CHAPTER 3

The next two floors were just as rough as the bottom and library. Nothing of value survived, only a stone memory of what might have been in the room. If my guess wasn’t wrong, it appeared to be a classroom or at least a place where people were taught. Stone desks had been situated as if they were hearing a lecture.

“How many more floors do you think Echo?”

“Two to three based on the size of the previous floors. The next section of the tower had no windows for me to be sure.”

“Let’s hope that means something interesting survived.”

“Indeed.”

I got to the next landing and found a door with metal bands. Just that alone made me excited about what I would find. Carefully pushing the door open, there was a terrible grinding sound from the hinges that hadn’t been oiled in who knows how long. I peered in, but it was pitch black.

I blinked as I considered what I was going to do when the sight in front of me suddenly shifted. The blackness washed away with a grayscale taking its place. I found that I could see as if it was a moonlit night.

“No wonder these damn bugs have been so hard to deal with. They have a biological response for just about everything.”

“The Biuna have been assimilating races for close to a thousand years since they acquired space flight. Each species they encounter causes them to evolve further,” Echo supplied though I already knew that.

“Yeah. That’s why we’re so desperate to keep them out of the greater Federation space. I can’t even imagine the nightmare if they managed to create a hive in the greater space.”

Looking around the room, I was truly disappointed when I found it was just a bedroom. A skeleton laid on the bed, with the appearance that its owner had just laid down for the night. There were some clothes, but as soon as I touched them, they turned to dust. A few metal works sat on a stone dresser. A brush, mirror, and what looked like a jewelry case.

I opened the case carefully, but it was empty. Thinking about it, I checked under the cushioning and grinned when I found a hidden compartment. My grin lessened when I found an ancient key. Without any context, it was beyond useless. I sighed and grabbed it in case there was a door or safe on the next floor.

Going through the room, Echo and I found nothing else worth bothering with. I gave Echo a shrug then moved back out onto the landing to head for the next room. It appeared the last room was going to be the last, as there were no more stairs after this point.

“What do you make of this?” I asked Echo. In front of us was a solid metal door. Not only that but it looked like it had been put in just a few days ago. Even the stone around the door looked much newer than the rest of the tower so far.

“Some sort of environmental technology that reduced the wear of time passing,” Echo commented. I snickered at his smartass comment. He just refused to admit it was magic, well, not that I blamed him. I had seen plenty of technology during my time through the galaxy, but never any true magic. Not that I wouldn’t let certain races hear me say that.

I tried the door and found it firmly locked. I pulled the key from my bag. “Easy mode?” I said with a laugh as I inserted the key. With a scraping noise, the lock clicked. I had to put my back into it to push the door open. I swore it weighed a ton.

When there was enough room for me to get inside, I let go of the door. I rubbed my shoulder and made my way inside. “Nothing?!” I shouted in annoyance. I spun around and kicked the door, which I immediately regretted as I felt like I broke my foot. Hopping around, I massaged my throbbing foot.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“There appears to be nothing of value,” Echo said as he moved his drone into the room.

“You don’t say!” Feeling all the excitement leave me, I dropped to my back on the ground. “Screw it! I’m sleeping here tonight.” I rolled over onto my side and closed my eyes with a huff.

“I will head out and see if I can find anything else,” Echo said heading for the door. I waved him off and put all my energy into going to my happy place.

~~~

A glow woke me up a few hours later. “Echo. Turn your light off!”

“I’m outside Lex,” Echo replied, and I snapped my eyes open at that.

The entire floor was glowing with the language from earlier. Only these were the clearest and cleanest I had seen so far. I jumped to my feet but found I couldn’t move from the center of the circle of writings. I could physically feel the pressure growing in the room.

“It’s rude to sacrifice someone without them knowing!” I shouted and pointed my rifle at the edge of the circle. With a quick burst, I managed to destroy whatever was holding me in place and ran across the room.

Diving out into the stairwell, I turned to see what would happen with me out of the picture. Hopefully, it would just fail to activate. The glow continued to grow until I had to turn away. Finally, there was a boom as a blast threw me against the wall as it forced the door shut.

“Today is just not my day,” I said with a moan as I pushed off the wall.

I almost had to laugh as I took in the sight in front of me. The door had survived the blast, but the surrounding walls had not. As I watched the door slowly collapsed back to reveal the top of the tower was gone. Dust and debris clouded the air.

Waving away the dust, I moved into the room with the rifle raised. I wasn’t sure that whatever that had been was going to sacrifice me, but I hadn’t felt any good intentions from it. Looking around, I slowly lowered my weapon when I didn’t see anything. “I guess it was a dud.”

“Umm. Can you help me?” I jumped back at the sound. Looking around, I couldn’t locate the source. “Umm, over here.” A piece of the ceiling shifted, and I noticed a hand waving from under the slab.

I leveled my rifle at it and moved over carefully. “Who are you?”

“Imperia Lament Twilight.”

“Alright. Miss Twilight. What are you?”

“Queen of Demons. Ruler of the night! Or at least I was ten thousand years ago. Now I’m just a fragment of my former self.”

“Sounds like it might be better for me to end you,” I commented looking underneath the slab.

The hand waved me off like it was a bad joke. “Yay. Another ten thousand years in slumber. You mortals never understand what its like for us immortals.”

I rubbed my forehead, which I took as a personal win as I now had claws. With a sigh, I reached down and grabbed the slab. I only meant to lift it off her so she could get out, but I ended up flinging the slab across the room. Compared to the door, it was as light as a feather.

“There.”

“Thank you.” A girl that looked barely over sixteen stood up dusting herself off. She had a blue colored dress with gold lining that ended around her knees. Two horns went straight up from the middle of her head. She had pointed ears that had to be nearly twenty-five centimeters long. Golden blond hair framed it all.

What really drew my attention were her eyes. They were black with solid gold pupils at the center. Staring into them made me feel like I was looking out of the window my ship, at the never-ending void that was space.

“My! You’re one of my kind,” Imperia covered her mouth and leaned in at me.

I glanced down at myself and groaned. “No. I’m not from this world. I was originally a human.”

“What is a hu-man?”

“Ehh. I’m not sure what they’re called in this world,” I said rubbing the back of my head. Humans had so many different features it was hard to describe them to other races at times. “Anyway, I’m definitely not one of your kind.”

She narrowed her eyes and moved around me. I made sure to keep my rifle leveled at her. She finally shrugged and stood up to stretch. “Whatever. I don’t plan to care about those things this time.”

“Good for you.”

“Lex.”

“What Echo?”

“I would advise leaving the tower,” Echo said. I didn’t get a chance to ask why when everything tilted to the left. I clicked my tongue and grabbed Imperia before running to the edge of the tower. It had apparently split in the middle. I watched the ground quickly rush up before I jumped clearing much more air than I expected to. I wrapped my arms around the girl before we crashed down on the soft grass outside the tower.

“It looks like I owe you an even larger debt of gratitude.”

“Thanks is fine,” I replied waving her off.

“I am a Queen. I repay my debts. Besides, it has been nearly ten thousand years since I last graced this plane. I have nothing else to do,” Imperia said grabbing my arm in an embrace.

“Lucky me.” I looked at the pile of rubble that had been the tower. “I guess, for now, we need to find a place to spend the rest of the night.”