Chapter 447 Truly Enchanting (1/2)

Chapter 447 Truly Enchanting

The girl had bags under her eyes, scribbling on a massive sheet of paper with a pen, Christopher commenting on some of it form the side.

“Hello,” Ilea said as her and Trian joined the two, the enchantments keeping this section secluded and closed off briefly deactivated to let them pass.

Iana looked up from her work, barely meeting her eyes. “Oh… you’re back.”

“Yes. And you look like you need a break. I don’t want to lose you two to overworking. Burnouts are a thing, you know?” Ilea said.

She formed an ashen table and placed some food and water onto it. “Come on, maybe some healing will help too.”

“It does feel pretty nice,” Iana said as she took a deep breath, focusing on the healing mana that flowed through her.

“This is from the Golden Drake right?” Christopher asked, piling his mouth with food.

“Yeah, Keyla is a fantastic cook,” Ilea said and smiled.

He nodded and grinned.

“You say that like it’s a curse.” Trian said, sitting down on a chair as he too ate some lunch.

“In a way it is,” Ilea whispered, closing her eyes as she chewed on a bite, savoring every bit of it.

“We haven’t succeeded yet,” Iana said, looking down as she delivered the line.

Ilea shrugged. “You have. I heard about the device you made for Claire. To communicate between cities. It’s going to help immensely. And I assume it’s also a step in the right direction in regards of the teleportation gate.”

“It is,” Christopher said. “Though there are missing links. Moving mana to a location predetermined proved difficult but not impossible. This… this is an entirely different task.”

“Doesn’t help that our test subjects aren’t exactly cooperative,” Iana said with a sigh, continuing to eat.

“We use rats,” Christopher said. “They… have met unfortunate ends.”

Ilea chuckled. “It’s always rats, isn’t it? I can be your test subject.”

“We are dealing with fluctuating arcane and space magic, runes and enchantments that are highly experimental. It would rip you apart,” Christopher said and shook his head.

Trian smiled. “Don’t encourage her.”

Ilea looked at him and winked. “I have third tier space and arcane magic resistances. I doubt whatever you created can seriously hurt me. And if it can… all the better. I need better skills anyway.”

Christopher looked at Iana and back to Ilea.

“Are you sure? We heard that you have returned even stronger than you were but this is not something to take lightly,” Iana said.

Ilea could tell the girl was excited. Finally presented with a potential solution to a problem she hadn’t yet managed to solve. “I’ll be the judge of that. There are some other things I wanted to discuss. I’ll take part in whatever testing you need tomorrow… hmm a little before noon if that is acceptable for you.”

“Of course! We’ll prepare everything we need. Trian, is it possible for you to come as well? We might need some mana to start some of the enchantments.” Iana said.

Trian nodded. “Of course. I’ll be there.”

“Perfect, perfect,” Iana said, lost in thought.

“What else did you need?” Christopher asked.

“First off, do you two need more enchanters or rune experts? I’m sure we could hire some,” Ilea suggested.

“Christopher has looked through many potential people but it would cause more harm than use,” Trian said. “If you find any good candidates outside of Ravenhall, send them to me if interested.”

“I see. As for the other things. Maybe these things will benefit you in some way,” she said and summoned the notebook of the Tremor guard captain she had requested from Maro before he departed back to Hallowfort.

Ilea made it clear that these runes were to be treated with the utmost secrecy and respect, retelling bits and pieces from both her experience with the Soul Rippers and the Ascended.

She added the machines she had retrieved from the seventh layer in the Descent. The two reacted to both the runes and machinery in a way a puppy would treat something new and unexpected.

Did I just doom Ravenhall? Ilea asked herself with a sigh.

“It’s alright,” Trian said and lightly punched her arm. “We have protocols in place. The benefits outweigh the risks. Marginally but they do,” he reassured her.

“We will be careful. There are many layers of enchantments in place around our testing facility as well as the very room you are in to prevent tracking spells, mana leaking and even divination,” Iana said. “The benefit with powerful high level beings is that they often focus on brute strength, lacking understanding of such matters entirely.”

