Taking over the Abyss

50- Reading Rainbow

You stared at yourself in the mirror, watching as Idunn and Ithunn both continued to straighten out your clothes. As usual, what they'd made was very stunning and aesthetically pleasing. You'd tried to ask for something more 'normal' instead of super formal, but you ended up dressed up like Howl instead.

You weren't complaining though. It looked good. Once the two twins had finished perfecting your outfit, they both gave a short bow before departing. Taking a wistful glance back in the direction of the obscenely large in-floor bath was, you promised to visit it again later. For now, you actually had things you needed to do, so no relaxing in a giant hot tub all day like you secretly wanted.

Exiting the bathroom, you wandered through the needlessly confusing hallways before finally making it up to control room of the artificial sun. You'd asked Leiptr to meet you here last night in order to see if everything was in order to let you finally be able to use it again. It still had more than enough of your Abyss Resistance to properly function and blast more of the Abyss Order with from when you first used it, so you didn't have to climb all the way up to recharge it, thankfully.

Spotting Leiptr standing dutifully beside the frankly unsafe set of stairs that led to the main control unit for the artificial sun, you hurried your pace and briskly walked over to him. Upon hearing you, Leiptr focused his attention onto you, greeting you with a warm smile and a small bow of his head, "Good morning, milady."

"Good morning to you too," you were grateful that your sleeping schedule managed to line up conveniently with the actual day/night cycle of the surface. Trusting that he had fully been able to follow through with your requests, you asked, "Has all the construction finished?"

"As of last night, yes it has. I've made the arrangements and informed all those necessary of the protocol for using the artificial sun and the possibility of it being used soon. On your signal, everyone will retreat inside finished buildings until the artificial sun has been switched off again," he explained with an eager-to-please smile.

His efficiency and reliability was impressive. That was definitely Leiptr for ya. Hoping it hadn't taken him too long since you'd given him those orders just before you went to bed, you checked in to make sure he wasn't tired, "It didn't keep you up all night, did it?"

"Hm?" Leiptr's eyes widened slightly, taken aback by your concern for him. Quickly, he reassured you he was fine, "Nothing of the sort, Your Majesty. I simply called in the ones I deemed to be in charge of each finished building for a quick meeting and told them there. It hardly took any time at all."

"That's a relief," if he or any of the others were exhausted, you'd have second thoughts about using the sun now and would wait until a little later. You really, really didn't want anybody to be caught in it. Not because the sun being turned on was dangerous, but because it would mean the Abyss Order would start flooding the place. You wanted to lower the chances of casualties as much as possible for both morale and genuine care for those who pledged their loyalty to you.

The last thing you needed right now was figuring out how to arrange a funeral for anybody unfortunate enough to get caught in a swarm of hostile Abyss Order members. You weren't sure if the Abyss Order even had a special ritual for that, or if it meant you or somebody else would have to look up how Khaenri'ah held funerals. You could just get Hu Tao's help, but you also strongly doubted her services extended into a lost civilization beneath the earth.

"Wait, what's the signal?" You asked, the thought having suddenly popped into your head.

"The signal is that I teleport to everyone and tell them it's the signal," Leiptr said. Although it counted as a signal for sure, you were expecting something different than just that. Did he just go and say 'signal' to everyone or was there like a catchphrase? "Then the signal gets passed along until everybody is inside."