by Matthew Peed
I turned back to the dying man and controlled the mana as I sent it into him. Vaguely, I felt wetness on my face as I struggled with the mana. He screamed as the healing process started again, only this time much more powerfully. I felt a wave of knowledge about the makeup of blood, tissue, muscle, organs, and basically everything that dealt with the body, that “traveled” through me into healing the man. It didn’t stop at his lungs and chest, but surged down to his legs, forcibly straightening them and then healing them back to working order.
When the healing was complete, there was a pop from the mana, and I was thrown bodily from the man as some of the mana rebounded back to me. I landed roughly, but for some reason didn’t feel any pain. That just made me more worried.
“Your Highness!” everyone shouted as they rushed over to me. I sat myself up, more easily than I expected.
Hatsu was the first to my side and was looking me over from head to foot. I examined myself as well, as I didn’t feel any pain from such a blast. My clothes were a little rough for wear, but that had more to do with being in the dungeon than the blast. I noticed some blood on my hand that was leaking from my nose, but I could tell it had already stopped. It was most likely from channeling such a massive amount of mana all at once.
“Your Highness! Are you alright?! What’s my name?” Hatsu asked in a panic.
“Who are you?” I asked. “Ah, that’s right, you’re Hatsu,” I continued before she could say anything. She was about to smack me on the arm but stopped herself.
“That’s not funny,” Hatsu said with a huff but seemed glad I was unhurt.
I stood up while brushing all the snow off and turned to Morita. “Any other survivors?”
“Only that Folwin from the other party,” she said angrily.
I felt it myself, but at the same time, I was just glad someone else had survived.
I observed the gathered party. We had started the day’s dive with fifteen and would only be returning with thirteen. I knew to push on would probably only invite more disaster, and my people didn’t deserve that. I was alright with pushing them hard, but not with pushing them to their deaths. As the party rested before we departed for the elevator, I couldn’t help but wonder if what I’d seen was Regan’s mindscape, as many priests claim to see when drawing mana from their gods.
Chapter 16
Regan
Lines pointed at the woman, then turned to me as if to ask, What are you waiting for? That was when he officially got on my shit list, but I had no reason to tell him that. As a dungeon with access to magic that a mortal had no idea about, it was an easy task to make someone . . . disappear. I met his look without budging.
Finally, I knew I’d won when he finally asked, “Can you bring that one out for me, please?”
I smiled at my newest victim and said, “But of course, oh Great Inquisitor.” I vaguely heard Louella or Ezal sigh in the background, but I just couldn’t help myself. I lifted my hand to the console and worked the controls to access the pod the woman was in. I wanted to do things old school in front of them sometimes to see if they might get the idea that they could do it themselves later on down the road.
“Please follow me,” I said with a gesture toward the hallway to the right.
I led them to the retrieving room, a section I’d added because I wasn’t sure this prison area wouldn’t be used for . . . other targets. People that I held captive to force an enemy’s hand, such as a king’s daughter or son, that kind of thing. While it sounded like something an evil overlord might do, I liked to keep my options open. The room was divided by a large pane of glass that was this world’s equivalent to bulletproof. Well, it was actually bulletproof, now that I thought about it. “Magicproof” might be the better term for just about everything under tier three.
On the other side of the glass stood a door that the pod connected to so the prisoner could walk directly into the room. Of course, given their state in the deprivation cells, they needed assistance to even be able to walk, but that was why two repurposed librarian automata were in this section. They stood next to the door, waiting for the factorylike section behind it to deliver the prisoner.
We didn’t have to wait long before a loud bang issued from the pod connecting with the receiving room. There was a burst of steam from the doors as they opened, and the inside was reoriented to regular gravity and environment. The steam was quickly vented away, and the librarians rushed forward to catch the woman before she collapsed to the ground. A medical bot moved up and administered a few magically enhanced drugs that would bring her back to a mostly normal state of mind.
As soon as she opened her eyes, the woman, Ms. Guin I remembered from the notes, screamed. The medical bot quickly gave her another dose of magic that calmed her down. Guin stopped screaming but looked like she wanted to curl into a ball and hide. The librarians escorted her to a glass pane that opened for us to converse with her. I made a note to reconfigure my tanks.
“Ms. Guin, pleasure to see you again!” I said with a smile as she was seated in a chair that latched her in place. Just a simple precaution, given the people I was dealing with.
“Monster! Torture me a thousand times over, kill me, just don’t make me go back into that . . . nothingness!” she spat at me.
“I don’t know, you did kill quite a few people. I wonder how they would feel about you still being alive?” I asked rhetorically.
“Demon!” she growled.
“Hello, Kettle. My name is Pot,” I shot back, only to get a confused look.
“Ms. Guin, I have some questions for you,” Lines cut in before I could say anything else.
“Spoilsport,” I mumbled.
“Who are you?” Guin asked wearily. If someone could speak volumes with only their body, she succeeded. I could almost see the desire to just die written on her.
“I am Lines, King Thonaca’s inquisitor.”
