A soft blue light tickled at my eyes as I regained consciousness. Nearby I could make out the light sound of machinery, along with a slow yet steady beep. I blinked in confusion as I tried to figure out where I was, and a white ceiling above filled my sight.

When I tried to move I realized how bad of an idea that was. As though the movement reminded my body that it was there, all I could feel was a strong pain in every part of my body. Every muscle burned, every bone ached and stung, every organ felt like glass had been rubbed against it, and even my eyes hurt as I looked up.

I hissed at the pain as I tried to lift myself up to look around. What I managed to see before I settled back down was that I was alone. The room was nothing more than a white cube, and I was on a soft bed. I’d been unable to make out any door or window, nor any markings.

I knew where I was.

“Mika,” I said, my own voice bringing a frown to my face. It’d changed to one that was hoarse and more of a whisper, and the pain in my throat mirrored the pain that pulsated across my entire body.

A small girl flickered into existence seated on my bed. She wore a black dress and had long dark hair. She didn’t look at me, but instead remained focused on an open book in her hands. “Father,” Mika said in her quiet voice, “I see you finally woke up.”

“Wher-” I managed to croak out before I had to swallow.

“If you are attempting to ask where everyone is, they are all here,” Mika told me.

Before I could try to ask anything else a beep sounded. It came from one of the walls, and as another beep sounded the wall parted and revealed a hallway along with three figures. Lisa, Kuzu, and Adam entered the room before the door vanished once again.

Though to say that Lisa walked in would be a lie, as she instead tried to run right for my bed as soon as she saw me. It was thanks to Kuzu’s quick thinking and hands that she failed at that, as Kuzu scooped her up. I gave a weak smile as my thanks to her.

“Well look who didn’t die,” Adam commented as he strolled over to my bed, “Lance is going to be mad that he lost the bet.”

I gave the slightest of nods to Adam, but then I realized what he’d said and how his brother was missing. I tried to word my thoughts but my throat refused to listen, and all I could do was frown at him.

“What’s the matter?” Adam wondered, before he seemed to realize why I was concerned, “Lance? Don’t worry, he’s in one of those bedrooms recovering. He’s focusing on growing his arm back, but it’ll take him a while.”

“I missed you!” Lisa cried out from the arms of Kuzu.

“Yes yes, we all missed father,” Mika told her as she closed the book in her hands, “but we need to talk about more important things than that.”

As though in response ot her comment the light above me shifted color, and a deep blow hue coated my blanketed body. With that light a sense of relief came over everything as the pain steadily numbed.

“Thank you,” I said to my daughter, before I cleared my throat and tried to speak again, “how’d I get here?”

“Adam carried you,” Kuzu said, “and then Mika showed herself and told us to put you in here. She said it was a room that could heal you.”

“Technically the bed has a vibrational system designed to help stimulate the natural healing process,” Mika told her, “though I had to rely on the last of the nanites in the system to repair the life threatening injuries father sustained.”

“Nanites?”

“Miniaturized machines, though I only had a small amount left in my storage since I had utilized the rest for maintenance.”

While the two of them talked I lifted my right hand and touched the front of my neck. I could feel a slight bump, one that was new, and figured I’d picked up a scar from the Architect’s cut. I already knew that it should’ve been enough to kill me, but at the same time there was no way they could’ve gotten me into the tower in time to save my life.

“Kuzu was the one who stopped the bleeding,” Adam whispered from my side when he say me fingering where the cut was, “she used her ice to block all your cuts. You almost froze to death, but better than bleeding out right?”

I couldn’t stop myself from smiling at that, and I looked at Kuzu while she continued to talk with Mika. Whether I wanted to admit to it or not she’d helped me to meet my second daughter again, and perhaps in the long run she’d be the reason I reached the garden once more.

“Hold on now,” Mika suddenly said as she held up one intangible hand at Kuzu, “while I would thoroughly enjoy explaining the intricacies of the systems, I need to speak with my father.”

“That’s alright, do you need us to leave?” Kuzu asked as she tilted one of her ears to the side.

“No,” I said, answering the question before Mika could, “stay.”

My daughter looked at me, a hint of annoyance flickering momentarily on her face, and then she gave the smallest of nods. “I will take that to mean you do not mind sharing everything with all of these here,” she said, “so I will first assert that right now, father, you are useless.”

I narrowed my eyebrows at that. “What?”

With a wave of her right hand Mika summoned numerous images onto the white walls of the room. For the others here they were strange, dark images with what looked to be skeletons, but I knew full well what they were.

“Whatever you did during your scuffle outside did extensive damage to your body,” Mika explained, “and it wasn’t merely to your bone structure. I’ve detected fissuring throughout your muscular system, as well as at the very least bruising to most of your organs.”

