AN: Thank you all for reading thus far. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please do not hesitate to voice them.

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"Why did you all groan from her statement about children?" Asked San'yuu who was perplexed about such a thing. Whereas Siuun and Shoriin were busy staring at the Avian female as though deciding whether or not is was edible.

"The Master will move heaven and earth for a child," replied Sal'ruum with a groan as he rubbed his right shoulder slowly whilst rotating the arm.

"He's already done that, Sal'ruum," piped in Val'ruum, "Three times for the same child, then simply destroyed the whole of the world in order to rescue it from some more unsavory characters."

The elder Dragonock's eyes widened at such a revelation, "He destroyed a world? What of the other children, not to mention the rest of the populace?"

"They died after I destroyed the world they lived upon," my voice punctured their conversation as they slowly turned to witness my eyes flaring a baleful crimson upon their bodies, "For one child, I destroyed a world. This I would do so again and again if necessary. Now, sit and attend to my thoughts whilst we listen to the creature's speech.

"Well?" I called out to the odd stork-like creature before us. My question seemed to have startled it, as it leapt from the seat it was provided.

"Please," it chirped towards my person, "They have my children."

"This is suspicious, Lord," whispered San'yuu, of whom I turned to slightly as though my attention was diverted completely. This was simply to allow the other to believe I was not paying heed to it, of which seemed to be searching the area for something. This was indeed suspicious, as many who were frantic would only glance around before settling back upon the one in charge.

"The Avian who not be flying around at night, nor would any other creature for that matter. Certainly, they could make use of a torch, but that would only make it a target for the denizens of the darkness."

"Hmm," I hummed softly before circling around the table to grip the creature by its neck. Of whom squawked loudly and tried its best to attack my person with its beak and talon-like feet, but to no avail. For I simply did not care, and dragged the creature out into the night where a large group of dwarves were drinking. Upon my appearance, however, they did stop to stare at the creature within my grasp.

"Gahn," my voice thundered throughout the night, as a portal which seemed to absorb the darkness around us. From here, my stone servant appeared, but in the form of my skeletal self. However, once it turned to spy my smaller form, its body did condense and shrink in on itself in order to become a mirrored kobold with silver specks scattered about its person. Quite an amazing feat, if one ever saw it transform its body to mirror my own. Unfortunately, it could never smooth out the rough features, nor create a pair of eyes, but everything else was exact.

"Show me Gahn," I commanded, as my free clawed hand was stripped of flesh, blood, and tendon, "Show me the world around us." Soon afterwards, I plunged my skeletal, clawed hand into the stone body which received it willingly. Once inside, the poisons within my bones were swiftly pumped into itself in order to fuel the spell which it had used quite often in my presence.

"<>."

The stone creature's arms stretched forth and sank into the ground, as lines of emerald spread out all around our persons. In front of my person came a detailed and up to date map of everything within the light of our torches, and a kilometre around us. These were in the form of dirt and stone collected within such a map, and many of the dwarves were amazed by the replicas of themselves. Even going so far as to dance, whilst the others watched the little avatar of himself dance in time.

However, what caught my attention was not the dwarves and their curiosity, but of the world outside our enclosed space. For within the darkness beyond were creatures both large and small circling us. Each of these such creatures were strange, as though Gahn's ability could not fully form them upon his map. Of which had me enthralled by such a thing, and I desired a few for myself.

Unfortunately, such a desire would not be fulfilled. For once the Avian's eyes fell upon the living map, it shrieked loudly with a single word, "Kill." Once it spoke such a thing, its neck was crushed by my grip. Of which seemed to shock the other, as the essences within fled from this world and into whatever fate awaited it in the next.

"Stand up, O ye Sons of Hephaestus," my voice thundered once more, "Let the anvils ring high and the drums of battle begin. Tonight, O Sons of the Blacksmith God, let us bathe in the blood of our enemies, for tonight we march to war."

A great and boisterous howl echoed my thunder, as golden lights and flames of orange engulfed the dwarves. Once the light and flame receded, the dwarves were coated in golden armour with flame-like weapons of various sizes in their grips. "You heard 'im, lads, kill the beasties!" Howled one of their number, as the first of the strange creatures leapt over the carts towards my immediate left.

Of which seemed to be a cross between a multitude of creatures from furred and scaled creatures, to those with wings and can swim in the sea. "Chimera," howled another dwarf, as it struck the flank of one of the creatures with his gold and flame coated whip.

A Chimera, by the by, is a creature born of an alchemical experiment in order to create the perfect creature. Such a thing is normally banned upon various worlds, and yes, I've banned such a thing on a few worlds I govern beyond our own. For you see, my dear audience, although such a thing can lead to great fame and wealth, it can also disrupt the balance of the world proper. As such a thing is nearly always much more intelligent than the one it created, and can perform acts which could lead to the destruction of an area, or the entirety of the world it lives on.

For these such reasons do we ban the creatures from our worlds, and condemn such practitioners for doing so. However, this being the Abyss, the worlds do not have such laws and are allowed much freedom.

