Chapter 187 – Innocent Blood

After Dream left, the chieftain and his fellow class 4's went on to announce the situation to their citizens.

When they did, it was met with shock and confusion. After all, things had been peaceful for a year, and all of a sudden their leaders come out and say that the world is going to end. Any normal person would be thrown off. But, since it was coming from the highest authority, they had no choice but to believe it to some extent. They also had to obey the orders that were handed down and make the stipulated preparations, of which included food rationnig and entering a wartime state. 

The entire Empire was quickly thrown into a small bout of chaos. But despite the sudden change, it never got too bad. That was until certain people started encroaching onto the city in droves. Well, they weren't exactly people. They were metallic humanoids, and there were tens of thousands of them. 

All these humanoids suddenly barged through the city entrance and piled in like a horde. And without explanation, they cleared out nearly a square mile of area, demolished buildings, and proceeded to dig a hole. 

The suddenness of it all baffled and enraged all the nearby dwarves. As far as they were concerned, it was an attack on their city, and even the military was called over. However, before the humanoids could be stopped, the chieftain himself made an appearance and stopped them, telling them that this was part of the plan.

Like that, discontent was forcefully dealt with, and the humanoids went on to do their work in a shockingly efficient manner. Thousands of people watched as they dug into the ground with blinding speed and precision. They even dug it out in a way that people could easily descend into the hole, as if it were a new stairway to a lower level. It was something impossible for normal workers, and many soon became more curious than furious at these humanoids. 

The humanoids weren't a total mystery though. There were many dwarves who had fought alongside the famous Immortal army, and they quickly made the connection. Word soon spread because of this, and millions eventually had the name 'Dream' pop up in their heads. 

But it didn't make the situation any less confusing. People had more questions than fewer, but they could do nothing except avoid causing trouble. 

Like that, the humanoids proceeded to build an intricate pathway deep into the ground. It was a pathway that tens of thousands of people could travel down, but one that could also be easily closed off. Not only that, but even after several hours, more metallic humanoids pilled into the city and went on to start even more construction projects. Some dug into the walls of the city, some forged metal to be used on the pathway, some modified the city gates and widened them, and some even made some odd buildings that rose into the air. 

The thousands of humanoids leveled entire plots of land and plowed into their city like it was an untouched, fresh field. It angered millions, but with the intervention of the class 4's and the incredibly intimidating soldiers that accompanied the humanoids, nobody could do anything. 

This went on for an entire two days. During that time, massive changes were made around the entire city, and the amount of humanoids that occupied the city numbered around 200 thousand. All of them had a job and all of them worked ceaselessly toward a goal unknown to the dwarves they affected. 

At this time though, a big change happened. Out of nowhere, a hole was blasted in the roof of the city!

*BOOOMMM*

The explosion shook everything, and it even broke the city-wide enchantment that covered them. Thousands of tons of rubble came calling down, but it was quickly stopped by the class 4 dwarves. Everyone was shocked, and millions looked to the blindingly bright pillar of light that shot through the new hole. 

From the sky descended thousands of ships and even more humanoids. For a moment, it seemed as if a legion of heavenly angels were launching a war against the mortals on the ground. But after the dwarves on the ground saw them all shoot toward the massive pathway near the city entrance, they realized that this was just another legion from the man named Dream. 

After they pilled around the pathway, many of the bots shot into the hole while others set up around it. Out of the ships came thousands of tons of materials, and the bots took them and set up a large building.

The building was made entirely of metal and encompassed the entire pathway as well as much of the area around it. In fact, the city entrance had already been long demolished, and the bots proceeded to make their own entrance that filtered into the building.

This was one of the many security features of the Haven that was being built. Dream would have to ensure that the entrance to his haven was fortified so as to prevent an invasion. This building that would cover the entrance was part of that fortification. The second part of it was the pathway.

The bots didn't just make a fortress around the pathway, but turned the pathway into a series of gateways. With the haven being so far underground, the pathway was obviously very long. As so, Dream would make use of that length as well as the narrow design of it to create an impenetrable series of gates. 

To do this, he needed to make an anchor for the gates. This was solved by encasing the walls of the pathway with steel. Everything was then forged onto that steel. By the end, it would be a long metal tube with doors. This was the safest he could make the entrance alongside the enchantment that would cover everything. 

So with the plan already mapped out, the drones all got to work. Massive amounts of metal were carried around by the bots and forged however they needed to be. The fortifications were then built from the ground up in the most efficient way possible. Despite the speed though, nothing was skimped on, and everything was the highest quality. This was one of the perks of having bots do everything. 

..........

"...Give me an update."

Dream spoke as he entered the fortress on top of the pathway. He wasn't idle in all this. He worked constantly and made the greatest use of his abilities as he could. Even as he spoke, his magic was being used to move materials or forge metal on a large scale.

[We currently have the tunnel that leads about 5 miles down. At the end of the tunnel, an area about 10 miles in radius had been cleared from the pathway outward, giving us our first portion of the city and an area for the bots to build the foundation of the haven. Over the next two days, we should have the entire space designated for the city emptied out. All the excess is also being pilled on top, and the hole in the ceiling will be quickly sealed back up and made stronger.]

"Mm. What about refugees?"

[We've taken plenty of people from kingdoms all over the continents. The humans were put in the Mountain, and the animals were brought to the United Empire. After we have the appropriate facilities here, we're going to start ferrying them over.]

