BXBX NOVEL 152. The Wall
"It\'s a wall, that\'s for sure."
Wisp rolled her eyes. She drew back her fist and punched.
The stone fragmented. Shards of stone flew into the void behind the wall. A shallow chamber appeared behind it. A metal ring was set into the floor. Arcane symbols and mysterious markings ringed the circle\'s edge, while hundreds of footsteps marched into the circle\'s center, then vanished.
"Ooh, like the one by the tree that Clarina used to send us in here," Ike said, recognizing it.
"Right. A teleportation circle. Only problem is…" Wisp pointed.
The far side of the circle was melted away. The rock was scarred, shattered from the base. A single black-armored unit laid beside the circle. Its breastplate was missing, and the black goo erupted from within, splattered all over the ground around it.
Wisp kicked it. "Looks like that Llewyn guy detonated one of the puppets on his way out. Ruined the circle so we couldn\'t follow him."
"I\'m surprised we didn\'t hear that," Ike commented.
She shrugged. "He probably cast some kind of sound-suppression or illusory skill. The guy struck me as a smoke-and-mirrors type, with all kinds of techniques to misdirect the senses. The worst kind of mage."
"There\'s all kinds of people in the world, huh?" Ike said. "Why not just pick up offensive skills?"
Wisp shrugged. "Well, they were useful just now, weren\'t they? You couldn\'t do what he did."
"No, that\'s true," Ike agreed.
"Plus, he might not be suited for offensive skills. You\'ve experienced that, right? Skills that you can\'t absorb, or ones you aren\'t suited for."
"I sure have." Ike\'s mind went to the wind skill he was holding onto. I need to absorb that, and soon. As soon as I get out of here, that\'s my top priority.
Well, no. Getting Clarina to unlock the Unique skill and absorbing that is my top priority. My second priority is the wind skill.
He looked at Wisp. "Speaking of, why hasn\'t anyone come in here? We made plenty of noise."
"The hammers and stuff were noisy, too. This whole space might have some kind of noise-suppressing enchantment on it," she reasoned.
"Right. Otherwise, someone would have discovered the puppet-making operation." Ike paused. He glanced at the giant puppet sprawled in the center of the room. "But we need to move. Someone\'s going to notice that Roderick\'s gone missing, sooner rather than later."
"No argument from me. I\'m bored of this room, anyways. Let\'s go find the king and queen and get the sweet reward from our sweet princess."
Ike nodded. He glanced around, then headed back the way he and Wisp had come. Clarina\'s map led them to her mother and father, after all. Without that, he didn\'t really know where to go. Better to follow it than extrapolate her parents\' location from the vague impression the map gave him overall.
"What happened, by the way? Your aura is completely different now," Wisp said.
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"Oh, right. I remolded my body," Ike said.
Wisp blinked. "You what?"
"Reforged it. I forcibly used Salamander Healing on my whole body, but I used it with aether, and my body was full of mana, so… I kind of… forced out the mana and inundated myself with aether instead."
Wisp stared.
"What?" Ike asked.
"I have no idea what you are. I don\'t think humans or monsters can do that," Wisp muttered under her breath.
Ike snorted. "I\'m just doing my best over here. It seemed like something I could do, so I did it. And when I did, Salamander Healing—oh, that\'s my healing skill—it evolved."
"It what?"
"Evolved. Changed. Leveled up. Into something called the Body Reforging Art," Ike said.
"What the fuck."
"What?"
"Gods. I don\'t even know. You just do things," Wisp said, shaking her head at him. "Evolve skills. What on earth? I\'ve never heard of anyone doing that."
"Maybe it\'s a human thing," Ike suggested.
"Pfft. If humans could evolve new skills that easily, they wouldn\'t be out here hunting monsters to extinction in desperate hope of gaining one decent skill."
Ike shook his head. "I should ask some humans about it. See if it\'s something humans can do."
"Guarantee you it isn\'t."
"Maybe it\'s something people who reach Rank 3 do. I mean, I\'ve barely met any of those. And if we\'re talking Rank 4 or 5, have you met anyone that high?"
"I wouldn\'t still be alive if I had," Wisp muttered.
"Right. So we don\'t know if it\'s common among high-Ranking mages," Ike pointed out.
"True," Wisp allowed. She sighed. Putting her hands up, she shook her head. "Let\'s just focus on saving princess\' parents for now. If you have any more wild transformations, just—keep them to yourself."
Ike laughed. "Sure, sure."
They quickly ascended the staircase, throwing on their wolf pelts as they climbed. At the top, Ike let the map take over again. He followed the directions it gave, not pausing to take any more wrong turns. He did keep an eye open for vaults or subtle compulsions from the map, but no more arose, nor did obvious vaults appear. With their wolfskins equipped, the two of them quickly passed by the mages and guards and made their way to the end of the map.
Down, down, into the depths of the castle, even deeper than the puppet room, they entered a dungeon. The dungeon had been carved out of the stone on which the entire castle perched. The walls were unbroken stone. Pillars of the mother stone supported the ceiling. Steel bars sectioned off most of the cells. Some of them glittered with enchantments and emanated a suppressive power. Just walking by, Ike knew that if he stepped inside one of those cells, his skills and strength would be weakened, if not completely sealed. A few of the cells stone walls instead, the cells carved individually rather than sectioned off. Those cells had heavy metal doors with tiny slits in them. The suppressive aura from those cells was even stronger than the steel-barred cells. As Ike passed those cells by, his strength diminished.
The map ended in the dungeon. Ike looked around. It hadn\'t pointed to a particular cell—but then, it\'s not as if Clarina would have known which cell they used for her parents. He nudged Wisp. "Any idea where they\'d put the former king and queen?"
"Inside the puppets," Wisp said promptly.
Ike gave her a look. "Assuming they didn\'t get turned into goo."
Wisp shrugged. "No idea. Let\'s go look for people who look like Clarina, I guess."
Ike nodded. He didn\'t have a better idea, so there was no reason to negate Wisp. He strode into the dungeon, closely inspecting the rooms on the left. Wisp took the rooms on the right. One by one, they went through the rooms, peering through the bars. Some of the prisoners wore rags, as expected. Others wore fine robes and expensive jewelry. But none of them looked much like Clarina, or had the regalia and bearing of a monarch.
The two of them regrouped at the end of the hallway. Ike gritted his teeth. "Does this mean what I think it means?"
"Goo-ified," Wisp replied with a nod.
Ike took a deep breath. He rubbed his temples. Farewell, my unique skill.
After a second, he looked up. "Let\'s not give up hope yet. Maybe they\'ve just taken them to be executed. Let\'s think about this. We were in the room where the bodies were being dumped, so we know they didn\'t get goo-ified while we were here. And if someone as important as the queen or king was executed, they\'d crow it from the rooftops. I can\'t imagine Clarina wouldn\'t know if her parents were already dead."
"She could be delusional. Or stupid. Or blind," Wisp suggested.
"Let\'s not be too rude. All clues are pointing to one conclusion: the king and queen aren\'t here, because they\'re about to be executed. We need to head to the execution grounds, right now."
"And what if Clarina\'s just stupid?" Wisp asked.
"Then we can\'t get the Unique skill anyways. So we might as well give it a shot," Ike responded firmly.
Wisp nodded. "Reasonable. Come on. Let\'s go."
"You know where they are?" Ike asked.
"You mean you can\'t smell that blood?" Wisp asked. She gestured him on. "Come on. Follow me, noseblind."
"Is that even a word?" Ike muttered. Shaking his head, he followed after Wisp.