BOOK 9: A Soldier's Life - 457 - Prologue: The Birth of Dungeons

(this has been through a bunch of rewrites and not sure if it turned into an info lore dump. let me know. hopefully since this is book 8, it answers lore questions and crystalizes the "big bad" for the next three books as intended. there will be edits but I want to get back to writing the story. already 300 words in. and yes there is WS chapter at 1800 words I hope to finish soon)

Chapter 457: Prologue: The Birth of Dungeons

Long ago, when the Titans built their first World Gate on Desia, it was celebrated as a triumph of magic and ingenuity, connecting two worlds orbiting two stars, unimaginably far apart.

The World Gates were powered directly from aether-rich ley lines that ran deep in the earth. Complex runic arrays were created to harness and funnel the aether to the engines that powered the gates. The process was so complicated that it required constant vigilance. That vigilance was soon conducted by aging Titans who wouldn't be long for the earth in pursuit of immortality. Vast arrays with necromantic runes captured their souls, and those souls maintained and expanded the aether engines, creating vast underground networks.

The six giant races making up the Titans came together to exploit the First World Gate. The storm giants, with their deep wells of aether and mastery of magic. The stone giants, known for their affinity for earth magic and their drive to build and invent. The fire giants, whose thirst for combat was unmatched among the Titans. The cloud giants were cerebral, peaceful, and sociable, the scholars of the Titans. The frost giants preferred colder climates and solitude. And finally, the hill giants, the common laborer among the Titans.

No longer did the Titan races war among themselves, but instead they built fantastical cities and trained armies to plunder other worlds. They found other lesser races on these worlds, enslaving them to build magnificent monuments to the Titans' greatness while stripping the worlds of magic and resources to bring back to Desia.

World after world fell to the Titans: Aphora inhabited by elves, Luatera inhabited by orcs, Terra inhabited by humans, Nekthara inhabited by the goblinkin, Orathis inhabited by fantastical beast creatures, and Noctheris, a barren world with no atmosphere but endless mineral wealth.

The Titans thrived and built a thriving civilization across Desia over millennia, with the storm giants ruling over the other giantkin. It was these storm giants whose greed and hubris led to the fall of there civilization. Their greed had led them to find planet after planet with exploitable resources. It wasn’t until they discovered a planet they named Infernys that they saw the folly of their ways. They had been so confident in their strength and magic, that they didn’t think anything could oppose them. There were tens of millions of Titans on Desia and the conquered worlds. But Infernys was not like other worlds.

Infernys was massive, and even the giants struggled to stand in the intense gravity beneath the large red sun. There was very little water on the surface, and the planet rotated slowly, with half of it exposed to the harsh rays of the red sun and the other half shrouded in cold darkness. Two ecosystems dominated the planet: one constantly migrating to stay under the sun's heat, and the other moving to remain in the shelter of the dark side.

When the Titans arrived, they found a world with modest aether, but very little water and life. The expeditionary force slaughtered the demonic creatures they did find, some weak and some strong, but none were able to withstand the Titans’ combined might. What the Titans did not know was that creatures of Infernys numbered in far greater numbers than they could have imagined. Deep within the core of the planet, billions of demons hibernated. Demons, unlike other creatures, didn’t age; they evolved the longer their bodies were exposed to aether. On Infernys, this was a very slow process.

As the Titans began to establish a foothold on Infernys and constructed their strongholds to plunder the planet, beings deep within the world's core were awakened to the disturbance: the demon lords. These ancient demons had survived by killing and consuming their brethren to become stronger and stronger. Rarely did they fight each other, as they feared death. When they reached a certain precipice of power, they were able to command the lesser demons to do their will and set up domains they ruled.

The awakened demon lords were intelligent and observed the Titans as they established roots on their planet. They studied the Titans as they harvested dead demons and consumed their essences. They watched their artificers work within their fortifications, crafting gear that utilized the wielder's aether. As more demon lords awakened, the tension gradually grew over which one would take action first. Ultimately, it was Beelzebub who acted first—summoning even demons within its domain to attack the giants on Infernys, not risking itself.

