The flywheel stack was beyond salvage. Despite being made of solid steel, the disks suffered minor fractures that would be catastrophic when subjected to the centrifugal forces the high rotational speeds imposed on them. Fortunately, we still had the steam engine working and while it could chug wood, we would reach home. That was if we were heading home. Which we weren’t. I checked my mental map of the desert and steered us to the nearest edge of the dead magic zone. It was my best shot at repairing Queen Lorna.

All the gnomes in my crew had several Perk picks in {Arcane Resistance} and {Damage Acclimation} from {Physical Mastery}. Their Proficiency scores were around 100 which gave them only an extra 6 to 8 percent damage reduction but these were all multiplicative. And now with the levels they gained from the fight, they could get even more of that Perk. The reason I pushed them to get it was that I could take them outside the dead magic zone and use healing magic on them. The spell lost 99% of its efficiency because of the stupid {Anti-Magical} Perk, but it only meant I had to heal for 2,000,000 HP instead of 20,000. I had an endless supply of mana potions to restore Energy.

And going out of the dead magic zone would allow me to use my magic to fix Queen Lorna and we would come back to the caves looking like we’d had a crushing victory, the thirteen deaths notwithstanding. They say losing thirty percent of your forces was bad but how bad was it? On the cold, calculating headcount, we lost twenty-six percent. But how much of our strength those twenty-six represented? The addendum to the last question was, before or after the battle.

Our group of scavengers ended up stronger than when the encounter started, while the kobolds only lost people. The survivors leveled up and became deadlier, more resilient, and smarter. Literally smarter as raising Mind and Willpower made you better at reaching the right conclusions and making split-second decisions. Should the same group of kobolds attack us now, they would suffer even greater losses while we wouldn’t lose another thirteen gnomes.

On the gnomes’ worldview, we had mercilessly smashed the kobolds. Every time a scavenger vehicle met with kobolds, the death toll was catastrophic, from the viewpoint of an outsider. Half the crew came back. Only the pilot and another two gnomes drove the vehicle home. A single gnome entered the garage holding a coil. All of these cases were considered a solid win by the gnomes.

If we returned with an intact-looking vehicle? It would be the home run to shadow every victory ever.

The second reason I wanted to go out of the dead magic zone was to see if I could raise our dead. We had all the bodies, I just needed the souls. My hope was that an angel was outside waiting with the gnomes’ souls to give them to me.

I stopped Queen Lorna on a patch of grass at the edge of the zone. I had it all mapped in my head so I knew where it was with centimeters of precision.

“You guys prepare our friends. I’m going over there for a moment.”

“Yes, cap’n!” They replied, still a bit saddened by the deaths.

Maybe they were reflecting my mood only. We kept the loot, we killed hundreds of kobolds. I suspected the scavenger gnomes were changing. They’d tasted a better life and now they were wanting for more. They had more females being born, they had food, clean water, chiseled tunnels, a sleek steampunk machine. Why would they be content with the results of yore? When every gnome was told they were important, special, they believed it. They were no longer expendable, just another brick in the wall awaiting their fate, stumbling around soot-covered tunnels and wondering where their next meal would come from, never mind if they would ever lay with a woman.

Cruelty in kindness was how I felt. By raising their standards of living, by freeing their worries from the basic needs and dangers, they moved up on the Maslow Hierarchy.

I walked over to the dead magic zone and summoned Pandora. Holding the [Wisp of Creation] in my hand, I waited. As if called by the golden orb, the angels came down from above to fulfill their duties. They brought the souls of my believers that died since the last time we did this. I talked to them, checked if I had their “fur plates”, bound those that wanted a new life to silk dolls, and relinquished those that wished to move on to the System. I had zero gnome souls waiting for me.

Fuck this dead magic zone.

After a few inquiries to the System, I learned that whoever shall die in the dead magic zone would be automatically moved on to the next life. Including the [Saintess]. A plan formed in my mind.

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The gnomes didn’t need directions to go back home. It was ridiculously easy. Go north until you see the mountains. Check the landmark peaks, adjust your path either east or west. A week of repairs and cleanup later, the crew of thirty-six drove Queen Lorna and our loot back to the cavern entrance.

Wrapped in my pegasus wings, I watched as they vanished behind a dune, only the crow’s nest visible. Then that too vanished behind another dune. I spread my wings and took off from the ground, VTOL style. If the kobold [Queen] wanted to play with magic, we would play with magic. Let’s see if she likes my personal brand.

I flew over the sands, a few meters above the boundary of the dome. It was a deformed torus and it followed a clear geometrical pattern. I felt no danger of accidentally crossing it and falling down on the poop sand.

