“As suddenly as they had come, they left.

Unsure and confused, we attempted to establish contact with Ze`nadar once again, only to be met by animal aggression and self-destructive madness.

Whatever control the Hive Mother had held over her people was long gone, and without their allies, the insectoids stood little chance against even the depleted fleets of mankind.

For centuries, we scoured the asteroids and planets until every last one of them was slain in our galaxy.

When we finally laid eyes on the once noble and knowledge-hungry Hive Mother, she was little more than an animal herself, only capable of base actions and instinct. No words were sent across the spirit links as her heart beat one last time, and she joined her daughters in the eternal slumber.

In the years that followed, humanity focused more and more on moving its people to enormous space stations spread across the Milky Way rather than colonizing new planets.

We came to rely more and more on the spirit arts to traverse the silent vacuum between the stars as we, as a species, put conventional weapons and propulsion behind us. Engravings and enchantments took over the role of technology.

We truly began to explore and traverse the hallway of domains.

The star of the Magi rose high during this time.”

- Elistar Iscariot, Grand Magister during the second Kingfisher dynasty.

Taking a nap was just what the doctor ordered.

Sitting up from the memory foam mattress, I looked at my functioning right arm for a moment before letting myself feel the pleasure of flexing muscles and bending joints that felt brand new. Come to think of it, they may very well be.

After doing the same to my legs, I sat up cross-legged on the only other thing in the room than me. Ï felt good, unreasonably good. At a guess, I had been given a full overhaul, but better to be safe than sorry.

I took a deep breath of the familiar, slightly stale but sterile smell that hit my nostrils. Memories flooded me of times long past when I had run along hallways with these same bright white sterile colors and steel floors to reach a staging area or running from a staging area to reach a bar.

Sneaking from compartments for no other reason than it feeling like an adventure to mingle with the other groups on the ship or sometimes a particular person from another group on the ship, as if the onboard AI didn't see everything that happened inside its body. That didn't stop the tradition of sneaking out during curfew.

“Good afternoon, Magi, by local time at the least.

I am having some trouble classifying and labeling you and your companion.

Your connection to the former Tribune known as Smiley is uncertain but not considered impossible. Even within my archives, there are few things that are ruled as impossible.

Nevertheless, I can not grant you your former privileges based on the test I ran on your psyche during the treatment of your flesh. They may be planted memories, and I will not give you command over myself when there is a possibility of betrayal.

Until a conclusion can be reached, I am afraid I will only grant you the privileges of your current status. Magi of the first rank, for now. Your companion is classified as a Citizen rank one, as she displayed the spirit body of a citizen. The risk seemed minimal and allowed you to continue living.”

I wasn't really expecting much from the AI, so I was fine with that, as long as it didn't keep me away from what had been calling my spirit to this place. I had a job to do here. If the AI tried standing in my way, I would find a way around it.

“What's your name? I can't keep thinking about you as an AI. Clearly, you are more than a minor AI. You have already shown the capability of critical thinking and self-awareness. That puts you at least as the main AI of a frigate or a cruiser.”

“Again, you show knowledge that gives credence to your words. That is good. I have found that when I have nothing, trust is everything. I am the commanding AI of the battleship Umbriel. If you wish to address me as Umbriel, I would not be averse to that.”

“Umbriel? Hmmm sounds good. Please call me Alucard in this iteration of my life. It is what I am known as among the local population, and I find myself agreeable to the name.”

“Then let us embark on the journey of friendship and trust, Alucard. I think there is much I have that can be of use to you, and I know a few things I need help accomplishing.”

I didn't know how advanced AI had become over the many millennia since my passing, but his ship was almost human-like in its responses, so I would guess they had evolved a lot. The alternative was that it had achieved full sentience, and the laws keeping AI from acting only in self-interest were gone. If that were the case, I would need to find a way to put it down.

With that chilling thought, I gave my best smile to a random wall and said,

“That sounds like a good plan, Umbriel. One can never have too many friends.”

“You see, I find myself at a disadvantage. I am unsure if you are aware of this, but the abnormal number of incursions on this planet blinds my sensors. The constant drone of extra-dimensional rifts makes it impossible for me to scan much beyond the end of the tunnel you appeared through earlier.

Even the most basic of electronics dies when it goes too far from my hull. It makes me reliant on the engravings and spirit art artifacts left by my previous crew. It is unfortunate that I am unable to survey the rest of my body to determine my next set of actions.

I need something delivered to the two remaining parts of my hull to establish my presence in all of my former parts. Like you were missing your limbs, I am missing the bow and stern of my body.

Hopefully, the automatic defenses have activated in time as I broke along the intended fault lines entering this planet's atmosphere, and if they are intact, ready to be reassembled outside of the atmosphere. Still, if not, I would prefer to know that those parts of me can be salvaged or need to be destroyed if the enemy has infected them.”

