Chapter Text
Lydia could admit the giant golem was a tough cookie, if the cookie had been made from reinforced concrete and severely overcooked. Whatever it was actually made from was much tougher than the ruins around them and at the same time much poorer at dealing with their hits.
While it seemed immune to elemental effects, as they had even tried to freeze it down and heat it up repeatedly to crack the stone, Kinetic damage was doing the job quite well. It seemed that whatever controlled the Golem from the inside wasn’t properly insulated against that kind of damage.
So as much as they could strategy about how to tackle the Boss, it had come down to not getting hit and hitting it back as hard as possible. It was working too.
Laura jumped away and called out a warning, “It’s getting serious!”
A moment later the head of the Golem detached, it rose into the air, keeping away from their reach. The head opened its maw and released fireballs that bounced around the room erratically.
“Aim for the chains connected to the fists so we can take the torso much easier.” Lydia suggested and everyone reacted.
They had mainly aimed towards the head and torso so far, trying to rush to defeat the monster and ignored the arms as none of them had found it hard to dodge those attacks. But now the Boss’ pattern had changed and was even starting to shoot lasers from its eyes.
Lydia and Romeo quickly took the right fist first, the metal chain being much more susceptible to the damage by temperature shock. The fist just flew wildly and landed in a corner, thankfully it didn’t seem to affect the monster’s pattern even as Laura and Moisha took out the other one.
Without its limbs, the torso became an easy target even while the head kept shooting at them. As much as it could move around the room and bounce much more agile than expected, the four of them were quickly chipping away at its life.
She watched as Laura took the last hit, with a mighty cracking sound the Golem went stiff. The light from its eyes faded and the floating head came down like a rock, cracking and breaking away as the rest of the body started to break apart too.
Lydia let out a sigh of relief, it had been quite tiring at the end as the fight had been almost a quarter of an hour of non-stop fighting even with the four of them. Laura and Moisha were already checking what it had dropped as Romeo seemed to be checking them out.
He just gave her a small nod of acknowledgement as everything was okay. She relaxed a bit, thankfully most monsters didn’t seem to invade the chamber, even with the Boss having been defeated.
“Wait, this altar’s still here and we've got more of those crystals, does that mean we can, like, fight the Boss again?” Moisha asked.
“Yeah.” Laura answered readily. “Most Boss Monsters have a way of being fought repeatedly. I’ve only done so a couple of times, once by mistake, the other because there was a piece of Loot I had wanted and the Slime King wasn’t too dangerous.”
Lydia winced at the idea, they were all tired. Even if the fight had gone pretty well and they would know what to expect, going for a second round was asking for troubles.
“Maybe we should leave it for another time.” She offered and Laura nodded.
“For now we should head back.” The woman said and retrieved four cyan potions. “Here, these are Recall Potions, they will take you back to the town safely.” She showed by downing one and disappearing in a small shower of sparkles.
They just shared a shrug and followed. Lydia found the taste a bit fishy, not a problem, but left her wanting some proper seafood afterwards.
Just as advertised, the four of them were now standing by the Pylon at the center of town.
“I will go ask the Guide if he has any idea of what to do next, the Golem didn’t drop anything specific outside of a stronger Pickaxe.” Laura said. “Thanks again for helping me down there.”
“Don’t worry.” Romeo said. “We’re going to head back and relax until Magnus’ back, so there’s no rush.”
Lydia nodded to his words while Moisha leaned against him. The way she was pressing her body made it pretty clear to Lydia what her teammate wanted to relax.
“Romeo’s right, rest well, after that fight we’ve all earned it.” Lydia said as she sneaked a smack on Moisha to get her to behave for a little longer.
Laura nodded and wished them well as the three of them started to head back to the house they were occupying. Lydia couldn’t help but to snort as the look Moisha gave her, like she would let her have Romeo all for herself.
She hoped Magnus and Ruby took their time to return from the dungeon.
Magnus had spent the last few days learning from the Kobolds and teaching them in kind. The Kobolds turned out to be excellent students, their hive mind allowing them to quickly share their understanding through the members in a way that reminded him of the Metaloids, on top of having an amazing ability to learn to begin with.
The Queen had specially surprised him by being incredibly inventive and quick-witted. She had been the leading member when learning new aspects of enchantment and sharing them down. Even the Psi-snail, who Magnus could still not establish communication with, had learned a few things and reinforced their shell.
