by Dakota Krout
“Choppy movements.” Joe informed him quietly, doing his best not to stimulate the mammoth golem he had vaulted onto. “Pretended I was one of the things your gas got at.”
“Yeah. Hard to get limbs to articulate correctly if you don’t do it by hand.” A pocket opened up on the side of Havoc’s ribs. “You mind?”
Joe grabbed the log-sized cigar and got it in front of the… Dwarf. It lit itself, grew legs and scuttled up to Havoc’s lips. He took a long pull and sighed out the smoke. “I’m gonna detonate pretty soon. My Core is overloading as we speak.”
“I know.” Joe could see the telltale lights emanating from his chest whenever Havoc opened his mouth or eyes. “I’m thinking fast might be the way to go, for both of us.”
“True; by now the walls are sealed…” Havoc took another deep inhale. “This place is going to be a disaster area of monumental proportions.”
There was silence for a few long seconds. Then Havoc continued, “They’ll blame you, ya know. For the loss. The core of the Legion, gone just like that. The Elven tide will sweep across the plane, and no one will be able to stop them. Ugh. Alfenheim. What an ugly name. Still, what can you do?”
“What a great pep talk,” Joe deadpanned, moving over to check Elfreeda’s body. She had on a spatial ring, and he almost gagged at the sheer wealth it contained. Metals, Cores, herbs… enough rare resources that it could have rivaled the yearly income of the Netherlands before Eternium became a thing. “At least I’ll have some seed money.”
“You should give that to the Elves.” Havoc chuckled at Joe’s glare. “What? Just looking out for the people I’m gonna have to join.”
Joe couldn’t help but laugh at that. The Dwarf-golem’s lips twitched, and he sighed darkly. “Too bad about those shapers. That’s what they call their scientist, ‘cause they ‘shape’ the natural world. I would have loved to know how they managed to turn an entire volcano into an abyssal power supply. Some kind of geothermal exchange? Oh, the things I could have done with that.”
The room shook, and ragged cheering could be heard through the new holes in the crystal walls around them. “There goes the Guardian. Time’s about up for me, Joe. See you on… the other side. You should run. Elfreeda used so much power in here… that had to have bought you some time. Enjoy the last few hours you have before the Dwarven Oligarchy turns on you.”
Joe nodded and turned, sprinting toward the exit. Havoc watched him go with his third eye, his main two still focused on Elfreeda’s corpse. A Dwarf and another human joined the escape, and Havoc made sure they were out before he took one last pull of his cigar.
Then he relaxed.
Crystals reverberated as the explosion finished the Prismatic Evergreen, and the magically expanded space collapsed. Joe stood outside of the building as it fell, looking over a notification he had been hoping not to see.
The Lord of Slaughter has fallen!
“Now… now what?” Captain Cleave swallowed deeply as the cavern went dark, only lit by the flowing lava.
“Now? I have an idea what we could do.” Joe paused and reached for his codpiece. Captain Cleavage’s eyes widened and she blushed under her teal mustache. Then a long-forgotten suitcase appeared in Joe’s hands, and he owned it for the first time. “Research. We have a volcano to tame.”
“A shoe to tie up!” Jaxon offered with excitement.
“Jaxon…” There were no words that Joe could use to describe his frustration at not being able to make a quip or insult to use against the gregarious chiropractor. He stalled, thinking that perhaps he could turn the conversation into banter, but the moment had passed. Jaxon chuckled as Joe awkwardly tried to move into new territory. “I just can’t with you right now.”
“I need to save this place. An enclosed volcano, far from anyone else, where my research would be useful as well as protected? If I capture this place, get control of it, I can finally get away from the demands on my time and focus for a while.” Joe’s eyes were bright as he looked for a place to start going over the documents he was holding. “Of course, that all depends on what’s in here. I’m really hoping that this was what High Priestess Embertank was talking about, and Tatum was giving me a not-very-subtle hint.”
