The citizens of The Belfry, which they had now renamed the People's Communion, had formed a semi-democracy after their minds had been freed from the god controlling them all. They had insisted on making me their new ruler, but I declined. "No offense, but I have more important things to be doing." In truth, the opportunity to take a job that seemed so tame and stress-free in comparison to my current one was enticing, but I could not do it.
About three days into our stay in the castle, I pull Leviticus and Winter aside. "I will be traveling on my own for a while. To reinforce security here, I will be brining my golem army from the Emptiness and stationing them around the city while they sort things out. I'm not sure how long I'll be gone." Leviticus nods, but Winter stays completely stoic.
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As I leave the castle's boundaries and my golems begin their patrol around the perimeter of The Belfry, I open a flux rift and take my scrying mirror from my laboratory. "Mirror, where can I find the goddess named Yana?"
The mirror reveals to me a very tall mountain. It quickly zooms in towards a cave near the peak lined with gold and other precious minerals. Inside, a woman sits cross-legged. The mirror reveals she has a noble soul and an immense vis signature. She is adorned with robes one would expect an ancient roman to wear. Interesting, but nothing I haven't dealt with before.
I open a flux rift at the base of the mountain and fly up to the cave with my thaumostatic harness. As I hover in front of it, however, I see two entities the mirror seemingly glided right past. One has the body of an anthropomorphic lion, and the other has four arms. The lion-man wields a sword and shield, and the four-armed woman carries four spears. I fly over to the small flat area in front of the cave they're standing on.
"Halt, sorcerer!" The woman shouts. "Why have you come to this cave on Mount Trano?"
"Who are you? I did not see you in the intelligence I gathered."
"We are the guardians of this cave," says the lion-man, "and we cannot let you enter."
"Why not? If whatever's in here is so important, don't you think it would have been more effective to simply hide it rather than not only furnishing the cave but posting two guards outside?"
"We cannot say what is inside. Leave now or we will force you to leave."
"Mmn, very well." I attempt to dominate their minds with a media attack, but their willpower is strong, which also prevents me from reading their minds. "Interesting. Not many can resist my psychic powers. In that case, would you like to do this the hard way instead?" I take the primal cutter form my hip. They both shout battle cries and charge at me. I could simply stop time and kill them, but I could use a bit of hand-to-hand experience.
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The four-armed woman splits off to the left while the lion-man charges me head on. He raises his sword above his head, preparing for a powerful blow. I raise my spear to block. However, through the goggles of revealing, I see the shape of the vis in his body has become very odd. I backstep, and he quickly fades into a side-strike. What? The woman comes at me from my right and I push her back with a telekinetic blast from my gauntlet.
"What was that you did just now?" I ask the man.
"Since I already used it, I suppose there's no point in hiding it. I used a battle technique called 'Illusory Feint'. It's kind of like sorcery, but it uses your stamina instead of mana and it's focused on weapon combat."
"Why the hell would you tell him that, you prideful idiot?" The woman says angrily. The man simply laughs.
"Very well. Since you were honorable enough to explain your ability, I will explain the one I am about to use." I socket a spell focus into my gauntlet and raise it. "This ability creates a massive maelstrom of fire. However, this fire isn't like the fire I assume your sorceries would produce. This is the pure essence of fire, a fire so hot it can melt absolutely any material. It is the pure substance of heat." I raise my gauntlet to the air and shout, "Firestorm!"
A massive whirlwind of blue flame surrounds us. My flux, of course, protects me. "Battle Technique: Phase!" The woman shouts. She becomes a translucent shade of purple and stands in the firestorm unharmed.
"Battle Technique: Quickstep!" The lion-man quickly appears outside of firestorm's range, but he is slightly late with his reaction, and all firestorm needs to cause damage is a singular planck time. His body is engulfed in flames. He rolls on the ground and screams in pain, and his body is covered in first to second-degree burns.
"Are you alright!?" The woman shouts.
"Nothing that will kill me," the lion-man shouts.
"You both are exceptionally skilled warriors. Perhaps you will consider joining me instead of protecting this bitch of a goddess?"
They both stand shocked. "How did you know she was in there!?" The man yells.
"Oh, please. You think I'm powerful enough to create a whirl of fire as hot as that but not smart enough to penetrate whatever weak scrying barriers you had on this cave?"
The man screams in rage and they both come at me again. "I'll fight you hand to hand. It would be boring to just cut you down!" The woman reaches me first. All four of her spears bounce off of me as my runic shielding effortlessly deflects them.
"He's got some sort of shield!" She shouts.
"Battle Technique: Unblockable Blade!" The man shouts. I get ready to parry his sword strike with my spear, but the shape of his vis becomes weird again. I try to backstep again, but the woman's spears strike me from behind, pushing me forwards. Uh oh.
"Battle Technique: Illusory Flurry!" A thousand images of his sword leap in front of me, seemingly striking me but simply phasing through me. Since these illusions are products of magic, they all have faint vis signatures. If I can determine which blade has no signature, I can find the real blade! My eyes dart around impossibly fast, and at last I find the real sword, hurtling straight towards my abdomen. I attempt to parry it, but I am a fraction of a second too late. My spear slightly changes its trajectory, but it still hits me. The skill the man used, unblockable blade, imbued the sword with an absolutely absurd amount of vis, completely shredding the local aura. Usually, that wouldn't be possible, but I'm assuming the goddess in the cave has been storing vis inside these servants for a long time.
Using the immense vis, the sword not only cuts through my runic shielding, but plunges straight through my thaumium armor and into my abdomen.