“What’s wrong Luna?”

[Commander, activation of the Obsidian Moon has also activated several autonomous aether conduits that power various areas. This development has attracted a beast to one of the conduit rooms above you within the Fortress Belzond. It has begun siphoning off aether to fuel its own growth. If left unchecked, in a matter of hours the beast may become too large to easily handle.]

“How much time do you think we have?”

[At the rate of drain, I would say six hours before it reaches its next stage of evolution, but the sooner it is dealt with the better.]

“Okay, is there any way we can get visuals or audio on the creature?” If he could get advanced intel on the threat, there was a good chance he and his team could plan ahead and make downing the creature easier. Forewarned was forearmed after all.

[Yes, I can send one of my drones over to the fortress conduit room and another to your ship to provide a relay feed.]

“How long will it take for you to have that set up?”

[Thirty minutes Commander.]

“Good, we’ll get ready in the meantime.”

Having heard the entire conversation between Eric and Luna, the three other team members were very aware of the situation. Cid had picked out a few abilities and had chosen his Type, which was a Support to absolutely no one’s surprise, and now the scientist kept getting distracted by his new visual ability that he reported was called Scriptorum, which he said allowed him to see how aether interacted with glyphs when arrays were activated.

“Arrays?” Serra had asked, which Osar then explained was the term for how glyphs were arranged and connected to each other and to power sources in order to channel aether and create specific effects.

“So, it’s like the circuits and patterns on a PCB?”

Osar gave a blank stare to Serra’s question, although Cid laughed out loud after a short pause to think. “Yes, Serra! Exactly that! What a genius comparison! Now, I wonder if we can do…”

Cid began mumbling to himself and staring at the glyph arrays set into the vault’s walls while Serra blushed slightly at the scientist’s effusive phrase and turned away, embarrassed. Eric was struck again at the depths of complexity each of his companions exhibited, and worried again if he was going to be capable of keeping them all safe.

“Alright!” Eric said, clapping his hands for everyone’s attention. “Luna said we have six hours before that thing above us evolves and makes it harder for us to kill it so let’s use the time to gear up and get ready.”

“Can we at least take time to clean up a bit, sir?” Serra asked plaintively as she ran her hand through her matted hair. Her comment suddenly made Eric aware of how much dirt and dried blood was all over his body and gear, as well as reminding his nose of how rank they all smelled.

Osar broke through Eric’s disgusted self-inspection by push-opening another of the hidden drawers in the vault’s walls.

“I know just where we can all get a quick wash,” The big Urgan said, handing out squares of black and white fabric to each of them. “Everyone put on one of these thermal undersuits after you clean yourselves up: They’ll provide some environmental protection and can prevent… chafing.” The man said with a chortle. “The refreshers are over this way.”

The Urgan led them all to six well-appointed cubicle bathrooms just down the corridor from the Vault. Eric took a peek inside one of them before turning back to his team with a happy grin on his face.

“Luna said it’ll take her thirty minutes to get us some intel and a live feed so you can take your time people.” There were smiles all around at that, with Serra looking exceptionally happy. “Let’s all meet up back at the vault to begin choosing our gear and making plans.”

Eric spent a blissful ten minutes under the hot water shower in one of the cubicles, and then washed his body and hair with some spice-smelling liquid soap he found in a little secured nook by the shower. By the time he had rinsed off Eric’s mindset had improved, lifting a good portion of the fog of uncertainty and doubt that had been bothering him. Refreshed and infinitely cleaner, he took a towel from one of the racks behind the refresher door and used it before chucking it down a chute which he assumed led to a laundry area. He then pulled on the undersuit that Osar had given him.

The black fabric with white piping was surprisingly soft and supple, and clung to Eric like a second skin after he finished putting it on. A small brand icon composed of three stars overlayed on each other was embedded on the left breast. The suit’s short-sleeves covered the upper part of Eric’s biceps and continued as one piece down until the mid-part of his thighs, fitting so snugly that Eric wondered how Osar had guessed his exact size.

“There were size-altering glyphs alongside the temperature control array on the inside layer, sir.” Pig explained as Eric did a few stretches and jumps in his new suit.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Very convenient.

Eric took out a plain blue cotton t-shirt from his ring and paired it with another pair of cargo pants, this one a dark, mahogany brown in color. By the time he sauntered over back to the vault everyone but Serra had returned.

It took Serra fifteen more minutes to arrive, smelling of citrus and wearing a green and white track-suit. Her hair was now clean, brushed, and shiny, and the smile she gave all of them was brilliant.

“I needed that so bad.” She declared as she pulled out a seat from her ring and set it down by Osar’s table.

“Yes, I think my stink was beginning to affect my brain.” Cid agreed, as he lounged in a small recliner that had probably come from Osar’s ring, curiously studying a small device he had picked up.

