Interlude XIX

(Larry Yo-Boy’s BiPrism News)

Scrape, squeak, scrape.

“So, as you are no doubt wonder, just as I am wondering. How did a Dr. Cassiopeia Spiritlight Simulacrum manage to carve out an entire Mythical level Sacrificial Altar, without anyone knowing?” Larry the host of his own pod cast that was now in the top thousands for number of faithful subscribers and supporters.

Below Larry, in a field that was normally used to display a particular topic of interest related to the world of BiPrism showed a completely dark screen. The only thing that let you know that anything was in fact happening was the faint, but constant sound of metal scraping against stone. Then once every few minutes or so there would be a giant, flash of color.

Pulsing runic design.

At that instant, a rune flared to life and seemed to burst with energy. As the rune flared to life, it illuminated the whole screen, showing a Pixie flying in the air, while working on a rune.

Then and only then did the mana infused light of the rune flare up, shinning through the ephemeral dust of the Pixie’s wings, showing the now almost expected glowing purple-pink hues of light that seemed to glow when the ephemeral wings were active.

“Yes, right here we see what the little Pixie did during the times when they were taking care of Ms. Kujo. For the most part we all avoided this, thinking that the rooms were too dark. And unless you watched hours upon hours of film, you would not see this rare occurrence of a master crafted rune flaring to life. Especially as most of these are apparently being carved deep into the wall of the cave.”

With that, the frame pauses, as the viewing angle of the camera shifts to the side, showing that the ultra-bright rune that is clearly glowing in three dimensions and more than just a standard letter of the alphabet had to be carved into something.

“If you look closely, you can see that this rune was in fact carved in three dimensions, from within the stone wall. In fact, the only reason we could see this rune getting created is due to our payment for the ultra-expensive mana-pack that is now being applied retroactively to older viewing packages with new Mana-Vision filters. With this, we can start to see what the Simulacrums are doing. And let me tell you, it is kind of concerning what they are in fact doing while no is watching. Or while they thought no one was watching.”

With that Larry begins showing a time lapse video of over a month’s worth of work by the fourth Simulacrum, showing them first going along the floor, while in darkness and linking together runes.

Then once the floor was assembled, there were clear lines drawn going to one massive square posting on a particular wall facing north.

“Now we will continue to show the time lapse motion of the simulacrum, but I want you to focus on this square that seems to be roughly ten feet wide by ten feet high. If you look all runes and all lines seem to somehow gather power and send that power here.” Larry continued.

“It is estimated that this Simulacrum created about one of these master class runes, and yes they are all master class runes as none of these runes or their functions have been cataloged by the various magical repositories and guilds. Meaning these were all likely done free hand by our girl. Anyways, if you watch the room goes dark, then a rune is created when a flash erupts. Also you can see that these runes are all active thanks to the Kujos.”

With that, the image fast forwards some time, and shows the room suddenly erupting with lights all over. Runes and runway strips of energy flare to life everywhere, most of which channeling power in patterns and directions that are clear. Each of the gathered energies all direct to the same exact open square on the wall. A square that remains mostly blank for the time being.

“Yes, if you look, while the blood and viscera are being absorbed by the different runes on the floor, that energy is being taken and directed to the noted square on the wall. What does this look like? What does this all do? Well, glad you asked. Rather than letting you all spend your time going through the same thousands of hours’ worth of film that has now been backdated with the new Mana-Vision feature, you can just buy the three dimensional purchase pack below that will show you in full immersion high definition clarity what the runes now look like while active, and what the entire Mythical level structure looks like, sans this ten by ten section.” Larry continued.

With that, a “Buy Now” option appeared showing a full three-dimensional rendering of the room that was both the lair of the Mythical Sacrificial Altar, and the lair where the ever-enlarging clan of the Kujos resided.

“Words cannot express how impressive the work done by this Simulacrum truly is. Floor to ceiling covered in grand art runes that defy understanding, and are somehow fully functional. Better still, this leads you to my Conspiracy Theory of the day.” Larry stated.

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WOMP-WOMP-WOMP!

At that, sound effects and flashing lights pulsed as this was clearly a new segment of his show that Larry was trying to develop out. There was still a bit of an awkward pause as Larry was clearly hitting buttons noting the various effects going on around him. Then they stopped as he once again looked towards the camera.

“Some say this section isn’t complete. That part of the work can’t be done and that all the stolen or converted energy needs to go here. But I’m going to say those who tell you that are wrong, and they are definitely not your boy Larry. For we have uncovered a pattern that should be noted.” Larry states.

Then the view once again changes.

Darkness.

Flicker.

Deep glowing rune that is hard to witness.

Darkness.

“What is this? Just a deep flashing rune of no significance?” Larry states, but then freezes frame on the blurry rune, and proceeds to magnify the rune until it is ten times larger and very grainy in viewing quality.

“This is an advanced version of the magical concealment rune.” Larry begins, while a second image of a much cruder and fairly well-known rune appears on the screen. From there a few arrows are drawn from the known rune, showing how it is part of the base structure of the new rune.

“While I can’t tell for certain, it is clear that there is a base of the Magical Concealment rune we are all aware of hidden at the heart of this new structure.” Larry begins, and the pauses for dramatic effect.