“Fissuring?” I asked to make sure of what she was saying.

“Indeed, at a microscopic level no less.” Mika waved her hand to dismiss all of the images on the walls. “Normally you could rest and recover from muscle damage, but you are hurt so extensively that all of my projections are showing you will never achieve full recovery.”

“What if we get more nanites?”

“As if they grow on trees, as mother would say? You know that in order to acquire more nanites we’d require a manufacturing plant, one that we can only access via one of Markov’s factories on a higher floor.”

I sighed at that comment, as I’d always put off on making one for the base. “I really should’ve built you one when I had the chance.”

“Yes, you should have. But to answer your question if I receive a new supply of nanites I could at the very least utilize them to create a cybernetic alteration to you. As it stands, though, you will never fully recover.”

The room grew silent at her words as even my companions knew what she was saying. The work I’d put into trying to make my new body useful had all been pointless, and I already knew that even if I recovered more than Mika expected I could never use one of Markov’s suits. If anything ever went wrong with one of the safety systems it’d tear me even further apart.

“I think maybe I should go check on Lance,” Adam finally commented as he started to move for the wall he’d come in through.

Before he made it to the door the entire room shook, while from somewhere distant a dull and heavy thud could be heard. It was something which caused everyone in the room to look up in surprise, and Mika flickered momentarily as though she struggled to maintain her hologram.

“Father, we might have a problem.” Mika lifted one hand at the nearest wall and summoned a new image on it.

What we were shown was a white haired figure with red eyes, one who had a muscular frame and a very familiar face. Behind it was the darkened glass field that we’d fought on a short time ago, as well as a bloodied body. Even the others here could easily tell that the dead body on the ground was an exact match for the person in front of them.

As we watched the figure lifted up one hand and hammered it down slightly below where the camera was. In a direct mirror to that impact the entire room shook again, and once more Mika flickered.

“We killed him already!” Adam yelled as he stared in confusion at the live feed from outside.

“It, not him,” I almost instinctively replied.

Mika’s eyes widened at the confused look that Adam gave at what I’d said. “You did not tell them about that? Are you dense, father? You allied with these and yet burdened them with a lack of knowledge?”

“Mika, not now,” I told her, “we need to go. Use Adam.”

Without another word a second Mika split off from the first, and with a beckon toward Adam the new one floated to the wall. Once more the wall parted as the automatic door opened, and Mika floated in the doorway while she waited for the startled Adam.

After he’d left the room I turned my attention back to the images on the wall. Off in the distance another figure could barely be made out as it emerged from the crystal forest, though I already knew what it was.

“Two drones, you should feel honored,” I commented to the hologram of Mika that was still in the room.

“They had about forty before I shut down,” she said while she began to float randomly in the air, “speaking of which I thought you stopped Helim?”

“I did, I laid waste to his entire empire and killed every last Architect I could find.”

“Well you missed some.”

The room shook as both of the drones outside pummeled the exterior of the building. I knew that it would take a while longer for them to get past the outer wall, but since the lights flickered everytime I could only guess that Mika’s systems were still damaged from before.

“Mika, chair mode please.”

There was a momentary flicker of annoyance on my daughters face before she waved her hand at me. The bed I was on started to change at my request. The feet section lowered down, while the head area lifted, and soon the entire bed had shifted into a chair. With a hiss wheels came out from the sides of the bed while arm rests emerged.

“I find this is unwise, father, you should rest more.”

“Yeah daddy, listen to Mika!” Lisa said as she watched me wince in pain.

I waved off their concerns before I pointed to where the door was. “If something goes wrong and we can’t get away we’ll need to prepare. Mika take us to the armory.”

There were no more arguments from my daughters after that moment. Instead Mika floated with her original hologram to the exit and opened it for us, while the wheelchair I was now in followed automatically. Kuzu and Lisa were the last ones to leave the medical room.

Unlike my home on the tenth floor the forward operating base was more compact, with short hallways and small rooms. It’d been designed with the usage of the avian dimensional magic, but my lack of knowledge in regard to that had forced me to cut down on the space. There were no ornaments or portraits, no statues or anything else. This was a place made for my personal war against the Architects.

So it took us almost no time to reach the main storage of my little fortress. As we entered Kuzu let out a little cry of surprise, as along the walls of the small room were suits of unusual armor and weapons. Each was a creation by Markov, as he tried his best to take his knowledge of Architect technology and fuse it with the magic of the lower floors.

“I’m surprised so many stasis fields managed to stay active,” I said as I looked around, “I’m going to assume the suits are still coded to my old biometrics?”

“Obviously,” Mika said, her tone a bit cold, “so if you wanted to stick one of your new friends into one you are out of luck. Without Markov to help it will take years before I can synchronize one of the suits.”

