Not (Just) A Mage Lord Isekai

While we weren't able to resolve the guard situation, I still felt better about things by the time the next morning rolled around. It helped that it only took Inertia and I an hour to finish the repairs to Fang's Forgeheart.

She still had to reassemble Fang, but she wouldn't need my assistance for that.

So I returned my attention to the crystal chamber.

Taking a break had been good, if only because I'd had time to think of solutions for the locked door.

There were principles that were shared between Forge Theory and spell crafting, and that had me considering if I might be able to apply similar principles to the door.

Detect Mana, as Nexxa and I had modified it, was key to my efforts here. While the fidelity was still lower than I would've preferred, it did allow me to trace the flows which I recorded in a journal before taking it and showing the pattern to the others. I even framed it as a puzzle for Bevel, getting her to identify what she thought each section might mean.

“And this one?”

“Uh. Is that mana-regulation?” Bevel asked, her first real question.

“No clue. Honestly, I don’t know what any of them are,” I admitted.

Bevel stared at me blankly for several seconds before she started slugging me in the arm repeatedly. Her reaction was worth it. Also, it was good that she was gaining strength already.

Once we got the others involved, Bevel did appreciate how close several of her guesses had been to our final consensus.

After our discussion, I still didn't know every function, but we had managed to figure out the spellkey. At least, we had three configurations we thought could work. Calbern and Bevel were with me as I prepared to cast it. Bevel was near the exit, and Calbern had a solid grip on my vest, ready to activate the Waygate and get us all out in case anything went wrong.

I even had Dimension Step prepared.

Flexing my hand, I nodded to Calbern, my hand on the first combination engraved in my grimoire. I imbued the spellkey with mana, projecting it into the door. Several sparks flared outward, nearly falling on us, causing us both to take a step backwards. When nothing happened for several minutes, I slid my hand downward and cast the second combination.

Other than a change in the color of the sparks from white to yellow, the second combination was as ineffective as the first.

"One more," I said, receiving the barest of nods from Calbern. This time when the spellkey triggered, the door flashed blue, then slowly rumbled upwards. The somewhat musty air of the crystal chamber was suddenly mixed with fresher air from beyond.

The hall on the other side was made of the same smooth stone as the crystal chamber, though it seemed better maintained, with far less buildup of rubble and dust. Combined with the fresher air, I suspected it was open to the outside.

Collecting Bevel, we moved through the door one at a time.

A dozen steps in, the door slid down, catching three feet from the floor. When I cast the spellkey again, the door glowed blue but failed to dislodge itself.

"Well, that's annoying," I said, squatting down. There was plenty of rubble on the other side that could be used to prop it open. "Calbern, what do you say we keep this from getting wedged shut?"

A single nod was all the response he gave me before dashing under the door. I didn't follow him, instead staying in place as he moved large chunks of rubble over. Bevel grumbled something under her breath about the noise, but I focused on using Sculpt Stone to weld the rubble into a solid pillar.

Once we had a column roughly a foot thick, Calbern dashed underneath once more, sliding to a stop. He brushed himself off with a single sweep of his hands and we resumed our exploration.

The hall was short, leading to another door, this one shattered in three pieces, though the largest section remained in place. The ruined section was large enough we were able to shift the pieces away and step through into what seemed to be an old workshop, one that dealt with monster materials, based on the labels on the shelves.

Possibly Balthum’s essence refinery.

Bones were overrepresented in the remaining samples, though at a casual glance, I couldn’t be sure if that was because they were easier to get or if he preferred them. Bone was the easiest organic essence material to preserve and transport. And a glance was all I could spare, because his workshop hadn’t been left unguarded.

What I’d assumed to be a coil of spare rope was reshaping itself, a set of thin white strands running through it, giving the faintest shape of a cat as the guardian took form. It had shards of paper as teeth, and thousands of tiny threads made up its fur. Three dark ropes hovered in the space above its head. Empty eye sockets moved toward us, a jade-green flame igniting as they fixed on me.

We all stood silently for several seconds, and to my surprise, the guardian didn’t immediately attack.

The standoff continued, and it eventually sat down, still staring at us as we stared back.

“Do you… think it's gonna attack?” Bevel asked, reaching her hand out, as though she wanted to pet it.

“I think it’s guarding the workshop,” I said, my eyes moving about the space. It growled at me when I took a step towards the nearest table, the sound like the tearing of rope. As soon as I stepped back, it stopped. “I don’t think it’d appreciate us messing with the materials. But maybe we can take the stairs?”

I directed the last towards the guardian, but it made no indication of having heard me.

This time, Calbern tested my theory, moving to the center of the chamber. When the rope-cat didn’t respond, he walked past it, only a few feet separating them. The cat turned its head in his direction, but otherwise didn’t react as he reached the stairs.

“Not sure if this is the worst guardian ever, or if its just following orders,” I said, taking Bevel’s hand as I led her past the rope-cat.

“Nah, she’s the best,” Bevel said, nodding to herself as we reached the stairs. “Neta is just lonely.”

