Mel carefully ran one of his extended arms over the wall behind the countertop he had spent so many years manning. He had been kicking himself since the moment they fled without being able to raid his storehouse, but he knew it couldn't be risked. Even if they had managed to do their trip and return without being searched, he had been sure it would happen at any moment once he reached Earth.

Now, though they were back at the archives, and Dave even had an empire. That meant he was safe to collect the few heirlooms he had left. No, more than that. He had a cloudtree on Earth. Somehow, despite all the insane odds and things that had come true, the idea of having a home again, a possible future, was the most far-fetched thing Mel could have imagined.

His appendage slid over the minute crack in the wall. He extended the cloud arm just slightly into it and created two drones on the other side. Once they formed, he had them careful kill the null fields in the small compartment, and then slid the wall backward. His secret little chamber he had built so many years ago, stood open and revealed. Instead of the usual desperation he felt when he opened this place to hide another relic, he was smiling.

He grabbed the class orbs first, all twelve of them, and carefully placed them into his storage. As far as he knew, they were the only ones of their kind left, and despite that, he fully intended one of them for Grant. It was possible he would have done this even without the monster blocking their return. Dave had given him a lot, and he fully intended to repay it by helping Earth secure a real future. But at least their predicament made it easier to turn over a lost treasure of the Floating Empire.

After that were the bags of ammunition; they'd need to forge more of these in the future if Grant wanted to progress, but between Dave and Karlinovo, he suspected that was a strong possibility. To hedge that bet, he was planning to put out a call for help. There weren't a lot of his people left out there, especially not those who would come, but some would. The tree alone would draw a few.

The other mana orbs, the rack of weapons, and the pieces of equipment he added to his storage brought up other questions. In his youth, he had been a capable fighter. He had been trained in the Floating Empire's best temples. And while he hadn't enjoyed the fighting, he had been a force to be reckoned with. Was he willing to take back-up arms and fight if the need arose? Had the need already arisen? Could he really pretend it hadn't?

As these thoughts bounced around his head, he spotted the picture of his son, alongside his damnable book he had written, sitting on the other shelf. It was all he had left of the kid. The last time he had seen him, they had had a fight over this exact topic. He had been angry that Mel was wasting his talent and refusing to help the cause. He had been entirely right.

The book and picture both vanished into his storage as Mel made a vow. He would take up arms, at least until the prison his son had been placed in was liberated. He would no longer operate under the idea that he was dead; he would prove it with his own eyes. And if he was dead? Mel would take up the mission himself. He could never make up for his past failure, but it was time to start trying.

The System message that he had unlocked a new quest was all the proof he needed to know he had chosen the correct path.

"You need to concentrate on the energy you feel inside yourself. The elixirs we've given you have already made sure you have adequate energy. Stop fighting it, and give in," the old woman admonished Grant again.

This had been going on for the last several hours. No matter how many times he tried to form the core, as they kept calling it, all that happened was a weird static electricity feeling. How had Dave done this? Then again, had Dave done it this way? He had heard something about the man's core being unusual, but with no real frame of reference, he didn't understand what that meant.

The weirdest part about all this so far had been the virtual reality System they had hooked him up to. It was essentially somehow both the worst and best video game he had ever played. The overlays managed to slot onto the real world near perfectly, and the fact that he could now pull them up in his head and see the odd quest he had been assigned made it all the stranger.

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He had no idea what chaotic space was, let alone how he was supposed to chart a path to the lost world before. What the hell did that even mean? These were questions he knew were better suited for once they were back home. Information control was critical, and he had no intention of letting anything slip out that might jeopardize the planet.

He wasn't a stupid man. He knew they weren't really in a safe place for the Earth. Time had just been bought until things got heated again. But when that happened next, he would be much more capable of defending the people. That was if he could just force those energies to hold together!

Wait, what was that? He had felt something there with that thought. He concentrated harder on his plans once he had a core. Something was forming. He could feel it now.

"Good, good, hold that thought. It's going to hurt a lot, but hold it anyway," the voice said, much kinder this time. Grant smiled. Pain was something he could handle. Failure was not.

"So why are you here anyway, Yor? I thought you were planning a voyage into chaotic space after our break-up? A librarian just doesn't seem like your calling," Pryte said as he pulled some files from a cabinet in the administration room, carefully stacking them into his storage before destroying the rest.

"Why not? We can't all be off having weird faction-breaking adventures now, can we?" She replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"No, we can't, but you were tired of the Spiral. You spent nearly a year trying to convince me to come, and then I find you back here. What happened?" Pryte asked. He was a little worried about her. He doubted this was some attempt at a spy to catch him. For one thing, she had obviously been here since before he had sent Dave to this world, so that seemed impossible. Something must have happened to change her plans.

"Sometimes you get what you want, and what you want turns out to be terrifying beyond anything you can easily explain. It took me a decade to get back to somewhere I was even mildly able to function, Pryte. The thing, creature, whatever it was, I encountered in the deepest black almost killed me. It did kill most of the crew. Somehow Squidlin got me out of there, and I have no idea whether to thank him or hate him for letting me live," she answered, her voice dropping the sarcastic tone for one of vulnerability.

"Oh," Pryte said, knowing better than to offer an apology she didn't want or need. She told him what had happened to shut him up and stop him prying for now. They could discuss it more later when she was ready. For now it was back to document collection.

Timon was annoyed. Not because anything was wrong with any of the transport vehicles, no, as far as he could tell, all hundred of them were up and running. He was annoyed because Mel wanted him to do something so incredibly stupid, but also likely the only real way to do this, that he had no choice but to do it.

The last time they had done something like this was years ago, in a desperate attempt to get those kids away from that monster his ex had located. When he remembered the good times like that, he wished they hadn't fallen out on such hard terms, but the past was the past. Now he had to figure out how to keep Mel's brain from exploding.

It could feel them. They were back in this world—the ones who had tried so hard to kill it. At least three of them were. Their traitor dungeon core seemed to be missing. Did it not dare to return? Had they finished with it and disposed of it?

It would not be surprised if they had. Those of the flesh hated their kind. But they were stupid. All they had done was kill their larger form. Their being was able to shift into their offspring and continue their growth. Now with their horde assembled, they were ready for them. The moment they left the archives, it would strike.

Not only did the books around me vanish, the shelves did as well. Row after row of the stacks began to disappear. For some reason, I hadn't expected us to take the entire organizational system with us, but it did make sense. Sorting all these later would be a giant task. Soon, I could see further down the wing of the archives than I had ever even been. It was impressive to watch row after row vanish.

"Alright, that's the books, let's get the cores," Elody said minutes later. We had the entire archive, now we just had to get it back to Earth.

When the Floating Empire fell, so fell the beauty and riches of the once great empire. It didn't happen all at once. The punishments came in waves. First, our people were forced to starve for their crimes of trying to change the Spiral. Then, once we were desperate, that was when they took the forests. Once those were gone, we had little left. Our people need the rejuvenating fog they provide, and without them, we were doomed to a slow death. Not even a strong core could stop what was happening.

Many people went insane in the first year. Some vanished in a desperate attempt to find another source. They were never seen again. Others fought back. They refused to go into death, having given up their own will to fight. I write this book, knowing it is likely my last, in an attempt to chronicle my people so that others may remember them.

A History of Power, the Rise and Fall of the Floating Empire by Melhelm VII

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