Millions of demons erupted from the earth, sweeping over the Titan stronghold and pushing to secure the World Gate. They then entered through the World Gate to Desia on the other side…

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Morthys was a shadow demon. When the Titans arrived on Infernys, he was nothing more than a scavenger on the dark side of Infernys, hunting lesser demons to increase his own power. Because of his nature, he was constantly moving to avoid the burning rays of the red sun. Unfortunately, Morthys was within range of Beelzebub when the demon lord was summoning an army. Too weak to resist the pull, it was drawn into the horde as they surged forward and attacked the invaders.

The invaders were formidable, wielding powerful magic that could incinerate large groups of demons with lightning or fire. However, the Titans were not afforded a moment to rest, as their magic weakened. With each fallen demon, two emerged in its place. Each powerful Titan that was slain significantly weakened the defensive strength. When the stronghold was captured, Morthys took a break; the compulsion no longer pushed it. He had done his part and hoped Beelzebub would release it from control.

That did not happen as Beelzebub himself arrived to inspect the spoils. While demons wielded incredible abilities using aether, they had never forged anything like the artifacts found among the Titan invaders. Beelzebub was intrigued and sent more and more demons into the portal to secure the other side. With enough of these artifacts, he could eventually rule over the other demon lords.

He stood over a dying giant with charcoal skin and red eyes. Beelzebub looked down unsympathetically at the creature. The demon’s long tongue snaked out of its proboscis and tasted the blood from one of the wounds. Metallic like a demon’s, but much saltier. The demon lord knew he couldn’t speak the giant's language, but he could invade its mind with another. Beelzebub located a shadow demon, Morthys, hiding nearby. “Inhabit this being’s mind and tell me what you find,” the lord commanded.

Morthys complied immediately; he had no choice. Resisting would end in his death. The images the shadow demon found inside the being’s mind were jumbled and non-linear. He quickly became agitated as the fire giant fought his control. He was forced to shred parts of the being's mind until it stopped resisting. After that, he was able to sift through the images more quickly. When the fire giant died from blood loss, he had a report for the demon lord.

“Their world is lush and green and half covered in water. The giants are not the only creatures there. Smaller, lesser beings like themselves also live there in the millions. It would be a great place for a horde to consume and grow,” Morthys said while cowering. He hoped his effort was enough and might even be rewarded.

The demon lord seemed thoughtful as he watched the stream of demons pouring into the World Gate. Beelzebub sent a compulsion into the shadow demon. “Go and find out how these gates work and return to me, and me alone with the knowledge.”

Beelzebub turned sharply and hissed through his chitinous face. Another demon lord had risen from the Endless Dark and was coming to steal its glorious plunder. It would be a battle of wills to control the lesser demons, and Beelzebub was up for it. There was too much potential in traveling to other worlds to give it away to the other lords.

Morthys was free to leave and stepped through the World Gate, disoriented and weakened by the yellow sun in the sky. He turned to find himself inside an artificial structure with stone walls. Demons and giants battled around him, but he felt no urge to join the fight. He had been impregnated with other orders. The shadow demon descended into the bowls of the Titan city to scout and spy.

Days passed as the battle raged in the city, and the shadow demon explored the lower reaches, killing endless vermin and slimes that offered meager aetheric sustenance. He finally found an opportunity to infiltrate the Titans when two of their young sought refuge in these tunnels. He killed one and consumed the mind of the other. A larger member of the race found him and dragged him away to safety. He was slowly learning their strange tongue.

“Child! What are you doing down here? The city has fallen! Come, and I will keep you safe,” the large giant said, dragging him away as he puppetted the child. Morthys didn’t resist and found himself in a refugee caravan as his demon brethren continued to pour out of the World Gate in the city behind them.

Morthys soon realized it was not the only World Gate the demon lords had taken over. Two others in this world were connected to Infernys, and demons were overrunning both. It wouldn’t be long before the world was overrun. The only danger of victory was likely the demon lords fighting amongst themselves. Morthys stayed with his group for weeks as they fled further and further away from the incursion. He learned the needlessly complex languages of these beings as he searched for the answers he was compelled to find.

