Chapter 88 - An Artificial Beast

 

Act 5 – People and the World

Spring, 999 Iskam year.

Azriel Esthera who turned 19 now was standing before a mound. The bony girl was now a little taller and gained some more weight that she looked good. Her skin was bright like ivory and glowed softly. Her long hair was smooth as a wave. She was wearing a black robe. Taking off the hood, she stretched out her right arm toward the mound. Mana was quickly arranged.

“Esthera.”

As if an invisible hand was grabbing it, the earth was lifted. Following her moving hand, the mound of earth floating in the air was put aside. Then, an enormous door of the ruins, which was more than twice her height, appeared. At the center of the door was a crystal as big as a person’s head. A complex pattern was engraved around it.

“‘Prove you are a wizard’, it is.”

Smiling mischievously, Azriel read the phrase. She touched the crystal with her hand and blinked. Then the world of stars that was only visible to her appeared. The stars that flowed out of her body drew the stars around her.

The standard that differed between magic and conjuring was whether one could use the external mana, in another word, the natural mana. The only thing that a wizard could move was the mana inside his body. Thus, in order to use the natural mana that was not his own, he should be able to execute gravitation to draw external mana with his internal mana.

‘The base of magic.’

She induced the natural mana that she had drawn to the crystal. The crystal began glowing subtly. The light from the crystal flowed through the pattern and lightened the whole brightly. And soon, with a huge ‘thud’ the door opened on its own.

Inside the door was pitch dark. Azriel stretched her neck to look inside. She could hear dim creaking sounds. She recalled the time she looked inside the secret passage in the well in Colte. Back then, she was merely a powerless girl, but it was different now.

“Esthera.”

Small lights formed and flowed into darkness. She could see the long stretches of the passage. It was a stone hallway. Azriel adjusted the train of her robe and stepped her foot inside. As soon as she entered, the door shut with a thud. In pitch darkness, only the lights that she floated softly shone the surroundings.

Wizards’ laboratory facilities would usually have all sorts of security systems. The larger the size, the more brutal the security systems would be. With a rustle, she took out a notebook and a pencil. Drawing the passage in her notebook, she made an incantation.

“Esthera, Esthera, Esthera.”

Three layers of protection magic—a barrier of mana, blockage and protection—surrounded her entire body.

“All set. I will begin the test, Rhema.”

She murmured to herself and proceeded into the passage without hesitation. Not a few steps after, arrows flew in and bounced out weakly after hitting the clear protective barrier. Azriel calmly marked the arrow trap in her notebook inside the barrier. Soon, she met a fork in the passage. After drawing the two passages, she examined both sides carefully. She could see the flow of mana that composed the ruins.

‘The direction of the flow of stars…’

One side had slightly more star flow. She chose that direction. Then after exactly three steps, the floor sank.

“Esthera!”

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The mana that stretched out from her back spread like wings. The wings made up of constellations fluttered and sustained her body. It was flying magic.

‘Rhema said these wings looked like a bow of spider web.’

Azriel took off and landed on the opposite side of the trap. As soon as she landed, green smoke scattered.

‘Is this poison?’

The smoke passed through the protective barrier but could not pass through the blockage barrier inside. She walked through the green smoke. Meanwhile, she did not forget to make notes in her notebook. As she walked more, she heard a sound of ‘thud, thud, thud’ echoing through the hallway. When she looked up, she saw a huge rock which filled the whole passage and was rolling down.

“All kinds of standard traps pop out here. Esthera!”

As she yelled out the spell aiming for the rock, a spear of mana was shot like an arrow. It directly hit the rock and crushed the rock like an egg. The stone pieces were bounced out against her protective barrier. Azriel kept advancing that way, a fork after trap and again a fork after trap. There were traps that threatened her life and the passage was twisted like a maze. However, noene of them was a danger to her. She was walking while looking at the flow of mana, so she did not wander around much.

‘It was more difficult to make a typhoon on the lake.’

Raising a typhoon was doable, but it was quite difficult to protect the only chosen things at the same time.

‘It’s easy when you use a protective barrier, but I struggled because he asked to protect them without using it…’

The passage was gradually leading down. And at one moment, the atmosphere of the surroundings changed. The marble wall was full of moss. Through the moss, she could see antique sculptures. Azriel swept off the moss and examined the scultures.

“It looks like an engravement of wizards… Could they be the primary wizards?”

Three wizards whose faces were invisible because they were hooded were standing in-between a kneeling crowd. They were holding out a flame, water, and book to the crowd.

“Usually, people engrave famous myths or legends. I’ve never seen a story like this.”

The scultures seemed to tell that the wizards were spreading civilization to people. Such a content was not included in the myths or legends Azriel knew. After studying the sculptures for a long time, she transferred a simplified version of it in her notebook. And she turned her attention to the door which was surrounded with the scultures. It was the same huge door she saw at the entrance of the ruins. Azriel faltered over Lemm text which was surrounded by patterns.

“Prove… your right… with your… legacy?”

The word ‘legacy’ the ancient wizards meant was mana after all. How should she prove it? Azriel tilted her head and moved mana after putting her hand on the crystal. Her golden eyes were widened.

“This is…”

Inside the crystal was very intricately arranged mana. Despite being hundreds of years old, its form had not been disturbed. She, soon, realized what it meant. It was a structure that would only open when one arranged mana in the perfectly same form to invoke the magic.

“This is like a keyhole. It’s like a puzzle, too.”

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