Chapter 149

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth

City of Rebirth

Allya frowned as she looked at the reply.

The dungeon core was unavailable due to 'personal business'? What the hell did that mean? What had Crystal come up with this time?

She gazed at the paper message, and looked up at Rogard, the withered old elf looking as perplexed as she was.

"Did the maid say anything else?"

"No milady. She just handed me the paper, and when I asked her what did 'personal business' meant, she got…somewhat aggressive and told me to 'mind my own damned business.'"

"Was she angry?"

"More protective I'd say."

"Uh. Did she say for how long that business was expected to last?"

"A week or so. She was somewhat vague."

"That's thorough personal business. Especially for a dungeon core."

"I…don't know much about dungeon cores ma'am."

Allya shrugged.

"They don't need to sleep, drink or eat, so they work all day, every day."

"That sounds horrifying."

"I'm sure she finds her entertainment." Allya sighed. "Well, as long as the dungeon keeps running, we can wait a week. There's no rush." Especially not since the dungeon core had gotten the labyrinth back into operation. Apparently it had been reinforced, but there was a sign warning adventurers about using too powerful area of effect spells now, and there had been no further incidents. And the new second floor boss had garnered a lot of attention, its fireball halo especially, when she'd personally gotten one to Eismi the fox eared artificer had been practically slobbering all over it.

"As you say milady."

*****

"So, a first successful delivery." Said Charles.

"Yes, but one of many that are necessary if this plan is to succeed." Answered Vek.

"True, true, but we do have considerable corporate support in this case. Which is good." The senator winced. "Our own resources are beginning to be stretched thin, I'm afraid."

"I am aware of that." To the surprise of exactly nobody but the senate, behaving like a psychopath with delusions of godhood hadn't made the Republic many friends, and any goodwill it had previously accumulated had evaporated a long time ago. And with the genius decision to attack Rebirth, they'd opened a new front. The only nation bordering the Republic that wasn't angling for their heads was Gorromar, and even then it was tenuous. Harming the team constructing Rebirth's docking tower had not been a wise decision, and the industrious city had started cutting the Republic's supply of its goods bit by bit, not to mention allowing hostile operatives and ships to transit through its territory unfettered. "I also note that we are still massing resources at Erakis, despite the impossibility of a cross wasteland invasion on a large scale."

Charles smiled as he leaned forward. He knew the colonel would bring it up.

"Well, there are several reasons for that. First and foremost, our reason for this war is to defend against Asarian aggression." Orzal Vek almost visibly twitched at that. At that point only the stupidest even paid lip service to that lie, and while only the Asarian Kingdom had bothered denouncing it publicly, no one outside of Sunrise supported it either. "And we would be remiss in our obligations if we were not assembling our forces at the most likely target for the enemy. Furthermore, we must be shown to be doing something, especially while other, less visible and more productive efforts are underway. It serves as a distraction and to reassure the populace. Lastly however…I have received news that such an invasion might not be wholly impossible after all."

The colonel frowned.

"As I said, the sand krakens-"

"Will not be an issue if my contacts come through." The colonel did not need to know about his great uncle's friends, this 'Order', who had offered him help with the UDC and were now proposing some assistance with the current issues as well. "We have come through some means that would enable us to cross safely." He grimaced. "I'll admit, there are limitations, and it will not be quick nor easy, but it should be doable. However, it does not answer the true, main problem if we were to try and take the town by force."

"Which is?"

"The dungeon, of course! Before I wished the core kidnapped so that she may be relocated in Erakis or in a city of our choosing." Or even set up in another point in the middle of the wasteland to still make it a trading hub, preferably under his dynasty's control. "But unfortunately that is no longer feasible or preferable." If nothing else, the adventurers guild had gotten its teeth into the town now and moving the core would present challenges. And…well, if the insane reports about the Inquisition having revealed itself in the city were true, the last thing he wanted was to gather their attention by trying to move a dungeon core from where the God of Fire's servants had placed it, no matter how infuriating the core in question was. "But neutralizing the core, as it is a willing combatant in this war, will be a primary objective. Thus, we need to come up with a way to do so."

"I see. Well, first off, surface assault is…not recommended. Even if the rumors about her new fortress are false, the dungeon has to have fortified every access point and separated her core room from the main dungeon." At least he knew he would have in her place! "We could try a tunneling attack, but she has demonstrated the willingness to use seismic weapons if necessary." Most notably by blowing up her own fucking dungeon. "Which leaves one key option, teleportation."

"Have we not tried that already?"

What's the we, you politician fuck? My men bled and died for your delusions while you stayed here. Thought Orzal, before banishing it. Firmly.

He was starting to have more and more of these thoughts and they were…invasive. It was becoming clearer and clearer that the senator had no idea what he was doing, and he was seriously wondering if he would have stuck with the man had abandoning him not been a more or less automatic death sentence in both his career and his life.

"Yes, we have." He replied calmly, with no outward sign of his internal debate. "And the dungeon will have some counter measures. Notably by complicating the design of the core areas, which is why we will need some kind of penetrating sensor and mapping equipment. But there is only so much the dungeon can do without an archmage or Old World technology."

"The dungeon is sitting on top of Old World ruins."

"Correct, but first and foremost she would have to break the edicts to access them, and we both know that dungeon cores cannot replicate Old World technology. It has been tried many, many times before. The results were always the same." Otherwise the world would have had no issue getting it, if dungeons could just distribute it as loot! It was a shame, however. "So she will not be able to prevent or redirect the teleport. The key issue is that there will probably be substantial fortifications between any viable teleport location and the core itself, which means we will require a lot of troops, among other things."