He was moderately worried about how things were going back in the Earth Realm, but he couldn’t do much more than wait at the moment as the Queen had offered to take him to a set of ruins that may contain something of use.
But that had to wait as they were first raiding one of the other tribes that lived in the way there.
Over the time he had spent with the Kobolds he had been carving a new Mask, having studied them enough, especially Ibis, he had slowly put what he had learned in the Artifact.
The angular mask had been made from a piece of the Psi-snail’s armor, a very old piece that had been shed to make way for the new, reinforced shell that he had helped create. The material had a long history with the Kobolds that inhabited the Psi-snail, making it an excellent material for this particular Mask.
“Query. That.” The Queen prodded him with a surprising familiarity.
“This is one of my original’s creations. It’s a Mask that complements my ability to Transform.” He explained. “Normally I can’t access a Race’s abilities, but with this I can effectively become what I would be if I had been born as part of them.”
“You. Equal. Us?” She asked in a clearly stunned tone.
“Yes and No, at the end it would still be a Lie,” that single word shook the Queen just as the first time he had said Truth and Lie, psychically it was just impossible to hide his connections to them, “but for a bit, I would make it Truth.”
He put the last details into the Mask as they talked. He could practically taste the change in the air as they approached their target, one of the many underground oases. These patches of vegetation were highly coveted as they were a source of food and comfort, but just as many dangers.
Some of the most fruitful ones would be too heavily protected, the groups that took over those had had a long time to properly entrench themselves. But the one they were aiming for was smaller and changed hands almost weekly. Not like the Kobolds were interested in taking it for themselves, the Psi-snail provided too much comfort and it needed to be on the move most of the time.
He felt the being message the hive mind about their approach to the oasis and he simply slid the Mask in place. He felt the change go through his body as a Lie and his ability mixed to take in the qualities and characteristics inscribed in the Mask.
His body lengthened, almost-human proportions but a little more, as if someone had stretched his outline up. He easily surpassed the two and a half meters in height, definitely one of his largest forms so far.
His index and middle finger melded together and stretched into claws, growing more dangerous, but keeping their dexterity. His clothes molded to his body, turning minimalistic as his skin adopted a pattern similar to the rest of the Kobolds, black and purple. His braid melded into an extension of his head, keeping the threaded design.
Finally he felt the connection to the hivemind, becoming enough one of them that he slotted in; even when he kept a tiny sensation of still being the outsider. He could now see their surroundings like the rest of the Kobolds did, as if his vision had become a compound of all Kobolds and the Psi-snail’s own perception too.
“Welcome, friend.” The voice of the Psi-snail surprised him, but quickly recovered and returned the greeting.
Magnus could even see their target and how the scouts had moved on ahead, already taking a few look-outs and breaking the area into chaos for the rest of the hive to fall into the place, taking just enough to last until their next hit.
He nearly missed how the Queen had scooted closer to him, her body not looking as large now that he had almost doubled his size. He wasn’t blind to not understand her sudden attraction, making him wonder if he had ended up transforming into a possible mate or simply a potential one.
He felt a bit conflicted, it wasn’t as if he couldn’t see how attractive the Queen was for her Race. But he was also going out with Brianna at the moment, not that he couldn’t see how her eyes wandered when any attractive male passed by.
As the attack finished, the Kobolds picked up what they wanted from the cave. He decided to leave responding to the Queen’s advances at least until he could contact Earth again.
After their visit at the oasis they would head straight towards the ruins. Unfortunately most beings kept their distance from them, meaning Magnus would have to explore them alone.
To the naked eye the ruins appeared to be not only empty, but also bereft of any interest. The walls and the ceiling were made from roughly cut stone, while the floors were mismatched tiles of a similar material. This was all a Lie.
The more he studied the place from the entrance, the more Magnus became assured that the place had been originally constructed to look like this. The dull stone appeared no different from untreated granite, but a closer inspection revealed it was some kind of processed alloy, and every imperfection on its surface was instead part of some trap of mechanism.
The mismatched tiles on the floor were traps, but not straightforward. Instead it was as if the whole floor was instead a massive keyboard and depending on the input a different kind of trap would be activated. This was devilishly ingenious, any intruder would most likely overestimate themselves as nothing would happen until they were half-way into the room, and by then any step would result in their death.
It also wasn’t as if one could fly over, the whole room would notice that and react accordingly. What it did exactly he had no idea, but it was obviously not a nice thing. Even teleporting through would most likely result in the person’s death, the architecture seemed to force space to twist, and so anyone that tried to push through.
