Chapter 193: Two Mountains

"None of you possess any more tangible knowledge of the specimen known as the 'Facestealer?'" asked the Collector, its voice resonating throughout the cavern to address all in it. The finality of tone within its voice indicated that should there be no further relevant information, then the Collector was going to end the line of conversation and proceed forwards.

"I am sorry, Sovnar," said Goromir. "But even in our age, tales of the Facestealer were merely whispers of the past. There is also that my memories are not as clear as they could be."

"Nor mine," agreed Kandak.

"Your resurrection granted us second life and mastery over our bodies once more, but our centuries long sleep has rotted some of our memories," said Kandak. "Some are hazy, some are utterly gone, but I assure you, Sovnar, we have not lost so many memories that we are unable to serve."

"Yes," said Kandak.

The Collector clicked its mandibles in understanding. The goblin elites had been resurrected from a status that was more akin to dead than alive. Their beings had been compacted into burial tusks, but that process coupled with erosion from the centuries had rendered their minds damaged.

The Collector's Breath of Life could restore the bodies of the elites to their fullest, original extent, but merely restoring synaptic connections and neural pathways alone did not bring back memories, it would seem. For the goblin elites to possess the fullest extent of their memories, the spell weaving ritual utilized to bind their beings into their tusks would have had to been completely perfect, preserving them completely.

However, it was highly evident that there the spell weaving ritual was not capable of such a feat for the goblin elites were manifested as mindless husks of themselves when they were bound to the burial tusks, incapable of recalling any complicated motor function capacity such as martial arts, let alone any semblance of higher thought processes or memories.

It was a marvel that the elites even possessed a large portion of their memories to begin with.

Which brought the Collector back again to contemplate about the Facestealer. One of the adaptations that the Collector strongly desired was one that would allow it to freely manipulate the minds of tinkerers regardless of the mana guarding them and divine protection.

This, it seemed, was within the domain of the Facestealer also. Yet information regarding this entity was preciously low.

"Sovnar, if you desire more of the Facestealer, then shall I suggest restoring the rest of the blood of Gob that still slumbers?" said Goromir. "There are Spellweavers among them, I am certain, and they were the last to hear the direct whispers of the Facestealer in learning their sacred art."

"An untenable option," said the Collector simply. "I have processed the rough coordinates of where you believe the rest of your kind's burials have been. The vast majority are located in the realms of Mercia and Xia, and other realms are difficult to access without entering into a major civilization gateway."

And the Collector knew that once it entered a major civilization's gateway, a warp gate strong enough to cross realms, it would have the necessary processing power to signal the Collective once more. The course of action to restore the rest of the goblins was one that was therefore redundant to its final objective, but at the same time, in the chance that the Collector could not send out a proper signal even with the larger warp gate, then it was a course of action it could more heavily consider.

"Hm. You do not have to go that far back," said Kui. "All I know of the Facestealer is myth and legend, and you do not strike me as one that dabbles in uncertainty."

"No," said the Collector simply.

"But I do know of a tale wherein the Jotnar communed with the Facestealer," said Kui. "It is one known only to me, for I have traversed the Wailwaste beyond the Rift and the Jotnar ruins that lie among its glacial heights. However, I merely know that they communed, not what this communion was about nor its significance."

"Then the path of this swarm is now clear," said the Collector. "First, an investigation of the two mountains within this range that still emanates with magical energy at their centers. Then, movement to Jotnar civilizations."

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The two mountains that the Collector had noted before as still possessing significant reserves of primal energy swirling around their centers were located directly beside each other, and as the Collector approached it from the air and obtained a greater visual of it, it came to know that the mountains were actually attached to each other.

The Collector still maintained the Sapia platform of ice it used to transport the swarm, and this time, Kui was on it. He had fully taught the goblins how to shape their mana properly in order to harness Truefrost, and now the elites had managed to quickly make the rare substance their own, wreathing themselves in blue, almost teal material.

Unlike Kui, the elites preferred to shape their Truefrost into bulkier armors and furred shapes akin to skins, granting them a sturdier, more bestial look.

The rest of the champions struggled with utilizing the substance for it required a level of mana control that their talent was insufficient to truly tap into, though Kui was patient in teaching them regardless.

Kui possessed a belief that enough practice and dedication would allow the self to overcome any deficiency in genetic composition, and this, the Collector disagreed with in its mind, but allowed the fighter to exercise with the goblins to see whether his philosophy had any tangible merit.

So far, none in sight.

"Why have the Draconids not taken these mountains?" stated the Collector to Kui, its voice resonating downwards to the ice platform. "There is enough magical energy condensed within these to power the evolution of two more Fang specimen."

"There are no Old Gods in them," said Kui as he looked down at the mountains with crossed arms. "Thus, no beings to assimilate. Beyond that, the Draconids cannot seem to enter into the mountains' deepest depths. Jotnar magic guards against it."

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The Collector clicked its mandibles. "You state that the Jotnar civilization is now but remnants, likely from the devastation wrought by conflict with the Draconids."

"That is so," said Kui.

"Then how is it that they have not weaponized this manner of barrier, one capable of repelling Draconids for extended periods of time, to their cities?" said the Collector.

Kui just shrugged. "I do not know. I did not ever travel the mountains deeply. Only in search of food. My role was to test challengers, not to dig through history. Even in the Wailwastes, I traveled only to search for an Endbringer among the Jotnar, but by my time, the era of the Jotnar was at an end."

The Collector clicked its mandibles as it scouted an entrance into the twin mountains, laying the ice platform flat on a swathe of rocky ice. It hovered over to the entrance, sensing directly the threads of primal energy that traveled through it and deeper into the mountain, to its heart where there was undoubtedly something of significance to be found.

From the Collector's stored memories in its Jotnar core, it knew that the Jotnar had been gone for at the very least one century. There were wisps of magical energy emanating from these twin mountains that the Collector could very faintly sense not as environmental flow of mana, but manipulated by Jotnar magic, and this manipulation had occurred roughly around the same time as the Jotnar retreating into their own eternal slumber.

Odd, however. The Collector could perceive the flow of magical energy, particularly that wrought by Jotnar hands, in this area with incredible clarity, as if it called out to the Collector specifically. It felt its Jotnar heart beat faster and the shard atop its head flicker.

There was no doubt there was strong coincidence with these two events. One that would likely be of vast importance to the Collector considering its next goal was to access the point in space the Jotnar last gathered at before warping themselves to the conventionally inaccessible area known as the 'White Space'.

"Follow me," said the Collector. It could see with extreme, unnatural clarity the path it needed to take to reach the depths of the mountains. It was akin to the psionic sense it possessed at the goblin lord's dungeon.

Aspect of the Collector, its Jotnar core or perhaps the Shard of Succession at its head, were heavily linked to this area, and the sensation that it felt as it perceived the magical energy of the Jotnar was one of beckoning, bidding the Collector further in. "All of you. Within, I sense that there will be protection against Draconid influence, and further Draconid interference is a distinct possibility considering the escape of the Fang specimen. Remaining in the open is an unnecessary risk that I shall not replicate."

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