Chapter 100: The Queen’s Offer
Time slipped away unnoticed, and soon the semiramides began heading one by one toward the nearby dining hall. It was located three branches down the corridor, and Emilia was guided there by one of the shyer semiramides.
Along the way, the semiramide questioned her about life outside the pocket dimension, her talismans, and all sorts of other things. The conversation was engaging, and the two sat at a table where they were soon joined by several other curious semiramides who also had a multitude of questions.
As she pulled treats from her ring, her gaze lingered for a moment on two semiramides in a far corner of the hall. They were kissing, lost in their own world and completely ignoring the noise around them. Here, in this enclosed space, intimacy seemed to be the only true freedom.
The meal consisted mainly of fruits, honey, butter, various nuts, and berries. There were different juices available, but Emilia preferred something more nourishing.
She took various delicacies from her ring and treated the semiramides around her, finally bringing out the roasted chicken meat and giving a brief account of the battles in the desert.
The semiramides had struck a deal in ancient times and now performed the complex task of tending to this part of the dimension. In doing so, they remained entirely protected from the outside world while gaining the opportunity to work on mysterious experiments that sometimes spanned entire epochs.
The most talented among them occasionally enrolled in nearby magic towers or secretive sects upon mountain peaks, thereby leaving the tranquility of the private dimension. They were not permitted to return unless they obtained special permission.
Even though they knew the outside world through various books and stories, it was entirely different to have someone who came directly from there describe how things truly stood. Because of this, even more semiramides soon arrived, and not just the talisman masters. They asked various questions, tasted the treats, and offered small gifts in return.
Emilia gathered mana-rich fruits and nuts, honeys and nectars, and several types of venison. Occasionally, they offered her different kinds of caterpillars; some were as small as her finger, while others were sliced into thick fillets, the caterpillars themselves being as large as a human.
Emilia tried some of them and her eyes immediately lit up; they had a very interesting flavor. She quickly imagined giving such a caterpillar to Rumi or her brother Kael, and with a wide smile, she explained to the semiramides how her friends would react to such food.
"I understand," one of them said. "It would be like someone giving me a strange insect to eat." She spoke with a look of slight loathing on her face.
Emilia knew, however, that the semiramides had been accustomed to these caterpillars since childhood, and to them, they were simply an exception, not an indication that they ate just any kind of insect.
Yet, by no means was everyone friendly. Many semiramides, much like Cecilia, blamed the humans coming from the outside for their problems, as well as for old feuds dating back thousands of years. This was especially true now, when there was a real problem.
Emilia began to probe for information, bribing the semiramides with chicken meat, which tasted quite different from venison and was coated in a mix of exotic spices unknown here.
Emilia selected well-fried pieces, rolled in a crunchy mix of nuts and herbs that had been soaked for several hours in a succulent sweet and sour sauce—a gift from Elion.
In this way, while she questioned them, she learned not only a great deal about this dimension but also about an ancient evil.
It turned out that for several generations, various challengers of the dimension—like her and her group of twenty—had provided opportunities for cultists from the Cult of Gaia and the Old Gods to infiltrate the space and attempt to poison or even destroy it.
Exactly 1,400 years ago, one such attempt had been on the verge of succeeding when an ancient spirit from the Second Epoch was summoned and awakened here. It took a full 200 years and countless sacrifices to deal with it and seal it inside a bottle.
Now, however, someone had released it from its bottle once again. They had even supplied it with several hundred tons of fresh blood from level two and three monsters, along with a mixture of blood from humans and other intelligent races.
The ancient evil was rapidly regaining its strength, mysteriously summoning its sleeping armies of spirits.
The Ancients had left behind certain weapons and instructions for combating this creature, but so much time had passed, and the enigmatic spirit had also had time to prepare while confined within its bottle.
Furthermore, no one knew what secret preparations the cultists themselves had made or what their true goals actually were.
