With the core of Iris's plans complete, the ground of House Hun'ana's central annex was inclined some 30 degrees, with the main entrance sealed beneath the floor and the mines at the base of this large hill some 300 meters away. The enemy was present in every direction and orientation, largely descending the walls like a living mudslide as they desperately fought to right themselves and slay their intruders in the same breath.
Waxy webs encompassed the space in an instant, twanging and flexing beneath the force of the dwarven war machinations being relocated in key positions while everything from cranes to ballista-sized wands flung their quarrels indiscriminately into the fray.
Largely ignoring the masses, Z'ress, Z'rynda, and Iris remained in the cavern's center, guiding souls, spreading healing domains for Aqsa and Oliva, and latching on to her mana spread throughout the Central Annex. Unlike with the cantrip she cast before, Iris pooled her divine mana into the point of her spear and held it aloft while a stream of data radiated soundlessly from her mind, activating the powers of her prayer that birthed the blue light of augmented life.
The divine light of a Clerical Druid shone on the masses like the heat of a cruel sun, burning away channels in the beetle-like mining constructions crowded in the back. They skittered and spasmed as her circuitry spread across their bodies, shifting materials and energy to form systems of self-regulation that often crushed the dwarves piloting them. If not, they were crushed as the beetles rushed to gorge themselves on the scattered ore or turned their drill-like horns on the spiders.
Witnessing their clash saw Z'rynda tap into her connection with Iris and lob another spell, with this one being thrown much faster, and aimed at the drow and spiders skittering up the walls and ceiling to flank them. Even then, it arced through the air like a grenade fired from a launcher, landing between their formation to release a domain of vibrant blue-purple energy that spread and spread and spread to encompass the Central Annex as a whole.
Rather than attack their manned machines, their raw materials and the things made from them were extracted and aggregated in the domain's center; a process that went largely unnoticed by all, other than the faint hiss it produced. Until, one by one, they burst into dust.
Buildings long shaped into the stone fell in a matter of seconds, leaving metal frames and fungal-wooden interiors to rust and wither like the swords and armor wielded by their slaves. Not even the dwarven machines turned against them were safe, their fames decaying and reforming beneath the domain in ways that left them inoperable. Even then, however, the spiders did not stop and the drow hardly let up.
Regardless, so many stunned slaves gave Aqsa the space she needed to release her Lairnade in the room's dead center.
A spire, much like Iris' spear, erupted from the thing the moment its glass shattered against the ground, impaling the stone to raise three spinning prongs that glowed a bright blue until halting with a loud ping.
The ensuing blue wave attacked the house much more violently than before, as blue webs of mycelium spread to colonize the countless tapestries, statues, and trinkets created en masse by the slaves, reforming them into the exotic grasses, trees, and plants of Iris' domain. The gaps they left in the stone were replaced with glowing conduits reminiscent of the circuitry on my arms as it spread to connect to doors, windows, levers, and every other device in reach; and like a star going supernova, the augmented beings felt their senses blossom.
The moment the House's machinations were transfered to Iris, the party split in dissimilar ways. Deeke, Erja, Margo, and Kane raced, sprinted, danced, and snaked toward the residential and slave wings while Iris barreled through the ceiling to enter the Matron's wing, leaving the siblings to rush down the rear tunnels to the lesser House Hun'ep.
Z'rret and Z'benna took point, with the former using his heavy armor and glaive to push back the defenders and the latter on the ceiling, unleashing his adamantine quarterstaff on the heads of those who failed to look up while Z'rynda's domains did all manner of healing, decaying, and corrupting their surroundings.
Still following her protocols, Z'ress held off on using her power until she reached House Hun'ep's main industrial space. Then, like a feral dog jumping the fence, she tapped into the seed of divine mana given to her by Iris and released it indiscriminately.
Again, a blue wave rippled across the voluminous compound, carving deep gashes in the alchemical plants, tanning facilities, furnaces, and warehouses to lay divine circuits in their frames. This time, however, those circuits drew in the carved stone, gems, and shaped metal meant to decorate this place and spread them through their new foundations.
Within moments, their vats, basins, cauldrons, and pallets shifted and rotated in their holdings as they were pulled deeper into their frames and shrouded behind metallic maws and ceramic hides. Their operator's stations became computing systems in the core of their frames; gems and metals accumulated on their faces and reformed into sensor arrays that looked distastefully at the sprawling web of flesh surrounding them.
