//------------------------------// // The Ethereal Queen Part 1 // Story: The Eternal Sphere // by Xarmar13 //------------------------------// The return trip to the real world was not what anyone was expecting. While Twilight had a feeling that Crystal Silicon had sabotaged the Eternal Sphere terminals on the top floor, she had still hoped that they would return to the real world from one of the other terminals in the Sphere building. Instead, they appeared in the Eternal Sphere terminal in Gemity. “Odd,” Twilight muttered. She then activated her communicator. “Azure, what’s the status of the institute? Myself and the others ended up in Gemity when we logged off.” <”It’s bad, ma’am, for some reason the Valkyrie Monster Generator has gone haywire and is spawning monsters all over the building. We had to place the facility on lockdown while we worked to contain the situation. We have some templars warping in to help contain the problem and we have the first five floors secured. The elevators have been shut down to prevent the monsters from using them to ambush us.> <”Also, there are reports that the renegade guardian Lenneth has been spotted in the building. We could really use your help on this one.”> “Hold out until we get there. I need to make a small detour before we head over there.” Twilight ended the communication. “Looks like Crystal anticipated our next move and gave us something to distract us until she got Ethereal Queen up to full power. “Can we hurry up and get something to eat?” Sophia growled. “You guys are looking increasingly tasty and I’m not sure how long I can hold back the urge to get a bite.” With that, the group hurried over to the nearest pylon transport conduit and activated it. The group was immediately transported to Ponyville where Twilight led them to the apple/gem/Zerg farm. On the way to the farm, Twilight brought up a display to relay to Princess Celestia the current situation. She then had to brace herself for the expensive event to come. Of course, it would be worth it to avoid being eaten by one of her friends. Once they reached the farm, they were greeted by the current generation of Apple family members. The farmers took a moment to bow to Twilight before she explained that she needed to purchase all of their current stock of Zerg. The Apples were confused at first, but looking at the drooling rabbit and her sharp teeth that were increasingly difficult to hide as she slowly lost her self-control, they realized that the girl must have been absolutely starving. In response to this, one family member, a green earth pony mare with a blonde mane with red stripes, directed Sophia to the hive cluster while another, a burly sky blue unicorn stallion with a hunter green mane, hurried to his house to prepare something for everyone. Everyone else followed the mare. On the way, the group witnessed the workers harvesting apples. Protoss workers were using their telekinetic powers to harvest the apples in higher places in the trees while their height was enough for the lower branches. There were also pegasi and changeling workers who used their wings for the highest apples. Earth pony workers used the techniques of their ancestors to harvest their way. Once they arrived at the hive cluster, the mare told the hive queen to leave the cluster for a little bit before she released all of the current stock of Zerg from their pens. Once done, she gave Sophia a welcoming gesture by standing aside and allowing her into the pens. “Enjoy!” she said. With that, Sophia lost all means of self-control as she dove into the pens and attacked the livestock, devouring their flesh in a gruesome and yet fascinating display of savagery. With the bunny in the state of starvation that she was in, she had completely abandoned all thoughts of table manners and devoured the Zerg like a predator devours their prey in the wild. “Are we sure the Zerg part of her isn’t taking over her mind or something?” Fayt asked. “In a sense, yes,” Thanatas said. “But really in the sense of a starving and desperate person on the verge of reverting to their baser instincts when tempted by the first sign of food that they had been deprived of for weeks. Sophia used up most of her personal stores of biomass during the last fight and her instincts are screaming at her to replenish those stores ASAP. She’ll be back to normal once she’s had her fill of those Zerg in there.” “How do you know all this?” “Because her grandfather briefed me on the capabilities of the Zerg. Plus, you can’t expel that much organic material from your body without your body giving you cues to replenish it. It’s basic biology. Just because she’s partially Zerg doesn’t mean that she’s above the biological rules that all living things must follow.” “Oh. Right.” Fayt scratched his head in embarrassment. Once Sophia had finished eating, the pens were completely empty, not even bones remained. The bunny sighed in contentment as she held her stomach. “Much better…” Before they could leave, the stallion came back with a wagon full of baked goods. “Ah thank y’all for yer patronage. Ah’m sure ya gotta be on yer way soon, but have some of our fine apple products fer the road. And don’t worry ‘bout the livestock yer friend devoured, the hatchery’ll pop out mor’a them critters in no time. Ah’ll even waive the cost of the stock since it was an emergency.” In the spirit of hospitality, each took an apple fritter with them as they left the farm. Most of them commented about how delicious the treats were while others, like Albel, enjoyed his fritter quietly and did his best to not express how tasty they were. With that pleasant diversion out of the way, the group steeled their hearts as they neared a pylon conduit which would lead them to the Sphere Institute and their final battle. “Everyone ready?” Twilight asked. “It’s likely that Azure will have the door opened long enough for us to get inside. After that, we will be in for a long climb to the top.” “Please don’t tell me that we have to go up over two hundred flights of stairs,” Cliff complained. Twilight looked at Cliff in confusion. