"That is a clever idea," Ir'alith said.

"Fuckin' genius is what it is!" Valgud said, clapping a hand to his forehead. "Didn't tell me you had dungeon—But are the cores strong enough to make something that big? In all the tales I've heard—"

"Yes, I believe they're quite a lot more powerful than we'll require for this task," Mina said. She looked up at Ir'alith. "If you'd not mind creating a portal so I may return for a moment…"

Volcatia thought about it.

Probably they were going to need something bigger than would fit in the second floor.

How much space did they need to cover anyway?

She hadn't realized she'd need to ask that.

"Probably to the roof, if you can," she said. "How big's the space with the machines?"

"Annie is being held in the dwarf city, Khag Daruhm," Ir'alith said. "It is tightly guarded by these machines."

"Uh, you didn't say it was a fucking city," Volcatia said, turning back to Mina with an annoyed look. "Thing's gonna have to be…"

She had no fucking idea.

If it was a city, was it as big as Onyxfell?

Electricity Knowledge told her bigger was better the more she thought about it.

The rooftop wasn't even big enough for how big she'd need it to be.

Maybe she'd just make her own electromagnetic pulse on top of the one…

Yeah, that was going to have to be it.

A portal appeared nearby, showing the metal and stone covering the workshop's roof. "I have created the gate," Ir'alith said. Her tail tapped the ground again. "It can be enlarged if you are creating a larger device."

"Nah, it's fine," Volcatia said, determined not to get distracted by tail-related ideas again.

But really, was it something she could think about on the same level as legs?

She wasn't going to think about it now, but she was definitely going to think about it.

At that moment, she walked through the portal onto the roof, and Mina came through behind her.

"How to begin with this…" Mina said as she rubbed her chin.

"Saxum, you here?" Volcatia asked.

"Core," Saxum's voice came through faintly from the top of the roof.

"I'd not heard they had names."

"Yeah, I named them all a few days ago." Volcatia started tapping her foot. "Saxum, I'm gonna need you to make me a giant copper solenoid coil. You know what that is?"

"Core."

"It's a spiral of filum. Like…" Volcatia started tracing it in the air.

"Core."

"No, more like…" Volcatia discharged a small part of her current, forcing it to manifest into the shape she wanted in the air in front of herself. "But copper."

If Mina was really Smart she might figure it out, but—

"You're capable of understanding it?" Mina asked instead.

"Huh?"

"The dungeon core. When it speaks, I hear only 'core'."

"Yeah, that's what it says." A copper solenoid the size of her foot appeared on the roof in front of her. "Good. Now can you make it as big as the roof?"

The copper spiral stretched and grew until it covered the ten paces wide rooftop.

"I've still no idea how you manage to understand it."

"Spent a lot of time in places I didn't understand what people were saying. Sort of got a knack for it after a while. Saxum, can you fit a hollow copper rod through it? Yeah, that's good."

Was it really good?

Yeah, it was probably okay to do some magnet shit with.

Was it big enough for a city?

Eh.

Also, was solenoid a good word?

Mm.

"Thanks," she said.

"And what's this about you not being human?" Mina whispered.

"Don't worry about it," Volcatia whispered back. She tossed the giant electromagnet into her Inventory. "Let's go," she said as she headed back through the portal.

"It's simply unfair that such abilities exist," Mina muttered.

"You have a pocket dimension as Carl does," Ir'alith said.

"Yeah," said Volcatia, again not getting distracted even when the confusing tail wiggled a little. She looked around. "Which direction's this city in?"

Ir'alith pointed with her tail in the direction she'd sometimes been staring off into.

Okay.

Time had passed, and Volcatia didn't know how much longer it was going to take.

There was a lot of talking happening.

She could easily have rescued Carl's wife already, but then…

Her eyes were drawn again to Ir'alith's mystery legs.

She could do both.

She had to.

She stood in place while deciding to be faster.

Much faster.

The fastest.

She started off at a light run in the direction Ir'alith's frozen tail was pointing.

She didn't even try to touch the tail.

She thought about it, yeah, but she had her rules about that.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Also it would be weird.

Things didn't feel like they usually did when she was this fast.

She jogged for a short while.

Tedious.

Actually.

She wasn't really doing this, so there was no reason to bother.

It wasn't annoying when she was just watching.

She discarded her shell and traveled through the air, continuing on until she sensed currents.

So many currents.

Huh.

Her shell restored itself.

Being naked was weird, but only if people saw her.

Humans were weird like that.

She missed her shoes though.

Volcatia looked around.

So this was the city.

A wall she'd just passed through rose up behind her, and a current existed in front of her.

Huh.

She reached out and grabbed at it with her hand, feeling cool metal beneath her fingers.

Was it…

Was this where that cheating Char was hiding?!

This was definitely one of his stupid metal canēs.

She was starting to get annoyed again.

How the fuck was she supposed to find Carl's wife in a city anyway?

Urgh.

This was going to take a while, wasn't it.

But he was Carl.

Her friend.

Volcatia started searching through the city.

How about here?

She smashed then walked through the stone wall of a small building.

There were some fat dwarves, but no humans.

What about here?

More fat dwarves.

Here?

How were these dwarves all so fat?!

It took a while, but eventually she came to a small building with metal walls and spires of metal coming out the top.

Antennae.

This had to be it.

