Ebony’s mind woke up and was in his mindspace before he opened his physical eyes. Since time passed as slowly as he perceived, he didn’t rush to go out to his body. If he still had a body to wake up in.
He found that he couldn’t talk to Dusk, but notes were left behind. Memories of what happened after he fell asleep.
‘I am alive. So my clones are active? Which ones…nice, 4 of them are all active and not dealt with. They could barely sense my mana when I tried to hide it. I’ll risk it and assume they can’t sense my Will.’
Ebony safely called his clones’ Will into his mindspace for high-speed communication.
“Hello, number twelve, fourteen, fifteen and seventeen. Let’s hear it.” Ebony prepared a round table for them to have imaginary tea together.
“Hello, bad day huh.” Twelve returned the greeting while taking a seat.
“It could be worse, our body wasn’t dismembered.” Fifteen presented their optimistic side.
“I know we think and process fast but let’s get to the main topic.” Seventeen chidded.
“Yes, you are locked up. In the prison we found. Stripped naked and chained up. I tried to enter but the prison floors, walls and even space itself seemed to suck us dry so I can’t tell if you have any mana in your body. We can see you, cells aren’t underground and have bars. But the prison is much more secure than it looks. Twelve and I seem to think that one of the men locked here is a Saint from the pure aether-vitality mixture he is leaking when he’s forced to dig. He is the only prisoner that even leaks any aura.” Fourteen summarised with an additional piece of information.
“So they chose to be hard-handed. I suppose that was expected from their attitude. And I am just a Grandmaster. Hey, do you think they even have the basic Identify?” Ebony ran his hands on Dusk but he couldn’t touch the tree and his hands passed through. He felt like he could continue to reach into Dusk and maybe, eventually contact Dusk but he didn’t prioritise that since Dusk was probably asleep back on Elcra so that it doesn’t run itself dry and dissipate.
“How were we supposed to find that out? Don’t get distracted.” Seventeen called him back to the seat.
“Relax, minutes here would barely be felt outside.” Fifteen replied while chomping into a Frost Plum that Ebony spawned. It didn’t provide any form of satisfaction except for the act of eating itself.
Ebony got a speedy update on each of his clones’ activities. Twelve had been hiding as an additional organ within his body as a final line of defence. It was miniscule considering that his body can fight asleep but it gave his clones comfort.
‘Huh, I might be able to make space in my body for a separate organ that is just filled with coagulated mana. It would permanently increase my mana capacity. I have the internal space for it if I squeeze my kidney, bladder and even stomach. Bigger lungs and stronger liver after evolution is still good to have but my digestive tract doesn’t have to take so much space thanks to my high constitution and low requirement of sustenance.
“On it. Leave your internal upkeep to me so you don’t have to spare any mental processing power here. Don’t forget to charge me with Will from time to time.” Twelve heard his thoughts and took over the job.
Fourteen was scouting and keeping watch on the prison he was in. He could move on to scouting the island they were on after Ebony woke up.
Fifteen and Seventeen ran out of the volcano they were situated on to explore their surroundings and check for possible escape routes. They had prioritised locating the possible presence of the portal that the man known as Ezekiel mentioned. It might not be a complete lie, Dusk didn’t sense any form of deception.
He might not be as sensitive to lies compared to Ning Xin but he had a lifetime of observing people to understand how humans should act.
Fifteen and Seventeen’s second priority was to learn about Cinderash and the Saint or group that locked him up. They should not lack the ability to source information now that they are in this group’s world. Of course, he had them stay invisible no matter how far they planned to go for the time being. There was no confirmation that they were found but also no evidence to prove that his clones weren’t hidden.
For the time being, they saw no reason to believe clones were not invisible to most of the volcano’s inhabitants and carried out their activities without fear of it leading back to bite Ebony in the back. In any case, it wouldn’t matter too much even if people did find out he had clones running around.
“I was out cold for two weeks?”
