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The skeletons also broke a path that connected the wall to the fortress, finding the same magical metal plates.

It was impossible to feed the large-scale spell directly, any attempt to inject mana would just make the mana circulate through the metal, but that was exactly what Athos wanted. The runes were full of energy and easily extinguished corruption, but the undead continually injected more energy.

The large-scale spells were created by over 50 mages, so they weren’t in danger of exploding even if the skeletons injected corrupted mana at full strength. The runes glowed in rejection of the corrupted energy, but there were so many entry points that the energy became scattered in an attempt to protect the runes.

Athos noticed how the glow of the runes was visibly diminishing and removed the plate at a time when the power was low. The plates were made so that they fit together perfectly and were difficult to remove, but Astrus knew the trick to remove them easily and he taught Athos.

The plates were held together using air magic to generate a vacuum at the junctions that held them together, so it was sufficient to generate air bubbles between the plates to release them.

Energy began to leak out, but it was too small an amount to explode. Athos still backed away from the walls for fear it would explode, just in case.

‘Treevor, I managed to remove the first one, how is your side?’ Athos asked mentally. The idea of disabling large-scale enchantments was actually Treevor’s. There was no point in keeping a large-scale spell active if they couldn’t use it. Treevor intended to corrupt the plates like Athos did the corrupted willow and create large-scale spells usable by them.

The mithril plate that Athos had removed was slightly different from the others, having a teleportation crystal embedded in the surface. It was where the crystal that forced teleportation outside the wall was. Without it, the order would not have the coordinates of the fortress and would not be able to open portals near the wall.

.....

The one who explained this to them was Emilia, who originally belonged to the order and knew many of its secrets not revealed to the public. She also explained that it would be possible to use crystals to teleport into the fortress if the large-scale spell was removed, but Athos chose to take the risks.

‘It’s all right here. These hive hawks are really useful.’ Treevor replied calmly. He was inside the control room, the vines from the back of his head spreading across the room as the flower buds on his shoulders greedily absorbed the surrounding darkness.

Darkness was being transmitted through the vines corrupting the runes on the walls mixed with mithril dust, the only part that had been updated to modern standards. The flowers on Treevor’s shoulders drained the darkness quickly, but he was splitting the energy between various vines and hive hawks, so the effect wasn’t as strong.

The hive hawks were inside the keep, transmitting the energy received from Treevor through the mithril plates that connected the control room throughout the keep. The skeletons had spent the last few days breaking through the floor and walls of the fortress to find all the plates.

Most of the skeletons began removing the mithril slabs as they spoke, before filling the nearby carriages and ordering the cattle skeletons to take them to the keep. They would have enough mithril to arm a small army with that amount of metal.

Athos still had to find out if it was possible to corrupt the magic metal or not before deciding what to do with it and from the way Emilia was staring at him, she still hadn’t given up on the idea of making him flee to the desert.

He was stalling the decision, saying it would depend on whether or not it was possible to create his own large-scale spells. After the battle euphoria wore off and Athos calmed down, he had to admit that his chances of winning a second battle would be slim, even with Treevor’s presence.

The realm wasn’t stupid and would bring enough firepower to take on Treevor, his best weapon so he needed the large scale spells operational to balance the game. He wasn’t crazy about fighting a battle he knew he was going to lose. No, scratch that. He was definitely crazy enough for that, but he still intended to prepare as much as possible to win.

Athos personally charged the metal plate with the teleportation crystal and Emilia followed, running to the control room where Treevor was. When they arrived the runes on the walls of the control room were flickering faintly and Treevor had already stopped flowing energy, his body a little lethargic from the lack of darkness.

“Is it possible to remove the crystal from the metal plate without destroying it?” Athos asked as soon as he entered the room.

“The only way to find out is to try. The metal plates are still enchanted, but they’re useless on their own. Try to corrupt it and undo the runes, maybe then you’ll get the crystal.” Treevor answered between gasps, feeling lethargic as the willow recovered.

“Isn’t it better to copy the runes first?” Athos asked.

“The Skeleton Wizards guarding the stronghold are the runesmiths who created the large-scale spells, so they have the original designs.” Emilia spoke. Athos didn’t care about the skeletons’ functions until he needed something from them, so he didn’t know what most of them did.

Athos did not coil and began to flow corrupted mana through the mithril plate, immediately frowning. “The crystal absorbs my corrupted mana before it can corrupt the runes. I need to find a way to remove the crystal to avoid destroying the metal.”

“Aren’t you going to keep the crystal?” Treevor asked.

“And let the order open gates near the keep at any moment? No thanks. I’ll destroy this thing and put Emilia’s crystal in place.” Athos took the crystal from Emilia and compared it to what was on the surface of the mithril plate, noticing that their sizes were similar.

“Emilia was also part of the order. What makes you think her crystal is also untraceable?”

“It’s because it was my family who discovered the resonance between crystals and it was my father the runesmith who developed the crystal tracking device that allows opening the portals. The crystals my father uses in the family are not traceable by order and Elder would rather fight to the death with my father than ask him for help. We are safe until eventually my father finds out about my death.” Emilia replied confidently.

“It didn’t give me much security, but that’s fine for now. Boss, my hope was that corrupting the runes would allow you to remove the crystal without destroying the integrity of the mithril, but it seems like it’s impossible. Let me try something.” Treevor spoke and the willow split open, its true body lifting and stretching its bones before it got to work.

Treevor touched the sword and cast his runesmith spell, spirit eye. The spell revealed to him not only the runes and total amount of mana in a material, but also the location where mana tendrils connected the crystal to the metal.

Runesmiths could use different ingredients to create enchantments with elements that the material had no affinity for, or smelt mana stones to increase the total amount of world energy a metal had, but it’s impossible to perfectly fuse two different materials.

Runesmiths used mana tendrils and connected both materials in a similar way to the binding spell, but the teleport crystals had no mana so the tendrils would be made on one side only and hopefully could be undone and the crystal removed.

Treevor conjured tiny tendrils of corrupted mana and began to slowly untie the mana knots. It was like a messy ball of yarn and he had to subtly untie it. Treevor has forcefully suppressed his mana’s corruption effect, trying his best to avoid any damage.

He was currently the only skeleton capable of suppressing the effects of corrupted mana, as the others were more interested in maximizing it. Treevor still had to be careful as continued contact would still cause damage, but it gave him time to work.

‘Shit, why does this have to be so difficult?’ Treevor began to mentally curse. Mana knots weren’t that difficult, but the teleport crystal was constantly trying to drain his mana with a ferocity that overshadowed even the magic of darkness.

Treevor had to keep the tendrils in check with sheer force of will slowly undo the knots. Whenever he lost focus even for a second, the crystal would absorb his mana and force him to conjure a new tendril.

As the knots unraveled, the connection between the mithril and the crystal became smaller and smaller and with it the crystal’s draining effect, allowing Treevor to speed up the process. When approximately 15 minutes had passed and the last knot had been undone, the crystal slipped out of the metal, as if they had never been connected.

“Good job.” Athos clapped Treevor on the shoulder and caught the crystal before it hit the ground.