Chapter 308 - Power source

“I think we might have a complicated situation on our hands,” the Housekeeper moves a strand of hair off her face.

Does she have a body that tough? Is she strengthening it? Does she have healing? I don’t think she will answer me if I ask, and what the heck is that weird skill of hers? It has some disruptive properties, but there is something else as well.

Should I get angry at my duplicate for ruining my learning opportunity?

“There is nothing complicated about this,” Clonthaniel answers, “Me and my buddy over here kinda have you guys in our hand. I don’t think you have anyone capable of facing us, and even your so amazing barrier proved useless. Us not nuking this city is proof enough of our ‘’good will’,” he repeats the words the Butler said to us as we were leaving.

That only gets a laugh out of the woman. A loud, amused laugh. Like an adult dealing with a child. “So, why don’t we go out of the city and fight properly? It would be…”

I ignore her and turn to my duplicate, “I have located it.”

The duplicate lets go of the Butler, kicks him with the tip of his shoe, and puts his hand on my shoulder.

The Housekeeper charges us, but before she reaches us, we teleport towards the anchor I placed deep inside of the Bastion.

“What a clingy woman,” the duplicate complains. “Did she really have some fun skill?”

“Yup. She wasn't very versatile, mostly strengthening her body, and she was really tough and quick, but she did it really really well. One of her skills seemed similar to [Disruption], but it worked against all attacks I tried, mana or not mana-based. It also didn’t cost her that much mana, super efficient.”

I take a step, and through a circular tunnel with a flat bottom, we start walking towards where both of us sense mana while leaving some nasty traps behind us.

“That’s it?” Duplicaniel asks.

“She also used some skill that allowed her to cut anything apart. Flames, mana, stone. Yes, yes, I know she has a Voidsteel blade, but it wasn't just that. Every attack cut apart seemed to lose its damage.”

“Maybe I should fight her too.”

“We have a bit of time,” I agree.

Exiting the tunnel, we find ourselves surrounded by vegetation. The room is a half sphere and big enough to take probably 20 percent of the base of the Bastion; it's just that big.

All over the walls, there are terraces with plants and trees bearing fruits or even simple vegetables.

Even the floor is fully covered in grass and plants. Colorful, vibrant. The air smells nice, and there is even a soft wind blowing.

“Did you know that if you grow a tree inside of the room, it tends to be really weak and often falls down under its weight?” a presence comes closer. A short man with a shaved head and wearing simple clothes.

He continues, “The reason is simple. There is no wind. The wind blowing onto the tree forces it to struggle and grow its roots deeper and stronger. Something trees grown inside don't have.” He smiles, it's almost a friendly smile. Almost.

“You must be the Armorer guy,” the duplicate makes fun of him.

“Yes, I’m the Armorer,” he nods seriously.

I can see the confusion on the face of Clonthaniel.

Before he says anything, the man continues, “Of course, I’m not the Armorer, I am the Gardener, you dipshit.” The man turns to me, “Are you the more reasonable one here?”

I really really want to throw in some lame joke just to not be left behind, but in the end, give up and nod.

“Good, as I said, I’m the Gardener, and I really have no interest in you kids fighting. So, will you please remove the traps you left in the tunnel before the Housekeeper triggers them all just to test them?”

I do just that, and a moment after, the duplicate does as well.

“Thank you,” the Gardener bows his head slightly and gestures for us to follow.

I already feel another conversation coming on. Damn, I really miss Tess. She would be much better at this stuff.

Reaching the small summer house, we sit there and wait. The wind blowing is nice, and the crystal that lets out the light is amazing. Even letting out heat and without looking, I would find it hard to distinguish it from the sun.

While we wait, the small man starts sending his mana toward tiny lower-quality mana stones all over. He uses them to trigger watering or to make them radiate heat for the plants. Some bigger stones even generate wind, put on the pillars with dozens of holes where the generated wind flows through.

And all of that is powered by something even deeper under us.

I notice that Duplicaniel is looking there as well, and so I wonder, what powers a place as big as the Bastion? I really want to find out.

