Chapter 498 - Metal Cathedral

I sit in deep thought, watching as Lily goes from person to person, healing the serious wounds and letting natural regeneration deal with the rest. Everyone is battered, and my Ley Line snapping has sent us somewhere unfamiliar.

Tess says she might have an idea and she's confirming it with Maya and Min-Jae, both of whom have barely any mana left from the fight in the city. The same goes for everyone, whether from fighting against mind mages right after Framework ignition or fleshy golems afterward.

My eyes continue to follow Lily, and I think of it again. I replay the fight and all the mistakes I made. How I let my excitement and desire for the experience of fighting a powerful being take over. Even to the point where I didn't go all out right from the start when the released Champion was weaker and closest to my current level of strength. I didn't even use Fracture and it was a very intentional decision.

Could I have killed it then if I went all out right away?

It's possible. But it's also possible the eye had hidden cards up its sleeve, much like I always try to have, and could have endured long enough to regain its powers.

The problem is I didn't even think of it, and it nearly cost Lily her life.

I lean back and let out an annoyed groan. Then I jump back on my feet and rejoin the group.

All of our items are already collected in a pile: golden chains, some stolen weapons and materials, even some equipment they got during the fights. Plenty of them already sold their spoils, and the ones remaining are the most interesting ones, either to be observed or used.

Izzy looks at me first, Biscuit in her arms. I feel her touch and used to not hiding it from her, I let her for a moment feel my current emotions.

That makes her smile and she taps on the ground next to her where I sit.

Everyone else is sitting in the circle, this time Izzy's blue flame ball cracking in our midst and letting out nice warmth.

"I think we are a few days from the Containment Cell that holds the primordial lightning vyssari," Tess starts with that.

After a moment of silence, it's Sophie who says what we all are thinking, "That is too lucky, isn't it? It's exactly where we wanted to go. Nat's [Ley Line] didn't even head in that direction, quite the opposite."

"I can't deny that," Tess confirms. "But what should we do? Do we really think it was the intention of that thing to disrupt Nat's teleport and send us here? Could it really all be luck?"

"Maybe it could be affected by the array around that floating island holding the vyssari Champion and it acted like a magnet and pulled us towards it?"

"I think it was the vyssari Champion who caused us to appear here." I follow Sophie’s sentence and all the eyes turn to me and I continue, "The Bloodroot Devourer, the eye thing, tried to mess with my teleport to make us all tear apart. Something much worse than what ended up happening. There was the second force trying to help me. I think while I managed to stop us from dying, that second force helped bring us here. I don't know how capable that vyssari is, but all of the Champions did have some sort of influence on the world outside of their cells."

"Well, whatever it is, we better decide fast, don't we?" Aaron brings our attention. "If that thing becomes a full Champion, its power level will be enough to destroy the entire continent. Hell, that Tristan guy on the 2nd destroyed life on an entire world."

"Any idea how long it might take that thing to regain its full power?" Tess throws in the question.

I think of it. "This is a rough estimate without much experience to back it up, but if things continue as they are now, it should return to around the rank of Champion within a few hours. If it slows down later, then maybe in a few days? Assuming it can even regain its powers and it's not crippled like other Champions were."

"Got it, even this is better than nothing," Tess nods. "Sophie, did you get everything you wanted?"

"Beatrice and Archon escaped in the end, but we got one of her vassals and I got as much as I could from his mind. The array is fairly basic, but most importantly, I managed to get coordinates to a nearby planet where they plan to head. With spatial locks removed, it's all about building it up and powering it."

"How much mana?" I ask her.

"A lot. You should be saving as much as you can and everyone else as well. I will prepare the structure of the array in my mind in the meantime and we can build some basic platform to anchor it for long enough to teleport us. It's possible this is one way to clear the floor, so the mana requirements might not be as high as if we were actually trying to move between planets, that would be crazy."

"Will do so. As soon as my body and reservoir restore, I will start filling the crown. Do you think working together with Archon and Beatrice is one of the ways to escape?"

"Highly likely—if you are capable of not falling under their influence. Another way to escape is probably to wait for guards to come to lock up prisoners again and escape through the way they came? Maybe coordinating with some other Champion and hoping for their mercy? I think the one from the Mana Desert would be capable of escaping if freed."

That reminds me, "What about the last Containment Cell, Tess? You said you located the last one as well?" I turn to her with that question.

