The Deadman

Lt. Jones Armitage, the captain of the Hellrunners was presenting himself in front of a woman that has no single emotion. Empty single-minded eyes and a face that might as well be like plastic.

She retains a youthful vigor despite her age.

In front was Doctor Gia Silva, Founder of LORES Consortium and the owner of the island that they were standing on. It was called Haven, but there was a name that only the Doctor knows.

“Ma’am.”

“Lieutenant Armitage. I have been expecting your presence.” 

A calm controlled tone that resembled an AI generated voice. Her lips moved but there was not a ripple on her youthful face. This woman was wearing a lab coat over a vest.

Lt. Barnes stood facing the Mistress of the Consortium with that hardened face of his. Lt. Barnes was always a hard soldier that commanded the respect of his subordinates.

“As you know, the gap between the worlds has started to widen again.”

She said as if it was a matter of fact. One hundred years was enough to gather knowledge and in this woman’s case she was a pioneer of technology and sorceries, but her forte was that of space. A woman with an utterly maddening obsession over space and how to tear through it.

“Arcane has taught me a lot and I know that even if this world’s closed off now. There are gaps in this world.”

Lt. Barnes stood without movement. Ears on the words that were coming out of the bland voice of the woman. She’s caressing a crystal ball that seems to be quite different. Dotted with many spirals that resemble that of a wide galaxy.

“And you will have to do something for me. Are your crew ready?”

“Always.”

Something stirs in the air. Doctor Silva’s chamber started to make a slow whining sound that ended with a hearty pulse.

The augmented reality that they were experiencing was fully simulated.  All senses were stirred by this and the most dominant sensation was the smell of air.

They were traveling this passage through the use of a Artificial Robot Drone that was equipped with a remote function, allowing an experienced combat veteran to use this ARD to explore 

“This is one of the rumored entrances to Agartha. It is a Kingdom that was famed to be the hollow world. But it is not so simple.”

The ARD continued forward until something disrupts it for a second. There was a malfunction happening to the Drone. As the drone rebooted, there were patterns that appeared on the ARD drone.

Runic writings that protect the machine at the face of magic. 

“The ARD managed to penetrate the sanctuary. No, it’s best to put it as a Dominion.”

A sanctuary is an ancient ground that is surrounded by illusion. They are places that are protected by unknown laws that are far too different than the laws they are used to.

A dominion is a far reaching sanctuary that has expanded beyond  expectations. Places that are unreachable to the commons unless they are equipped with certain augmentations that allow their entry to this place.

Gia Silva.

A woman who got to the top of the chain has interest in these places and has spent a century understanding their secrets. For the years she has spent resources in acquiring these places and raiding them — despite the disapproval of the Clans and Hidden Societies who think of her raids as reckless provocation of the Unknown Powers.

It was to the point that even the Lioness of the BRAVE Industries has decided on protecting one of the oldest creatures that they know, Lesnik.

It was around the 2050th Gathering that she declared her intentions to the Clans and Hidden Societies. In the name of ‘Progress’ and ‘Revitalization of the Old Arts’ she had created a group to root out these sanctuaries and gather information.

The Lady has already captured all the Balkan Sanctuaries while currently she’s moving on securing Europe's Sanctuary while avoiding certain places that would provoke the Hidden Societies to go to war against her. She’s a woman that has developed the Drone Swarm Tactic that has been effective against lesser targets, but has found little use to countries and organizations who has made counters against such system.

A hidden prodigy, a lonely woman who has abandoned all interest other than her research.

But other than the scariest thing about the Madam was that she had reached the level of Archmage. She’s a woman who has the esoteric powers that could allow her to use magic to such devastating degree.

Her fondness for technology mixed with her arcane knowledge made her able to create certain equipment that are heresy to the factions.

And now this woman has her fangs pointed at the mythical place that they only heard from rumors and videos from the internet that speaks about this certain place.

“A dominion this large?”

“It is closer to a plane of existence than a dominion. A pocket world that has been bothering me for a while. It took ten years for this ARD to reach this passage.”

The ARD in question did look outdated than the ones guarding this micronation of an Island. It lacked the complexity of the Bots that are operating the factories of this island.

“So you were not given the permission to enter this place, Madam?”

“Permission is not needed. The entrance to this place is guarded by white men who think of them as genetically superior. In a way, they have earned that right because of their careful eugenics plan, and have become the ubermensch that they dreamed of becoming.”

“How come we have not wasted them, Madam?”

“They are of little concern to me and our interest. They are awfully close-minded, but there are traces that they had superior technology before we had surpassed them, their tech has peculiarities and my analysis has shown that it is replicable. I’d like to call them Naztech, since they are quite focused on mechanical engineering.”

“Then the recent improvements are from this tech?”

“I can see that you disapprove of their beliefs as of a mixed race, but science does not discriminate, and technology like this can be used appropriately to improve upon ours. You should know better, as a soldier.”

