Quick Announcement: As chosen by the overwhelming majority in the discord, Chapters will now be bi-weekly, on Monday and Friday, so that my writing doesn’t interfere too much with my classes.

I hope you all can be understanding <3

Anyway, enjoy the chapter!

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??? - Late Summer : The Acardi Laboratory | Siratha

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*hhhuuummmmm* *Beep* "Unable to connect to remote servers. Please Provide Instructions." The glowing blue orb at the center of the room gently reverberated as the voice echoed through the room.

-Is it really.. online?- A part of me somewhat struggled to believe it, but the more I monitored everything outside, the more it seemed like it really was stable. "The battery had a malfunction and destroyed most of the lab. How much data can you still access?"

"Even I cannot access above a certain clearance level. However, with your permission, I could verify."

-With my permission?- "What is my clearance level?"

"Maximum." The voice responded instantly with a very blunt tone.

"T..then..." I was a bit taken aback. "Please verify the data..." Turning my attention back to the computer, I quickly navigated my way to the home screen and found the familiar series of files on the homepage, none of which stuck out as especially top secret. -Do you have to go through the AI for the top-secret stuff?-

*Beep* "Most local data seems intact, with only a few exceptions."

"And that is?"

"File 8,142,029 in Registry 3. It was a file regarding Locally connected Deep Ocean Sensors and various miscellaneous files throughout Registry 5."

-Deep ocean sensors?- "How do you know what it was for?"

"The directory still remains; however, everything inside is corrupted beyond what I can repair."

"Hm..." -I see... Does it have any information on them?- "What were the sensors for?"

"They had various purposes. From monitoring seismic activity to monitoring 'The Leviathan' at the top of the liquid ice sheet."

My ears instantly perked up, and my chest tightened as the final words of one of the Acardi echoed through my mind. "The Leviathan?"

"Would you like me to-"

"Yes."

The AI continued without a moment of hesitation. "The Leviathan is an A-rank Monster capable of threatening A-Class motherships and B-Rank planets on its own. Colloquially as 'The Leviathan', it is a creature known only in ancient myth as one of the founding beings of Div-4856, the planet locally known as Delphi, and is estimated to be on par with the King of Dragons. However, it has been registered as 'no apparent threat' and is to be left alone unless stated otherwise."

My mind instantly started to stutter. -Uh.. what?- "Is the 'King of Dragons', known as Bahamut?"

"That is correct."

The noise of the room quickly started fading to silence as my mind began to race. "Please go into more detail on The Leviathan."

*Beep* There was a short pause before it spoke. "The creature's appearance is unknown; however, based on patterns in tremors detected from different locations, we believe it is a creature that resides predominantly in the mantle of the planet while occasionally surfacing at the bottom of the 'Deaths Gape' within the liquid ice sheet, and its size is likely on par with some of the largest creatures ever discovered."

-That.. doesn't sound good...- For a moment, I hesitated if I should ask for clarification, but.. "How big would that be..?"

"The mass equivalent of a considerably large moon."

-WHAT?!- If I still had a heart, it most certainly would have stopped beating at that moment. -A.. moon?- "W..what would be 'considerably large'?"

"A moon greater than 2,000 kilometers in diameter."

I felt my surroundings suddenly vanish as the words bounced through my mind, shredding conscious thoughts like a blender. It was a considerable portion of a planet and well over half the size of Earth's moon at a minimum. -To be that big.. it must be a god...- "Is there anything else you know?"

"Information of The Leviathan is rather limited. Beyond that, I only have the raw data and vague habit patterns."

-So it was something even the Acardi didn't know much about...- It made sense, considering its location. If it never left the mantle, the only way the Acardi could learn about it was something like controlled seismic activity, but that would likely pose a risk of irritating it, something the Acardi would have avoided. -But what was it the AI mentioned?- "What is the liquid ice sheet?"

"At a depth of around 200 kilometers in the Deaths Gape, there is the liquid ice sheet, a layer of flowing ice formed purely through pressure rather than temperature. This causes its surface to look and behave like a liquid until anything disturbs it. However, you can freely move through it by using Acardi-developed Mana Repellers, which forcefully lower the density of the ice to allow travel." *BEEP* A deafening beep immediately followed its voice before I could think. "It is also noted that expeditions into the ice are no longer permitted after seventeen unsuccessful expeditions."

My eyes went wide. -Seventeen?!- I thought for a moment that I misheard, and after thinking maybe they just did a lot, I asked, "How many expeditions were there total?"

