Awaken Online: Inferno (Tarot #3)

by Travis Bagwell

  “Part G-52,” Finn grunted at Daniel.

  The AI’s body flashed once, and it updated the three-dimensional schematic that floated beside the table, showcasing what Finn could only describe as a “laser-cannon” – one that had previously been attached to the mech’s forearm. A list in the margin detailed an inventory of the parts associated with the cannon.

  “It was actually pretty lucky that we found this mech,” Kyyle offered in an excited voice as his fingers darted across the keyboard of his in-game terminal.

  “Uh-huh,” was Julia’s noncommittal reply.

  The earth mage glanced at her and suddenly noticed the way Julia’s brow was furrowed, and her mouth pinched into a narrow line. “Uh, you see, the rest of these rooms and hallways were a mess,” he tried to explain. “As the other mechs ran out of mana, they must have tried to absorb anything with even a trace of mana flowing through it. We’re fortunate they didn’t try to break into that holding area.”

  “Lucky us,” Julia said in a dry tone, circling the table and eyeing the mech’s body suspiciously. “So, have you two learned anything interesting from this impromptu science experiment?”

  “Only that we’re completely out of our depth,” Finn muttered in a distracted voice.

  With a few deft gestures, he ignited one of his metal spheres, ratcheted up the heat just enough to reform the metal into a pair of tweezers, and then canceled the spell. The metal cooled quickly, and Finn used the new instrument to gingerly remove the crystalline lattice that ran through the cylinder piece-by-piece. After having witnessed firsthand what the mechs had done to the other staff, he sure as hell wasn’t going to risk the crystal touching bare skin.

  “What a revelation.” Sarcasm was practically dripping from Julia’s voice this time.

  Finn’s eyes darted to her face – or, at least, he tilted his head in the direction of her voice – it was difficult to make out her position with his Mana Sight active. “I mean, this facility is obviously advanced. But whoever built this thing,” he said, waving at the parts strewn across the tables. “They were a damn genius. This is light-years beyond anything we saw in the Mage Guild or even Kalisha’s mechanids.”

  “In what way?” Julia asked, some of the worry easing from her face as she realized the mech wasn’t about to reassemble itself and hop off the table.

  Finn gestured at Kyyle, urging the earth mage to explain as he continued taking apart the cannon. He had almost revealed the mana gems that he could sense were buried within the layers of metal and crystal.

  “Well, we didn’t get a great look at the mech that self-destructed out front,” Kyyle began. “Or the corrupted for that matter – since they don’t really stop moving long enough for us to inspect them properly, and we had to lock them behind several feet of rock and crystal.”

  He held up a finger. “But as we took this mech apart, we realized something fascinating…” Kyyle plucked at one of the crystalline threads with another instrument and placed it carefully upon a clear portion of the worktable. “This thing isn’t entirely synthetic. These crystals? Right now, they look like inert rocks. But we think that they’re a form of organic crystal, simulating something similar to neurons in the human body.”

  “Here, let me show you,” Kyyle offered, noticing Julia’s skeptical expression.

  The earth mage summoned a tendril of his own earth mana and gingerly touched the edge of the crystal fragment. The conductive material immediately absorbed the energy and turned a brilliant green. While that was interesting, what was even more incredible was that the crystal began to move. The tendril wriggled across the stone surface in the direction of the other remains, as though it was searching for the rest of its body.

  “Holy shit,” Julia muttered.

  As Kyyle removed the mana, the crystal soon returned to its inert form, going rigid and dark once more.

  “No kidding. This also goes a long way toward explaining how the mechs are able to repair themselves so easily. We think that these crystals are designed to reform the connections in their body.” He hesitated for a moment, glancing in the direction of the room where they had trapped the horde of corrupted. “It also explains how they were able to incorporate other organic matter into their design – human flesh in particular.”

