‘The safest and most practical method by which this is done is to program Bugu DarkAIs to selectively attack nuclides of elements heavier than iron and nickel causing them to fission into non radioactive products in a controlled and predictable manner, thus releasing a fixed amount of mundane heat energy. In practice, the most convenient nuclide used worldwide is Lead 208.’

‘Machines and reactors generating heat, electricity, and hydrogen fuel are made according to this principle. Both private companies and National and Local Governments employing both MDEs and nuclear scientists mass produce and operate these machines and reactors.’

‘The Bugus and are issued by the WDF and National Governments in the form of small coins with engraved denominations proportional to the energy each Bugu coin releases. The Bugu coin is the only currency used in Tera. In practice, National Governments also often issue promissory notes based on Bugu coins.’

‘A limitless energy source? That’s almost like paradise!’ Elam exclaimed.

‘Everyone thought so at the start, but the WDF did not anticipate the logical consequences.’ Bodhi again paused and took a deep breath before continuing.

‘The availability of cheap abundant limitless energy through the use of Bugu coins led to a spectacular industrial and agricultural revolution powered by electricity and a hydrogen economy a hundred years after the Anachronista Maestros’ De-occurrence, and a massive population explosion. There are now over 30 billion human beings in Tera, whose nutritional needs are taken care of by an agricultural complex whose fertilizers, irrigation system, and other support facilities are powered by DarkAI produced energy. Today it isn’t competition for energy sources that is the problem, but competition for land and mineral resources.‘

‘Moreover, even as the human population grew, humanity’s cultural diversity imploded. The Great Dark War transformed all pre Shift societies into large Nation-States, all originally based on a Unitarian, nationalistic, one nation one language ideology. The WDF encouraged this, as it was easier to control a few authoritarian states than numerous diverse countries. Later on most of the Nation-States progressed further into outright fascistic or theocratic polities.’

‘Theocracies?’ Elam asked.

‘Yes, Nations whose fundamental laws are based on immutable holy scriptures and religious dogma.‘

‘The Unitemple, Tera’s biggest religion, directly triggered World War 3 fifty years ago while trying to ban Bugu currency. Eventually the WDF ruled that individual nation-states may ban it at their discretion. Since the last World War theocratic nation-states have been increasing in numbers, influence and power, now constituting half of humanity. In these nations, the use of much of darkling technology is banned, including the public use of Bugu coins. Instead they use government issued promissory paper bills which one can theoretically exchange for Bugu coins of the same denomination. In secular nations, both Bugu coins and paper bills are used in public. The theocracies however continue to utilize DarkAI produced electricity and hydrogen fuel from government operated Reactor Plants.’

‘The rise of the modern theocratic nation-state has also led to chronic terrorism by extremist groups, almost all of which are covertly sponsored by one or more theocratic states. They routinely do terroristic acts not only in secular states, but also in theocratic states that belong to different religions and sects, or even in the same theocracy if they happen to disapprove of the ruling clerics.’

Elam interrupted Bodhi. ‘Was that a religious extremist that shot the Professor?’

‘Huo.’ It was Prof who answered affirmatively.

Elam’s next question was unexpected. ‘What do you think about the Prophesy, Manong Duro?’

Apparently, Spanish custom is to give two family (surname) names with the father's given first and the mother's given second (although this can be switched by the parents).

I don't mind how much space your novel takes up here - this is one of the most interesting projects I've hosted lately. ;)

But if you prefer to have only the latest version up, just tell me, and I will delete previous versions.

Miguel Crues Albareda

I'd reckon Miguel Albareda Creus is the correct order - also note that it's <Creus>, not Crues, according to Wikipedia, and may even be <Miquel> rather than Miguel, according to http://www.ajedrez365.com/2012/10/M....

Nothing much has changed, it seems - I'm still at about the same level, and still have the same dull, draw-happy playing style...

