With the core of Iris's plans complete, the ground of House Hun'ana's central annex was inclined some 30 degrees, with the main entrance sealed beneath the floor and the mines at the base of this large hill some 300 meters away. The enemy was present in every direction and orientation, largely descending the walls like a living mudslide as they desperately fought to right themselves and slay their intruders in the same breath.
Waxy webs encompassed the space in an instant, twanging and flexing beneath the force of the dwarven war machinations being dragged into key positions while everything from cranes to ballista-sized wands flung their quarrels indiscriminately into the fray. Largely ignoring the masses, Z'ress, Z'rynda, and Iris remained in the cavern's center, guiding souls, spreading healing domains for Aqsa and Oliva, and latching on to her mana spread throughout the Central Annex, respectively. Unlike with the spell she cast before, Iris pooled her divine mana into the point of her spear and held it aloft while a stream of data radiated soundlessly from her mind, activating the powers of her prayer that birthed the blue light of augmented life.
The divine light of a Clerical Druid shone on the masses like the heat of a cruel sun, burning away channels in the beetle-like mining constructs crowded in the back. They skittered and spasmed as her circuitry spread across their bodies, shifting materials and energy to form systems of self-regulation that often crushed the dwarves piloting them. If not, they were crushed as the beetles rushed to gorge themselves on the scattered ore or turned their drill-like horns on the spiders.
Witnessing their clash saw Z'rynda tap into her connection with Iris and lob another spell, with this one being thrown much faster, and aimed at the drow and spiders skittering up the walls and ceiling to flank them. Even then, it arced through the air like a grenade fired from a launcher, landing between their formation to release a domain of vibrant blue-purple energy that spread and spread and spread to encompass the Central Annex as a whole. Rather than attack their manned machines, their raw materials and the things made from them were extracted and aggregated in the domain's center; a process that went largely unnoticed by all, other than the faint hiss it produced. Until, one by one, those things once toiled for burst into dust.
Stones, long-since shaped into buildings, fell in a matter of seconds, leaving metal frames and fungal-wooden interiors to rust and wither like the swords and armor wielded by their slaves. Not even the dwarven machines turned against them were safe, their fames decaying and reforming beneath the domain in ways that left them inoperable. Even then, however, the spiders did not stop and the drow hardly let up. Regardless, so many stunned slaves gave Aqsa the space she needed to release her Lairnade into the room's dead center.
A spire, much like Iris' spear, erupted from the thing the moment its glass shattered against the ground, impaling the stone to raise three spinning prongs that glowed a bright blue until ratcheting to a halt with a loud ping.
The ensuing blue wave attacked the house much more violently than before, as blue webs of mycelium spread to colonize the countless tapestries, statues, and trinkets created en masse by the slaves, reforming them into the exotic grasses, trees, and plants of Iris' domain. The gaps they left in the stone were replaced with glowing conduits reminiscent of the circuitry on my arms as it spread to connect to doors, windows, levers, and every other device in reach; and like a star going supernova, the augmented beings felt their senses blossom.
The moment the House's machinations were transferred to Iris, the party split in dissimilar ways. Deeke, Erja, Margo, and Kane raced, sprinted, danced, and snaked toward the residential and slave wings while Iris barreled through the ceiling to enter the Matron's wing, leaving the siblings to rush down the rear tunnels to the lesser House Hun'ep.
Z'rret and Z'benna took point, with the former using his heavy armor and glaive to push back the defenders and the latter on the ceiling, unleashing his adamantine quarterstaff on the heads of those who failed to look up while Z'rynda's domains did all manner of healing, decaying, and corrupting their surroundings. Still following her protocols, Z'ress held off on using her power until she reached House Hun'ep's main industrial space. Then, like a feral dog jumping the fence, she tapped into the seed of divine mana given to her by Iris and released it indiscriminately.
