After his latest visitors left Kal dove back into trying to decipher each individual rune but of course that was far easier said than done. Some were simple enough, a good example of that was the directional guide runes that were simply orientated in different ways or mirrored to push instead of pull. However, most were totally new to him and even if he figured out the rest of the array it wouldn’t help him understand the runes themselves.
Kal would likely only get one shot at escaping so there was no way he was willing to risk triggering the invisible array without preparation. He needed to know more and for that, he did have an idea. Fyborh’s books.
Kal vaguely remembered tossing a book on runes back into the pile of discarded books when he had been pissed off about his progress in keeping himself from starving to death. The question was. How could he get them out of his amulet? Kal was fairly sure that it was the Cuffs of Binding that were preventing him from using it so if he could deactivate them somehow, he should be able to find the book.
With the chains of the Cuffs of Binding as they were it was difficult to get the leverage to break them with his arms bound as they were. The chains against the nullstone groaned far before the cuff chains were even under tension. Kal wasn’t sure if that was a good sign and that simply breaking the chains would be enough to reactivate his skills or whether it was just an extra precaution his captors had taken.
Either way, with Hemdal likely to pay him a visit soon it would be best to avoid breaking his bonds until as late as possible if he could help it. In that case, he would have to try using his will tendrils. His efforts at repairing both his body and constructs had brought that area of his abilities back up to almost one hundred percent so manipulating the mass of will tendrils across his back was a simple task even with his concentration wavering at times.
Normally making contact with a rune or construct with his will directly gave him some sense of his function but even with his will fully encompassing the cuffs he felt no sense of understanding, annoying but expected.
Kal had gotten a glimpse of how the Cuffs of Binding were activated. The binder had held them by the chain and the shackles had clicked closed on their own. Kal’s first thought was that they were probably activated in a similar manner to his Amulet of Dimensional Storage and if that was the case all it took was a simple gesture of will and commitment of mana.
The will portion of that was simple, the problem was the mana. Kal had no mana to use, wrath or otherwise and the array around him made collecting it impossible. Kal was starting to think whoever designed this cell knew some part of what he would be capable of. Getting mana to follow a channel wouldn’t be hard if he had any, even though he wasn’t compatible with it since soul forging and arrays were already incredible adjacent forms of mana manipulation.
It was just lucky he wasn’t completely devoid of mana. Kal brought his sight inwards to his core space and the blue haze of the foreign mana grasping at his core. The mana didn’t suffocate his core as aggressively as it had before he was in the array, but it was still clearly trapped within his core space and from the look of it most of his skill channels. The mana exclusion array must not be powerful enough to actually sap him of mana but he suspected it would have prevented a normally attuned person from recovering mana.
Kal chuckled slightly, “Who would have thought I would be forging this construct in my own body.”
Between lapses in concentration, Kal essentially recreated the constructs he formed in Nyx and Ander but instead of creating a flow from directly around his core, he formed several smaller threads that were fanned out throughout his core.
While in his core space, he found ignoring the outside world and the people at the edges of his perception much easier, and his rage stayed manageable while he worked on the thinner threads. On this occasion, Kal had no opportunity to test the construct because he would likely only get one shot at it since once the mana trapped within his body was spent, he would not get any more unless the array was taken down and that was unlikely.
Another issue was the fact that Kal didn’t really have a construct that he knew would direct the flow of normal mana and doing it manually didn’t seem to work like it did with abyssal mana. He couldn’t simply draw it into the woven channels like he had on Fyborh’s Bridge. Kal didn’t think it was a problem of affinity since he could perceive it easily enough, but it just didn’t respond to his will.
His hope was that if he made enough channels the pull of the mana exclusion array would draw it out for him and if he prepared its path, it would be manipulated by the constructs along the way. Kal had to admit to himself that it was a pretty flimsy plan, but he didn’t have time to waste with his sister somewhere in the prison with him and no other way to move forward without taking risks more likely to kill him.
Kal gritted his teeth, brought his perception back to the outside world, and waited for the walls to stop writhing before working on the external part of his cuff bypass. It had occurred to him that he could attempt to simply sever the chain directly with his will, but he was fairly sure it wouldn’t work through the metal of the chains even if they had channels in a similar way to arrays and skills, which he was pretty sure they didn’t.
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Weaving an imprinting construct while focusing on what he saw the binder do with the other set of cuffs was the best Kal could think of to hopefully get the same result. Like the binder, Kal focused on the chain as an endpoint for the mana and formed a channel around its center so that the mana would at least make contact with the chain before being yanked away by the exclusion array.