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. The stairs only go up to the fifth floor.” Twilight shook her head. “Anyway, Azure will meet us at the entrance to brief us on what we need to do.” Without further delay, the two ponies activated the conduit. With everyone touching the two, they were all transported to the entrance of the Sphere institute. As they walked to the entrance, they saw the door open for them invitingly. They accepted the invitation and headed inside. Once inside, the group quickly spotted Azure Lazer next to a large pylon crystal that was generating a field of energy. The mare turned to see the group and stepped toward Twilight to greet her. “Good to see you again, Twilight,” Azure greeted. “As I already told you, the building is now overrun by monsters. The Valkyrie Monster Generator has gone haywire. In order to secure the building, I’ve called the Protoss city of Lydun and they have offered us their assistance in this matter. Given the sheer magnitude of this facility, the Lydun defense forces have granted us six hundred and fifty templars to secure each floor with. They are composed almost evenly of high templars, dark templars and ascendants, enough for the two hundred and six floors we need to cover.” Lyra recalled that ascendants were closely regulated because of how dangerous it was to wield the power of the void like the Tal’darim do. Other classes of templars were regulated as well, but ascendants were the most regulated, especially with the danger of their minds becoming corrupted with madness from overuse of void energies. Because of the high risk, the pass rate of students in this discipline was very low. “I assume that you have secured the research section?” Twilight asked. “Only the one on the fifth floor. Thankfully, we managed to get the facility evacuated so there are no civilians on the upper floors. The security cameras have confirmed this.” “Alright, so what are we dealing with and what’s the plan?” “Thankfully, the sixth through the hundredth floors have not been attacked by the Valkyrie monsters so they will still be occupied by the standard haywire security drones. Securing those floors will be the easy part. The real problems begin once you reach the one hundred and first floor. I’ve received reports that Lenneth has been keeping to the floors from one oh one to the two hundred and tenth floors. Be ready to encounter her at any time from that point. “To make sure that we don’t have any monsters pulling a fast one on you and your friends and sneaking past you to take the elevator to the lower floors, we will be sending templars to guard the elevators on each floor. Unfortunately, since allowing the elevators to access all floors is a huge security risk, I can only ease the restrictions bit by bit so you will have to climb the tower one floor at a time. I will monitor your progress through the security cameras.” “Great, we gotta climb a huge tower and we might as well be taking the stairs with how fast this climb is gonna be,” Cliff complained. “Suck it up!” Azure snapped. “We don’t have a choice and I am not losing this building to a bunch of NPC trash mobs!” “Anything else?” Twilight asked. “Yeah, be careful. Lemon Puff warned us about Lenneth’s power to summon dead NPCs, but I also know that Belzebub and Swift Burial are wandering the upper floors as well. I doubt they will be cooperative.” Twilight nodded and the group headed to the elevator. The second, third, fourth and fifth floors had elevators that went upward next to the next floor. Once the group got to the sixth floor, as they moved away, a trio of Protoss warped in with weapons at the ready. Fayt noticed a number on the platform in front of the teleporter. Twilight looked at the boy and looked where he looked and decided to explain another part of the building. “Starting from the sixth floor, the many floors of this building are laid out in eight different variations. Each employee is given a set of eight floor plans to help them navigate where they are. This particular floor is labeled with a ‘one’ so that means we need to use layout one to navigate this floor.” As they explored the sixth floor, they came across a number of security drones which had become pushovers due to how strong they had become over the course of their adventures. And so, their long climb up the tower began. Each floor had the same enemies while Twilight navigated them through each floor. Each floor they ascended to followed with the warping in of a templar squad to secure the elevators. The climb was very long and tedious. With no challenging opponents, everyone soon became bored as they continued their ascent. Every floor was essentially the same as they followed the eight layout maps and fought the same pitiful drones. It wasn’t until they reached the one hundred and first floor that the real challenge