A plate with a massive steak and easy-over eggs on it slid out of the hole in the wall.

.......

Luna, can you go see where the food is coming from? Or just scout out the the fortress part of the train. I want to know what is inside this thing.

{I tried already! I saw you watching me too, so why are you asking??}

Oh, I thought she was humping the ceiling or something. I don't know much about fairies, so I was trying to pretend like I didn't see her doing that, but it seems she saw me looking at her anyway.

Was there a barrier? I don't feel anything when I touch the ceiling.

{If there is one, I can't sense it. There's just something stopping me from going through the ceiling and walls.}

Hmm... When we return home I'll ask her to try and go through the walls inside of Arcadia. It might have something to do with the alloy they use in Caedrus.

A buzzing sound occurred from the door, causing me to stop moments before I cut into the steak.

{Why would anyone want to talk to you?}

... That cut deeper than it should have since she wasn't even trying to be mean.

Go check the door, please. I don't feel like getting up right now.

You can't attack one another on the train without it vaporizing you, so she should be fine... Probably.

I heard the door open behind me as a young boy shrieked with joy at the sight of Luna. He tried saying something but she quickly cut him off, "W-What do you two want..."

Two of em huh? I can only sense one person behind me.

I shoved a piece of steak into my mouth and turned the chair around to get a look at my visitors. One was a young boy in a nice green and white outfit with shoulder straps, and behind him was a seven foot tall person in an unknown suit of power armor. The suit must be blocking his aura. I didn't know they had such an option... Interesting.

One look at me and the joy on the boy's face disappeared. He suddenly looked very nervous and kept glancing back at the person in the suit. I couldn't hear it, but the body language of the person in the suit was obvious. They were sighing while shaking their head.

"Hah, it's okay boy, you don't need to be that scared of me. I'd really love to know why you're visiting me, so take a breather if you need to."

The person in the suit stared at me as the boy literally did just that; he breathed in and out several times before looking at me with slightly more determination than he had before.

"U-Um, Miss Reimia, I wanted to thank you on behalf of papa for bringing back our emblem! I get to go on the train now!"

I heard a man's voice chuckle through the suits speakers. He reached out and tapped the boy on the shoulder while shaking his head. The boy looked at him for a few seconds before coming to a realization. "Ah! I meant, uh, Clan Leader Seifer!"

Seifer... Ahh, I remember that name when I looked up news regarding the Hothgars.

"You're welcome, little guy. I appreciate that your family hasn't been trying to 'win me over' or anything since then."

My Uncle turned down their invitation to the celebration dinner and they got the hint through that to leave me alone. Unlike a certain other family.

The man in the suit nodded at me, "The Clan Leader said we weren't to bother you, but when the young master here saw you board the train, well..."

"Aww! She may seem scary and weird, but don't worry, Rei doesn't mind!" Luna said, sticking her chest out proudly.

... She's not wrong. A little interaction like this to say thank you is perfectly fine.

"U-Um, then..." The boy trailed off. His guardian continued for him since it seemed the boy wasn't going to stop fidgeting anytime soon.

"Miss Reimia, is it true that you're attempting to retrieve the core's codes?"

We've been on the train for a few days now, so I figured it had spread already, but I didn't expect anyone to actually ask me about it.

"Yes, it's true. I assume everyone on the train is doing the full loop back to Arcadia, so I'll be the only one disembarking along the way."

"... If I may be honest, a lot of people want to know how you pulled it off the first time. Including me. So you must understand, the idea that you may do it again while we still don't know how you did it the first time is driving a lot of people crazy. Half the clans are already convinced you'll be bringing the codes back in a few months and are preparing accordingly, while the other half are dismissing it entirely. The Hothgars in the first group."

"Preparing accordingly? What does that mean exactly?"

"Honestly? Not all that much. However, it will unlock the sealed levels, so the second you return we'll all be going into the new lower levels to see what's down there." He continued, "But we've taken up enough of your time as it is. We'll leave you to your meal now, and thank you for entertaining us, Miss Reimia." The man said before bowing.

After the door closed I looked at Luna. "Sealed levels? I don't remember hearing anything about those before?"

