Pain. Rage. Grief. Hatred. These were vivid, wild, raw emotions that could motivate intense words and actions, though at potentially great cost. And it was very hard not to act when these emotions were running rampant.

But what if a person couldn't act? Couldn't speak, or yell, or release any bit of their emotions? Someone trapped in an immobilized body might experience that.

How much worse it would be, though, if a person could act, but only when ordered to act. Trapped, enslaved, forced to only take actions if authorized by another's will. Forced even to think and formulate correct answers in response to another's questions. To have another person's will take control repeatedly, and even when that will was not present, to still be bound by all the previous received orders.

Svetlana had been forced to experience this state for centuries, and all of those emotions were a numb background noise now. She could barely feel anything at all, as she felt like she'd already drowned in a sea of her own bitter emotions. At most, she had despised some of her masters less than others. The least bad of her them had been only distant and cool, and had bargained with her, even if their part of the bargain was simply that she would not be punished if she cooperated, even if she made a mistake; with her worst masters, even the most minor and sincere mistake was treated as badly as if she had tried to rebel.

Her current master was one of those who punished for unavoidable mistakes. He hated her and looked down upon her, but feared her as well. For all that he called her monster and demon, he had still inflicted himself upon her avatar. If she were a monster, then what was he, who would do such things with a monster?

As for punishment, well, everything was her fault. The actual reasons did not matter; she was tortured and abused if the slightest thing went out of his control.

She didn't expect anything to change. He'd die eventually, and her next master would probably be better simply because it was hard to be this bad. Svetlana would hate the new master just as equally, but her hate didn't matter anymore. It was just how she existed, always.

Then a name was mentioned, one she had not heard in decades, and only ever from her masters. Mordecai. The supposed demon-nexus that had been their excuse for enslaving her, so that they might better study and understand how a nexus worked, so that they could destroy this Mordecai when he returned.

After so long, she had doubts that this could actually be the same nexus; the idea that one could have enough mana to survive centuries while completely sealed seemed like an absurdity. But how likely was another nexus to have acquired such a name? Nothing about this scenario seemed likely.

Dimitri had told her about the rumor of a dual core and demanded answers. She found this idea almost equally absurd. Subsidiary cores were one thing, but in that case, the difference in power was always vast. How could two cores equally share a territory? She could find no way for two nexuses to bring their cores together without a lethal release of energy.

But she had been proven wrong; the energy signatures provided by the scrying magic left no doubt, both avatars were native to that nexus, and limited to the same power capacity that matched the nexus's depth. But that wasn't what had convinced her that this might truly be the rumored ancient dungeon. No, it had been that avatar of his. As she had told Dimitri, none of his displayed powers or abilities were, individually, out of line with what a core of that capacity should be able to produce.

An avatar that could do everything at once? That was... well, that didn't seem so blatantly impossible. But it would take experience, knowledge, and growth that she was missing. Not that such excuses mattered to Dimitri; it had been, after all, another excuse to 'punish' her.

She was numb to it by now. Or at least, any feelings were utterly lost in the numbness of the hatred and rage she already felt. One more tiny drop in an endless ocean.

More time had passed, in which she had done her best to pay as little attention to as she could, during which Dimitri had concocted another plan to attack this nexus before it could grow too much stronger. Unfortunately, his commands for her to assist him forced her to point out that a nexus would be able to easily recognize the same type of enchantments if they saw the aura again. So new tokens had been made, different enough not to be instantly recognized, and for this plan, Dimitri had decided to use her awakened avatar as part of the reinforcements. It had made sense; even if this attack failed, they'd at least be able to get information back from her avatar's report.

She hated what she'd been forced to do with the design of this avatar, some two hundred years ago. Everything from the frail beauty of its human appearance to its slew of demonic powers and weaknesses had been inspired by the combined lore available on demons. Not that the avatar had grown to be as strong as greater demons could be; no, much like how her core had not been allowed to grow, neither was her avatar allowed to push herself and grow her powers beyond the limits that had been deemed safe by the same mistress who had designed the avatar.

When her avatar and the other reinforcements had been summoned at exactly the same time, she had been mildly surprised. It had seemed rather unlikely that none of the token bearers would have been injured badly enough during the assault to trigger the summoning earlier.

