Bloodcrete (The Weirkey Chronicles Book 6), page 14
Since there was no guarantee the gate would lead anywhere important, Nauda decided to leave it for later. The fact that there had been a link to another world proved that she had grasped how the compass worked, at least in part. Hopefully the remaining source in the tower would be the weirkey.
"Alright, let's open the tower." Nauda gestured for all the Slescans to follow her and headed toward it. "Bluepetal, do you know why this one is sealed?"
[I do not. But you should be careful.]
Since her fingers still stung a little, Nauda only shattered the strongest wall before letting the ants do the rest. They dutifully began carrying away the remaining pieces and stacking them in a pile. Most of the beetles stayed far back, just in case, but Bluepetal remained nearby and watched the work.
It seemed to be going quickly enough. Nauda took out her compass and examined the readings again, wondering what she would do if she didn't find a weirkey. She had tried to do a large loop of the city before beginning her search, so she didn't think there were any other important points. Of course, it could be that Yeshir was only guessing about a weirkey being left over, or that Tythes had set all this up purely to waste her time.
[Enemy.] [Enemy.] [Enemy.]
Nauda sat bolt upright. She didn't usually pay much attention to the ants' pheromones, because they were so much less personable than the beetles. But the feeling of so many of her ants chorusing at once demanded the attention, and she turned just in time to see a monstrous sublime beast ooze out of the tower.
"Retreat!" she yelled, but it was too late. One of her ants had automatically attacked what looked like a wall of yellow flesh. It immediately became trapped and its thrashing only made things worse. In a matter of seconds, it had withered away, drained by the yellow wall.
That wouldn't have stopped the other soldier ants, but fortunately they obeyed her command. Nauda picked up Bluepetal, hoping he would forgive the indignity, and ran to a safe distance. She looked over her shoulder to the slime and saw it crash through the wall. At first it seemed shapeless, but as it twisted she made out legs, then eventually a head. The eyes were so tiny they would have been invisible if they hadn't glowed a brighter yellow.
"Bluepetal, do you have any idea what that is?"
[Horned aciddevil. Raised by termites for war.] Bluepetal emitted a scent that wasn't exactly anything before returning to coherent pheromones. [They are not usually so large.]
"So there's an overgrown weapon of war crawling toward us. The gifts of Slest never cease."
The only good news was that the horned aciddevil wasn't particularly fast. It reminded her a bit of a packbeast, especially as it emerged from the tower, but one clearly built for war. Not only was its skin covered in deadly slime, it had spikes emerging from every segment of its body. And even if it wasn't fast, it was crawling toward them with murderous determination.
Before it could catch up to any of her allies, Nauda gripped her staff and leapt into battle. She stabbed the prongs as deep as she could, but failed to penetrate far into the beast's bulk. Even tearing her staff out to the side only opened a surface wound.
Too late, she realized that the aciddevil was twitching to the side. A segment of its body taller than she was slammed into her and sent her tumbling back over the ground. Nauda only barely managed to control her tumble into a skid. As soon as she stopped, she groaned and tried to shake off the slime that had touched her. There was no damage to her staff or clothes, but her skin burned everywhere it touched.
It was easy to understand how this could be a weapon of war. Soldier ants would throw themselves against it and die by the hundreds in its slime. An ordinary beast might be overcome, but the slime drained energy via a cantae technique, so each death likely strengthened the beast. Even a royal guard might not be able to kill it easily, given its size and spikes.
Nauda paused to consider exactly how strong the creature was. Through her telescope technique, even in its partially-repaired form, she could see several rings in the beast's soulhome... three, perhaps four. It was less clear with sublime beasts, assuming this was just a beast. Anywhere else, there would have been no doubt, but on Slest she decided she needed to be sure.
"We don't need to fight!" Nauda shouted, trying to throw pheromones into every word. "We're not your enemy!"
The aciddevil gave no indication that it heard and continued crawling toward the fleeing ants. Fine, she hadn't expected that to work anyway.
Leaping up to one of the lumpier termite towers, Nauda tore free a large piece of the stone and hurled it. With all her strength behind it, the rock struck hard enough to make the beast's entire body twitch in pain. It finally turned toward her and she struck it directly in the face with the next rock.
That might be hurting it a little, but the aciddevil's body appeared too squishy to be easily killed by blunt force. The end of its tail had nearly left the tower, so Nauda leapt into action before she could think twice.
She started with a literal leap, taking her over the beast's body and to the side of the tower. Just as she arrived, she put all her momentum into a single blow with all the cantae she could muster. Her blow shattered the side of the tower and sent stone cascading down. Many of the pieces landed on top of the aciddevil, and though they didn't bury it, she at least pinned its back half.
The creature thrashed angrily but made no sound, which was a little eerie. Nauda's blow had knocked her back, so she considered her next option from a safe distance. She could jump back up and hurl rocks, but that seemed ineffective so far. It was far too large to bind with her technique, and she didn't see any way to kill it with wards.
Perhaps her nullification... Nauda quickly pulled her armament glove from her soulhome and tugged it over her hand. She sprinted toward the side of the aciddevil, casting force in front of her as hard as she could. The cantae powering its slime did seem to weaken, so she stabbed as forcefully as she could.
