I was present in all of my Domain with a presence of Will that allowed for perfect vision, and with some focus, understanding of the things within. So it's not easy to surprise me, but seeing more people dressed in weird equipment did. They had entered the Hold a few days before, and the people seemed to get riled up about it. Though I was very focused on finishing the bronze chamber, and trying to decide the theme of the floor I was going to put between it and the rest of the dungeon. I wanted to do another story, but I wasn't sure of which I should go with.
That's when they had showed up on the road heading towards my castle. Thinking they were just going to one of the forts surrounding it I gave them no mind. Then, they marched right up to the walls of the castle to set up camp. I had learned that the Lady of the Hold had declared my dungeon off limits to everyone. Which I was quite happy about, but these people were here. How did they ignore the rules of their leader? The Queens were also confused, though less surprised since the War Queen had apparently kept a close eye on them since they came to the Hold.
"I have seen many humans and beastkin ignore rules and laws, Mother." The War Queen was watching the group from her castle on the first floor. Her voice pulling my focus into her presence.
"It seemed like the Lady was quite insistent that we were to be left alone and avoided, War." The Queen twitched her antenna.
"From what I overheard Mother, they are part of a group called Adventurers." The Queen clacked her mandibles a few times, while I considered the words.
"So they have a different leader than the Lady?" At this the Queen twitched her antenna again.
"That seems to be the case Mother," She turned to leave the main chamber. I had been giving her a fair bit more attention than the other Queens of late, and it had been changing her body to a smaller frame. Which I had been worried about since the ability to lay eggs could be hampered, but the recent generation actually seemed to be stronger than the previous. It was by degrees, but I was pleased that my children could grow in power by simply remaining within my dungeon. I had a feeling that it was faster due to the Mana Well, and my recent work on it along with the Bronze Chamber.
"Are you going to join your sibling above?" I asked, my attention slowly returning to my project below. The Queen waved her antenna continuing out into the battlefields that make up her domain.
"If they make it here I will deal with them, but they don't seem anything special." I mused on those words as I returned to the holding cells. She was clearly still thinking about that human from the last group. I focused on his pattern held within the complex threads of twisting mana. The Chamber was done after all.
I gathered myself together within the room, knowing I would need all of my focus and Will to complete this the first time. The scripts started to light up as I fed them with Will driven mana, some even began to move and shift around. Mana spun around the moving scripts changing color and becoming a fine thread that spooled around other scripts that gathered them. The six inner columns near the Bronze Heart had a space in the center of them missing where the fine elemental mana was spooled; a flickering series of red and orange fire mana, an almost solid yellow and brown earth mana, a tumbling blue-green of water mana, a whirling gray and green wind mana, shimmering rainbow of light mana, and a purple-black of shadow mana.
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A single thread of each spun out to wrap around pillars set further out and between the main six. Creating a combination between two, and the room became devoid of mana outside of these powerful scripts. This was the first stage, refining and separation of the individual mana types that would be used. The walls of the room pulsed, sending a wave throughout the Domain, but I couldn't let my mind follow it as I usually would. The powerful pull of mana from the Well would hopefully prevent too much ambient mana from being drawn the rest of the dungeon.
My mind strained a bit from so many things I needed to keep careful focus on, but it was manageable so far. Then, my Will sent pain throughout my being as a pearl like light began to flow around the pool beneath the Bronze Heart. My own Core flickered as I saw the primal energy filling the pool. Yana and I had planned for this, but it was just a theory and the reality was so powerful. The pearlescent light rapidly broke down into mana creating a fog of colored light that flowed to the main columns.
The scripts on the Heart twisted like worms as they moved to the bottom and began pulling in the light. The Heart began to pulse like an actual heart as the light filled the intricate scripting throughout it, shaped into the very structure of the metal. Once again a wave of power pulsed out, and a cracking could be distantly heard and felt by me. The second stage had completed with the Heart primed for the blueprint.
Straining I took the pattern of the War Queen, not all of it, just the parts that made up the physical nature. Placing it into one of the three chambers of the Heart. Then, quickly pulled the pattern of the human knight into another chamber. My everything hurt as I held everything together with Will, and even my Will began to crack. The amount of strain was intense and anything with eyes would have likely lost them if they were in this room right now. Mana being pulled from the air at a speed to create wind on it's own. The condensed cores of elemental power had reached a liquid state, and the secondary pillars were showing physical changes from the intense forces at play.
Each second seemed like an eternity as I watched the Heart entering the final step. The shinning scripts returning to their usual places and then lifting from the metal. The spines of metal that held the Heart moved away smoothly, and the scripts held the Heart aloft in a series of rings. Bright and glowing with the primordial origin of mana they began to spin with great speed causing a blurring of light and force.
I could feel my Domain collapsing from the focus I held just here in this room. Distantly, I could see cracks appearing on my Core and hear the screams of my children. They were afraid and tried to reach out to me for comfort. However, I could do nothing but hold my will here. I had known it would be dangerous, but I didn't think it would be so bad. I should have warned them of what I was planning. A snap of pain forced me away from regrets and back on the task at hand. For them I would finish this and not die. I would not die. We all had things we still wanted to do.
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The broken sky above the dungeon changed into a swirl of angry reds and purples. The adventuring team was staring in awe and fear, having been about to enter the depths of this "New Gates of Madness". Yet the physical waves of power had blasted them off their feet and created deep cracks in the land around them. Now the sky seemed to be cracking apart and repairing at a rapid rate. With chunks of broken sky falling like shooting stars on the woods nearby. Creating massive clouds of dust and bursts of elemental forces.
"Yeah no, Greg, fuck this I am out." The mage said, uncaring about his soiled robes and crawling towards the Hold.