Serenity felt the nexus clench then swirl around him once the ritual collapsed. It reminded him somewhat of the aftermath of destroying a dungeon, like the Corn Maze back on Earth. It wasn’t the same; Gaia (or, he supposed, Asihanya) didn’t reach out to him and ask for help stabilizing the collapsing area. The collapse also felt different. Shallower, maybe less important.

His help wasn’t required.

Of course, that left open the question of what was going to happen here. Whatever it was, it would probably be better to get out of the ley line; no matter what, Legion needed to be his priority. He could come back and steal the Viper’s paperwork since he wasn’t going to get to kill the Viper himself. With luck, there would be something that would let him find out whether or not Takinat would come under attack again.

If the Library was safe, he’d have a decision to make. Raz wanted to kill the attackers, since they killed his Clan. Serenity was just here to help Honoria; he wasn’t sure he should help Raz when he’d been gone from Earth for so long.

He’d make that decision if the time came. It was more likely than not that the Library was under threat because of the Broken Mirror, and that meant he needed to deal with all of the attackers somehow. They wouldn’t just go away if he didn’t.

Serenity sighed when he looked at Legion. The man was still curled up in a fetal ball; he hadn’t moved when Serenity destroyed the ritual. “Legion?”

A few minutes later, when Ita had the portal going, Serenity had to pick up Legion and carry him through the portal. It was his responsibility; Legion was his follower. It was also the better choice, since he already knew he could deal with the taint of the Hollow One ritual’s mana if Legion happened to spread it to him.

No mana leaked from Legion, though he was still covered in a greenish-blue haze.

When Serenity checked on Gabriel, he found that the haze around the healer had nearly disappeared. That was good. It gave him time to ask the question he’d worried about. “How are you now? Is your Healing affinity still blocked?”

“Life Affinity,” Gabriel corrected him. He concentrated for a moment; Serenity could actually see the tendrils of healthy Life mana reach out from him and strike the small amount of residual bluish-green mana. “Yes, it’s not fighting me now. I should be fine?”

Gabriel didn’t sound entirely confident. Serenity couldn’t blame him for that; having your Affinities messed with wasn’t fun. He’d never been through anything quite like what Gabriel had just experienced, but Vengeance had dealt with necromancers of one flavor or another that tried to control him. That was more than close enough.

Well, there was one difference. This experience must have been far more physical for Gabriel. “It might help to have someone check you over, just a second set of eyes. I know Blaze can.”

Gabriel shook his head. “I’m fine.”

Serenity shrugged. Even if he could force Gabriel to accept outside help, he didn’t have the right to. “Your choice, just know the offer’s open. Blaze likes to heal enough that I know he won’t mind.”

Serenity had just finished the offer when Ita spoke up.

“Lord? You need to see this.” Ita waved at the sheet in front of her; it displayed an image that was clearly from the forest. The image showed a group of people who surrounded what had to be a Hollow One. One of the people in the image must have something similar to a Nature, Wood, or Forest Affinity; the Hollow One was restrained by a set of roots that had grown out of the ground and cocooned the Hollow One.

The Hollow One must have tried to grow out of the bindings. It looked more like a person-colored knotted string than a person at this point. The people who surrounded it sliced pieces off of it, then knocked them away; that was similar to what Serenity had done below ground. They must have someone extremely skilled with a relevant Affinity, possibly even the same person who kept it tied up, because the pieces didn’t even try to reconnect with the Hollow One before they were kicked away.

No, wait. That didn’t make sense; if they had someone that skilled, the Hollow One would already have been dismantled into a far smaller form than the one Serenity saw. He looked up at Ita. “It’s not healing. Was it healing earlier? Is that what you wanted me to see?”

Ita nodded happily. It was a little disconcerting sometimes to see a Sterath adopt mannerisms that weren’t simply human but familiar, modeled on either himself or the people around him. At the same time, it made her fit in more than she would have if she’d insisted on keeping her old habits. Now if only he could get her to stop calling him Lord.

Over the next few minutes, Serenity watched the Hollow One get whittled down to almost nothing before the roots holding it in place crushed the object that replaced the Hollow One’s heart.

It cracked like an eggshell and leaked a small amount of bluish-green mana. It must be not only the control point but also the mana storage for the Hollow Ones; no wonder it exploded when Serenity ran a manablade of an opposing Affinity through it.

“Have them kill the rest of the Hollow Ones on the surface,” Serenity instructed Legion. “They have them all captured, so it should be simple enough after this example. Then they should come back to camp and we’ll check them for mana contamination.” It probably wasn’t necessary and even if they found some, dealing with it would be difficult, but at least then they would know.