“Now what does this have to do with anything? Well, this was the rune that Dr. Spiritlight’s Simulacrum was working on during the three minutes of complete Confidentiality. Meaning, that not only is the main Dr. Spiritlight doing things during Confidentiality that she doesn’t want others to know about. But her Simulacrums are similarly doing the same.” Larry said.

Then as if to prove this point, Larry changed frames to before and after images of the various Simulacrums. One second, they were standing still reading, or in various other benign activities. The next moment, they were often in completely different areas. Or had fluttering hair particles denoting that they were moving quickly a moment prior, before trying to get back to their original position.

“If you go back and look you can see that each Simulacrum does different things during the Confidentiality, what they are doing, we obviously don’t know. But what we do know is that they are all doing something. The Simulacrum from the Mage’s Guild seems to spend most of their Confidentiality time in the Guild Master’s room, likely doing some form of rune crafting, given the way the empty Guild Master’s room always seems to radiate residual energy for a few minutes after each Confidentiality time limit passes.”

With that, there is an image of the First Simulacrum sitting at their desk, but their hair seems to fall at too quick of a speed for most activities.

“Then we have here the Simulacrum on the 200th floor of the Arcanarus Tower clearly engaged in some kind of something with the other Fae, before settling back to their desk reading a book.” Larry states.

With that the next scene shows the Second Simulacrum idly reading, while once again the residual glowing energy of the Fae seems to be overly intensified for whatever reason.

“Also, of note, it normally never takes Dr. Spiritlight more than a minute to read dozens of books. So, you are telling me that it suddenly takes her three minutes to read one book during a Confidentiality?” Larry states, noting that the book that Dr. Spiritlight was holding for display was clearly the same before and after the three minutes of unknown activity.

“But what is probably the most interesting one, is what has the Third Simulacrum been doing?” Larry asks.

With that, we see the Third Simulacrum start off on the ship that was fully restored by Dr. Spiritlight. As has well been documented, the Third Simulacrum is mainly the pilot and maintainer of this ship. Which was why, it was odd to see the Third Simulacrum appear off the ship a few times, while on or around different hidden places of the great tree Yggdraspirit, before seeming to realize they were late and suddenly Teleporting back to the ship. Once on the ship, the Third Simulacrum proceeded to go about acting like nothing was wrong, but it was clear they were just up to no good a few minutes ago.

“And that my friends is the hot conspiracy. The fact that Dr. Spiritligth’s Simulacrums are also performing mischief while no one can watch.”

Ding-ding.

“Oh, and that is time for our weekly conspiracies. With that we need to go onto our News sections for today.” Larry said.

At that, the image changed to first show an airship gallantly flying off into the sunset, nothing too odd about the site. Then the next moment, the camera changes to show a ship filled with motionless zombies, all stationary, all staring mindlessly off into space.

“Yes, we have it here, the Legrand Master Assassin Ghost Ship,” Larry said. “I don’t know what happened, nor how, but shortly after takeoff, the Master Assassin Ghost Ship of the Legrand Military suddenly lost communications with the ground. Then proceeded to drift aimlessly over the open terrain.” Larry stated, showing the initial flight path of the ship, and then how it had now veered off course thanks to a few intense gusts of wind that managed to change the direction of the ship by a few degrees north.

“Now the ship of seasoned assassins, and twenty-four hour legendary farmers, as anyone with a First Kill Dagger is often referred to as, they are all motionless zombies flying wherever the winds take them.” Larry stated.

“Oh, and I would be remis not to share the other major news. While these newly arrived assassins who apparently threw away up to seven Merit Points on their introduction to the world might have it bad. Those that chose Timult, the capital of the Legrand empire as their starting location now have it a hundred times worse.”

With that the image changed to the still sand covered Timult, but now there was an issue as what had once been a glowing yellow eye was now replaced by an enormous finger with a long sharp nail. The nail then proceeded to scratch and scrape at the vertical scar that just seemed to float behind the three pods that were still fully intact.

“We are going to mute the feed for your safety,” Larry said as he clearly showed the image changing to note it was now muted.

Then to everyone’s surprise, the image showed the giant fingernail scratching against the open visible scar. As the fingernail began to scrape, soundwaves could be heard and felt echoing forward.

Citizens of all types were suddenly attacked by sharp waves of force. People that were posing on the different pods, or striking at the pods suddenly found themselves attacked by intense waves of sonic force.

Everyone began first by grabbing their ears, before either bleeding out their eyes, or their heads exploded entirely from the intense reverberations that were occurring.

Also of note was the fact that the seemingly impermeable pods that Cass had dropped off randomly, suddenly started to crack. Not a lot, not even that much, but for such highly durable material to finally be shattered, if only marginally so, was a huge testament to the force being unleashed by the scratching fingernail.

“And it looks like, we get to see what type of ancient evil Dr. Spiritlight found to unleash on the all mighty Legrand Empire.” Larry stated, before concluding his podcast, “with that I will call it a day. This was all the things you didn’t know you wanted to know from BiPrism News, and I am your host Larry Yo-Boy, until next time, have a great day and a better rest of your week.”