novelraw Chapter 131: When the artifacts bloom.
Chapter 131: When the artifacts bloom.
They arrived at the Ashveil Mountains two hours and twelve minutes later.
The peaks rose from the earth like blackened spears, their volcanic slopes still glowing faintly with the deep orange light of dormant magma channels.
The air was thick with the smell of sulfur and heated stone, and even at altitude, the temperature was noticeably warmer than the flatlands they had crossed.
Verendel descended through a break in the clouds, angling toward a ridgeline on the eastern face of the range where a small figure waited.
Fanny.
She was crouched behind a formation of volcanic rock, her pale blue eyes wide and alert, her teddy bear clutched against her chest. When she saw Verendel’s silhouette breaking through the clouds, her entire body relaxed by a visible degree.
Verendel touched down on the ridge with barely a sound, a stark contrast to his dramatic landing on Valdris’s wall. Kai slid off the dragon’s back and walked toward Fanny.
"Report."
Fanny stood up straight, or as straight as a nervous True Dragon in humanoid form could manage.
"The outpost is approximately one mile to the northwest, built into the base of the caldera. The main structure is above ground, with barracks, a command building, and two watchtowers. The dragon is being held in a cavern system beneath the facility, accessible through a reinforced tunnel that leads from the command building downward."
She pointed toward the northwest, where a faint glow was visible against the dark mountainside. It was too steady to be volcanic. It was torchlight.
"The garrison operates in three shifts. The overnight rotation is the smallest, roughly sixty soldiers on active duty, with the remainder sleeping in the barracks. The two wall-mounted artifacts are always active. The two carried by officers rotate with the shift changes."
Kai studied the distant glow for a long moment.
’Sixty on duty. One hundred and forty sleeping. Four First-Grade Artifacts, two stationary and two mobile. And a dragon in chains beneath the whole thing.’
"The artifacts. What do they look like?"
Fanny hesitated for a second, then the teddy bear answered for her.
"Golden. Like the ones from the Fort Everguard reports. Each one is about the size of a man’s torso. The two on the walls are mounted on swivel platforms, and they glow constantly, meaning they are pre-charged and ready to fire at a moment’s notice. The ones carried by officers are smaller, about the size of a fist, and they are worn on chains around the neck."
Kai processed this.
’Two types. The wall-mounted ones are siege-class, designed to obliterate large targets at range. The personal ones are smaller but still First-Grade, which means they pack enough punch to be a threat to anything below Level 300.’
He looked at Verendel.
"Can you take out the wall-mounted artifacts from the air without getting hit?"
Verendel’s golden eyes narrowed as he studied the distant outpost.
"The siege-class weapons will have tracking capabilities. If I dive from directly above, I can destroy one before they can adjust their aim. The second will fire at me within three seconds of the first being destroyed."
"Three seconds is enough time to bank and evade?"
"If I know where it is aimed, yes."
Kai nodded.
’Step one. Verendel destroys the wall-mounted artifacts. Step two. I enter the outpost and deal with the garrison. Step three. Fanny guides me to the captive dragon. Simple. Clean.’
He paused.
’Famous last words.’
"Fanny."
"Y-yes, Master?"
"You will enter the cavern with me once the surface is cleared. Your aura is the only thing that can break the binding spell on the captive. If it is still under the ancient binding like the four from Rambosa, your presence should shatter it."
Fanny nodded, her grip on the teddy bear tightening.
"I understand."
"One more thing."
She looked at him.
"If something goes wrong, if the artifacts prove more dangerous than expected, you are to take Verendel and leave immediately. Do not come back for me. That is an order."
Fanny’s eyes widened.
"Master, I could never--"
"That was not a suggestion."
The teddy bear, for once, was silent.
Fanny stared at him for a long moment, her pale blue eyes glistening in the moonlight. Then she lowered her head.
"I... understand."
’She does not understand. She has no intention of following that order. I can see it in her face. But at least the words have been said, and if I survive this, I can lecture her about insubordination later.’
He turned to face the outpost.
"We move in ten minutes. Verendel, circle to altitude and wait for my signal. When you see a flare of dark mana from the ridge, dive. Fanny, stay with me until the surface is clear."
"Yes, Master."
"Yes, Master."
Kai stood on the ridge, the volcanic wind whipping the dark mist of his body into trailing wisps that dissolved into the night. Below him, the Nexus Empire outpost glowed like a lantern pinned to the mountainside.
’Two hundred men. Four artifacts. One chained dragon.’
He cracked his knuckles.
’Let us get to work.’
...
The first soldier to die never saw what killed him.
He was standing on the northern watchtower, his back to the ridge, a cup of lukewarm tea in one hand and a spear in the other.
He was thinking about the letter he needed to write to his wife back in the capital, the one where he would tell her that this posting was boring but safe, and that he would be home before the winter frost.
A hand made of dark mist closed around his throat.
He dropped the tea. Then the spear. Then himself.
Kai lowered the body gently to the wooden platform of the watchtower and looked down at the outpost below.
From this vantage point, the layout was exactly as Fanny described. The barracks sat on the western side, a long, low building with narrow windows and reinforced walls.
The command building was in the center, a three-story stone structure with the Empire’s banner hanging limply from a pole on the roof. The two watchtowers flanked the main gate to the north and south.
And there, mounted on swivel platforms atop each tower, were the First-Grade Artifacts.
They were golden, just as the reports described. Each one was the size of a man’s torso, a complex arrangement of crystalline surfaces and metal housing that radiated a dense, oppressive mana signature.
