{The lullaby returned.}
Erik nodded and quickly turned to grab his machetes while glancing at the walls, which began to slowly light up. At the same time, Elara stood in the midst of the wolves, who had grown to protect Erik, gripping her staff tightly, her nerves on edge.
The team's defensive formation remained unshaken for nearly 15 minutes, during which they watched the golems regain the agility and speed they had shown earlier. They even saw a couple of them emerge from the walls again. But fortunately, during that entire time, none of the golems so much as turned to look in their direction, confirming once more that the formations were indeed keeping them hidden.
"Did you take note of how long the 'pause' lasted?" Erik asked, looking at Elara beside him, who nodded with a serious expression.
"Nearly two hours."
[Please, 'little ones,' follow the logistic units to the evacuation portal...]
Right at that moment, Erik could hear, almost as if someone were whispering in his ear, a summarized version of what the hologram had said earlier. It startled him a little and made him look at the golems with solemnity. Elara also turned to glance at the golems with a tension-filled expression. The fact that the sound had reached them could only mean their formations had been breached, which meant it was possible the golems could detect them.
At the same time, Elara, mimicking Chen, quickly raised her finger and created a fire message in the air to explain what had happened to Zoe, who was looking at them with questions written all over her face. Full of tension, the group fell into complete silence, their eyes fixed on the golems. Luckily, after 5 minutes, none of them had looked in their direction, allowing the group to let out a sigh of relief.
"The message pierced through the formations as if they were nothing, but the golems, who seem to be controlled by a unified command system, are unable to detect us… Could it be that this place is built with a modular structure, and each module is completely independent from the others? Or maybe over time, certain parts of its functionality have been compromised…? Or perhaps it's running out of energy and redirecting it to the most critical areas, sacrificing other functions…?"
Within the formations, Erik spoke in a thoughtful tone while reaching into his storage pouch to grab a potion. Elara loosened her grip on her staff and let out a small sigh, then looked at Erik and cast a healing spell on him while commenting in a voice filled with relief.
"Whatever the reason, the fact that this place has these flaws is good for us. It gives us a chance to survive."
"Indeed, though from now on, we need to keep precise track of the activation and pause times. It'll be vital to reaching the portal." Erik nodded and ordered in a calm voice, to which Elara quickly nodded back and replied seriously.
"I'll leave that to those outside. For now, focus on recovering. We're one step away from you producing black fire stably. That's more important than anything else right now."
"Then I'll leave it in your hands."
Erik nodded and leaned back with his eyes closed on Kaiser, who had positioned himself to be used as a pillow. Meanwhile, Elara showed a beautiful smile as she looked at Erik and soon wrote orders in the air using fire for the mages outside.
…
…
…
After several cycles of experiments and rests, during which the music played for a while before turning off again, Elara ended up with a notebook almost entirely filled with data. While Elara compiled and organized the experimental data, she cast a healing spell on Erik, who rested on Kaiser, looking slightly paler than before.
With an expression full of guilt for causing the star-haired youth, someone less than half her age, to reach such a state, Elara created a message in the air with fire, asking Ethan and Chen to dismantle the formations. Soon, the formations disappeared, and at that moment, Elara whispered softly to Frank, who approached along with the others, all wearing concerned expressions.
"Frank, gently move Erik to the healing formation."
Frank nodded seriously and soon began manipulating the air to try to lift Erik gently. But right at that moment, the star-haired youth snapped his eyes open. With a cold expression, Erik grabbed the handle of his machete and looked around as the wolves began to growl menacingly.
"Sorry for interrupting your rest, boss. I was trying to move you to the healing formation." Frank quickly explained with a serious tone, which led Erik to nod and release his machete. While patting the wolves' heads to calm them, Erik commented in a calm voice.
"I see. My apologies, my nerves got the better of me."
"No, no. It's my fault, Erik. In this situation, it's only natural to react to anything, and I'm the one who asked Frank to do it. Forgive me." Elara explained while giving a small bow of apology. Erik shook his head and stood up with Tiberius' help, then walked toward the healing formation while speaking.
"Thanks for worrying. I'll rest for a few minutes."
"Rest well. I'll compile this data and study it with the others. Though, let Frank create an insulating barrier around you to block out the noise…" Elara quickly replied, to which Erik nodded before lying down again on Kaiser, this time in the center of the healing formation.
"Alright."
…
After seeing Erik's breathing stabilize, with the wolves protectively surrounding him and eyeing everyone with suspicion, Elara turned to the others and commented in a voice full of admiration.
"Erik managed to find a way to produce black fire in a controlled manner and even schematize a spell for it. There are still details to polish, but it's almost a done deal that the plan can be executed."
"The refinement circle is also operating without many hiccups. After polishing some minor details, it'll be ready to move to the testing phase." Christine soon added while looking at the sleeping youth with deep eyes.
"His talent is truly enviable… It's a stroke of luck that he's on our side." Ethan commented in a soft voice, to which the others could only nod in agreement.
"Talent and character… If we make it out of here alive, it's only a matter of time before the name Erik Verne echoes through this galaxy and the nearby ones…"
Tomás commented in a calm voice, as if stating a fact, which once again made everyone present nod—except for Hiyori, who only let out a slight huff. Though it was evident to her that Erik was a monster among monsters, capable of shaming practically every 'genius' she had seen in her long life, she highly doubted the youth would actually make it out alive. Or live more than a couple of centuries. Talent means nothing in the face of absolute power. She had seen plenty of those 'geniuses' die due to their arrogance.