“Not the Ascended,” Ilea said. She was sure of it and made that clear.

“I also have something else that I would like to show to the two of you. I suspect it might be better if we go very far away from the city or into the testing facility you have mentioned,” she said.

“What is it?” Iana asked, her eyes glowing with runic magic.

“A key. One of twelve Taleen keys made to unlock… something. I found it at some point but deemed it to dangerous to mention so far. Perhaps now is a good time, now that you have studied the gate key. I can show it to you now, for a couple minutes. That thing however, stays with me. I can show it to you again tomorrow.”

“Follow me,” Iana said and walked off, activating various sets of enchantments that made the ground glow, stairs forming in the solid stone, leading downward as a soft blue glow of magic light illuminated the side walls.

“Anything you can learn from it is excellent of course but I would also like to have a tracking device made so I can find the other keys. The Fae mentioned something along those lines should be possible,” she explained.

“Why do you want to find them?” Trian asked.

“You lack a sense for curiosity,” Iana said to the man as she released the most powerful and nearly blinding set of enchantments Ilea had ever seen. Both within her sphere and without.

“This… is the core,” Iana said as she waved them inside.

It was a rather spacious hall with a sphere like shape, seemingly floating bridges leading towards two platforms. Each had what looked like a circular teleportation gate built onto them. The materials used in the construction of the facility were various metals and wood. Neither looked common.

The whole place reminded Ilea a little of the dome structure on the twenty fourth layer in the Descent. The difference was that that one was covered in runes. This here seemed more intricate, complicated. At the same time the dome had been simple, raw. Perfect perhaps in the purpose it served.

“This looks fucking expensive,” Ilea said.

“It was,” Trian nodded. “You are Very rich.”

“I’ve been told,” Ilea nodded. “As to why I want to search for the keys, mostly to figure out more about the Taleen and what they left behind. You’re aware of all the machines. Right now they seem to have the goal to hunt and kill Elves.”

“And that’s a bad thing?” Trian asked.

“Partially. Some parties I have come into contact with would be very interested in stopping the assault. Yes. Elves. Not all of them are absolute monsters. I however am more interested in the potential of using all those machines. Or at least taking over production facilities. The keys might hold secrets that could lead us towards such a goal,” Ilea explained.

Iana shook her head. “Taking over Taleen machines… you know that Aki is a special case. We could not reproduce him. I’ve decided it is more reasonable to focus on the gates instead of him for the time being.”

“That’s the right decision anyway,” Ilea said. “So this place is safe?”

Iana turned around, her eyes glowing within her sphere for a brief moment before the gates closed. Several heavy stone and steel ones, a thrumming sound of energy activating right after.

“Now it is,” she said with a smile and quickly went to a small bunker like room nearby, placing the diary and the machines inside, summoned from the ring she had received from Ilea.

Quite proud of all this, hmm? Ilea thought. She didn’t see the problem with it. It was indeed an impressive installation. Her sphere couldn’t penetrate. Even Sentinel Huntress apparently got confused. She could still tell that there were two marks out there but there were no directions.

Guess this is as good as it gets.

She summoned the Tungsten key and placed it on top of an ashen altar she quickly formed.

Iana took a step towards the thing and just stared at it. Christopher walked around it and activated a few spells with unknown effects.

“Remarkable…,” he said.

“Is it?” Iana asked. “It is covered in enchantments that serve a similar purpose as this very facility. Below… the… no. I see…,”

“You see it too. She is right. One of many. Twelve seems unlikely… impossible even,” Christopher said.

“How reliable is this Fae?” Iana asked.

“It is older than perhaps humanity itself. Witnessed perhaps the forming of this realm itself. A mind compromised of hundreds if not thousands of individuals, all with experience and knowledge that likely transcend a genius human mind. Some are a little more dense of course. The source however, I think you can trust,” Ilea replied.