Chapter 412 (1/2)
Chapter 412
Chapter 410: Good Humor
ARTHUR LEYWIN
“Where’s your pet Alacryan?” Gideon asked, staring around warily as if Lyra Dreide ht jump out of the shadows from any direction His face was soot-stained, and I couldn’t help but notice that his eyebroere gone again, and part of his hair had been singed “Not that I want her to see this, but where can you lock up a retainer and expect her to stay?”
Next to Gideon, Es under her eyes, but the fact that she was on her feet at all spoke to the return of her strength It had only been a couple days since the bestowalia, I felt sure it would have taken Emily several more days to recover
“I had one of the vaults in the Earthborn Institute fitted out to be a cell,” I said, cois and Mica are watching over her while she coaches alia”
Gideon huffed as he turned around and started to walk quickly away
We were standing on the lowest floor of Vildorial, surrounded by freshly constructed stone dwellings, the destruction of the Scythes’ attack on the city already a distant memory—at least physically I could still see the threat of attack in the furtive glances of the dwarves and elves that bustled about, in the way they avoided small talk and never moved their hands too far fros I saw some of that tensiontheir courage
“You should have all three Lances on her, at least,” Gideon continued after a moment as he led us into a narrow tunnel that I knew connected to so shafts
“The Lances are not mine to order around,” I pointed out conversationally A srin on his round face, and I raised a hand in return, then followed Gideon into the dark tunnel “Bairon stays by Virion’s side at al to his flock With Dicathen shi+fting back into our control, he’s been able to reach out to more of the elves scattered around the continent”
“They’re trying to figure out how many are left…” Emily said softly, her voice hoarse with eed to her words clawed at the back ofbroke out in Kalberk, and Varay went to assist Apparently, some of the soldiers who fled from BlackbendInstead of surrendering, the highbloods in charge of the city locked it down and dug in”
“All the e ahead withquickly despite the di “This war isn’t over yet”
No, it isn’t, I thought, considering ould corona’s place, using everything I knew about hie his next reement, then it was my hope that we’d seen the last of any full-scale battle on Dicathian soil, and it was possible, if perhaps overly hopeful, that Agrona ht simply write Dicathen off as more trouble that it orth and turn his focus to Epheotus
One particular element made that course unlikely, however: rona had coe of reincarnation, or how he had been able to search across worlds to find the Legacy and the two anchor points he needed to fully ardless of how he had one as he planned I had been reincarnated on the wrong continent, in the wrong body, and he had been forced to look outside his own do an anchor-point entirely under his control, I becah the actions of his own daughter, I was given the only power in this world potentially capable of standing up to both Agrona and Kezess
I was under no illusion that either one of thee favors for knowledge in a tenuous alliance, but Agrona…
I knew the lord of the Vritra Clan couldn’t help but hat I had The idea of striking a sie for his vow to leave Dicathen alone—had crossed my mind, but after much consideration, I also knew there was no vow he could make that I could rely on And even if I decided to take such a risk, I couldn’t consign the entire population of Alacrya to their fate just because Dicathen had been ardless of his intentions toward Dicathen, Agrona would coain eventually I couldn’t just sit around Vildorial waiting for that to happen
These and hts occupiedtunnels
The tunnels grew hot and stuffy, the rock all around us radiating heat, and the air was thick with a sulfuric burning sh several exhausted fire salt veins, the shafts theround, until eventually our tunnel opened up into ahad been constructed up the sheer walls and railings hung froh above Thin veins of fire salts were still visible in soloas overshadowed by a series of bright lighting artifacts that had been set up in a grid across the floor
I was surprised to see six men and women—four dwarves, an elvenfor us They had been sitting around a orktable and chatting idly, but ju
“Master Gideon, sir,” one of the dwarves said He had a frizzy mop of dark hair and a beard down to his waist
“Crohlb, I assue down here without trouble?” Gideon asked,on the other side of the table
“‘Course,” the dwarf said, grinning “Glad to finally see these artifacts put to use”
Gideon grabbed the first crate, heaved, immediately failed to move it more than an inch or two, and then turned to two of the other dwarves “You two, drag this over here and open it up for ether lifted the top crate, moved it to a separate workbench, and then opened the lid A shi+mmer of heat haze appeared momentarily above the open crate, accolow that lit up the darker recesses of the cavern ceiling above
Gideon pulled on a pair of heavy leather gloves, like those used at a forge, and then reached into the box Metal scraped against metal, and then Gideon lifted out one of his artifacts It was a sith a straight, double-edged blade Curling veins of diray steel As I leaned in closer to get a better look, I could feel heat coe, almost clunky, with a bastard-style hilt that could be wielded comfortably with one or two hands
I activated Realmheart, and the cave shi+fted into a riot of color as theto the blade, dancing up and down its length along the glowing orange lines A strong source of mana radiated from the hilt as well
Gideon held the sword out to me, handle first The dark leather ar the flat of the sword, but pulled back as the scorching heat of the fire salt-infused steel seared uess I’ll have to add a warning label to the hilt that reads: hey idiot, don’t touch the glowing hot steel”
I chuckled as I took a step back and swung the blade experimentally It wasn’t the finest craftsmanshi+p I’d ever felt, especially in the balance department, but as these were only Gideon’s prototypes, I expected the designs to be refined asthe steel worked as we discussed?” I asked, spinning the blade around and down in a cut that left a heat-haze arc in its wake
Eh a half-stifled yawn “The cruciblethe fire salts into the h to liquify, and increasing the carbon content of the steel by infusing it with high-carbon iron allowed the fire salts to bind to the steel, solving two probleain,” Gideon gruh I could tell he wasn’t actually unhappy
At the center of the workbench rested a enerator, like the one we’d used during the bestow Gideon activated it with a pulse of mana, then stepped back and looked atGently though,” he added quickly “We don’t need freakish Lance strength right now, I just want you to see”
Rolling my eyes, I lowered the blade toward the se contacted the transparent barrier, it hissed and popped, sending off sparks I raised the edge slightly, breaking the contact, and the noise subsided, though a thin trail of s for further instructions, I pushed the blade down again, harder this tiainst each other, thewith thethe shi+eld It lasted a second, two, then…
With a sputtering hum, the shi+eld artifact lost power, and the shi+eld itself popped
“This is only a very loer generator, but you see?” Gideon said, his eyes bright “The fire salts, even in this for enough force to counter—and with enough strength, even break through—an opposing e’s shi+elds”
I held the weapon up to exaer euard “What’s this do?”
Gideon grinned h to sear flesh and capable of countering eneood starting point, but a non-e against an aug hishis speed and reaction times This feature ical soldier, but it definitely adds to the experience”
“I’inal cannon idea into the weapon somehow,” Emily said under her breath
Gideon scowled and shooed Eer it, but only for athe weapon”
Moving back to put even more room between s with the sword, getting used to its heft and balance Then, as I ht, I pressed the stiff trigger
Mana rushed frorip into the blade, and the sword burst into flames At the same time, it lurched forward as if propelled fro the blade, releasing the trigger in the act, then bringing it back up in front of e veins were glowing h very quickly Perhaps twenty percent of the le explosion
“Eh?” Gideon said, practically vibrating as he shi+fted his weight fro a forceful movement, the sudden influx of mana into the fire salts causes a violent coth of a strike, as well as creating a fiery explosion”
“It’s a little unwieldy at the e soldier should be able to properly ti strikes with it”
Her words drewquietly froe, e here?”