“That I can accept, Madam.”

The footage forwarded to the untamed world that ARD had discovered.

Tall trees that seem to cover the skies, with its branches crisscrossing the skies. They tower this ‘sky’ that the ARD found itself to and covers.

Building-length vegetation that seems so lively.

Flora and Fauna that are too alien to the ones they know. Further survey of the lands shows a forest Giant Groundsels. The plants found in this dominion are vascular.

“This is Noeggerathiales. A vascular plant that has been extinct. If it wasn’t for the ARD’s sensors, the data here wouldn’t have been recorded.”

“The air is thick… and heavy.”

“ARD detected high oxygen content. There are also signs of carnivorous plants that are lethal to such an extent.”

In the simulated environment was a plant that had a tulip-shaped mouth chewing on a creature that seemed to resemble a sauropod.

“Dinosaurs?”

“There is great resemblance, but the concern is this.”

Creatures that stood like humans.

Skin that is blue, red, and green.

With the most common, the workforce of these creatures, have Gray Skin and have characteristics of an enslaved race.

“They are Huercos according to the old tomes. They are Ogres that should have gone extinct, but still lived.”

Lt. Barnes didn’t buy it. Although the Madam has a bloodthirsty streak in the name of science, she was reasonable enough to understand that the way these monsters move suggests that there is a tribe or that of races that are organized enough to become a threat.

Not to mention that the carvings on their skins interested the Madam. Her eyes are on the markings. However, as the ARD, who was engaged in stealth-mode, slowly understood that this society seems to pass their knowledge through mouth. A role-based society where these Huercos have assigned a certain Ogre to a specific role.

It is a different world altogether.

A pocket world hidden in the cold continent where a Treaty System persistently remains.

If there was one place that the Madam couldn’t easily touch, then it was the cold continent. It was a place where they disallowed conflict for a very good reason.

“This is quite the find, Madam.”

“That’s not what we are after. I do not care much about the business of what these Ogres do. However, take a look, Lieutenant. What do you see behind their small mountain?”

The ARD that simulated the environment changed location. This time it was facing a burning orange glow in some sort of pit. At first, they thought it was lava, but as ARD zooms in, Lt. Barnes recognized that glow.

“A massive korium deposit?”

“That it is, Sir.”

Madam Silva then changed the view through her simulated chamber and showed them one of the towers that had this boulder-sized korium that was inserted on the tip like a staff.

“Magic is dead. What remains in this closed-off world is nothing more than the remnants of what remained. Our world is like an oxygen tank with its air running out as we breathe it in. The more we run out of this magic, the less effective it is. Those who are not attuned do not get this supply of magic. The place of magic, the sanctuary, consumes magic to remain its illusions.”

She stares at the giant sphere of korium.

“And after years and years of searching where the magic is being drained to. I finally came to know the location of the source.”

Then it clicked to them why the Madam has been trying to destroy sanctuaries and have spent so many resources into neutralizing these places.

She wanted them gone.

She didn’t want these places to take any more magic. 

And yet there was something he didn’t understand.

Like the Madam said, the world’s big enough and the magicians of this era are sparse, so there’s little of them that requires the use of such an obscene amount of magic.

“Spells need to be fueled with magic. And my research involves the use of magic supported with what the scientific community has learned. I was wondering where this ‘interruption’ is coming and upon recovering ARD’s data storage. I suspect that this pocket of a world hidden to the world is where most of this is coming from.”

She emphasizes the interruption with this distaste that he hasn't heard from the Madam. It is difficult to make her react. If her emotions are neutered, then this could be a sign of something.

“The energy that this world consumes outright disallows some of my research’s progress. I do not care much for this pocket world, but I do care about the resources, and the appearance of this korium that possesses properties that naturally attuned to magic. Their value as fuel outweighs their natural conduction of magic.”

She turns her gaze to the deposit that seems to have been scanned by the Bot.

“It is land untamed. It is a place where these naturally attuned deposits of volatile minerals are stealing the energy that interrupts my work. MY WORK.”

Lt. Barnes, who hears the tension in the Madam’s voices, seems to strengthen an unknown resolve. He saw pity in the eyes of the hardened Lieutenant.

A pity directed to the creatures that inhabit this dominion.

Gia Silva has little interest in the world.

It was said in the rumors that after the millennium bug ‘rid’ of the magic and tipped the scales to technology.

A great change came to the Madam who was able to become Mage just in time before the millennium bug ate it all away.

There was one thing in this world that interested Madam Silva.

And it was her research.

Her precious research that she devotes her long-lived life to.

There was nothing more to say about this and with her intentions bare. Lt. Barnes could only accept her maddening words.

“Gather all Hellrunners and the Deployables. The mission is clear. Find the core of this dominion and shatter it. I want that dominion gone.”

And so, the Madam of the LORES Consortium signed the death warrant of a hollow world.

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