“I think they tried to torture you awake. I’m not sure. Slumber Survival Instincts kicked in once but before that, your body just didn’t think their attempts were a threat at all and didn’t respond at all. Sorry, I had to hide deep in your body and have your mana chassis surround me the moment they put chains on you or I would’ve been absorbed and have no choice but to have my Will rejoin you without any mana for a body.”
“No worries. Is my chassis bone dry?”
“It was, but I’m not so sure now. I believe Mireloom Chassis Engine stopped working when you got knocked out cold. No mental processing power, no factory production.”
“I’ll confirm that once I wake up. I would have to wait for decades to sense a change from here.”
“What’s the plan? Get out as soon as possible or make the best use of our time here?” Fourteen questioned.
“The second. That’s the whole point of attacking that young master or we wouldn’t have been separated to begin with. Fifteen, add studying aether, their spells, technology and weapons as your next priority. Seventeen, focus more on geographical and societal studies, fieldwork so to speak. If I have time, I’ll try to create Twenty-Three if my stay in prison extends. Anything else I need to know?”
“Set a time frame, we can’t stay here forever and I still want to look for Xin.” Fourteen demanded a hard stop to their ‘studying’.
“That’s a tough one. Get me more information on that portal or path to this Teheil planet first.” Ebony wasn’t even sure if he could escape this prison but he was rather confident as of now because his clones were operating without an issue.
“Alright.” Fourteen understood the lack of information.
“Multiply and amass.”
“...That was lame, never say that out loud.” Seventeen couldn’t hide his embarrassment.
“When will we grow out of the weird monologues. That was terrible even for our standards.” Fifteen leaned back and spit the imaginary plum seed at dusk but the seed vanished before it got a metre away.
“I thought we were getting better, not worse.” Twelve shook his head, disappointed.
“Then come up with something else to spice things up whenever we meet up. Our numbers are only going to grow and this makes it less dry okay?” Ebony did not relent.
“I can’t hear you. See you.” Fifteen pointlessly covered his ears.
“Take care Twelve. You too Fourteen, you are the closest to being found out since you’re still on the island.” Seventeen bid his farewells.
“You two watch out too, you might very well still be in the Saint’s range. We don’t know if they can hear every word spoken so keep quiet and always have vibrations stabilised around you.” Fourteen reminded Fifteen and Seventeen who would go out of Ebony’s range of Will sooner or later.
“Don’t forget to come back for a recharge, that’s a privilege we have compared to the others who have to stay asleep or even die waiting for Ebony to come back…I wonder what kind of experiences we can get if they survive that long. Do you think all of them would stay in hibernation forever or wake up to find another way to survive if we are dying?” Twelve reminded the explorers while getting distracted himself.
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“Woah there. That’s for them to think and us to find out if they survive. Our Will is sure to grow so let’s wish them the best.” Fifteen put a stop to that line of thought.
“Then…mul-I am not doing this stupid multiply phrase. Come up with something else. Goodbye.”
Seventeen disconnected, followed by Fifteen who acted cool and walked away from the table with his hands waving and dissipating into air. He was one full of theatrics.
Fourteen silently faded out leaving Twelve sitting here.
“So…do you think Ten and Eleven managed to stay with Xin? The six of us were supposed to be with her, but four of us didn't get out of the bag since we were laying dormant and didn’t react fast enough. Right, good work bringing the four of us out and with you.”
“You know, we don’t have to praise ourselves. Anyway, I have been trying to connect to them but I’m not reaching them. We need a dedicated skill for the range of Will. A passive maybe. I’ll continue my attempts to reach them, which may create a skill in time. Next time Fifteen and Seventeen come back, remind me to tell them to practise linking and unlinking with me as they traverse further away from me. Just rest, I’ll call you out when I’m sure you won’t be absorbed into nothingness.”
“Mmm. I’ll help with the linking with the others on Elcra and double down on the efforts with Ten and Eleven. You save your processing capabilities for the physical world.”
“Okay. I’ll redistribute and reorder priority as we go.”
Ebony closed his eyes and found himself dispersing throughout the mindspace to wake up in his physical body. He woke up hot, sticky and naked.