The lizard village appeared on the horizon. I increased my altitude and sensed the mana fluctuations. There was a literal cyclone of magic pouring from the ground all the way up to the sky from the sandstone house turned kobold castle. The damn scaled critters were not used to threats from above as they didn’t even once look up to spot me.

I activated {Geopolitical Survey} and spent the whole day studying the settlement from the air to pass the time. My business required the dark of the night.

Only Vintis graced the sky that night. The kobolds were diurnal and didn’t bother with night patrols. They were never challenged in their settlement and they were still battle-worn from last week’s confrontation.

I assumed the black werecat form with kitsune tails and the pegasus wings. Gliding down, I descended on the roof of the sandstone building. I reached Wixnos’s statue and stored it in the item box after breaking it off from the dais. I was hoping for some mechanism attached to the statue but there was none. It would be very convenient if I could find an entrance to whatever was underneath this place. I could sense it but I didn’t have time to search. I collected samples from the exotic plants in the garden and backtracked my way to the Queen’s chamber.

It’s been two years since Tina was last here but it could’ve been yesterday. Nothing had changed. I prowled into the room and found the cheater [Saintess] sleeping in her nest. She was hatching another clutch of eggs and seemed rather exhausted. Her breathing was irregular and her scales didn’t have the same luster I was used to seeing.

I struck her in the back, dumping all my multipliers into {Sap}. It wasn’t yet time nor the place to kill her. I lifted the now unconscious [Queen] carefully, sending all the objects in the room, including the eggs to my item box. Eggs and seeds from sentient plants weren’t considered creatures unless they hatched or germinated. I could even hatch these kobolds later, or make a kobold omelet. The jury was still out.

Carrying the kobold [Saintess] wrapped in my tails, I went around the palace, killing the royal guards and looting the whole place. I also searched for any secret compartment, passage, or hidden feature but found nothing. Not wanting to risk her waking up, I left the place and prepared to cross into the dead magic zone. I needed to change my shape once more because the pegasus wings and the kitsune tails were utterly useless in there. These appendages only worked because of magic. After becoming a normal werecat and making sure I had a sharp longsword with me, I took the [Queen] in my arms and crossed over.

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The Master taught me to be practical in my assassinations. No need for useless banter with your enemy. Once they were dead, they wouldn’t remember anything anyway. I now knew that ghosts did remember but the teachings remained the same. If you were going to kill someone, kill them and get on with your… night. No gloating, no explaining, no moral high ground. Just death.

The reason I took her to the dead magic zone was what I learned when I asked the System about the gnomes’ souls. Whoever died in the dead magic zone had their soul immediately recycled by the System, without taking them to the Gods because the reapers/angels couldn’t enter here. That meant these souls were never taken to their deities for processing and collecting divinity.

If I killed the [Saintess] inside the dead magic zone, Wixnos would lose all the divinity he invested to anoint her. If I did it outside, I could try to take that power for myself. But what if that stupid cheater’s soul could use her magic even after death? I wasn’t greedy for divine power. I just wanted her gone.

I couldn’t put a {Death Contract} on her because it was a kind of magic. Just the {Champion’s Challenge} for an Exp boost but it wasn’t worth it. Again, she could wake up because I’d challenged her.

Therefore, all I did after crossing the boundary was to take the sword and deftly behead the damn kobold woman.

I held the kobold [Queen]'s head and sighed. It was over. As anti-climatic as a bad fuck but that’s how things go sometimes. She caught me handicapped once, then we fought on rather even footing last week, she knew she was outclassed and bailed. Compared to Bundeus and Kel’Caldor, this kobold bitch wasn’t worth even a footnote.

After swiping the kill notification aside, I took the body and head back to the magic zone and stored them in my item box.

She should’ve stayed away from us. Her hubris and misguided sense of purpose led to the deaths of her people, my crewmembers, and ultimately her.

Now I could only hope she wasn’t it. It would suck if I’d just killed Lorna’s reincarnation. I focused on the {Fate Magic} but I didn’t have the same command of spellcasting as before. It was hard to understand it without System assistance. All I could tell was that my fears were unfounded. Lorna was still somewhere in this shit-hole.

I waited for a while but Wyxnos never called me. I suspect he wasn’t even informed that his [Saintess] died. Only if he checked on her and wondered why she wasn’t leaving the dead magic zone. Or if he had some way to coax this information from the System. I discarded him being an immediate problem and enacted the next step of my plan. I used {Shapechanger} from the kitsune toolkit and disguised myself as her.

I converted the gnomes, now it was time to steal the kobolds from Wyxnos as well.