Chapter 189: A Close Call (1/2)

Torix floated over towards me, his arms crossed. One of the blue mage-frog-dragons stammered, ”I...we were sent here by Lehesion to spread the silvers.”

I waved my hand in a circle, ”Anything else?”

The mammoth beast squeaked out, ”Lehesion told us that Giess had drifted from the olden ways and needed to be cleansed.”

My shoulders drooped, ”What the fuck?”

The blue mage nodded, ”Lehesion understands that we gialgathens are superior to the espens. That is why he fought for their freedom. He understood that they would never be capable of freeing themselves as Emagrotha touted.”

The blue gialgathen stood up, his knees shaking, ”Now that the espens are gaining power, Lehesion is restoring balance to Giess. We can live with the silvers around us. Espens cannot. They shall cleanse the espens, and then we will remain, victorious and overwhelming.”

Torix pinched the bridge of his nose while staring down, ”And tell me, did Lehesion ever mention how you'd rid yourselves of the silvers once they covered Giess?”

The blue mage froze in place, a wrench thrown into his internal logic. He stammered out, ”I...I am certain that Lehesion understands the implications and has a plan set out to fix them.”

I shook my head, ”You have no idea how hard it is to get rid of them. You have to strip the metal from the ground and kill the saysha beetles. Otherwise, they just grow the metal right back. Now do all that bullshit while the silvers attack you from all sides. It's nearly impossible.”

Torix sighed, ”You'd need a talented Fringe Walker to make any progress. Even then, it would be slow and hard work.”

The Eclipse Maker shouted with a hoarse voice, ”I am but an ignorant acolyte of Lehesion. Such intricacies are beyond me.”

One of the mages waved his tail in a circle. I kept my eye on him as Torix continued, ”Your ignorance is his manipulation. Lehesion is using your talents to further his own agenda. You have a choice here. If you prove useful, we can use you all to further our needs.”

Torix gestured to all of them, ”All of you will need to cast aside this...religion you have with Lehesion, however.”

Another gialgathen swung his tail in a circle as well, some mana welling above us. I whispered, ”They're trying to kill us...again.”

Torix whispered back, ”Pin them down.”

The two beasts waving their tails heard us, each of them roaring out. Before they finished their spells, I reached out my hands. I clasped my fists, jettisoning out immense rivers of mana above the two gialgathen's heads. Above them, the rock melted, splashing over them in scalding lava. I hardened the rock, forming rock around them.

Torix lifted his staff and swung it in a circle at the same time. A spiral, darkwave erupted from the icy cane. Before it crashed into the galvanized gialgathens, Torix tossed his staff up. He pointed his two palms at the calcified mages. A celestial light illuminated from the cracks in their stone prisons before the black mana blade severed them.

A head flopped onto the floor as Torix snatched his staff out of the air. The headless body stayed standing, held up by the igneous prison. The other mage's entire chest split and slid apart, bisected like an anatomical cadaver. Red blood leaked out from the many open veins, covering the organs and bone. It turned into a mess in seconds.

I paced over, sapping the corpses of their vitality. As I did, I turned to Torix,

”You want to use some of the bodies for summons?”

The lich shook his head, ”Without their minds, these gialgathens are rather useless. I'd much rather have a few Skyburners under my wing since their bodies hold together far better.”

The blue gialgathen with a loose tongue murmured, ”Show us mercy...Please.”

Torix rolled his eyes, ”You will be given mercy should you earn it. Now, as you were saying.”

The blue gialgathen nodded, ”Of course. One of you dirtwalkers helped Lehesion. They...”

Several beeping sounds buzzed in the heads of the four remaining Eclipse Makers. They looked around, one of them mouthing, ”That beeping sound is so loud. It's like it's inside my hea-”

All four of their skulls exploded, mush splattering onto the rest of the walls. A hunk of brain landed on Torix's forehead, scalp and blood splashing over him. The lich reached up, wiping a thick layer of the gialgathen brain from his face. Without saying a word, he flung the gunk off his bony fingers.

He turned to me, ”We tell no one.”

I raised both my palms to him, ”Absolutely. Not a soul.”

I walked up to him, ”Can you hold yourself back? I can pull that shit off with a gravity well.”

Torix leaned back, bracing himself. I took the cue and created a well in front of him. Torix's clothes fell sideways, his robe drawn to the well. The lich kept himself strut by forming ice over his feet and staff while holding it. The muck pooled into a wobbly sphere over the next minute.

After getting a good portion of the guts off him, I said,

”About to cancel the well.”

