Jessica is holding Mai while Drakon is looking at the old dwarf with squinted eyes, the old dwarf has no reaction to their stunned silence while the rest of the soldiers are standing around awkwardly watching this exchange.

"That little missy there, has she been touched by the vine?" Glomor motions to Mai.

"Yes she has, do you have some place that we can put her to rest?"

A few of the dwarves speak quietly amongst themselves, none of them have taken off their armour before speaking with Glomor, they respond to each other in their own language. A sizeable group of short men are approaching from the distance, their brown skin, long beard and curly hair are a contrast to the tall Phoenix and Dragon humans. There are no women in the group of dwarves.

The soldiers prepare their weapons in response, but Drakon signals for them to settle down.

"Everyone touched by the vine needs to work through the contamination" Glomor responds, "We have lost countless dwarves to the vines trying to make our way back to the portal"

"Follow me, we must keep your soldiers here under watch but the two young ladies and the big lizard man there, please follow me"

Signalling for Jessica and Drakon to follow him he walks away toward the rock face where the countless houses are dug into, Drakon coldly snorts but signals to Jessica to follow the old greying short man.

"What brings you do our Sacred Mountain? Did you enter through the portal or another way?"

"Dwarf Sir, there is no Sacred Mountain... The entire area around here is almost flat with a few hills and we saw no portal nor did we enter one, we entered via a tunnel that our kobold workers found" Jessica speaks patiently with the old dwarf.

"What of the outside world then? We have been trapped within this mountain for far too long... 2000 years longer than we should have been"

"I don't know, I have visited nowhere outside my own village" Jessica shakes her head as the two look toward Drakon.

"I also know little, my last memories were with the Holy White Dragon Empire and being struck down in battle, I was suddenly thrust into this world by my Lord when he awoke me not too long ago"

"Is this still located in the Centre?"

"No, the energies are far too thin and..." Drakon pauses for a moment, "The land itself is strange"

Jessica can't follow their conversation now as the two men talk about something she doesn't know about, quietly cradling Mai who looks to be having a nightmare.

"Is this perhaps on the outer edges or the unknown expanse?"

"Unknown Expanse? As I remember it, no one could go beyond the outer edges..."

"True, only Immortals could explore the unknown expanse but we 'Star Dwarves' solved that problem... that was until the downfall" Glomor sighs heavily as if remembering something painful. 

The group has entered a simple building, a clean building filled with only a bed and a large metal glowing panel beside it.

"Place the young lass on the bed, the machine shall purge the corruption from her. We're lucky that it only a short exposure"

Jessica places Mai on the soft bed, Glomor presses a few buttons on the machine as it comes to life and lights start shining over Mais body before concentrating on the area where the vine touched, Mai has settled down as though she's no longer having a bad dream. 

The group silently watches Mai for some time while Jack is above ground trying to find out where the group went.

Jack has found a group of kobold workers not too far away quickly learning that they didn't go down the hole at the worksite, there's an entrance tunnel the kobolds discovered not too far away that is much safer yet the kobolds constantly say that there is a curse down there and no one should go within those tunnels.

"Why are they cursed?"

"Many kobold go down there but only few come up, always changed and always evil"

"Can you lead me to the entrance?"

The kobolds all awkwardly shift on the spot, yet none step forward as they speak as a group trying to talk Jack out of going there but eventually Jack talks one of the kobold village leaders into leading him to the entrance with the promise of a special meal.

Quickly making their way to the entrance where the first squad of kobolds are relaxing and waiting for Drakon to come up, Morax the first kobold leader that Jack came across steps toward.

"Dragon Lord, are you here to join great General down into entry forbid?"

"What? Are you asking if I'm going down into the tunnel?"

"Yes Dragon Lord, Great General went down with the two young madams and many soldiers but they have not come out yet"

Morax summarises the course of events from when Jessica and Drakon showed up at the worksite until now for Jack, he's relieved that they didn't climb down the endless pit of that hole yet worried that they haven't come out yet, if there's anything more than a simple tunnel then it'd be far safer if the two girls weren't there.

The group of kobolds and Jack then proceed down into the tunnel, which is further enlarged, as they travel downward the brown rocks of the plains is replaced by a greyish unknown rock that is much harder and stronger, the temperature drops and finally they enter the man-made tunnel devoid of anything.

"Which way did they go?" Jack asks as he looks at the tunnel, the group has come out at the center of the tunnel with endless darkness to the left and right. Morax sniffs the air and frowns while pointing to the left, Jack looks down that direction and can't see anything but darkness.

"It smells like blood"

"What?"

"It smells like creature blood, lots and lots of creature blood that way" Morax points toward the left.