"Seventeen. Although some data has been collected 'through the wire,' once the expeditions descended more than ten kilometers into the ice, an estimated twenty-fifth of the way to The Leviathan, their point of interest, they simply lost connection as if the ships disappeared. Return signals were still intact and stable, but they contained nothing."

-Just how big of a ship were they using if they planned to go 250 kilometers into the ice.. and how would it just stop responding...- "How long did the signals remain steady?"

"That information was lost with the deep sea sensor data."

-I see...- "So do you know where those expeditions were in the ice?" -I wonder if I can salvage a ship from it...-

"That data is available. However, it is unlikely there will be anything there after so much time has passed."

"That's fine. Please bring up a map on computer three and pinpoint the locations." Looking back at the computer I was logged into, I watched as a map was instantly pulled up with exactly sixteen red dots over a slightly textured blue background. "Where is the seventeenth?"

"The final expedition's exact position is not logged. However, it was likely within this circle."

*beep* Hearing a gentle beep, I looked back toward the computer and saw a red circle amidst a tight group of five dots. But after asking for scale, I quickly found that each dot was exactly fifty kilometers from the others, and exactly fifty kilometers from the last few was the circle.

-Huh.. maybe I should plan an expedition down there...- I was both curious about the area and hopeful that I could recover a ship, but it wasn't because of the information. -If I recover a ship, maybe I can recover some Acardi bodies...-

But that expedition was for another day.

With the ceremony for Lief's evolution coming up in just a few days, I didn't currently have the time to go on such an expedition and instead opted to stay in the laboratory and send my endless questions into the glowing blue sphere at the center of the room.

But it was extremely productive. While I still couldn't ask many of my more pressing questions because of information loss or lack of connection to a server, there were many, many more pieces of information I managed to gather, from repairing my fragmented knowledge of Acardi technology to helping me understand more of what the laboratory and dungeon was used for, essentially being a deep sea hub for researchers.

But of everything I asked over the course of a few days, digging out every piece of information the AI had access to, there was one question and answer that made me wrack my head.

*hummmm* "So the Apothocaris is a carnivorous plant that lives by thermal vents and has a bunch of extreme healing properties?" At the time, I had already asked most of my more pressing questions and had moved on to asking about all the different lifeforms logged within the database, from those only known by fossils to those that were still around when the Acardi were studying the oceans.

"That is correct. Although considerably dangerous with their durability and ability to use magic, the Apothocaris is extremely valuable and heavily valued within the Sector. Although farming is likely impossible because of the immense heat, pressure, and mana of their environments." It paused as it brought up a picture of a huge water tank with ash-filled water and a faintly visible, massive plant inside of it. "Attempts have been made within the Sector's Mothership, but to no success as of the most recent report."

-Huh.. I wonder what they couldn't replicate, considering how advanced they are...- "Can you access that report?"

"Not without access to the Local Server Database."

"Haaaah..." I let out a long, heavy sigh, hearing the same hopeless response I had been hearing a lot since I started digging deeper. -That does make me wonder though...- "So you need the Ping Tower to be repaired and the server to be online in order to connect to that database, right?"

"That is correct."

"So, where is that Ping Tower?"

*Ding* The map on the computer instantly updated. "The tower was originally in this location and was communicated to via cables running across the sea floor, but the tower was later outfitted with a rune utilizing quantum entanglement as it was a faster and more reliable means of data transfer. The lack of communication to this tower may be due to the transponder here in the laboratory malfunctioning, the tower, or both."

-Interesting...- Essentially, quantum entanglement was a theory in quantum mechanics where two electrons would become entangled so that whenever one changed direction, so would the other. This, at least in theory, would allow for faster-than-light data transfer. "But why would they use a relay if they have those runes?"

"For ease of initial and sustained connection, security, and allocation of data access. With a Ping Tower, one can form a web of connections so the functionality of the network isn't tied to one singular connection, and if a connection is ever lost, there are other connections that can be used while the other is repaired."

-I see...- "Well, eventually, I can try and repair that and connect it to the tower. But I'd then have to connect it to the main server where the database is to establish a data link. Do you know where that server is?"

"District 4B of the local lunar surface."

I immediately jolted. -Lunar surface?!- I immediately thought back to everything I had heard before and visualized the sights I saw on the moon as I approached it before eventually asking another question. "Could you show a map of where that is?"

Quickly turning to the computer, I watched the screen update with a large, somewhat colored spherical object with a grid over it and one of the small squared highlighted and labeled 4B. "It appears the map is outdated, however, if connection to satellites is reestablished, remapping is possible."

But as the AI spoke, I zoned out, staring at the sphere on the screen with wide eyes.

-Is that.. a city?-

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