Luna flew back to me and nestled into my soul.

{Levels are those uh, R-things, right?}

Yes, and from the looks of things, Bertram's bar is located on a level that was never even finished. You remember those people who were shooting flares at the ceiling when we went to his bar a few days ago? It brought enough light to the ceiling that I was able to see up there. It looks like only the framing was done when the people there were wiped out.

So where are the sealed levels then? Lower? Higher?

I ate all of the steak and eggs before telling the console to call Yulong. He picked up after a few short rings.

"You just left. Don't tell me that something went wrong already."

"No no, I just want to hear about the 'sealed levels'. One of the Hothgars... Guards? I don't know what he was, but he was with one of Seifer's kids. Anyway, he said that the core's codes are going to unlock the sealed levels in Arcadia. What does that mean?"

"Exactly what it suggests, but let me correct him on one point. It's only theorized that they will unlock the R-90 to R-100 levels. The console only tells us that we don't have access to those levels. Nothing more, nothing less."

"I see..."

Ahh, I love mysteries way too much. Now I'm also dying to know what's down there.

"That all? Then I shall talk to you again upon your return to the Leviathan." Yulong hung up the second he finished speaking.

I could hear video game music through the speaker, so I know he wasn't busy... But it's fine, he already answered the only question I had for him.

From there I continued to do the same thing I had done for the previous two days. I absentmindedly watched the world of Caedrus pass by the train. Ruins, snow, groups of people, vehicles, and the rare machine in the distance.

Eventually though, I forced myself to enter my soul realm and try to make a black-blood building that was seamless and didn't look like a complete mess after I turned it into an ether carrier. Hmm, 'ether generator' is a better name for the buildings, while I'll continue calling the mobile types 'carriers'.

{Rei, Belfos is at seventy percent now. What are you going to do with him when he's ready to be resurrected?}

It's kind of annoying that he's only at seventy percent after all the souls I fed him on Mother. But as for what I'm going to do with him, I'm honestly not sure yet. If he obeys me like he did the wellspring then he'll come in handy versus the machines. At the very least his mantis' will serve as good disposable scouts.

----------------------------------------

A week later I was staring at a large rectangular black building that was designed like a hotel. There was a couple of hallways for getting around in the building, but the rooms themselves were the places that'd be generating the ether. And the main entrance had a small room where you could control the entire building.

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

What do you think?

{Eh, it's okay... I like the tower more.}

I do too, but its design is kind of bad for using it as an ether generator. If I do build towers, they'll need another purpose. Which means they'd end up as watchtowers and places I'd stay in if there's ever multiples of them in the world. They're not easy to build though, so I don't know when such a time would even come.

----------------------------------------

I waited at the doors for the train to stop. There was a crowd behind me, with most of them recording me while talking to one another or to people they knew back in Arcadia.

A few minutes later the Leviathan came to a stop at a desolate train station. Most of it was falling apart and it looked like it had been ravaged by time just like everything else in Caedrus.

"Good luck, Miss Reimia!" The little boy from Hothgar said from behind me, causing everyone else to start cheering as well.

{Hehe, you're a bit of a star now!}

... I've never been treated like this before, so I'm not quite sure how to feel. But it does feel kind of good?

I said goodbye to everyone and stepped off the train. I exited its barrier as I did, and immediately I felt like I was in a completely different environment. The air was thin, very thin. And for whatever reason I could tell I weighed less as well.

{It's like we're in space or something...}

Looking up, I could see the stars and moons of Mother clearly. There was also one planet that appeared much closer than it did from Arcadia in the rare instances that the sky wasn't covered by clouds. Amazing how different everything looks over here...

I glanced back at the train. Everyone was still recording me through the open door. And probably the transparent wall too. It takes so long for the train to begin moving again from these stations... Should I just turn invisible and leave now? After they have the core's codes they should be plenty busy with everything that happens afterwards. Also, I'll have my money so I'll be preparing to leave anyway. But that's assuming nothing goes wrong, and something always does.

I walked over to a dilapidated bench covered in snow and sat down on it.