"And resources? How is that coming along?"

[If you're talking about mining operations, not good. Demons have overrun many mining spots already. However, those mining teams are just being relocated to the moon where there's plenty of free resources.]

"Good. And what about here?"

[The city has a good water source, but we obviously needed to expand it. Right now, pipelines are being created from the ocean to here that will supply plenty of water. We will also build the filtration facilities of course. As for food, that's a bit more tricky. I've planned for a huge underground ecosystem to be built, but its viability is questionable. That's probably our biggest issue.]

"How do the dwarves do it?"

[They have a greenhouse system in this city. It's good, but it won't be enough for what we're planning. Especially since we're not just housing humans. We don't have much data on the diets of animals and other species, so I'm trying to keep things simple.]

"Hmm...What about seafood? Would it be possible to set up a tunnel going from here to the ocean like with the pipeline? Then we would be able to easily and secretly catch fish. It would be an infinite food source."

[That's... not impossible. It'll take time to dig and we would need to make aquatic bots, but we could do it.]

"Then let's do that. We need more than one plan for everything, especially for things like food."

[Of course. I'll task some bots to start digging. You can go to work on making the aquatic bots and fish-catching devices I'm designing. You'll also need to investigate the coast where we would create the tunnel and build the facility yourself.]

"...I have to go to the ocean?"

[If you want this to move quickly.]

"...Fine. Hopefully I won't meet any scary fishies."

Dream shivered a bit as he flew off into the sky, leaving the city behind. Several ships that were loaded with materials followed behind him. 

..........

Like that, two more days passed. During this time, Luna and Iris were always going around both the animal and human continents, hunting down and fighting class 4's. 

The task wasn't as easy as they thought though. As they fought more class 4's, they realized that these ones were stronger than the ones that they fought a year ago. The main way they could see this was through levels. The demons that had originated from the continent had usually only been around level 340. But the ones now that came from the ocean usually leveled at least 360, and on occasion they found some that approached level 390. 

It was a surprisingly significant difference, and they took each battle much more seriously. Getting caught in a fight with groups larger than 50 would get dangerous for them, and they had to use their teleporting skill to escape to Dream on a few occasions. 

However, the girls weren't that unhappy about it. Especially Iris. She had a blast fighting strong opponents. She could unleash her full power all she wanted, and it helped her get used to and proficient with her new power. It was the same for Luna. So while they couldn't kill nearly as quickly, the battled constantly improved their skills and combat ability. 

But there was one thing in all of this that plagued their minds a bit. It was the whole situation with evacuating the kingdoms. 

The girls had come across a lot of kingdoms, and since they were on the frontlines, it meant the kingdoms they came across were always in mortal danger. Naturally they had Sophia task some ships and soldiers to evacuate.

But the whole process made them a bit uncomfortable. Whenever the soldiers went down, the citizens almost never complied. This was because demons usually weren't knocking on their door yet. But if they waited too long, evacuating would be impossible, so they couldn't hesitate in the evacuation, and this meant that they didn't have much time to explain. 

And so, the soldiers always had to go to work. Thousands would swarm every corner of the city, scan the place, determine how much and who they needed to grab, and went for the people. When the population was larger than half a million, the woman and children would be grabbed first. The husbands and fathers would always fight back, but they would be mercilessly beaten down as they were separated from their family. This didn't always happen, but since Dream had given a 1/2 ratio of men to women, it often did. 

Naturally the kingdom would be thrown into chaos since the majority of its citizens would suddenly be abducted. But with the power of the soldiers and Luna and Iris, nobody could resist. Like that, hundreds of thousands would be stuffed into the ships like cattle and flown off, and the rest of the people who hadn't been loaded would be left there. This was the part that hurt the girls the most. 

They knew that the people who had been left behind would almost certainly be killed. The people thought it was a blessing to not have been taken away, but as the demons would show up only several hours later, they knew that they had instead been unlucky. Everyone would be filled with regret as they watched the massive hordes speed toward them, knowing that they were about to be brutally overrun. 

And they were. Mostly. Whenever citizens would be left behind, Sophia would also leave a certain amount of soldiers behind. While the girls had initially thought this was to symbolically defend them to the death, it was actually for something different, and they had only found this out after staying behind in an attempt to buy time for the people to be evacuated. 

Whenever the demons totally overran the emptied kingdom, the soldiers would actually end the doomed citizens themselves. When the girls saw this, they had been shocked. But after thinking about it, they had understood why. Dream couldn't allow anyone to become a demon and add to their ranks, so he gave the order to kill them. 

The whole thing pained the girls. They felt guilty and depressed about the people dying. The ones who died weren't only men either. While all children would be evacuated, this meant there was less room for the women, and there were many couples who ended up dying in each other's arms. Though perhaps the one thing that consoled them was the fact that at least the children were always evacuated. 

Everything they saw disturbed them a bit even though they understood it needed to be done. And while they were unsettled, they knew that the one who the most pressure went to was Dream. He had to give the order, and while he didn't see it personally, he knew it happened. He had to deal with dooming millions and even killing them. After all, the soldiers were all his, and humans gave experience when killed. He saw every notification. 

This fact is what hurt the girls above all. They remembered a year ago how he had chosen to nuke the landbridge despite the prisoners being there. Now, a similar situation was playing out. And because it hurt them so much, it got to the point where Iris started stepping in and doing things herself. Even Luna partook, all in an attempt to share the innocent blood on their hands.