Luckily, Joe knew a building nearby that had a perfect table for this sort of thing. He had wiped out a handful of Elves there, after all. It almost felt heretical to walk into the conference room and place the briefcase in the same place he had first picked it up. The Reductionist sat in the bloodstained chair, and started working even as his aura cleaned the room up. As his work proceeded, Officers started to filter in to ask him questions or see what was going on. In almost no time flat, the oversized conference room became an impromptu command center.
“Ten hours left, Joe, and that’s on the generous side,” Major Infraction’s voice snapped Joe out of his concentration, and he glared at her. “Then this place reaches the moon.”
“Constant updates about the time are really not going to help, Major.” Joe turned back to his notes and continued scribbling furiously. “We have both an advantage and a disadvantage. According to the notes left behind, they started by transporting a crystal seed here, and it eventually drained this cavern of lava to make it what it is now. But-”
“Magma, we’re underground.” Jaxon interjected cheerfully. “Almost literally in the flames.”
Joe’s quill quivered as he worked to keep his hands away from Jaxon’s neck. “Thank you, Jaxon. We can work with a building that simply maintains this place. Something that drains and directs the lava. I just don’t know what it should be.”
“Joe.” The Major met his eyes. “Anything is amazing. A lava-proof shack? The best thing I have ever heard of. It means we get to live, remember? This place will be under your control if you save it, you know. Any Candidate that takes a major fort is given their first acquisition to run. Got anything extra nice for you that you have plans for? Something that would work?”
Joe looked at the briefcase, which was actually a storage device that could only hold various forms of paper. “I… might. The problem is, I don’t know if we have the time to make it happen. Or the resources.”
“Tell me what you need. I’ll make the logistics happen.” The Dwarf promised grimly.
“I need mana. Lots of it, and repeatedly. I need to set up a ritual, and I need everyone in the entire volcano to be on board with getting it going. Start getting people into circles now.” Joe’s words made the Major go pale, but she nodded stiffly. “Also, all of the Guardian, and any parts of the Prismatic Evergreen that you can get. Pile them as close together as possible.”
“As you say… Candidate.” The Major saluted him, much to his surprise, and marched off, already shouting orders.
“You’re so cool, Joe. Can you sign my chest?” Jaxon lifted his shirt to tease his friend. Joe slapped the exposed ribs, getting a yelp from Jaxon as his skin turned red instantly.
“Handprint. Kinda like a signature,” Joe laughed as he pulled out a folded paper and laid it out over the entirety of the circular table. “Look at this with me, and pretend you understand it. I need someone to bounce ideas off of. This is an alchemy building, and as far as I can tell… this was their backup plan if the Prismatic Evergreen failed to produce the results they were looking for.”
“Oh! So you already have a building that will save us all?” Jaxon wiped his forehead. “Thank goodness. I was trying to stay positive, but I was getting pretty freaked out there, Joe. You know-”
“It’s Artifact-ranked,” Joe stated heavily, his head spinning at what he was planning to do. “I have ten hours to have it ready, which means I can only draw the ritual and hope that everything goes smoothly. That’s an Artifact building, and an Artifact blueprint, that I’m trying to build with a student-ranked ritual. I don’t know if I can make this building by using this ritual, but I literally have no choice. Thanks to Elfreeda, I at least have the Core I need for the building itself.”
Joe raised a ha
nd that was holding a Core too bright to look at, even with his hand fully wrapped around it.
You have found a Master Core (Artifact/Immaculate)! Absorb it for 14,927 experience?
Joe dismissed the prompt with a bitter mental shove.
“Hmmm.” Jaxon rubbed his chin and tapped at the blueprint. “I see, what if you…”
Joe stared at the man as he trailed off. “What if I what, Jaxon?”
“Huh? Oh. No idea.” Jaxon shrugged and stepped away. “You told me to pretend I understood.”
Having half-stood in excitement, Joe collapsed back into his chair. “I changed my mind. Go tell the Major that I need items or material at the Artifact rarity and lower to make this happen. Anything will suffice.”