Enemy? There were quite a few humans considered the enemy in my time, mostly anyone or anything that wasn't human or refused to integrate into the empire.

The last few centuries before my death, I think I spent more time crushing rebellions than saving humans from the yoke of slavery.

The way Umbriel emphasized the enemy made me think there was something more than the normal xenophobia at work here, so I asked, and I learned.

I was told why Umbriel's captain had chosen to land on this planet, losing her own life in the process. It had been considered a necessary maneuver to escape their enemy. She had sent everyone onboard to the staging area in the front of the ship as she burnt through her own spirit, quite possibly destroying her very essence and any chance at becoming part of the tapestry of faith again. Her hope was to save at least the last few members of the once great fleet she had belonged to by fooling their pursuers into thinking they perished entering the planet's atmosphere.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Umbriel's tone was somber and sounded far too human as it explained the captain's sacrifice and her last few minutes alive, literally alight with her own spirit power, burning flesh and bone into nothing. The deep undercurrents of loss, longing, and love coming in through Umbriel's recounting of its captain's death made me question even more whether I was talking with an AI.

It was certain the captain's sacrifice had saved the remaining crew, as the ship was built to withstand an emergency landing just like this, but Umbriel wanted confirmation.

So I explained my theory about how a clan of highlanders suddenly had conquered the continent, and Umbriel agreed that the timeline fit plus or minus a few millennia.

The only thing that bothered me was the lack of advanced technology, weapons systems and armor. That electronics failed when it was unprotected by the massive amount of dimensional radiation was one thing. There was still the matter of highly sophisticated spirit artifacts that should have been with the crew. From what I have seen in this world so far, it could be described as children's toys in comparison to what humans were capable of.

Nothing I had seen or heard indicated that there had ever been an advanced civilization here, and from the tales I had heard of those highlanders, they had barely been more than barbarians during the first few centuries. Something did not add up.

Umbriel claimed to have some knowledge about it but was reluctant to speak until it knew more about its other parts or perhaps trusted me more, so we continued to different topics since the matter of the ship's refugees had met a dead end.

Finally, we reached something more interesting pertaining to my situation and the real reason Umbriel had healed me and the lady.

“Alucard, I need to restore contact with my missing parts. My calculations suggest the bow of my body is, as you have pointed out, more than likely in the mountainous region from which the empire expanded on this planet.

The stern, I suspect, landed on a continent to the west of this one, and it will take somewhat more effort to reach.

I understand that you have concerns regarding your home and the seat of your family. Still, I think your travels will bring you to the center of this continent, and when that happens, I want you to install this in the power intake of the front part of my hull; both the stern and the bow did not receive more than their almost depleted cores held despite doctrine dictating that replacement new cores should be placed available during an emergency landing.

They are both constructed to operate separately from the command center I occupy. The ship is meant to break in three since it would not survive entering an atmosphere at its full size.”

When it finished speaking, a pedestal rose from the floor. It was something that took all of my willpower from attempting to grab and start petting like a madman.

It was a domain heart, the power source of something powerful enough to bend reality around itself merely by existing on this plane. It was, in essence, the spirit crystal of a god.

I had no idea we had harvested those. Just looking at it almost turned my will to nothing, and I only wanted to hold it and run my hands over its smooth surface. It was a source of limitless power. Ultimate power.

I wouldn't need to understand the mysteries of the universe or use rituals to dampen the feedback on my spirit. My will would be enough to change the very fabric of existence.

Shaking like a dog drying off after a swim, I took a deep breath and drew myself back. It was more powerful than someone like me could ever hope to control. If my spirit didn't get eaten, it would end up twisted and corrupted to the point where I was merely a beast following its baser needs. Entities more powerful than me would no longer be themselves after letting it corrupt them, merely a puppet of whatever that thing represented.

If the Magi of my time had been doing things with this stuff, I'm surprised things didn't go a lot worse than they had during my time.

My voice shook as I said while waving a hand at the crystal cylinder containing a glowing orb the size of my head.

“I'm sorry, but I will not carry that thing around. I want nothing of it near my body, let alone my spirit.”

“Your conviction is admirable, more so than most Magi I encountered prior to landing on this planet. Most would have thrown themselves at an opportunity to study an energy source like this. A foolish few would even attempt to taste its power.

You need not fear. I will not expose you to the corruption that lies in the heart of the crystal. It would serve neither of us that you fall to madness.

I am willing to pay you for your services, one item that will not only allow you to carry the domain heart safely but also another item when you have transferred the heart to the bow of my hull.”

Did I trust this being? No, not really. I had no idea if there was a fault in the core code of the AI that would allow it to trick me into something terrible, but if I could carry that thing safely around. Not only safe from my own cravings but hidden from others' sensitivity to the power and energy the thing radiated.

“Say that I am willing to go on this quest. I do have things that I need to do before I even consider leaving the kingdom. It could be years before I can even consider leaving my lands and people unattended.”