What stumbled him the most was that there appeared to be no safe way through. The closest way was either to stumble through the activating traps, or know them by heart so they would neutralize each other upon activation.
It was basically an assured death, a clear reason why the place had never been raided by anyone. Or at least raided and lived. He would bet something in the whole death trap and also made sure to clean the place up.
Just to try, he trick shot a stone through the tiles, as if skipping stones it hit a series of tiles almost at random. On the fifth bounce two of the walls seamlessly opened up and lasers shot out to obliterate said stone into dust.
He tried a few more times, finding the result to change. Even when he repeated the first test it came up with a new result. It was either random or there was a cycle that would take way too long to learn.
As much as Magnus would have wanted to play it safe, there was only one thing he could do, outside of turning around. He took a few steps back before running forward and letting lady luck choose.
The death trap was prepared for it too, because the moment he stepped on the first tile the ceiling slid open, huge axes came swinging down. With the second step flamethrowers came out from the walls. On the fourth large buzz saws slipped out between the tiles. And it only got worse from there.
The only saving grace was that as dangerous the traps were, they weren’t following his movements and mainly just being a dangerous spot. His perception of time slowed as enough of his Domain expanded out. The Sheikah Grimoire popped out and a number of its pages were torn off, Runes inscribed on them and shooting out to intercept the most dangerous traps as he moved through.
He managed to reach the other side of the room and all traps instantly deactivated, leaving the room empty and ready for its next victim. He had honestly expected a shower of confetti for the success. But seeing that another room rested on the other end of the hallway after the first room, he knew it would take him some time to get through.
He hoped it was worth it.
Unfortunately, the death trap he had wandered into didn’t contain any riches, at first sight. Once he had gotten to the deepest part of the trap he simply had started to pull it apart from the inside out.
Of course it hadn’t been easy, the whole thing hadn’t been designed to be ever taken apart. Fortunately all machines could break one way or another and the correct pressure in the correct place could easily become catastrophic. Impressively enough, even some of the parts left over had turned out to be traps in themselves.
It had become incredibly obvious that whoever had constructed the place was a twisted son of a bitch, a sad*st of the largest order and at the same time a massive genius. Especially because it was obvious the death trap he had wandered so happily into was a basic one, some of the components showed signs of much more advanced construction practices that should have led to much deadlier traps.
Magnus wouldn’t complain, he had acquired enough materials and processed things that putting together a proper Magic Sun and a Mater Synthesizer should be possible.
He stepped out of the now empty ruin to find the Kobold Queen waiting for him.
“You life. Equals. Good. Your loss would be unfortunate.” Her tone attempted to be detached. But to him it was clear as the day.
“Don’t worry, while dangerous it wasn’t as deadly as I had expected. I will be able to put together what I want.” He reassured her as they moved back to the Psi-snail.
The being had stayed in one place long enough, unless it was hurt it was usually on the move. It wasn’t just freedom, it was how it lived. He felt a sense of kinship, even if he was now the Teacher, he had been part of the Traveler before.
However, as much as he wanted to start with the Magic Sun, there was one other thing he had to do first.
Brianna couldn’t help but feel frustrated and powerless.
It had started with Madrid getting one over all of them, she had made everyone believe Gina and her had switched spots and they had so easily believed her.
She hadn’t believed her own sister, it made Brianna feel like a screw up. She hadn’t even been able to deal with Madrid once the whole thing had been revealed, even with some of her best weapons the Djinni had easily trounced all of them.
Gina and Dao had been the ones to finally beat her. She and the rest had been forced to retreat back from Yl’Dahjim. And then she had learned that Magnus had been teleported away to who knew where.
Genn had barely managed to soothe her down so she didn’t march over to Monty and told the man a few things with one of her biggest weapons. Seance had no idea how to search for Magnus, apparently the effect that had teleported him away was pretty particular, to the point even her father may have a hard time looking for him.
She had tried to see if she could do better, putting her nose to the books, she did have access to some of her father’s library. But without a proper teacher most magic was just too esoteric and it added to her frustration. She would have asked Seance, but she wasn’t going to interrupt when the man appeared to have finally gotten his head out of his ass and had finally stopped pinning for Gina.
With Britanny busy with married life, her parents away and Gina busy rebuilding her lab, and the house, Brianna could only try again and again. Once she had calmed down enough she had called Monty and asked to be explained what had happened exactly.
