Gathal Empire,

Undisclosed Location

A long bearded man descends a lengthy stretch of stone steps, emerging into a dimly lit room. Passing faceless, masked guards, he looked towards five robed figures who stood waiting. He grinned and waved, earning him their scowls.

“Malachi!” One of the older mages yelled. “You’re late! AGAIN!”

“Ha, don’t stress the small stuff!” Malachi quipped as he joined them. Each mage here was a Magus in their own right, a master of their arts, honored and respected by all. A Magus had a reputation to uphold but in contrast to the finely dressed and manicured mages present, Malachi always showed up in faded robes and overgrown beard lopped off at the end in a messy line. “And Selim, that scowl seems to have taken a permanent form on your face as of late. You should smile more.”

“You shameless, pisspoor excuse of a-”

“Erhem.” Their leader, unamused, started walking towards the center of the cavern where an ancient artifact sat atop a large platform and the others quickly followed.

Stepping onto the platform, the mages knelt around the artifact and placed their hands on a head-sized diamond. The large stone was cloudy with mana and gave off a strong but soft light. Some of the mages gasped at the density stored within the diamonds but otherwise waited silently.

Malachi frowned as he felt the power within his stone and mumbled, “How many mana stones were used to charge this…?” An adult slave could barely charge two fingernail sized stone in a month without danger of collapsing. He looked up from his gem and regarded their leader, “Roshan. You know this isn’t sustainable right? This is more than one plus half than the usual.”

Roshan smirked. “It’s fine. I’m just making sure the artifact wasn’t just lacking power all this time. May we continue? Oh great Malachi?”

With a sigh, Malachi nodded and watched the artifact; a relic of a lost civilization. The circular device was essentially a layered stack of magitech circuitry just over 5 meters across and almost a meter thick. Protecting the maze of gold and silver underneath was a smooth, transparent top with six gems embedded symmetrically at the edges. A metallic platform was positioned in the center for whatever the device was designed to teleport.

Seeing everyone was ready, Roshan brought his attention back to the artifact. “Begin.”

Malachi only had to keep the mana stable as he pushed it through from the gem to the receptor beneath it. The mana then flowed throughout the device, giving off a low hum. The other mages did the same and after a long moment, a soft light glowed from between the layers of the artifact as the space around it seemed to distort. With a flash, the mana-filled gems were completely drained and all was quiet again in the dimly lit cavern.

The other mages looked at each other in familiar disappointment but Roshan was completely still save for his jaw, clenched and trembling. 12 years. He thought. 12 failures. All the resources I’ve put into this and still nothing!

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*CRACK!* The stone under Roshan broke away from the platform and crumbled, exposing woven gold that stretched further within.

“Take this thing apart and inspect it over again.” Roshan ordered before walking away.

Malachi stood up, watching Roshans retreating figure. Crazy fool. This summoning will be the end of all of us… This will not succeed as long as I am here. Sighing, he walked to the damaged part of the platform. He left another mess for us to clean up! The trap circuitry within the platform was more important than the device itself. If the summoning was ever successful, this would be the last hope of containing the invited calamity.

Hours later, a team of slaves had taken the device apart and held them up separately by layer, under fluorescent mana lamps. as a few mages inspected each piece. Crystals embedded on the large magitech boards, looking for breaks and cracks. Unfortunately, this was about all they could do as the enchantments and circuitry were far different from what the Magus of this age knew.

Had an unfortunate accident not damaged the device, killing the lead researcher years ago, they would already be at the forefront of the extinct summoning magic.

Selim sighed as he walked out from under a section of the artifact, “Mazen, that old buffoon… Could have at least left us some of his notes.”

“Indeed.” Another mage agreed. “I can guess the purpose of some of these parts and enchantments now but as to how they come together is still a mystery. Frustrations aside, it is still a marvel to look at. All these intricate lines… and these crystals! I can’t imagine how they embedded the micro circuitry within!”

Selim gave Malachi a pointed look and asked, “Malachi, I know you’re not telling us everything you know. We’re no fools. At least tell us the purpose of some of these parts here.”

“So you wish to become my pupil? Heheh.”

With years of honor and pride, the magus staring at Malachi took offense to such words. None could stomach the thought of being placed under another mage. Especially one as unpresentable as Malachi. They are, afterall, the pinnacle of all magic users, mages of the highest caliber. Selim sneered, glaring at Malachi for a moment before huffing and walking towards another section of the artifact.

“Hmm~mmm~ Magus Malachi.” A gentlemanly Magus aproached with a polite smile.

“Tahmid.”

“You shouldn’t keep this up, Mal. Roshan suspects you keeping the research assistants in the dark.”

“I have no idea how to read any of it. The ancient text is in some kind of code. I can only guess like the rest of you as Mazen kept his work to himself.” Malachi continued feigning inspection as he thought of his mentor and father figure. Mazen Granius. The last time they spoke was the night before the fated “accident.” He recalled the anxiety and fear in his mentors voice as he destroyed all the research notes and instructed him of what to do should anything happen to the old man. Malachi traced a golden pathway with his finger and followed it to one of many crystals he had added. This cursed artifact can never become operational.

There were a few other lines inconspicuously rerouted, particularly in areas that determined the “where” and “what” in the summoning process. As long as these are not found out, the artifact will always summon “something” from “somewhere.” As to where it would appear, since the platform on the device was also tampered with, it would send the “something” anywhere in range. Although, considering its power, there’s no telling how far or near the summoned could appear.

Hopefully, it hasn’t been summoning a person in the middle of an ocean or something, Malachi thought. The device seems to be programmed to latch onto anything with mana so there is a good chance something alive will be brought into this world.