All around me the entire place shook violently, while above the lights grew dim. I knew without having to ask that everybody else in the base was anxious, as this was what we’d worked toward for seven years. When at long last the shaking finally came to an end I glanced to my left and waited for what I hoped was good news.

"We have arrived."

I gave a nod to confirm that I'd heard her and then reached out and opened the door. I strode out onto the black glass plain of the fiftieth floor, my heavy feet sinking into the fragile surface. As I stood there my daughters joined me, one on my right and the other to my left. The door to the forward operating base closed automatically, but we made no further move.

"This is boring," Lisa grumbled, "why can't we just run over and punch them right now?"

On my other side Mika looked past me and glared at her. "Father already explained he wants to see how he compares to a drone."

"But we could do that at their little base place can't we?"

A figure emerged from the edge of the crystal forest and its emergence brought the discussion to an end. Before long another came out as well, and even from this distance we could tell that they were identical in shape and look. Next to me Lisa let out a little cry of excitement and pumped her arm in victory.

"I call dibs!" Lisa declared as she pointed at the one on the right.

"That is fine by me." Mika put one hand on her hip. "Try not to get killed by doing something dumb."

The two Architects walked with a measured pace across the blackened plain. They were in no rush to get to us nor did they show any emotions on their identical faces. Lisa was the first to make a proper move, as she burst across the glass field. Behind her long blonde hair flowed out, while she slipped free a sword from a scabbard hidden on her spine.

I could only smile at my eager daughter as I followed after her, my heavy metal feet crushing the fragile glass surface with each step. I lifted my left hand up and aimed it at the Architect Lisa hadn’t claimed. Within the forearm the crystal system triggered and started to spin, as it gathered fire magic and then produced a ball of flame. The drone ahead of me showed it's surprise on its face and stepped out of the way of the flames.

I clenched my hand and the ball of fire exploded, the strong concussive force enough to knock the Architect off of his feet. Even the other two who were in the midst of their fight had to pause for a moment due to the shock wave that I'd caused. Unlike my daughter I had no weapons on me, so when I reached the fallen drone I straightened the fingers of my right hand and drove it into the stomach. The nightsteel digits easily pierced the flesh of the Architect, and before it could hope to respond I drove even more of my arm in. A second later I ripped my hand free along with the heart that belonged to the drone.

The drone reached up for its heart, as though it would be able to put it back in without a problem, but I crushed it and walked away. When I checked on Lisa and her own fight the head of her opponent had been sent flying, while its body was covered in numerous slashes. Yet with all of those obvious hits landed on the Architect, Lisa's pale white dress was still unsoiled. She nudged the head of the Architect that she'd beheaded with her white boot, a look of annoyance on her face.

Mika walked over to join us while her sister put away her sword, the sword mechanically accepted into the automated scabbard on her back. "It would seem that our estimates were right, father, how is the body?" Mika asked as she studied me from head to toe.

I looked down at the black fingers and arms and did a quick check of my range of motion. "I think I damaged the pinky finger," I commented as I noticed that it wouldn't bend again, "but aside from that it's working fine."

"Even if it wasn't we got this." Lisa pointed off in the direction of the nyanko city. "Let's go kick them off of this floor!"

I studied my heads-up display and checked the embedded compass. "We need to head a little to the west of the city, that's where the portal is," I said as I casually removed the troublesome pinky finger, "their outpost should be there. Once we arrive you two need to clear it as fast as possible."

"Would you prefer if we mobilize in advance, father?"

I shook my head at that idea. "No, Mika, if there's an actual Architect I'm not sure how strong they are now, so let's err on the side of caution okay?"

Mika gave a nod to that request, though Lisa didn't look altogether happy with it. However she didn't argue and so shortly thereafter we’d already headed into the crystal forest. Though it'd been seven years since we'd last been on this floor the landscape had thankfully remained the same.

After a short bit of running we emerged nearby a hill, one that was large enough to obscure where I’d expected the base to be at. I held up one hand in order to get my daughters attention and came to a stop. Instead of rushing over the hill and into a possible ambush I instead began a slow walk, my body lowered down to try and use the terrain to my advantage. Mika and Lisa followed suit behind me, though Lisa grumbled under her breath about how we were wasting time.

What we saw after we'd crept up the hill was a dome with four pillars located at the cardinal directions. On two of the pillars stood drones and we saw nobody else nearby. The dome itself was made of a type of steel. There were no visible markings on the outside with only a single door in view on the eastern side.

I gave the smallest of movements to my daughters to get their attention. When they looked at me I pointed at each of them and one of the drones. Each of my daughters nodded before they looked at each other. Lisa gave a big smile at Mika and quietly pulled her sword out. Mika rolled her eyes in response.

