(***Yoko Flashback***)
Hel walked over, touched the tower, and said, “I think it’s sealed by magic and it’s easy enough to dispel but we should investigate it a bit more to make sure that there are no other hidden spells.”
Yoko who was opening and closing her hand to check its condition turned and said, “Yes even the liquid metal spikes are covered in poison and have a spell attached to increase pain. I’ve dispelled both but it makes me think that we need to be careful.”
Yoko and Hel then stepped back as Yoko began to probe the tower with her mana. Doing this she could check if there were and spells that reacted to mana. As Yoko saw that, there was no reaction she then activated her divine sight ability and began to examine the tower.
After investigating for 3 solid hours Yoko and Hel were able to figure out that the tower was enchanted by 5 runic spells. Runic enchantment was a form of enchantment magic that required a rune to be craved somewhere on the object and then infused with magic. The first rune controlled the poisonous liquid metal that created spikes to defend the tower. The second rune enchanted the liquid metal with a spell that drains life-force and increased the victim's sense of pain. The third rune simply made the tower hard to perceive causing those affected by it to simply overlook it as if it didn’t exist. The fourth rune acted as a failsafe and if the tower were to be forcibly breached then it would destroy the tower and all its content. That last rune was the most troubling in that it connected all the runes together so that the only way to open the tower was to disable all the runes at once.
Yoko sighed as she looked at the tower and said, “Disabling the runes would be easy if we had to do it 1 at a time but all 5 together is a bit tricky.”
“Yes it’s doable but the timing is the tricky part. I believe that the people of this city must have enchanted an object to do this task for them so we should do the same.” suggested Hel
Yoko nodded and asked, “Is there anything here that can withstand 5 separate enchantments?”
They looked around but found nothing capable of withstanding the enchantments. Finding nothing Hel suggested that they use blood. Hel then sliced her hand and bled a glowing light green blood. The blood floated into the air and formed a green crystal as the wound on Hel’s hand closed. Hel then grabbed the crystal and handed it over to Yoko. When Yoko grabbed the small crystal, she was shocked to find that this tiny object held enough mana to equal a quarter of her maximum capacity. Hel smiled at Yoko’s shocked expression and said, “We should hurry up and see if it works.”
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Yoko snapped out of her initial shock and began to inject her mana into the crystal. The crystal started to float and Yoko closed her eyes beginning the enchantment process. Hel walked over to the side as to not distract Yoko as she began to inscribe the counter runes onto the crystal.
After 15 minutes, Yoko opened her eyes and the crystal floated towards the tower. When the crystal touched the tower, a bright cyan light shined and blinded everyone in the cave shortly. When the glow died down the doorless tower was revealed to have formed a door and the liquid metal exterior had grown completely still.
Hel walked towards the tower and took a looked and said, “Looks like all the enchantment are gone now.” Hel then picked up the crystal that had fallen down and tossed it to Yoko.
Yoko caught the crystal, put it into her pocket, and followed Hel into the tower. When they entered the tower, they found that it was like another dimension within. Yoko looked around and said, “Seems to be spatial architecture it’s bigger on the inside.”
The tower was filled with many books, items, and artifacts from before the city fell. The 2 looked around and they found 10 capsules that contained sleeping women. Yoko used her divine sight to see what type of creature these women were and was surprised to find out that they were soulless homunculi. When she touched the capsule a voice rung out and said, “Please refrain from touching the capsules.”
The 2 looked and found nobody around so they yelled out, “Who’s there? Who are you?”
The voice responded and said, “I am Aquilina and I am here to help all authorized users with anything they need.”
“Are you an artificial intelligence?” asked Hel
“Yes now, will the user please confirm their names.” said Aquilina
“I’m Yoko and that’s Hel.” said Yoko
“Yoko and Hel are now registered as authorized users. Please call my name when my services are required.” said Aquilina
“Then I have a question. Are any of the items currently active?” asked Hel
“No besides the mana conversion generator all other pieces of machinery are currently inactive.” answered Aquilina
“Looks good then let’s go.” said Hel
“Wait what we still need to find out about this place!” yelled Yoko as her eyes began to glow
Hel stopped walking towards the exit, turned to face Yoko, and said, “We came here to find out if this place was a threat and it’s not. We can now take our time investigating this place with the help of Aquilina whenever we desire. So let’s head back and discuss with the others first. I suggest you get in control of your lust for knowledge soon or you’ll lose yourself in it.”
Yoko reined in her desire and followed after Hel. They went to explain what they discovered to Hikaru before return back to the hotel for the day. Following Hel’s advice, Yoko decided to investigate the tower only 3 hours a day for the next month so that she could train her desire.
(***End of Flashback***)
“So that’s pretty much all the major things that happened while you were gone.” said Yoko
“What happened to Soma and Mina?” asked Zero
“They finished rebuilding Hakuba Shrine 2 months ago so Mina and her father returned home. As for Soma, he’s currently helping Alucard train the new vampires.” answered Yoko