[Event "rated blitz match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Date "2016.05.05"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Quylthulg"]
[Black "NN"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1973"]
[BlackElo "1909"]
[ECO "A07"]
[TimeControl "180"]

1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 Bf5 3. Bg2 Nf6 4. O-O Nbd7 5. d3 e5 6. Nc3 c6 7. e4 dxe4 8. dxe4 Bg4 9. h3 Bh5 10. g4 Bg6 11. Re1 Bb4 12. g5 Bxc3 13. bxc3 Nxe4 14. Ba3 Nxc3 15. Nxe5 Nxd1 16. Nxg6+ Ne5 17. Rxe5+ Kd7 18. Rxd1+ Kc7 19. Rxd8 Raxd8 20. Re7+ Kb6 21. Ne5 Rd1+ 22. Bf1 f6 23. Nc4+ Ka6 24. Ne3+ b5 25. Nxd1 {Black resigns} 1-0

[Event "rated blitz match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Date "2016.05.07"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Quylthulg"]
[Black "NN"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1995"]
[BlackElo "1794"]
[ECO "A05"]
[TimeControl "180"]

It might confuse people if there are multiple versions of it, so I think you should delete the first draft. Maybe you can leave the penultimate one as a reference, leaving only two versions.

<Switch> I love your new games! The first one shall be called 'The Book of Revelations'. ;)

<VBD> ok, first draft deleted. :)

At the moment, I think most of what's left, by way of editing, is grammar stuff (missing commas, mainly), though I'll want to go over your latest version more carefully again too.

<I'll want to go over your latest version more carefully again too.>

Looking forward to your comments and critiques.

<Also, are we still waiting for feedback from <twinlark>?>

He seems to be busy, but we're in no hurry.>

I expanded on the Tower's nature in Chapter 19. The Tower. I've added a medical clinic to it too. Originally I meant it to be a kind of equivalent to Star Trek's transportation machines, but the story just did not work out that way. I am planning on more roles for it in Book 2.

I decided to make Pana more human-like while expanding on her history and nature as an avatar commando and her weaponry in Chapter 24. The Veteran Avatars and in the Battle of the Shield. It's possible that I may create more avatar Commandos in Book 2 that somehow survived the Dark War, and stayed hidden for 400 years.

I decided to develop Tahum's personality Chapter 27. Pier 13. If you find her too sexy, please inform me, and I can revert her back.

I expanded a bit more on Lili's history in Chapter 30. Promenade Hotel. If you find her too blood thirsty, please inform me, and I can revert her back.

Elam partially closed the capsular attic room’s shades and fell asleep. He woke up to the sound of Bodhi knocking at the capsule’s side. She was standing inside a small transparent eletrain, attired in an attractive sleeveless blue dress. She mouthed ‘Open!’

‘Ambot!’ Elam answered. I don’t know.

Bodhi sighed. She spoke into her wrist tabcom. ‘There’s a part of your table computer with a figure drawn like a clock. Touch numbers 11 and 12. It opens this segment of the attic capsule.’

Elam did. The capsule wall unzipped itself where Bohi’s eletrain was, making an opening.

‘Get dressed. There are new cargo pants and shirts in the bathroom. Get the long sleeved coat by the rack. It’s cold out to where we’re going.’

Elam followed her instructions and then stepped inside the eletrain. She pressed some virtual buttons on a small holographic control panel that had a joystick sticking out of it, by the side of the eletrain. The eletrain’s opening closed.

‘Notice that this eletrain is inside one of many transport tubes sticking on the side of this tower. These tubes are movable, connected to each other, and can deposit your eletrain anywhere the ship. So you can get in and out of the attic anytime you want without running across us boring girls below your room.

‘Wait, is this another tour?’

‘Huo, but this is a practical one. I will be teaching you how to operate these eletrains, there are a dozen of these small ones, and we’ll be going through all of our Balanghay’s important areas.

Elam suddenly noticed that the Shield was docked by the side of a small port. On top of it was the sign Puerto Amihan. ‘That’s the port of the capitol of North Eastern Islands Province. It’s autumn now and as I said it’s cold outside.’

‘Wow how did we get here so fast?’

Bodhi chuckled. ‘Weren’t you told it takes only 30 minutes for the Shield to reach any place in the world?

‘Even on land?’

‘Yes, but docking on dry land will strand us, and perhaps destroy the Shield. We have to dock on water. Those are the rules by whoever built the Shield.’

The small eletrain began to descend. Bodhi typed rapidly on her tabcom. The windows on the lower floors turned transparent. They passed the Wings’ mezzanine quarters, the main room of the Command Tower, the Dragons’ Roost. The next two floors were full of medical equipment, beds, and meds.

‘That’s the Balanghay’s Clinic and Aya’s alternative residence. Aya brought you there when you first occurred, but she soon determined that you were completely healthy except for being catatonic. We avatars don’t ever get admitted get to it, but Father insists on maintaining it for use by human civilians who get injured around the vicinity of our battle missions, if the Shield happens to be nearby.’

