In front of Kilt, three People fly out of Nowhere right into the dirt and roll like skipping stones on the ground.
“What just happened!?”
“Master! Emergency, they noticed our Infiltration way earlier and even knew about my way to spy! They not only sent us back as a warning, but…”
This time a great rift in space opens up over the Town of Kilt with lightning as background and storm clouds to show off. All these things are not really needed, but while we are at it, I appreciate the method of Baphomet in letting Esther appear in style.
Walking on nothing like an invisible platform is over the Town, Esther walks leisurely out from the rift and looks down on Kilt which started all of the defensive wards up.
“That is the one who greeted us. Quise, why is she here?”
“They want to give us a warning and destroy every ward we have in the Town!”
“Impossible! She would need Months to break every single one! Even Archmages would need time to break the core ones. How long does she want to wreak havoc, is she not scared of war?!”
“They are not, they talked about crazy things right now!”
As finally all Wards are fully active Esther made her move… with talking.
“How quaint! First you disrespect us that much, now you cower behind those paper defences. I was ordered to only do a slight warning, but let me have some fun, will you?”
First Esther unleashes her full pressure of Mana and Miasma. While she is rather weak in both parts, if they are used together they are extremely fear inducing and destructive.
“Witch! Beryl?! No, she never transformed into a true one. Who is she?”
With a wave of Esther’s hand a gigantic runic circle appears below her feet. This is normally not possible, but for her now? Well she had nearly fully comprehended the whole runic System and made even her own personal Runes. Something must have broken her limits, when she became a Witch to be able to compute that much Data.
“What in the Abyss!”
“BREAK!”
Like Glass every single Ward broke. Not one was spared, and this meant also the ones on the ‘specimen’ in their laboratories. I bet there must be chaos right now.
“Oh, also a small present from me to you all.”
Huh? Wait Esther, there was nothing more, you should just go back and…
“CLEANSE!”
The Runic circle just flickered and then there were new kind of Runes, those runes hammer her Mana right into the whole town and evaporate not only the Incense but also all implanted suggestions. She did not do it delicately but erased them right out of everyone’s brain with ruthless prejudice.
Some bled from eyes and ears and some even fell unconsciousness, but all the others who have their mind cleansed start to remember and puzzle every instance they worked on something that was strange in their rational thinking. Sealed away knowledge and lost memories came back and show everyone how there seems something off with the Ruling of the Amber Woods.
I bet normally those things dissipate slowly over time after the Amber Woods were gone from their territory or maybe get forgotten forever like a strange dream, but how Esther did it, it shows how they were manipulated. While so many are right now in a daze, I can imagine the Havoc later on. Jeez…
“Now I feel better. Kuhuhu… Have fun with our presents you spying vermin!”
And with that she enters the rift again and vanished like a Nightmare.
…
“Report.”
For an emergency at this state, their leader is extremely calm. Either he has a great temperament or had sniffed too much on his own incense.
“We were… banished from the Crater by someone called Baphomet on the behalf of the supposed elven vice leader called Beta. They noticed our intrusion maybe even immediately, but let us look around until we maybe touched a few spots, they really do not want us to look at.”
“What are those spots?”
“A… I do not know this species… Some kind of Plant Humanoid told about how her Wife’s place was being surveyed. I believe it is either one of the sealed off floors or one of the two Gardens in front of the Castle, as those places were being traced by Chris.”
Damn right. Leafy is rather pissed on the intrusion. I bet they were… busy, when the flowers noticed something magical barging in. While it was swatted away, it annoyed both of them, as there should be no attacker and had their supposed free time.
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“A plant Human, huh? Anything else?”
“A Foreigner and some metallic Golems were also with them as we already noted in our Survey. Quise was caught right away, but they just ignored her, until the talk about our uncouth behaviour. They talked about how they would teach us a lesson for being so brazen.”
The great leader just nods.
“That they did. All Wards were broken, and while most people were only subtle controlled, the talk about the ones who were deeper in trance made their rounds and in time we might be mistrusted in nearly every place of this town.”
“This was not even the punishment, only all the wards should be broken. This Witch Esther just did that as some kind of ‘bonus’.”
“A terrible Bonus. We might lose our public image, if we are not careful. How are the wards?”
“Sir Kart, we are right now working on the most needed ones. While the anti scrying ward was repaired in this room, all the defensive wards are still not functional. If we get attacked right now, there would be horrible consequences.”
“I do not think, they would attack us. They said this was a warning, and we better heed it. While we are out of our depths, we can not fight something, that has that much powerful individuals. This True Witch might only be able to be slain by a Grand Magus reliably, and if Arcana does not want to go to that lengths for a piece of land, we will just be watching and documenting every single thing.”
“But, are we not infiltrating…”
“Silence. This order was told, as we thought the Crater had only limited capabilities. This time, they showed us the true powers of the people inside. Even Telk should know how futile it would be to risk so many sacrifices for so little gain. Even if there is a pure Mana Vein, the entrance is not large enough for a high number of Soldiers and sending our most capable Grand Magi to maybe lose their lives because of the unknown threats would make us vulnerable to Ilstin and Ulk.”
