Chapter 150

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth

Dungeon Factory, Command Center

Alexandra stretched as she walked into the command center, practically glowing.

She hadn't realized just how badly she needed this until her girlfriend had basically dragged her to the newly built bedroom. It had truly been far too long. And with her extremely high -although not unlimited, as they'd found out- stamina…

Well, it had been a very good combination. They'd started out slow, obviously. Emilia was no blushing virgin, but Alexandra clearly had more experience -despite being, what, half the vampire's age?-, so she'd taken the lead. But it hadn't taken long for the vampire to find her confidence and take charge when she wanted.

And her dungeon core powers had given them a lot of advantages. The ability to create whatever they wanted or needed…

Not to mention allow Alexandra to absorb everything afterwards and erase the evidence, so to speak. Especially given some of the outfits Emilia had made her wear. It avoided having the maids do laundry, and stumbling upon some of this stuff. Where the hell had Emilia even found half of the outfits for her to replicate anyway?

At least now they knew she could take off her armor. It wasn't an easy or particularly speedy process, but she could doff it. She couldn't absorb it -it seemed to made out of solid mana-, but it could be manipulated and used independent of her avatar apparently. And her body underneath it had been fully complete and functional, with all the right bits in the right place, with exactly the right sensations. Not that Alexandra had any doubt, since she could feel them, but she hadn't experimented, well, interacting with them, so to speak, which Emilia had no compunction to. And had, repeatedly and with great gusto. But this rather begged the question of why the people who had sacrificed her had built such a body. Then again, what with the exposed cleavage in the armor…either the person that had sacrificed her, this member of the 'Order' had been extremely egoistical, or she had really enjoyed the, ah, finer things in life.

Alexandra shook her head, and continued walking. The week was over, and she had work to do. Not that she intended to keep working all night like previously now. She had…better activities to take her time.

"Alright, so, what do we have?" Asked the Earth-born as she turned towards Seraph, whose golem had been standing besides her command chair at a parade rest. Looked like the AI was watching that entertainment again, because that was the position of a ship's executive officer in the holovids.

"Hello milady. And we have some updates." The golem nodded towards Sarah, who was sitting in front of the console handling the prison, and clearly trying not to smirk. "The dungeon has functioned more or less as normal during your absence, minus a few hiccups that I solved with the help of other personnel."

"They're our…colleagues. No one's getting paid. They're not personnel."

"You are feeding the vampires mana, and that is the currently used world currency. That does count as a salary milady."

Alexandra blinked.

"I…Okay, point taken. Never seen it like that really."

"You should have. Troop pay is an important part of any military's morale."

"Eh, I also pay in kind." She looked at Sarah, who was wearing a new version of her maid robes, this time with crimson and black trim, inlaid with several designs including the house of Oswald's heraldry and even a few cogs here and there. "So, those updates?"

"The town's baroness has attempted to contact you a week ago. She has not attempted again after deflection. The prisoners' leaders has requested a meeting yesterday. We have completed work on the prototype plasma weapon. It is…satisfactory for limited field use under current conditions."

"I'll have to arrange some meetings." Fortunately with most of her anger gone, she probably wouldn't eviscerate the Void Blades' commander on sight. Probably. "Define 'current conditions', please."

"Complete and total disposability of our own forces and the weaponry's crew."

"That unstable?"

"The containment fields cannot function properly without materials we simply do not possess. Similar for the cooling systems. The weapon will fire, once. Then…" The golem shrugged, which the AI had to have picked up from somewhere. Since it looked surprisingly unexaggerated, it might actually have come from the maids. "Catastrophic meltdown, sixty percent change. Thirty percent change extreme thermal damage through emergency venting. Ten percent chance…total containment field failure and runaway mana reaction."

"I assume the last one is why we felt the ground shake a few days ago."

"Correct. The testing area has been repaired to the best of our ability, but we would appreciate assistance regardless." Continued Seraph.

"Ah, just covered the floor?"

"Not just…the floor."

"How big was the explosion?"

"The problem wasn't the detonation, it was the plasma." Said Sarah. "It has to go somewhere after all."

"Ah. The hallways?"

"Minimal damage. They're just stone. The elevator network in that sector however…The minefields detonated. There were also several ammunition detonations in the adjacent reinforced resurrection room."

"Powerful weapon."

"Agreed, but effect unreliable. Cause of it…unclear. Data recorded for future analysis." Said Seraph.

"Good job."

"Thank you milady."

"So, now that the break is over, let's get back to work! Emilia, what's-" Alexandra looked to her side, and blinked. "Right, she'll be here in a few minutes."