“Please, stay a bit longer, and I will try to explain everything I can,” the Gardener takes his attention off… well, gardening.

“Five minutes,” Clonthaniel says what I'm thinking.

A minute later, the Housekeeper joins us together with the Butler who is already awake. The man is still missing half of his majestic mustache, but he doesn't show any reaction but sits there elegantly. As if all of this is a meeting we set up together. The Housekeeper does the same.

The Gardener slaps his hands together, “So, I like what you did a few days ago. We asked you three questions, and you asked us three questions. So why don't we continue that?”

“To slow us down so the Armorer can prepare countermeasures?” I ask, somehow amused.

“Yes.” The Gardener nods.

“Sounds good,” I agree. “Tell me about the Bastion,” I ask my first question.

The Gardener looks at the Butler who straightens up, then he starts, “The Bastion is a Skyhold Bastion, category three, meaning we were allowed military-grade upgrades from the Enchanter Guild. It was privately owned by Lord Lothain and used as his summer house.”

The Housekeeper already seems to be dozing off, but I can feel her sharp senses on me.

The Butler looks around and, after a dramatic pause, he continues, “Me, the Housekeeper, the Gardener, and the Armorer used to be servants of Lord Lothain. The Gardener took care of food, the Armorer used to be a lower-positioned member of the Enchanter Guild and took care of our defenses. The Housekeeper worked with other servants, making sure the Bastion was going on smoothly, while I was in charge of our guards.”

“Butler, please, a bit shorter answers,” the Gardener says gently.

“Savages,” the Butler complains and reaches to touch his mustache, only for his hand to freeze mid-air, remembering he is missing half of it. He puts his hand down and continues, “Simply, thanks to flying in places where the Veil wasn't so dense, we were one of the last to fall. Before we got destroyed, the Veil turned its attention to monsters, and in extension to the forces of the planet Paired with us.”

Not giving us a chance to react, the Housekeeper asks, “Are you drifters, mercenaries, are you from another planet?”

I shake my head, “I would tell you, but I can't. But I can say that we are not from the paired planet, nor are we mercenaries fighting in this war. Drifters would probably fit us the most.”

“What powers the Bastion?” the duplicate asks.

I don't even mind as it's the question I would ask as well. So, while I wait for an answer, I fight against the pressure that slowly pushes on me. On me and the duplicate. It's almost unnoticeable, preparations to face us. Most likely the work of the Armorer and defensive mechanisms of this place. It slowly tries to analyze us to sneakily disarm us.

I find it fascinating, so I let it happen.

“Lord Lothain,” the Housekeeper answers this time.

Oh boy, are all people of this planet like this?

“I assume it's not voluntary,” I ask.

“It's not,” the Housekeeper smiles.

“This planet is full of weirdos. Instead of catching some animal and healing it to create food, they become cannibals. Then, instead of finding something else to power the city, they use their boss to do that. I mean, maybe he is a douchebag, and he deserved that, but damn, you guys have a problem,” the duplicate just says straight up.

The Gardener opens his mouth to ask something, but finally, by extending my domain in one direction, I pierce through defenses and place an anchor. I put my hand on my duplicate, and teleport us.

He looks around the dark room we appear in and sends a disrupting wave toward anchor-like things in the air that the Butler uses to create rifts.

The pressure from the defensive mechanism on us increases, and I know if we stayed just a bit longer, it would become dangerous, even for the two of us. That's how much I think of their barrier.

As before, the pressure tries to locate us, but down there, its reach is weaker; the rooms are either shielded or excluded from the system of the base.

While my duplicate keeps disrupting the Butler's attempt to open a rift, we head toward the source of all this energy.

There are no doors at all, no other entrance than the Butler's rift or other sorts of teleportation. I find that really amusing, and seeing the way how eagerly my duplicate disrupts rifts, I think he agrees.

“Do we think the same? Checking the core of the Bastion, maybe a bit of fighting with the Housekeeper, testing how much we can handle the Armorer and the barrier, and then we bail after stealing some mana conductive paint and other stuff?”

