Timeless Prominence

With his vision augmented by the Xuere clan’s two outer advancers, Rein could see the very nature of the maze.

The space was bent in many ways. Some paths led to deadends, some would eject a poor soul directly into the depth of the abyss. Yet, perhaps, the most mystifying of all are the paths that tunneled to another space.

Though this was the first time Rein had focused on his spatial element under an outer advancer’s assistance, he instinctively sensed that some spatial tunnels in this very maze led to a separate location.

He notified the two Xuere outer advancers of this observation-- these two naturally held sway over their fates.

“Of course,” the female elder chortled. “Spatial defenses often employ tunnels to connect various locations filled with all sorts of unknown benefits and dangers. Some even employ such tunnels to hide treasures. However, this is likely only a barrier to determine if we are friends or foe.”

Rein now understood this to be a standard affair. Hardly comforting-- it is quite impossible to assess what might be on the other side of a spatial tunnel, after all.

The male Xuere elder flicked his wrist, and a snowflake-shaped platform layered with thick ice expanded in size before their group.

They all stepped upon this device, and the snowflake platform floated over the endless abyss, with Rein pointing out a hole to enter the vast spatial maze before them. 

A few devils attempted to follow their path, but a wave of pure aurae projection bolts from the female Xuere elder sent them scattering.

“Instructions, elder?”

“Avoid any warped space. Those are most likely traps. Find tunnels into other locations. The Harvest Devil must have entered such a location with many entry and exit paths.”

Rein used his arm along with words to guide the flight of the snowflake platform. Their speed slowed to a crawl upon entering the maze. Rein’s sense of space indicated to him that the reason for this was that the space had been stretched.

As such, ten steps only allowed them to move one step forward. Both intriguing and terrifying.

A light buzzing began to sound and increase in volume. At first, Rein thought it to just be the sound of silence within the spatial maze, yet when that buzzing noise continued, he could not help but twist his neck about in an attempt to find the source of this buzzing.

The others shared this very same thought process.

“There.” Xeeseir pointed with a finger, having identified the source of the buzzing with his archer vision.

Rein squinted as he followed Xeeseir’s index finger, and noticed a tiny glowing dot in the distance. As they moved forward, that glowing dot revealed itself to be a prismatic shard of shimmering beauty, hovering in the air thanks to a mechanical bee-like puppet.

“Fictite…” the male Xuere elder hoarsely croaked.

The female Xuere outer elder did not even bother with words. She immediately waved her right arm.

The others could not see the result of her actions, but Rein, augmented by the male Xuere elder behind him, tracked an aurae hand projection reaching forth to grab both the mechanical bee and the prismatic stone.

Of course, they had all heard of fictite. The material revered by advancers, above limpite and lumite. Limpite and lumite are materials conductive to aurae, and an integral part of armament creation. Fictite is considered a step above, the most flexible material to be integrated, compatible with all types of elements.

Supposedly, there are better materials, if one limits their requirement to a specific element. Yet even Rein himself, a limited advancer element-wise, have affinities to lightning, wood and space.

Before Rein’s eyes, just when the aurae hand projection grasped that fictite shard, the mechanical bee sprung into action, accelerating at a breakneck pace.

Such a precious material caused the Xuere outer elders to momentarily  forget their pursuit of the Harvest Devil Ailehr.

“Don’t let it out of our sight!”

The male Xuere elder pushed the snowflake platform to its maximum speed, disregarding their safety.

The mechanical bee, at first, maintained its distance despite its seemingly slow flight. The mechanical bee seemed to have the ability to bypass the stretched-out space within the maze.

Rein had to be quick with his directions such that they could navigate and avoid the invisible spatial barriers as well as any set traps.

They gradually closed the gap until the prismatic stone was but a few arm’s length away.

The space in front suddenly twisted and Rein immediately held a palm upwards to indicate for them to cease their forward movement.

“Stop!” Rein yelled, realizing that a raised palm might not be enough to awaken the Xuere elder to their impending danger.