They passed on onto the sides of the lower floor.

‘How many stories are there?’

’If you discount the normal topmost floors, 53. The first 20 floors are located below the roof deck; floors 21 to 53, the Clinic, the Dragons’ Roost, and the Command Tower are located above in the open.’

‘What do you mean, normal?’

‘It means that the lower rooms keep on shifting in reality. Here I’ll show you.’ Bodhi punched into the control panel. The eletrain stopped by floor 20, just below the roof deck, and opened. An entrance to room 20 likewise did. Inside was an ordinary-looking but large furnished room. An avatar with blue hair was cleaning the floor with a vacuum cleaner. She made an asian bow to them. ‘Dayon,’ she greeted them. Please come in.

‘Don’t mind us Cleaner 8. I’m just showing Elam around. Carry on.’ The Cleaner avatar wordlessly continued cleaning the floor.

‘We maintain the entire Balanghay. It is after all our Balay, our House. A dozen Cleaner avatars keep everything tidy and spic and span all the time. Now look at the windows.’

‘Exceptions?’

‘If you know the proper procedure and technique, you can open a connection from any moving point B in spacetime to a point A in the Tower. For example, a Maestro connects Room or Floor 50, point A, in the Tower to the North Pole, point B. He climbs up to Floor 50. He casts the Origin part of a Folded Connection spell. He goes to the North Pole by conventional means, such as by plane or by this very Boat. He casts the Insertion part of the Folded Connection. Room 50 now connects directly to the North Pole. The Insertion may be made to move in spacetime, and the Maestro makes it move in synchrony with the North Pole’s movement through space and time. If the Insertion is misaligned to the North Pole just a bit, a catastrophic darkquake may ensue. The spell requires a lot of dark energy taken from Dark Artificial Incarnates or Natural Darklings, and must be precise in order to secure the proper alignment. Father knows how to do it thanks to memories from past lives. Many of the Anachronistas of the Great Dark Shift era also knew, and taught the technique to Teran successors; and it’s actually taught as a theoretical subject in MDE courses. As far as I know, no one has actually attempted it, including Father.’

‘Why does point A have to be a Room in the Tower? Can’t a Maestro just build a Folded Connection between any two points?’

‘Because you have to align two points, the Origin and the Insertion of the Folded Connection, which is quite difficult. The Balanghay’s Tower is designed so that Origins from it are always anchored in the here and now. You only have to align one point, that of the Insertion.’

A thought struck Elam. ‘How did, hhmm, Cleaner 8 get here? Did she use another eletrain? I don’t see any. So how does she get out of this room?’

Cleaner 8 momentarily stopped vacuum cleaning and directly answered. ‘I just climbed the stairs. It goes down to the Main Hallway.’ She pointed to the central staircase. She resumed cleaning. She looked to Elam as if she were in auto mode.

‘Floor or Room 5 will boggle you mind.’

They reentered the eletrain; stopped at and entered Room 5.

‘It’s a replica of the Dragon’s Roost,’ Elam observed.

‘Look out of that porthole.’

Outside nothing could be seen except swirling gray fog.

Bodhi was smiling at him. [They really like to smile.] ‘Come on migo, let’s go back to the eletrain.’

Bodhi’s tour lasted more than hour. She taught him how to operate the eletrain by pressing commands into the control panel and use the joystick that jutted out of there. The Shield turned out to be a floating hotel, a cruise ship. The biggest in Tera, Bodhi proudly claimed. However it was empty of humans. A crew of about a hundred avatars, about half of them Rowers who powered the two outrigger engines, ran the ship. Almost all of them resided in the hanging gardens in the Main Hallway that ran from bow to stern.

The bow hangar were Big Mov was kept was a walled off extension of the Main Hallway. The back of the Main Hallway was walled off as a giant garage full of all types of vehicles, and its posterior wall could open downward to form a ramp where the vehicles could enter and exit the ship.

The sides of the Main Hallway were also the sides of the ship and packed full of hotel rooms. Most of their furniture had been sold over 40 years in order to supplement the Household’s income. Some Mechanic avatars were doing some kind of construction or repair work in one of the rooms.

‘The blue-haired avatar supervising them is Husay. He’s one of our Balanghay’s engineers.’

