Chapter 163: Chapter 232 – In Pursuit of Knowledge

“So, do we need to be super sneaky in here?” Miria asked after they all entered the golden corridor.

“A good question,” Selene grunted softly while setting the cut-out arch back in its place to cover the gaping hole in the wall.

“No one besides the members of the Council is allowed in this place so I wouldn’t worry too much about that since they should currently be busy arguing with each other,” Atra replied while looking around. “There are cases where someone else receives the permission but I don’t remember any special admissions in the recent weeks if not months.”

“No guards or patrols?” Silvia raised a brow at her.

The scholarly Valkyrie shook her head. “The Council is too skeptical and cautious. The only guards stand in front of the entrance. They want to believe that no one will try to break in, and to be honest, they aren’t that wrong. No one would really dare, nor would they know how.”

“An exception proves the rule.” Grea smirked and the girls chuckled softly.

“What about more traps or safety mechanisms?” Tina asked.

“That I can’t guarantee,” Atra answered. “Most if not all of those have been created and set up by the precursors. I know a thing or two about the defense systems inside the empty segments or maintenance areas in the ARKs but there isn’t that much about the core archives in the records. At the very least, I know my way around them, more or less, from my previous trips here. Nothing was activated during any of them. I don’t think this entire place can distinguish between a guest and an invader or else we would have been targeted the moment we set our feet in here.”

“Well, we just need to stay on guard and make sure not to make too much noise to avoid alerting the actual guards,” Asterios said. “What are we going to be looking for exactly?”

“We will need to visit a few sections since the records are somewhat categorized. I know personally that the sector focusing on architecture has plans of at least a few first floors of the Descending Spire. I never got a chance to dig that much deeper. There should be some documents on its defense systems for sure. That might be of help to you during your exploration,” she replied, stroking her chin.

“Do you know anything about Tyr’s Aegis?” Bryn stepped closer to them.

“Ah. Right. You need something regarding that.” Atra tapped herself on the side of her forehead. “This will definitely be tougher than looking for information on the Descending Spire in general. We should check the section talking about spiritual reactors and similar constructs. Unless you want to check out the stories and legends. Those are plenty.”

“If we have time left, we should check those too.” Selene placed a reassuring hand on Bryn’s shoulder. “All the tales hide some truth between the lines as their origins are often linked to the factual events.”

“Let’s get moving instead of wasting it in the middle of a corridor, then,” Asterios suggested. “Where to first?”

“Follow me. But, give me a moment. I need to find my bearings in this maze. I’ve been here a few times but all the hallways look exactly the same. I’m not exactly sure where we have ended up after our unconventional entrance.” Atra nodded at them and they started walking slowly.

Just in case, Asterios began marking the path now and then the same way he always did inside a dungeon. Miria was reminded of their early adventures and showed a warm, reminiscing smile. Moving closer to Asterios, she leaned into his side and let him caress her ears, purring lovingly under his delicate caresses.

As Atra had said, all the corridors were literally in one and only style. Additionally, the gold metal dominated any other colors and shades so much that it felt like they were walking through a gigantic piece of gold with tunnels carved inside the block. The geometrical patterns repeated regularly, giving off eerie vibes, and causing the hallways to seem longer than they actually were.

After they stumbled on the first room on their path, Atra easily figured out where they were and hastily traced the correct route in her mind. But, just in case, Bryn pointed at an actual map of this level hanging on the wall just next to the doorway leading into the chamber. They put it against Atra’s memory and headed out towards the architecture wing.

They had all agreed to start there in case their visit was forcefully cut short by some unexpected development. If they failed to find anything convincing on Tyr’s Aegis, they would most likely lose the support of Tyr’s Council, but that wasn’t exactly the end of the world yet. On the other hand, getting interrupted before learning anything useful about the Spire and its structure could prove to be much more dangerous to their plans. Additional help in the form of an army sounded great but they weren’t completely helpless without it.

Therefore, they jogged to their first point of interest and entered a spacious hall filled with golden cabinets reaching the very ceiling. The plaque next to the archway confirmed that it was the section with information on architecture in general. They glanced around the neatly organized chamber with hundreds of metal drawers.

“Is every single one filled with documents?” Miria asked in awe, receiving a nod from their friend with glasses. “And this is all just the restricted information on architecture? I can’t imagine how much of it is displayed in the public section.”

“There are many structures, elements, devices, and other things linked to them that are better kept away from the hands and eyes of the common people. Most valkyrjas aren’t aware of even half of the mechanical and spiritual arrangements functioning right under their feet. And they don’t need to be. The fewer people who know, the fewer people who will mess something up out of pure curiosity. The ARKs have worked up to this day exactly because no one unauthorized interfered with what they shouldn't,” Atra explained.

“We should split up and handle different categories. I can see from the plates that there are multiple sections in this archive so it’s at least somewhat sorted.” Grea scrunched her nose while setting her fists on her hips.