Emilia spoke of the kingdom's struggle against the cultists and against the various races corrupted by Gaia, Echidna, or the other old gods.
She recounted the battles she had participated in and the sacrifices the people had endured.
"You see, Cecilia, they also suffer many casualties," someone remarked.
"Ha, it is their own fault; they should not have become cultists!" Cecilia replied, clearly unimpressed.
"It is not that simple," Emilia hastened to clarify. "Even though they are imprisoned in Tartarus, the ancient gods and titans possess immense influence and constantly attempt to find ways to weaken their shackles. You are well-protected here; in 1,400 years you mention one great battle—we fight every single year!"
Emilia, who had read extensively from the sacred books and knew the foundations of the world's history, hurried to tell them of the battles, of several fallen kingdoms, of the endless troll wars, and of the lost archipelago with its vast—almost boundless—riches.
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Soon, however, the break ended and the semiramides returned to work.
Emilia also returned and continued working on her talismans.
This continued for an entire week, during which she fully mastered the glyphs of the talisman and began to manage entirely on her own. Master Zafira had instructed her throughout the first day and checked on her periodically during the second, but after the third and fourth days, she simply reviewed the results of her work.
Their small group had sent a significant quantity of talismans that would serve to strengthen the Great Tree and provide protection against the evil spirit servants.
On several occasions, Emilia heard news of the battles fought by her group of challengers. They were being dispatched to one fortress or another, and their merits were by no means few. At one point, however, three of them were accused of suspected ties to the cultists and sabotage.
Tensions immediately escalated, and the entire group was placed under house arrest in one of the few remaining outer fortresses belonging to the semiramides and their allies.
Cecilia and her group of disgruntled semiramides became increasingly bold in their attacks on Emilia, subjecting her to all manner of insults and suspicion.
Emilia, who was quite sensitive, was deeply affected by the undeserved insults.
In the end, however, leaders like Zafira and Cerere left them little free time. They worked literally sixteen hours a day, and Emilia worked even more.
During this time, many dangerous machines were positioned at strategic locations along the branches of the tree, and an army of gliders was being prepared for an expedition.
By the second week, things had escalated considerably. Rather than keeping the adventurers under a pointless arrest, they were sent on a direct assault against the forces of the ancient spirit.
Two days later, the army of gliders also set out to attack. It turned out they were to directly engage the ancient evil, led personally by Queen Caucasus and her retinue.
It became clear that the attack by Emilia's group was merely a diversion, while the true battle would involve these gliders and the Queen's royal guard.
However, it emerged that the forces sent with the group of challengers had been completely crushed. They had returned with the wounded and were now an hour's journey from reaching the giant tree to report on their battles.
However, at that very moment, the ancient spirit, along with its swiftest and most powerful wraiths, appeared out of nowhere and launched a surprise attack on the city of the semiramides!
They were met by a barrage from numerous siege weapons, and the branches had been reinforced with talismans. In the heat of the battle, the survivors from the diversionary attack rushed to help, launching a surprise strike against a portion of the spirits besieging the city nestled within the branches of the giant tree.
This, however, was merely a minor hindrance. The evil spirit itself was on the verge of breaching the ancient defenses to annihilate the city's population and restore its strength with their blood!
Master Cerere personally led her subordinate semiramides, Emilia among them, and together they directed the defensive formation. Emilia, however, was not well-acquainted with the formation; instead, she found three combat crystal cannons left behind from an ancient flying ship. These were the primary armament of the kingdom's warships, and she had read several books describing their operation in detail.
In the height of the conflict, she and three other younger semiramides who had trusted her worked feverishly together. Through their combined efforts, they managed to repair them and then turned their power against the enemy.
Despite the cannons' might and the surprise they caused, they only forced the enemy forces to retreat and regroup for a time, securing just a brief moment of rest for the defenders in that sector but they failed to change the overall course of the battle.