Since the engines were the outriggers, the bottom compartments of the ship below the Main Hallway became cargo holds and depots. In a middle cargo hold was a small Bugu powered Reactor Plant that produced the ship’s electricity. Bodhi waved at two more blue haired male avatars standing in front of the Reactor Plant.

‘Those two strapping young fellows are Boylo and Koryen. They’re in charge of the Reactor.’

‘How come the House’s engineers all look similar?’

‘You might as well ask why the House’s four Wings all look similar. I don’t really know. I suspect that Father thought of a specific purpose, and then mass produced us from the same idea in his mind in order to fulfill that purpose.’

Elam was playing ping-pong with Lupad on Tahum’s front lawn in the hanging gardens. Tahum sat by the ping-pong table keeping score. There was nothing else better to do. This time the police insisted that only the Professor go with them. Left alone in the Balanghay he had decided to get to know the avatars better.

Half-way the first set, other Dark War Veterans began arriving. Not by eletrains but by walking on the walkways that connected the different houses in the hanging gardens. Someone set up a volleyball net on the other side of the lawn. After Lupad had blanked him 21-4 and 21-8, Elam settled on the side of the makeshift volleyball court and cheered along with the rest of the avatars. Luto, Sugo, and Alwana had teamed up vs. Lupad, Tukib, and Bodhi. Elam was at first surprised that the elderly Luto would still play volleyball, but it turned out that he just looked old. He was as sprightly and as quick as the other avatars.

‘How did your Father make you?’ he asked Henloa, Tenloa, and Limpyoha beside him, the Shield’s majordomos. They managed the day to day schedules and nitty-gritty details of the Household, and commanded the Cleaners and some of the Mechanics. They had bluish indigo hair, cream-white skin tinged with the faintest of cyan, blue-green irises, and faintly icteric sclerae. All were dressed in what seemed to be the favorite apparel of the female Veteran avatars except Ihap, short denim skirt, yellow camisole, and flip flops.

‘No one knows,’ Henloa answered. ‘The Great Dark Shift jumbled all our memories. We just all know that he made us. Avatars always sense their makers. My first memories were of those of the Great Darkling War. They’re disjointed and often do not make sense. Then we reoccurred 40 years ago in modern Tera.’

‘Why do you look and act so real? Most of the avatars in this boat, like Rowers, Cleaners, Mechanics, Waiters act kind of robotic.’

This time it was Tenloa who answered. ‘As far as we know, all of us Veterans of the Dark War possess a human mode. The dragons also have a similar mode that allows them to behave naturally, like flying dinosaurs. When Father turns that on, which he does nearly all the time, we can pass off as humans. We also have an automaton mode and a freeze mode. The avatars Father made in this reoccurrence do not have a human mode.’

‘Come to think of it, all modern-made Teran avatars don’t, although there are rumors of masterless Veterans who have survived from the Dark War because they discovered an overriding purpose for their existence. The art of making us has been forgotten, or maybe shifted out of this reality,’ Henloa added.

‘Do any of you have Wings?’

‘No, only Oisa, Bodhi, Alwana, and Aya,’ Limpyoha said. ‘We do have other combat avatars but they’re the only Wings.’

‘I’m a combat avatar.’ Bantay, the hunky head of the Balanghay’s security team interrupted. He sighed. ‘Most of the time I just act like a glorified security guard, informing Father who’s at the Balanghay’s gates.’

Elam got interested. ‘Do you have any ingrown weapons?’

Bantay smiled. A mace studded with evil-looking spikes sprang out of his left hand, a long sword out of his right. He was suddenly garbed in a lamellar armor covered by blue and yellow plates and an ornate helmet, weirdly underlying his security guard’s uniform.

Elam stared at him. ‘You look like a Knight of the Round Table crossed with a samurai!’

‘You mean the pre-Shift northern Alogostani and Dalokostani human warrior caste? I suppose so. What’s a Knight of the Round Table?’

‘I don’t know either,’ Elam admitted. ‘Just a memory. But you look like one.’

‘Yeah that’s me, a noble Knight, out to defend our Home Boat singlehandedly!’

Bantay answered in an irritated voice. ‘Huo, but I’m the assigned guardian of the Balanghay, not you, Pana. You just make rounds around the peripheral towers watching whales and seabirds.’ They began to argue.

