Another pattern of lights floated into my cages of spell and stone, and the Realm itself seemed to buckle from the attempts of the "System" to reach my dungeon now. It had been gaining in intensity with it's corrupted mana on the areas around me, but I wasn't too concerned at this point. Once again it was showing me it's fear, and I was more than happy to figure out why this little experiment was causing it distress. The orb had torn a hole in the sky and shredded it's ability to influence anything for a long time. I had a guess that it was because I had figured out that the "System" was using people as some kind of refinery for mana, but there was also the aspect of how it limited what they could do and how. That part didn't make sense unless it was some kind of person like the humans that wanted power and to stay in power. For sure the "System" had been around a very long time, and, if what these intruders had said was true, they were also seen as a goddess. Yet, something seemed off to me, and perhaps it was just because of my favorite story, but it seemed odd that a Goddess would limit those under her care. Honestly, I was finding myself wanting even more books so I could study these things.
Then my mind snapped back to the present, and I quickly observed the "Essence" of the human I recently acquired. I almost put him back into some kind of body, or attempt it at least, just to kill him again after he called me the System. It was an insult to me after all that I was doing to unravel it's secrets and break it in the most painful way possible. Yet, I knew it was more important to just be the bigger dungeon and move forward. Something that this Essence would help me with since it was flawless.
Unlike the Essence of the Beastkin, this Human was clearly like most things that I had changed or created from nature itself. Seamless transitions between patterns and forms that made it hard to focus on them. Like the whole thing was just a blur in your senses, and if I hadn't the experience to push past that powerful effect. I wouldn't be able to see the clear differences. The crude stitching of patterns or the drastic shift of the curving forms. Long ago, I had thought the Beastkin were more organic than the Humans when I observed the patterns while they were both still alive, and in a vague sense that was still true. Yet, it was because of a clearly altered pattern that looked more of curls and spirals than the Human's sharp lines and angles. But, when looking at them this close and away from the flesh they were part of it was clear that the Humans were the base that Beastkin came from.
Which is odd since all the records I have were of the old Empire of Beastkin that ruled here before the Humans came through the Door. A part of my mind brushed the inlayed patterns of "A Song of Fire". I had always felt like there was something special about that story, and the other versions of it that I had found confirmed it. My first copy was considered a "Banned Book" by the Human kingdoms because it made it seem like the "Demon" was the true ruler of the Realms. Humans were clearly idiots, though this wasn't the first experiment to prove that, that they would just ignore a truth so clearly written. Did the humans come to the Realm twice though? The young girl who decided to stay and gave rise to the Beastkin? Was that the gift the Dragon had given her? Giving a dungeon core sigh I returned to watching the last two intruders running towards the inner ward of the castle. There would be time for these questions later.
----
Elric ran with Harold close on his heels through the well designed castle interior. Soon they would leave the kitchens and exit into the stables of the inner ward. From there they would almost be home free, but they had yet to run into any of the castle's defenders that they had seen on the way in. In fact, his [Danger Sense] wasn't picking up anything but a low threat from all directions. It was enough to make him uneasy since it seemed to be getting more useless the deeper they went into the dungeon. Now it hadn't recovered from that, and they needed all the help they could get to escape safely from here. Not for the first time did the Beastkin wish that they could use the scripted spells that Humans could make on the fly outside the System's help. Yet, even the most skilled mages could only make the most basic of shapes out of mana. Not enough to create the complex forms need to script a spell.
"Nearly there," Harold said through gasping breaths as they passed through the stables and into the wide courtyard of the inner ward. Elric almost swore at him since it was words like that which always seemed to turn Lady Luck into a two timing whore. Like his thoughts made manifest a series of warnings from his [Mana Sense] came to him as the earth energy condensed beneath them. He had just enough time to raise to push the healer into the air while using [Mana Shell] to create a solid barrier beneath their feet. The sharp spikes of rock broke against the powerful barrier and they were only penned in rather than impaled directly.
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"[Energy Edge]!" He called out, and swung his staff to create an invisible blade of pure mana that shattered the spikes in front in a line. Harold muttered for a second before thrusting his hands forwards and a golden light covered them both. This was [Divine Shell] a middle tier healer spell that had an insane defense for only one attack, though it would count a series of attacks as one if they were close together. Elric could see Harold slum after casting it, indicating that his abilities were likely all on cooldown or used up for the day.
"Hurry through!" The man yelled, turning around to face the sound of skittering feet. Elric didn't argue, he was too tired to worry about it, and he had no illusions about being some great hero. He just wanted to escape, go home, and retire. Then a bladed arm came from above the arch of the gatehouse to cleave into his guts. The pain exploded through him before turning into a dull pain as shock set in. His body pulled itself off the blade as he went flying back into the courtyard, and crashed through several stone spikes before stopping. A large, dark green ant Queen hung from the gate with her first two legs looking like the scythes of some vile reaper.
"It's not polite to sneak through someone's home." Came the voice from the creature. Too smooth to come from her, so he figured it was some kind of magic. Then he laughed, analyzing magic in this condition was stupid. He should have checked with his eyes instead of relying on his broken [Danger Sense]. He coughed up blood as he tried to respond, but he was too hurt and his body screamed in pain. Closing his eyes he decided on one final gambit, if it was to be his last day alive. His less broken hand crushed the letter in his pocket, and he began to fight though his pain to channel his greatest spell. Being a level 50 mage had the benefit of granting a powerful version of magic called a "Great Spell" second only to a "Grand Spell" learned at level 90. [Great Quake] usually had too large of an area to use, but he didn't care if he couldn't live anyways. The ant queen seemed to notice something, but instead of rushing him she just twisted her head. As the magic condensed beneath the area, and everything began to shake violently. As Elric's broken body began to bounce like a child's play ball, the Queen just slashed a few times at the ground and stomped her legs.
Elric laughed at his enemies frustration until his sensed what she was doing, and then the earth stopped. She had cancelled a Great Spell with some kind of earth magic, but it hadn't been a spell, just her cutting away his own. Then he closed his eyes for the last time.
----
Yana coughed twice as the last of the stone dust settled in the large, broken room he found himself within now. It had taken days to break through each of these puzzles, and he had figured a few important things out. Things that he would have to return to Mother to share before he headed off to find his Sister now. They were too important to leave just in his own head. With the glowing lines finally dim he shuffled forwards into the final room of the chamber, and leaned his shoulder on the door until it cracked open. No glaring lights met his entrance just more dully glowing lines of power feeding into a large metal sphere encrusted with gems. Approaching it, he noticed the light coming from the sphere was actually the amount of spell scripting on the surface of the metal and gems. Making the previous examples of work he had seen look like only prototypes of a grander construction. Likely what they actually were, he mused as he drew closer to the sphere, his orb causing more issues for the large construct each foot he approached.
It was confirmation of the documents and papers he had managed to read parts of. This construct used a mana combination called "Domination" to control other mana types and even people through their mana. It was just a machine that was running on spell scripts though, and should have been dormant but it is likely that it was restored when the humans dug into some part of the main complex. It would have turned on in defense mode, and started to push people away from the ruins since they didn't have access. With the recent incursions causing it to ramp up it's defenses by re-creating people from the town that had died or moved away to distract. The question is where was that other form of energy coming from? The one that seemed to decay into mana was similar to what his Mother found deep down in the Mana Well. Did this place have one of those too? It would explain why the Hold was built here, and even why they dug into the ruins. They HAD found the Mana Well, but then were pushed away.
He gestured with his hand forwards and the orb moved right up against the complex device. Then, to Yana's shock, it screamed like a living thing.