Again, a blue wave rippled across the voluminous compound, carving deep gashes in the alchemical plants, tanning facilities, furnaces, and warehouses to lay divine circuits in their frames. This time, however, those circuits drew in the carved stone, gems, and shaped metal meant to decorate this place and spread them through their new foundations. Within moments, their vats, basins, cauldrons, and pallets shifted and rotated in their holdings as they were pulled deeper into their frames and shrouded behind metallic maws and ceramic hides. Their operator's stations became computing systems in the core of their frames; gems and metals accumulated on their faces and reformed into sensor arrays that looked down distastefully at the sprawling web of flesh surrounding them.
The sight seemed to birth mechanical groans that rippled from their cores to their support columns and beams, increasing in pitch until a great crash signaled their decoupling, bringing countless eyes to witness the gargantuan arms and legs actuating to quake the ground with their first steps.
Given arcane intelligence and self-regulation, those behemoths grew disgusted by the chemicals, tanning agents, molten metals, and resources filling their gullets; so they upturned them. A foul hiss echoed as the acidic compounds swept over the gathered masses, bubbling and roiling evermore from the magmatic concoction splattering the arcane shields, enchanted gear, and demonic chitin on its shores; until they too were swept by the tide. Even then, the drow, demon-spiders, and their slaves did not fall, and the Hun'ana siblings did not falter. Z'benna rushed to the middle of those industrial behemoths to implant the Lairnade while Z'rret covered him, zig-zagging between the spiders to smash their legs beneath his quarterstaff, supported from above by Z'rynda's domains.
Once the ping echoed, the wave left pockets of glowing blue mana that churned and roiled in place, producing a distinctive warbling sound as it dragged space along with it, eventually tearing the fabric of reality open to allow the recycling caste of Iris' domain to warp through.
Augmented bears and lions tore through the ranks of spiders and drow, uncaring of the spells bouncing harmlessly off of their synthetic hides as they sought to lap up the pools of volatile liquids before them. Hyenas, jackals, and wolves followed, their metallic fangs clashing against the swords and quarrels of the shocked enemy. They, and more like them, swarmed in ever-increasing numbers as the Lairnade redistributed House Hun'ep's scattered infrastructure and materials, opposed at every angle by the enemy. Only a small minority reached the chemicals and molten metals they desperately sought. Yet the enemy was not what stopped them.
The precious resources they sought were claimed by the MycoMithral web, making those beasts turn toward the last remaining materials in sight - those refined things worn by our enemies.
The augmented foxes, lions, and wolves tore into the enemy with wild abandon, meeting their blades with steel-shattering teeth to leave drow and slaves alike armless. While some were cleaved by adamantine weapons, those were soon freed from drow hands by augmented rats and ravens boring through gloves and plucking weapons out of their hands to be pecked and integrated into their beaks and teeth. Ants and lizards attacked from below to disassemble boots and dismantle their brooches and jewelry while raccoons and vultures dove from above to prey on helms and holy symbols; and through it all, Z'rret and Z'benna raced, making light work of the disarmed enemy while Z'rynda's buffs kept them healed and energized.
Z'ress, however, was fighting a different battle.
The seed of divinity given to her by me enabled her to see the ghostly visages peeling off the dead as I did. As I passed my eyes over them, squinting into the crimson webs descending to take them, she swung her hand of judgment, severing those webs to send their souls rocketing up to my heaven or plummeting down to my hell - my Underworld. Through it all, the Lairnade redistributed House Hun'ep's stockpiles of material and, at last, was ready to fabricate.
It came with no rise or warning. A silent wave radiated from the gadget, making the ancient murals and carvings lining the walls crumble into obscurity as the wave rose to the arched ceiling above and unveiled the smooth innards of a metallic shell. Shattered stalactites fell amidst dusty boulders and fell further as the floor crumbled beneath the scattered masses. Arteries and veins of flowing energy and matter were unveiled as the wave swept to either side, one toward the Falls to detach the structure from the spider's body, the other chased by the Hun'ana siblings toward their dying home.