{Waiting for them to leave? So cautious... Boo!!}

Ignoring Luna, I brought up the console and looked at my destination. Directly ahead of me, huh?

There was a large open field full of snow covering my view. It was undisturbed and motionless, like everything else I could see. No wind. No sound of any kind.

{This place is scary, Rei...}

I'm not physically effected by things like fear anymore, but she can probably sense it through my soul that I'm feeling a little worried.

It's beautiful, but I'm feeling really anxious as well. It's so lifeless and empty, which is something I'd normally enjoy, however, when I know what's hiding in the ruins past this field... It's really hard to enjoy the scenery.

Past the unmoving snow field was more ruins, but these ones looked very different. They were tall and far more compact instead of spread out like a suburb would be. As a result, I couldn't see what was inside of them.

Eventually the Leviathan's out-of-place chime began to ring, telling everyone that it was going to leave soon. I looked back and waved at everyone inside the train still looking at me.

A couple of minutes later the Leviathan began to move. I turned invisible and watched it disappear into the distance until the only thing I could hear was a slight banging sound off in the distance. I couldn't hear that while the train was here, and even now I can still barely hear it.

I grabbed the backpack and placed it on my lap. After pushing a few things out of the way I found what I was looking for, the bird summon I had saved from Mother. It feels like a waste to have it die here and not have it serve its original purpose, but I need to know what happens if I try flying over here.

I told the bird to exit its hibernation and fly off toward the ruins while continually ascending into the sky. The bird quickly took off and began to fly through the air awkwardly. Oh right, the air is thin here, so now the damn thing is burning through mana just to fly.

The bird was about two-thirds of the way toward the ruins and well above them in height when it was completely vaporized. A loud bang rang out soon after the bird died, telling me the shot was from much farther away, but I was barely able to see what had hit it.

Pfft, so flying is definitely not an option here. I knew it wouldn't be but still, holy shit...

I entered my soul realm and brought up the memory of the bird dying. I replayed it several times, slowing down each time until I could clearly see what had hit it.

{A cannonball? So archaic!}

I really hope you're not surprised right now. The Leviathan had all sorts of cannons sticking out of it. In fact, doesn't one of the most used mechs have a cannon arm on it?

{O-Okay fine, I get it already... But it's still weird though?}

I exited my soul realm and began to run toward the ruins in the distance. On the way I could see that the 'ruins' were only a couple of buildings that seemed to go on forever. I had seen plenty of buildings over the years that encompassed a city block, as that seems to be the normal in many places, but nothing quite like what I was seeing right now.

{If you can't fly, then is your only choice to run back this way if something happens?}

Either that or duck into one of these buildings. No clue yet if that'll make things better or worse though.

Probably worse.

I walked into the wide street (or whatever it was) and continued forward until a blast of some sort knocked me backwards a little. It wasn't powerful by any means, but it caught me off guard, as I hadn't seen a single thing approaching me.

Once my feet stopped sliding along the snow I heard the console on my wrist die.

... Well, now we know what had killed the previous group's consoles.

{Was that an, um... EMP? That was the name, right?}

Yes, that's the name, but consoles should reboot after an EMP hits it. Stalkers use EMPs and that's what always happens in Stalker battles, or so I've read. But it's not rebooting, and pushing the power button does nothing, so it must be a more powerful one. But the more pressing question is whether something hit us with it because it sees me, or that was an automatic pulse that goes off on its own.

{Uuu... I already want to go home.}

Says the fairy who was beyond excited for this mission before we boarded the Leviathan.

I waited a few seconds to make sure nothing else was going to happen, and when I was sure that was it I continued moving forward again. Walking of course, not running. And on the way I could see that the snow had been crushed by something at multiple points all over the entire street.

At least it won't be possible to deviate off course. It's just a straight forward walk after all. But please tell me whenever I'm one mile closer to the marker, okay?

A white dot appeared in the distance and a floating number appeared slightly above my eyeline as well. It currently read '9.3271' and was continually decreasing.

That works too. Thanks, Luna.

Besides a feeling of joy emanating from her, she said nothing in response, and we both remained silent as I moved forward. On both sides of me the buildings were far from as high-tech as I had expected them to be on this side of Caedrus. At the very least they were nothing like the building I had seen after exiting Victoria's mirror.