began. As they began their exploration of that floor, they noticed that the enemies were very different from the ones from the past ninety-five floors. It was a wake-up call when Roger got overconfident and tried attacking a plant monster only for it to slap him away. Cliff managed to catch him. “Finally, time to get to work,” Sophia said. The plant monster was on the level of the monsters from the Maze of Tribulations. The fight was a little tough because ninety-five floors of trivial foes made them a little rusty. However, they managed to burn down the plant monster with fire symbols. The next few enemies helped the group to shake the rust off as they worked together to face bats, minigun drones, giant horned turtles, more plant monsters and elemental brutes made of obsidian. “Careful everyone,” Twilight warned. “If the monsters from this point are following standard dungeon monster protocol, the monsters are going to get a lot stronger the closer we get to the top floor.” As their exploration of the floor continued, the group took some time to remember the things they saw during their ascent. Twilight had mentioned to them that there were projects that were being worked on that would advance their society forward, while other projects were related to the Eternal Sphere. One particular project involved creating an isolated galaxy in the Eternal Sphere in an experiment with raw magic by using six cosmic workshops to refine it into six different forms and creating lifeforms using those energies. Among them were beings of light, darkness, nature, death, demonic and arcane. Another project in the making was one that Twilight refused to comment about. The only thing they knew about it was that it was called Project Ankh. Following Twilight’s map of the floor, they soon arrived at the room where the next elevator was located. It was to their surprise that they saw Lenneth looking at them and blocking the way to the elevator. “I see that you refused to heed my warning, and you murdered my brother Gabriel and my sister Freya,” Lenneth coldly said. “Your actions have jeopardized the project and you must be eliminated.” “Don’t worry everyone,” Twilight assured. “Lenneth’s programming forbids her from taking direct action unless we are near Ethereal Queen.” “Sadly, you are correct,” Lenneth grumbled. “It would seem that the current project leader has not removed that protocol from my system. However, I can still leave you with obstacles to impede your progress.” She then raised her spear, giving everyone the familiar sense that one of their old foes was about to make a comeback. “Return from the Underworld, Champion of Rogues!” A moment later, a black summoning circle appeared on the floor and a familiar foe rose from it… …except that they had forgotten who he was. All they knew was that a man with short, spiky, dull gray hair and eyes with darkened sclera wearing armor that offered some protection from blasters and was carrying a phase gun was staring at them with his weapon pointed at them. Lenneth teleported away once she completed the summon. “Uhh…who is this?” Fayt asked. The man’s jaw dropped when he heard that. “For real!? I can’t have become that forgettable! Don’t you recognize Norton the Great?” “Sorry, doesn’t ring a bell.” “You can’t be serious!” Norton whined. “We met on Vanguard III! I fought you and that Klausian and that Velbaysian and that Equestrian.” “Well, I do remember being on Vanguard III, I remember that I had to beat up a bunch of thugs and their leader, but I forgot the name. I’ve fought so many enemies lately that I’m having a hard time keeping my names straight.” Norton growled in increasing volume until he roared, “That’s it! I’m not gonna let you make fun of me anymore! I’m gonna remind you why I am the Great and Glorious Norton!” He takes aim with his rifle and everyone takes up combat stances. “Wait, I remember something!” Lyra cried. Norton looked at Lyra and raised an eyebrow. “You do?” “Yeah, I remember doing this to someone!” Before Norton could react, the mare was already right in front of him and delivered a roundhouse kick to his gut. He coughed up blood as a hoof impacted hard on his stomach, sending him flying into a wall. “I also remember doing this to someone!” Once again Lyra was right in front of the Rezerbian and her eyes glowed red along with her right hand. Norton was too stunned from the sudden attack to properly react to the mare using void energy to drain his life force. This time however, she ripped all of the life from Norton’s body instead of most of it like she did on Vanguard. Norton choked out a cry of agony before he withered and vanished. With that taken care of, Twilight approached Lyra. “You remember that guy?” “Does it matter?” Lyra replied. “The guy was a stereotypical scumbag, he’s not really worth our time to remember him.” Everyone simply left the matter at that and moved on to the next floor via the elevator in the room. The next ten floors were much the same. Each floor they arrived on was followed by a small group of templars that were mainly composed of Protoss, ponies and changelings, some of whom Lyra remembered teaching. Up through the one hundred and eleventh floors, the enemies were much the same: plant monsters, bats, tortoises, minigun drones, and metal elementals. No other surprises awaited the group until they reached the one hundred and twelfth floor. Once they reached said floor, the monsters changed. Just like with the Maze of