‘Ew. My skin and flesh melted. Now I’m stuck on the floor and these chains…so many of them.’ Fourteen didn’t explicitly explain just how badly chained up he was.
His legs were bound together with a metallic board with four chains linked to the walls but the chains were rather long, giving him some freedom of movement instead of being glued to the walls. Above the board were two more individual cuffs on each leg. They were thick and chunky, his legs were bound from ankle to right below the knee.
His arms were only individually chained without a board or plank that forced his arms close together. But there were even more restrictions, with five bangles and chains on each arm the cuffs reached above his elbow and he had his fists covered in a ball-shaped metal piece that was likely molten metal poured to seal his hands completely.
The metal chains had a similar design to the rest of the prison walls and floors. A blackish metal with pulsing energy veins running along its entirety. The familiar orange colour was not any different from the Savant’s or the young master’s aether blades.
His torso had the last ‘cuff’ like a hand bangle made for giants that was repurposed as a waist warmer for him. Ebony’s flesh had similarly bathed the cuffs and he was more stuck than he should have been.
‘This is extra. My throat’s parched. oh, my mana is still dried up. So the number of chains are to drain me up, not to tie me down. Condition check first.’
‘Ting’ ‘You have over-exhausted your body. Strength and Agility decreased by 80%, Perception and stamina regeneration rate decreased by 50%.’
‘Ting’ ‘You have over-exhausted your mind. Intelligence and Wisdom decreased by 90%. Perception and mana regeneration decreased by 80%’
‘Ting’ ‘Lack of sustenance, health regeneration decreased by 80%. All stats lose 50% of their effectiveness.’
‘90 percent? That is a high reduction, I rarely get this. Why am I exhausted if I didn’t fight? Oh, I see. The torture stopped because I was dying to the heat and they wanted me alive. The temperatures are…at least 600 to 700 degrees Celsius in this prison cell. Thank goodness for superhuman constitutions and natural resistances…glad I didn’t die by melting. Then my body kept healing itself, using up my energy. Over two weeks, my energy pool emptied and my body naturally stopped healing itself but it was too late and my lack of sustenance reduced my healing even more. But it’s not too bad, a 50% reduction of all stats is not the worst I’ve experienced, it means I still have some energy or sustenance in my body. Too bad exhaustion and hunger rehabilitation stacks. This is not looking so good.’
Even with his Unique skill and Core Skill starting up now that he was awake, Ebony was still bone dry on mana thanks to his stat reductions. The exhaustion debuff did not have a duration. It was an indefinite debuff because he didn’t have any sustenance in his body to recover. The hunger/exhaustion debuffs were something he was very familiar with.
He didn’t have the time or opportunity to eat and rest when he just started training with the Apex Apes. It almost killed him on multiple occasions so he knew that he wasn’t in the worse straits. Exhaustion would go away fast as long as he fed himself. He might take a little longer healing his body due to lower base Endurance stat but it was all good as high Constitution tied them all together.
After all, lack of sustenance and all stat reduction could go to 95%. He was far from the worse straits which was to starve to death. Maybe the stat reduction could go higher or lower in this case to 99% but even he hadn’t encountered that.
‘Then I shouldn’t heal myself, I’m not sure if I can get food into my system and water obviously doesn’t exist in this dry oven. I can’t even inscribe runes to create water since I don’t have a lick of mana. Should I implode a few chassis? This mana absorption is impressive, almost all my coagulated mana is gone too. Is coagulated mana’s stability even helping?’ Ebony knew it was Twelve who was using Will to hold onto a small portion of coagulated mana from dispersing and also protecting the frozen, compressed air sacs in his lungs from melting.
Ultimately, he wasn’t too surprised by their technology. They supposedly kept a Saint locked up, though that might be his clones' mistake since they couldn’t sense anything within the prison properly.
Glued to the floor by his skin and flesh, Ebony remained unmoving to save every bit of energy he could. He was a dry husk now.