Torix gave me the ok. As I did, the mage took a deep breath of relief, even though he didn't need to breathe. Maybe the sound made him feel better. Once he collected himself, Torix looked around, ”After a good washing, this should come off. Now, to find some evidence of what happened here.”

I pointed at the headless group of gialgathens, ”What about them?”

Torx sighed, ”It seems as though someone planted bombs in their heads for just such an occasion. I found the timing uncanny, as they could have done the same before we discovered those tidbits about Lehesion.”

I cupped my chin, ”Sucks too. It seems like someone's using Lehesion as the figurehead while they handle the operation.”

Torix looked around at the devastated cavern, ”What I don't understand is why they would do it here? These locations... they're seemingly random and disparate. Why not infest a chokepoint and actually deal a blow to the infrastructure of Giess? As they are, their rather ineffective.”

I shrugged, ”Maybe they don't want to deal a blow to Giess's infrastructure.”

Torix crossed his arms, walking back and forth, ”Indeed, that seems to be the case...In fact...”

Torix paced up to a charred bookcase, ”The goal of Lehesion might be to destroy Giess. At the same time, the true orchestrator of this might have a different goal altogether.”

I scratched the side of my head, ”Huh, like making gialgathens look bad or some shit?”

Torix nodded, ”I wonder who would want to do that exactly?”

I scoffed, ”Yeah, do you know any prominent figures that hate gialgathens?”

”One does come to mind. That snake will be our primary suspect for now. We simply need to prove our hypothesis and find incriminating evidence. Perhaps there's something here among this debris...”

Torix picked up a larger than life book. Along the edge of the book's spine, a ribbon loop sprung up. It looked perfect for a gialgathen to lift the tome up with their tail. Torix opened the pages, many of them burned all the way through.

Realizing the conversation was over, I sprung into action. I consumed the carcasses, leaving nothing behind. After soaking up the blood from earlier, I walked around, trying to gather something valuable. To be honest, there wasn't much left after the silver brigade and singularity.

Combined that with all the fire breath, and this place looked like a giant smashed it under its heel. Still, this was one of our best chances of finding some clue to take back with us. After about an hour of searching, we hit our lucky break.

A boulder from the cavern's roof fell onto a desk, smashing it beyond measure. I lifted the crag and tossed it aside before searching the chipped pieces of wood. Inside a crumpled steel safe, I discovered several shattered obelisks.

One survived, unharmed amongst the shattered, glass orbs. As I pulled it up, Torix turned to me, ”It looks as though there isn't much to use here.”

I dusted off the functioning obelisk, ”Maybe not. This looks like it's still good.”

The transparent sphere still had its metal ring of transistors attached to it. I pressed the edges of the transistor ring, allowing me to access the crystalized data. A message popped up,

Access denied. Encryption code necessary for data access. Seek administrator of original data logs for further information.

I sighed, shaking the damn thing, ”Yup. It can never be too easy.”

Torix paced up to me, reaching out a hand for the obelisk. I handed it over before sorting through the rest of the safe's contents. I found shattered bulbs and a few data drives that might work with my own obelisk. I plugged them in and checked out the info.

I found detailed data spreads about silvers and their biological functions. After storing a few of these, I opened an actually useful drive. It held information about how a hybrid could function between silver and eldritch. A few illustrations even showed how to incorporate the harvesters with the saysha beetles.

I pocketed the info in my storage before walking up to Torix. The lich dripped with frustration, his impatience obvious. He turned to me,

”This encryption code is absolutely superb. There's no one we know that could hack something of this magnitude. It's many orders above my own understanding.”

I crossed my arms, ”Maybe we could send it to the Overseer? He might know a guy who can help us.”

Torix shook his head, ”Impossible. He's far too busy working with Speakers to manage the affairs of many worlds. Calling him for this would be the same as Althea calling you to guard her on a trip to the candy store. Just as that task is beneath your notice, our problem is beneath him.”

I scratched the side of my head, ”Well...fuck.”

Torix let his hands flop onto his sides, ”Well fuck indeed.”

The both of us stared down, defeated by a tiny glass sphere. After a moment of sulking, I puffed out my chest and pat Torix on the back, ”Come on. Let's keep searching.”

”The obvious recourse.”

Before we began, however, a message from Althea popped up in the corner of my vision. I opened it.

Althea Tolstoy, the Shapeless Arbiter(lvl 6,221 | Class: Breaker | Giess: 2:41 A.M. 3/18/26) - Another bomb in room. Caprika hurt. Help.

My stomach sank as I read the message. I turned to Torix, who was reading her message as well. He closed it while snapping his grimoire shut,

”We need to leave. This will have to wait till later.”

I bent my knees, ”I'm rushing there.”