The Drop-Wing's camouflaged plating dissolved into a dull steel as it approached the forge-lab. The hangar doors—a pair of panels reinforced with an intricate web of carbon struts—parted slowly, their motion accompanied by the heavy thrum of magnetic locks disengaging.
Inside, warm light spilled over the landing bay, reflecting off talwork that was at once alien and familiar—gothic buttresses lined with humming cables, servo-lifts that hissed with hydraulics, and cogwheel insignias engraved into every arch.
Lily eased the skimr into the hangar, the inertial dampeners softening their final touch-down to the gentlest bump. The rear ramp hissed open.
"Ho sweet ho!" she chirped, pulling her goggles up to her forehead.
Freya stepped down first, boots clicking on the hangar deck. Her gaze road upward along the vaulted ceiling, its rib-like struts disappearing into shadows lit only by strips of red lun light. "I guess we have to fix the looks of this place," she said, lips curling in faint amusent. "It's to
Dark, brooding, at least the crimson church looks good from the outside; this thing is terrible from the inside out."
Hephaestus followed without comnt, though her single visible eye moved constantly—taking in the layout, the power conduits along the floor, and the workshop bays sealed behind armored shutters. She slowed when she spotted a dormant plasma forge through a viewing slit, her head tilting faintly.
"If you think you can design, you can try to design new hos and a lab on Mars," Luthar replied blandly, stepping down last. "Let's keep this play gloomy, as it would be a waste of the effort to transform this place." The rightful source is novel★fire
Freya smirked. "Looks like I am going to take charge of designing, as I do not want everything to look like a funeral vault."
Lily hopped down from the ramp, tugging off her gloves. "Wait until you see the rest! We've got labs and a kitchen; I swear, after watching both together, you wouldn't be able to eat anything, and we also have an observation deck if you like stargazing!" She started toward the interior doors at a light skip, clearly assuming everyone would follow.
The heavy blast doors ahead slid open as they approached, revealing the main corridor—a broad hall lined with cog-tooth arches, the walls inset with alternating panels of steel and carved marble. Servo-skulls floated past carrying data-slates, while automated turret mounts tracked the group briefly before resuming idle patrol arcs.
"Is there a reason for this much security?" Hephaestus remarked.
"This world is too dangerous, so I have to improve," Luthar replied, chadendrites shifting in lazy arcs behind him. "Plus, I have two villains and Wakanda who have noticed my drones. Let's just say all the security is worth it."
"That's called paranoia," Freya said with a small laugh.
"Paranoia can never describe my situation," Luthar said without slowing.
Lily spun halfway around while walking, pointing toward a branching hallway. "Your rooms are that way! They're big, with fresh linen and—oh!—personal climate control. I wasn't sure what temperatures you liked, so I just made them adjustable."
"Thoughtful," Freya said, though her tone was more amused than sincere.
Hephaestus paused mid-step at another viewing port, this one looking into a fabrication bay where a half-completed automaton stood under an array of welding servitors. "What alloys are you using?"
"A hybrid blend. Vibranium reinforcent in key load-bearing joints, adamantium alloy for armor, and plasteel for structural skeleton," Luthar replied without turning.
Her eyebrow twitched almost imperceptibly. "It feels like a waste of the resources."
They passed under a final archway and stepped into the main hall of the forge-lab proper—an expansive, cathedral-like chamber dominated by a central dais where an array of holo-displays flickered with tactical readouts. Stacks of component crates were arranged neatly to one side, while a towering cog-toothed sigil of the Omnissiah lood over everything, etched into the far wall and backlit with a dull red glow.
Freya let out a low whistle. "This looks like the throne room of so cult."
"That is because it is," Luthar replied simply.
Far away, in the shadowed halls of Kamar-Taj…
The Ancient One's eyes opened. A ripple of golden light passed across her irises as her perception slid between planes.
She rose smoothly from her mat; with a small turn of her hand, a circular mandala of light spun into existence before her, its edges crackling with mirrored fragnts. Through it, she could see the forested valley where the forge-lab lay hidden.
Her lips pressed into a thin line. "Better to greet a guest than to clean up after one."
Stepping forward, she did not walk the distance—she folded it. Reality in front of her bent like a polished sheet of water; the world on the other side was already starting to fracture under her influence, the mirrored geotry of her domain blooming outward like frost.
Back at the forge-lab…
Lily was in mid-sentence about the snack machines when the light in the hall dimd unnaturally.
It wasn't the power—every lun strip still burned steadily—but rather that the air seed to thicken, the reflections in the polished floor stretching at impossible angles.
Hephaestus stopped walking. Her hand flexed, and in the sa breath, a weapon took shape—tal and magic weaving into existence from nothing. The warhamr's head burned with molten sigils, each rune shifting like a living fla as the air around it warped with heat.
Freya's divine aura shimred to life around her like a second skin. "Luthar…"
"I can see it," he said sharply. His auspex was already chattering warnings—spatial layering anomalies, dinsional overlay patterns.
The sound ca then—not loud, but deep. A crystalline crack that echoed without source, like ice breaking beneath the surface of a lake.
The walls shattered.
Not in any physical way—rather, the idea of the walls fractured, fragnts of their image peeling back to reveal a vast, infinite reflection of the hall around them. Every surface glead like glass, every angle repeating into the distance. The world outside the forge-lab was simply… gone.
They stood in the mirror dinsion.
A figure stepped forward from one of the countless reflections, her motion perfectly fluid, her expression calm yet sharpened with intent. The golden mandalas on her hands rotated slowly, shedding faint sparks into the mirrored air.
The Ancient One regarded them each in turn before her gaze settled on Luthar. "I don't know what they promised you, but you shouldn't have brought a god from another universe to my world," she said.
Author's note: if you follow this link, you can get around 44 chapters, which will beco 45 once I upload the 186th chapter. 😁
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