“No, that wouldn’t work without training anyways,” I replied as I looked over everything.

Aside from the suits there were weapons that were unlike anything found elsewhere. Hilts without blades, until one wanted a blade, as well as rifles which could fire beams of energy. I’d even talked Markov into creating a type of gun that could fire different magic, based on the crystals embedded in it.

“What’s this?” Kuzu asked as she peered at one of the weapon cases. Within was a spear that was made entirely from a type of grey crystal.

“An experiment, Lute told me that it’s one of the hardest substances.”

“Father,” Mika suddenly called out, “we’re ready. Adam has inserted his hand and I’ve set it to twenty.”

I let out a long sigh at that. It was the moment of truth, since if the system failed we’d have to abandon my base and take whatever we could past the drones outside. It was an idea I didn’t care much for, since I’d have to rely on Lisa to do most of the fighting. Even if we overpowered the two I expected they’d have at least one more near the portal.

“Do it.”

The response was instantaneous. The room we were in shook more than when the drones had hammered on the exterior, and even Kuzu struggled to keep her balance. The lights in the room started to dim while Mika’s hologram vanished. All of the stasis fields began to turn off one by one, and some of the items that’d been on display fell off of their hooks.

Lisa clung tighter to Kuzu while the shaking only worsened. I clenched my jaw as I fought against the waves of pain that all of the movement caused. Above all of the lights completely turned off, as the energy of the base was drained. It wasn’t for a few more moments until a few dim lights clicked on. They were the emergency lights that ran off of a backup system.

“The slide system activated, but you’ll need to check if we made it,” Mika said, her voice emitted from speakers embedded in the walls.

“Thank you, Mika,” I said, and then I pointed to a cloak that was on the ground, “Kuzu wear that and grab one of the weapons. Lisa, take the spear that Kuzu was looking at before.”

“What’s special about this?” Kuzu asked as she scooped up the cloak and put it on.

“Active camouflage, there’s a button embedded in the collar on the left,” I told her, “if you press it you can gain a degree of invisibility.”

Before she could ask any more questions I used the controls on the arm rest to turn the wheelchair around. I drove it to the door, which slowly opened due to the severely low power, and then went out into the hallway again. “Follow me.”

Lisa almost skipped her way out of the small armory, the large spear held in one hand. Behind her Kuzu followed with a rifle in her hands. She’d pulled the hood of the cloak up, and I knew that with her natural stealth it’d make even an Architect unable to find her.

“We’re about to exit, if you see one of the drones Lisa needs to summon her wings and start the engagement. Kuzu will follow through with support when they’re distracted,” I told them as I stopped my wheelchair in front of the exit.

“If?” Kuzu wondered, though I gave her no answer.

Instead I opened the door, the light outside illuminating the dark hallway. A crisp breeze that was filled with the scent of grass flowed past us, while Lisa started to jump up and down excitedly even as Kuzu gasped.

I thumbed the control of the wheelchair and drove through the door, the wheels struggling with the grass outside. I glanced to the left and right, but I saw no drone, and let out a sigh of relief. I motioned with my hand to the girls behind as I studied the horizon and some familiar buildings.

“What’s this place?” Lisa asked as she bounded out of the base, her spear dropping to the ground in the midst of her excitement.

“That’s Heron,” Kuzu whispered as she stared at the city, “but how’d we get here?”

I wheeled over so I could be next to her. “Markov called it the slide system, he based it on Architect technology. Mika read the data in Adam’s checkpoint crystal and then shifted the entire base.”

“The labyrinth lets you do stuff like that?”

“What’d you think the portals were, magic?” I asked with a small grin, as I was reminded of one of Lute’s favorite quotes, “but first we need to talk about what we’re going to do next.”

Kuzu lowered the hood of her cloak as she realized no fight was about to happen. “What do you mean? We saved your daughter and you’re hurt really bad. I figured you were going to retire.”

“No, the Architects are spreading and sooner or later they’ll get to the lower floors. We’re going to need to recuperate and prepare, and then take the fight to them.”

“But you can’t fight anymore and just one of those drone things almost killed you, how can anyone hope to fight their whole race?”

It was a question I’d heard from a few of my friends in the past. “We’re going to need reinforcements, and someone to help with Markov’s systems.”

Kuzu turned to look at me as she lifted the length of the rifle to rest against her shoulder. It was a placement that I’m certain she’d learned by watching Adam. “Where are we going to find someone who can help with Architect technology?”

I could barely contain my laughter at that. “You already know her, so that’ll make this a lot easier.”

“What? Who are you talking about?”

“I thought it was obvious. You’re going to recruit Alexia.”

☗ ☗ ☗ ☗ ☗

Herein ends Volume 2 of Grave Of The Goddess