"But his condition is visibly worsening, and the healing potions are running out… We need to speed things up." Chen said with clenched fists, to which Zoe added a small cut on her lower lip from biting it so hard to contain her worry.
"I've been thinking of creating wooden supports so we stop relying on Myst's platforms, allowing him to rest completely."
"I propose the following: Christine can focus on the refinement circle with half of the mages. The other half and I will concentrate on polishing the black fire spell. Ethan and Chen will start deploying the formations to hide the ring's collapse, and the rest will work on creating the supports." Elara suggested.
"Paul, you're good at creating 'rock slime,' right?" Tomás turned to look at one of the Bikereas, a young man with short dark gray hair and brown eyes, who quickly nodded.
"Yes, boss. With the materials we have, I can make quite a bit."
"Perfect." Tomás nodded and looked at Zoe and Elara before adding.
"I highly doubt we can drill into these walls to secure the supports, so it's better to pull Paul from the mage group and put him in charge of rock slime production. Though he's not yet a certified alchemist, he's quite talented and has studied with his alchemy master for nearly 50 years. It'll just be a matter of 'gluing' ropes to the ceiling that will stay fixed. Meanwhile, I'll work with Christine to learn the intricate details of the refinement circle and adjust my cuts accordingly."
"Let's do it that way." Zoe soon nodded, and everyone headed to their respective tasks with serious and determined expressions.
…
Meanwhile, Erik, on the verge of falling asleep, couldn't help but reflect on the results of the experiments. Besides managing to produce black fire without relying on an explosion, he also tested other things like conjuring lightning using Elemental Synchronization through Kaiser and colliding it with other elements. He even tried colliding darkness and lightning, as well as different combinations, but nothing happened.
Though the clash of lightning and darkness did create tiny sparks of black lightning, they were more ephemeral than the black flames, barely perceptible for a millisecond before vanishing. This inevitably left Erik full of questions. Why did only fire and darkness work together? Why didn't the same happen with other combinations? Why couldn't he produce stable dark lightning? Among many others.
Since he had broken his contract with Ebonique, he could no longer use the dragoness's black lightning—a trump card against magical artifacts and unsuspecting mages. Therefore, it was crucial to understand this strange ability to apply it in combat as soon as possible. But no matter how much he tried, in the end, he only achieved basic control over the creation of black fire and a few fleeting sparks of dark lightning.
(The mysteries keep piling up endlessly… Couldn't you at least give me a hint? I know you have a will…)
As he brought a healing potion to his lips, Erik thought to himself while carefully sensing the Myst around him. But it didn't respond, as if the Myst he always interacted with and the one now were two different things. This only made Erik more aware of how much his connection with the Myst had been affected by his physical condition.
(Sounds like an interesting project to study how much the physical state affects a strong connection with the Myst… If the Myst has 'spirituality,' it's likely it has preferences, and in my current state, I don't meet them, which impacts the connection… It sounds plausible…)
Erik let out a small sigh and stored the empty clay vial in his storage pouch, at which point he could feel some 'wisps' of Myst moving toward him and transmitting a slight 'reproach.' Somehow, that slight reproach improved Erik's mood, and he couldn't help but show a subtle smile on his face while thinking to himself.
(So you're still there, though you seem much weaker than usual. Does my physical condition really affect you?)
After a few seconds, Erik felt the scarce Myst near his head transmit a contradictory message, as if saying yes and no at the same time. But this time, it was even weaker than before, barely perceptible to him. This led Erik to conclude that the next interaction would likely be the last, and his connection with it would be severely impacted. After all, he could feel his physical condition deteriorating.
(I want you to answer one question… Are you like Ebonique? A very powerful being communicating with me through the Myst? Because I've read countless books and haven't found even the slightest mention of an interaction with the Myst remotely close to what I've experienced with you.
(In every single one of those texts, the Myst is simply a mystical energy that permeates the entire universe and other known dimensions, subtly interacting with gravity, being a key ingredient of mana, and something mana users can connect with to enhance their spells and, in a way, affect reality.
(But to me, you're different. At times, you're practically a sentient being… Yes, in some way, you're like the stories I've read about the newly awakened artifact spirits of the Zazen Discipline. A thinking, rational being capable of communicating with its user in a primitive way…
(Could it be that you're some kind of artifact, or are you a living being like Ebonique…? No, I don't think you can answer something like that… I should probably phrase it as a yes or n—)
As Erik organized his thoughts, he suddenly felt the Myst communicate with him in a way similar to what he felt the first time he practiced Tai Chi movements. Though the 'information' it transmitted was weak and confusing, he somehow understood it as a kind of denial. In some way, the Myst was telling him it wasn't what he thought—it was something else.
But soon, the Myst stopped transmitting information and returned to being that strange energy in the form of tiny balls in space that he could somehow instinctively manipulate, leaving him with more questions than answers. After a few minutes of manipulating the Myst and trying to communicate with it to no avail, Erik let out a small sigh, took a new healing potion, and then opened his eyes, commenting in a calm voice.
"It's time to get back to work."
***
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