224: On the Shoulders of Giants

“No, no!” Saunak scolded, waving his hands. “That’ll never work!”

The mad thaumaturge wore a helm that truly made him live up to his name. The metal contraption entirely covered his face, bulging like a dome around his head. Tubes and black wires connected the device to a nearby gizmo, which Vir recognized as similar to the ones Ashani used to spend hours in front of—the ones with the floating panels.

The device Saunak used didn’t have floating panels, but instead showed moving images in front of his eyes when he wore the ridiculous-looking helm.

Vir couldn’t be sure what all it did, though one thing was for certain—it allowed Saunak to see prana like Vir did. Or at least, a facsimile.

The demon had offered to allow Vir to experience it, but Vir wasn’t about to stick his head into such a suspicious-looking device. He still wasn’t sure when Saunak was being genuine, and when he had ulterior motives.

Like Cirayus, who had Sikandar in his hand, Vir kept Prana Current active, in case he needed to escape at a moment’s notice.

This has to be a trap, he thought again, looking furtively around. The three stood atop the high railing, though only a handful of Saunak’s humanoid automatons had followed them up. The spiders had disappeared back into the walls of his tower, and the ones that remained would pose little threat to the combined might of Vir, Shan, and Cirayus.

So what’s his angle, then? Vir thought, eyeing the ridiculous-looking demon suspiciously. It was hard not to be suspicious when he wore something that looked so menacing.

Did he want Vir to show him how he manipulated the Automaton directly? But if so, what would he gain? Should Vir succeed, he was taking an Automaton, whether Saunak let him or not.

No. He’s expecting me to fail. He just wants to study how I use my prana. He’ll attack us when he’s learned enough.

Though, casting a glance at the mad thaumaturge, Vir wasn’t so sure. The logic felt shaky, even to him. Why take such a risk? If Vir succeeded, Saunak would be in a terrible position. Surely, he wouldn’t risk his prized Imperium creations so carelessly?

“Well? Try again, try again!” Saunak urged, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

Vir shrugged and returned to his attempts to control the Automaton. Either way, he stood to gain much from this, and while a part of him considered killing Saunak immediately, another, larger part of him wanted to believe in the demon. If only because if he honored their bargain, it would go a long way toward undoing his prior transgressions against them. And that meant the possibility of working together in the future.

“The issue is I lose control of my prana the moment it leaves my body,” Vir said. “It’s always been this way.”

“Hmm. Hmmm. Well, give it another go, anyway, will you?”

Vir shook his head in defeat, touching the colossal Automaton Guardian’s shoulder again. Thinking back to how he’d first formed Prana Blade—by shooting his prana out in a jet—Vir attempted to aim the prana to send it to different points in the Automaton’s body.

If it were human-sized, his tactics might’ve actually worked. With Prana Current, he could now shoot a jet—or a dart—of prana far further than before. It dissipated much quicker within a solid object, but even then, he might’ve managed it.

The trouble, though, was the Guardian stood sixty paces in height. Nothing Vir did could get prana to the proper areas.

“Okay, forget that,” Saunak said. “Put as much prana as you can into its shoulder, where you’re touching.”

Vir complied, cycling Current loops as fast as he could before shooting a jet of Ash prana directly into the Imperium creation.

He was about to give up when its enormous arm jolted and its fist clenched.

“Astounding!” Saunak shouted in awe.

“What? Getting it to move?” Vir asked, dubious of the thaumaturge’s exaggerated reaction. He’d moved the Automaton, yes, but only barely.

“No, that was quite pathetic,” Saunak said. “Rather, it’s quite remarkable just how much prana it took to move it even that slight amount!”

Vir stared at Saunak expressionless as he considered how strong to make his punch. Saunak was weak, after all. He didn’t want to accidentally kill him.

But before he could go through with his plan, Cirayus spoke up.

“Had quite enough of wasting our time?” the giant asked. “Just give me a reason to remove that head of yours. Don’t even need much of a reason. Just something.”

“Now, now, Cirayus. These are concepts you wouldn’t even begin to understand. Stick to swinging your big swords around. That’s where you types belong.”

Cirayus leveled a death glare at Saunak, and, once again, Vir was the one to break them up.

“Saunak, he really will kill you. Stop goading him. Cirayus?”

“You needn’t worry about me, lad,” Cirayus said calmly. So calmly that Vir wondered if the giant was tapping into his Foundation Chakra. “Unlike what this egomaniac would have you believe, I do understand the gist of the issue. My question is this—Imperium Creations run on Ash prana. You’ve confirmed this yourself.”

Vir nodded.

“Then Saunak must have modified his control tablet to use his elemental affinity. Yes?”

“Right…” Vir said.

“Can he not simply turn the change back?”

Vir blinked. That’s… so obvious. How did he not think of that? He’d immediately assumed whatever Saunak had done was irreversible.

“Well?” Vir asked. “Can you?”

“Why, of course! It’s a simple task. Actually, I didn’t really alter the tablet, so much as switch configurations that were already built in.”

“If that’s true…” Vir asked, doing his best to keep his eyebrow from twitching, “Why didn’t you say so an hour ago when I started experimenting?”

“And waste an opportunity to study you!? Are you out of your mind?” Saunak gasped, seemingly offended.

Right. Should’ve figured it’d be something like that.

“Alright, enough games. Change the tablet to accept Ash prana, and teach me the commands,” Vir said. “And please don’t test my patience. Not if you value your life.”

Saunak visibly deflated. “Very well.”