‘When we first reoccurred in modern Tera, they were supposed to rotate on the job of Security. Father noticed that visitors and would-be thieves tended to show more respect to muscleman Bantay, than to baby-faced doll Pana, and decided to keep Bantay on the job permanently. That left Pana doing much of nothing. That irks her to the bone.’ A well-built man spoke quietly on his left, Bugsay, head of the rowers.

Another Engineer avatar named Husay, to Bugsay’s left, continued. ‘Pana was one of the Salig Commando avatars in the Dark War. They were the elite special forces of the Anachronista Army, unbelievably strong, fast and accurate. When we first reoccurred 40 years ago, we were pleasantly surprised to see her alive. She had disappeared during the Battle of the Black Castle, which ended when Oisa challenged and slew the Emperor of the One Night. Father immediately forbade Pana from going into battle missions that involved Demon Princes or Kings, on the chance that she might get killed by then. He sent only the Wings because with the four of them working together, nothing short of the Demon Emperors of legend can kill them, unless they got distracted. In order for them to continue practicing their skills and to keep them from being bored, Father sometimes allowed Pana and the other combat avatars to accompany the Wings if it was ascertained that only lower Dans were involved, but Pana doesn’t consider them as real opponents. So Pana ended up mainly as a security guard under Bantay’s command. Truth however is that she loathes her job. She’s been bitching about it for 40 years. She would rather serve her original purpose and die in combat.’

Koryen, the Shield’s electrical Engineer, added, ‘She survived because she was the best. If I recall correctly, she was the smallest, fastest, and nimblest of the Gisaligans, yet as strong as her bigger colleagues. She had two specialties. She was used as the equivalent of a human machinegun against hordes of lower level Dans should they embark on a mass attack, in order to buy time for the Maestros to relocate to a safer position. In addition she was able to penetrate narrow passages and shoot Demon Kings through the eye in infiltration missions inside their lairs and castles.’

‘We can understand how Pana feels,’ Boylo the other Rower Engineer said. ‘Bugsay and I were originally assigned to the same job, maintaining the outrigger engines. Initially Bugsay was assigned to the left outrigger, and I to the right. With the installment of the eletrain, it soon became apparent that only one Chief Rower was needed because we could easily reach the other outrigger in a few seconds via eletrain. One of us had become superfluous. So Father enrolled me in a Power Plant Technician’s course. I now run our Balanghay’s Reactor Plant. Turned out I like my new job, so all’s well that ends well. Husay runs the ship’s various machineries and equipment, and most of the Mechanics. He’s the one who installed your attic’s bathroom and the eletrains after Alwana designed them. As for Koryen, Father enrolled him in a course of modern Electrical Engineering, and he now helps me in the Reactor’s electric generator, and supervises all things electrical in the ship.’

Elam glanced at the four Engineers of the Household, sitting around the volleyball game. They looked so much alike, all husky blue heads with almost indistinguishable faces, faintly bluish skin and yellow irises. They could have passed off as identical quadruplets. It was easy to believe that they came out of the same factory and were designed for exactly the same job.

‘Pana looks even younger that Elam, just a whole lot fuller and humpier. I’d bet those Righteous Fire fanatics would like her as a child bride,’ Oisa who had been silently watching the volleyball game behind them suddenly spoke up.

Tahum perked up. ‘Nice idea Oisa; maybe we should take a female combat avatar along with us. I’ve been searching the internet for unusual phenomenon in Ngit-ngit. There have been a flood of reports of preternatural creatures, which is quite unusual for a city in a theocratic Nation-State. They could represent more Righteous Fire experiments that went wrong. Tukib and I would be as useless as an ordinary human against such creatures, but a combater should be able to handle them.’

Pana looked so disappointed that Elam could not help but say ‘If I may point out, motivation also counts, you know. Pana looks as well motivated as anyone can be.’

Tahum pursed her lips. ‘OK you have a point there, Elam. I’ll think about it.’

The Luto, Sugo, and Alwana team won the volleyball match. Team Lupad, Tukib, and Bodhi wanted a rematch. They began to argue. [Not another avatar debate!] Elam went inside Tahum’s house out of curiosity.

It was simply designed, a large compartment, one quarter of which was Tahum’s bedroom, and another quarter was kitchen, bathroom, and laundry room. At the back of the kitchen was a small back door leading to Tahum’s backyard. The front half was a lounge with a table computer, chairs and sofas. [Cozy!] Elam tried sitting on a sofa.