The siblings stormed through the lesser house's rear exit and pushed into House Hun'ana's mines to find themselves in an unfamiliar environment. The cavern, tunnels, and mines were coated in a lumpy web of glowing silver-blue fibers occluded by a hailstorm of fire. Spells and quarrels rained from all directions and altitudes, largely pelting off the shields and hulking armor of Aqsa and Oliva while Gaheris darted around the background, shifting his form whenever he broke the line of sight to position himself for a long shot. Knowing no one who shared their blood was among the enemy, Z'rret and Z'benna rushed beneath the shroud of Z'rynda's green-hued Repair Domain; again at different angles. Z'benna took up a defensive position between the two hulks and the augmented elf, using an arcane tower shield to deflect the endless rain so Gaheris could sustain covering fire for Z'rret on the hunt.
The green field of latent energy healed more than the augmented beings, however. It provided much-needed energy to the silver-blue caps pinning atop the mycelial web. They positively radiated with pleasure, pulsing and glowing as they expanded into troops of mushrooms the size of bowling balls. Moreover, it flowed into the growing number of dwarven and deep gnome slaves who took the chance to fight for their freedom. The blue conduits flowed into their feet unnoticed, carrying with them repurposed materials to replace damaged flesh with synthetic skin, machine muscle, and false nerves. Prosthetic limbs grew from nubs that never knew they were maimed and struck back with twice the fervor.
The sight made more slaves lift their eyes to the divine beings above them, throw their arms, and plead for salvation. Yet the prayers of orcs, ogres, elves, goblins, dwarves, gnomes, and humans alike fell silent to Iris' senses, for she cared not about the plights of the flesh. And so, I walked in spirit amidst the field of the dying, watching the augmented herbivores warped in by Margo and Kane's Lairnade stampede in from the slave annexes to add to the carnage.
In several cases, I looked for piety and saw placements instead; potential, made by these present circumstances and the latent energies associated with them. Seeds that transcended loyalty, zeal, and even classes, and so I sowed them with the Undying Touch and germinated them with a bit of the ArcaTech's essence, leaving the rest to be slain by Iris' branch of life and delivered by Z'ress. Yet no amount of trampling could halt their fervor. No number of ruptured organs or shattered bones could break them. Even as a mangled mess of groaning flesh, they prayed to Iris and rejoiced as another answered.
The ArcaTech's essence seeped into the deepest parts of their flesh, rewriting their genes to those of paragons before the green energy of Z'rynda's domain could flow into them. Metals, leathers, cloth, ceramics, glass, gems, and in the dwarves' case, the very stone was reduced to a molecular stream and pulled into their bodies to manufacture enhanced frames, and like a magnet, Iris' divine mana was drawn to them.
As if he anticipated it, Kane armed them with gadgets and they scattered to the winds, merging into the stampede of augmented herbivores to either reclaim what was lost or hunt those attempting to flee. Like the augmented beasts, they seemed to instinctively take heed to not disturb the growing mushrooms scattered throughout the mines, even as they gave their all against the spiders that would not falter and the drow who would not fall.
Cut off from any escape, the enemy was like cornered dire rats, taking hold of the rich arcana to weave the deadliest spells imaginable. Yet even that would not save them. Unlike their scavenging cousins, the horses, cows, giraffes, goats, herbivorous insects, and other primary consumers looked upon the scattered biomass; wanting, for in them was the hydrogen and carbon they needed to synthesize Vehsipane. And so they swarmed, stampeded, and barreled through the crowd to lash at the enemy. Yet, the slaves did not yet falter; even while the enemy began to fall.
They began to falter once the grating cacophony of an animated industrial park echoed from the tunnels at the far side of the room and melded with the neighs, moos, buzzing, and calls of the growing stampede. The annex was already packed with those unyielding beasts of metal and ceramic and those stone-sized caps growing from the mycelial web. Thus it became outright claustrophobic once Margo barged in, preceding the energy waving off her Lairnade and the army of secondary consumers it spawned.