  Julia’s eyes widened in surprise, and she glanced at the walls of the room. Crystal laced the stone but no mana coursed through the substance. “And they embedded this stuff in the walls? No wonder Brock was talking about the facility repairing its own damage.”

  Finn nodded but didn’t look up from his work. “Indeed. I saw the crystal removing the obstructions from the crater in the reception area. I’m guessing that the slag we found on the other side of the blast door leading into this fire section was just too dense for the crystal to work with… or it will just take longer for it to remove.”

  “What he means to say is that these crystals are incredible,” Kyyle offered with a grin. “Can you imagine what we could build with a decent supply of this stuff?”

  Julia returned his smile now, her worry giving way to their enthusiasm. “Now you just need a better name for it.”

  “We’re calling it Synth-Rock!” Daniel chirped helpfully.

  The earth mage frowned at the AI’s glowing form. “We haven’t agreed on that yet. And for the millionth time, it sounds like we’re inventing a new genre of edgy punk music. I still like neurogem.”

  “Or how about Baka-nite since you’re both morons,” Julia offered with a chuckle.

  “Neurogem is the winner, in my opinion,” Finn said in a distracted voice as he pried free the last few strands of crystal. “Ahh, here we go…”

  As he removed another layer of crystal, he could suddenly see a cluster of mana crystals nestled inside the lattice. Their charge was low, though, barely a flicker of energy remaining in the gems now that they had been disconnected from the mech’s primary mana cores. Finn used his tweezers to gently pull the gems free and set them on a plain cloth he had torn from his old novice tunic. The garment had undoubtedly gotten its fair share of use at this point and was little more than a rag.

  Finn leaned closer, peering at the gems and shifting back to Short-Sighted. His brow furrowed as he noticed irregular indentations along the surface of the mana crystals. He hadn’t seen that detail with his Mana Sight. With the way the energies bled together, the sight didn’t exactly offer that level of precision.

  “You see this?” Finn asked Kyyle, gesturing at the gem. The earth mage moved closer and examined the gems carefully.

  “They almost look like… runes?” Kyyle offered tentatively. “Although they’re too small to make out much detail.”

  Finn chewed on the inside of his cheek before glancing at Daniel. “Can you scan the fire gem? Then blow up those patterns etched into the surface?”

  “Of course. That is just one of my many marvelous talents,” the AI chimed, weaving a small circle around Brock’s head before flitting close to the gem. A faint beam swept across the fire mana crystal, and a few seconds passed before an image appeared in the air.

  Finn sucked in a sharp breath as he saw the designs scrolling down the screen. Now that they were larger, he immediately recognized them.

  “Veridian runes,” Kyyle murmured. “What the hell?”

  A few pieces were beginning to click together, especially after taking apart this mech, encountering Kalisha’s mechanids, and fighting the mechanized suit that Sadik had piloted down in the Abyss. The mechanized creatures seemed to be able to cast something similar to spells. The beam of heated energy. The flames along the corrupted’s claws. The shield of air and thrusters that had been equipped on Sadik’s suit.

  And then there was the process of warding practiced by the fighters – runes etched into living skin. Was a similar approach being used here?

  “They inscribed a spell into the surface of the gem,” Finn said aloud, half speaking to himself. “Mana is channeled from the mech’s cores along these crystalline
conduits—”

  “Neurogems,” Daniel chirped.

  “Sure. So that energy flows into the regular mana crystals installed along the mech’s arm. These air mana crystals must activate the barrel, forcing it to rotate out of the limb. And then the mana flows into this final fire mana crystal – which is inscribed with a spell. That forces the energy into the superheated beam that the original security mechs were firing at us. Think of it like channeling mana through the wards etched into a fighter’s skin.”

  Julia was nodding now, and Finn could see the realization dawning in her eyes. “So, this is basically forming a crude mana circuit – like our electrical circuits. The mana gems are inscribed to accomplish a certain effect, and the neurogem is essentially the wiring. Kalisha must have imitated the designs with her mechanids and that mech suit.”

