at full power once every week. Otherwise, we’ll have to settle for the smaller network portals. However, Biome Three is showing some structural damage after last night’s storm.”

“Biome Three…” Captain Thorne muttered to herself. “We can’t afford to lose water production. Take some of the emergency supplies to repair it before there is a rupture.” After that, she turned towards a demon with a blue badge. “How’s our power situation?”

“We lost two panels in the storm, but we’ve still got plenty of solar energy.” He explained with a small smile. “We shouldn’t need to tap into the emergency fuel any time soon.”

“Captain.” Another crewmember spoke up, this one wearing a red badge in the shape of a sword. “Shouldn’t we be worried about the invasion?” While spending their free time in Vision Expanse, they had eventually learned the news that there was another invasion on its way, this one from the same enemy that they had previously sent an army after. While they were admittedly late getting this news, it was not something that they could immediately do anything about.

“No.” The captain spoke simply. “There aren’t enough of us here to contribute to planetary defense. Our mission is to establish a stable colonization outpost on Sorii, and begin terraforming. If, and I stress this if, an emergency happens, then we will reevaluate our mission objectives.”

In truth, the man who had raised this question was simply bored. As head of security on an uninhabited world, he generally had nothing to do. In the entire year that they had been present, there had only even been one incident where a monster appeared close enough to them that he needed to act. Otherwise, he simply sat around, watching the sands blow.

“Understood, Captain.” He answered begrudgingly.

Finally, the captain turned towards the last member of the crew, who had an open eye for a badge. “How are the scans looking.”

“It’s interesting.” He admitted, adjusting the glasses on his head. “Every day, I’m picking up more and more life signs in the area. Furthermore, they’re all quite varied. Starting from last week, monster life began to spawn on the surface of Sorii.”

“It appears that the System itself is creating these creatures, because I am confident that they were not here before.” His smile grew wide when he mentioned that. “As of this morning’s scan, I have identified twelve different life signatures, and a total of hundred creatures within a twenty mile radius of the base.”

The elven captain let out a light groan, massaging her temples. “Hopefully, they won’t interfere with out terraforming efforts. But… one week ago, was it?” It had to be known that it was only a week after their one year anniversary on the planet. Meaning that after being here for one year, monsters began spawning. “That’s important information, so we’ll be sending it back in the report later.”

Golden light flashed briefly within a dense meadow, before two sets of hooves could be heard stepping onto the ground. Alme Dien looked around at the land which seemed simultaneously foreign and familiar, tears gathering in her eyes. “I’m home…”

After leaving Dien Sur, Tryval and Alme had finally taken the time to properly tour the world that he had created for her. She was able to see how it had grown and evolved over the years, how nature had flourished while she was forced to remain in her kingdom.

Only after doing so did the two of them finally return. The perpetual storm surrounding Sher Dien’s Fairy Gate finally ended, and a land bridge was created to connect it with one of the nearest islands. It would still take many years for the path to be discovered from their end, but a key had silently been stored within the main warehouse of the elven capital.

Alme slowly took a step forward, smelling the clean air. For so long she had always known the scent of nearby water. Few islands were large enough to escape that, and so this was a welcome respite, a literal breath of fresh air.

Letting out a joyful gasp, she began to gallop forward. Her eyes closed as she felt the wind blowing through her hair, the sun beating down on her back. And then she felt a shadow falling over her, a different warmth spreading through her body as a second set of hooves ran alongside her own.

Alme laughed, almost feeling as if she had gone back to being the innocent youth that she had given up for over a thousand years. It would be hard for her to ever truly return to that state, her heart hardened by the burden of ruling for so many years. But, for that one moment, she was happy to be back.