The sight seemed to birth mechanical groans that rippled from their cores to their support columns and beams, increasing in pitch until a great crash signaled their detachment, bringing countless eyes to witness arms and legs actuating to quake the ground with their first steps.
Given arcane intelligence and self-regulation, those behemoths grew disgusted by the chemicals, tanning agents, molten metals, and resources filling their gullets; so they upturned them.
A foul hiss echoed as the acidic compounds swept over the gathered masses, bubbling and roiling evermore from the magmatic concoction splattering the arcane shields, enchanted gear, and demonic chitin on its shores; until they too were swept by the tide.
Even then, the drow, demon-spiders and their slaves did not fall, and the Hun'ana siblings did not falter. Z'benna rushed to the middle of those industrial behemoths to implant the Lairnade while Z'rret covered him, zig-zagging between the spiders to smash their legs beneath his quarterstaff, supported from above by Z'rynda's domains.
Once the ping echoed, the wave left pockets of glowing blue mana that churned and roiled in place, producing a distinctive warbling sound as it dragged space along with it, eventually tearing it open to allow the recycling caste of Iris' domain to warp through.
Augmented bears and lions tore through the ranks of spiders and drow, uncaring of the spells bouncing harmlessly off of their synthetic hides as they sought to lap up the pools of volatile liquids before them. Hyenas, jackals, and wolves followed, their steel fangs clashing against the swords and quarrels of the shocked enemy.
They and more like them swarmed in ever-increasing numbers as the Lairnade redistributed House Hun'ep's scattered infrastructure and materials, opposed at every angle by the enemy. Only a small minority reached the chemicals and molten metals they desperately sought. Yet the enemy was not what stopped them.
The precious resources they sought were claimed by the MycoMithral web, making those beasts turn toward the last remaining materials in sight.
The augmented foxes, lions, and wolves tore into the enemy with wild abandon, meeting their blades with steel-shattering teeth to leave drow and slaves alike armless. While some were cleaved by adamantine weapons, those were soon freed from drow hands by rats and ravens boring through gloves and plucking weapons out of their hands to be pecked and integrated into their beaks and teeth.
Ants and lizards attacked from below to disassemble boots and dismantle their brooches and jewelry while raccoons and vultures dived from above to prey on helms and holy symbols; and through it all, Z'rret and Z'benna raced, making short work of the disarmed enemy while Z'rynda's buffs kept them healed and energized.
However, Z'ress was fighting a different battle.
The seed of divinity given to her by me enabled her to see the ghostly visages peeling off the dead as I did. As I passed my eyes over them, squinting into the crimson webs descending to take them, she swung her hand of judgment, severing those webs to send their souls rocketing up to my heaven or shooting down to my hell- my Underworld.
Through it all, the Lairnade redistributed House Hun'ep's stockpiles of material and at last, was ready to begin fabricating. It came with no rise or warning. A silent wave radiated from the gadget, making the ancient murals and carvings lining the walls crumble into obscurity as the wave rose to the arched ceiling above and unveiled the smooth innards of a metallic shell.
Shattered stalactites fell amidst dusty boulders and fell further as floor crumbled beneath the scattered masses. Arteries and veins of flowing energy and transporting matter were unveiled as the wave swept to either side, one toward the Falls to detach the structure from the spider's body, the other chased by the Hun'ana siblings toward their dying home.
The siblings stormed through the lesser house's rear exit and pushed into House Hun'ana's mines to find themselves in an unfamiliar environment. The cavern, tunnels, and mines were coated in a lumpy web of glowing silver-blue fibers occluded by a hailstorm of fire. Spells and quarrels rained from all directions and altitudes, largely pelting off the shields and hulking armor of Aqsa and Oliva while Gaheris darted around the background, shifting his form whenever he broke the line of sight to position himself for a long shot.
Knowing no one who shared their blood was among the enemy, Z'rret and Z'benna rushed beneath the shroud of Z'rynda's green-hued Repair Domain; again at different angles.
Z'benna took up a defensive position between the two hulks and the augmented elf, using an arcane tower shield to deflect the endless rain so Gaheris could sustain covering fire for Z'rret, on the hunt.
The green field of latent energy healed more than the augmented beings, however. It provided much-needed energy to the silver-blue caps pinning atop the mycelial web. They positively radiated with pleasure, pulsing and glowing as they expanded troops of mushrooms the size of bowling balls.