Tribulations, the group figured that after a certain number of floors, the monster roster would be completely different. From this point, the monsters they encountered were axebeaks, porcupines, small puppets, quadruped model incapacitators and aquaregias. The aquaregias were the ones that the group had to watch out for. Despite their water elemental nature, they were able to cast Lightning Strike symbols, which Thanatas learned the hard way when a bolt of lightning struck her. Thankfully, her electricity resistance didn’t fail her. However, the white glass merfolk were the ones to be wary of in this section. The other enemies were not very tough. With knowledge of the new enemies, the group continued their ascent through the towering facility until they reached the one hundred and fifteenth floor. It was there that they received an answer to one of their earlier mysteries. A black version of Crosell stood before the group in a room that was somehow large enough to comfortably hold his gargantuan size. Twilight rushed forward and stopped in front of the dragon. “Crosell, is that you?” “Princess, you must flee!” he said with a strained voice. “That changeling captured my data and her vile mistress has corrupted me. I’m losing control of myself, it’s taking every ounce of my remaining will to not attack you. I’m sorry princess, but you must delete me!” Twilight flapped her wings and leapt back to the group. “Alright, let’s end him and move on.” “That’s kinda cold of you,” Cliff said. “You not even gonna give him a heartfelt farewell?” Twilight deadpanned at Cliff. “His backup data is in a secure location. I can just restore him using that. Besides, we don’t have time to waste worrying about his well being.” “You guys move on ahead, I’ll catch up as soon as I’ve finished my business with this guy,” Thanatas offered. Twilight sighed, “Just like before, huh?” “Not often I get to stretch my wings, princess,” Thanatas smirked. “Just don’t wreck the building, I doubt the structure is as stable as the Urssa Lava Caves,” Twilight said with an eye roll. The group moved past Crosell who tried to intercept them only to get grabbed by the arm and hurled across the room by Thanatas in her bone dragon form. The impact from the throw shook the building. As they left the room, the group felt more shaking and heard a lot of roaring for the next few minutes before the last thing they heard was a pained roar as they boarded the elevator to the next floor. On the next floor, the group was relieved that there was no longer any shaking. By the time they reached the elevator to the next floor, Thanatas had caught up with the group. “So he’s actually dead this time?” Sophia asked telepathically. “In a manner of speaking,” Thanatas thought, earning her a deadpan stare. “You know how I hate to waste.” Sophia rolled her eyes as they continued their climb. Once again, they had an easy time dealing with the monsters, with the aquaregias being the most troublesome. This continued until they reached the one hundred and twenty second floor where the monsters changed once again. The next set of enemies featured the return of the berserker warriors along with more scorpions, floating red armors with giant axes, robotic stinger drones and fire spirits. Most of the enemies in this section were mentally weak with the spirits and drones having better mental, or in the drones’ case, processor, stamina. Regardless, the monsters were not so tough. The group found the next guardian on the one hundred and twenty sixth floor. This one was another black dragon. However, this one was smaller than Crosell and its arms were a little large for a dragon of its size. It wore spiked bracelets on its arms. “No surprise that you humans managed to get past Crosell,” the dragon said. “That overgrown old fool had nothing but his size going for him. It would have been better if he stayed smaller, like me. My smaller size makes me a more formidable opponent than that clumsy old fool.” “So what are you trying to say?” Fayt asked. “Are you here to boast?” The dragon frowned at the boy. “I will have your head for your impudence. You’ll find me far more challenging than that old fool.” “How about you put your money where your mouth is,” Thanatas said with an innocent smile. “If you are so much more dangerous than Crosell, then let’s settle the debate between you two.” “Hah, as if you could do anything to make such an event happen. Crosell is dead now and I am not.” “True, but I can still make it happen.” The dragon then started to sweat. That nervous reaction did not go unnoticed by Thanatas or the psychics. “T-there is no point in bluffing, human. Crosell is dead and there’s no way that old fool can challenge me. Even if he were here, I would have thrashed him until he cried for his mommy.” Thanatas giggled. Her innocent smile slowly faded into a wicked smirk. “Hey Crosell, I think this little whelp is calling you out. Are you going to rise to the challenge?” A pool of black formed and covered most of the room. Everyone backed away from the circle as a number of large bones rose from the black puddle. It was quickly discovered that the bones were actually a colossal dragon skeleton. In the span of a minute, the skeleton of Crosell fully emerged from the darkness before the black puddle vanished. Crosell looked around the room before he locked his gaze on the smaller black dragon. “I should have known that a coward such as you would brag about being the strongest dragon