“I understand. The Message will be written to Ivory Tower tonight.”
“Good. Now to how to reduce the damage to our Image. Our times as hidden Blades might be over, if we do not find a way to hold the Information in check. Has anyone an Idea?”
“The attack was sudden, and maybe we can induce a suggestion of mind manipulation to let most of them think those memories were a ruse implanted…”
I have heard enough. Slowly dissipating the small black rat into shadows I stop my hold on Angie.
‘Thank you for letting me borrow your powers’
Sweating and a little pale Angie bows to nothing in particular.
“I am honoured to be at use to you, Father.”
Well to use shadow Rats I needed to give her more Miasma than normal. She might be overwhelmed still. Sorry for the circumstance, but you were the nearest point. Better think of repaying her with something…
…
“Home sweet home. Why were you so obstinate to walk back? Baphomet could have teleported us as an emergency, Snow?”
“Don’t wanna! We were strolling around together, and just for some flies to run back home? No, thank you!”
She just wanted to be travelling around a bit more, huh? I can understand her somewhat. Snow must be bored to death, only being able to run around in the Castles.
Leafy did her job too, but some protests were coming from the Root. Talking about how we just do what we want with the Forest and how we have no right to do what we are about to do. Funnily enough Leafy does not care any more what those Elder say.
While Leafy still has some respect for her former Queen, the Elders are for her not even an afterthought. While the Elders kept protesting, the Queen just asked for the details and agreed with the changes, because they might happen to be very beneficial.
Dr. Simov already has made more Tri… Ground Digger and started the channels deep under the Forest. I would not even care, if the Root had said no. I need an outlet and the Forest is the best place to dissipate everything, so deal with it.
Right now I am working on the FINAL Project. So many things to put together, but I am so close! Just a little bit more and I can do what I wanted to do in the first place.
While I inscribe the Runes and test them how they work in reverse order even Esther said she would not touch those with a ten foot pole. Those are even too dangerous for her… for now. She is interested, but said ‘I am not suicidal. That there is not runic language, that should be handled by me... yet!’
While she is flighty she is still a bit level headed. Great to know.
Another thing I am working on is the thing I let grow inside the Dimension hidden in my Dimension. ...That sounds so confusing…
So the little shard of Space has the right Laws of Physics to make an anchor. This one grows now, as I have found the perfect specimen to be used. What it is? Secret, hehe!
Still, scary things are creeping around the World without care huh? As long as the thing does it’s job, I am happy. I even used a small shard of my broken soul, that was hovering inside my mental Ocean to create a proper soul. Dr. Simov helped and made a tiny core that is neither Monster nor Golem.
It took a while to get him to help me, but he understands how I need it to send something before I can go myself. Still he is so stingy by only helping me on one artificial Soulstone.
…
Three weeks passed, and while the Root visited a bit miffed, they still gladly accepted the Mana Dew with their heads held high… Maybe more their noses high, but I do not care about People who do not even thank a benefactor of their Forest appropriately.
There might be a rotation for now, as the Ambassador always changes. Maybe they try to find the right one, who might be the best Person without prejudice, or they train their People to talk to non Root on us. Do not care, I lost most of my hope on them after the Petal/Leafy incident.
While I work on the Final Project the side Project with Dr. Simov is finally running. Runic Circles do not really work with the Fuel directly, but when the Runic system is used with the addition of that oily substance from those tentacles, they discharge violently.
Using this after the test we created multiple chambers with the rest of the Crystals from the Geode and its ‘blood’ to make filters including a filter membrane splitting it into inert… Whatever that polymer is and volatile Miasma.
The Things I created are being held in suspension for now, to work as Mana filter. They will grow and might go insane, if not regularly being tended to, but please hold on for the most crucial event please.
One of the Circles is right now running, as when we start the other six we still have on standby, we might have too much Mana at the same time. I might need it for the transport, but if we just start it, then there would be so much even ejecting it through the Forest would be polluting the World with Mana.
If my deduction is right (and most of the time it is not, somehow) the whole World starting with this continent would suddenly have Mana Burn. Not what I want, but that can be Dr. Simov’s problem after we are gone. I just gift him with that, as he helps me with the Source of enough Mana for a Dimensional Jump through the most dangerous place I can imagine.
Fully working, I would bet the whole Fuel would be turned into Mana in about… a Century? Maybe two? Assuming of course those children do not break out and destroy the World on their own. I have improved the design of the Runic Circle. The truth is, those Tilean people never wanted to overcharge the Circles to create Mana but just filter it into sealable components… I wonder why that is.
Anyway, using Seven with alien Crystals and blood of a Misasmic eating Geode made them supercharged. Even the former Great Kingdom had not so much luck in Materials than I have. Luck, ha! My Mind was invaded for those crystals, so better be useful to me you oversized salt shaker!