To his surprise, Pana walked in and sat beside him beaming in a completely innocent manner. ‘Salamat migo, thank you. All the avatars and Father himself listen to you. Everyone thinks you can see the future. I think Tahum will now choose me.’ [She’s just like a child, if one disregards those hefty bulges bouncing underneath her loose T shirt.]

‘Hmm, it’s nothing. Waay sapayan.’

‘I have a feeling that this mission could be dangerous. I might be able to attain what I really want, finally.’

‘Uh, what?’

‘Departing this world through a battlefield.’

‘What! Pana don’t!’

‘Why?’ Pana looked puzzled. ‘It’s what I was designed for; my purpose.’

Outside Bantay suddenly began swearing loud enough for them to hear him through the open lounge window. ‘@#$%! Father has been arrested for conspiracy to bomb the Pahayag radio station! His message on my tabcom says that the bail is 10,000 pesos.’

Everyone stopped what they were doing. Elam and Pana hurried out of the house. Captain Sugo also looked at his tabcom, and then announced ‘Boylo, get some Bugus worth that amount from the Reactor.’ He eyed Elam. ‘Under Alogostan law, only humans can pay the bail. You’ll have to get him, Elam.’

Oisa stood up. She looked very cross.

‘Let’s go, iho. We need to get Father.’

‘Wait,’ Boylo said. ‘I’m giving you some Bugus from the Reactor first, for the bail.’

Elam, the 3 Wings, and Boylo got on an eletrain. Alwana pressed the rapid mode button, and the eletrain zoomed into the Reactor Plant in the ship’s midsection at the lowermost level. Boylo got into his office and returned with ten pieces of Bugu coins denominated 1000 pesos each, from the transportation allowance Maestro Juan had given them in Fuego. He placed them in a coin purse and gave it to Elam. They took the eletrain up to the Garage. Bantay was waiting for them with another minivan. He opened the back landing ramp. Alwana drove them into Amihan Port, and out of it.

The Amihan Central Police Station was located only a block away from the Port. Inside, Oisa asked the station chief about the procedure for paying the bail.

‘See we already have the bail. Give it to him Elam.’

Elam placed the purse politely on the Police Captain’s desk.

‘I’m sorry son. There are procedures for bail placement. I will have to check if an Anachronista child can legally post bail.’

‘You’re stonewalling,’ Alwana blurted out.

Elam rolled up his eyes. No wonder Prof would place them on auto mode outside the House Boat,

‘Now look young.. err.. lady,’ the Police Captain began.

‘No need for that Captain.’ Lili unexpectedly strode into the Captain’s office. ‘I’m Maestra Lili, MDE, currently DATA special agent.’

Elam hurried over to the side of the Tower, where he joined the Shield’s Majordomo and Engineer avatars peering over into the deck through the Tower’s transparent walls. With the Shield’s LED lights turned on, they could directly see a legion of dark forms landing on the bow’s top deck, on top of the roofs of restaurants and cafes, courts, gardens, walkways, shallow swimming pools, and the transparent ceiling of the ship’s main Hallway.

‘By the Tela, there must be hundreds of them! How did Righteous Fire manage to summon up so many?’ Tenloa, beside Elam, asked loudly, her shiny bluish indigo hair swishing as she shook her head in disbelief.

‘They must have sacrificed a lot of humans under our noses,’ Tukib conjectured. He was in front of a table computer watching its projected holographic monitor screens. ‘There are the usual wingless low Dan Pawns, but there seems to be an unusually large number of winged higher Dans.’

The darklings and the avatars could clearly sense each other. The darklings looked up and began hopping and crawling like supercharged lizards along the roofs of the structures on the bow, and up the Tower’s side.

Bantay pushed at the table computer. An opening into one of the eletrain transport tubes bridging from the Command Tower to the right corner bow tower opened. Pana was instantly rushing into it. She stopped around 20 meters distal to the tower. Inside the transparent transport tube bridge, she looked as if she were suspended in midair between the central Tower and the right corner tower, incongruously still clad in micro mini and tube top, feet bared. She looked back and nodded. Bantay typed another command. Two sections of the floor on each side of the transport tube opened. Pana transformed into her armored archer form beneath her clothes and immediately began shooting arrows into the darklings that had reached the Tower and were climbing its side.

Elam gaped. [Unbelievable!]