"Trying to recover her stamina?" Said Sarah innocently.

"No, drawing up a list of things for next time." Said Alexandra with her best poker face. If nothing else, she would be the one needing to recover her stamina! And she was inside a mana construct! "I'll pull up the list. But if I remember well, third floor boss was pretty high on it. Let's get the repairs done, then head down."

"Why do you need us?"

"I need someone to bounce my ideas' off of, and Jared doesn't speak. Besides which, Seraph can monitor everything from, well, everywhere."

"Technically only from your influence, my links would fail to give full functionality otherwise."

"How do you know that?"

"I was able to detect a significant drop in bandwidth when vampiremaid1 'Ella' went outside your influence."

Alexandra blinked. Had the facility core just given the maids variable numbers? That was kind of hilarious.

"I suppose that makes sense. Something we'll have to do a test on however." Alexandra shook her head, and clapped her hands. "Alright, enough chit chat! Let's go!"

*****

Dominique straightened her clothes as they entered the dungeon's military entrance, and Allya sighed.

"Would you please stop doing that?" Hissed the baroness under her breath. The representative was one of the few people the baroness would call a friend in this town, but her constant fidgeting was getting on her nerves.

"I'm about to meet the dungeon core to ask a favor, who by the way, is arguably the second most powerful being in the entire fucking town!" Retorted Dominique in an equally low tone of voice. "Give me some slack!"

It was a testament to how stressed she was that she dropped all propriety from her tone, and Allya's lips briefly quirked up.

"Then stopped looking like a schoolgirl about to ask out the prom king, and keep a straight face. Crystal doesn't care about appearances, she just wants to have people talk to her frankly."

"How do you know that?"

"Outside of her advisor, maids, and whatever else she has tucked in that mesa, I'm probably the person who has talked the most to her. I spent half the siege talking to her boss or exchanging messages, remember?"

"Oh. Right. Sorry." She straightened her clothes one last time, giving the baroness an apologetic smile, before her expression smoothed into a serious one as they finished walking down the ramp and arrived inside the dungeon proper.

Ranks upon ranks of golems, aligned impeccably like an army on parade, greeted them. Each and every one of them holding a bolt action rifle topped with a bayonet, causing Allya to swallow, heavily.

She still had better weaponry. The Tarkians had given her pretty good repeating carbines, but what the dungeon couldn't match -yet- in technology, she more than made up for with numbers. There was an entire twelve hundred strong battalion in the entrance, arranged in a gigantic corridor like some horribly oversized honor guard.

Dominique almost yelped before regaining her composure, and Allya could hardly blame her. This was more military force than most people ever encountered in one place, let alone saw casually used as a glorified red carpet. If nothing else, she'd be more worried if the representative hadn't reacted to the display of power.

One of the golems, dressed like a butler but fashioned with a vast range of weaponry, bowed before them, and Allya nodded back.

"I am Allya Aubétoile, baroness of Rebirth, and this is Dominique Bordeleau, representative of the adventurers guild. We are expected."

The butler bowed again, and gestured for them to follow. Allya gestured for her troops to stay there as she walked forward, Dominique in tow.

Her bodyguards looked vaguely rebellious, but they clearly understood that if the dungeon wanted her dead, she would have been a long time ago, and that this was probably the safest place in the entire town, including her own manor.

After all, she rather doubted even her new home could have survived an entire platoon of elite infantry teleporting in and proceeding to try and kill everyone. She might have been able to escape, but she never could have defeated them.

Of course the dungeon core had ended the fight by blowing her whole dungeon to kingdom come, but victory was victory regardless of the cost.

They went through the maze that was the dungeon's tunnels. Some places they crossed what looked like rail lines and even elevator shafts, others they came close to what had to be the connections to the main dungeon, given the sounds of battle coming from them and the generous and deadly minefields dotting the end of the side tunnels.

But everywhere, security was to be seen. Patrols of golems, laden with shields, swords and javelins, endlessly prowled the corridors, and regularly they came upon fortified strongholds, armed with cannons and muskets. And this was the dungeon's minimum alert level, at least according to Crystal herself.

In the half hour that it took them to navigate the mess, they passed by more firepower than Rebirth had. And she was fairly sure that they had evaded the true force concentrations. After all, she knew the dungeon had to have stockpiled at least two divisions of golems and a hundred pieces of artillery, both light and heavy, somewhere.

The fact that the dungeon had probably only expanded her military forces since then was both reassuring and terrifying to Allya.

