“The others here are your own friends so I can’t speak for them.” Baba Yaga said, noticing that Scarlett was still wary of Lith and Kalla.
‘The runt is no friend of mine. A colleague at best. As for Kalla, it’s her mouth I don’t trust.’ The Scorpicore thought.
‘Solus?’ Lith asked via the mind link.
‘Sorry, I don’t recognize them nor do I have any idea how they work. Mana sense perceives them and their power core, but that’s it. We need to get closer.’ She replied.
“Would you mind showing me your mastery over the Eyes?” Baba Yaga snapped everyone out of it. “I’m really curious if the genius of the late Menadion manages to outshine me yet again despite the passing of centuries.”
“Did you know Ripha Menadion? And I mean in person.” Lith asked, too curious to hold back.
Baba Yaga had been nothing but a friend to the Ernas girls and now even to Scarlett despite having met them just once.
‘If she knew Ripha and Solus/Elphyn, then she might be able to help us. She doesn’t seem as biased against me as Silverwing and with already a tower, Baba Yaga is likely unable to control another.
‘One can bond with only one living artifact at a time and a tower is the greatest artifact of all so the same principle should apply.’ He thought.
“Yes, I did. She was a great person and a wonderful colleague. Now hush, child. There are too many lives at stake to waste our time with memories of the past.” Baba Yaga replied.
Scarlett first used her breathing technique, Aura, to establish a connection between the Eyes and the altered Emperor Beasts. Then, she tapped the right lens, triggering the deep scan mode.
“Whatever it is, it didn’t reach their skin. Before opening them up, there’s something I want to try.” Scarlett took blood and fur samples, cutting the hair and feathers into small pieces to expose their insides as well.
“I think we are unto something. Take a look at this and tell me what you see.” She handed the Eyes to the others who took turns using them to study the fluids.
Each one of them used their breathing technique, hoping to grasp the secrets of Menadion as well as that of the invaders, but to no avail. The cloaking runes coupled with the complexity of the power core made a mess of their readings.
The Eyes, however, allowed them to perceive deeper than even Invigoration could. It revealed traces of a mysterious liquid amid the blood that had uncanny properties and an unknown composition.
When Lith’s turn came, the moment he touched the Eyes with Invigoration, a spark triggered between the relic and Solus’s tower half.
As if the tower had met its long-lost twin and realized how similar they were, mana sense unraveled in front of Solus, showing her its true nature. Until that moment, the tower’s weak power core had kept mana sense from revealing its full capabilities.
Just like her glove form was the tower version of the Hands, mana sense turned out to be the equivalent of the Eyes. Yet it was too complicated for a human mind to handle and without the power core, it had been reduced to its simplest form.
‘I feel I can assume a glasses form now to mimic the Eyes, but it would reveal my presence.’ Solus said.
‘What if you don’t?’ Lith asked.
‘It’s like with the gloves. Unless I divert all of my power to a specific function, I’m can use only the simplest abilities of Menadion’s relics.’
While they were pondering if to put their new ability to the test, Baba Yaga’s turn had arrived. She looked at the bodily fluids, using her breathing technique, Sun and Moon, to better study the liquid.
“There’s no need to play coy with me, child. I’ve seen Menadion use the Eyes countless times. Feel free to unlock their full power. My word still stands.” Baba Yaga said.
“This is their full power, Lady Yaga.” Scarlett shook her head. “I didn’t recognize the Eyes because I found them in the possession of a Griffon and because there’s no picture of them anywhere. Yet I’m a skilled Forgemaster, so after one hundred years I would have noticed if-”
Baba Yaga tapped the lower, the upper, and then the left side of the Eyes before putting them back on Scarlett’s nose. The results were amazing, yet terrible.
Amazing because the Eyes now picked up everything and everyone in the room. They provided the Scorpicore with something that, had Scarlett been familiar with Earth’s video games, would have looked to her like an in-depth character sheet.
Terrible because she was amid a bunch of powerful people wearing powerful artifacts, in the middle of an ancient city filled with marvels of magic and arrays. The Eyes didn’t discriminate, shoving all the information in her face at once.
“Please, stop them! Have mercy. Make them stop!” Scarlett double over in pain and puked her guts out as the sensory overload threatened to fry her brain.
“Did you really use only the tutorial mode until now?” Baba Yaga rushed to the rescue with eyes wide open in astonishment. “One hundred years and you never activated the advanced functions?”
“Lady Yaga, those things didn’t come with a manual. I studied them thoroughly and discovered a shitload of enchantments. When further research didn’t pan out, I assumed to have discovered everything there was to find.” Scarlett said after the Red Mother had taken the Eyes off her and she had finally stopped puking.
“Glad to have been of assistance then.” Baba Yaga chuckled. “Let me teach you how to use them.”
Lith and Solus listened carefully, without missing a single word. She even turned from a ring into glasses while everyone was too busy envying the Scorpicore so that Lith could follow Baba Yaga’s instructions as well.
‘Fuck me sideways. Your power core is so weakened that your glasses form displays even less information than the Eyes in the tutorial mode.’ Lith said.
‘Thank the gods and my mother for that. I’m not an operating system, what you call “even less information” is forcing its way through my brain and it hurts like hell. Without the power core, I can’t handle so much data.
‘I might lose my mind if this continues any longer.’ Solus shapeshifted back into a ring, shutting down even their mind link to give her wounded mind a moment of peace.
The group worked together, taking turns with the Eyes that allowed the convened mages to use their respective expertise to its fullest. Lith and Kalla were the first to run out of things they could help with.
Then, Vladion left the group and a bit later Ilthin followed suit. Scarlett, Baba Yaga, and Kalla kept talking non-stop among them. Scarlett and Baba Yaga knew the Eyes the best and could obtain countless information from them.
Kalla, instead, stayed behind to just listen to their brainstorming and learn as much as she could. Her mind absorbed their knowledge like a sponge benefitting even from the things that were beyond her understanding.
Lith kept a close ear to them, but with Solus still dizzy, it sounded gibberish to him.
