Amdirlain's PoV - Hades - Beneath the seal

The descent proceeded for a couple of kilometres through granite polished enough to shine like marble, and Amdirlain could feel the dimensional energies shifting across her skin. Oddly, it was a magic firmly laced with Chaos rather than silvery Celestial energies that was responsible.

They were nearing the bottom of the shaft when Medusa touched Amdirlain's arm and pointed to the only passage from it. "The guardian is just around the bend. It doesn't care how much noise people make, but the moment it sees you, it will try to close the gate. It reopens it if you're out of sight for a while. You'll see other levers in each section that open the gates beyond it, but close the previous gate as it does. They used to leave my head in a bag beyond the third gate, so I can't tell you anything more."

"Then you should return to the surface after you petrify the guardian."

Medusa nodded, landing at the base of the stairs without crossing in front of the tunnel; once there, she transformed into her cursed form. The asps wiggled back and forth, hissed as they rasped across her scalp, all with their gazes away from Amdirlain. Their attention fixed forward, their black eyes started to glow a bright crimson red as Medusa stepped out to look along the passage. There was a pained, disgruntled bellow, and Amdirlain followed her around the corner.

A half kilometre ahead in the passage was a section closed off by three ornate gated barriers entwined with silvery threads of celestial mana. The strands formed a tight mesh filling each space between the gateways. As Medusa had said, next to the closest lever was a forty-metre-tall Colossus. He wore the traditional garb of a Hoplite, his pale complexion showing where the stitches held together bundles of muscles across strangely formed bones. Analysis reported that its skin and muscles had been harvested from corpses and magically linked together over adamantine bones. A tidal wave of changing flesh consumed his panic-twisted features, his hand short of the lever to drop the gate. The Colossus bellowed in protest and tried to avert his face, but the petrification continued.

I won't tell Medusa I could have flown faster than he'd have reacted. I'll have to make sure she gets out safe.

The asps hissed angrily as Amdirlain stepped up beside Medusa, and she transformed back into her blond Grecian appearance. Amdirlain created some remote orbs from ectoplasm and patted Medusa's shoulder.

"Thanks, Medusa. Hopefully, I won't be in the Maze too long, but I'll have to take some things carefully."

Amdirlain left the orb hovering beside Medusa and rushed through the first gate. Though she transformed into smokey vapours, the silvery energy flayed across her, leaving a spiderweb of burns even through her protections. She rushed for the second gate as the celestial energies repeatedly struck and worked the second lever with telekinesis rather than risk a detour. The gate behind her dropped with a clang as the second started to creep up, and Amdirlain slid under it the moment there was a wisp of clearance. With the smoke of injuries rising around her, she hit the third lever and got out of the second section. Beyond the Celestial barrier, she let Phoenix's Trail end to resume a properly corporeal form and turned to wave a reassuring hand at Medusa.

"What happened?" yelled Medusa, her gaze fixed on the smoke rising from the wounds and tattered garments sealing up.

"They had a few protections applicable to me that the pendant doesn't turn off. I'll heal, but you should head back." Amdirlain projected.

"I don't know how long the Colossus stays petrified. No one ever came out with me."

"You should go now," insisted Amdirlain. "I'll work out how to get out."

"You're already injured."

"I'll heal. Please go. Dropping down that shaft, we could travel quickly, but you could be limited strictly to the Spell's airspeed while ascending. Hopefully, I can aid your departure, but I'm not entirely positive, given the magic in the shaft."

Medusa grumbled in disgust but turned and flew out of sight. Amdirlain sent the orbs after her. The ectoplasm merged into a solid plate beneath Medusa's feet and sped her to the surface. There, Amdirlain saw the seal slowly dragging the disc back into position.

Step one is to find a path to the jars; step two is to reach them without getting eaten.

While Universal Life healed her injuries, Amdirlain took in the shift in the stone a dozen metres beyond the gates. While the shaft and the initial corridors showed signs of magical polishing, the appearance of the corridor shifted. Although the passage was flat, it featured looping swirls that stood out from the stone. She sent the first scrying orbs along the passage to explore what lay ahead. The corridor had numerous junctions, with nine passages spreading out. Their routes weren't straight, but extremely erratic and winding paths. The connection to other levels varied between ramps that spiralled around open shafts with landings every nine metres or long flights of undulating stairs. She found the staircases awkwardly sized for humans; some steps were too long, others barely sized for a toddler's foot.