Sometimes the buildings had windows, sometimes they had large round bronze or steel structures jutting out of them for no reason. There were towers sticking out in some places, large platforms sticking out of the roofs, gaps in parts of the wall that lead to nothing... The structures were full of nonsense like that. I could only think that the architect had gone mad.

As the number in front of me hit '6.218' a part of the wall on my right opened up. I jumped all the way to the left-side buildings and clung to the wall.

Soon after that six quadrupedal turtle-shaped machines walked out of the wall. They had large red eyes in front of them---

{Is that teeth...? It looks like teeth below their eyes! But uh, they look kind of weak?}

They do, actually, but I'm sure as hell not about to put that theory to the test.

I waited on the wall until the six machines walked far off to the right before I dropped down and continued toward the marker. However, before I fully turned around I saw the weird steel and bronze spheres attached to some of the buildings slightly open up. A dim red eye appeared inside them, and they watched the six machines walk past them.

.......

Unsure of what to make of it, I turned and continued toward the market, but this time I decided to run. I was emitting a little sound now, but until something actually took note of it I wanted to move as fast as possible. The sooner I got the codes and left, the better. I might even be able to catch up to the Leviathan if I'm fast enough. Assuming the tracks aren't a hotbed of machines when the Leviathan isn't around.

5...

4...

3...

2...

1...

Along the way I passed by a couple of spheres and nothing more. But unfortunately, it seems I had come upon my first roadblock.

You're positive this is the place, Luna?

{Yes, and you know what that means. So, you know, figure it out. The longer we're here the scareder I am...}

Hmm...

I was still in the 'street', but the number said I was a mile away, which meant it was either above me, or below me.

Well, this is going to be fun. I see no doors on these buildings, nor do I know how to make the walls open up like they did before, so...

I ran back a little until I reached a part of the building that had a window. I glanced around real quick, seeing nothing but a couple of spheres with closed eyes in the distance. To prevent them from hearing it (assuming they could), I created a mesh and stuck it onto the glass before breaking it. The mesh absorbed most of the sound and I didn't see the spheres look at me, so it must have been enough.

I jumped through the window, landing in what looked like a school classroom filled with with long tubes and wires going everywhere. This place makes about as much sense as I had expected it to.

I exited into the nearby hallway, which was thankfully not cluttered with tubes and wires, but I could see doors everywhere, which meant that I was going to be here for a while.

I went through one door after another. Nothing I found made any sense, just like it had outside. However, after doing that for a couple of hours, I finally found a room that did make sense at the bottom of a flight of stairs I had just descended.

It was a relatively small room with one U-shaped table in it. A white board was on one side of it, and a large map was currently tacked onto the white board. While the rest of the room was filled with the usual things you'd find in a meeting room. A coffee machine, water jug, lamps, pens, papers, consoles, etc. The only thing that was slightly odd at first was the three chairs that were double the size of the human-sized chairs.

{Rei, there!}

Luna put an aura over a small object that was placed on one of the side tables. I walked up to it and picked it up. It was a picture frame, featuring six men and women in white coats, and two familiar looking aliens in grey coats.

Those are the aliens with elongated heads that I saw in the Abyss... The ones that lived in large homes in the city, and the very same ones depicted on the mural that crash landed on Veca.

I put the picture frame down and walked over to the map. It was a large map of Caedrus, and it said the area we were currently in was the 'training zone'.

In what world is this place a fucking training zone? It looks like something a child designed and some madman actually created.

The map showed Arcadia and hundreds of other cities. It also showed a few other places on the western side, but almost all of them had the name 'factory' in them. Also, most interesting of all was the 'portal' in the darklands to the west. There were red arrows pointing out of it across the bridge, while there were green arrows from Caedrus intercepting them. It's obvious what this means. They were being invaded by something from a portal over in the darklands... I'm looking forward to seeing what the core says about this.

Lastly, I saw something that had really caught my interest. There was a small red circle close to the dividing line between the dead zone and high threat zone, and the only text next to it said: 'God - 72%'.