"Other things?"

Vek sighed.

"We might need to make it a sustained effort. I don't see a way of a 'one wave and done' assault working this time. Especially not if there are dug in internal positions with advanced artillery and muskets. Field guns might seem a bit useless in a tight space to you, but believe me, with a canister charge they are anything but. It will have to be a sustained attack. Fortunately since the UDC refused to assist her, our influence disruptors would still work…for the few that we have left." The Republic had kept a handful of 'black' disruptors at the end of the first United Dungeon Wars, as an insurance policy. The arsenal where they were stored had been kept a total secret and survived, but unfortunately their production facility, and all of its personnel, had not. The Eternia Crystallis dungeon had made sure of that. So while they still had some in stockpile, they couldn't produce more without an overt effort that would absolutely bring the UDC down on them. "Given our limited supply, I advise we send in everything, one disruptor to take out the dungeon's influence, the rest in reserve, just in case. And we will need far more than some teleporter and space mages with ritual supplies. We will need a forward operating base, a teleporter uplink…the works."

"That will be…complicated. These kinds of resources are not easily available, as I am sure you are aware."

"I am. But the teleportation equipment and expertise should be available to our corporate partners." As they should be, the Sidernis Consortium was an Erisian corporation with ties to its military. The whole reason they were there to begin with and helping was to help cut down the Omega Consortium down a peg or two after all! And steal its market shares if possible. Since the Erisian army made extensive use of teleporter attacks, at least against lesser powers without the expertise or artifacts to make them suicidal. "Still, it would give our forces the best chances of success, worse come to worse."

"You still expect this to be resolved without bloodshed?"

"I hope it will be resolved without us spilling more of our people's blood, yes." Said the colonel. "If the civil war Sunrise is busy trying to ignite turns as ugly as I think, the town will be caught between a kingdom swamped in blood and unthinkable atrocities and us. Overall, not a hard choice, especially if cut off from outside support."

"Hopefully it will happen. But I am not hopeful." The senator sighed, and for a brief moment Orzal saw the tiniest hint of humanity and weariness of the bloodshed in the man, but then it was gone, replaced by the monster apathetic to human life, willing to have anyone die for his ambitions. It was much better than other senators, like say, that sadist Maximilian, but still. "I assume you will deploy your own forces?"

"They are the only ones I trust for this."

"How many?"

"Everybody." The colonel smiled mirthlessly as the senator gave him a surprised look. "As I just said, we're going to need the best chance of success."

"So you did. So you did…"

The colonel just hoped that their 'best chance' wasn't 'hopelessly impossible' as he was starting to fear, with every new report on the dungeon that crossed his desk.

*****

"Your highness, my apologies for interrupting you, but you have a visitor."

Princess Cassissa Lumière, fifth on the line of succession of the throne of the Eris Empire, lifted her head up from her book and blinked.

A visitor? For her?

Ever since the Imperial Guard had brought her back from her disastrous outing in the Asarian Kingdom, she'd been effectively under house arrest. Her family had already taken her trip poorly, especially as she'd leveraged Erik's reputation to do so, but they had taken its ending even worse. The death of one of the potential heirs, however secondary, would have been catastrophic, and they felt that they could not take any further risks with the empire so unstable.

Cassissa loved her family, but at that point, after having ended her recovery, she was just about ready to shoot older sister, the Empress. Her brother-in-law was about the only one who was taking her side, but unfortunately he was only the consort, and his wife had the final say.

"Show them in." She told the guard, who bowed, and she reminded herself for the thousand time that the poor bastards were only doing their jobs. They didn't want her locked up and miserable, and to be fair to them they'd tried to be as lenient as possible.

But given her sister's orders, that leniency had been severely limited. Which rather begged the question of why she had an unexpected visitor not from the closely vetted -and thoroughly prepared in advance- list she'd been given. Which, incidentally, included a lot of young, attractive, and eminently politically advantageous scions of various great noble houses of the empire.

The door opened, and Cassissa knew instantly why that visitor in particular had been allowed in.

"Hey hey people!" Said Sseth Tzeench of the house of Tach as he stepped inside her personal library. "Seeth-"

"Greetings sir Tzeench." Answered Cassissa, cutting him off. "I know who you are, no need to introduce yourself."

"Am I that predictable?" Said the leader of the merchant guild with a brilliant smile, especially given the contrast between his pearly white teeth and his dark skin.

"So much so that it has become synonymous with your very being. Or persona, I suppose. How can a disgraced princess help the leader of the merchant guild?"

"Ah, come now! You are hardly disgraced. If you were, these accomodations would be far less luxurious. Like a particularly dank dungeon cell. Or the inside of a sarcophagus. Your family does like to eliminate the more troublesome elements. Terrible business practice. Regardless! I wanted to ask you something."

"Of course. Although I doubt I would know anything my mother wouldn't." A side effect of being arguably one of the most powerful beings in the Empire, and by extension the entire planet, as well as having helped to found the Empire, was that Sseth was among the very few people that could pretty much demand a private Imperial audience and get it.

"In this case you do know more." Sseth looked at her straight in the eyes, and Cassissa repressed a shiver as she saw the immeasurably old being behind that cheery exterior. "I wish to ask you about Allya Aubétoile."

Cassissa's hands gripped the armrests of her seat as her old friend and savior's name was invoked.

"Allya? Why? What happened?"

"Oh. You do not know? Then allow me to bring you up with current events, your highness."