At one point, Master Cerere was severely injured by a magical backlash from the overloaded defensive formation after its first primary layer collapsed.
Utterly desperate, she commanded the semiramides to fetch the legendary ambrosia stored in the treasury of the left tower and pour it over the two enormous butterflies atop the towers.
Emilia rushed to assist, but it turned out that the energy of the ambrosia was exceptionally potent, making it difficult to carry more than a single cup or small bowl at a time.
After several trips, at a critical moment, Emilia realized she could use her ring, because unlike other spatial rings, it led directly to a small private dimension.
Ordinary rings were simply treated with spatial magic, which was heavily influenced by the energies of the surrounding world and the ambrosia itself, rendering them unusable.
And so, in that moment, Emilia managed to collect three whole cubic meters of the ambrosia. In just four trips, she moved all the ambrosia and fully awakened the two dragon butterflies!!
These butterflies were incredibly ancient, and their vigor had long since departed their bodies.
Centuries ago, they could have obliterated both the ancient evil and its entire army with a single sweep of their wings, but now they were old and weary, having chosen to preserve the remainder of their lives in this relatively peaceful private dimension.
To sustain their lives, they drank small quantities of the priceless ambrosia every day, but now—forced by circumstance—they absorbed enormous amounts of it, sacrificing much so they could briefly regain a portion of their former power!
Thus, after absorbing the ambrosia, they swiftly rose into the air and began a frantic assault on the evil spirit's forces!
Their aerial magic, bolstered by esoteric properties dating back to ancient times—from before the Celestial Language became the dominant form of magic—dealt incredible damage to the spirits.
Every single sweep of their wings, every single spell, cut down dozens of spirits.
At that moment, however, one of the members of this year's challengers—a boy named Dolon, the son of one of the lesser families—used a forbidden artifact and temporarily bolstered the strength of the spirits around him!
He sacrificed a multitude of treasures brought from the outside and a staggering 300 bags of level two mana crystals! This was an immense fortune, one that the entire city could not have gathered even after years of accumulation.
The energy from those crystals was incredible; had it been channeled through the crystal cannons of the celestial ships, it would have been capable of obliterating the entire tree along with every semiramide within it.
But it turned out he was too late. The delay, and especially the intervention of the dragon butterflies, had bought enough time for Queen Caucasus to return alongside her army of gliders, her personal retinue, and the ancient weapons left to her precisely for such critical moments.
In the ensuing battle, the spirit was mortally wounded, but due to the immense energy of the crystals, it managed to escape along with Dolon, who at the last moment utilized a mysterious artifact that teleported him directly toward one of the final trials.
Emilia and the others were investigated, and once it was understood that there were no more cultists among them—and that, on the contrary, they had fought bravely against the spirits and actively aided the defense—they were temporarily released, though kept under observation.
On the other hand, Emilia, who had proven pivotal to the defense, was summoned personally before the Queen of the semiramides.
There, she was forced to recount her past and present her ring for inspection.
The Queen personally praised the ring and was sincerely astonished by the fact that the Mountain Guardian had used the power of space to expand it.
"That old chatterbox is a true genius of spatial magic. His gift is far more valuable than you can imagine."
"I wonder just who he wanted to beat at chess so badly?" Emilia wondered, endlessly grateful for the Guardian's gift, which had saved their lives.
Most importantly, however, the two dragon butterflies bestowed upon Emilia a drop of their lifeblood, which could awaken a dragon heritage if Emilia was lucky.
Caucasus praised the mighty gift at length, even offering Emilia the chance to stay as her adopted daughter and marry one of the semiramides.
She would have lived the rest of her life in luxury and tranquility, but after long reflection, Emilia decided to refuse.
She did not want to spend her life in a cage, no matter how beautiful.
After only a day, with the help of the dragon butterflies and Caucasus, Emilia managed to absorb the two drops of blood. Without further delay, the entire group was teleported, following the trail of the escaped, wounded spirit and Dolon.