The prey, feasting on the rich biomass of our enemy, skittered and flapped away at the first sight of their predators. Frogs the size of treasure chests bounded, crashing atop anything in their paths to eject their glowing guts into the fray, seeming to aim at the empty air, only to leave the bulbous belly suspended before him. The buzz it produced made the songbirds, waterfowl, rabbits, and lizards scatter just moments before the prey and the enemy's equipment cascaded inward, pulled by magnetic fields that could rip apart cars.
With the enemy caught between nature's oldest game mixed with a mechanical stampede, Z'ress once again released a divine domain to guide the souls before the crimson webs could claim them. In turn, her divine mana's natural effect reacted with the augmented flora blooming across the environment, not to Animate Machines as before, but to birth her flair of biomechanical creatures and weave the remainder into bridges leading to each of the claimed wings.
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The beasts surged to the bridges as the vibrant flora disintegrated, splitting to the four winds with purpose, only to scramble once Erja Rose emerged from the 2nd drow wing leading a stampede of tertiary consumers. A full-on frenzy ensued once the building-sized augmented spiders and scorpions emerged behind them, their fangs and stingers concentrating arcana into potent beams they fired at the enemy with lethal accuracy.
The frenzy devolved into a riot when the Witch Artificer's domain spread. As a Mech Doctor, her healing powers were focused on the augmented beasts, giving the prey the balls to stand up to their predators and stampede over the enemy to inhabit the wings they desperately sought to settle. As the battlefield cleared, Z'ress and thus I swept my eyes over the few remaining demon spiders standing against hers, freeing the space for the troops sprouting throughout the mines and her commanders racing through the remaining wings; feeling satisfaction but trepidation, for she knew the battle was not yet won. Thus, she lifted her gaze to the ceiling, just as it fell.
Bang!
Bang!
A sudden plume of dust pulled my attention to the 1st drow wing before the ensuing boom pulled all eyes and ears to Matron Hun'ep's eldest daughter, cartwheeling violently toward the ground.
Arcana and webs flung from her hands as she attempted to right herself, seeming to panic as a loud bang signaled Deeke, Skipping with the Wind. He launched off the wing's remnants and soared, flipping with much more grace to punch her down into the ground. He achieved the mount and looked down at her, his red optics glowing in contrast to the blue fires of ki compressing within a chamber in his core, where it mixed with a spray of his arcana and banged like an old engine, shooting his fist out like a piston.
Bang!
Bang!
With punches rattling off like machine gun fire, the Machine Philosopher pummeled the matron's daughter into a thick mash of gore and immediately craned his eyes to the ceiling. Three dozen proposals were analyzed and rejected before his settling drives could exhaust his final breath of ki, releasing a serpent's hiss that seemed to call the tertiary consumers summoned by his Lairnade to heel.
He was a good fit for Iris' Executor. His lack of piousness birthed a rational concern for his commander, yielding a perspective that often opposed hers in the most constructive ways. Case in point, Deeke darted toward the mines, guiding a relatively small contingent of augmented predators toward their prey within Z'rynda's domain. Some calculated lower odds of surviving the coming wave and thus fled, pursued by the weaker predators while the rest charged the line.
The spiders caught between them were treated as an afterthought and seemed enraged by it, given how they sought to entwine every moving thing in their webs. The beasts cared not for that either, however, simply igniting the webs to free themselves and continue their fight for survival amidst the conflagration. They lashed out with fangs and claws to rend and tear the unfeeling bodies of Iris' branch of life, only for those pieces to be consumed by some other beast and fabricated into explosive launchers, high-powered UV spotlights, coolant dispensers, or stronger claws within moments. Naturally, the same was half true for the augmented beasts led deeper into the mines by Deeke. Prey fell to their predators like those demonic beasts left maimed and scarred. Their body parts lay strewn about the environment, the divine materials comprising them being claimed by the silver-blue webs and the gray caps growing atop them; the catalyst, as it were.