Wordless and yet still flawless in timing my daughters leapt over the top of the hill and ran down the other side. Lisa immediately split away from Mika as she headed to the drone to their right, her sword held out horizontally to her side. Mika on the other hand held no weapon, instead she focused more on closing the gap while her gloved hands hovered near her hips.

It wasn't merely their combat attitudes that were in contrast to one another. While Lisa wore a white dress, stockings, and dress gloves her sister instead had opted for an almost business suit attire that was a dark purple. Mika's black hair had been styled to be a short cut that barely reached her shoulders. She wore a belt that had round objects, one on each side of her hip. Mika wore thick leather gloves that had been combined with nightsteel to create a flexible yet durable type of material. The only thing they both wore were boots, though their colors matched the rest of their outfits.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

The two Architects on the pillars noticed the approaching girls and turned. Once my daughters reached some invisible line the drones leapt from on top of the pillars at them. It was, to me, a strategic blunder and one that Lisa revelled in as she swatted her opponent out of the air. There was no finesse to her attack, she relied instead on her brute strength and swung the sword more like a bat. The Architect tried to stop her attack by catching the blade, and instead ended up thrown to the ground with its fingers gone.

Mika on the other hand waited until the very last second before she made her move. Her right hand went to the sphere at her hip, and then she flung her hand at the shoulder of the Architect. While it landed Mika ducked to the left and tried to get to its backside. Once she'd flanked the Architect she reached out and grabbed at what looked to be thin air, and then she yanked it as hard as she could. Blood blossomed as a thin diagonal line appeared on the Architect's torso, a line that went all the way around its hip and I could only assume its back as well. The drone looked down at the deep cut that went through its entire body with a confused expression.

I focused on her gloved hand and noticed the slight flash of light. When she'd told me about her idea for a weapon I'd scoffed, but I'd allowed it since I didn't want to get in the way of her own ideas. Seeing the metal string that she'd just used I could only admit in my mind that it might actually be useful. I doubted that most people would ever try to use it though.

For Lisa her opponent was easy to finish off. Perhaps fazed by the strike the Architect took too long to get back up, and so Lisa started to impale it over and over again until it died. Mika on the other hand opted for a simple kick to the back of her foe, a move that caused the torso to split almost in two due to the cut she'd already given it.

I jogged down the hill while they worked to make sure the drones were dead. I knew full well that they had the situation in hand, and so instead I focused on the dome. I reached down to my right hip which opened up, and then I pulled out a small block. I walked up to the dome and put the block against the steel before I turned and ran back.

"Get back to the hill," I ordered my daughters as I ran past them.

When I reached the top of the hill I went over to the other side and knelt down. My daughters followed not long after and crouched down near me, once more with one on each side. "We are ready father," Mika told me as she lowered herself even further, as though to hide entirely from what was about to happen.

"I'm popping it then," I told the two of them, "so keep your heads down and watch for debris."

I lifted my right forearm and flipped open a small pad. With my left forefinger I pressed a red button, at which point an alert flashed across my heads-up display. I ignored the warning, as I wanted to arm the bomb anyways, and then I slid open a cap on one of the other buttons. At that point I pressed the revealed button and triggered the small block of high explosives.

The resulting explosion was a tad stronger than what I'd expected. The dome ruptured from the side and shot most of the debris away from us, and two of the pillars were instantly shattered. A few chunks of metal flew in our direction but none of them landed on us. Electricity sparked as machinery within the dome was exposed and ripped apart.

It was only a few seconds after I'd blown up the dome when Lisa stood up and started to walk toward it. I reached out and grabbed her hand to stop her, which caused her to look at me with a tilted head. "Don't go without Mika. Make sure the equipment inside is completely broken, and then swing over to the arrival point."

Mika stood up from the ground, with her hands on her hips. "Do not worry about us, father, we can handle it if their slide is still active," she told me, "do you want us to carry you?"

"No, once I send them to meet up with you I'm going to swing back to the base," I said.

"Say hi to Kuzu for me!" Lisa exclaimed as she bounded down the hill without her sister.

I could only sigh at that, but it was what I'd started to grow accustomed to from her over the last few years. I laid down on the hill, with my face pointed to the sky, and closed my eyes. "Disconnection activate," I said to the air.

My words generated a ton of messages across my heads-up display. I didn't bother with reading any of them, and instead patiently waited for the system to finish shutting down. After what felt like an eternity my vision went dark and my body grew heavy, while an alarm started to sound out in my ears. With shaking hands I reached up to remove the visor that covered my eyes.

