Chương 106: Chapter 105- The Chamber

Corporal Mason refused to let Astra enter the Fracture Yard so close to the deadline of the next eruption without the rest of her guards, so they waited for a few anxious minutes as a runner fetched Cooper from his rounds in the garrison and another fetched one of the spare squads from the patrol.

Despite the fact that he was still recovering from his mana depletion Mason insisted on joining the excursion as well, proclaiming that while he may not be ready to toss around his signature lightning spells, " A spear thrust to the heart will still kill just fine.' Due to the possibility of another impending wave, the wall Mason had erected in the passageway had been left intact, it had even been thickened by the pair of earth mages who had been part of the Emerald Grove Garrison.

The group had ascended up the stairs to the ramparts above the yard only to descend on one of the many siege ladders that had been lowered inside as part of the effort to clear the grounds. As their boots dropped onto the stones of the 'Pit' as the soldiers had been calling it, they squelched in the tacky pools of drying blood and indiscernible finely ground viscera that coated the ground.

The stench from Eli being splashed by fiend blood earlier had been bad enough, but after the little over a dozen that had been slaughtered and left to rot in the courtyard began to turn the smell left the air technically breathable, but deeply unpleasant. Unpleasant enough that Tiamat refused to join them below and just asked Eli to fill her in on what they found later.

One of the soldiers joined them at the bottom of the ladder, a wet cloth wrapped around the lower half of his face as he guided them over to a corner of the yard on the far side from the gatehouse. The cloth slightly muffled the man's voice, but he spoke confidently, " So, we first found it a little after we started the clearing of the bodies from the local garrison.

For the most part they were clustered around the entrance to the gatehouse, but there were a few scattered through the Yard, and as we followed the trail over the corner we found this." As he led the leadership group over, when they reached one corner they found that there was a hole in the ground, and from the way the earth was scattered and how the stones were laid, it appeared as if the hole had been dug from below.

There were scattered bodies in the uniform of the Emberholdt Garrison ringing the hole in piles, many were dressed in half their armor or no armor at all, and the wounds they had sustained told a story of fierce battle. Eli gave Astra's shoulder a squeeze as he felt a spike of anger and grief surge through the tether, and sent a wave of sympathy and reassurance in its wake.

Their escort led them over to a ladder that was protruding from the hole, " It was buried under a pile of monster corpses, so it wasn't until we followed the trail of bodies that we found it." He gestured at the bodies of the fallen, " We think they must have noticed something before the Fracture breached, maybe whoever made the hole had to exit here and do something to trigger the eruption, we're not sure."

He sighed, before gagging slightly at the smell, and continuing, " From the way everyone is dressed, we think the alarm was sent up, and they sent everyone they could spare into the hole to stop it. Found the Commander inside, he must have been with the first group to make it here." He climbed down first, waiting at the bottom for the rest of the group to descend before continuing.

The ladder dropped around twenty feet before splitting into a T shape, the soldier pointed to where the tunnel continued on the far side of the group, " That way leads under the wall and outside the Yard, comes up in the middle of a small grove of trees." He gestured upwards to the earth of the tunnel ceiling above them," Whoever dug this either tampered with the tremor wards ahead of time, or the monitor was one of them since there is no way this much earth being moved wouldn't have set them off."

He gestured to the tunnel behind him with a thumb over one shoulder before turning, " This way." The tunnel itself was roughly hewn in a few places, but mostly consisted of the vaguely organic textures that Eli had become used to from watching Mason work, the sign of an earth mage's handiwork. The tunnel was a little short, some of the taller members of the party had to stoop a bit, but wide enough to walk two across and with a flat smooth floor that bore signs of regular traffic.

As they walked, the tunnel floor began to slope while growing slowly taller, until they reached an exit where the ceiling rose sharply into a dome shape. The chamber opened into an area approximately thirty feet across terminating in a flat wall across from the entrance. Magnus stood before a massive runic formation that adorned the far wall, circular and precisely drawn, but the markings themselves were oddly angled with a disjointed and haphazard feel to them.

The formation was a far cry from the neat geometric figures that composed the majority of the few structures Elias had seen so far. The lines of the formation themselves glowed a deep burgundy, subtly different from the crimson color he was used to seeing with Astra's magic, missing the faint orange core and the ripples of heat distortion. Faint drips of a red viscous fluid marking the wall would have clued him into the source of the markings, if the stack of corpses in the corner did not.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Eli paced over before crouching to examine the bodies. From what he could see many of them were bound hand and foot, their pale skin and slit throats led him to suspect they had been exsanguinated. He grimaced in disgust before walking back over to stand next to Astra.

