As my praetors and I enter the palace, I look around and observe the advanced technology this civilization has. Stasis pods, robot servants, advanced AI… this is the stuff authors from my dimension would write stories about. Suddenly, I feel the Nyx creature under my arm stir.
"I just realized I don’t know your name. Since you can’t talk right now, for the moment I will simply call you Julius." It growls. "Don’t like it? Too bad." It yelps in what I perceive is anger and we continue on.
Eventually our group reaches a gigantic metal door. One of the men wearing black puts his eye up to it and it opens. We are greeted with a dimly lit room that has a giant cylindrical object in the center. I assume this is the goddess. As we approach I see there is a large computer screen connected to it. When we’re about 10 feet away, the screen turns on and we are greeted with a face projected from the screen.
"Hello," says a monotonous voice that seemingly comes from all around us. "I am DXY (pronounced Dixie). I heard you came from another dimension. This is very interesting. Are you gods?"
"No," says one of my praetors. "The Thaumaturge has come seeking you out." He gestures to me. The face on the screen turns to look at me.
"I see… how odd…" DXY trails off. "So I assume you have something to ask me?"
"I do. Two things, actually. Firstly, this creature under my arm claims you summoned its soul using dimensional magic. Is this true?" My praetors turn to me. Although their armor hides it, I can tell they’re confused. The men wearing black murmur amongst themselves for a moment before DXY responds.
"I don’t like to use the word ‘magic’. I simply utilize the power of my soul to manipulate the latent energies around us. But yes, I do seem to recall summoning a small white creature." Julius growls and attempts to claw her way out from under my arm, but I hold firm.
"I see. Secondly, I would like to tell you how much I admire your technology. Very clever move on your part to place your soul inside of a quantum computer. Unfortunately for you, Thaumaturgy is infinitely more potent than mundane technology. My goggles of revealing have already showed me the location of your noble soul within the complex." The room goes quiet. During the 2 second period where nobody moves, time seems to stretch out as the goddess of technology seems to come to the realization of the severity of the situation. Lena gives me a glance as if to say, "Don’t do this."
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The room explodes with action. The men that were wearing black and accompanying us draw their guns in unison. I, however, am faster. I draw my Victus (Life) Conductor and pull the trigger, sending bolts of electric Potentia (Energy) through all their bodies, killing them instantly. Lena shouts in horror. "Guards! Activate the alarm!" DXY shouts in vain. The praetors have already secured the doors and are holding off gunfire with their void metal shields that I made for them while upping the security of the tower. I activate my Thaumostatic Harness and float up to the part of the massive cylinder where DXY’s soul has been deposited. Julius yelps in surprise. I use the portable hole spell focus to reach in and grab the receptacle: a small gray box with intricate runes carved into it. The moment I take it, the screen shuts off.
As I float down, I open a flux rift. "Get in! Now!" The praetors backpedal into the rift and I jump through just as my runic shielding begins taking gun shots.
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"I would call that a resounding success." As my praetors and I make our ways back to the tower, I realize we no longer need to keep a low profile. I insert the speaking device back into the neck of Julius. It calibrates and glitches for a moment before coherent words come out.
"—not again! Oh, thanks," says Julius.
"Not a problem. If you don’t mind, I’m going to carry you back to the tower so you don’t have to walk in the taint."
We reach the tower and I retreat to my study and set Julius down on a table. "What’s this? New victim?" The voices comes from the still disembodied brain of the god Winter.
"I don’t think you reserve the right to joke about me after you tried to kill me. Now, on with business." I place the box containing DXY’s soul onto the soul infuser and activate it. The soul flies out of the box in a spiral and into a specially warded jar I had prepared. Perfect. "One soul down, approximately 599 to go."
"What do you need 600 souls for?" Julius asks.
"He’s making a portal to Heaven," replies Winter. "It’s in vain, though. The second he makes it, God will just strike it down."
Julius’s ears perk up. "God? You mean the Christians were right?"
"Try not to worry about the cosmology too much." I flip a few switches and a machine about 3 times my size whirrs to life. As the lights inside turn on, the floating, lifeless body of Tetrax is illuminated inside. "Let’s test out my theory."