in the event of my death. Are you ready to put your life on the line to prove that you are worthy of that mantle?” The smaller dragon cowered at the sight of Crosell’s impressive stature, but the words spoken by the undead dragon was an issue of challenge that his own pride would not allow him to reject. The dragon roared in response and charged at Crosell. The shadow dragon started by casting a Laser Beams symbol on Crosell who took the hit. Crosell countered by setting his skeletal frame ablaze before releasing a torrent of flame that engulfed the dragon. Thanatas and Sophia placed barriers around the elevator behind the smaller dragon to ensure that collateral damage did not halt their progress. The two dragons began to claw at each other but being a skeleton, the shadow dragon’s attacks were only scraping bone while Crosell’s claws were tearing at his flesh. The smaller dragon jumped back and clutched at his wounds. “That’s not fair, you don’t even have any flesh for me to cleave,” the dragon complained. “If you were as strong as you claim, then you should have the strength to shatter bones,” Crosell countered. “Where is that strength that you were so confident about earlier?” The shadow dragon tried again to attack the skeletal dragon, but each of his attacks were blocked and a face full of flames was his reward. Eventually, the smaller dragon became exhausted while Crosell, being undead, was prepared for a battle of attrition. However, the shadow dragon gave in to his fatigue and sat down in surrender. “Fine, you win. I’m still not the strongest dragon.” “You have a lot to learn about being strong, young one. You still have centuries to learn that lesson. Perhaps after the backups are engaged, you may meet me in my lair on Elicoor II and I shall show you the secret to what made me the Marquis of dragons.” Another black puddle formed around Crosell and his skeletal remains collapsed into the dark abyss. The shadow dragon used what energy he could muster to get up from where he was sitting and moved to the side of the room to allow the group passage. “Go. I no longer have the strength to fight. Move forward and continue your journey to the top.” The group nodded in response while Sophia and Thanatas removed their respective barriers around the elevator, giving them a clear path to the next floor. Once more the group continued their ascent through the tower and dealt with any monsters they came across. As expected, a new set of monsters appeared, starting at the one thirty-second floor. From floor one thirty-two, the group encountered purple-cloaked ridiculers, white wolves, gold sword armors, and viking mechs. Perhaps it was because of all the battles they had been through during the course of their grand adventure, but the party was beginning to see that the monsters created by the Valkyrie Monster Generator were starting to pose gradually less challenge compared to when they encountered such monsters in the Maze of Tribulations. It got to the point where they started challenging groups of monsters in groups of three at a time while the others watched. This pattern continued until they reached the one thirty-seventh floor where they found Lenneth again. The little girl glared at the group. “You interlopers are more formidable than I thought. I am certain now that you pose a threat to my master. I must take measures to make sure that you never reach her. But first, a distraction.” Lenneth manifested her spear again and pointed it up. “Go forth, he who walks among the dead!” A moment later, another summoning circle appeared between Lenneth and the group. From the circle rose another familiar foe, though also disappointing based on the last time they fought him. The man was covered head to toe in black plate armor with orange highlights with a layer of chainmail beneath. Only the man’s face was shown. He wielded a battle axe and a morningstar mace in his right and left hands respectively. “Hmph, this maggot is who she sends at us next?” Albel asked mockingly. “I would have thought that little girl would stop going easy on us after all this time, but she’s still sending maggot food.” Lenneth glared at the swordsman before she raised her spear again. “In that case…” From the summoning circle came more foes: a dragon-riding knight and a large shirtless man wearing a black leather mask and black leather pants. “This will do for now. You may do with this fodder as you wish. We shall meet again higher in the tower.” Lenneth then teleported away. Albel growled at the display of old foes before him. “That condescending brat is still underestimating me. I could take on all three of these worms by myself.” Sophia rolled her eyes and turned her hands into razor-sharp claws. “Too bad for you, it’s my turn.” She then channeled her psionic power through her hands until they crackled with psionic lightning. “Let’s get this over with. We don’t need these idiots wasting our time.” Within the span of a second, Sophia jumped from pillar to pillar in the room and slashed Shelby, Schweimer and the nameless dungeon master to pieces. The high voltage from her claws caused their flesh to evaporate until they vanished all at once. “I have to agree, cousin, these fights are getting boring,” Thanatas said. “If they don’t up the difficulty soon, the only real challenge might as well be that last prototype. Still, we have a whole seventy-four floors to explore, plenty of room for something decent to show up.” Their climb continued.