  Finn nodded distractedly. “Although, she couldn’t fully duplicate the neurogem material, which is why her automatons aren’t self-healing.”

  The implications of this discovery were tumbling through his head more quickly now. This confirmed his guess on how to fight the corrupted. If they could disrupt the circuits powering portions of their body, that should disable their various systems. Although, as long as mana was being channeled through the intervening neurogems, they would likely repair quickly. So, they would need to strike hard and fast.

  His eyes drifted back to the wall of symbols scrolling down Daniel’s display.

  There was also one more big takeaway.

  An excited grin was painted on Finn’s face now. “And if I’m right, then that means that the gems have to be inscribed with the runes for a spell,” he explained. “Think of it like the programming overlaying the electrical circuit. Which means I might be able to pull the spell’s incantation from the gem…”

  “Icarus,” Finn said aloud. The UI for his Spellcrafting mod immediately appeared in his vision. “Daniel, upload the runes into our spellcasting library, please.”

  “What are you doing?” Kyyle asked, his brow furrowed in confusion as Finn’s hands tapped and swiped at the air.

  “You’ll see in a moment,” Julia murmured in reply. While the earth mage hadn’t yet seen Finn use his mod, she had witnessed Finn tinkering with it for hours back in the Mage Guild – often standing guard while he stared off into space. Her comment earned her a surprised glance from the earth mage.

  A single flash from the fire elemental and Finn’s UI was updated. The runes were immediately translated into Veridian, although they were disorganized. A mottled collection of words with no immediately obvious pattern. He tapped at the display, his fingers a blur as he rearranged the runes first into complete sentences and then into the rhyming verses used in the game’s spellcasting system. As Daniel observed what he was doing, the AI began to assist him, highlighting potential rhyming couplets from among the set of runes.

  Within less than a minute, they finished.

  Several runes were left over, and Finn frowned at the display. He always hated it when he had extra parts lying around. That usually meant he had missed something important.

  He froze as the realization struck him. A smile tugged at his lips as he rearranged the leftover runes into a pattern. They didn’t describe an incantation. They were directions for channeling the flow of the mana. In other words, the requisite hand gestures.

  Excitement simmered in his veins now. A rush of fire mana surged through his body and lit the metal embedded in his eyes. His fingers seemed to move on their own, following the directions inscribed in the gem. Finn could also see the flow of the mana now, watching the energy coil and condense around his fingers. He could fill in the holes in those instructions instinctively now – a product of endless days spent training. Even as the fire mana collected along his right hand, the words of the incantation drifted from his lips.

  The flames grew stronger, flaring to life before condensing into a small pinpoint of blinding white light. As he reached the end of the incantation, Finn turned his hand to the nearby wall and unfurled his fingers to reveal his palm.

  Then he completed the spell.

  A beam of molten energy rocketed forward and speared into the wall. The heat carved a furrow in the mixture of reinforced rock and crystal, molten droplets dripping to the floor where they swiftly cooled.

  Finn glanced down at the beam. It didn’t seem to injure the skin of his palm, and he could maintain the channel for some time, his mana ticking down quickly in the corner of his vision. With a swift gesture, he dropped the channel and let the spell extinguish. Streamers of energy coiled around his fingers for just a few seconds before sputtering out completely.

  Julia and Kyyle were glancing back and forth between Finn and the nearby wall, their eyes wide. “Uh, okay. Looks like you discovered a new spell,” Kyyle commented.

  As soon as he spoke, a prompt opened in front of Finn.

  New Spell: Molten Beam

  You have discovered a new spell by carefully examining the technology developed within the Forge. This spell allows you to cast a beam of molten energy. However, the spell must be channeled to maintain its effect and consumes substantial mana.

  Skill Level: Beginner Level 1

  Cost: 100 Mana/second. Must be channeled.

  Effect 1: Fires a beam of molten energy dealing damage equal to 100 + (INT x 25%).