“Find anything we can use in there?” Eric asked, pointing to the armory.

“I have a few ideas for a some of the weapons, though Osar will have to walk me through most of the non-melee type ones and the more sophisticated devices so I can learn what they do.” The scientist shrugged. “I can’t really give you anything concrete until we actually see what we’re dealing with.

Osar rumbled an agreement to help Cid out just as Luna interrupted them all.

[Commander, my drone is at the entrance to your ship.]

“Thank you, Luna.” Eric answered, before turning to Osar. The big man nodded, activated his gauntlet, and a few moments later a foot tall, mosquito-shaped drone entered the vault, its wafer-thin wings whirring busily. It flew to the table with surprisingly little noise and touched down on the scuffed surface with its tiny metallic legs. Then its elongated head retracted into its body and revealed an embedded crystal lens. The lens kindled in a moment, projecting a two-dimensional screen into the air before them.

The screen showed them all a large room with a central pillar that had several segments that rotated at different speeds and in different directions. All the segments were covered with complicated arrays and individual glyph clusters, while the tell-tale glow of aetheric expenditure illuminated everything.

The projector image caught movement, and slowly, stepping out from behind the mass of the pillar, was a creature that looked to have been made from large pieces of reflective crystal or glass, held together by an amorphous cloud of darkness shot through with sudden arcs of bright electricity.

“What in all the hells is that?!” Cid exclaimed; his eyes wide as he leaned closer to study the creature.

“Good question. Luna?”

[Unfortunately, with the current state of my memory I am unable to identify the creature.]

“Osar?” Eric turned to the only native of this universe in the room. The big Urgan rolled his shoulders and stroked his chin tendrils, studying the creature on the screen.

“It looks like what was described to me as a shardling, by someone who should know what he was talking about,” Osar said, still intent on the screen, just thinking aloud. “This one looks a lot bigger than what he described though.”

There was no frame of reference to compare the creature’s size to though.

“Luna, can you give me an idea of this creature’s size?”

[It is three meters high and protected by those glass shards that it can use as projectiles.]

Great, Eric thought, gigantic and deadly!

As they watched the creature in the projection stooped towards a shining array, a tendril of its dark cloud reaching out. It touched the array, and suddenly the light winked out and the electricity coursing through the main body of the creature increased in number and intensity for a moment.

[It is siphoning aether from the conduit; it will evolve soon.]

“You said we had six hours.”

[That estimate has now been revised; I would say you have at most three hours Commander.]

Hellfire!

“Okay!” Eric said as the projection continued, showing the shardling taking a sip of aether out of another array. “You heard the lady people; we have our go time pushed up to less than an hour. Osar, Cid look through the armory for something we can use. Serra, see if you can find healing consumables within the vault.”

With the others busy doing their tasks Eric studied the creature, noting how it controlled the shards of glass that orbited its smoke-like body and how something semi-solid seemed to be concealed beneath all that cloud.

“Luna, if we take care of this one, what stops another one from just waltzing in and doing the same?”

[If my drones can reach the pillar and conduct repairs, I can restore the passive defenses within the perimeter of the Fortress Belzond.]

“And that will keep things like this out of the Fortress?”

[Yes, the conduits power the energy fields that keep beasts from casually wandering into the Fortress, although a determined creature could eventually brute-force its way in.]

“But we’ll get warning if anything like that happens right?”

[Yes, Commander] Luna answered quickly. [Although, since the Sun Wyrm has been slain, the only other creature capable of breaking through once the shields are up is the Gharun Spawn that lairs at the Stage’s old Trading Association’s Auction House.]

“There’s another strong creature in this area?” Eric asked incredulously; what had this place been originally, some sort of zoo? “How many of these monsters are there?”

[I was not able to monitor the Stage properly while I was at minimum energy, Commander,] Luna said primly, as if offended by Eric’s tone. Of course, something like her wouldn’t have the capability to feel anything like that, could she? She was a glorified machine after all, right? [But it is my understanding that while the Sun Wyrm was still alive, it and the Gharun Spawn had controlled the two largest territories on the Stage.]

The two largest? How many other territories were there?

As if reading his mind Luna continued speaking.

[Currently my drones have identified twelve main territories, and twenty-five lesser ones in the entirety of the Stage.]

“What?! That many?” Surely there was no way so many beasts could be gathered in a single vessel, even if it was called an Ark, right? What would they even eat? Some of Eric’s disbelief must have leaked out since his voice rose an octave as he asked:

“How large must a territory be to be considered a main territory?”

[I have set the size of a main territory to half a kilometer or larger, Commander.]

Half a kilometer?! Eric’s mind grappled with the idea, feeling his sense of scale had been lacking this entire conversation with the Vessel Interface.

“Luna, how large exactly is the Stage?”

[The Stage is exactly seven kilometers long by seven kilometers wide, Commander.]