Kal waited for the next wave of anger to fade before bringing his sight back into his core space to open the way for what he hoped was a slow flow of unattuned mana. But of course, things didn’t go that smoothly. As he watched the woven channels suddenly flash blue with mana as the foreign mana was expelled from his body much faster than he expected his anger rose as his soul flared up in response to someone approaching his cell.
Kal spat a curse but remained focused on the rush of azure light. By reflex Kal had reinforced the channels like he always did when he was working with wrath, and he was glad he did as the unattuned mana inside him condensed with such ferocity it made his hackles rise.
It surged across his channels and almost seemed to increase in ferocity as it traveled further across them and into his imprinting construct. That’s where things really went badly. It was almost as if the mana was somehow angered by his attempt at control and after the imprinting construct the mana warped and twisted the channel of will.
Like a constricting snake the channel tightened around the chains and instead of flowing into the chain as he had planned the channel simply exploded with a flash of azure light that blinded Kal from just the refracted light off the cell wall. Searing heat rushed over his back and hair burning him regardless of his fire resistance and lance of pain back down the broken channel and into his core space. Kal growled as the pain faded and sensed the person, likely Hemdal getting closer.
The pain and Hemdal’s presence began to distract Kal from his task but the feeling of a chain falling down his back, lower than before, provoked a grin from Kal as a rush of notifications flashed across his vision.
Warning: Your mana has been [ERROR]
Warning: Captor notified. [ERROR]
ERROR: Escape notification failed… Resending…
ERROR: Escape notification failed… Resending…
ERROR: Escape notification failed… Resending…
ERROR: Escape notification failed… Resending…
The two ends of the chain fell to dangle by Kal’s sides just as the door began to swing open but his tendrils of will caught them and they swung back behind his shoulders as if they were undamaged just as Hemdal’s silhouette filled the cell entrance.
“What was that noise, Demon? Have you not figured out that you cannot escape this place?”
Hemdal’s voice oozed with smug confidence and if Kal hadn’t been fighting his instincts with everything, he had he would have abandoned his attempt at stealth and tried to tear the man apart. Instead, Kal stared at Hemdal and held back his own temptation to activate Slayer’s Intent, “Where is my sister?”
Hemdal’s pale face twisted into a smirk, “I have ensured she remains alive for some time yet. Others require culling first in any case if my experiments are to bear any fruit,” Hemdal’s hand clasped something beneath his robe and Kal felt the beginnings of Sanguine Woe.
Kal didn’t react and kept his gaze locked on Hemdal’s face while the endless flesh at the edges of his vision grew closer, “Why bring my family into this?” Kal’s words quivered slightly as his concentration flickered.
Hemdal sneered and looked Kal up and down, “You have recovered more than I expected, Freak. Perhaps I should have let you rot and simply executed the dryad. Her kind is not long for this world in any case.”
Kal’s vision reddened for an instant and his soul seemed to rejoice at the idea of someone's death, but Kal resisted and ground his teeth, “Aren’t all you god-worshipping fucks on the same team? They’ve all tried to kill me before.”
The Sanguine Keeper smiled then, and pain wracked through Kal’s body as Hemdal’s robes pulsed suddenly with red light, “Careful, Freak. I still have many experiments to perform on you before you are passed on to the others.”
Kal barely managed to hang onto the chains with his will as his body arched back against his bindings.
When the pain faded away Hemdal continued, “No, Earae’s followers are worthless and a drain on the resources of the true gods. Your return to our world and the presence of that ring has been a catalyst in the plans of The Great Lord’s Uton and Dhinir,” The smug smile returned, “The firmament falters and soon our lords will walk amongst us once more but first we must clear the way for them.”
Kal started to laugh despite the rage in his chest, “What?! You think they could do anything if they were here? If the firmament falls every single person on this fucking world will die like the countless others did because of your coward gods!-”
“Sanguine Woe!” Hemdal roared and Kal groaned as his body bent to the whims of his burning and twisting blood, “You know nothing!” Hemdal shouted, “We will cull the rest of your godless kin and then the rest that would not walk the path of power will join them in death!”
Kal could feel the skill roaring through his body begin to accelerate as Hemdal snarled, his pale face flushed with outrage.
“Prophet…”
“Boy…”
As quickly as it came the pain vanished and Kal saw Hemdal turn, his face darkening further as he faced a man in gleaming gold plate mail. But his expression of outrage vanished as his eyes met the speaker’s.
“Prophet Zheltrak has summoned you to the capital.”
“Of- Of course, Second.”
Kal’s eyes blurred but he managed to Identify the man who filled the cell entrance.
[Alavan Kelvore | Fist of Dhinir 128 | Human]