A pair of voices erupted into a howl, as two short bodies in gold and flame leapt from the back of Gahn, and onto a chimera with the maw of a cobra, and the body which seemed to be a cross between a bear, lion, and eagle. These three rolled around onto the ground, as the flame coated weapons and armour found purchase into the creature. Whereas the other screamed into the night as it could not find the soft flesh of the pair attacking it.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

To my immediate right was Shauu and her Brood Mother, as they growled low and dangerously towards a pair of creatures with the heads of a tiger, and the body of a mixture of serpents and fish. These two leapt upon my Undying and her pet, tackling them to the ground as another leapt high, aiming for my person. However, Auua screeched through the air, intercepting this other whilst striking its flesh with five metallic fists.

"Protect the Master," cried out the twins, as I removed my clawed hand from Gahn. This allowed it to grow in size to mirror my skeletal self, and plunged into the mass of abominable creatures which tore through one of carts of our caravan. Such a thing would become a pain to deal with later, but for now I simply sighed heavily as my eyes did spy Siuun and Shoriin clinging to a smaller chimera as they struck at its neck with tooth and claw.

"I can protect myself," my voice was full of frustration, as the twins struck at anything which tried to come close, "You two should just-"

A belch resounded greatly behind my person, as a gout of orange flame accompanied it. This came from the dwarf called Flint, of whom wielded a golden tankard and a leg of roasted meat. Whenever he drank from the tankard, he would belch greatly as a burst of flame erupted from his throat. This would always result in him laughing greatly at such a thing, as he simply walked around drinking or eating before releasing another gout of flame upon the creatures before him.

"You always did have food on the brain, Flint," I chuckled at his form.

Whereas he growled a simple, "Shaddap."

*

The fight would continue well into the morning, of which caused my mind a few slivers of frustration. As I would normally watch the day-star rise to greet the world beneath it, and could not due to the fact that there were countless chimera corpses lying about the area. Not to mention the destruction caused to our caravan would, by no means, take time to repair. Of course, I could simply use my magicks to fix it all, but conceded to the dwarves who desired to fix everything. They seemed to hold a lot of pride when it comes to menial tasks which could be fixed within mere moments.

"Yah, ye could do tha', lad, but ye would nah know wha' broke in the firs' place," commented an old dwarf who wore a peculiar helmet full of gadgets I've never before seen, "If ye did nah know wha' broke, then how will ye know wha' ta look fer when i' brakes again?"

"The wood and iron axel broke due to the rending of claws across the surface," I pointed towards the claw marks, then sighed as he glared towards my person. Afterwards, I simply pulled out several tools and anvils for the dwarves to beat away at. of which caused many of their eyes to sparkle and clamour to touch the objects.

"Where did ya get these, boy?" Asked several of the dark bearded dwarves, of whom seemed to be rather agitated about something.

To this end, I simply chuckled and waved at the objects, "You are not the only ones who can be overly greedy, good dwarf. Consider them a gift for your continuing services towards my person."

They became rather noisy soon afterwards, but this lasted merely a few moments, as the sounds of rhythmic iron beating on iron resounded around the ruined campsite. It was, for lack of a proper word, melodious. For the hammer ringing against the anvil caused many to become trapped inside a trance of some sort, calling upon all who are able to help with the project at hand. No. I and my Undying were not under its spell, but the others were, and they crowded around my person as I was the only one with access to fresh iron ore.

Of which I relented with a smirk, as we watched those charmed by the anvil's song. By the by, this anvil is called the Heart of Hephaestus, and is capable of many things when one begins to hammer away at it. This did not result in them singing, but instead creating new carts and carriages for our little caravan. It was desired by the one who first rang it, of whom was the old dwarf with the strange helmet.

Ah, the caravan did not rely on horses, or some other beast of burden to pull it. Instead, they were each tethered together and pulled by my magicks. What the dwarves had built was something similar, but instead of a multitude of carts and carriages, they built a single line of them with a main cabin at the front in order to lead the whole of it.

Of course, whilst this occurred,  I was busy with my apprentices in showing them how to draw inscriptions upon the wood's surface in order to draw out items and good from my Void Space. It was a rather dull and tedious explanation, but necessary if they had even a sliver of hope of surviving the trials I would set for the pair. These trials will be long and arduous, as I shall be sending them far from my person in order to complete such tasks. For now, though, they would need to pay heed to my lectures, no matter how boring it may appear.

"We're ready lad," called out one of the dark haired dwarves, of whom was covered in grease and soot whilst holding a leg of roasted meat close to his maw.

"Wow," cooed Siuun, as Shoriin echoed her amazement at the sight of such a caravan. For in front of our persons was a prototype which would soon become what is known as a "Locomotion", or a "Train" as many of the summoned Travelers would call it. This contraption looked much like an eight cart caravan, but instead of each being pulled by a team of beasts or simply tied together with rope or cord, they were each hooked together by iron hooks which seemed to be weak at first glance. The carts themselves had something akin to long shields welded into the sides, as well as iron bands to hold down the boxes which were being loaded onto each.

All in all, they were box shaped themselves, and had thicker wheels which seemed to be needing constantly greasing whilst upon the move. Else we would be subjected to a constant squeak which would drive even myself to seek out and injure something greatly.

"Lad, we're ready if your magicks are ready to move this behemoth of metal forward." This came from the same dwarf who had provoked Flint into a minour scuffle the night prior to this creation.

"Does it have a name yet?" I asked, as I closed my eyes to send forth my energies into the whole of the caravan. This would allow a more complete control over it, and seemed to come to life as it was filled with my might.

"No," came his reply, of which I simply nodded.

"Then it shall be called 'Nocte in Spica', or 'Night's Spike'."