Ita nodded and Serenity turned away. He needed to get back inside the base; should he bring anyone with him? It would be easier if he had help restraining the Hollow Ones; more than that, he didn’t really want to leave any behind. It was still possible they could spread, even if they were killable now.

Perhaps he should just have some of the others go in? There wasn’t really much need for him; he was no better at killing the Hollow Ones than anyone else. If anything, they were probably better. It wasn’t like he could afford to use Solar Affinity to get the kills, after all.

He could ask-

Serenity’s train of thought was shattered by the sudden presence of a dungeon nearby. It wasn’t there and then it was and it shocked him.

His next thought was that he obviously could use his level 10 Deity Skill for detecting believers to find dungeons.

Immediately after that, he pulled up his Status. The last time he’d checked it, he hadn’t had that Skill; when had he gained it?

Detect Believer

Gods and those who believe in them are linked. While this link is the most active during prayer, it can be felt at other times.

The screen was a little different; it no longer showed his XP or Path Tier Attributes. On the other hand, neither was really important anymore; the Path Tier Attributes couldn’t be spent since he was maxed for Tier Eight and they went away when he Tiered up his Path, while the XP was far less important than his Path Level.

Serenity wasn’t sure what he’d done to earn the levels, but it didn’t matter. He’d either just done it, which didn’t make sense, or a new dungeon had just formed. Since he knew that the one inside the base had to be the closest nexus and the dungeon felt like it was in that direction, he knew what to bet on. The swirling mana after he destroyed the ritual by making the mana move around it must have turned the nexus into a dungeon.

Wait, maybe they were both true. What if the nexus became a dungeon because it was unstable and the Dungeon Deity was there? Creating a dungeon seemed like something that could advance a Path based on being a deity for dungeons. Maybe he reached Level 10 when it formed and then was able to sense it?

That seemed likely. It also seemed likely that it didn’t matter; he wasn’t going to go around creating dungeons, at least not very often. Asihanya didn’t need more; Takinat, at least, had lost too many people for the dungeons it already had.

[Asihanya range limit exceeded. No settlements found within forty miles of dungeon location]

[Asihanya Sovereign not found]

[Asihanya Manager not found]

[Alternatives required]

[Two Hands of the Order found]

[Comparing Qualifications]

[Hand Selected: Serenity. Qualifications used: Multi-World Sovereign, Dungeon Deity, physical proximity]

The messages seemed more like the Voice talking to itself than it talking to Serenity. That changed with the next message.

[The default for Asihanya is that any dungeon without a settlement within forty miles shall instead have a portal node created outside the entrance. Should this be completed for the Hollow Remnant Dungeon?]

[Adding a portal node will pull power from the nexus, reducing the growth potential and cleansing capability of the dungeon. A portal crystal is recommended if the nearest settlement has insufficient dungeons or expansion to the dungeon is expected.]

It almost felt like the Voice was recommending against establishing a portal node. It probably wasn’t necessary anywhere that was far enough from civilization; the dungeon might break, but the monsters would be little different from naturally-occurring monsters outside civilization if that happened. In fact, this might be exactly where those monsters came from.

Serenity decided he didn’t care about that; he didn’t want Hollow Ones potentially escaping from a dungeon, if that was the theme it chose. Hollow Remnants certainly sounded like Hollow Ones. Takinat would have to take care of them; Serenity doubted he could get anything other than a dungeon to form at the nexus, now.

He couldn’t think of many downsides of the portal node, either. It wasn’t like monsters could travel through it; they’d have to be both sapient and able to pay. The real downside would be weakening the dungeon, as the Voice mentioned, but it wasn’t like Asihanya couldn’t afford it.

Yes. Create a portal node.

He needed to figure out how to put that default in place for Earth. He’d also have to talk to Gaia about it; Earth might not be able to stand having the dungeons weakened. Of course, he also shouldn’t use forty miles as the deciding factor; that wasn’t a long trip if the dungeon was convenient to good roads. Maybe there was some other way to set the requirement.

A crystalline shape emerged from the ground next to Ita. It was convenient to Serenity, but it was also convenient to a lot of other people. Serenity was pretty confident it emerged there because of him, but it was also pretty central to the encampment, so it probably wasn’t obvious to anyone else. He could probably escape being noticed for that, at least.

“The base is now a dungeon,” Zanzital announced. “It looks like this camp was picked as a good entry point. Excellent. Who wants to head in with me? I want to check it out.”

Serenity guessed that answered that question. “I’ll go, but we need to take time to check for any information the Viper left behind. I still want to know why they were on Asihanya, why they attacked Takinat, and how many more they have.”

Lillene

Those messages from the Voice were a little revealing, weren't they...