Jaxon walked out, and Joe got to work. It didn’t take a terribly long time for him to finish the ritual perfectly, but then the ‘fun’ started. He began encapsulating the massive blueprint in the ritual diagram, transferring the data from the blueprint to the ritual. For six hours he worked at it, and at the end it was all… glowing grey?
All except one small part that was black. Joe looked at the blueprint and the ritual side by side, finding that there was a single small line that he had thought was an eyelash on the blueprint. He connected that line on his blueprint, and the entire thing flashed gold. “Oh! Tatum! I can see truth and falsehood again!”
That skill had faded pretty slowly after Tatum had been locked away, but it had eventually vanished. Now, it was back in full force, and it couldn’t have had better timing. The ritual was as ready as it could be; all that remained was to obtain the building materials. He stood and hurried out to the site they had chosen for the building, but blinked at the changes in the area. The buildings that had been destroyed were all vanishing, leaving huge piles of building materials behind. Joe hadn’t thought it would be an option, but he diverted his gaze to the space where the Prismatic Evergreen had stood, and gaped at the stacks of crystal that were under guard.
It appeared that Major Infraction had anticipated his desire to have an important building constructed in the best protected area of the fort, because Joe had needed to vault over ring after ring of Legionnaires as he approached the space. He located the Dwarf in question right away; she was arguing with another bearded Officer that Joe didn’t recognize.
“I gave the order to dig, Major! Why are these soldiers just standing around?” The bearded Dwarf was bellowing in her face, but the Major didn’t flinch.
“The success or failure of this mission is resting entirely on the shoulders of Candidate Joe, and he needs these troops and materials,” she calmly stated, the words hollow. It seemed she had been repeating them over and over.
“Then where is the Candidate? I have some choice words for him! These resources belong to the Dwarven Oligarchy, not some-”
“If you want to live, stop trying to line your pockets,” Joe ordered the Dwarf as he breezed past him and immediately started setting a Field Array around the first pile of crystals. It solidified as the Dwarf sputtered, and Joe sent a touch of mana to test the material cost.
Item: Approximately 10 cubic meters of Artifact and below material.
Reduction value: unknown. Total mass: 410 pounds of material.
Reduction cost: 14,062.5 mana per second. Estimated reduction time required: 5 seconds.
Joe almost choked as he read the cost and time requirements. Then he was grabbed roughly and spun around, meeting the Dwarf face-to-face. He had seen him coming thanks to the Eye of Argus, but had been too stunned to react. “Human, I am General Information, and you will not insult me by-”
“Sir, we have only a few hours until we all blow our top. How about you wait until then to do it?” Joe cut off the General before he could continue. “I read the Elven shaper’s notes, sir. The walls of the Shoe are being reinforced by a backup enchantment that had been included in the Prismatic Evergreen. In the case of a malfunction, the excess energy would seal the walls and hold this place together until the pressure became too much and it detonated. It was intended both as an escape device and deadman’s failsafe.”
“Why are you telling me-”
“You have loyal troops digging. They’ve made no progress.” Joe’s words weren’t a question: he would have been doing the same thing in the General’s position. “More digging won’t help. What will help is bringing every mana-rich Dwarf here, right now, to help me make the solution.”
The General tried to stare Joe down, but the human turned and only let the eye on his head play that game. There was no eyelid on that eye, so it would win for sure. Joe narrowed the size of the Field Array, repeating until he squeezed it down to the smallest size that it would allow him to cover.
Item: Approximately .5 cubic meters of Artifact and below material.
Reduction value: unknown. Total mass: 20.5 pounds of material.
Reduction cost: 14,062.5 mana per second. Estimated reduction time required: 1 second.
No matter what he did to shrink the size of the array, the estimated time stayed at a minimum of one second. At six thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight mana in his personal mana pool, he could supply half of it himself if needed; but would rather not. The General seemed to make up his mind, and it appeared Joe had succeeded. A handful of Dwarves came forward, but they were all heavily decorated Officers, including Major Infraction.