What I saw was the familiar sight of the pilot chamber, or rather the storage room I’d converted. There was a set of displays in front of me that fed information from the shell, while the chair that I sat in had numerous straps and devices which I'd had to attach to myself. I flexed my hands slowly, and with a noticeable quiver I reached for the scanners on my left wrist to start removing them.

"Kuzu," I called out in my hoarse voice, "Kuzu are you there?"

From outside of the room I heard a clattering as something was dropped, and then Kuzu poked her head into the room. Once she saw that I was awake she stepped into the room, her ears twitching with excitement. Her long tail flicked behind her as she casually strolled around the chair and started to help me remove all of the pieces.

"You weren't gone very long," she told me with a little smile, "did you manage to break their outpost?"

"Yes, and to be honest I probably didn't need to go," I replied as I waited.

Kuzu shook her head at that comment, and once when she was done helping me to remove everything she straightened up and offered a hand. "They're your daughters, there's no way you wouldn't have gone."

I reached out and gripped her hand, giving it a soft squeeze in the process. When I went to stand up I used my free hand to push against the armrest while Kuzu helped to lift me with my other hand. I tried to keep my weight focused on my right side as I stood up. Even after seven years my body still ached from the desperate fight from before.

"Come on, we need to talk to the others," I told Kuzu as I picked up my cane and turned to the exit.

"Sure they're all in the hall, but Lexy is still connected so you should leave her alone."

Kuzu and I walked out of what had once been a storage room and entered our makeshift little house. It contained a bed, dresser, table, small kitchen, and a single cupboard. It'd taken a bit of work but with the help of the others we'd turned the forward operating base into a temporary shelter.

I glanced at the kitchen and noticed that Kuzu had been in the midst of cooking something. I opened the door of the room and limped my way out into the hall, while Kuzu hesitated to follow me before she opted to go back to cooking. She knew that sooner or later I'd go back to the control chair, and that nobody in the base was about to hurt me.

What greeted me in the hall was what I could only call my personal army. I'd only had seven years to prepare everyone, but in that time I'd managed to make a couple of useful fighters. Adam stood closest to me with his battlesuit on and he was in the midst of a conversation with his brother.

Row was further down and next to Wendy. Wendy was almost done putting her equipment on, though she seemed to be having a little bit of difficulty with it. Row, on the other hand, wore no gear as she was a bit too frail due to her avian heritage, so instead she'd opted to help Wendy with the process of putting her suit on.

Closest to the exit of the main base stood Ivan and Lucas, the two men I'd met on the second floor. Both of them had also put on a suit and with it and their training I knew they could at least handle a drone. When they noticed me emerge from my room they gave a nod, but neither moved away from the exit.

I turned my head to the side when I felt a slight prickle on the back of my neck, as though someone was behind me. What I saw when I looked was a beautiful woman who wore a tight black outfit. Unlike the rest she had neither a suit nor a weapon, as she didn’t need them.

"Why hello there Fenix, are we all set?" Isa asked as she tried to lean in close to me, her excessively large chest nearly touching my back.

"Yes," I said before I cleared my throat and tried to raise my voice, "alright everyone. This is what I've prepared you all for. My daughters and I cleared out the outpost so now they can only access this floor via the arrival spot."

There was a smattering of applause from everyone in the hall at that comment. Wendy raised her hand as she asked, "So now we can work on releasing all those cat people right?"

"Yes and no. We're splitting into two teams for the moment. Adam will lead the first, and his job will be to guard the arrival point. Lucas, Ivan, and Wendy are going with him. Isa is in charge of the second team and she's going to take Lance and...wait, where's Osai?"

"Ain't here, got all nervous and ran off to the bathroom," Lance said. His words brought a light chuckle and helped to lower the tension that’d started to gather.

"Well we'll have him meet up with Isa and Lance at the city."

"Oh? Why aren't I allowed to fight some of these silly little Architects?" Isa asked as she put a hand on my shoulder.

"You can after you've removed all the collars from the nyanko. You and Lance can shift to look like nyanko, so they'll trust you more than us if you go,” I told her, and then I turned to everyone else, "any other questions?"

There was only silence that greeted me and so I lifted up one hand and pointed to the exit. "Alright then, move out and good luck. Keep an eye out for Architects and work together if any should appear."

Everyone that had been gathered in the hall began to move for the exit. Lucas and Ivan took the lead, while Wendy followed after them. Adam gave Row a quick hug before he left, the lights of his battlesuit flickering with every step. Isa slipped by me and gave a sly little wink.

Unbeknownst to the Architect race a new war had started, and it was one I intended to win.