Jack readies his spear, Albert still has the storage ring forcing Jack to carry everything within a backpack such as climbing gear while the city lord weapon hangs by his side.

The group cautiously makes their way down the tunnel when their attention turns toward something making a scuttling noise along the ground hidden in the darkness before them, Jack readies the spear while the kobolds hold their short swords and daggers, very few of the kobolds have taken up a military profession so they're rather clumsy.

"Everyone be ready, something is coming!" Jack yells out as the first creature enters the light.

Jack launches a fireball at the insect, one of the many ticks that were attacking Jessica's group previously.

The fireball swallows the tick but reveals what hides in the darkness, countless of the same creature that are almost climbing over one another to rush forward.

Jack works overtime using his spear in one hand to jab at the insects while launching fireballs from his other hand while the kobolds are also stabbing in their clumsy fashion.

The creatures are all going down in a single hit yet there's always 3-4 to replace the one they killed, sensing they're going to be overrun soon Jack pulls out the city lord weapon.

"Xueli!"

The little snake appears on his arm quickly sliding down into the weapon, Jack strikes out with the sword against the ground causing the sword light to cut countless insects in half and explode in a burst of blood giving the group a breather for a moment.

It's only for a moment as the creatures amass on the walls and roof, Jack launches several more fireball glad that he has an abundance of qi today knocking them off and clearing the pathway for the group to continue forward.

This carries on for several waves before the group come out to the large dome opening where countless creatures are crawling over the ledge, up from the endless abyss below and crawling nearly everywhere hiding the walls and the opening where Jessica's group went.

Jack's group make their way over to the ledge and peer down, the endless abyss with untold amounts of these creatures crawling up from below yet the young mans attention is held by the door.

'Are those spaceships?' he inwardly asks as he looks at the intricate mural on the door and surrounding wall that briefly shimmers with strange geometric shapes on it yet he's not given much time before the next lot of insects push the group away from the ledge.

"Is that where they went?" Jack asks Morax who is joining in killing various insects with a pickaxe.

"Sir, I do not know as the smell of blood within this space is overpowering"

The group slowly back away from the ledge back into the tunnel they entered, there is nothing come from the rear luckily yet the bugs are still coming from over the ledge.

Jack looks at the bugs with a pained expression, he's worried about Jessica's group encountering so many insects.

Placing the spear on his back, Jack bombards the insects from the distance with fireballs.

100s of insects explode with each fireball Jack launches, yet it's not enough, Jack pauses for a moment between a group of insects and calls upon his other qi, the white phoenix qi within his body while his other hand contains a dragon qi fireball.

The strange temperature fluctuations spread while the insects make strange sounds from the distance and start rushing even faster.

Jack brings the two fireballs together, his mind is stressed from the pressures of these two incompatible fire qi but he combines them into a strange red and white fireball of mixed colours.

Without delay he throws the fireball forward, the basketball-sized fireball flies through the insects like they're nothing while they're strangely jumping into the fireball.

*BOOOOM*

The fireball lands on the doorway across ledge causing it to shimmer with a multitude of lights and colours before flashing red and lighting up the dome cave.

A bridge made of light appears and covers the hole leading down in the endless abyss, stopping the advance of the countless creatures yet not solving the issue of the creatures still in the cave.

"Fall back, let's secure our exit while taking care of these stragglers" 

The group slowly makes their way backward while drawing the creatures into the tunnel to restrict their numbers, Jack is quickly running out of dragon qi as he launches countless fireballs leading the kobolds to safety, while this is happening Jessica is sitting with the old dwarf and Drakon watching the machine work on Mai.

"So... who are the star dwarves?" she quietly asks.

"Ahh Miss Phoenix, that's a long tale from long ago... are you sure you wish to hear about that?"

"Please do"

The old dwarf strokes his beard, "Very well, how much do you know about the Ancient Phoenix Empire?"

Jessica shakes her head, "Nothing, I have only briefly heard of it"

"Ahh, well long ago when the Phoenix Empire was still thriving yet small, many races eventually would flock to them for protection and guidance through the terrible times in the Centre yet none could argue against the contributions of the 'star Dwarves' had within the Empire"

"One of the earliest races to come under the banner of the Phoenix Emperor, we were an unknown race of dwarves, they found us while using we were primitive vessel of iron & steel to travel through the void of space" Glomor laughs.

"Ahh, back then everything was so basic and simple" he mutters while looking at the machine working on Mai.

"We were given a chance, allowed to study the mystical worlds of the Phoenix Empire and developed a unique technology which solved a major issues for all races in the Centre, long range travel"

"Only an Immortal can enter the space between the void and navigate it successfully" Glomor speaks, Drakon nods while Jessica is blankly listening.

