It was always sunny, sometimes gray in wonderland... or fantasia land. That was what I called and what the creatures called the old land. It revolted me. It was only the old rocks and mountains that I loved and a few plant species that survived. Especially after replanting. They were more resistant and strong than the laughing plants.

I had to get past their filter. I had a bunker. Well, it was the "end of the world" bunker that men had built for themselves. But whose use was, in fact, for me!

In an artificial greenhouse in the back, I watched my seeds grow. A smile.

I had succeeded in making carnivorous plants grow and bloom...

And, further back, the "sadness" zone. The smiling plants with human faces were crying...

It gave me an incredible pleasure...

I had a deep knowledge of science, molecular biology and mystic arts...

Being in human size, this time thanks to my mastery of human magic...which they could never enjoy but with this world of magic and fantasy, my powers and possibilities were infinite.

I managed to recombine the DNA of the carnivorous plants and add to them the vitality, the size and the smiling face of the pollen plants for fairies and gnomes.

These were the seeds of my despair and revenge.

But I was not alone.

I had a small army of robots. Excellent and competent servants. Especially S.t.a.r

I was inspecting the infrastructure and it was very large, like a small city.

An inclined plane of several kilometers allowed me to reach the different floors and I could hear a humming noise in the background.

My robots had been awakened a few weeks earlier and I was in the exploration and analysis phase.

At the bottom, a large room and the robots had cleaned everything. Dust, algae and rust were being treated with laser.

It was an intense activity, but it would not be possible without the geothermal power plant that used the thermal energy of the volcano for this.

With my powers, I felt that I could control the earth as well as the lava flows.

I approached a hot steel door and the robots still programmed for humans warned me.

"Master, if you open it, the gases will burn you...", a voice shout from a screen

I opened the door manually and behind an ocean of magma and quartz tubes.

The rock was sucked into the tubes and floated inside without touching the walls.

Glowing cutters allowed the lava to flow or not.

"Good," I said to Cabal, my assistant AI. on the other side of the door, the cold zone.

Cabal: Computer Assisted Biologically Augmented Lifeform.

Steps led down to the lava, and I put on a claw, then a finger. "Just right!"

And I stepped into my pool of very liquid molten lava.

I was good and I could feel the energy rushing through me like a torrent.

My fire in my belly was erupting. And my monster heart was charging and mana was pulsing under pressure in all my limbs...

I was full of life, and energy.

Ideal to attack my new day.

The schedule was full.

Swimming in the lava, I inspected the lava and transport circuit. In the fractures and huge stuctures inside the volcano, I arrived near the bridge of hell.

It was constituted of a normal structure but made of refractory alloy and of a passive cooling circuit which transformed heat into electricity by difference of thermal potential between the rings.

(currently developed at the University of Liege to replace solar technology. (I am an author but also a specialist in materials and high energy - researcher)

The lava was therefore pushed under pressure into these tubes for very specific purposes. I needed energy. Colossal. Nuclear power... too complicated and not profitable enough in terms of time savings/energy produced.

The bridge of hell passed from the rock of the volcano to the continental plate.

My inspection done, I went back to the arch hangar.

There were hundreds of robots working on the modification of the... thingy.

Huge lava-resistant fire doors protected the accesses.

I also saw the huge turbines producing the electricity needed for all my joys.

Cabal: "Professor ....?"

"Yes?" I answered.

Cabal: "The resources to be taken into account are immense... but I don't understand your reasoning.

You recycle explosives that have degraded over the centuries. Whereas you have a new source of energy. Crystals, runes and magic... Why use these thousands of years old methods? You could use a runic or moon crystal and convert the dragon vein, the river of mana that flows under the volcano, directly.

Me: "These technologies are cursed... They destroyed the world... My world... And this one is not mine. And I intend to turn it back."

Cabal: "And you're not afraid to unleash the wrath of the gods?"

I snarled. "THEY ARE NOT GODS BUT EXTRATERRALS! "or beings from another dimension!

Cabal: "Everything points to the contrary according to our investigations and our network of spy cameras and drones... The elves worship them as well as all civilizations."

"I don't want anything magical here!"

My intuition had never betrayed me...

"Cabal: "It will take years... centuries"

"So be it... I have plenty of time...!"

I stepped out of my base and the heavy steel and concrete doors closed behind me.

Everything around me was volcanic. Ash, lava, smoke.

I was a creature of fire.

The sky near my volcano was also on fire and I felt intense pleasure from it.

The color of the sky made me happy, in a good mood... and when I was happy, I was hungry.

I landed on a mountain ridge

In the distance, an iron dome opened on the mountain and a death machine rose from its protective shell.

By manacom I gave the coordinates to Cabal.

"The laser beam is too far to the right. We need to recalibrate the map. "

Cabal "Without satellite, it's difficult to point".

Me: "That's why you have to correct the coordinates. The magic is "soft" and not always accurate.

I laughed but I didn't need binoculars. My vision being perfect, this would not be a problem.

No witnesses... They will never know what happened to them...

The gnome village between the two valleys.

Too bad for them...they were too close to the volcano.

But a volcano is rich in natural resources...

And..one day, they'll come and take my house...

A small humming sound was heard and the turret rotated. Then the mortar rose and the dust cover was removed and an electrostatic discharge cleaned the sighting optics.

A drone flew over the defense turret and the surrounding area to check for unwanted visitors.

The mouth of the death machine was now aligned toward the village.

I had been watching their comings and goings for several days and the best time to strike was in the evening, on a full moon night. They would all be gathered in the main square near their fountain, to drink the water bathed in the moon's reflection. To feed on magical energy. To feed on the life that nature brought.

It was harvest time for the purple fruit. They gorged themselves on it. The gnomes loved to ferment the juice of these berries whose name escapes me. One of their infernal plants.

Once treated, they drank the alcoholic fruit.

Just thinking about it made my mouth water. Their blood must have been a real nectar, and their magic a delicacy.

I imagined to make a skewer of them, or a cake of gnomes... And to cook them in the stew... yes!! that's it...

Then I ordered Cabal to test the new batch of treated powder and to use fragmentation shells. The shell was made of crystallized ice and held in shape by a liquid nitrogen core.

As it exploded, millions of fragments of very, very cold, sharp ice would cause wounds and evaporate without leaving bits of shrapnel or foreign matter in the wounds inflicted on the gnomes.

They reminded me of shrapnel.

I was going crazy.