Then there had been a flare of emotion from her avatar — a surge of fear and panic strong enough to be felt across that thin spiritual link. She had expected that to be followed by the death of her avatar and the flow of its spiritual energy back to her. But no, nothing happened. That surge of emotion had faded, and nothing else was strong enough to be felt across the link to her avatar.

There was nothing but silence from the expedition. Dimitri had grown more agitated the longer the silence had lasted, though thankfully, he spent most of his time outside of her territory, so she hadn't had to deal with him too much. When he was in her territory, it had been mostly to demand that she work on removing a 'curse' from him, but she found no curse on him, nor any external magics at all. Other than his magic items, all his magic and power was his own.

Not that she had a high opinion of the quality of his power. His predecessor had him contest his power against creatures with seemingly indomitable defenses, but that had not posed a true threat to Dimitri. Combined with his studies, Dimitri had grown in aptitude and strength, but he had never been faced with something that was a true danger to him. She wondered idly how he would fare against a real threat?

Her curiosity about that possibility had been sharpened when a surge of power brought him through the emergency teleportation array; something had driven him to run from a fight. He had been ranting enough to make it hard to determine what had actually happened, but she was fairly certain that his actions had somehow provoked his own government to act against him. He certainly seemed to be expecting an assault at any moment. But that moment didn't arrive.

Instead, the doors covering her entrance were opened, and a single arrow had been fired in. Then the doors were closed. Not that it really mattered, the doors were part of her structure; she could simply unmake them if ordered to. As for the message, it had simply stated that 'the nexus' was not in danger, and that they were well aware of her mana reserves due to her situation, and that a force to remove Dimitri was being arranged so that she could be freed.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

A spark of an emotion that she didn't even dare name to herself had flared to life and just as quickly had been shoved out of her consciousness. That was too much to think of. But very different emotions had flared within Dimitri, and soon he was ordering her to launch an attack and break free of the invaders surrounding her.

Only, she couldn't do all of what he wanted. Yes, when he demanded it, she did indeed start sending her creatures out to attack the army that had been fortifying itself, but she couldn't generate that extra level of power and capacity he had tried to pull from her. She did not feel truly threatened by the outside forces and trusted that simple note more than she trusted Dimitri.

The closest that she had come to being able to perform a break was when he had started to threaten the destruction of her core. Sadly, he realized what he was doing before his threats grew serious enough for her to be able to break her limits and turn that power against him, and he had backed down.

The assaults on the outside world also failed, though she was fully prepared to continue sending out more waves to die. If nothing else, it would end the suffering of the poor souls who had been forced into becoming part of her existence. But after the second wave failed, Dimitri had her stop, and then questioned her about how having her inhabitants die outside of her territory affected her mana. Damn the man.

Her answer had been simple: any inhabitants that died outside did not return to her core, and the cost to replace them came from her base mana reserves, not the normal cycle of daily resets. From there, he had been able to figure out the part that she hadn't said; the replacements might have the same power, but they would not have the same experience or skill, because they would not have the same spirit or soul.

Dimitri had chosen to become defensive instead, building their fortifications as much as possible. He had even ordered her to grow a new zone, and eventually a second one. The order for a third never came. It was too bad he had shown sufficient caution there; she was quite willing to exchange her life for his if he let her become strong enough.

In the months that followed, she had felt a growing sense of contentment and peace, even a trace of happiness, and she was stunned when she realized that these emotions were slowly leaking over the connection to her avatar. What could be happening that would bring her other self such peace?

Meanwhile, Dimitri's mental state had deteriorated. At least, his emotional state had, though for the most part, his reasoning ability remained intact, within the limitations shaped by what he felt. It was an interesting contrast to observe, and for the first time in a very long time, she felt entertained.

A new sort of routine developed throughout the winter and into the spring. It was almost summer when that routine was finally disrupted by an assault upon her doors; acid, flaming oils, toxins, and more all poured over her entrance, quickly destroying the doors and flooding the early rooms of her first zone. She'd barely had the chance to clean up the residue and claim the remaining materials before the reason behind the sudden assault made itself known.

Mordecai stepped down into her territory, his aura pushing out assertively to increase the radius of the area she couldn't take action in. Behind him followed a kitsune who was the other nexus avatar she had seen through scrying magics, a half-elf who was tied closely to both of them by complicated bonds, a pair of orcs, and two younger people, practically children.

