And although the first levels seemed to be the largest in terms of their horizontal parameters, in fact, the total amount of space of each level was the same, because in each subsequent one of them the vertical parameters grew, which in turn smoothed out the decreasing parameters of length and width.
Also in this structure there were five exits to the surface, each of which was tightly closed with gates made of admanium, the strongest alloy on earth.
Each level was under the control of its head, the only exceptions were the lower seven, which were exclusively subordinate to Lord Inmir.
Kaisar, who was currently heading to his chambers, was the undivided master of the fourteenth level. His entire army was there, under his watchful eye.
Every day until his suspended animation, he carefully observed, trained and tested his subordinates. For all of them had to be ready at any moment to carry out the order of the Sovereign of Inmir, no matter what it cost them.
The fourteenth level itself looked like an ordinary, albeit incredibly huge, cave. There were not even any buildings, but even elementary wall decoration.
Stalactites hung from the vaults of this cave, and stalagmites made it difficult to walk, there were so many of them. But surprisingly, all the inhabitants of these places liked it, they were completely delighted with such a magnificent home. They even asked Kaisar to convey their gratitude to the great ruler for such an amazing home. And although in fact, it was Kaisar who chose this floor and asked not to subject it to any changes, he did not say a word when his subordinates thanked his master for this.
The whole point was that the praise addressed to his undivided master was much more pleasant for Kaisar than as such for himself.
The lord was a great being worthy of all the honors of this world, Kaisar sincerely believed. Therefore, he was very pleased that his subordinates thought the same way.
But now was not the time to admire his master, for an order had been given, a personal order of the master, which had to be carried out impeccably.
And in order to do this, Kaisar went to perhaps the only place on his level that could be called a building.
It was a special extension in the northernmost part of a huge cave. It resembled a huge warehouse with many large rooms in which various treasures accumulated over the years by the king of the fallen were stored.
And no, these were not jewels or rare types of metal, artifacts belonging, of course, to King Kaisar were stored in this warehouse protected by many barriers.
Entering one of the rooms, the floor of which was strewn with various types of bottles, jugs, flasks and boxes. Kaisar slowly levitated over all this decoration, flew up to one of the pedestals in the center of the room, on which stood a large porcelain vase with two handles on the sides and many inscribed symbols, both outside and inside it.
Kaisar raised his hands to the neck of the vessel and began to make sounds similar to a spell.
Of course, in fact, since the king of the fallen ones didn't have a mouth, he also didn't have vocal cords. But because of his unique ability to control sound waves, he could reproduce the sound of almost any range, masterfully controlling vibration waves.
Suddenly, the symbols painted on the vessel shone, and light shot out from its neck. At the same moment, many small lights with black dots inside burst out of the vase and reached the ceiling, began to fall down like black burning snow.
As soon as the vase ceased to shine, all the dark dots engulfed in flames froze in the air, and flaring up, exploded in many flashes. From each such flash, along with the flame, shadows similar to human silhouettes appeared. They hovered in the air and looked at their summoner, of course immediately recognizing him.
— Oh, the king of those who fell into the depths of darkness, what do you need from us? the shadows asked him telepathically.
"Dark spirits, I summoned you on the orders of Lord Inmir of Life, he has an order for you.
"Could it be that the lord of worlds himself is giving us an order. This is a great honor, we will gladly fulfill any of his instructions.
- May it be so. The Lord wants you to use your powers to scout the surface, extracting as much information as possible about its nature and those who live there.
What is the search area?
- One million miles.
- Will be done.
A hundred shadow spirits dissolved into space.
They were the perfect scouts. Not possessing material bodies, the shadows easily overcame natural obstacles and passed through any material objects, and could also fly at great speed, simultaneously scanning large areas of space.
Perhaps their only drawback was that they could not influence the material world in any way. The shadows were not only unable to fight, but were even unable to bring any object. Therefore, their main task has always been intelligence and espionage.
* * *
Between the first level of the pyramid and the surface, there were three kilometers of rock and about half a kilometer of sand.
As it turned out, the once rocky plain over several million years has turned into a huge desert with almost completely absent vegetation, which was hardly found in small oases.
Penetrated through the entire thickness of the earth's crust, the shadows easily got out.
Incorporeal beings like them did not need an exit at all in order to get to the surface, it was enough for them to remove a special energy barrier that had previously surrounded the underground country of the pyramid. Without this barrier, shadows could easily enter and exit, no matter the depth.
Once on the surface, a hundred shadow spirits, divided into ten equal groups, scattered in different directions.