Lith shared his discoveries with Morok while closely following the Golems’ movements.
“I guess our cover is blown.” The Tyrant sighed.
“No, only mine.” Lith shook his head. “I collected the corpses of both Professors not only to return them to their families once we get out of here, but also because if one of the Odi goes back to check the place where we fought, they will think I destroyed the bodies of my fallen comrades.
“Remember that mine is the only death that hasn’t been confirmed, whereas the hole in your chest was pretty convincing. Also, our cover was blown the moment we took down those constructs.”
“Okay, two questions, then. First, how do we dispose of them? Second, the Reactor is really big. Any idea of how to destroy it?” Morok asked.
Lith looked around the room before answering. There were three doors leading outside. The one they had arrived from, the one leading where Phloria and the others were, and a third one he had no idea what purpose it could have.
Lith couldn’t see any energy coming from behind it, so it was useless to him. He had no time to explore the compound.
“I have a plan for the Golems. As for the Reactor, we still have one code from the Golems we have just defeated. Let’s search for a holographic pad with numbers. Maybe it’s the shutdown code.” Lith said.
“I take back what I said earlier about your eyes. Speaking with corpses is damn useful. By the way, how do I distinguish Odi letters from numbers?” Morok had never bothered learning how to recognize them because he had all the Professors’ notes stored in his dimensional amulet, but now it was lost.
Lith groaned, making a copy for him of both the code and a comparative table between the Odi’s numbers and their own. Meanwhile, the Flesh Golems outside the room had completed their report and moved toward the door.
Lith stepped out of his hiding spot, checking for the presence of surveillance devices while spreading tendrils of spirit magic in every direction. As he expected, the room had no cameras, likely to avoid the security codes from being leaked to the watchers and because the mana grid was already a formidable defense.
Contrary to his expectations, one Golem entered from the door while the other one Warped in front of the room where Lith’s friends were, making him curse. His trick was likely to work only once and it needed the constructs to attack at the same time.
‘Do you want me to cast the elemental blocking array?’ Solus asked.
‘No, I can’t afford to waste more mana on arrays, and neither can you. Invigoration only has a limited number of uses and we have yet to face mister anatomy model.’ Lith thought.
Luckily, the second Golem had just gone to check that no one had entered the lab before moving to the Reactor room. The lab’s door led directly inside the grid, allowing it to operate the commands and let its partner in.
Both constructs were surprised to see the intruder and that the energy field had been deactivated, but being more machines than persons, their feelings caused no delay in their response to the threat.
One ran toward Lith while the other activated its Warping array to cover the distance separating them. Lith moved all the tendrils he had prepared at once, touching the holographic pad and restoring the grid.
The Warping array instantly collapsed, cutting the first Golem in half while the remaining tendrils of mana wrapped around the second construct that was already inside the energy cage and sent it slamming against the barrier.
The results were impressive. The moment the Golem touched the green grid, its body was pulverized as if it was sand passing through a sieve. Lith’s only gripe with his strategy was that by instantly killing them, he had missed the opportunity to obtain more information.
“Quick, we don’t have much time.” Lith said while looking around for another pad. He left the grid active to prevent anyone from Warping while he was distracted. If even the Golem had been forced to use the door, the Odi were bound to do the same.
Especially since they seemed to be incapable of using dimensional magic.
“I really hope those were the last constructs.” Morok’s mystical senses were useless while in front of the Mana Reactor. Its raw power blinded him, so he could only use his natural sight.
Lith and Solus had the same problem, making them wish they had a Royal Forgemaster wand with them. Even by using Invigoration on the Reactor, it would take them quite a while to search it thoroughly.
“There’s no pad, here. Just metal and crystals!” Morok said.
“Go check the other door inside the grid. If they protected it from dimensional magic, there must be a reason.” Lith had yet to finish examining the Reactor with Invigoration and couldn’t afford to waste a single second.
There was something wrong with the Odi’s device, something that made it painful for him to use his breathing technique like usual. That had never happened before, yet Lith was too focused to care about the cold shiver running down his spine.
The only thing he could think of was cracking the mystery in front of him.
The Mana Reactor was just like Solus, it had both a mana flow and a life force, yet the two living artifacts couldn’t have been more different.
While Solus was a person with her own energy signature, stone body, and the red wind of life coming out of it, the Reactor was a maelstrom of energy signatures, a bodiless mass of pure energy which emitted constant screams of agony.
Now that he was so close, he could see the red of life and the black of death endlessly turning into one another. Lith could swear that the Reactor was trying to pull him inside, just like it had done with the Golems’ wisps.
Only his body prevented his energy from being stolen. Lith felt dizzy and nauseous. The longer he remained in contact with the Reactor the more he could feel the lives spinning inside its bowels.
“More stairs. They seem to lead to the upper floors again. Weird. Any news?” Morok asked upon his return.
“None. Use your best spells and find a way to shut this thing down. I’m going in.” Lith didn’t wait for a reply and ran towards the lab, his mind filled with doubts.
‘Was the Golem trying to deceive me or did I fail to understand its message? After all, while the woman mentioned the grid, the man just repeated a sequence of numbers. Could it be another code for the grid’s pad?’ Lith thought.
‘Unlikely. My best guess is that if you input the wrong number, you sound the alarm, cause the grid to fill the whole room killing any intruder, or both.’ Solus thought while studying the defensive device pattern.
She was almost certain that the grid could be moved. The next room was nothing like Lith had imagined it. The wall on his left was filled with what resembled monitors to him, from which he could observe the whole facility of Kulah, both the levels above and below.
The camp was still filled with the toxic gas, so using the elevator to escape was out of the question. The rest of the monitors didn’t show anything interesting, just empty corridors and rooms.