— —

It took only another thirty minutes for Vir to master the controls. As he’d suspected, rather than control the Automaton’s every motion, Saunak had been issuing commands by sending pranic pulses into the metal tablet. Commands like ‘Halt’, ‘Walk’, ‘Run’, ‘Defend me’, ‘Patrol this area’, ‘Pursue hostile’, and ‘Flee’ were just a handful of the many commands that could be sent. Helpfully, Saunak’s tablet displayed the required number of pulses and their durations to trigger each one.

It wasn’t hard—the only timing consuming bit was memorizing which pulses mapped to which commands. Vir jotted down the sequences, in case he ever needed to refer back.

After Saunak guided the Automaton out of its berth, he switched configurations and handed the tablet to Vir, who then practiced the different commands. At first, it took him several seconds to refer to his notes and send the proper signal, but after an hour, he’d brought that down to less than a single second for most actions.

Being slow wasn’t much of a hindrance in everyday life, but in combat, seconds mattered. Vir ensured he was more than comfortable with the controls before bringing the Automaton back to the berth to drop Saunak off.

Vir tensed, waiting for the demon to pull some trick. To laugh and claim he fooled them—that no one in their right mind would ever simply give away such a priceless treasure. He waited for the moment the demon wrested control from them and summoned his minions.

Instead, Saunak simply turned and sauntered down the raised catwalk, waving behind him.

“You’re just giving this to us?” Vir shouted after him. “No strings attached?”

Saunak turned, a slight smile on his face. “Well, sure. But if you do abandon it, I’m going to bring it back, you know? Consider it more of a loan.”

“Abandon? Why would we—” Vir’s words hung in his mouth. Ah, right. Cirayus had mentioned it earlier. That they’d never find an Ash Gate large enough to fit such an enormous machine. Even if they did, Vir suspected the prana in the Demon Realm would be insufficient to sustain such a contraption. After riding atop it, he now knew just how much Ash Prana it consumed to operate. The amount was staggering, and he wondered if even the outer reaches of the Ashen Realm had enough to support it.

I see. We’ll have to abandon it when we leave for the Demon Realm. But until then…

Vir grinned. “Until then, it’s ours. Right?”

“Yes, of course. Well then, I’m a busy demon and I’m sure you have places to go, so I bid you a good day,” Saunak said, obviously wanting to return to his tower. “Remember this next time we meet! Oh, the experiments we’ll run…”

It was clear Saunak’s whimsy had already moved on, no doubt thinking of his next project, whatever that was.

As he watched the thaumaturge’s receding back, Vir wondered if he couldn’t maximize the benefits he got from this encounter. He didn’t want to be greedy—an Automaton Guardian was already more than he could have ever dreamed—but what was the harm in asking?

“Um, Saunak?”

“Hmm? Yes? What is it?”

“Do you, uh, have any manuals on basic thaumaturgy? Y’know, that I might be able to learn?”

It was something that had interested Vir his entire life. Ever since he’d been labeled Prana Scorned, he’d wondered how orbs functioned. Unfortunately, humans only knew how to copy the inscriptions that made their orbs work. They knew knowing about the underpinnings. From what he’d seen, though, demonic knowledge outstripped that of the humans in this area. There was a chance they knew more, and who better to ask than Saunak?

The demon’s eyes lit up, and his demeanor shifted in an instant. “Learn Thaumaturgy, you say? All on your own?”

“I’m a quick study. Just ask this guy,” Vir replied, thumbing to Cirayus, who grunted in affirmation.

“Hmm,” Saunak said, before snapping his fingers. A spider automaton melted through the ceiling, dropping onto the metal catwalk. Saunak’s fingers played over his tablet, and then the spider ran off.

“Thaumaturgy is not a simple art,” he said. “Even I cannot teach you all there is to know of its secrets.”

“But you’ve studied it a great deal, haven’t you?” Vir asked.

“I have,” he said thoughtfully. “Can I not convince you to stay another few days? I promise you’ll learn more from me than from stuffy old tome.”

“No,” Cirayus cut in, his tone allowing no rebuke.

Saunak sighed dramatically, though Vir was sure Cirayus had expected such a response. “Very well. If you insist. Then just wait here a moment, if you will?”

Though Cirayus appeared on edge, he said nothing, instead keeping his eyes trained on Saunak.

Vir and Shan did the same, though there was far less suspicion in Vir’s mind by now. The ancient thaumaturge was eccentric, yes, and perhaps ruthless in his pursuit of his research, but he could be reasoned with. He was just… more nuanced than Vir had initially given him credit for.

The spider automaton returned a few minutes later, though Vir couldn’t be sure if it was the same one. It carried a large book above its head, which Saunak casually tossed to Vir.

He caught it, raising a cloud of dust.

“The most basic of the basics. I haven’t touched that manual in centuries. Might be of use to you. Or it might all be gibberish. Come back to me when you’ve mastered that. I’ll give you another.”

Vir rolled his eyes. As if returning to Saunak was such a simple matter.

“Why not just give it to me now?”

“It’d do more harm than good. Without a solid foundation, you risk learning incorrect methodologies. In thaumaturgy, this is a perfect recipe for tragic results,” Saunak asked. “No, I think not. Old Saunak will guide you when the time comes. Now begone, the lot of you!”

And with that, the mad thaumaturge turned tail and disappeared into his tower.

Vir turned to Cirayus.

“So, uh… I guess we can go?”

The four-armed giant looked as dumbfounded as Vir. “I suppose, lad. I suppose.”

And so, Vir, Shan, and Cirayus set out. Not Leaping or Blinking, but riding on the broad shoulders of one of the most advanced creations of the gods.