Her staff went deeper than before, but not deep enough. This time Nauda jumped back before it could slam her. She retreated to her Slescan allies to consider her options.
So far the horned aciddevil was a little bruised and bleeding from the two wounds she had caused. It was far too large to die of blood loss before it escaped the rubble, since it was already worming its way free. Maybe it would die if she knocked the entire tower on top of it, but that was beyond even her strength.
"I don't suppose anyone has any ideas?" she asked the silent ants.
[Acid.] Bluepetal gestured toward her with a foreleg. [I have none, but if you still have some, try it. The acid and the slime will counteract.]
It was worth a try. Nauda pulled out everything she'd stored in her soulhome for testing and advanced toward the aciddevil. As soon as she got within range it strained toward her, eyes burning with yellow hunger. Up close she could see its mouth, small for the creature's size but big enough to consume most Slescans.
She leapt into the air, intending to come down with her full power. To her shock, the aciddevil reared up to follow her path. Nauda barely managed to hurl the acid in her off-hand, directly into the creature's face, then grasp her staff with both hands before she arrived.
Her blow struck the aciddevil hard enough to explode its head, but instead her staff rang off something. She still cut a deep gash into its face, then there was no more time: it slammed her to the ground, then twisted down to bite her.
Nauda lunged back up, her bondsfungi hardening around her. She met the beast head on, thrusting directly into its face. Once again her staff deflected off something hard underneath, but the beast fell back. It attacked and she met it again, ignoring the slime splattering over her as she struck again and again.
When the aciddevil faltered, she went in for the kill: Nauda thrust her spear not at its face, but directly into one of the glowing eyes.
This time the prongs went deep, plunging half-way into the creature's head. The aciddevil thrashed violently enough to throw her, but Nauda could recognize death throes. She waited until the long creature finally lay still, then went to retrieve her staff. It was undamaged, just disgusting.
When she turned around, she saw all the Slescans looking at her. The ants didn't care, as usual, but Bluepetal and all the other beetles were emitting impressed pheromones. Nauda was too tired to feel anything but slimy, so she just began giving orders.
"No one touch the body unless you know what you're doing. Soldiers, move around it and begin exploring the tower for anything of value. Beetles, figure out what we can do with this thing. If it's a sublime beast, it must leave behind usable materials."
For a time Nauda just sat and caught her breath. She was a little burned in places, but the bondsfungi had defended her fairly well. The force of its body striking her would definitely leave nasty bruises, since the sublime beast had been at least as strong as her. If it hadn't been bred to fight a very different sort of threat, she likely wouldn't have been able to kill it.
The slime covering the aciddevil's body had started drying as soon as it died, so the beetles soon began to dismantle it. Not something she usually wanted to see, though a bit satisfying after the battle. It didn't appear to be quite like the smaller creatures of its type that she had seen. Each of its horns turned out to be a bone-like prong, extending from a very narrow spine.
By far the largest sublime material from the body was the heavy skull. Its surface was apparently undamaged from her blows, so she resolved to find a place for it in her death tower. After she'd let the Slescans clean it up, of course.
By the time the ants returned, Nauda had almost forgotten about the reason for the entire battle. They dropped various objects in front of her, mostly junk... and then one of them extended its jaws up toward her hand and she saw the weirkey.
It was no larger than a key to a normal door. Just a simple key with a spiked pattern on one end and simple teeth on the other. Other than being made of blue chitin and making her compass go wild, it could have been any other key.
Nauda picked it up and stared at it. So much work for such a little thing. She hoped that it had been worth it.
Chapter 13
Theo should have been happy. It wasn't the first time he'd thought that, but this time really got under his skin.
Things had begun well enough. The Blacksilver Authorities had responded to his signal with remarkable speed - apparently the situation on the Dustwind Plateaus really was one of their higher priorities. They had arrived in the middle of a skirmish with more demons, so Theo had pulled back and had the opportunity to examine all three of them in combat.
Karchibol was the most conventional Authority, with only a single floor of shielding wall leaving most of his soulhome plainly visible. Four floors of red Fithan stone and no signs of damage that might imply a crippling ascension to Authority. Most likely he was kept from Stronghold by the fact that his soulhome lacked advanced features or more complex cantae flow. His fighting style certainly matched: conventional flight and cantae bolts, but nothing remarkable.
By contrast, Janne's soulhome was completely obscured even in combat. Her stealth techniques couldn't match Fiyu's, but she was more than competent and Theo didn't think he'd seen the full extent of her technique that controlled dust. Aside from cantae efficiency, she didn't reveal anything else about her soulhome and he could only guess that she was the most recent ascension for Blacksilver.
But the main reason Theo wanted to observe them was Dhan: he had never actually seen the third Blacksilver Authority fight before. His basic techniques were flawless but plain, clearly not his primary focus. Only at the end, when the demons attempted to sacrifice, did he reveal anything more. His Ichili mask glowed, revealing itself to be an armament, and a blue field expanded from Dhan's body. It froze both demons and cantae bolts in place before he ended the battle.