He didn’t even try to heal his eyeballs but they still worked a little. Warm hazy light streamed in from the tiny window with the same metal bars to land on him who was in the centre of the cell.
‘I have an affinity with prisons. And this is the best one yet. It’s spacious and there’s sunlight. And it’s pretty noisy too.’ Ebony heard the clings and clangs, along with what he assumed were prisoners shouting. His Perception took the biggest dip after all the stacking debuffs but his ears were still functional.
Fourteen already mentioned that this was a slave-like prison where prisoners were made to mine out iron and other natural ores. The floating island wasn’t in the middle of lava, it rested not far away from the inner walls of the massive volcano. Prisoners were led across a shaky bridge to a cave where they dug for ores. However, conditions didn’t appear that harsh and most prisoners were not skinny or starved bony. Thirst was a bigger issue.
The average prisoner was King-ranked and there were plenty of Emperors too. They had to wait for Seventeen to conduct his survey to know the actual average of the planet he was on.
Grandmaster prisoners were the servants of this place. Cleaning, prepping and handing rations. Being the mule for the ores that other prisoners mined out.
‘So this is a containment cell but the others are in housing cells or something similar. Are they maybe serving a prison term?’
“You alive? Damn, I heard you were from another world but you people melt easily. We had to place heat wards in your cell since orders are to keep you alive. Hang on, you haven’t eaten for days I’ll get your grub.” Someone knocked on his metal containment. Unlike the window bars, he was just trapped in a solid metal containment The only other gap was a viewing hole with two bars. There were no visible doors or seams so he wasn’t sure how he was put in this cell. Altogether, it wasn’t an air-tight cell.
“Mmm.” Ebony managed to muster the strength to respond to the casual guard who didn’t seem to act like he was a massive criminal who threatened the Saint’s family. ‘So this is a cooled-down cell? No wonder their warriors are heatproof, their entire species have evolved to be highly heat resilient. This guy sounds pretty relaxed and food, great. Fourteen, you there? Didn’t you say I was out for weeks?’
‘I’m here. A day here is 84 hours, and their nights are 22 hours. You were out cold for 452 hours. Technically 4 days for them. But, I hear many people using the term ‘standard’ days or weeks on the island I assume there is some form of universal standardisation. Hurry up and recover, our mana stockpiles won’t last as long due to the heat and the ambient mana is very different so us clones’ absorption runes are running very inefficiently.’ Fourteen was scouting him from outside the volcano, nearer to the mining cave than the island.
“Urgh, this cell is always so hard to utilise. Give me a minute I’ll feed you. I have some medicine on hand too, it’s supposed to treat burns but…you clearly have more than burns. Whatever, it should be better than nothing.”
‘Magic, of course.’ A bubble of metal grew out of the walls and made an audible pop after separating from the walls. The glowing orange bubble popped open to reveal a dry red brick. The metal bubble formed a limb and the guard moved it to stuff the brick in his mouth.
“Ah…can’t chew? I’ll break it for you but you’re going to have to help yourself from there.
The helpful guard formed another limb by using the fluid metal and crushed the red brick into bits, almost powdered most of it. In any case, most of it entered Ebony’s mouth and he did his best to swallow. He almost choked but he wasn’t that dead and his muscles were still obedient.
“Wa--ter.” He could barely understand himself with his hoarse voice but the guard was able to pick up his words.
“Ah? Sorry, we don’t have that. I can’t even afford water for myself. Oh right, you’re not from Cinderash. We Cinderashians drink a type of dew. I didn’t bring you any, I heard it’s toxic to most non-Cinderashians. Let me ask the chief warden what to do since we can’t let you die.”
Ebony would have chosen to drink that dew if he was feeling fine but he decided not to test his constitution in his current, dying state. In any case, they didn’t want him to die so he wasn’t that desperate for liquid. As long as he had food, he would recover his stats and with mana, he could create water for himself.
‘Taste like a brick of fiery pepper. I miss dumplings already.’ Ebony looked back out as his mind wandered and scoured the gravitational wave data that Fourteen, Fifteen and Seventeen were sending him.