Luckily, The Xuere elder trusted Rein enough to pause the forward movement of the snowflake platform.

Zehz, however, already having accused the Iron Ant Team of betrayal, was incensed.

“He is simply attempting to deprive the Xuere of a critical material!”

Funnily, Zehz simultaneously dared not leap forward and retrieve the piece of fictite for the Xuere.

A few heartbeats later, and that warped space opened up as a makma column shot upwards.

Their close proximity would have lit them aflame if not for the female Xuere’s elder’s timely intervention. Rein observed the woman quickly gesture with her arms, ejecting a stream of energy to activate a cool aurae shield around the snowflake platform, fighting back against the heat of the makma.

When that makma column vanished, the prismatic stone along with the bee had widened their distance again, before drifting and vanishing into a spatial tunnel.

“Is it safe now?” the male Xuere outer elder asked.

“Yes. The path is clear,” Rein replied, fully aware that the Xuere elder intended to follow that mechanical bee into that spatial tunnel.

“It is good that you maintained a mind of clarity despite the rarity of fictite,” the female Xuere elder noted.

Rein simply nodded. He dared not feel any measure of pride. From his perspective, the only reason he was able to maintain a clear mind was that he knew the fictite would fall into the outer advancers’ hands, and not his. As such, any desire to pursue the mechanical bee puppet and the fictite within its clutches was utterly pointless.

“Is that even a real piece of fictite?” Nunan wondered. This spatial maze is a defense system built by the dwarves. That piece of fictite might be fake, placed to draw them to their doom. They very nearly traveled right into the path of a trap connected to makma.

Rein shared the same thought. He was reminded of the instructor he called ‘the spring lady’, who had suggested to him that spatial advancer arts, though not having a direct damaging quality, is highly flexible in its application alongside other magical arts.

It simultaneously explained how Zelli the dragonknight could keep her spatial origin magic an eternal secret with just a measure of effort.

“Even if it is fake, we must follow it,” the male Xuere elder firmly declared. So it was that the snowflake platform with the group seated on top, pressed into the very same spot where that mechanical bee disappeared into.

Their surroundings turned into streams of white light, but only for flash. In a blink of the eye, they arrived in an underground arena filled with soot-layered mechanical puppets.

“Amazing…” Nunan’s eyes opened wide at the sight before them. “When I studied ancient strategic warfare, it is said that much originated from the dwarves. Supposedly, as grandmaster blacksmiths they built many armaments, including mechanical puppets, and prided themselves in their ability to control an army of these puppets to carry out warfare.”

“It is said that this soon led to the existence of puppet chess, where participants pitted their control and strategic use of puppet armies against one another.”

“So this location…” the female Xuere elder said as she recalled her knowledge of Nunan, a formation master placed under Lyne. “This must be a barrier to ensure those not versed with dwarven traditions are expelled.”

“It must be,” Nunan nodded in agreement.

“Youngling. Are you well-versed in this… ‘game’?”

“I have briefly studied it…” Nunan muttered in reply.

“You will have to do,” the female Xuere elder stated.

The arena before them sunk a level into the ground and spanned five thousand kilofeet, filled with various mini habitats.

They came before an army of dust-covered dwarven puppets, with a leading dwarf general at its head.

That leading puppet activated itself and came before the group. It spoke a harsh tongue that Rein figured must be the dwarven tongue. It then transitioned to another silky singsong-like tongue, before a blabbering twisting language. Finally, it spoke in a comprehensible human tongue, though the sentences it used had no conjunctions. 

“So it will basically relay our commands to the puppet soldiers…” muttered Nunan.

Completely outside of Rein’s current expertise. He had seen Chenhr, his half-senior under Master Yirn, use formations. He is also quite aware that becoming a formation expert required many years of training in elemental composition as well as warfare and strategy.

Thus, this trial before him… is simply not something he could be of any use in. He could only sit back and observe Nunan organize the puppets before sending them into the arena, giving commands through the  dwarven puppet general.