"Let me guess, it's deep underground," Dennis grumbles before she can answer, to which he gets a curious look from Min-Jae, and I sense an exchanged message between them as he explains.

Tess shakes her head, "The last Containment Cell should be somewhere to the far north of the moon, out of the central region. Surrounded by millennia-old ice and blizzards powerful enough to threaten or kill even people around our level."

"We are not going there, right?"

"No, we are not going there, Min-Jae," Tess confirms. "While Nat and Sophie prepare our way out, we head to the vyssari Champion and see if we can get her to declare more of us Candidates. If Sophie and Nat will be ready sooner, we leave right away, even without meeting her."

Tess gestures towards the blood-red sky far in the distance. The color deepening and gradually taking over a bigger part of the sky. "I don't think we should stay on this floor much longer."

Looking at it, I also nod absentmindedly.

***

We move quickly for over a day. We don't sleep, deciding to push through these last few days on the floor. When we meet monsters, we either avoid them or others deal with them, allowing me to save my mana.

At the same time, Sophie works on the teleportation array and often asks for help and gives me requirements for the base I will need to make to anchor it.

During the short breaks we make, I melt the materials and form the base to save time later.

As I work on one of the mana stones needed, I get a message in my mind through a private link.

(It sucks, doesn't it?) It's from Sophie.

(What?)

(You’ve barely said a word since Lily nearly died, and you keep staring at that red light in the distance, Nat. It’s not exactly hard to figure out what’s on your mind—I don’t even need a skill like Izzy’s.)

(I guess.)

(As you are now, you can't do shit about that monster. You went all out and you still had to run away, and now it's much stronger.)

(Sophie. If you are looking for a fight, just say it to me directly.)

(I understand how you feel, you know. I’ve got my own unfinished business with Namior. He completely outplayed me, and then you went and killed him—stealing any chance I had at revenge.)

(I see.)

(Yes. It sucks ass.)

I confirm, (It sucks ass.)

***

The Containment Cell holding the vyssari Champion floats over the mountain range.

Well, what remains of that mountain range. A near-constant barrage of red and white lightning keeps exploding in the air, some of them hitting the mountains and tearing chunks of them constantly. Some of the tallest mountains are missing half of their mass, lightning often causing landslides, but even now each of these mountains is tall enough to tower over whatever we have on Earth.

And there, amid the jagged remains of mountains, floats an island. Its base forms a perfect half-sphere, and atop it stands a single cathedral-like structure with towering spires. The entire building appears to be made of metal, with lightning emanating from it rather than striking it.

I try to throw Ley Lines towards it, but I'm unable to reach the island. The moment they enter a certain space, a barrage of lightning targets my invisible Ley Lines and destroys them.

I always knew they could be destroyed by someone more skilled at a certain level. There is a reason why skills need to be mastered and leveled, and [Ley Line] is still far off. But being destroyed by some automatic defensive measure... what a messed-up thing.

So we fly there. Everyone capable of flight helping others who are not, while we squeeze close to each other. Tess flies a bit ahead, her crown glowing even more and her own white and red Primordial lightning cracking around her.

All the lightning that is about to hit our group is instead directed at her, even causing her wounds, or directly at the crown.

As we pick up speed, the lightning grows denser, yet Tess, despite enduring dozens of wounds, guides us through. Only after we reach the island does she allow Lily to heal her, explaining that healing along the way would disrupt something like a ritual of passage.

From up here, the metal cathedral looks even bigger and we head through its big open door.

There are no cells we would need to head to, no hole, no circle, no massive chains holding the vyssari Champion. Instead, after walking for ten minutes we find her in one of the towers. A room as big as the width of the tower.

In the massive room, only a simple bed, wooden chair, and table set, and a dresser stand near one of the glassless windows. The rest of the room is taken by books. Thousands of them piled all around.

"If you damage any of my books, I will beat your ass." The vyssari Champion sits in the second chair on the small balcony connected to the room. From there, a view is offered at the destroyed mountain range and the constant barrage of lightning.

That vyssari woman is short as all of her race and her scaly legs have a gray metallic shine to them. Her hair is blonde and her eyes are gray. The most eye-catching is a slim metal choker around her neck, seemingly from the same material as the cathedral is built of.

Other than that, there is a ring on her finger, one looking to be made out of pure lightning, constantly moving and swirling.

She lifts her eyes from the book in her lap and looks right at our group members, "Tess, I thought I told you to leave me the fuck alone."

***

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