Every time Pana fired, a darkling died. Darkling bodies fell like flakes of dead leaves. Pana was not going for super accurate head shots but for rapidity. She was shooting them through the chest more quickly and more efficiently than any human machine gunner could. She was prioritizing the darklings that had climbed the furthest up the Tower’s side.

After a minute of continuous shooting, hundreds of darkling bodies lay squirming or dissipating on the bow deck below. The action slowed. The survivors had taken cover among the standing structures on the ship’s bow, with an occasional one peeking out to look at them. Pana continued to shoot far more accurately than any sniper with a laser scope. Every time a darkling head showed up, a blue arrow pierced it.

All the darklings disappeared for a minute. They seemed to be holding some kind of consultation among themselves.

It happened quickly. More than a dozen winged forms sprang up simultaneously going straight for Pana, six of them Demon Princes.

Pana shot 4 Adepts down in rapid succession before several of them landed on the transport tube on top of her. She could not shoot them because her windows opened down to the deck, not up to the roof of the transport tube.

Three Demon Princes simultaneously smashed holes on the tube’s roof almost on top of Pana. The first one bent its head in and began to reach for her. She punched her bow’s pointed tip into its left nostril, up through the thin ethmoid bone and into its brain. The second was lowering itself into the tube interior from another hole. She jabbed her gauntleted right hand straight into the darkling’s neck, crushing its way through. Using the two darkling bodies as support, she lifted her body and delivered a kick toward the third Prince, who was also entering the tube interior. A sharp spike protruded from the heel of her right boot and precisely penetrated the Prince’s eye. For a moment she was suspended in midair between the three darkling bodies. Then Pana withdrew all her limbs. Out of the second Prince’s neck, she pulled out trachea, carotids, and esophagus. All three darklings imploded into black ash.

A Demon Prince on top of the tube barked an order. The other darklings began smashing more holes into the tube on either side of Pana. The plan obviously was for many of them to simultaneously reach for her through those holes. She was trapped and getting exposed.

A figure leaped out of the Tower Room and landed not inside but on top of the transport tube, dressed in a chef’s double breasted jacket weirdly underlain by a light blue armor. His knife repeatedly flashed yellow in the air hitting 4 darkling Adepts nearest the tower high on their backs. Their bodies fell. It was Chef Luto. The next one in line became aware of him and turned. It was a Lord. His next knife throw was easily swatted off by the darkling.

Meanwhile Pana had jumped out of the transport tube’s interior tunnel onto its smashed-up roof in between the three remaining darklings. All were Demon Princes. One of them was about was about to rush Luto. She shot it in the nape. The last remaining two happened to be located behind her on top of the tube. As she turned to face them, the nearest one viciously slashed at her face. Pana somersaulted backward while flicking her arrow backhand straight into its eye, killing it. She slipped as she landed on the tube’s convex surface, and fell straight toward the main force of the enemy waiting below, amidst a gray smog of dissolving darkling bodies. As she fell in midair, her arrow rematerialized on her bow and she shot the remaining Prince peering down at her on top of the transport tube through its neck.

A blue winged form shot out of the right bow tower and caught her just above the heads of two waiting darklings on the deck. It was Lupad. He flew up with Pana in his arms toward one of the eletrain entrances. Sugo punched on a control key on his table computer and the entrance opened. Lupad flew in and collapsed with Pana on the floor of the Command Tower.

It was so fast that Elam did not have time to feel any surprise. The darklings and the avatars had been inhumanly quick.

Below, more winged forms were crouching, preparing to take to the air. ‘Get back here, that tube bridge is compromised!’ Bantay yelled. In a second, Luto had scampered like a cat on a wire back inside the Command Tower Room.

There was a pause in the fighting. Instead of launching another aerial attack, the darklings seemed to have gone into another conference among themselves. Bantay, Pana, and Luto went over to a table computer and likewise conferred with each other. Lupad sat on a chair near them looking exhausted.

Prof turned toward them. His Seal was glowing blue. ‘We have some time now. My diagnostics indicate that these darklings were randomly torn off from various regions of one of the Dark Realms. They don’t know each other. The higher Dans must be holding a meeting now, in order to get to know one another and form a chain of command; and plan the next attack. Most of the higher Dans are non-primes and so were probably modified by humans. We can assume that they will follow whatever Compulsion their human summoners imposed on them.’ He and Sugo went over the combat avatars’ table computer and joined their discussion.