  “It’s called Molten Beam,” Finn said, swiping aside the notice and glancing at his teammates, his eyes still awash with fire mana.

  A broad smile was stretched across Kyyle’s face, and he swept at the air to bring up his in-game console. “We need to test it properly! How is your control range affected? What’s the decay rate on the damage? Can you remotely cast the origin point of the beam? Or is it fixed to your hand?”

  “Okay… okay, slow down,” Julia interrupted, resting a hand on the earth mage’s shoulder. “In case you two magical nerds forgot, the clock is still ticking. We don’t know if those corrupted will eventually be able to break their way out of those rooms,” she said, waving in the direction of the sealed passage. “And we only have so long before Silver and her crew of feral druids decide to cave in the entrance.

  “In case you both forgot, I had a mission. I found the entrance to the fire pylon room,” Julia continued, her expression serious as she met Finn’s gaze.

  “I take it you don’t have good news for us?” Finn offered, his smile faltering.

  “Not exactly. Although, it might be easier to see it for yourself.”

  With that foreboding statement, Julia pivoted on her heel and marched toward one of the adjacent hallways. As soon as she was out of earshot, Kyyle glanced at Finn. “You want me to get this all cleaned up while you go check out the door? Brock can stay with me to help,” he offered, gesturing at the lumbering earth elemental.

  Finn nodded, his eyes scanning the contents of the worktables. “Yeah, I think we were almost done anyway. Just make sure you stow all of this, especially the crystal. I have a feeling it won’t be easy to find these materials just lying around – not unless we want to try mining the walls or fighting the corrupted.”

  Kyyle nodded and immediately set to work. Finn stepped away from the tables and started off after Julia. Even with the excitement of his most recent discovery still simmering in his veins, he couldn’t shake the look on Julia’s face.

  “She seems worried,” Daniel offered as they paced the dark halls of the facility.

  Finn shot the AI a glance. Now he was becoming more adept at picking up on their emotions and reading their body language? It seemed that Daniel’s evolution only kept speeding up. That gave him a glimmer of hope. If his homespun AI could undergo these sorts of changes – as frustrating as they could be – then that meant it was possible that he could get Rachael back. The real Rachael. The woman who had been just as entranced with the act of creation and discovery as Finn had been.

  He only needed to complete his end of the Seer’s bargain first.

  “Let’s just hope this is a problem we can
fix,” Finn muttered in reply and picked up his pace, Daniel’s light trailing behind him.

  Chapter 19 - Explosive

  Finn stood in a large, dark room, his attention on the blast door in front of him. To his enhanced sight, the ambient mana of the portal flickered and pulsed with emerald light.

  The thing was monstrous, spanning nearly ten feet wide and as many feet tall. He could identify a mixture of crystal-laced stone sandwiching thick metal panels. At a guess, the blast door was at least four feet thick. Even compared to the doors in the reception area, this thing was impressive. Finn doubted that they were going to manage to carve or blast their way through. A massive stockpile of fire mana crystals likely wouldn’t make a dent in the portal.

  Finn frowned. And that all begged the real question.

  What had the staff felt was important enough to place behind this obstacle? It seemed that whoever had designed this place had been more worried about unauthorized access to the pylon chambers than to the facility itself.

  His eyes skimmed to the right, where the doorway’s mottled mana blended into a seamless dark green as the door’s edge neared the adjacent wall. It looked like someone had tried to close the blast door, but didn’t quite manage the feat, leaving roughly a foot of space between the door and the frame.

  Finn abruptly switched back to Short-Sighted. Wedged into the gap was a solid block of metal. It ran from the floor to the ceiling, and the edges were melted down, overlapping the stone of the door and the frame. A touch of his fingers confirmed an irregular texture to the metal.

  Crude welding job – especially compared to the destruction of the main conduit leading into the reception area. Whoever did this must have been in a hurry.