Despite the irregularities in the connections between levels throughout the place, most passages on a level were reasonably flat and consistently six metres high. In the back of her mind, Precognition grumbled about danger, yet provided no clear guidance. An appendage blurred out from a wall and ripped apart a scrying orb, but Amdirlain caught details from it as the serrated edge hooked through the orb's line of sight.

[Name: Herald Construct

Level: 999

Defence: 99,999

Health: 998,001

Magic: 99,999

Melee Attack Power: 99,999

Combat Skills: Body Weaponry-Saint [G] (333), Protean-Saint [G] (333), Pisionic Wail-Saint [G] (333), various innate powers.

Details: One of the first primordials to create a realm within the Far Chaos crafted these entities to serve as guardians against Eldritch incursion. They contributed to constructing your old realm and its variations, only for the Greek gods and other pantheons to claim credit. Different religions have different names for them.

Note: You're in the core of what was once Nicholaus's maze under Crete; while he expanded it, he didn't craft the original passages. Hades brought the core labyrinth and the dormant heralds here without their crafter's permission. They shifted to high alert during the translation. Oops? They have a thing for nines and balance.

Note: Please don't play with the controls in the maze's centre. Telling you to avoid blowing up the realm isn't solely helpful to you, so it's allowed.]

They've got a fraction of my health but are sturdy defensively, and that level of Protean means their healing will be through the roof. At least I don't have to worry about the Psionic attack. Gideon isn't wrong about them having a thing for nines; even the construct's health comes in at nine hundred and ninety-nine squared. At least their saint-tier combat skills are only second-tier evolutions, so my higher evolved skills should offset things in a fight. However, if they want their property protected, then destroying any of them isn't a bright idea.

She kept the other orbs going and shifted their paths to erratic movements. The aerial maneuvers saved another from savage lightning-fast strikes, and as the orb flitted down its passage, a multi-limb creature expanded from the wall to chase after it. As she caused it to zig out of the path of yet another attack, the limb sprouted spears and impaled the orb, bursting it apart.

I can think faster than the orbs can move.

Further attacks occurred as other orbs explored corridors, and the slower orbs fell quickly to the constructs' attacks. She scouted routes to reach six different levels before the last of the first set got destroyed. As she drew more ectoplasm forth to form orbs, a groan of stone came from behind Amdirlain, and she turned to find cracks developing through the Colossus. Muscles bunched tight under the outer shell, and its petrification quickly reversed. The Colossus stretched out its limbs and rolled its shoulders repeatedly before settling into its stance, its attention focused on the approach from the shaft.

With it placidly unmoving, Amdirlain created another series of orbs and sent them racing outwards through kilometres of tunnels. She had them take paths that trended downwards, memorising every route into the depths. She lost thousands of orbs but continued to send the swarms outwards. After nearly five hundred hours and millions of destroyed reconnaissance orbs, one stumbled into a nonagon chamber ninety-nine metres across. Its midpoint was the hideous female statue, with the two young monsters in her arms that Amdirlain had sensed from outside the Domain. The thing sat seven thousand four hundred and forty-three metres and thousands of passageways beneath her current location. The glimpse lasted a split second before a spike took out the ectoplasm globe.

If only I could fly at full speed through these passages, but they're too erratic to go full speed without bounding off walls. I need to improve my maneuvering skills to attempt that stunt.

Amdirlain started cycling Primordial Mana through her sigil and blazed forward.

Her descent through the first eighteen levels had her dodging dozens of chasing patrols when a trio of nine-jointed limbs speared from a wall. Amdirlain dissolved into smoke around them as she rushed to where it had emerged. As more limbs tore through her form of smoke and ash, Amdirlain stepped sideways and solidified. She continued to slip around more striking limbs and pounded the wall with multiple punches and stabbing tentacles, then retreated in an insubstantial cloud. From where she'd struck, a clear fluid leaked from a few spots where the stone appeared cracked but quickly scabbed over. After retreating further along the corridor, Amdirlain assumed her elven form, hands at the ready, and sprouted tentacles from her back.

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A section of stone from the floor and wall transformed into a sprinting thing, a central tubular core sprouting eight-one clawed limbs. It rushed towards her with its claws flailing as they screeched and raised sparks from the stone. As Amdirlain slipped to one side, it changed direction and flowed up the wall. It effortlessly clung to the stone and, halfway up the wall, pushed off to propel itself through the air in a spiral of thrashing limbs. Though it was blindingly fast for most, she took apart the pattern and dashed forward. She let the leading edge of the claw slip past, seized it, rolled, and flung it forward along the corridor. The constructs' trailing claws drew blood from her forearm as they flew past. A claw melted and slipped from her wrist as she pushed Enduring Flame to the outside of her flesh. The construct twisted through the air, then reversed into thrashing saw blades. Their movement cast wild shadows within the illumination coming from Amdirlain's Enduring Flame.