That did not mean his mind drifted into the clouds. He looked on with interest as the primitive puppets that fought with swords, spears, shields, bow and arrows engaged each other within the arena.

It was unknown who or what controlled their opposition.

Some of Nunan’s methods, Rein understood. Using the environment to her advantage, she defended narrow spaces, mired the enemy in mud, employed guerilla warfare in certain terrains and more.

As for how Nunan organized the puppet troops-- that, Rein understood much less of. She made many adjustments on the fly, switching troop composition as necessary against the opposition.

Eventually, it came down to the survival of a single puppet. How? In Rein’s eyes, Nunan employed a trick She had, in fact, hidden that single puppet before executing suicide attacks with her remaining ones. Somehow, this had allowed her to overturn a slight deficit and come out on top.

Sweat dripped down Nunan’s brow, flowing past her temples and cheeks to the underside of her chin. Perhaps, one day, Rein would truly understand the woman’s struggle during this battle.

“Well done,” praised the female Xuere elder. “It is said that the dwarves are masters at commanding puppets, and it is their practice that gave birth to formation masters.”

Rein stood and stretched, feeling as if it had been too easy-- well, it was not him being tested, after all.

The mechanical bee reappeared before them, and relaxed its legs. The prismatic shard in its clutches fell into the male Xuere elder’s open hand.

The Xuere elder held it up to his eye to examine the piece.

“It’s… it’s real…!” His voice was filled with both excitement and disbelief.

The mechanical bee then flew at a stone wall. The stone wall magically opened into a narrow passageway!

“This…” Rein hesitated before expressing his doubts. “... it almost seems too easy.” He had read much about inheritances holding many difficult trials. Many places of treasure also have insurmountable defenses.

The male Xuere elder guffawed. “This is just an abode of the extinct dwarves. In normal conditions, this place would be swarming with guards. That spatial maze and these trials are just to ensure none of unfriendly origins can slip in through the cracks.”

“These trials especially, ensure only friendly forces can enter. Just imagine… a demon attempting to understand the intricacies of dwarven puppetry and formation.” He shook his head in mockery of potential pretenders. “They would fail and be promptly executed.” As he said this, he squinted his eyes and attempted to decipher the very traps that might exist within this arena.

How fortunate that Nunan had baseline knowledge of dwarven formations.

“Now the treasure room…” the male Xuere outer elder muttered under his breath, after having failed to identify any hidden execution methods.

“Remember,” the female Xuere elder reminded him. “We’re here to find and retrieve the young scion.”

“Hmph,” the male Xuere elder returned a glare. “It is almost certain that the Harvest Devil is searching for the treasure vault as well.”

In single file, the group walked through the passageway and found themselves in a massive forge, similarly oversized like the feast hall they have traveled through previously. This must be where those mechanical puppets were crafted.

It was then that a domineering voice echoed in the minds of all present.

“We, the Great Sects, will be taking control of these ruins. If you do not submit to our rules, it will be your death.”

“Fuck!” The male Xuere elder spat. For this voice to sound in their minds, a telekinetic advancer of the Great Sects must have come. The Great Sects do not get along well with the Halls, nor the clans of the Minhr Nation.

Nunan had taken too long-- the Great Sect had probably bypassed that minor gateway that is the spatial maze.

“Quickly! We descend downwards! Dwarven treasure vaults are always in the deepest depths!” The male Xuere elder dashed off towards the exit of this forging room, followed by the female Xuere elder.

The shell advancers of Lyne’s team had to augment themselves with their shell aurae just to barely keep up with the two outer elders.

Rein, of course, with his tempered body and the Frog Leg Release, would be able to keep up as well, but he was not about to abandon the others.

As such, the Iron Ant Team could only watch as they were left behind. Without the two outer Xuere advancers, their safety within these dwarven ruins was no longer as assured.

The voice within their minds continued.

“For starters, any attempting to leave these ruins will have your belongings inspected by members of our Great Sects!”

Leaving with any discovered treasures would be no simple task-- not even for those two outer Xuere elders!