Looking at the two before me, I take a step and grab one of my manabloc chairs. Lately, I have been testing longer-lasting mana constructs with quite a bit of success. The chair’s still holding strong even a few days later.
There are a few small pieces missing though, mostly on the legs. Almost as if something had taken a few snake mouth-sized bites out of it.
I plop into the chair, cross my legs, and look over at the thylarin duo. What should I do with them? I promised to hold Tess to her promise but I could probably beat them up a bit. The way they’re acting is pissing me off.
“Who’s the prisoner?” Tess asks instead, and I decide to just lean back and listen.
Meanwhile, I connect to the anchor I left in the core and send bits of my mana into it. I was able to connect the anchor with some controls, but it's an extremely weak connection even after the hours I’ve spent on it. Just enough for me to take care of some of the less important functions.
“It's a thylarin Champion. We were Candidates to become his disciples, so he should recognize us.”
“You have to realize that it will be better to keep us alive,” his brother joins in.
They have very similar voices, even their bearing is similar. I can also sense they have a bit of mana. It somehow replenished slightly during the time they were here.
There’s no way they should be able to ignore whatever’s keeping us from regenerating mana here. If they speak the truth and this whole area is a trap for the Champion, what chance would these two, or I, have to ignore it?
“I think you overestimate yourselves and the Champion. He’s probably been left here without any mana or a method to restore it and leave for a reason,” Tess snaps, refusing to let the matter go.
“That much is true, but we intend to leave this moon, and people like our Champion might be our only choice. Surely such a person would be thankful if...”
“What’s he here for?” Tess interrupts him without a blink.
“He’s here just because he got a bit too carried away with experimentation.” Dravos waves it off.
“Seeking knowledge should never be grounds for punishment. But why do you care, lightning human? You’re here for a reason just like the rest of us, the same goes for your group and the crazed human over there.” Drekar says, pointing at me.
“I did nothing wrong,” I say defending myself.
“Sure, none of us did, crazy human, we were all just unlucky. So let’s cut to the chase, what do you say lightning human? The Champion’s prison is hidden but we know the way.” Drekar says, pointing at the center of the storm
“If we enter now we should be able to outlast that storm but we need to get there before it reaches us.”
That part he says louder, his intentions clear. He just wants to make sure as many passengers hear it as possible, to put more pressure on us.
Well, that’s kind of pointless. I would rather throw all the passengers one after another into that white sand than let them decide my fate.
“So what was the plan? In a nutshell.” I ask.
“We befriended a guide.”
“The one you killed, crazy human, he was a nice guy we met in Last Rest.”
“He also had that interesting monster from the Mana Desert for a pet. A cute, if deadly thing.”
“You could say it all came together. Him and us meeting…”
They continue to talk, one filling for the other while they maintain their bearing. The duo certainly seems a bit twisted in the head.
“The guide, like us, was always intrigued by the secrets of the Mana Desert and rumors about the trapped Champion. You could say he was obsessed with it.”
“He was a bit crazy, but he was still a fine guy, he even paid for the drinks once, do you remember brother?”
“Yes, he did. So we found the coordinates. A message in a bottle cast out into the world by our Champion.”
“He was always a smart guy. A terrifying guy.”
“He was indeed. Truly the finest of Champions. He’s been trapped there for a hundred years, enough time to start corroding the locks of his prison. Our guide friend’s pet was proof.” Dravos says, gesturing at the corpse of the monster, “Each monster from the area seems to have coordinates hidden in their bodies.”
"A message in a bottle."
“What a monster, that guy.”
“Indeed, brother. What a monster.”
“If he could break free of his solitary confinement, would it really be so hard for him to get out of this Prison given enough time?”
“To have the knowledge he possesses. To taste the possibility of becoming his disciples, even the possibility of being declared Champion Candidates. Oh, crazed human, I have to believe you, of all people would understand.”
And I do, maybe more than they expect. But I stay quiet, gesturing for the talkative brothers to continue.
“Brother, I think he understands, even if he doesn't say anything. Maybe we made a mistake, we could have befriended the crazy human as well. It would have made things easier.”
“It's too late now, but let us continue. We killed the guides as they began to notice the changes we made to the navigation systems. They weren't willing to cooperate. They were weak and lazy.”
“Some people from the central region are also like that. Too accustomed to their comfy prison after the years they’ve spent here, unwilling to escape their cage.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Pathetic.”
“Yes, pathetic.”
“So the SDAT is heading for the prison cell. We didn’t expect the storm, but such is fate. Nothing is ever perfect.”
That's when Tess interrupts again, “You seemed fully capable of going there on your own, why did you point the SDAT there?”
Dravos smiles, “We needed the extra mana reserves, lightning human. The mana batteries that people would bring, the mana in their bodies. Something for the Champion to use, as I’m sure you can imagine.”
“And fodder against the monsters, traps, and defenses we might encounter.”
“We also know some interesting inscriptions that could help, though they would require… sacrifices.” He says, unbothered by the people who would have been their sacrifices.
“Well, I think that's pretty much enough.” I use a bit of mana to create a barrier around them making it opaque and soundproof.
I turn to Tess and begin to speak, “So…”
“You want to go see the Champion,” she responds, grabbing one of the manabloc chairs to sit in.
