I flicked both the Soul Star Jewel and the Crystal Dreadskull into my Pocket, reconnecting the Formation below us and extending it along the remnants of the Pharaoh’s Door as I waved the Walls to quiescence, stored away the long rods, and suddenly the broken, shattered remnants of doors to the inner chamber were before us once again, the layers of stone broken and black spaces yawning open behind them.
I turned and pointed back the way we’d come. “RUN!” I ordered, a line of redness in the air hanging before us leading to the way out.
Everyone piled onto the waiting Disks, larger Beasts standing on multiples of them, and the Birds took off like lightning, aided by Void Magic shrinking distances and a whole lot of Wind Trails helping them along.
The demiplane was shuddering and rumbling around us. Strange lights were starting to gape through the cracks in the stones as they came apart, and there was only swirling emptiness beyond them. Howling souls seemed to be screaming at us from beyond as we blew through the corridors far too fast for any safety, but that was what the layers of magic gripping everyone tight and true to our winged allies were for.
The small group of mages at the other doorway was about a quarter-mile ahead of us as we swept into the exit ramp, tornado-force winds driving us up as awful groaning collapses thundered behind us, space wrenching and twisting and folding up, mere matter now unable to stand before it.
We exploded out into the sky, free and clear, the smaller group going left, us to the right, both bands turning to take a look down and behind us.
The massive Pyramid, its upper levels already torn apart and toppled free by external assault, began to collapse in the middle, stones tumbling inwards against gravity that seemed to be centered about fifty feet above the ground in the middle of the thing. Great blocks of Rune-carved stones, their magic gone and absent, tumbled into a point of darkness in the air as the last vestiges of their connections drew them into the collapsing demiplane, and that which had sustained the demiplane now joined it as it gave way.
Beasts, Plants, and Humans alike watched as the Pyramid’s multi-ton stones tumbled through the air into a point of blackness and vanished as if they’d never been there.
It took less than a minute before the last wisps of Void Magic were gone, the hole in space devoured itself as reality pressed in with vivic-reinforced determination, and the last vestige of the Pharaoh who’d thought to make its own Death Zone was finally gone.
---
There were surges of movement, powerful Auras closing in immediately as the Pyramid vanished. Our groups immediately headed for the ground under the crushed white dust where the Pyramid had stood, the Golden Sands that were so pleasing to the Pharaohs long since Burned away.
The Beast Kings standing watch at the edges of the Elephant’s Graveyard were the first to arrive, but only because War Talon Eagle Emperor let them. We all bowed and knelt as the massive Raptor glided in, lightly coming to rest in the exact center of the square where the Pyramid had once towered in unsightly dominance over the returning green of the Graveyard.
The massively built Eagle with the crest like ruby and obsidian crystal feathers swept His Awareness over the area repeatedly and strongly, looking for any sign that the Pyramid still existed or could return.
Then His Awareness rose and surveyed the surrounding area. Vivus had consumed a lot of necroic energy here repeatedly, pouring the energy into the earth, and the Green had reclaimed the land and soil... but the Plants that had once grown here so plentifully would take much time to recover, even if we had saved many of them.
Still, the whole area was clean, purified, and thriving with youthful vitality that would be ideal for Plants to grow... and ready to accept and comfort the ancient Beasts who came to die once more.
The Imperial Protea rose gleaming with a single bud on my brow, witness to everything that had happened. War Talon Emperor noticed it instantly, just a glance and inclined head of acknowledgement at the Imperial bloodline it represented.
“WELL DONE,” the Emperor Raptor told us, and then His wings flapped and He was far above us in the sky, heading back for the center of His territory and nest.
He might have felt the gentle thrum that rose from the Tokens dangling from Noble, might not. Whatever, those around me still did.
“If Your Majesty would like this one to drop You off where Your Majesty needs to be?” I asked the Imperial Protea as we all slowly straightened. I also turned to the others. “Help the Ruling Plants who have to move back to where they would like to root, and our job will be complete. Elders, I thank you for your unstinting vigilance and making sure we were not disturbed as we did our jobs.”
All of the Undead Hunters turned to each of the Beast Kings present, and bowed to them in turn, one by one. Mollified by the respect shown them, the towering Beasts nodded in return, as, well, I was a Sage, and there were multiple Archmages among us. Mighty Turk bounced over to give the much larger King Kogo a warm hug, and received a paternal patting in return.
No more Dead Zone. One less Pharaoh in the world. More experienced Undead Hunters around who could clash full on with the Netherworld invaders. A million and more Soul Crystals in loot; lore and knowledge even now being torn apart and analyzed at Coralost, some goodwill and harmony with the Great Beasts bordering Gabon; and maybe something just a little special on the side.
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Briggs whistled his one long note. Sama chortled with glee. The KIA boys looked around with wide eyes, as did the SAR girls, Cameron Dow, and Archmage Obai.
“And this entire thing is stable?” Briggs asked in some wonder.
“Yes.” I pointed to the twenty-stepper in the middle of the space, four miles away in the heart of this place. “Just enough energy to empower the Pyramid I made in my Sanctum.” I tapped a foot on the ground, covered in a familiar shade of stone, albeit Shaped into a completely new form. “The Rune and Sigils the Pharaoh used were three thousand years old, very rudimentary compared to contemporary knowledge of Void Magic. While there is nothing below us and the stone is helping create a nice floor, it’s completely unnecessary to encapsulate everything.”