Telekinesis slipped from its thrashing form, so Amdirlain jabbed and blasted the construct down the corridor with a white phoenix. Its form shed the Primordial fire and shifted again, sprouting clawed tentacles that scrabbled for purchase. It swung inwards towards the right wall and speared a trio of tentacles towards her. Amdirlain entwined them with her own and whipped them repeatedly between the floor and the ceiling. The construct coiled inwards and surged along her tentacles, but Amdirlain shifted them away. The empty tentacles shifted into drills as it flew towards her, only for Amdirlain to swat against a wall. It bounced off wildly, and using the opening, a flurry of metal phoenixes erupted from Amdirlain's hand to drive it the length of the corridor and crush it against the end wall. The wall remained intact as the pieces ripped from the construct began to pile up, yet the ongoing damage quickly sealed over. As she added spells to scour away at the construct, the shed mass only accumulated faster. The sound of more scratching came from within the staircase, and Amdirlain held in her frustration.

"Can you communicate? I'd prefer not to fight you."

Its health is incredibly deceptive, given its Protean rating. Can I kill these damn things? Should I? Gideon negotiated something for their translation, and their maker requested they be on high alert.

It braced and leapt towards her, expanding to fill the corridor and sealing off the turn at the end. Amdirlain stopped cycling and resumed instantly with Destruction Mana; her flesh turned into an inky darkness that drank light. She rushed forward to meet the rushing wall and transformed into a swirling cloud of blackness that chewed into the construct. Pressed against it, she sensed the multidimensional extent of its form. Though tempted to twist herself to match it, she consumed only the immediate physical mass and rushed past it. She continued through the twisting passages, dancing through gathered constructs and leaving sundered pieces in her wake. She took in their varied themes and the connection to their maker, and then sped on before they could gather themselves to attack again.

In a way, they're like my construct army. I guess I didn't have an original idea after all. Still, they don't have Spell Gaze.

The noise of thousands of constructs echoed through the corridors as Amdirlain raced onwards. Her course took her into a large spiral chamber that descended twenty levels, only to find thousands of constructs braced to leap towards her. Among them was a humanoid figure of liquid metal pointing back the way she'd come.

"Leave." The barked order came in Greek.

"Can you take me to your leader?"

The constructs stopped, and another shifted into a form that almost matched her Elven Form for proportions, only made of a green oily liquid. "You are an intruder. You will leave the maker's observation platform."

Observation platform?

"I agree that I'm an intruder. May I offer compensation and claim the souls I seek? They don't belong to your maker."

"That is not within our range of operations. We must ensure all intruders leave or perish."

"Do you have anyone in command who can decide on matters outside your allowed operations? I'm seeking a statue that is a three-part Soul Jar. I can even show you an image. Once I've retrieved those inside, I'll leave immediately."

"Allowing you to remove anything from the observation platform contradicts our instructions."

"If this is an observation platform, surely you have some way to report back when anything unusual happens."

"Contact with the maker is strictly regulated. A request from an individual of your status doesn't fall within the guidelines for energy expenditure."

"What if I provided the energy to contact them?"

"You've already damaged constructs. You are an intruder and must leave."

"Your constructs struck at my scouting orbs and me first. No one came to me to request that I stop or attempted contact. This could be resolved easily. To explain my presence, the Greek gods hid a three-part Soul Jar before this observation platform was moved to this realm. I'm after the Soul jars' contents, not your maker's possessions. You can keep the objects, just let me rescue the three souls from their captivity."

The figure looked over the ledge at a larger construct with a shape similar to a crown of thorns starfish that entered from the bottom of the spiralling chamber. Dozens of long, hooked tentacles shot from it to grab the ledge closest to Amdirlain. It squeezed up through the centre of the spiral until the spines across its top drew level with Amdirlain's eyes. "You are Fallen and not to be entrusted with souls."

No mouth had shown up; instead, the vibration of the spines produced the words.

"It's only my species because of a curse, not because I got rejected from the heavens," corrected Amdirlain.

The green liquid figure turned to the larger construct before it spoke again. "Not an unknown possibility. What proof do you have?"

Amdirlain ran Ki through her sigil. After a few quick cycles, golden light shone through her clothing and washed over the surrounding constructs. "Is that sufficient proof?"