‘That was unbelievable shooting,’ Elam noted in a quiet but awed voice among the group of non-combaters.

‘Not really,’ Boylo commented, ‘considering that Archer Gisaligans can reacquire moving targets in milliseconds, reload at the speed of sound, and shoot their arrows at nearly light speed. Pana’s aiming and shooting functions work under the same principle as the Shield’s outrigger engines, incremental reality shifts.’

Husay offered more information. ‘Pana’s arrow can penetrate the skull and bones of all lower darklings except those of Demon Princes, whom she must she hit in a soft spot. That should not be hard for her unless several Princes are attacking her simultaneously at close range. The Kings are more problematic because they have skins resistant to Pana’s arrow, and so she can kill them only by shooting an arrow into their eye and into the brain. She can consistently do that with Regents, the Low Demon Kings of Dans 51 to 70. The higher Dans of 71 to 90, the Monarchs, she can hit in the eye in battlefield conditions about half of the time, and all the time if they stay still. Only the High Demons above Dan 90 are safe from Pana since they have eyelids that are impenetrable to her arrow; and move so fast that she can’t hit them accurately in the eye at all, even if they open them.’

Henloa to his left added ‘Luto is a combat avatar, but he likes being a cook more. We Majordomos work closely with him in preparing all our meals. Like most Veteran combat avatars, he and Bantay can defeat Adepts and Masters in single combat, are about par with Lords, and even if at an inherent disadvantage can give Princes a good fight. They’re no match for Demon Kings.’

‘In the Great Dark War, Bantay was a basic infantryman, as were most of the combat avatars,’ Koryen further explained, approaching the Command Tower’s transparent wall near them to get a better view. ‘Mortality rate of avatar infantrymen was approximately 90%, but a few of the best of them survived until De-occurrence, including Bantay. As for Luto, he was not really that effective in the field, because knife throws are usually slow enough so that darklings can catch his knife if they are forewarned.’

‘So where was Chef Luto in the Dark War?’

Tenloa to his right answered, ‘He was mostly on guard duty against darkling infiltrators. Many Natural Darklings, the Wings, the Salig Commandos, and also avatars like our cute bookkeeper Ihap, can do the Deceptive Disguise spell, which could blunt a darkling’s innate ability to sense the presence of other darklings. Disguised darklings could often pass off as humans. Luto’s knife, if he wills it, has the property of penetrating the skin of darklings but not humans. So he simply chopped up suspected infiltrators, many of them in the kitchen trying to poison our food, and if they were darklings, they turned into minced meat.’

‘What we need are offensive weapons. I wish we had more Salig Commandos,’ Elam opined.

Limpyoha on Elam’s left gave a little laugh. ‘Gisaligans were designed for only one purpose, to slay darklings and be slain in high risk and suicide missions. They were expected to be KIAs, and were programmed to accept that eventuality. Their mortality rate for the whole Dark War approached 100%. Pana may have been the only one to survive of her kind, and only because she was the best and because she was thrown into a deep crack in the Tela during Battle of the Black Castle. We thought she was killed but she reoccurred along with the rest of us 40 years ago.’

Bang! Limpyoha stopped talking. A gray figure smacked into the wall right in front of them, causing Elam to jump back and nearly fall over. The second wave of winged attackers had launched. Dozens of winged darklings landed on the Command Tower’s transparent outer walls.

Several meters away from them, Bantay pushed at a table computer. The walls shimmered and the darklings began to slip off. ‘I’ve turned on an extension of the Shield of the Shield; it now covers the entire Tower from the outside. When they figure that out, they’re going to enter through the central stairs. Pana, Luto, come with me. We’ll defend the stairs.’

He turned to Lili. ‘Your commandos better break that pentagon soon, Lili. We need the Wings here. We can only defend to gain time, not beat them. There are too many higher Dans among them, and I can sense a few Demon Kings.’

The three combat avatars strode to the stairs. The Tower Room occupants turned to the screens.

‘Need any help?’ Ihap asked Bantay. She was sitting on a chair beside the staircase. She was wearing her usual neatly pressed office worker’s uniform, short blue skirt, blue blazer, opaque yellow button shirt complete with her name tag ‘Avatar Ihap, C.P.A.’

‘No. Just stay on that chair. You’re reserve. There’s no one left.’