The sky above us was an obvious dome with even the slightest ability to see magic, with a blue sky, clouds, sun, and the whole shot. The blue sky faded off into a star-filled void as it swept down to the sides, disappearing into the infinity of dimensional space as it did so.
“You stole the Pharaoh’s demiplane, reworked it, and made it into something even better,” Archmage Obai gasped in wonder, looking around with a dazed expression. “Over three thousand years of magical effort and reinforcement, yanked away as you siphoned it off to create this place of your own...”
“Where is that the sky of?” Sama asked reasonably, looking at the unfamiliar stars.
“The Beast Realm. An Emperor there who knows where this is and can wield Void or Chaos Magic should be able to pop open a Portal to here, if I allow it.” There was a moment of shocked silence at the implications of that. It basically meant I could Summon the ultimate defender possible to this place!
“There seems to be some stuff piled up on the ground over there,” Briggs pointed off to the side about a quarter-mile, at a tumbled heap of debris.
“Those would be the contents of the Pharaoh’s inner chambers.”
The KIA boys burst out laughing at my chutzpah. “Damn, we should have known!” Big John swore. “When you lost all that sweet loot, I was feeling sooo bummed!”
“Oh, no. I was going to rip off that looting, thieving, murdering corpse right down to its bloody bones the instant I knew we had to kill it. All the way or nothing.” I held out a fist, and Sama bopped it without looking, while the SAR girls hooted approval for the flex.
Cameron Dow was looking around with dollar signs rolling in his eyes. “A four-mile radius? Fifty square miles of empty land, waiting to be filled? I cannot believe you do not have plans for this place...”
“If she doesn’t, I sure do!” Briggs piped up, that special gleam in his gaze.
“As a superior version of a Pyramidal Demiplane, this place can sustain eight constant openings, instead of only four. It has no true resources to speak of, but the more advanced Portal Magic of today means those locations can be changed on a whim instead of needing long tunnels bored through the dimensional fabric to remain static... and I certainly don’t need a Pyramid looming on the other side to pass through! The only restriction is staggering them around the perimeter to keep dimensional stress balanced and even, but that has no effect on the connecting location,” I informed everyone. “If they aren’t locked on, a Portal Arch could also become the target location of a Cast Worldwalk or other version of a Portal spell, allowing others to access here as needed.”
Cameron Dow was standing next to Briggs. “Commander, I look about me and confess I want to fill this place with So Much Stuff.” He spread his arms and inhaled deeply.
“That sounds like a damn fine thing to accomplish,” Briggs agreed, playing his eyes about us in open calculation. “This area could hold a major metropolis and more. What’s the security and ecological specs, Fae?”
“Security is currently geared to uncompromised Marks. Anything coming in has to be in contact with a free-willed Mark-bearer to enter. So, nobody can toss a Nuke inside, and the Portal effectively doesn’t exist to Cast spells, they’ll go right through it. An Interdiction, however, will still ward it out, and outward-bound Portals from the Arches must be erected to a spot with a receiving Pattern, we can’t just open things into the heart of the White House or something.”
“A true pity,” Sama sighed, earning amused wry nods all around.
“Air is exchanged with both the Beast Realm and the Mortal Realm on Earth, as is constant Mana flows. There is no matter, matter creation, or other life forms extant here at this time. What you see is what we have. No dirt, water, insects, or the like. If you want more, you have to bring it in here.
“As for protection against dimensional attack, the location of the Demiplane is between the Beast Realm and Earth, and draws on both for dimensional stability, effectively ‘inside’ both their areas of dimensional strength. So, to get to us, an Outsider would first have to sense our location, then punch through the hosting Realms, then the boundaries here, in order to reach us.
“I could have done all this with a ten-stepper, but I did a twenty just to reinforce the spatial boundaries here and further harmonize them into the constant flux between the Mortal and Beast Realms. As far as anything outside either Realm is concerned, there’s a whole planet in the way between us and them in either direction, so we’re effectively invisible.”
“I foresee a lot of train tracks being built,” Briggs murmured, scanning the place. “Starting with one circumlocuting the Plane itself and connecting all the potential Portal Arches.”
“I could totally see moving our advanced educational facilities here to some place both wondrous and far more secure,” Sama proposed calmly. “Without having to worry about Beast attacks, we could build up instead of down, too.” Building high just wasn’t done outside of City Wards, as flying Beasts took it as intrusions, or ground-dwellers as eyesores to be pounded flat.
“Is this place really flat, Fae?” Briggs asked, tapping his foot.
“Yes and no. Yes, because we need a floor. No, because the dimensional form is totally a bubble naturally, but I didn’t have anything to fill in the bubble beneath us. If you’ve got a major mountain or four in mass you want to dump in underneath us, it’s all good. I’ll just push the floor down and accept it all. But it will all have to be carted in.”
“Would pumping air and water in and out constitute elemental balance maintenance, rather than dimensional instability?” Sama asked reasonably.
“Yes. As long as incoming approximates outflows, no issues setting up a constant stream in and out,” I assured her.
“Two Arches reserved, one for personal use, one for emergencies. That leaves us six to assign to locations. Four should be fixed, two mobile...” Sama conjectured.
“Five to assign. We need one to assign to the Beast Emperors!” I corrected her.