I huffed a partial laugh at the nickname, turning my attention to the stairs at the far end of the chamber. They spiraled both higher and lower, though the lower set of stairs was blocked by rubble. A few steps up, there was a window, giving us our first view of the outside.

It still didn’t tell us where we were, the thick clouds blocking most of the landscape. But the sun remained on the usual track, and was in about the expected position, so we hadn’t gone too far. Then again, we could’ve been on the other side of the continent, for all I knew. The time hadn’t seemed to change when we’d come through the Gate either.

Even as I had that thought, the clouds split and the land below was revealed.

“By the Edge,” Calbern breathed out in a soft whisper.

“Wow,” Bevel said at the same time.

I couldn’t help but share their sense of wonder. I thought I understood my domain, the land I now ruled over. I’d seen Althon’s magical map.

But that had been so distant. So dead.

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The peaks were alive in a way I hadn’t seen when speeding past on Fang, or hiking into Mistvale.

In addition to the rams we’d spotted earlier, there were entire herds of a blue tailed antelope darting amongst the high places. Wyverns with bright green highlights on their otherwise stone gray hides, barely visible even with Eagle Eyes, circled to the east, far past the crude warehouses of Tetherfall. To the south, I could barely make out the swamp where Inertia had parked the drakes, licks of flame making their location obvious, even if I couldn’t see them directly.

Beneath us was Mistvale, the mist completely absent. Hundreds of different animals lived in the shadow of the rex, who was at that moment rubbing itself against one of the massive trees at the edge of the forest.

And we stood above it all, at what must have been the very peak of Mount Aternia.

“We need to see it from the top,” I said, drawing back from the window. Calbern turned towards me immediately, but Bevel’s gaze remained fixed outside.

“It’s so high up,” she finally said, her voice squeaking slightly. She was right. Which meant there were some powerful enchantments in play, ensuring the pressure stayed comfortable and the air clean.

“That it is,” Calbern agreed, holding his hand out for her. “What say we go a little higher, young lady?”

I stepped back, letting him lead her up. I cast a look over my shoulder towards the rope-cat creature, who watched me in turn until I disappeared around a bend in the stairs.

For several minutes, we continued our way up, pausing at each new window, every one of them breathtaking. My entire domain was visible from this mountain. It was no wonder Balthum had made his home here. And the higher we climbed, the more obvious it was that a home was exactly what it had been.

We passed a kitchen, which had once been enchanted to produce meals autonomously, though the runes hadn’t been maintained in over a decade. Any meal it produced would be more than a little suspect. After the kitchen, we found what looked to be a small reading nook across from a locked door. The nook had several books tucked inside. They were all fiction, books Perth had read in his youth, about the famous adventurer Gillian and his repeated misfortunes on the path of Ascension.

I doubted it was possible to ascend while stuck on a tropical island, but that had been the focal point of the first book, which Bevel was holding.

“You know, I read these to master Perth when he was a child,” Calbern said, kneeling down next to her and opening the book to the map right in the middle. It was one of the simplest enchantments that could be bound, a simple image sharpening, making everything more vivid and alive. Yet the effect had captured Perth’s imagination when he was a boy. He’d spent a month playing with Calbern in the ‘island wilds’, the estate gardens proving a surprisingly fitting substitute.

It had been a good time, though those games had come to an end when Sosa had complained.

“Would you read them to me?” Bevel asked, and to my surprise, she was looking at me, not Calbern.

“There’s a lot to do. Reading storybooks isn’t really…” I trailed off as she looked away, her hands squeezing into fists as she clutched the book. I fought down a sigh, and added, “But I suppose we can spare a little time, after dinner.”

Bevel nodded wordlessly three times, still clutching the book to her chest with one hand. With the other she took Calbern’s, leading the way up the stairs. I turned back to the alcove, and after a few seconds of channeling mana, transfered the other books into my storage ring. I glanced at the locked door before following her, shaking my head.

After the reading nook, we came across an indulgent bathing chamber. There were statues of nearly naked women along the wall, each of them holding different supplies. The enchantments had worn thin, the mana barely flowing, though they still let out a series of inappropriate greetings that had me wanting to clap my hands over Bevel’s ears.

By the time the thought had occured to me, the statues eyes gleamed red. The next moment, there was a cascade of angry shouting pouring out of their mouths as they charged towards us.

“Your ropes have come unwoven!” One of them screamed, her loose garb remaining precisely in position even as she swung a stone fist at me.

I dodged backwards easily, though a second came up on my right.

“Bindings broken. Bindings broken,” the second muttered in a harsh whisper while attempting to bash my brains in with a giant water bucket.

Their movements were slow and clumsy, but when the one with the water bucket hit the floor, it left large cracks radiating outwards from the impact point.

“Hey, we’re not Balthum. We’re not going to hurt-“ I started, jumping backwards mid-sentence when bucket-girl swung once more.

Not wanting to injure those I suspected were victims of Balthum’s experiments, I glanced over at Calbern as I dodged yet another swing from the first statue’s right fist. Even as she attacked, she kept the bottle of soap she was holding with her left hand from spilling. Calbern had successfully pulled Bevel out of the room, and was fending off an attendant attacking him with a barber’s razor using the flat of his sword.

