Dungeon at the End of the Universe

As I focused on the dot of light it came into view and transformed into a familiar humanoid figure. Bathed in golden light, it was undeniable. That was most certainly Zemis.

“Change of plans,” I said to Faellen, “our target has arrived.”

The fairy knew what to do. It had, just like me, not been idle. While I was working on the ‘gift’ for our guest, it had constructed a special ritual.

The ritual was a modified version of the one we used to transport Sipalians from and to my moon. Modified so that we could target a specific person, Zemis, as well as so that it could handle much more power. It wouldn’t do for this deity to resist our invitation.

“Ritual is ready.” At the go-ahead from Faellen, I funnelled mana into the magical engraving.

Lines of fae magic lit up. I focused on the spot I saw the intruder and directed the ritual spell there. Faintly, I sensed some kind of dimensional tear open and something reached out.

Far, far it went. Covering the whole solar system in seconds. Perhaps the deity sensed something, as they tried to move, but it was too late. The power of the ritual grabbed them and began dragging them back.

This took longer, leaving a trail of divine light behind as our passenger tried to resist. I increased my mana output.

At last, Zemis the god of earth appeared inside my Dungeon moon.

“Huh? What the? A Dungeon?” was all he could utter before I activated the enchantments of the gift I had been working on.

I could almost feel time lurch. All of my own time acceleration was transferred and constrained to that one little room. As we watched, the deity inside practically froze, their subjective time so fast so as to be imperceptible for us.

“Time rate check?” I ask my fairy assistant.

It concentrated for a second, scanning the planet bellow, and then. “This is unbelievable… we’re almost almost at the same speed as the outside world.”

“Ha! Yes! Take that my stupid Aspects! I’ve managed to get rid of your stupid limitation!”

The idea began to brew in my mind ever since I discovered I could shift my time acceleration. Sure, originally it was to help save an unfortunate group of Sipalians. But why not apply it offensively too?

Voila, my time chamber was born. Or time battery? Time engine? Whatever it is, it’s awesome.

Thanks to a bunch of mana-assisted enchantments I was able to increase how much of my curse I can move around. And apparently, that increase was quite substantial. Ha, I still can’t believe it. I’m back to normal time!

“So, what now?” Faellen asked. “And won’t they break out? Eventually.”

“Now we can do whatever we want! And sure, theoretically a break out is possible. But the enchantments will alert me if that happens, and by then I should be powerful enough to reinforce the cage.”

It was all perfect. Not only did I have someone to offload all my time acceleration to, but this solution also took care of a threat to our existence. It’s tough to say, but I think we have at least a few decades, if not centuries, before the subjective time for our prisoner has advanced enough that they start breaking out.

We continue celebrating for a bit.

That’s another thing. With almost normal time inside my Dungeon, we can stop doing work on our System apocalypse for a little while without wasting too much time!

Eventually, ever our jubilation runs out and we get back to our projects. Faellen to training the adventurer trio, I to my Dungeon Seeds.

Maybe that is the only downside. Without going through time faster than the rest of the world, it’ll take that much longer for my Dungeon network’s mana to rejuvenate. Might as well start working on the next project in the meantime.

After all, if the Dungeon network is bigger, there’s more mana. It was time to built a reverse pyramid beneath my Dungeons.

Zemis, god of earth, was not having a good time.

It began okay, wonderful even. They sensed a world that was just in the nascent phases of awakening. A place perfect to grow a similarly nascent deity’s power.

Then there was that strange emanation of Universe energy. Strange, but not the worst thing. At worst it should have meant they wouldn’t be able to claim that planet.

But then Zemis arrived at the solar system the planet was a part of. Something there seemed amiss. The planet was awakening, yes, but it felt off. Too… controlled. They had only just started scanning the solar system, looking for the perpetrator, when everything went to shit.

An invisible hand grasped them. For the first time since Zemis had achieved divinity, they felt helpless. Even active resistance with all they could give proved futile. Well, almost. They did catch a hint of Wyld power in the force dragging them off.

For a brief moment their surround flashed, revealing the ever changing landscape of the Wyld, then it all went back to normal and the deity appeared at its destination. Or wherever it was they were dragged to.

Which turned out to be… a stone chamber? From all the possibilities, this was one Zemis had truly not expected.

“Huh? What the? A Dungeon?” they said. Why does a Dungeon have the power of the Wyld? Did the Wyld expand recently? No, that shouldn’t be possible. I would have been notified of that.

And at last, what truly cemented their experience as not good happened. A series of enchantments on the wall of the chamber activated, and… seemingly nothing happened.

What? Is that truly it? The deity thought.

It wasn’t a divinity sealing enchantment, Zemis knew that. They would have felt such a thing. But no, this one didn’t seem to be doing such a thing. In fact, it appeared to be doing no thing at all.

Zemis tried to extend their senses outside, to see what was happening. And that’s when it hit them. Almost literally.

A flood of information assaulted their mind, much more than a simple scan should have caused. The world outside this chamber, the deity realised, was moving at a speed almost incomprehensible to the mind.

At last, they understood. They weren’t in a divine prison, because they didn’t need to be. A single second for them would be days, weeks, months, maybe even years and decades outside. And at that point their warden could have prepared a much nastier prison.

But whoever had captured Zemis had somehow forgotten about one thing. They didn’t proof the walls of this chamber against divine energy.

Perhaps normally that wouldn’t have been too big a problem. How many deities have good enough relations with another deity that they would come save them from an unknown level of danger for an uncertain reward?

Zemis began weaving their divine energy, constructing a message and then emanating it outside the walls of their prison. The message? A thing that would mobilize every deity that came across it, whether they be fried or foe.

It was simple, really. Only two words.

Time criminals.