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Hubris woke last. He tried to stretch but failed. After hundreds of years in the pod, his muscles were stiff, and his joints ached. Kiara had exited the pod an hour prior and came to support him.
“Real life sucks,” Hubris croaked.
“The summoned kids would say you’re addicted to virtual reality,” Kiara said. Her voice was rough as a rasp, and she followed her words with a fit of cough.
Hubris called his stats and sighed. After a certain point in age, physical stats started to diminish without exercise, even if frozen in time.
Name: Seamus Cadhla (Hubris) Age: 1050
Species: Evolved Human
Level: 100
Class: Sage Tier: Archetype
Body: 6 / Mind: 100 / Spirit: 50
SPs: 1080 / CPs: 10.000 / MPs: 1500
HPs: 1060
“Are you ready to move?” Kiara asked.
“No, but I don’t have a choice, do I?”
They tucked into each other and proceeded on the subterranean corridor, lit by phosphorescent mushrooms and moss. Her sight was impaired, and he limped, so Hubris guided Kiara’s steps, and she supported his weight.
The distance was a mile, yet after a hundred yards, they were exhausted. Kiara picked a bit of moss and gave it to Hubris to chew. It held water. She could eat the mushrooms, but her husband couldn’t. He did not have her poison resistance. They stepped on and walked double the distance this time before Hubris couldn’t advance anymore.
“My feet are killing me… Literally.” His HPs were diminishing, sustaining his body’s expenditure.
“I’ll carry you,” Kiara said.
He didn’t object. Her Body was eight, but her Druid skills allowed her maxed Spirit to take over and enhance it to fifteen at the expense of twenty Mana per second.
Eight minutes later, Kiara let Hubris down. She had exhausted her magic. Nevertheless, they had reached the control room.
“Do you want to rest?” he asked.
“Let’s do this.”
The last sixty yards took a minute of slow walking and panting. The round chamber was as majestic as when they had built it through magic. Massive stones made the walls, with a circle of columns sustaining the dome above. A hole in its center, directly above the round table, allowed the sun inside.
The couple approached the circular granite slab and touched it. An indent appeared on its side, a drawer. Hubris pulled it out. Inside was a leather pouch and all sorts of personal items they brought at their summoning.
“Welcome, masters,” a voice spoke. A marble ball detached itself from the table. It floated up, stopping at their eyes' height, while two chairs made of energy appeared behind the Archetypes, allowing them to rest. “What have you been up to? I didn’t feel your presence for the last month.”
“We put the pod on sleep mode, extracting every bit of regeneration from it,” Kiara said.
“Yet we still are but old broken toys,” Hubris added.
“You’re awake for good, or will you return to the pod?”
“The first, core.”
“May I suggest you exit the tunnels and go to the village? I can arrange for a house to host you and food delivered.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“After we get our bearings. What’s the situation outside? Start the day after our daughter died.”
“Do you want the good or the bad news first?”
“Why don’t you mix them?” Kiara said. “
“Contact with the System has been lost, but you know that. Four rogue Archetypes had tried to breach your inner Sanctum, and I’ve killed them. Princess Aone Unna, the first in line for the throne, had perished attempting to ambush a mobile force of mercenaries from Krivoburg not long after you fell asleep. In the hinterlands, a previously unknown bastard prince, Etienne Valor, is claiming an area starting from the Saxon Alps north. He’s supported by the Khan of Wrocslau and Beauhemia.
“Since then, the throne has been claimed by four of the surviving heirs, and Prince Sia Sextum has renounced his rights. Prince Dha Secundum and Princess Tri Tertia have allied, intending to share the throne. They are positioned south of Burdigaux to stop their siblings from moving toward Parisi. The fourth in line for the throne, Prince Cetir Quartium, is currently marching toward Barcelona to relieve the siege mounted by the fifth Prince, Coig Pentium, with his allies from the Basque Province. The Briton Isles have declared independence. Rome did the same.
“The Byzantine Empire has a stalemate between two armies and the Bogomil Federation. The Emperor has been deposed by the eldest son. There are no other developments in the rest of the world.
A New System has sent private messages to those with combatant classes, declaring they must accept it. Beauhemia, Hungary, the Mongols, and the Bogomils refused to do it and forbade the New System under penalty of death. The Old System is out of reach, but the individual OS works.