That was how she had learned about Chaos Magic and how someone had created something that could cause anything from the apocalypse to setting up a birthday party for anyone who was born on seven forty seven exactly. This meant that the effect that had teleported Magnus was the definition of random and he could be anywhere and even anywhen.
She doubted that time had been f*cked because no one had come knocking yet. So he was still alive and just somewhere that was most likely not Earth.
“If it was me I would just go to his house and throw all those dice! I would show them who’s the boss!” Peebri said.
“I would, if that wasn’t going to cause more problems.” Brianna said, a soft sigh escaping her lips. Not only because Peebri hadn’t paid attention to her and instead went off on some tangent, but also because it felt like she was really not making any progress with understanding magic.
A small pop made her turn her head. “Peemag, what are you doing here?” She asked.
The foxy Peebo was a curious one, not only it was the only one she hadn’t constructed alone, it was also the only one that had decided to not say a single word since its creation. It also liked to disappear and appear at random to the point she wasn’t entirely sure where it spent most of its time when it disappeared off the lab.
The Peebo shivered, its digital eyes closing as it concentrated before a small spark above its head spread, growing wide and tall to show an image of Magnus.
“...an you… Brianna! Excellent, I was hoping I could contact you once I got something going.” His voice felt strange as a low buzzing in the back kept trying to be louder.
“Magnus? Magnus! Where are you? Can you hear me?”
“Calm down, I can hear you well,” the noise in the background lowered until it was almost nonexistent, “now you should hear me better. I’m not sure where I am, it’s somewhere between Earth and Jade, more on the Jade side if I had to say, it’s deep underground and most locals are pretty aggressive over all. Thankfully I’ve managed to ingratiate myself with a pretty strong group in exchange for some knowledge.”
She watched as the image panned to show a colorful race, she made sure to take a few pictures of what she saw to question those that may know more about them. She was surprised to see that whatever they were on, it was moving quite fast by how the background passed by.
“They are Psi-Kobolds and,” Magnus stopped and turned to look at the winged figure that wandered close.
Brianna was a hundred percent sure that the being was looking directly at her and judging her. But she didn’t say a thing.
“No, it can’t transmit psychic signals, it’s already a miracle I managed audio and video.” Magnus spoke before sighing. “They have a hive mind and don’t speak normally.” He explained.
Brianna raised an eyebrow, she didn’t need words to understand the Queen’s intention when looking at her. Especially when the Queen opened her mouth and spoke slowly, “Maineh nohuw.”
She felt like jumping and screaming, but thankfully Magnus reached and gently pushed the Queen back by her forehead.
“She’s become a bit infatuated, anyways, I’m not sure when I will be able to get back home. Please tell Genn that she can keep living at my house, it’s hers too. And I missed you, how’re things over there?”
“Bad, then good, and now just frustrating.” She answered before going over the events of Madrid’s trick and attack. “So now Gina put her in one of her observation moon bases, she should be okay there for some time, hopefully will remain in there too.”
Magnus nodded, though she couldn’t shake the feeling that he wasn’t too surprised.
“Well, at least that way I won’t have to deal with my threat on her, and if you want to know just ask Genn.”
“Yeah, I’m not bothering neither her nor Seance.” She said with a small smile.
“Oh, did he finally realize? It was time, I’m happy for her, she deserves that happiness.”
“Yes, it will hopefully last.” She felt bittersweet at the moment. “I don’t know how much longer you have, but really no idea of how fast you can come back?”
He waved a hand back and forth. “I could force things, but that would be big, noisy and very noticeable for the things that exist outside the Realms. Right now I’m not in danger and should be back in a few weeks to a month, at least I can keep in touch. I will try to get some more information of where I am exactly and maybe your dad knows something or someone.”
“He and mom should be coming back later today or tomorrow. I will talk with him… I missed you too.” She whispered at the end.
“Don’t worry, I will be back sooner or later and… Sorry to cut it here, but looks like we’re coming to a dangerous place, most likely I will need to help. I will contact you tomorrow.” He spoke quickly, ending the call before she could even say much, leaving her frustrated about something else.
Especially because the Queen had remained in the back, eyeing them both.
With the image disappearing Peemag yawned before closing its eyes and popping over to the charging station.
She got up and stretched her limbs, yes, she felt frustrated. But wallowing in it would do her no good. If her father was returning soon she would make a list of questions to ask him.
She grabbed the magic book she had been reading, a pen and a notebook to start working on it.