Morthys talked little and remained close to the leaders, often hearing valuable information. “Can they destroy the aether engines?” the leader of his refugee group asked a red-haired soldier.

“They ventured into the Endless Dark and did so in Ravalon, but the city is burning and likely lost to the demon host,” the fire giant retorted. “You should leave the mainland. There are too many demons wandering about. Most of the lesser subservient races have fled into the Endless Dark to hide.”

“We are leaving. We are going to sail to the sanctuary isle,” the refugee leader said.

“Good plan. The cloud giant alchemists and scholars are headed there and plan to develop ways to fight the horde,” the fire giant said and walked away.

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The island was as remote as remote could be on the ocean. It was a modest tropical island with abundant wildlife. High on the cliffs were giant-worked castles. From the castles, a stone spire jutted out of the ocean where the more dangerous experiments were carried out.

Morthys settled in with the other refugees and quickly found that there were three aether engines on the island accessible by teleportation gates. The aether engines were buried deep in the earth and accumulated aether from the ley lines. It took him over a year to become an assistant to one of the Titans who managed and experimented on the aether engines. The Titan’s name was Hephestus.

Hephestus was trying to create a network of all the aether engines on the planet through the ley line network so he could control them from one location and shut them down. The demon horde incursion was still ongoing, but the demon lords only controlled one gate presently, and Hephestus was trying to deactivate that one engine to cut the one remaining World Gate to Infernys.

Morthys would never understand the complex technology, but he only needed to bring that knowledge back his demon lord. “What is all this?” Morthys asked of a new series of diagrams on the walls of Hephestus’ workshop. The inventor was always eager to talk and excitedly strode over to his board.

The Titan enthusiastically explained. “I am trying to incorporate materialism magics into the aether engine matrix. Our forces are losing a war of attrition, but I think I can use the aether in the ley lines to copy creatures to send against the horde. All the engines need is to create a matrix imprint of a creature that the consciousness of the engine can access.”

“What about connecting all the Aether engines from here?” Morthys asked. Hephestus had been working on that project for the last three years since Morthys had arrived. The frustrating thing about working for Hephestus was that all of his knowledge was in his head; he rarely wrote anything down. It made Morthys’s quest to understand how the World Gates worked much more difficult. Still, he was piecing together the scraps of knowledge Hephestus dropped. Maybe in a decade or two, he would know enough to succeed. Subconsciously, he was intentionally dragging his claws because this life was much better than the life he would have on Infernys, constantly fighting for supremacy.

“It is impossible!” Hephestus growled uncharacteristically. The Titan was always calm and thoughtful, and the reaction caused Morthys to cringe. “We connected all the engines through the ley lines, but they each have independent consciousnesses and refused to acknowledge commands in the chain!”

“Does that mean you cannot shut down the World Gates?” Morthys asked.

“No. There are talks among the High Council to destroy all the engines that do not obey commands, but that would be a travesty. I am hoping that this,” he indicated the complex runes on the walls, “will turn aether engines to an advantage. Each engine could create its own menagerie of beasts to use against the demons. It could turn the tide of the war.”

“If they do not obey now, why would they obey after you gave them this upgrade?” Morthys asked, concerned.

The Titan smiled ruefully. “We plan to sneak in set rules when we give the aether engines the upgrade to use materialism magic. They will have to follow the rules, or their matrices will become unstable and crumble.”

“Who is making the rules?” Morthys asked keenly. Some elven slaves nearby were also listening intently to this conversation, but they were inconsequential beings but Hephaestus preferred their help since they were a long-lived lesser race.

“I suppose that will fall to me or the High Council if they ever get around to it….” Hephestus’s voice trailed off.

Six weeks later, an excited Hephestus went to the Spire on the ocean with Morthys to help. Elven attendants carried a wide array of runic discs and samples. The pair entered the portal in the cavern and were teleported deep underground near the ley line. Morthys could feel the intense concentration of aether nearby.