"We created enormous vessels with countless cannons to fight against the endless enemies in the void and between it, capable of ferrying billions at a time"

"This fueled the Empires growth, and this was in partial thanks to the 'Star Child', a being that oversaw the gigantic 'subspace' network, a chosen one, given strength of the dwarven protector star, able to withstand the massive stresses and power that came with this task, on their mind and their body"

"Eventually an understanding or 'dao' was innately learnt by our race as they handled their given task, operating the massive fleet of ships for the Phoenix Empire both on the planet and the void, giving our race unique mastery over spatial skills capable of moving the stars themselves"

"Those were the joyful times, they gave us freedom and respect..." Glomor stops stroking his beard.

"It wasn't always like that though as the 'star child' eventually succumbed to the unfathomable stresses of their task but before they passed on, they hand down everything to their on-follower, someone chosen by the protector star" the old dwarf sighs and continues.

"After many generations and countless years, the Phoenix Empire was under stress and the newly risen Empress, daughter of the previous Emperor rose to power yet the star dwarves were subjugated for having too much power and shackled because of inner turmoil within the Empire muzzling the newly risen Empress..."

"Unpleasant things happened and eventually the 'Star Dwarves' were locked away in underground cities with the newly baptised 'star child' to be sealed in a crystal causing the fleet to become useless, crippling the Empire and cutting off the support for remote regions and not long after, the Empire ceasing to exist... but luckily being locked underground protected the star dwarves from the downfall of the Empire"

"Of course, I wasn't alive to experience all of that" the old dwarf starts laughing to lighten the mood, Jessica is left in a daze as her hand presses her chest where the little phoenix chick is sleeping while Drakon has his eyes closed.

"If you'd like I can let you read some of our history books, they're rather long and in dwarfish but a good read"

"What are you all doing here then?" Drakon asks.

"Each dwarf underground city will send 1 person to the ancestral birthplace every 500 years via a special portal for both ceremony and to watch over where the 'star child' slumbers"

"Ahh, it was meant to only be for 500 years yet we've already been here for 2000..." Glomor looks out the window, "Most of us signed up because it's considered a holiday to come here, all the food and drink you can ask for and the perfect workshop free to use"

"Can't you leave through the portal?"

"We have been trying to reach the portal but at some point before 500 years were up, a vine sprouted from somewhere and blocked off nearly all the tunnels leading elsewhere while an infection of evil dragon ticks appeared, never thought I'd spend my middle ages stuck here threatened by a darn plant and bugs"

The machine suddenly beeps but continues working, Glomor suddenly hits the machine causing it to beep again and start humming.

"These things need maintenance every couple of uses but we have had no supplies for a long time"

"What is that thing?" the beeps draw Jessica out of her daze.

"This machine? MediLot mark 44b I think, unfortunately none of us here really understand the technology, we have made some progress over the years but we were mostly just simple craftsmen before coming here, I can hammer you an alloy plate like its nothing but ask me to diagnose what's going on in this thing and you might as well ask me to build you a Helot photon pistol"

Jessica blankly stares at the old dwarf, "How long will it take?"

"A few hours longer, do you have somewhere you need to be miss Phoenix?"

"No... not exactly, I'm just expecting Jack... uhh our Lord to come following us"

"The evil dragon ticks will go away soon so we will open the door then, I would like to ask you, why did you come into our Ancestral Mountain?"

"We were searching for a clue or something from the Phoenix Empire, I was told it's close by and underground, is there anything like that within the village?"

The dwarf strokes his beard, "The only thing like that would be the shrine to the Phoenix Empire, would you like to visit it while you wait for the little lass to wake up?"

Jessica nods, Drakon signals that he'll stay here to watch over Mai while Glomor and Jessica leave the building and walk over to the shrine.

Back with Jack, he has arranged the kobolds into a defensive formation as he reenters the dome cave.

Calling a phoenix qi fireball into his hand, he fires the white fireball at a nearby tick.

The tick shrugs off the fireball and consumes the energy, as though it's enjoying a delicious meal, using the spear to kill the tick in a burst of blood he then looks at the bridge and mural that has stopped flashing now, the bridge is still blocking off the endless abyss luckily.

The gateway across the bridge shimmers again with the weird geometric patterns and lights when two 'people' appear, as though they're stepping out of the solid wall. Enormous people wearing giant glowing armor while they're holding glowing red lances, their body contains various holes and what look like weaponry. They point the spear at him and speak in a strange language that isn't translated showing that it's not a language he knows. 

"Uhh, Xueli any help?" 

'I don't know, it sounds familiar but they're coming to attack so concentrate!'

The armoured figures raise their weapons and charge at Jack.