Which meant the fourth attendant was unaccounted for. On a hunch, I ducked, just in time to avoid getting strangled by a luxurious white towel with blue trim. The first attendant took the opportunity my distraction offered her to score a hit to my right shoulder.

As my entire arm went numb, I had all the prompting I needed. The danger was ridiculous, but very real. I didn’t want to just blast them to rubble, and I doubted I’d be able to stun them with a glancing hit, so both the blasting wands and lightning bolt were off the table.

I had been expecting danger when we decided to explore the ruins, and it had even occurred to me that we might need to restrain some of Balthum’s former experiments. However, I’d failed to account for the fact he might’ve made them into thousand pound stone golems in the shape of bath attendants.

Still, with how brightly their spellwork was glowing, I decided it was at least worth attempting to disrupt their flow.

While trying not to let the three of them encircle me again, I tried to line up a shot that would only affect one of them. I had no intention of sending a bolt careening wildly around a small chamber again. I’d learned that lesson.

So it was a low powered and very short range bolt of lightning I loosed from my fingers. To my surprise, when it struck the attendant with the bucket, she halted immediately. I didn’t have time to figure out what exactly had happened, as bath towel girl had decided to use her improvised weapon to trip me, and I was busy dodging both her and soap bottle girl’s furious blows. A fist brought down on my foot, had me screaming out as I rolled away, and for a second, I almost brought a full strength lighting bolt to bear.

I managed to restrain myself, only shooting off a low-powered bolt. A second later, bath towel was down.

Which only left soap bottle.

She didn’t put up much of a fight, and continued to ignore my words, forcing me to use my low-powered lightning bolt on her as well. Unlike the others it took three shots before she stopped moving, leaving me rather low on mana.

Unfortunately, while I’d disabled the three attendants I’d fought, Calbern had been forced to destroy the arm of the one who’d been attacking him and Bevel with the razor. She was still conscious, though she was sitting at the foot of the stairs, clutching her broken arm and staring off into space.

“That was disquieting,” Calbern said, his hand resting on the sword at his hip, his other holding Bevel firmly behind him. “It seems the former Dominus left behind survivors.” His gaze shifted to the thousand pound golem silently staring into the distance. “Of a sort.”

“Looks like,” I agreed, as I channeled my healing. It took away the worst of the pain in my foot, but it wasn’t going to be enough to heal it completely. What I needed was my second order healing spell. And like a fool, I hadn’t prepared it. Which meant it was useless.

Limping my way slowly over to soap bottle girl, I kneeled down to inspect her more closely. The first thing I noticed was that there was more than one set of inscriptions on her. The first was obvious. They were the surface runes that’d been glowing so brightly they’d lit up the entire chamber. Even before my attacks, they’d nearly completely decayed, bright red lines that ran over the surface of the golem’s body.

Beneath those, half hidden in the fake musculature of the golem, was a far more intricate set of enchantments.

The purpose of the outer layer was easy enough to discern. They’d served to ensure the compliance of soap bottle girl. I suspected I’d find similar enchantments on the other attendants, if I were to look.

For the inner layer, the purpose was more complex. Part of it was certainly their motive force, though even a minute’s study was enough to determine that wasn’t all they did. But I’d need hours, and probably invasive investigations, to even read all the inner layer of inscriptions. A task for Memory Palace, later that night.

What my investigation did reveal, was that the attendants had gone into a safety shutdown after being hit by my lightning, to ensure… something. The runes for the shutdown were easy enough to find, since they were on the surface, ensuring their activation would be swift, but what they were meant to protect, or why Balthum would design golems to shut down so easily, I couldn’t figure.

It was possible he didn’t trust them, which… Fair ‘nuff.

If I’d been enslaved to a bath attendant golem with curves like he’d bestowed on his attendants, I would’ve tried to kill him too. And that was ignoring all the other shit he’d done.

That wasn’t important in the moment. Right now I needed a way to keep them inactive, or at least, restrained.

A sniffling sound from Calbern’s direction drew my attention. Bevel was crouched next to one of the attendant’s, wiping her face. Soap bottle’s. When I came over, I noticed a resemblance between the inactive golem’s features and Bevel’s.

Calbern stood at her side, one hand on her shoulder as I kneeled down next to her. Bevel was muttering something under her breath, but the only words I could make out were ‘sister’ and ‘sorry’.

Glancing towards Calbern, I hesitated. How did you comfort a kid who was dealing with their sibling being turned into a golem? Don’t think there’s a good answer for that one.

All I could think to do was kneel there beside her and hope it was enough.

In response, Bevel lunged, wrapping her arms around me and making me go stiff. I glanced up towards Calbern. He only offered me a nod, so I slowly raised my hand up and stroked her hair as Bevel cried into my chest.

I looked down at the golem who had been her sister. It’d been the one who’d attempted to strangle me with the towel. She still had the towel clenched tightly in both hands, her face locked in a scowl. The last remnant of Bevel’s family.

Just one more thing I’d need to fix.