“It's not like we can change where we are heading. Do we even want to with the storm approaching?”
“Okay, so how about we skip visiting the guy who could kill us all like it were nothing. Wait out the storm and then head to the central region?” I can almost hear the frustration in Sophie’s voice.
“Not enough mana.”
“Are you sure, Nat, is there really no way for us to generate enough mana to return after the storm?” Tess’s eyes pierce through me.
“Okay, there might be a small chance,” I acknowledge.
I won't say it in front of others, but I think I could abuse my unique passive to get enough mana for us to reach the central region. We could also try modifying the flying ship/train, by putting all people on deck and turning off defenses everywhere else. Or even getting rid of other passengers and focusing on defending the vital areas of the ship.
“Famir, can you take the others out and share the information we just got? I want to talk to my group,” Tess shouts, turning to the guy with the concentration skill and black chainmail.
“Ten minutes and then we bring others in to discuss options?” he asks.
“Sure.”
He leaves with a nod, and with a great deal of complaining, the room clears out, leaving only group 4 inside and the two thylarin confined in my barrier.
“How much mana do you have?”
“I was storing it over two weeks so quite a bit, but I'm already using bits of it to feed Deathtrap. I’m doing it even as we speak. The wind’s already started hitting us, and it’s sending more sand into the air and that means it’s crashes into the field. If it gets very much worse, it should be enough for a few days at most.”
“And your passive?”
“You know how it works, right? I told you already. Are you really so eager to beat me up?”
“It said something about external force, right?”
Just in case, I read the description again.
Mana-Kinetic Conversion Reservoir (Unique Epic) - The user's body passively channels mana from the reservoir into their kinetic responses, creating a feedback loop that adapts to physical impacts or nearby bursts of kinetic energy. When struck or near a powerful source of it, their body can absorb the kinetic energy and store it as mana.
“It says that, but I haven’t gotten it to work yet. If it activates during the thunderstorm, it could end up badly for all of us without the field of Deathtrap.”
“Well, worst case scenario, we just have to beat you up for a few days.” Maya smiles.
Tsk. I knew she was still holding a grudge for the way I treated her back on the 1st floor. I bet she would love to “help out” with my passive that way.
“With the amount of mana we need, you would need to beat me for weeks. Sorry to disappoint.”
Though, that might not be all that disappointing for them.
“Could that prisoner really help? If we shared our mana with him?” Min-Jae asks, looking at me as he turns away from his examinations of my barrier.
Sophie responds with a question of her own, “Are we sure we want to be left at his mercy?”
I can see that Tess, like everyone else, finds herself deep in thought. She’s playing with her hair, coiling it around her finger before letting go and then doing it again. She’s always been like that, right down to her absent-minded expression when she gets caught up in thinking about a problem.
In the end, she stands up, having made her decision, “We don't have many options. We will survive the storm first. We can't avoid it so we may as well let Deathtrap land at the place we expect to find the Champion. Then we can see if we can’t gain a bit more information and think things over before we decide to make contact.”
“Got it. I’ll head back over to the backup core.” Leaving the rest to them, I reclaim the mana from the barrier and leave the room.
----------------------------------------
Thirty minutes pass as I get deeper into the control systems of Deathtrap, the guide helping me as much as he can without going kaboom. All while the horizon grows darker, as sand continues to pummel the sides of the ship. White grains of sand bouncing off the protective fields and metal plates.
Any other time, it would look pretty, but I know just how deadly they can be.
We evacuate parts of the ship and I redirect the reserves into the places we’ve gathered the passengers with the help of the guide who takes more direct control of the mana, while I feed the engines fighting to reach our destination before the storm hits us.
The other guide in charge of defenses barely has any time, constantly locked in his own control room, struggling to keep the field active.
As the edge of the storm hits us and starts shaking the ship, it’s all I can do to keep the defenses and engines supplied. I even send some of my mana through in addition to the reserves in the core. The guide in charge of defenses sets them to their maximum, muttering that we won't be able to survive if the storm hits us at full force. He’s speaking through the communication systems in the control panels. A worse version of Sophie’s constructs.
As the ship tilts even more, the rust starts falling off its metal walls. The tilt is noticeable now and the creaking sounds like someone squeezing an empty can.
Then the guide in control of our defenses dies.
His last scream having been picked up by the control panel’s connections, his guards likely meeting the same fate.
A thought about what must have caused his death immediately comes to mind, and I can't help but chuckle. This surprises the vyssari who is still in the room with me, along with a few of his men - the same number of guards as the recently-dead guide.
Deathtrap then nosedives, people, and furniture flying all over the place. The contraption’s creaking increases and the storm raging outside sounds more intense and the sky has gone dark, but at the same time, a light shines through, reflected by trillions of grains of white sand.
Like a waterfall, sand washes over Deathtrap, and then even that little light disappears, only to be replaced with pure darkness.
Darkness and quiet.
The sound of the storm disappears as if it had never existed and then Deathtrap hits the ground, its metal plates screeching against the rock of the surface until it crashes again slamming into something we can’t see and coming to a full stop. Then the engines turn off, the vibrations and sound that were so ever-present wane away, to be replaced with silence while Deathtrap creaks deafeningly and tilts over, collapsing onto its side with a loud thump that shakes through the frame.
All movement stops.
We have arrived at our destination.