Even standing ten feet away from the one on this tower, Kai could feel it pressing against his senses like a hand pushing against his chest.
’That is... considerably more mana than I expected. These are not decorative. These are fully charged siege weapons sitting on what amounts to a frontier outpost. The Empire is not playing around.’
He studied the artifact for a moment longer, noting the swivel mechanism and the small crystal panel on the side that appeared to serve as a targeting interface.
’I could destroy this one right now. Rip it off the mount and crush it. But the moment I do, the second tower’s artifact will fire on this position, and I would rather not find out what a direct hit from a First-Grade Artifact feels like.’
He sent a pulse of dark mana into the air above the ridge. A signal.
Three seconds later, the sky screamed.
Verendel came down from the clouds like a bolt of midnight lightning. His massive body cut through the air with a speed that made the wind itself howl in protest. The silver veins on his scales blazed to life, turning him into a streak of light against the black sky.
He struck the southern watchtower with the force of a falling mountain.
The tower did not crumble. It detonated. Stone, wood, metal, and the shattered remains of the First-Grade Artifact mounted on top of it exploded outward in a sphere of destruction that sent debris raining across the entire outpost.
The sound was catastrophic. A thunderclap that echoed off every peak in the Ashveil range, followed by the deep, resonant boom of a dragon’s landing.
Alarms erupted instantly.
Shouts. Horns. The pounding of boots on stone as soldiers scrambled from their bunks and grabbed whatever weapons were within reach.
’Three seconds.’
Kai ripped the artifact off the northern tower’s mount with both hands. The golden device fought him, its mana surging in defensive response, burning against his palms like heated iron. A system window flickered at the edge of his vision.
[Warning: First-Grade Artifact resisting destruction. Mana backlash detected.]
[HP: -47]
’Forty-seven HP from just touching it?.’
He gritted his teeth and squeezed.
The artifact cracked. Then shattered. Golden fragments rained down from the tower as the mana inside it detonated in a controlled burst that threw Kai backward three steps.
He steadied himself on the tower railing and looked down.
The outpost was in chaos.
Soldiers poured from the barracks in various states of undress, weapons drawn, faces white with shock. Officers screamed orders that nobody seemed to hear over the ringing echo of the two explosions.
Fires had broken out where debris from the southern tower had landed on the barracks roof.
And in the middle of the courtyard, Verendel stood on the remains of the southern tower like a monument to destruction.
His midnight-blue scales gleamed with volcanic light, his silver veins pulsing, his golden eyes burning as he surveyed the chaos below him.
The soldiers who saw him froze.
A True Dragon. Standing in the ruins of their watchtower. Looking at them the way a lion looks at a field of rabbits.
Kai leaped from the northern tower and landed in the courtyard with a crash that cracked the stone beneath his feet.
Dark mist rolled off his body in waves, spreading across the ground like fog pouring from an open grave.
Several soldiers who had been running toward the armory skidded to a halt. They saw the Shadow of Victims standing between them and their destination, and every single one of them went pale.
"What in the--"
Kai did not let the man finish.
He closed the distance in a single step and drove his fist into the soldier’s chest. The armor crumpled like parchment.
The soldier was launched backward into two of his companions, and all three of them hit the barracks wall with enough force to crack the stone.
’These are well-trained soldiers. Above Level 150, most of them. Their gear is good, their formation discipline is decent, and they are recovering from the shock faster than I expected.’
He dodged a spear thrust from his left, caught the shaft, and snapped it in half.
’But they are still human soldiers fighting a dungeon lord who punches dragons to death for fun. This was never going to be a fair fight.’
He drove the broken spear through the attacker’s shoulder, pinning him to the ground, then turned to face the next wave.
A squad of six soldiers had formed a line in front of the command building, their weapons raised in a coordinated stance that suggested real training. At the front stood a woman in officer’s armor, her face grim, her hand raised with something glowing on her palm.
The personal artifact.
’There it is.’
The golden light from the fist-sized device intensified. The officer’s eyes locked onto Kai, and he could feel the mana in the air shift as the artifact began to charge.
He moved.
Not toward her. Away. To the left.
The artifact fired.
A beam of concentrated golden light struck the spot where Kai had been standing a heartbeat earlier. The impact carved a trench in the courtyard, three feet deep and ten feet long, the stone glowing orange along the edges.
’That was a personal-class artifact. Not the siege variety. And it just carved a trench in solid stone with a single shot.’
He stared at the glowing scar on the ground.
’Okay. I take back what I said about First-Grade Artifacts being a tantrum wrapped in gold plating. That was a temper tantrum wrapped in a nuclear warhead.’
The officer was already charging the next shot.
Kai did not give her the chance.
He activated Elemental Manipulation and sent a wall of ice erupting from the ground between them. The ice was dense, reinforced with dungeon mana, and six inches thick.
The artifact fired again.
The beam punched through the ice like it was not there. It continued through and struck Kai in the left shoulder.
The pain was immediate and blinding.
[HP: -312]
[Warning: First-Grade Artifact damage bypasses standard mana defenses.]
’Three hundred and twelve HP. From a single personal-grade shot that went through six inches of reinforced ice first. These things are not just strong. They ignore defenses. That changes everything.’
He stumbled backward, his left arm hanging limp for a moment before the dungeon lord’s regeneration kicked in and mana flooded the damaged area.
’If the siege-class artifacts hit that hard, a direct hit could actually threaten me. That is... new. Nothing in this world has genuinely threatened my HP since the Duke’s army. And that was four Calamity Dragons working together.’
The officer charged a third shot.
This time, Kai did not dodge or block.
He appeared directly in front of her.