She reached out and tore a hole in the wall, then ripped at the metal to greatly widen the opening.

Metal was colder than stone.

No point in feeling uncomfortable.

Maybe she should have just put clothes on again anyway?

Eh.

She was just about there.

The inside of the building was different too.

Floor felt weird.

Furry, almost.

Tables and other boring things all over here…

She continued through more walls.

This had to be the place.

But where…

Volcatia came to a stop.

This fucking guy!

The cheating Char stood before her with some type of machine held against a stone wall, sparks evident where the cutting part of the machine was touching.

She walked forward and flicked the air beside herself with a finger using a very reasonable amount of force.

Fine, maybe it wasn't reasonable.

He'd annoyed her though, and she felt like it.

The entire side of the building exploded outwards, and the cheating Char's body exploded with it.

Satisfying.

She'd have to think on how she wanted to really kill him though.

Something fun.

Something worth telling Aquila later.

Volcatia clawed at the stone before her and started tearing it away.

Weirdly dense.

Huh.

The room beyond the wall appeared.

A woman with blonde hair sat motionless on a bed with her legs crossed under herself, looking at something on a small screen in front of her.

The motionless part was normal since she wasn't as fast as Volcatia.

She seemed okay?

Platter of fruit with some meat next to her, so she wasn't starving.

Cup of water, so she wasn't thirsty.

She had a bed, so she could sleep.

Clothes, since humans liked having them.

Yeah, seemed like Mina and Ir'alith were right to not be in a hurry.

Maybe they had some way to know?

Volcatia had seen prisons before though, and this was a really nice one.

But she needed to ask to make sure.

She decided to be slower.

A colossal boom sounded out to her side where she'd killed the Char, and the entire building rocked.

Fuck, she always forgot how slow sound was.

The woman fell onto her back and scrambled around to the opposite side of the bed, peeking over the top.

Volcatia waved. "Hey, you're Annie?"

The woman's eyes frowned at her, and she said something in the Char language.

Or was it?

Volcatia wasn't sure she'd heard this language, the more she thought about it.

"Annie?" she said again, pointing at the woman. "Carl's wife?"

"Carl?" the woman said, her head rising above the edge of the bed as her face took on a surprised expression. "Carl Weathers?"

Different last name, but her reaction…

Yeah, that had to be her.

Volcatia stopped watching.

"We can move closer before the machines will detect us," Ir'alith said, her tail lowering to tap against the ground.

Volcatia looked at it again.

She'd completely forgotten!

It took ages to search through that fucking city.

Her tail was so blue!

So curvy!

Did it have muscles?

It looked…

Was it furry?!

She couldn't tell without looking more closely, but she thought she saw some—

"How close will you need to use the device?" Ir'alith asked.

Volcatia's eyes snapped back up, then quickly to Valgud, who was still very safe to look at even if he was staring at her weirdly.

She'd gotten distracted again!

"Uh, probably just outside the city?" she said.

It was sort of true.

"It will be dangerous," Ir'alith said, tapping her tail on the ground. "I will accompany and defend you while you work." Her head turned. "Jungrathol, remain here and protect Mina and Valgud while—"

"Did you just shoot fuckin' lightning out of your hand?!" Valgud exclaimed suddenly.

"Valgud, now's not the time," Mina said quietly, giving him a nudge on the shoulder.

"You said you couldn't use magic," Valgud said in an angry tone as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"It's not magic," Volcatia said. "Just me." She held a hand up and let the palm of her shell burn away, exposing her inner current.

Valgud and Mina squinted at the brightness.

"I have not heard of lightning elementals," Ir'alith said.

Huh?

Fulmen elemental?

"What's a fulmen elemental?" Volcatia asked.

"You are not?" Ir'alith seemed confused.

"Nah, I'm hu…"

Volcatia stopped talking.

She'd almost been tricked!

Was it on purpose?!

She stared at Ir'alith, but it was hard to tell!

She'd have to be more careful.

Demons really did hate humans.

Maybe she was being suspected.

Obviously.

If a human said she wasn't a human, that wouldn't be enough to prove it.

Even just showing her abilities like this could probably be magic like Valgud said.

Fuck, maybe this was going to be even harder than she'd thought!

Talking about this more was just going to make her seem more suspicious.

"We need to stop fucking about," she said, looking around at each of them and trying to remember how she'd spoken back when she was a Champion. "Carl's wife is being held captive over there!"

She even pointed for emphasis after regrowing her shell.

Did it work?

She glanced up at Ir'alith.

"You are correct, Vol," Ir'alith said, turning towards the city. "Long has Annie suffered for my foolishness."

Yeah!

It worked!

"Then let's fucking go!" Volcatia said. She turned to Mina. "Be back soon."

"I'm anticipating your victory already," Mina said with a small smile.

"Feels like I'm missing out on something," Valgud said as he frowned up at Mina.

"Be safe, Protector," said Jungrathol.

"I'm gonna make sure she's really safe," Volcatia said.

She was the Strongest, after all.

She had to keep those mystery legs safe.

"Focus your attention to disabling the machines," Ir'alith said. Her tail lashed back and forth. "I will defend our position."

Right.

The difficult type.

Volcatia had forgotten for a moment.

There were too many distractions tonight.

"Thanks," she said.

She thought about it a little.

When was the last time someone had offered to defend her?

Huh.

Weird.