I was inside the Dungeon, on the floor of the city of the dead with Ivan and Lilith at my side, in front of us was a man trapped in a spatial distortion pillar with his eyes closed, his body seemed normal for a Dark Elf, with the only difference that he felt many bloodlines in his body and there was a wolf's tail behind his back.
"What do you two have to say about him?" (I)
"There's no doubt, the presence of vengeance is very strong against him, I don't know what he did, but just being near him makes me itch to sink my claws into his flesh." (Lilith)
The predatory smile and her hanging eyes along with the murderous intent being emitted from her all speak volumes of her habits to torture these kinds of vermin that live among people.
"I understand why you called me, I can feel death around you, but it's not in him himself, that's weird." (Ivan)
"Yes, my Affinity with death only allows me to see so far, I can't see any further than that and I thought you would be able to see more into the cause of this strangeness." (I)
"I am going to try." (Ivan)
"< Eye of Death >" (Ivan)
I feel his Aura and Authority gather above him as forming a translucent black sphere that opens like vertical eyelids revealing a black eye with blue irises inside, blue flames erupting around him when he looks in all directions before focusing in the direction of the prisoner.
I left Ivan alone waiting for him to speak, I didn't know what he was doing to give an opinion and I stayed quiet so as not to distract him, the energy of death gradually becoming more intense in the surroundings.
"His body is alive, but at the same time dead, it is alive by a curse placed when he was still alive, but everything is wrong, the Soul of the body is not properly connected to the body, it seems more that the Soul is chaining itself to the body like to hold loose parts together by force." (Ivan)
"I can't find the Souls, but there are phantom echoes in the body, dozens of them, it's disgusting." (Ivan)
"At that point, it would be better to be an Undead with your own body than this abomination stealing body parts from those still alive." (Ivan)
"Calm down Ivan, what did you find out about this death energy?" (I)
Ivan had giant blue flames in his eyes, unlike Lilith's blatant murderous intent, all I could feel from Ivan was disgust and anger.
"That's more prominent here where there's energy from the north everywhere, so we only noticed that when we brought him here." (Ivan)
"Besides, no one would be able to notice this strangeness except for those with an Affinity with death like you and me." (Ivan)
"Could we use the people from the Church of Death?" (I)
"They should be able to identify them, but it will also depend on the strength of their individual perceptions, some can pick up on you quickly and others will need a spell or magic item to enhance their capabilities to accomplish the same feat." (Ivan)
"That alone is a good thing to discover, we have to pass it on." (I)
"If I know, then my Goddess also knows, she will surely pass it on to the Saint who will transmit it to others, they must look for us at some point I believe." (Ivan)
"Why are they looking for us? Wouldn't it be better to set up a task force among the Religions to go after them?" (I)
"The chances of doing this are great, there were some cases in history where they did this, only one of those times did the Church of Death participate because they were Necromancers, so your assumption is similar to what should happen in my understanding." (Ivan)
"Then why would they look for me?" (I)
"Don't be naive, Father." (Lilith)
"We both know the chances of you meeting them more often than anyone else is going to be 100% with that damn luck." (Lilith)
"..." (I)
"Your luck always ends up putting you at the center of problems, that's why so many religions chose to put people in their Dungeon, without you knowing Vanessa and Elizabeth have been negotiating the construction of a Sacred City for all religions to live together separated by neighborhoods, one of the reasons being the great security that a Dungeon like yours represents and another reason is to keep an eye on the problems you will encounter." (Ivan)
"I have 'Troubleshooter' written on my face by any chance?" (I)
"I can solve this, it wouldn't be too far from the truth…" (Lilith)
"Enough of this nonsense... I'll go find something to eat." (I)
Sigh
I try to leave the last part of the conversation aside, Vanessa has suggested it to me before and I can't deny the logic Ivan pointed out, so I always try to be as cautious as possible.
What I have to do now is find out more about these enemies, Astrid has given us a lot of information about them, but it's very much focused on the past and external observations, we need more information like Ivan just found out and inside information about the location of their bases of operation, their numbers, their active projects, their main plan, their ally and much more.
Having someone else in your ranks seems like a big no.
I've even thought of some plans, but I won't put anything into practice until I have better and more recent information.
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After another 2 weeks, we arrived at another of their bases, this was the school base, Astrid had already told me about the case that half of the people of their people were minors and children, and the vehicles they used to arrive in that universe were few and couldn't contain all the people, choosing a large number of healthy children to embark was a logical decision if they wanted to repopulate a new place to call their own one day.
By the time I got there, Caitlyn was already gone, but their next base wasn't that far away, it was within the same solar system, it was the main base where their main command center was, their main information base was guarded and the mines where they got the most part of the materials they use along with the factories needed to process those materials.
I hope to get these kids over with in a few days before I leave for where Caitlyn is, I can feel Alice's growing anxiety in her prayers, Zadiris is with her as well as Nicole, they are smart people who have done very well with the negotiations and preparations for my arrival so far.
When I got there I was well received as well as everyone who was with me, I insisted that Lilith, Barok, Jade, and Helena were with me, people of various races inside the Dungeon with very different bodies from Human, all this to test how both adults and children would react to these very different races.
To my surprise it was much better than the first base we went to, there were even girls trying to hit on Barok and boys doing the same with Jade.
I thought I would find children on this base, but there weren't any, the youngest were teenagers while most were young adults, but one thing they all had in common was the use of prosthetics as it was necessary to keep them alive like Astrid he spoke.
Their Awakening Ceremony process was different as I didn't give them the choice to change their races at Astrid's request, it seems that because they are young and give minds much more adaptable to the world around them, they were much more influenced through the dreams of Caitlyn than adults to the point where if given the option everyone or at least the vast majority will probably want to change their races.
Well I won't give that option to them following Astrid's wishes, but if in the future they still want to change their Race there are many ways to become a Demon or they can just ask a Vampire to transform them, but until then it's not my problem anymore.
As planned, things took longer there because of the greater number of people, but after taking care of the entire population there, I began the process of integrating the entire base into the Dungeon, leaving only a gigantic underground cave on this planet.
With everyone accommodated inside the Dungeon, I started the 1 or 2 day trip to where Astrid and the others are at the main base, which is also the last one.
I had just left the planet less than 1 hour ago when we received a transmission from Astrid's main base, as we were within the same solar system their long distance communications work much better, I had to run to the ship's room where I found a image of Nicole half-failing in a hologram.
"Why this urgency? I'll be there in less than 2 days by my calculations." (I)
"[We are in trouble, a wave of monsters is on its way to our position now.]" (Nicole)
"I thought the base was at the bottom of the planet's ocean." (I)
"[That's not the problem, the creatures coming have what Astrid calls flesh signs, but they are actually Aura disorders by integrating parts of several bodies into one as far as I understand.]" (Nicole)
"So they're acting?" (I)
"[Yes, there also seem to be some strange ships together with the Monsters, so it must be a heavy attack.]" (Nicole)
"Are they already on the planet?" (I)
"[No, but by the active sensors they should arrive in less than 1 day, preparations for the battle have already started here.]" (Nicole)
"I will arrive as soon as possible." (I)
"[I hope you follow the plan I'm on...]" (Nicole)
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