“Dog, why don’t you sic the monster standing next to you?!” Guin said and literally spit at him.
“Indeed. May I continue? Or do I need to ask my friend here to put you back into the box so I can try my luck with someone else?” Lines asked in his even voice. I had to hand it to him, that was cruel after what he had just witnessed.
“NO! Please, I’ll answer!” Guin shouted desperately.
“That’s good. Now, a few weeks ago a marquis was killed. I want to know who did it.”
“Not sure who they put on the mission, but given the target, it could have been any of the higher council. I only know the one who recruited me and Mistress Helicilia. The rest maintain a level of distance from the other’s disciples.”
“Helicilia? The duchess?” Lines asked. I almost thought he sounded surprised.
“Not sure, maybe?” Guin said with a shrug.
“Why would they want the marquis dead rather than captured?” Lines asked.
It felt weird knowing the answers to these questions but not being able to tell them due to my promise to the marquis. I knew it might help him in the end, but this inquisitor could just as easily be looking for leverage to use in some political game. It was safer for the marquis just to remain quiet.
“No, we always go for the capture. If he was killed, it was most likely Helicilia, then,” Guin answered with a shake of her head.
“Good, I see that you’re not lying. I just wanted to test you,” Lines said with a nod.
“Lie? Are you crazy? I lied to that monster once and he pumped enough lightning mana in me to fry a dragon. I’m surprised I’m not dead,” Guin retorted with a shudder at the memory.
“What can I say, I don’t like lies,” I replied when everyone looked at me.
“What I want to know is where I can find proof. I need a stronghold, a base, or somewhere you retrieved your missions from,” Lines said, ignoring me.
“For anyone operating in the kingdom or empire, there is a messenger that delivers the mission along with payment. We aren’t exactly a group that likes to work with others,” Guin
explained.
I knew about the messenger, but as I was restrained to the town, I hadn’t bothered to worry about it. If they made it into town, that would give me the chance to capture one of them, but that wasn’t likely, given the reputation the valley was gaining.
“Is there any factor that can be used to identify them?” Lines asked.
“Of course . . . they have the holy mana,” Guin replied with a smirk.
Lines started to tap his staff on the ground as he thought. It was probably his tick, much like mine was rubbing my chin or tapping. I personally wanted this to be over, as I had much more important things to be doing. That’s when a thought crossed my mind.
“Why haven’t any of the other dungeons been captured like Alara?” I asked out loud.
“When the incident with Alara happened, an organization called the Aethil quickly warned the cores about the danger. We might have lost another two dungeons in that year, and more since if not for them. In fact, your dungeon is an abnormality, as the Aethil have always warned us about a new dungeon just before it appeared,” Lines answered almost offhandedly.
“The Aethil, I thought they were just a legend,” Louella said from behind me.
“Damn busybody,” Julie commented from my arm.
“Sounds like they showed you,” I said, looking down at her.
“Aethil is a traitor, not an organization,” Guin volunteered. “My master liked to talk about his ‘old friend’ and what he would do if he ever found him.”
“So, they are a single person?” Louella asked.
“From what my master told me, that is correct.”
“That is beside the point. I want to capture one of these messengers. Can you make an item that can create the unholy mana?” Lines asked to get us back on topic.
“Holy! At least it is purer than that bitch Lelune’s mana. It never lied to us,” Guin said crossly.
“Whatever, I’m not here to get in the middle of some theological war. I just want the person responsible for the marquis’s death.”
“Good luck. Just before I was captured by the monster, the council told us to stay clear of this area. I was actually trying to leave when the damn obelisk blasted me,” Guin said with a glare toward me.
“Should have run a little faster,” I shot back with a shrug. All this information was old news to me, so I wasn’t quite paying attention.
“Says the person who covers the entire valley and then some . . .” Louella muttered.
I shot a grin at her and received a squint in return as she was found out.
“Well, this has been most informative. Most of the time necromancers are unable to speak about their plans and mechanics when they are captured,” Lines said with a clap of his hands.
“You’re welcome,” I said.
“Indeed. Sir Regan, would you be able to offer any more assistance?” Lines asked me with a flat look that still appeared expectant.
“Nope,” I said without hesitation. “You’ll have to figure out the rest on your own. These people have a strong system that has lasted them for several decades if not longer . . .” I started to explain when I felt an . . . odd sensation. “I’m sorry, I have something I need to check into.” With a wave of my hand, I sent Louella, Ezal, and Lines back to the barracks, then turned to Julie. “Play with Guin for a bit or put her back in her cell. Just don’t cause any trouble.”
“Yes, Master,” Julie said with a mock salute.
I chuckled at it. When she wasn’t trying to cling to me, I actually found her funny most times. Guin’s eyes went wide, as the two had spent some time together in the past month. While I could have felt pity for her, I didn’t have the leisure of pitying the necromancers. They got what they deserved and then some.
“In fact, take them all out in turn and let them have some ‘fresh’ air,” I said with a pat on her head. My avatar was starting to form larger than mortals by a good half meter, and unless I actively shaped it, I didn’t really have much control over it.