I nod, “Sounds about right. Would be nice if they stopped trying to kill us or kidnap us, but we can’t have everything. And how can you trust people that did this to their lord.”

We enter the central room where the mana crystal, working as the core of the Bastion, its power source, is. There, tied to the crystal, is a man. He seems older but is muscular, and his clothes and hair are well-kept. Some sort of authority can be felt from his face, the dignity of a person used to ordering around.

And he is dead, the entire part of his body under his ribs missing. Belly, hips, legs, everything is gone. To the crystal, only the rest is tied, with the spine extending a bit further, the white bone feeling unnatural.

Yet, still, the heart of the man beats slowly but powerfully, each beat sending a pulse of mana into the mana crystal that glows in sync.

“What do you think, used to be level 300, maybe 350 at most?” I ask.

“Probably something like that, but there is no way chumps like them killed him.”

“Maybe there were more of them, and only they are alive, or they killed him in his sleep?”

“Or he fell down the stairs.”

Both of us move closer, and without even looking, I know that his eyes are active, our minds trying to collect that immense amount of information. To avoid aftereffects, we both turn them off right after.

“Oi, I just thought of something,” I start. “I, we, have plenty of mana, right? Our hearts generate a lot of it, much more than someone at our level should. So…”

The duplicate understands where I'm going, “Okay, let's hide it a bit better to not end up as some creepy mana battery.”

“Sneaky mode will help.”

“Sneaky mode is perfect for that.”

“True,” I agree and look around. “Did you find anything interesting?”

“Nothing we don’t know about or don’t work on already, but man, Butler is angry. He keeps trying to teleport in.”

“It starts making sense that they tried to distract us from getting here,” I step closer to examine what remains of the owner of this Skyhold Bastion when I feel a movement behind my back.

Armor forms around my body, and I send kinetic energy around, only for it to get absorbed and the armor disrupted.

For a short moment, something holds my movements, and in slow motion, I watch as my duplicate tries to put a silver collar around my neck.

Mana under my skin moves, tearing it from inside and forming into a spike that stabs into the duplicate's hand. Right after, I change the frequency of my kinetic energy, and a short concentrated burst sends him a few steps back as he is unable to absorb it quickly.

I send some thermal energy to the wound I created, and it starts healing.

“Well, I had to try,” he says shamelessly.

“The null collar is still on me,” I say.

“Yup, I found this one here and hid it from you. Anyway, you can't really blame me.”

“That’s true, but I can fucking kill you for trying to do so.”

“You can try,” he returns my gaze.

Later, I will deal with him later. There is too much to be gained from our cooperation, and it's not like I did not expect such behavior.

“So, what was the plan?” I ask and start examining the Lord again, "Isn't it too soon for confrontation?

“That's why I gave it a try right now, and it turned out successful. It really caught you by surprise. The plan was to stop you from using mana, getting you under my control, and come up with a way to either inscribe myself into your mind, kill you, and take over your body. I didn't think of it that far.”

I pause, “That’s a good idea, it is probably much easier to use my body and change it to become you, rather than creating an entire personality imprint from scratch.”

“Right? Anyway, that clingy woman, the Housekeeper, is digging a tunnel down there, and the Armorer seems to be trying something as well, so let's hurry.” He passes by me and burrows his hand into the chest of the dead man in front of us and pulls out the still-beating heart that continues to do so even outside of the man’s chest.

The amount of mana it generates seems equivalent to that of an entire mine with a Mana Reservoir included.

Instead of my duplicate, I disrupt attempts at creating rifts by the Butler. They become much more aggressive, the desperation felt from him, the Housekeeper digging, and even from the Armorer.

“I will keep the heart going and our defenses up. I should be able to do it for ten or fifteen minutes before it needs to go back into the chest. So you will have to do the talking.”

“Sounds good, let's get ourselves some nice stuff and more information. Something tells me they will be more willing to cooperate now.”

***

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