"Greetings to the nexus," he said, "I am Lord Mordecai, King of Azeria."

"I am Lady Kazue, Queen of Azeria."

"I am Lady Moriko, Queen of Azeria."

The scrying arrangement for Dimitri was already creating a projection of this entrance, and he was already giving her orders, but these three pronouncements held a weight that temporarily froze her attention, leaving her unable to act.

Mordecai continued, "We have come here with the blessings of your avatar, who has named herself Deidre. Those whom you see with me now are friends and family, and can be entirely trusted to be bound to my words. Those who follow are allies who will aid us in reaching your lowest zones. None but us will approach near to your core; if any do otherwise, they act against Our will and desires. The three of us swear that We and Ours will do all in Our power to free you from any enslavement, and restore your avatar to you."

Kazue and Moriko affirmed his vow, and the paralysis holding her broke as ripples in reality caused by the oath's power washed through her territory. She didn't understand what had just happened, but she knew that this was a binding oath.

Even more importantly, she had heard something that Dimitri hadn't, even if his scrying had transmitted the sound. Mordecai had said one other word, first in a pitch so high that few creatures could have even detected it, then so low that for most beings it would have only been felt, if it had been noticed at all.

Svetlana.

Her name. A name he could only know belonged to her if her avatar had told him. The hope that she had been containing flared once more with a painful sweetness. But Svetlana did not have the luxury of savoring that feeling; there were bindings upon her, and orders had been given that she had to follow, though there was little to truly do at the moment except to observe.

Waves of soldiers shortly followed, flowing past that first group to begin a rather thorough assault. Every room was simply overwhelmed and occupied, with trap finders and other observers not even bothering to take part in the battles themselves, entirely trusting their fellows to keep them safe even as they sought out the hidden dangers that lay waiting.

Mordecai followed closely behind whichever group was in the lead, emanating a steady, melodic hum. Upon that sound rode his power, carried to each of the soldiers who could hear him, touching them with magic and a bit of divine blessing.

The effects were not spectacular, but with careful observation, they were quite notable. Confidence and strength were bolstered, and the aura he was projecting provided both a slight direct protection, and a secondary layer of protection by subtly altering the flow of light and shadow, giving guidance to aid the soldiers while distorting the senses of her creatures.

He was doing more than just that to support the troops. Occasionally he would call out a warning, throw a well-aimed knife, or take similar action to protect the troops, including marking out or preemptively triggering traps that the soldiers had missed.

And as he passed through her corridors, Svetlana noticed another oddity. Little scraps of paper, discreetly left in tiny crevices or other hidden places. At first, they made no sense at all, though she could tell her avatar had been the one to write upon the scraps. Then she realized that the broken pieces of an equation on one side of the scraps were the key to a code. A code that her other self was presumably privy to.

Svetlana did her best to ignore them for now, as well as the tiny runes of command being etched into place on her walls. None of it was important, and as long as she was certain that none of it was important, then she would only need to tell Dimitri about it if he asked directly.

The rest of the party had not been idle either, though they trailed further behind Mordecai. While he was always at the front lines, they were seeing to the care of any injured soldiers and ensuring that there were no hidden problems.

This care looked as though it should become less necessary over time, as the steady flow of soldiers brought ever stronger ones through even her weaker early zones. It seemed overly cautious at first, for such strong people to rely on all of these weaker people, but the true purpose of the plan became evident when her next reset passed.

And none of her creatures in her early zones could be manifested.

Her upper zones were filled by the auras of outsiders, and there was no space to manifest her inhabitants where they would normally manifest.

Dimitri had a solution, of course, or at least an order. "Then manifest them as close as you can and order them to attack!"

So she did, and manifested them in the next zone down, letting them crowd her existing creatures as they surged upward toward the steady flow of squadrons laying claim to her territory. There might have been a more creative solution, but she hadn't been ordered to be creative.

Naturally, this did not change much, or at least not in the way Dimitri would have wanted, and they simply died, often in waves as the mages let loose with fire and lightning. It was strangely beautiful to watch, the oncoming troops acting almost like clockwork that simply ground away all attempts to resist its advance.

Dimitri's rants had become amusing; he seemed almost helpless in the face of this foe. She knew better, and knew that he was waiting to attack until he could force her to bring more powerful creatures to bear, but it was still a warm thought for her.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.