Across the floor, up the walls, and over the arched ceiling, the countless silver-gray caps began swelling atop their webs; expanding and contracting like lungs as they grew from the height of ankles, to knees, and on to hip height before their stalks hardened, darkening into a violet-slate shell with pulsing blue veins and danger-red eyes gleaming beneath their metallic caps.
The sounds of fireworks banged against the House moments later, racing up and down and back again as each mushroom saw its stem crack down the seams and split down the middle, unfolding into thickly plated arms that shoved against the ground in defiance. The pops of their release from their mycelial web were echoed by the mighty thuds of their chitinous plated legs stomping down to fuel their maiden steps; Then, the Mycodroids charged.
Datton, the 1st son of House Daulery, led the charge. Thousands of the same augmented being barreled through walls, spiders, and drow alike as he sought to spread his siblings among the unclaimed or more exotic resources hidden throughout the House, moving with the utmost haste and yet with no concern for the spells and projected slashes arcing his way. Half of them bounced harmlessly off the mithral chitin while the other often severed limbs, making them lighter on their feet. Datton didn't care. Like his siblings and mother, his mind, spirit, and soul had been transferred to countless MycoMithral colonies. Then they linked them to form a quasi-hive mind, and with their web cast across House Hun'ana's mines, they had the resources to mass produce new bodies. Yet, they still had their individuality. They still had their niches. And so, carried by the 1st son, they sought to spread once more.
A contingent of Datton Mycodroids dove into the raging canal below and scaled the walls to the aqueducts above, carrying the aggregated clumps and pustules of his brother, Duaglez, and the 5th daughter, Drisidil, into the waters to be carried far and wide.
The clumps and pustules dissolved or popped on contact with the drink, dispersing to be taken wherever the waters saw fit. Duaglez dispersed his yeast-like cells throughout the canal and began feeding on the water's dissolved solids and gasses to begin budding. Small aggregations of cells grew into amorphous nuclei that breached the water with their semi-solid tendrils of augmented mithral. Formed into spears and spires, their tips fired concentrated beams at the infrastructure, shattering support beams and bringing down the aqueduct that carried his sister.
Having spread her water-born slime molds throughout the aqueduct, Drisidil's spores surfed atop the wave formed by her brother. They washed down the drains to infect the House's waterways with rust, mineral buildup, and other infrastructural 'diseases,' making the ground above them more unstable by the minute.
Iris' rising numbers shifted to an organized scramble as the metal plating buckled beneath their feet. They maneuvered through the crowd toward the conquered annexes and the lesser House Hun'ep, opening up the floor for the several dozen spiders and a hundred or so enemy drow remaining; evenly matched by the Mycodroids. With Datton scattering his siblings about, however, Dirzna's amorphous forms were the obvious target. Fangs, webs, and blades impaled her, tore her apart, and sliced her to ribbons at the slightest contact, making them think the counterattack would come easy until they realized the violet-slate plasmodial clumps reaching toward the abandoned smelters.
Dirzna's mithral slime molds formed a pulsating heart in the smelter's crucibles as it melded with the glowing embers. Their cauldrons were drawn out and pulled into the face, and their basins opened to the heart. Their foundations split and shifted into legs while their smoke stacks and supports became gas cooling systems and gimbals. Then they turned their bores on the spiders.
Ingots of steel, copper, and other base metals fired from the constructions like colossal mini guns, tracing a line across the enemy ranks that reduced parts of it to red mist and black goo. Yet further down the line, the rapid fire bounced against arcane armor and the denser chitin of giant demon spiders. As the spiders moved behind the drow, focusing their power on their defenses, three squads of Datton's Mycodroids took their symbiotic elder sisters and went for the flank. Armed with hand crossbows loaded with fluid-filled bolts, they fired with no apparent regard to their surroundings, attacking enemy drow, freshly evolved paragons, and friendlies alike before darting off to other prey.