Fighting an Authority as a Ruler was always suicide, and Theo didn't anticipate the need to fight his own allies, but he couldn't help but compare himself. Theo estimated that he would be able to defeat Karchibol basically the instant he ascended. Janne was hard to judge and would be a threat if she got the drop on him. But Dhan... an area-control technique like that would be a bad match for his gravity-based skills.
At least he wasn't an incompetent Authority. Theo had been ready to discuss plans with the three of them, but they seemed eager to take over. They'd discussed the evidence he'd found and his potential deal with the Asplundat Movement, and they'd agreed those were reasonable steps. Dhan had gone off to investigate, and it seemed as if everything would be resolved in a few days.
So instead of working with the three of them, Theo found himself back in Norro Yorthin, soulcrafting in the Blacksilver Complex. No one had even contacted him in several days. Technically, he should have been happy to finally ditch all the politics and just focus on his ascension, but they'd made him put in so much effort...
He tried to tell himself that it was because he had to babysit Krikree. She wasn't confident enough to navigate the city herself, but insisted on it: first she wanted to "visit the beetles" and then "visit the rocks". Since he'd needed to pick up his remaining windows, he'd indulged her. Currently she was staying with Navim, apparently having gotten over her confusion and more interested in asking what every object in his house was. So, really, he couldn't blame her either.
When he was honest, lying in bed before he went to sleep, Theo knew that he was just frustrated by the fact that he hadn't ascended yet. It had been over a year since he had ascended to Ruler. Of course, the average soulcrafter never got past that point, and even fast soulcrafters expected to spend several years before reaching Authority. But if this had been his first life, it would have happened months ago. The fact that he'd been manipulated was little comfort, especially if his enemies could use Artifacts of Elghiera or other tricks to ascend others that fast.
Apparently the other Earth-born human had fled Norro Yorthin when the Order of the Deepest Blue began to grow aggressive. But reliable intelligence from elsewhere on Fithe suggested that he had already ascended again, meaning Theo was at the same tier as someone calling himself "Raythe Darkblade". That hurt.
The one time he'd tried to contact Dhan, he'd been informed that the Authority was busy - apparently too busy to have time for him. After that, Theo decided to focus exclusively on his soulcrafting, no matter how much it irritated him. It wasn't as if there wasn't more work to do.
His first task had been to finish placing and coating every single one of Navim's windows, now that the set was complete. There had been nothing really wrong with sending his cantae out through open holes, but the glass increased the efficiency of his cantae flow and strengthened his techniques just slightly. Small edges, but at the higher tiers power was formed from advantages like that. Not taking windows seriously had been a major problem in his Authority ascension in his first soulhome: they had seemed like a waste of time that had little impact until that was suddenly very untrue.
Only one of the window installations took anything other than simple conscientious work. A long time ago, he'd installed rainhorn antlers in the window of his torsion bolt chamber to "sharpen" the cantae. It had worked well enough, but it had been a temporary measure. Replacing the antlers with a window would make the technique slightly less deadly, but aligning it with his central concept should make it more difficult for opponents to resist.
That left him with a pair of antlers. They were a rare material available only seasonally, and they'd been bathed in the cantae of two ascensions, so he placed them in his storage chamber. He couldn't imagine any context where they could be part of his soulhome, but it never hurt to have extra sublime materials.
Thinking about temporary measures made him think about his primary door, which had been soulcrafted from simple Tatian wood. Not hard to replace, he'd just been waiting for the right time. Theo used his House connections to purchase a material called weightwood from Aathal - the dark wood was an excellent match for his soulhome, so he put a lot more effort into this door.
Once it was perfectly fitted to his vestibule entrance, carved, and coated in supporting lacquer, Theo set about making the replacement. Everything lined up, of course, but when it was done he didn't really feel the difference. Still, it had to be an improvement, so he was glad to have finished it now.
He held the old door in both hands and looked it over. This had been the very first thing he soulcrafted on his return to the Nine Worlds. It didn't hold any particular emotion for him, and he'd chosen it just because it was one of the best ways to kickstart his soulcrafting. Still, when it came time to throw it into his singularity, he hesitated. Maybe it was pointless sentiment, but he decided to set it aside in his storage chamber instead.
Theo finished all that with a smile on his face. That expression rapidly crumbled as he considered his blueprint, his future plans, and how he was stuck at Ruler.
There was still work to do. He watered the grizzleroot with his spiritual blood every day, some of his third floor chambers needed more supporting materials, and there could always be more polishing. But it all felt pointless when he didn't have what he needed to take the next step. Which he couldn't do without reaching Noven, and Blacksilver wouldn't give him a weirkey until he solved the political mess.
"Whatcha doing?"
Senka popped up beside his bed while he was soulcrafting in irritation. He emerged ready to say something caustic about how that should have been obvious, but this was the real Senka. So he sighed and told the truth. "Getting angry at myself for not ascending."
"Yeah, I get that." Senka pulled herself up to sit beside him. "I was going to talk to you about that, because I've just remembered something. In my time, there was a special way to ascend without extra materials that could kick-start your progress toward Stronghold."