Some eyestalks on the latest arrival swivelled between the two liquid figures, before some of its spikes turned into mouths that spoke in unison. "That energy manifestation is recognised. Its frequency matches that of the manifestations among the pantheon known as the Jade Court in various observed realms. We will enquire with the local creators, but a response might take several years. You will allow us to move you to the entryway. You will wait there and not reenter the platform without permission."

"Have you sent the enquiry yet?"

"It will be sent once you are back at the entryway. We will send nothing if you resist. Manifest any resistance and aggressions will resume."

"Very well."

She recognised the Spell that enfolded her, and Amdirlain didn't resist. The Teleport shifted her to just before the edge of the organic-looking stonework. The oily green figure stood on the swirls, managing only a single step backwards before it stopped. "Why do you warrant a sub-nanosecond response?"

"You sent a Message to Gideon?"

"We sent it to Gideon and heard from his maker. The information indicated you are to be trusted. Will you pay compensation for your intrusion and the damages?"

"Reasonable compensation. I still need the souls from the Soul Jar."

The figure partly turned, and its head dipped. "This is outside our operating parameters."

"I apologise for the intrusion." Amdirlain created an illusion of the chamber and the figures. "To avoid going into your platform again, perhaps you could bring this Soul Jar up here, and I'll claim the souls from it. Then you are welcome to keep the Soul Jar."

"The souls are in the jar; therefore, they are part of the object's integrity."

"Then we need to speak to someone who can decide if it's allowed."

"If we do not?"

"I'd prefer to do so peacefully, but I'm getting them back."

"Why do you place such importance on these three? This observation platform has recorded details of trillions of souls moving about this realm. Explain, or your request is denied."

"Do you understand the importance of family? Nicholaus would like to be reunited with his wife and two sons. The Greek gods put their souls in that Soul Jar. Effectively, you have them captive by refusing to allow me to rescue them."

The green construct bodily twitched. "We will go to the communication hub."

Amdirlain felt another Teleport Spell enfold them and didn't resist.

The vast chamber they arrived in twisted at her eyes, every surface composed of oddly nesting nonagons, that had everything twisted off true. Nines appeared everywhere, from the nonagon doorway to the far side of the chamber, being ninety-nine kilometres away. The distance to the edge of the first ledge was ninety-nine metres. A set of stairs extended from the centre of each side and descended ninety-nine meters. The nine steps led down to a nonagon platform that floated above an empty void in the chamber's centre. Scattered across that platform were a series of irregularly shaped free-standing stones, the smallest nine metres tall. The precise lines of the rest of the chamber emphasised their oddity.

"You need to stand on the centre platform alone. Then the maker will commune with you. They will advise us of the outcome."

Commune?

Precognition was silent, and Analysis confirmed it was indeed a communication relay. Without even a single note from Gideon, Amdirlain crossed her fingers and moved to the centre.

A rasping noise came from the standing stones around her as the ceiling turned into an eye filled with stars that peered into her depths. The headband around her Soul stopped contracting her and pushed back, but the pressure still encapsulated her. The force of it crushed down on her and drove Amdirlain into the ground. A translucent conduit appeared beneath her, and sucked in by the threshold of the wormhole she felt herself turn inside out. Sounds became textures, then thousands of scents bloomed. The conduit stretched Amdirlain beyond the realm, and time distorted. Reality returned with a snap, and she curled into a ball, momentarily taken aback by Phoenix's Symphony being disabled. Screams ripped from her throat as she forced her focus through the flames searing at her Soul, and reactivate the Power.

Shivering in the aftermath, Amdirlain blinked and found the green figure standing out of arm's reach. "I didn't speak with anyone."

"Incorrect. You were briefly gone from the realm, and a discussion took place with the maker."

I can't remember any discussion.

"What counts as briefly?"

"Seventeen years."

Worry twisted knots of tension through her, but Amdirlain quashed them.

"Why can't I remember the trip?"

"The maker is too far beyond you. They elevated you for the negotiations and restored you to your current state. We will provide you access to the souls. You will provide full repayment for your distraction if you can restore yourself. In the meantime, you are to provide material for constructing additional security agents, and then we will allow you to access the three souls."

"What is the full repayment?"

"That discussion was between the maker and you. We're not privy to the details. No doubt you will understand the price if you can restore yourself."

Other than yanking me out of the realm without warning.

"Yet I can't remember the discussion. What else do you know?"

"It is a price you agreed to. In the short term, if you provide us with aid, you get access to the souls. The rest requires your restoration. Do you wish to stand or remain prone?"

I've got another bloody, unknown debt.

Amdirlain reformed standing. "If I can access my full range of powers, I can make the materials faster."

"We'll neutralise the Domain suppression for you shortly."

Teleport enfolded her again.

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