Julie’s grin grew to the point that I was worried that her face was going to split. She bowed deeply, then said, “As you command, Master.”
I went ahead and raised the security in that level a notch so that she didn’t accidentally kill any of them. With a burst of mana, my avatar broke apart and I followed the strange sensation back to its source. It felt like a needle-size tube was connected to my mana pool and was drawing some back out. Sometimes I forget that I was in a different world, but when I was in the world composed of mana, it was entirely different.
The real world was represented there, though the outlines were almost black and white. Yet there were bright surges from the various types of mana. The forests were blazing with a green and white light, the ground was a murky brown color as the terra mana flowed through it, and many more places had strange contrasts of colorlessness that somehow overflowed with color.
I reached the source and was surprised that it was in my own dungeon. Anticipation grew as I felt the link grow stronger the closer I came to it. I could have used my dungeon sense to instantly see what the cause was since it was in my dungeon, but something just made me hold off as I manually followed the link. Soon a group of people appeared in my sight, and I noticed that one was the princess.
That, of course, pricked my interest even more. She was trying to heal someone who had obviously been mortally wounded. She used light mana to heal, thus it relied on her knowledge of the body. Light mana when used in the body should really be called life mana, but that was a minor issue. She appeared to have better than average knowledge of the body, but it was lacking slightly.
I sent my knowledge flowing into her. Her healing grew much more accurate and quickly repaired the body. It was a tad rough on the individual, though. Just as I reached her, she was blown back several meters to land roughly.
I needed to limit the amount of mana I sent to people who worshipped me, if I understood the situation correctly. I needed to study the priest-god setup that Lelune used to see how it worked. I don’t mind lending mana to people who worshipped me like Izora did, but if I eventually got a country worth of followers, I didn’t want them to be siphoning off all my mana.
Izora sat up without much difficulty, so at least she didn’t seem to be hurt. Her people were gathered around her in worry, but she quickly waved them away. Only her Royal Guard refused to move too far away from her no matter how much she told them she was fine. They gathered their dead to take back to the surface. Normally, the dungeon would absorb them, but after a particularly rough battle, I would sometimes leave the corpses behind for the party. I already got the mana for them dying in the dungeon, so their bodies wouldn’t amount to much more.
Playing on a hunch, I sent a message to Izora much like I would to Louella through her bracelet. “Having fun?”
Izora, who was looking around the battle site, stopped in her tracks, then started to look around for a whole new reason. Finally, she gave up and said, “Who is this?”
“Awe, that hurts. It’s me. Regan,” I said with mock hurt.
“My lord! My apologies, I was not expecting you to communicate with me in this fashion,” Izora sent back, bowing her head slightly in a random direction, but I took it at face value.
“Neither did I, to be honest. Why are you able to draw my mana?” I asked.
“All followers of gods can draw mana from them. They are just usually limited by the god they follow on how much they can take,” Izora sent.
“Interesting, I will limit it from now on so that you don’t suffer such a backlash,” I said after a moment. I didn’t mind her using my mana, mainly because I thought I could learn some new magic through this. Maybe even a way to pull the other gods’ mana by using their followers as a link. This was, of course, a last resort sort of tactic, but from what I’d found out about Lelune, she might have it coming to her.
“Yes, my lord,” Izora sent.
I noticed the two bodies of her guards. By this world’s standards,
they were dead, but back on Earth, they were well within technology’s ability to save. I formed my avatar next to Izora, causing her to jump in surprise and her guards to draw their weapons. As soon as they realized who it was, they lowered them.
I couldn’t help myself, and I felt it would go a long way to helping her out in the future. “Since you have been such a faithful follower in trying to guide your people to me, I have decided to help you,” I said in my best ethereal voice, making it resound in the space.
“My lord?” Izora asked in confusion.
Walking over to one of the guards, I channeled life mana to heal his wounds. He had been impaled by the tooth of one of the wolves and bled out. The damage was easy to repair when you had enough mana, and I quickly did so, but the man was quite dead. I put my hands on either side of his heart. While it was completely lifeless, I used some gravity magic to get it to pump, and with a surge of electricity, I shocked it until it restarted. This wouldn’t have worked on Earth without a drug, but I could control the electricity to only effect the nerve cells. It took two good jolts, then I moved my hand to his mouth and channeled air mana into his lungs to basically start CPR.
Fifteen seconds later, the man gasped in a deep breath as his body turned back on. The whole process only took a minute, so I quickly made my way over to the other man and repeated the steps. The entire time everyone was shocked into silence, and the princess stopped them from interfering with me. After the second man started to breathe regularly again, I turned back to the group. Most of the gnomes were on the ground in prayer, while Izora also kneeled at the head of the group.
“And they have thus been saved,” I said, raising my arms out wide. I couldn’t help but play the part. Even though I felt sort of ridiculous the whole time.
“Thank you, Lord Regan!” one of the guards said as he hugged the first man I’d saved.
A moment later I clearly felt a burst of mana from them. They bowed until their bodies were almost flat on the ground.