The liberated slaves who'd been struck fell to their knees in despair and watched the silvery-teal, almost metallic liquid bounce and writhe within the vials before entering their veins. Their eyes bore jealousy and betrayal as they gazed upon their companions soaking in Iris' energy, their eyes glowing that beautiful blue as they evolved into augmented beings. Then their eyes opened. Gleaming with the same silver-teal light as the 2nd daughter, Dilyzina, their eyes shone brighter than those they previously envied and shouted in praise. Their tears carved rigid, angular channels and conduits down their visages as the many enhancements bestowed on them settled within their frames. And when Dilyzina's voice echoed from the depths of their minds, her new hosts engaged the enemy with a new fervor, using their shared consciousness to develop into an organized swarm of superpowered beings.
Conversely, the most distinguished slaves and the few drow who turned coat had been unknowingly infected with Driza's commensalism; so enthralled in battle they were. So it was, they all paused once her voice echoed in their minds, opening their guards to the enemy before their senses and cognitive functions had time to bloom. Slashes, lashes, and bruises lined their bodies, yet healed by the time they were countered with stone-shattering punches, thunderous kicks, and chitin-breaking headbutts.
By the time Driza began ordering them to command the rest, the enemy ranks were already falling apart. The enemy drow who'd been hit with the parasitic quarrels retreated beneath the spiders to withdraw the 'poison' using arcane witchcraft, only to find none there. Confusion creased their faces before they began reeling, clutching their mouths in protest of the agonizing cracks echoing from their bodies, alibied by the splattering of blood and the tat-tat of teeth skipping across the stone.
That alone was enough to break the weakest infected wills. Their hands fell back to reveal gaping metallic maws - lipless holes of grinding wheels and shredders - and broke into tears as they collapsed to their knees. Distorted sobs and warbled curses rang as their blades turned to their maws and stronger wills broke as they began rocking forward, head banging to Margo's music to deep throat their blades and grind them down to the hilts. The sickly slick sounds of fingers and feet peeling around growing hooks and blades ascended in pitch as their blades were repurposed and their cries died to a whimper, and at last, their eyes flashed purple.
The sole exception was Daulery's youngest daughter, Dilisstra, who kept her few droids in a defensive line before her mother's sole android; for she was the manager of their mycelial web; the headquarters commander of Iris' Mycodroid Division.
In the end, she was the one to keep Deeke from supporting Iris, for he had infinitely more to organize in the central annex; and, as dire as things seemed, Iris needed no assistance. Even against Matron Hun'ep.
Like Matron Nydorden, she became incensed with the invasion of her House and sought to punish those who wronged her, abandoning whatever ritual they were undergoing to do so - an act I assumed would make her lose Lilith's favor. To make matters worse for her, her youngest daughters were dragged down with her and were promptly taken care of by Deeke and Margo before they rendezvoused in the central annex, as planned. Above, however, the Matron proved far more challenging.
Much like I experienced, Iris' spells and arrows were easily countered or blocked by Matron Hun'ep's arcane prowess. Her superior durability was put to the test against drow swordcraft, costing her three sets of arms and two pairs of legs; including her armored limbs besides the wings and talons she was so proud of. Technology, knowledge of the shifting terrain, and her unending stamina alone won the battle.
Acknowledging the zealous bloodlust Matron Hun'ep had for her, Iris raced down a winding course through House Hun'ana's upper annex, trampling on everything remotely suggestive of Lilith while firing shots in whatever direction suited her. Warbles constantly echoed from her arrows, releasing to warp to point-blank range and detonate, rocking the house with pools of hissing acid, the thunderous claps of lightning, and explosive quakes that seemed to never end. Yet even then, Matron Hun'ep was undeterred, grasping more and more arcana from the environment to defend herself.
Just as Iris planned.
Once they'd made a full loop and returned to their point of entry, Iris reversed the polarity of her mana and infused it into herself to make the spatial mana warble in reverse; warping not an object across space, but space across her.