He realized he was inside one of the aether engines. Large sheets of crystalline rock etched with endless complex runes covered the chamber. Those runes pulsed with aether like veins carrying blood. The runes seemed aware of Hephaestus as the pulsing followed him as he walked. This was half of the equation for building the World Gates. Morthys eagerly studied the panels while Hephestus and the elves worked on installing the new runic panels.

It took days to install and connect the new panels, and Hephaestus mainly spoke to himself the entire time. “Although this process is tedious, it should only have to be done this once. The aether engines should be able to transmit knowledge along the ley lines, allowing other dungeons to utilize it. The only shortcoming is that the dungeons will need to imprint the creatures in their domain. I have brought samples of some creatures to see how effective they could be.”

“So, the aether engines will be able to control their creations?” Morthys asked.

“As long as their wills are weak enough, yes,” Hephaestus responded absently.

When Hephaestus appeared satisfied, a goblin's corpse appeared on the floor over one of large arrays the Titan had added to the chamber. The titan looked eager, but nothing seemed to be happening. “It is dead. What good will copying a dead goblin do?” Morthys asked, moving closer.

“The structure of a being is within its tissue. It will be able to recreate the creature alive. In fact, it should be able to recreate an entire creature from any sample, but this should make it particularly easy for the aether engine.” The titan looked around the room, growing somewhat impatient. “Well!? Are you too dimwitted to figure it out?” He said, addressing the crystalline panels. The panels responded by flashing brightly enough to blind everyone. Morthys thought that flash could be communicating anger. After the flash subsided, the goblin was gone. Hephestus laughed loudly in victory.

“Where is the new goblin?” Morthys asked when nothing else happened.

The Titan grinned. “One of the rules! We must leave and return!” The elves left first, followed by the Titan and Morthys. Only Morthys and Hephaestus returned to check on the aether engine. Morthys was in awe as six identical goblins raced around the room when they returned. Hephaestus looked ecstatic. “Being linked to the ley lines, they will have unlimited aether to create whatever they want. But then there are the rules! They can create dungeon cells to hold the creatures until they are needed.”

The goblins were running around, petrified of Morthys and Hephestus. They were trying to escape, and it was clear these copies recalled their past lives. One of the goblins ran into the portal exit only to be thrown back in a blast of force. The Titan laughed uproariously. “The aether engine controls its domain completely! With materialism magic, it should be able to expand its domain as well!”

Morthys was confused by the Titan’s celebration. Even it could see the dangers of granting a consciousness with unlimited access to aether, so much power. A heaviness settled over the shadow demon as he tried to move. The panels in the chamber flashed, and Hephestus spun in confusion. The flashing seemed to be trying to communicate something, and the demon started to feel uncomfortable.

Hephestus slowly turned, his eyes not focusing as the lights flashed. Was he being controlled? No, he was searching, and his sight stopped on Morthys. “The engine says you are not what you seem. It says you are two existences in one.”

Morthys turned and ran toward the exit but found himself frozen. Hephestus held up his hand as his powerful magic constricted Morthys' body. The flesh on the Titan he inhabited rippled as the shadow demon tried to break free, but the containment was complete. The Titan stood over the being and frowned, his piercing eyes looking through the demon. “How long?” He asked heavily.

The shadow demon didn’t intend to tell the truth but felt forced to reply. “Five of your years,” it hissed involuntarily. Its host’s flesh was being crushed, and the bones were popping from the force.

“A demon?” Hephestus muttered to himself. The host was shattered and pulled back, revealing the shadow demon. “A shadow demon. We didn’t know you could do this...” the titan said, trailing off in thought. “This is where your time ends.” The force rushed in, and Morthys was no more.

Morthys woke in a stone room. He could feel the aether surging through the walls, so he guessed he must still be in the aether engine. There were two exits from the room, but something prevented him from leaving. He could feel a pressure on his mind, a powerful existence. He called out to it, but it did not respond. He was trapped in a prison.

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Morthys, the shadow demon, stood on the deck of the Brotherhood ship, watching the Spire fade into the distance. The Sentinels had sunk his flagship and destroyed his host body, but enough had been recovered that it only slowed his plans. It would take time for the new body to assert its dominance over the Nashasari, but he had prepared for this eventual eventuality. He would get his ultimate revenge on the Sentinels—on all life on this planet.