At last however, they emerged into a heavily secure area that reminded her of the dungeon's old core room, at least back when she'd fought her way in, during her first meeting with the dungeon core.

The core wasn't here however. The mana concentration was all wrong, and given the level of paranoia Crystal had shown, the impressive defenses -five field guns, and an entire company of heavily armed golems- were too light for her core room anyway.

But behind a sizeable table laden with food and drink, seated on what looked to be a pretty decent chair, waited the dungeon's boss, clearly possessed by the dungeon core.

"Allya, and Dominique! Please, take a seat." Said Crystal as she gestured at the chairs arraigned on their side of the table. "I was given to understand that we had much to discuss, so I took the liberty of preparing some essentials." The dungeon core, through her boss, smiled. "I would be remiss in my hospitality if I hadn't, especially given your cooks' excellent cuisine last time I ate with you!"

Allya blinked. Last time Crystal had eaten anything from her cooks, it had been a sandwich during the siege. She wouldn't have called that cheese filled abomination any kind of 'cuisine' to begin with, but she wasn't about to say so to the dungeon core, that was for sure!

"Thank you, we appreciate it." Said the baroness as she walked in and took her seat, followed a second or so later by Dominique. "And we are sorry to be disturbing you. I was made aware that you had some personal business to take care of earlier?"

The dungeon core blushed -blushed!- and Allya's eyebrows quirked.

"Yes, in a manner of speaking." Crystal cleared her throat. "But regardless it is…complete, for now at least." Another blush. And there was something Allya's subconscious was trying to tell her about the dungeon core's mannerisms…"And you have something you wished to discuss with me in private."

"Correct. Dominique here wished to ask for your permission to interview some of the prisoners?"

"Oh?" It finally clicked in Allya's mind what was wrong with the dungeon core's behavior. She was positively glowing. In a way that reminded her of Pyn. Or herself. Or anyone that-

Allya buried the thought. The dungeon core's private life was not her problem, and she should not get involved, let alone make a remark that might bring Crystal's wrath down on them all. If the core could somehow get laid, or whatever the dungeon equivalent was, good on her.

"Yes milady." Said Dominique, oblivious to Allya's realization. "These prisoners have information I'd like to acquire."

"If the guild wanted me to interrogate them, you could have just sent a messenger."

"That is…not exactly what I mean. This is not a guild matter. Not entirely. I also have a personal interest in this matter, and I would have been reminisce in my duty had I not pointed it out and taken steps to make sure it would not affect anything."

"Of course. I assume this has something to do with the adventurers that were rescued?"

"Yes. More precisely, there was a fifth member of the party that was kidnapped. Her name was Alexandra Rousseau, and she…was an acquaintance, on some level. She was an extradimensional, which is the main reason of the guild's worry, and I would dearly like to know what happened to her, and if she could be rescued."

Allya blinked, as for a second the dungeon core's expression changed. Not only did she seemingly recognize the name, but she seemed…touched? Almost grateful. Why would-

For a split, catastrophic instant, insight hit the baroness like a thunderbolt.

No.

No no no NO.

That was impossible. Completely and utterly impossible.

The message that had tipped off Dominique. Delivered without trace onto Dominique's desk. The officer that had mysteriously died through neurotoxin, conveniently taking evidence with her that might have pointed to the whereabouts of that mysterious fifth adventurer.

Only one person in town had the kind of stealth equipment and chemical weaponry to make both happen.

And one person, one, had demonstrated an understanding of human culture, advanced technology and strategy far beyond anything any of her peers ever had, let alone at her age. Knowledge that even most people on Alcheryos, especially regarding such technology, would have found hard to come by, let alone learn to the level allowing them to create a naval siege gun from a the information gained from a simple rifle.

Allya's fingers tightened on her armrest before she forced herself to relax.

"Everything alright baroness?" Asked Crystal, no, Alexandra, as Allya mentally slapped herself for letting her outward expression slip up.

"Yes. I'm fine. Just a bit…angry at these slaving bastards."

"That makes two of us baroness. These assholes have a lot to answer for."

"Agreed. But they were my allies."

"Oh believe me, I have some bones to pick with them also." Said the dungeon core.

Oh, I believe you. Thought Allya, firmly repressing the part of her gibbering in horror at the terrible and terrifying realization within her mind.

"Well, I suppose we will all be happy to get our pound of flesh then."

"Indeed." The dungeon core turned towards the guild representative. "It will be my utmost pleasure to allow for the interview, Dominique. It will be under heavy guard, as I am sure you will understand, but I will arrange for it to be done immediately."

"Thank you Crystal."

"No need to thank me. It is my pleasure."