Joe made the array glow red where they needed to touch it, and soon they began reducing the crystals one by one.
Nearly two hours later, they all had bags under their eyes and were shaking from fatigue. Joe checked his aspect list with trembling eyes, and found that they finally had enough. All of the crystal, all the Guardian, and a few Artifacts that had been forcibly ‘donated’ by the disgruntled Officers had resulted in…
Aspects gathered
Trash: 187,252
Damaged: 105,594
Common: 100,267
Uncommon: 92,300
Rare: 62,284
Special: 100 (Zombified). 1521 (Anima). 111 (Molten) 4,891 (Crystalline)
Unique: 19,428
Artifact: 10,357
Legendary: 0
Mythical: 0
Core energy: 5,498/5,498 (Rare-ranked Core)
“We made it above ten thousand,” Joe stated with relief, his words getting a cheer from the exhausted Officers. His follow-up stifled their excitement. “Now we can start on the dangerous part!”
The Dwarven Legion was in position. The materials were ready. The area was secure. Joe pulled out the Architect’s Fury and placed it on the ground, then set a Field Array around it. He wasn’t exactly certain how this would work, or how long it would work for, but he hoped that having the array in place would be beneficial.
He gazed around the area, at all the faces filled with hope as they looked at him, and steeled his resolve. It was do or die, and the heat was rising. Literally. Joe glanced up and saw that the top of the volcano was bright: the stone was starting to melt.
“Let’s go.” Joe placed his hand on the ritual and injected mana. The ritual lit up and started glowing with energy. He linked his Codpiece of Holding to the Array, then every standard aspect jar he had. After a long moment, he almost decided against any special aspects. The only one with enough quantity to be effective was the Crystalline aspect, but he didn’t know how that would impact this design. He didn’t have time to get this wrong, but it had seemed really important that the tree that had once stood on this spot be made of crystal.
Joe could only hope he would have enough; desperately, he added it to the mix.
He and practically the entire Legion that remained in the volcano were lifted into the air as the ritual began. Everyone was held in place, and soon, the gyroscopic effect began. Aspects began flowing from Joe into the array, so many and so fast that it looked like he was using a flamethrower to outline a building.
The first thing that materialized was a wire-thin framework of the brightest neon orange that Joe had ever seen; figurativ
ely, the essence of the color orange. That thin wire stretched into more and more filaments; the only comparison Joe could think of was the capillary system of a body. It reached every point of the structure but was so delicate that it was practically invisible in places.
Joe could have screamed in joy when the flames shifted from orange to a deep indigo: the Artifact aspects had been accepted without a warning message. The Unique aspects flowed over and around the orange, shifting the glaring color into a starry blob that thickened and grew. The nerve system, if Joe continued the analogy. From indigo to light blue, then silver, then white. Finally different colors of grey, and two messages appeared. One was an easily completable task, while the other almost made Joe panic.
Please assign a Core for the structure’s usage.
Please assign the focus for the structure. (Artifact or greater).
Joe opened his hand, and the Master Core appeared in his fingers. It was pulled into the building a mote of light at a time, a slow but constant stream of power. It gave him a moment to think, and he realized that there was only one thing that would work… one thing that would be a perfect fit.
“Use the Morovian-metal cauldron.” Joe allowed the cauldron to appear, and it hung in the air, unsuspended by anything. Then it was pulled into the building, and vanished. Up until that point, the building had been a shapeless, formless blob of interwoven colors. With the Core and the cauldron added, it began shifting, twisting, and growing. Starting at the base, pure white marble stairs extended in a pentagram around the lowest area.
At each of the five corners, an obelisk of dense obsidian shot upward, nearly impaling the people on the lowest ritual Circle. A ring appeared on the side of the spire, facing the center of the structure, and from each ring grew a thick chain. The chains clattered down until they reached the ground, then flowed inward along with newly forming marble, creating a perfectly level surface. The ground stopped moving, leaving a triangular space where the natural ground could be seen.