Inverted, with her momentum reversed, Iris thrust Gamp Daedalus through Matron Hun'ep's defenses, crushing her arcane shield into a million fragments before it impaled her beneath the right collarbone. As her momentum pushed her deeper into the blades and was overtaken by Iris', the latter focused her sorcery in her palm to materialize her arcana into a mass of circuits and components held within a fang-like dagger she stabbed into the Matron with no hesitation and all her power.
The sheer strength was enough to shatter her other collarbone once the hilt slammed home, yet Iris stabbed again and again and again, attacking the neck and armpits before putting all her strength into a final abdominal stab.
Upon coming to a rest in Matron Hun'ep's diaphragm, the dagger's sides split as it glowed blue and swung hooked barbs into her flesh to bury itself deeper. Then, even I was surprised to see arcana flowing from her arcana well to the dagger's jeweled hilt, imbuing it with a deep blue glow as it radiated to the divine lair stone Iris held in her palm.
I felt Matron Hun'ep's mind open up to me as her life waned. The darkness was already around her, yet she focused a baleful eye on Iris, tossing her lair stone aside to settle into a low fighting stance. Her consciousness lapsed for an instant, and then she saw it - the fist of her doom, infused with a blue arcana of a much darker hue than she previously saw. Simultaneously, I watched the softball-sized lair stone fall as Iris infused her necromancy into her fist and punched the dagger's hilt, boring it and her arm to the core of Matron Hun'ep's chest before the transferring energy launched her soul from her body.
As Z'ress moved to guide her soul, the augmented lair stone landed with an unceremonious splat, betraying the blue light it emitted and the divine circuitry it released. It carved its way through the House while masking the wicked stream going into the fallen Matron as if it had a mind of its own. Both reached for their surroundings, one to connect and the other to make a transfer.
The dull blue of Iris' necromancy crept across the fallen Matron's body before turning black and shifting. Clumps of hair began to fall, followed by patches of skin and groups of muscle sloughing into the darkness and reforming in Reina's Flesh Kitchen, leaving a blackened skeleton with the tech-dagger floating within the ribcage, clamped around her arcane well. Then, the bluer parts of Iris' necromancy acted, disassembling the dagger and well to infuse the former into the bones and disperse the latter into a roiling cloud within the ribcage.
The body managed to claim the matron's robe, armor, weapons, jewels, and trinkets before the lair stone found its connection, and not a moment too soon. Following its pre-programmed instructions, the arcane intelligence behind the circuits ignored the surrounding tech and augmented beings in favor of those concentrated domains they spread around the house; and once they met, the House rebooted alongside the fallen Matron. Before they could take shape or light up their optics, however, Iris acted, releasing a torrent of arcana alongside the energies of the augmented tower in ways that turned every head in the Falls to Zimysta's 5th Eye just in time to witness a miracle; or a curse.
The Eye of House Hun'ana had opened to reveal a blue iris amidst a black sclera. It scanned the Falls menacingly, tracing its gaze from left to right before rolling its eye back and starting again, moving faster and faster until it dragged space itself behind it; churning and turning and roiling before it warbled and… disappeared.
The arcana, the tower's energies, the glimmering edifice of the most industrious house; it was all gone, replaced with a dark, empty cavern several dozen kilometers in volume.
We alone could see House Hun'ana's fate; we and perhaps the Queen Demon Spider could gaze upon the sphere of Darkworld materials floating amidst the clouds above Shujen, basking in Mani's light as the four annexes stretched and reformed into a thick plate around a hollow mountain, its bowled base blending seamlessly with the sky to shield mortal eyes from the augmented human standing atop the summit, raising her spear in triumph toward the stars above as it spun madly and ratcheted to a halt.
Ping!
The advent of Iris' Domain to the Mortal Plane was heard by all, yet nary could find the source, even if they could feel the result of her evolution, for she dove as quickly as she ascended, twisting her arms as her warbling mana enveloped her form and warped her back to the Dark.
The battle was won. But the war was not yet over.