“All but Prince Sia Sextum’s people have accepted the New System in our empire. It is a more complex version of the independent OS with a permanent line of communication with the New System. It allows stats to grow to one hundred and twenty. Five percent of the people who took the New System suffered spontaneous deaths, and five percent more were crippled one way or another. Many regiments in the military refused the installment and deserted.
There are no changes in the rest of the world. The situation is unknown for the other Realms, but the second moon of Stellarelphella has been destroyed. The status of the Archetypes is unknown, and no one has been active lately. Do you want me to extrapolate various causes and scenarios?”
“I’ll do it,” Hubris said. His Mind stat was useless when confronted with physics or mathematics, but politics was the water in which his intelligence swam like a fish. “That kid was right; the System had a material frame, which was on that moon, most likely. We can’t project our minds without it. The usurper uses an inferior replacement, which causes the glitches and the deaths. That means the number of Archetypes behind it is not as great as anticipated.”
“You think it’s our fault?” Kiara asked. “Raven had seen it coming… Maybe we should have listened to him…”
“He wanted to use the Summoned as his personal minions… Remember that we swore to ourselves when we became powerful: Never to become enslavers. Even if it meant standing against our daughter.”
“Can you… read what our descendants are doing?” Kiara asked, her voice shaking.
“Hundreds of people are living normal, quiet lives around the Realm. The progeny of our second daughter. There is one who… is not on the Realm… Sia’s daughter, the seventh in line.”
“Brigid?”
“Yes… I think she got transported to Vincent’s world.”
Standing up and waving his hands over the table, Hubris invoked a projection. It had no sound, but the image was clear. Brigid was walking back and forth on a strange bridge in the middle of a room. She was dressed in her armor, but her helmet was off, and she had a deep frown on her forehead. At the same time, her lips were puckered. Around here were many people, some staring and some throwing light bolts at her from weird square devices with short cannons on their front.
“Oh, my God!” Kiara exclaimed after she leaned forward to see better. “It’s a slave market!”
“She doesn’t look in danger,” Hubris said, dismissing the image. “To me, it looked more of a mercenary recruitment base. She's doing a demonstration of her resistance... Don’t be worried,” he fondled Kiara’s hand. “If she’s there, it means Vincent survived… He’ll take care she’s safe.”
The woman kneaded her hands in a prayer gesture, fighting back tears.
“We have to do our part and hope for the best,” Hubris said. “We’ll start by securing this location from the villain System’s influence. Tell me, core, what is your reach now?”
“My influence covers Gaul, the Pyrenees, and all West Europe, including Munchen. Everything west of it and south of the Alps and the Pyrenees are vassal territories. You want me to enlarge my territories?”
“On the contrary. I want you to retreat to the minimum area possible and start two pocket universes, one around the area and another around the town above us and this complex… You’ll issue a proclamation: the Cadhla Archetypes are back. Remember them that the Clockwork Queen ruled because we allowed her to, but you, the core, answer to us.
“Sia Sixtus is to become Crown Prince. The rest are to renounce their claims and the New System. Until they do, they’ll be considered Anathema and deprived of your protection.”
“But… Master… The minimum area I can retreat to is about forty thousand square miles…. I can’t make a force field large enough for that!”
“Would you be able to if you had more energy at your disposal?” Hubris asked, picking up the leather pouch and pouring its contents over the table. There were a few dozen marbles, the kind kids play with, and he proceeded to select a few.
“Master… are those dungeon cores?” The gasp in the core’s voice was evident.
“Yes. Dead ones, but still a lot of concentrated energy in there. Cores Kiara and I looted from minor and medium dungeons before they grew too strong. There’s a way to kill the dungeons without destroying the cores. No one but us knew about it, not even the System.”
“Curses,” Kiara said. “We dealt with the spawn and the bosses, and the Raven dealt with the dungeon cores.”
“I have ten. How many would you need to ne able to do what I asked?” Hubris said.
“T-three… master… With one more, I would be able to create my own defenses… Constructs or modified beasts.”
“Here you are,” Hubris rolled the cores on the granite table before gathering the remaining marbles. “It’s time to show the world how the old guard works.”