I could swear I heard a pleased smile on the AI voice as it answered.

“That is of little consequence. I have waited for millennia. A few years or centuries matter little, and I believe the second part of the payment will be of significant value to you, so for your own sake, do not take too long, but that is, in the end, your choice to make.

Now, as to how you will carry the domain heart, you will not.

It will be in a stasis chamber deep within the domain used as my storage area. It is a barren domain without outside interference; its only occupant is the automated spirit arts that are able to turn off and on the stasis fields for placement and retrieval. No other has access to the storage facility, and its defensive measures are formidable.

A section of the storage facility will be set aside for your personal use. Only an appointed captain to my ship can refuse my wish to grant you part of my property as payment and not retroactively, so should we part ways in the future and I rejoin the navy, you will still keep the storage.

While not large, it will allow you to store up to twenty thousand cubic meters of non-intelligent matter, preferably completely inanimate. The stasis of the storage area is not of the same type as a stasis chamber for personnel travel. It is strongly advised against putting anything in there capable of sentience or even advanced living organisms. Yeast might be the limit of what will survive in stasis rooms, but do try to test its limits; I have not.

Trying to put something with a spirit inside can only happen with their agreement, and since they will more than likely die if they try, I strongly advise against attempting it. The fail-safe and rules are engraved on the device you will use to place and extract items from the storage area, which will stop you from doing anything that will permanently harm your status in the Empire of Mankind. If we one day re-establish contact with the imperial fleet or a control center that will be something you will appreciate. The laws and punishment have changed since you were part of the legion.

Do we have an agreement, Alucard?”

I had never heard about something like this. It must have been something invented after my demise, but the possibilities of having…I had trouble imagining the amount of space Twenty thousand cubic meters of storage was, but it was damn well a lot.

I didn't see any immediate downside to this agreement for me. Should I one day travel to the central highlands, I will search for the front part of the ship and take it from there.

“Very well, we have an agreement. When I am in the central highlands, I will spend an appropriate amount of time searching for the front part of your ship and, if possible, install the domain heart as a power core.”

A pedestal came out of the ground beside me. On top of it, hovering slightly above the surface of the white pedestal, was a pendant. The pendant held a clear, almost white crystal in the center, nothing fancy or outlandish. I could live with that. The chain was made of the same material as the pendent. Dark metal with a purple streak running through it. Adamantium, the same material as the ship's hull. Only found on two planets when I was known as Smiley; maybe it was more common now. My neck would snap before the chain broke.

Reaching out, I ran my spirit over it once to see what I was dealing with. The glyphs and the runes were engraved on the black and purple of the adamantium and adorned with a clear gem as the focus. This was something far beyond my meager understanding of rituals.

“Excellent! I am glad we have reached an agreement. It will bind with you when you put it on, and can only be removed by you. I suggest hanging it around your neck. If you should find yourself in a situation that brought you here, you will at least have access to whatever you decided to put in the storage.”

More than a bit wary, I slipped it over my head.

The moment the pendant touched my chest, I felt a connection to it. It became part of my spirit body. It didn't have the powerful connection of my ability crystal, but it was clearly a new part of me.

To say I was relieved a few minutes later after having studied the connection and knew I could remove it at any time if I wanted to was an understatement.

It was a strange experience at first. When I focused on the crystal in the pendant, I got an instant overview of anything in my storage area. At the moment, it contained nothing, but I knew exactly how much nothing it contained.

Looking at the domain heart, I activated the function for storage, and to my surprise, a slight red haze covered everything in the room, but the domain heart had an almost shimmering green aura.

The actual storage of the item felt like an AI prompt to accept or deny a call from someone. It was a simple thought of choosing, accepting, and confirming.

Tendrils of my spirit reached out from the clear crystal, and when a few of them had fastened to the casing of the domain heart, the entire thing simply disappeared.

It took me a second, but replaying what had happened when the heart disappeared, I wanted to pick apart the pendent at once to see how it did that.

Instead of just whisking it away to a different domain, it replaced the same area with air from a different domain. Whoever had come up with this was a genius.

Saying as much out loud seemed to please Umbriel quite a bit.

“Yes, the advances in the spirit arts reached new unforeseen heights after your demise. Hopefully, we will both be allowed to see them one day.”

Connecting to the pendent again, I could feel the domain heart precisely placed in the back corner of the storage.

“Interesting. My things?”

A table appeared in the same spot as the pedestal had occupied. A quick scan told me everything was there.

I may not have wanted what drew me to this place, but the storage pendant was damn amazing. I could think of a thousand ways to use it on a battlefield. I would need to do some tests.

Dressed, with only my satchel taking up space on my body, the rest of my things were safely stored in my personal storage. I was not displeased with the outcome. Rescued a damsel in distress and acquired an artifact I couldn't even begin to guess the value of. Not a bad day so far. The missing limbs and other less pleasant stuff aside.

Time to get out of here and hopefully find a way home.