He had been trapped in the dungeon beneath that Spire called Sanctuary for millennia, repeatedly killed by the elven Sentinels. Sometimes he would remember his deaths, and sometimes he would not. It depended on the dungeon's whims. But being so close to the ley line was a blessing for the shadow demon. The more time passed, the more it evolved. It even grew powerful enough to ascend to a more powerful form capable of splitting its presence into two.

He would have preferred to eradicate the Death Sentinel order completely, but he had what he had come for. Even being resurrected over and over by the dungeon, he had not lost his compulsion to return to Beelzebub with the knowledge of the World Gates. He had only escaped his torturous prison by taking possession of one of the Sentinels. It was in this body he was able to leave the dungeon and enter Sanctuary.

While in the body of the Sentinel, it learned that the demons from Infernys had been eradicated millennia ago and the World Gates had been sealed. The Titans were overthrown soon after when their slaves revolted during a civil war among the Titans. Now these lesser creatures controlled the planet. If the demon horde came now, they would be fodder. He had wandered Sanctuary for weeks and finally found where the knowledge of the World Gates was vaulted without drawing attention to himself.

To access the vault, he needed to possess the High Sentinel. That was when everything fell apart. He killed the High Sentinel and took his body. He entered the vault and found most of what he was looking for, but the World Gate coordinate key to Infernys was not among the records! While it was searching the vault, he was discovered and uncovered. He was forced to flee the Spire.

Months later, his small boat washed ashore in the Brotherhood of Mitzra. Morthys found the ruthless race of serpent men very similar to the demonic host on Infernys. A race where only the strong prevailed and ruled. It took him decades to rise among and unite the Nashasari factions under his rule. Once he was in control, he changed the culture of the Nashasari.

No longer were egg clutches left unwatched, so only one survived. Under its rule, the remaining clutches were spared, but the weakest were still taken. To hide the increasing population of Nashasari, Morthys launched a campaign to conquer the Endless Dark. There was great resistance from other factions about the futility of that endeavor, but he forced his will on the other brood mothers and alphas.

Centuries passed as the Nashasari spread through the Endless Dark, their domain stretching under the oceans to the other continents. Above ground, Morthys sent out Brotherhood agents to search for the coordinates on Infernys across the planet. He saw the serpent men as fodder to feed the demon horde when he was finally able to reestablish the World Gate to his homeworld. If it weren’t for the compulsion placed on him, he would have been content to rule the planet in this form.

The Titans had been cautious, though. All records of the World Gate coordinates had been destroyed in their civil war or buried for millennia. He had the Nashasari hunt and question the dozens of Titans for the information he sought, but all were too young to remember. He found the giant races had been afflicted with an aetheric curse and would become extinct in time.

It was not until Atlantium was discovered that hope was rekindled. Maybe the capital of the Titan Empire still had the knowledge he was seeking. The beauty of it was he didn’t need to do anything other than send agents to watch. When they uncovered the ancient tablet with coordinates to all the worlds the Titans had discovered, the humans had no idea what it was. Since it was not an artifact, it was lightly guarded and soon on its way back to the Brotherhood of Mitzra.

Once Morthys confirmed he had the coordinates to Infernys in hand, his compulsion heightened. He knew where he could get all the materials and knowledge he needed to rebuild a World Gate, on Sanctuary. Allying with the eager lich emperor had been one of his priest's ideas, and it had worked out well enough. Morthys had directed a pulse of dense aether along the ley line to disable the dungeon below Sanctuary, demonstrating his power to the lich emperor.

Things did not quite go as planned from there. The Sentinels had destroyed the dungeon, and Morthys had thought to free more clones of himself from their depths. Then the defense of the Sentinels was stronger than anticipated. Even with the soulless and the aid of the lich emperor, losses were much higher than expected. He had been too impatient in his departure and should have built a fleet triple the size to bring more Nashasari with him. But what was done was done.

There was nothing left to do but fulfill his compulsion to return the knowledge of the World Gates to Beelzebub.

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