Magnus was standing near a small group of mages as they studied the formation and upon hearing their footsteps, he turned and grunted, a stony look on his face as he greeted Astra." Thank you for coming, Lady Emberholdt, we seem to have found the source of the mana drain, as much as I wish we had not found what we have."

He gave a significant look to the bodies piled in the corner before turning back to the formation, " We are currently somewhere between twenty and thirty feet below the courtyard and, as I am sure you can guess, the Fracture itself likely extends into the ground just on the other side of this formation." He studied it for a moment as if his eyes were drawn to the markings, before turning to emit a heavy sigh and give their group his full attention."

Frankly we don't know what it exactly does, but I'll stake my badge that it is the source of our eruptions. The markings are very different from the more common ritual circles, but given their placement we can make a rough deduction of its purpose.""

I'll spare you the details, but the consensus seems to be that it blocks the flows from the System which are meant to suppress a the cascade cycle leading to a breach, redirecting them in a separate capacitance circuit which then re-aspects the mana and uses it to hijack the standard internal transport network and dump every single creature into one single cavern and then it prods the trigger the failsafe.""

The System assumes the fracture is seconds away from breaching and initiates the emergency dump procedures that are meant to stop a breach by ejecting the top layer and buying time for the System to reattempt the suppression, but in this case creating a false breach in miniature." Astra freezes for a moment in shock, staring at the man for a moment, before giving him a confused look, " You can do that?"

Magnus recoils before derisively snorting and giving a strange laugh that was in between delirious and manic, " NO. I've never even heard of something like this." He gave a nervous laugh, " We have never seen something like this, but the mana flows make the intention of the ritual clear, well mostly."

Magnus gestured wildly at the wall in front of them, " Even if you could interpret or somehow just had knowledge of the inner workings of the Abyssal Node construct, and spent a century or two deciphering whatever unknown runes would be required to interact with them, the power requirements would be unimaginable…" His eyes swept over to the bodies in the corner as he drifted off for a moment, before shaking himself and glaring murderously at the markings on the wall before clearing his throat."

I guess we don't have to imagine how they managed it." Astra frowned, " Can you stop it? Halt the eruptions?" Magnus jolted, dragging his eyes from the formation back over Astra, giving her a bewildered and panicked look, " Maybe, probably, I'm not certain, we think so, but that doesn't matter." He pointed at the bodies in the corner, " If this is what they could achieve with just 30 or 40 victims, what do you think they could do with more? Didn't you say they might have hundreds?"

The room grew dead silent as every head swiveled in his direction, the only sound the soft breathing of the occupants of the chamber as the mages studying the formation stopped what they were doing and looked at Magnus with expressions of horror." It doesn't matter if we fail, and the whole town dies. You need to leave. NOW."

The preparations to leave Whittenburg passed in a whirlwind of motion. After the discovery in the chamber under the Fracture Yard, the leadership group moved with purpose and resolve. On the way out of the yard, the Captain ordered his men off the wall, and as soon as they descended the ramparts, the Baron ordered his men up to take their place.

Every spare hand that was not involved in gathering the reduced assault force or preparing their mounts was sent out to scour the city for spare mounts, with instructions to return with whatever they could find. As the Garrison erupted in activity, a slightly disheveled and limping Corporal Brewer presented himself before Astra to formally accept his position and ask how he could help. Astra pinned him with a fierce gaze as she stood in the middle of the street just outside the Garrison.

She was the center of a hive of activity as the unit was slowly assembling behind her." If we fail our mission on the morrow, we are riding to certain death. Do you still wish to accept?" He straightened as best he could, " Is your mission related to what happened today at the Pit?" She nodded " Aye." Brewer brought his right fist to his chest in a salute, " Where do you need me Ma'am?" Astra grinned, " Do you have your men selected and can they ride?" As he nodded yes to both she returned his salute, " Excellent.

Gather your new squad, get them armed, armored, and supplied. Emergency rations and medical supplies only."" See Mr. Cooper to get them mounts and a place in the formation and when you have them settled, return and bring any maps you can find of the Viscount's Estate and the lands surrounding." She shouted over her shoulder as she strode away, " I hope you can ride one handed Mr. Brewer, we have an assault to plan and little time to do so."