Moreover, it flowed into the growing number of dwarven and deep gnome slaves who took the opportunity to fight for their freedom. The blue conduits flowed into their feet unnoticed, carrying with them repurposed materials to replace biological flesh with synthetic skin, machine muscle, and false nerves. Prosthetic limbs grew from nubbed arms and legs that never knew they were maimed and struck back with twice the fervor.
The sight made more slaves lift their eyes to the divine beings above them, throw their arms, and plead for salvation. The prayers of orcs, ogres, elves, goblins, dwarves, gnomes, and humans alike fell silent to Iris' senses, for she cared not about the plights of the flesh. And so, I walked in spirit amidst the field of the dying, watching the augmented herbivores warped in by Margo and Kane's Lairnade stampede in from the slave annexes to add to the carnage.
In several cases, I looked for piety and saw placements instead; potential, made by these present circumstances and the latent energies associated with them. Seeds that transcended loyalty, piety, and even classes, and so I sowed them with the Undying Touch and germinated them with a bit of the ArcaTech's essence, leaving the rest to be slain by Iris branch of life and delivered by Z'ress.
Yet, no amount of trampling could halt their fervor. No number of ruptured organs or shattered bones could break them. Even as a mangled mess of groaning flesh, they prayed to Iris and rejoiced as they were answered.
My divine engineering mana seeped into the deepest parts of their flesh, rewriting their genes to those of paragons before the green energy of Z'rynda's domain could flow into them. Metals, leathers, cloth, ceramics, glass, gems, and in the dwarves' case, the very stone was reduced to a molecular stream and pulled into their bodies to manufacture enhanced frames, and like a magnet, Iris' divine mana was drawn.
As if he anticipated it, Kane armed them with gadgets and they scattered to the winds, merging into the stampede of augmented herbivores to either reclaim what was lost or hunt those attempting to flee. Like the augmented beasts, they seemed to instinctively take heed to not disturb the growing mushrooms scattered throughout the mines, even as they gave their all against the spiders that would not falter and the drow who would not fall.
Cut off from any escape, they were like cornered dire rats, taking hold of the rich arcana to weave the deadliest spells imaginable. Yet even that would not save them. Unlike their scavenging cousins, the horses, cows, giraffes, goats, herbivorous insects, and other primary consumers looked upon the scattered biomass, wanting; for in it held the hydrogen and carbon they needed to synthesize Vehsipane. And so they swarmed, stampeded, and barreled through the crowd and lashed at the enemy. Yet, the slaves never faltered; while the enemy finally began to fall.
They began to falter once the grating cacophony of an animated industrial park echoed from the tunnels at the far side of the room and melded with the neighs, moos, buzzing, and calls of the growing stampede. The annex was already packed with those unyielding beasts of metal and ceramic and those stone-sized caps growing from the mycelial web. Thus it became outright claustrophobic once Margo barged in, preceding the energy waving off her Lairnade and the army of secondary consumers it spawned.
The prey, feasting on the rich biomass of our enemy, skittered and flapped away at the first sight of their predators. Frogs the size of chests bounded, crashing atop anything in their paths to eject their glowing guts into the fray, seeming to aim at the empty air. Yet the buzz it produced made the songbirds, waterfowl, rabbits, and lizards scatter just moments before the prey and the enemy's equipment cascaded inward.
With the enemy caught between nature's oldest game mixed with a mechanical stampede, Z'ress once again released a divine domain to guide the souls before the crimson webs could claim them. In turn, her divine mana's natural effect reacted with the augmented flora blooming across the environment, not to Animate Machines as before, to birth her flair of biomechanical creatures and weave the remainder into bridges leading to each of the claimed wings.
The beasts surged to the bridges as the vibrant flora disintegrated, splitting to the four winds with purpose, only to scramble once Erja Rose emerged from the 2nd drow wing leading a stampede of tertiary consumers. A full-on frenzy ensued once the building-sized spiders and scorpions emerged behind them, their fangs and stingers concentrating arcana into potent beams they fired at the enemy with lethal accuracy.
The frenzy devolved into a riot when the Witch Artificer's domain spread. As a mech doctor, her healing powers were focused on the augmented beasts, giving them the balls to stand up to their predators and stampede over the enemy to inhabit the wings they desperately sought.
As the battlefield cleared, Z'ress and thus I swept my eyes over the few remaining demon spiders standing against hers, freeing the space for the troops sprouting throughout the mines and her commanders racing through the remaining wings; feeling satisfaction but trepidation, for she knew the battle was not yet won. Thus she lifted her gaze to the ceiling, just as it fell.
Bang!