“Agreed. If anyone finds anything interesting, or even any mention of the Spire, let Umbra know and just flip through the information with him watching so that he can make a good copy of your memories. Move on to another piece after that. We will study the details in a safe place,” Asterios presented his plan.

“Good idea, my Lord.” Selene nodded. “I’ll check the housing section. The Spire certainly has some living quarters.”

“I’ll go after security then, Master.” Miria pecked his cheek and jogged away.

“I’m most familiar with healing so I shall browse through the medical facilities. It might also reveal something about the medical ward your parents used,” Bryn said with a determined smile.

Everyone found something to focus on and they all began rummaging through dozens of golden drawers, often filled with heaps of books and scrolls. The girls quickly realized that Ast’s idea truly was the only way to approach it as going through all those texts in a respectable period of time would be just impossible. They instead focused on any mentions of the Spire and then scanned the entire document with their eyes as Umbra accompanied them.

Atra was the first one to bring forth some crucial information as she stumbled on the blueprints and maps she had mentioned earlier. Asterios moved to help her and they examined the drawings before joining hands in looking for more. From what the ones she had found showed, the Spire had at least a hundred levels going down into the earth, worthy of its name.

Thanks to those maps of the first few floors, they were able to instruct the others on what sections had the highest chances of containing some useful information. Most facilities were marked and described on those blueprints. The descriptions were brief, often a word or a few, but they certainly narrowed down the search.

After about twenty minutes, Asterios and Atra uncovered some more floorplans which confirmed the stories saying that the Descending Spire was a place where valkyrjas had been facing various challenges in the hopes of proving themselves. Those trials had been used as training and practice too, with the difficulty level rising the deeper the contestant descended.

Silvia was the one who shone more light on those while browsing the documents describing training devices and the designs of entire battlegrounds. Many of them were marked as present in the Spire. She also found a note informing them that each floor had its own guardian or a manager, who oversaw the challenges or practice, also often being the person holding the record on that level. Such an arrangement ensured that only the best of the best were put in that position.

As for Bryn’s research, it was even more fruitful. She knew that their race’s most advanced medical ward was no myth but an actual place, even without that being confirmed by Ast’s parents in his memory. The books she discovered listed most of the healing formations engraved into that fabled room. There were some manuals amongst them, guiding the reader in operating the spiritual machinery present in the operating chamber.

All that information was extremely useful not just to her but also to her entire race. At the current moment, their access to the miraculous hall had been lost but that state wouldn’t last for long anymore. She planned to study the room as much as she could to be of more help to Asterios but also wanted to guide her sisters-in-arms to make proper use of what it offered.

The books even revealed some details about the impressive-looking device Red had operated while doing whatever he had done to Asterios. Knowledge about it would definitely help save countless lives, and not just amongst warriors. As much as they wanted to, valkyrjas weren’t completely immune to being ill or diseases that could introduce critical complications to their health and life.

The other girls weren’t as lucky as Bryn, Silvia, and Atra, but they still burned a few scrolls and notebooks into their memory. They didn’t let that make them feel down since they obviously couldn’t put an accurate grading on the importance of the little bits they had found. It required some more time and attentive reading to verify that and they were glad to stumble upon anything that could potentially be useful to their quest, wanting to assist Asterios to their utmost abilities.

After about two hours since the moment they had started, they began cleaning up the mess their digging had created. They felt like spending more time in one place even after checking most of the cabinets was simply overdoing it. There was at least one more chamber they wanted to visit, and every additional minute they stayed in one place made them feel like they were going to be found out right away. Nobody liked that feeling so everyone agreed on moving on.

Atra hastily located their next destination on the map and they headed out into the eerie corridors once more. The tension never left their bodies and minds. They sent Umbra ahead to check every corner before they made a turn, afraid of ruining their lucky-so-far heist. Though they hadn’t stolen anything physical, some could argue that knowledge was priceless.

Instead of a chamber, they found themselves in front of a massive hall. It was still made of pure gold or some other metal with identical color and shine but the contents were completely different. The walls were covered with wide blueprints and schematics while the cabinets from the previous room were replaced by what looked like numerous metal boards on wheels that had more plans and drafts pinned to them with magnets. Plenty of notes hung off them too.

“Now, this is a treasure trove.” Grea whistled. “My old man would cut his tail off to get his hands on these.”

“Isn’t he mostly after Sealing Magic?” Miria asked while curiously tilting her head.

“Even from right here, I can tell that Sealing Magic is in fact involved in these projects. I was actually wondering about that and I guess here’s my answer. Fascinating. Very Fascinating.” Their demon friend started walking between the boards.

“Just look at all of them closely with the help of Master’s familiar and you will be able to share these with him,” Bryn suggested.

“Are you sure?” Grea turned to her. “This is tempting but I’m not the one to steal everything from my friends. I’m sure the two of us will already benefit from the things we gathered earlier.”

“You can treat it as our payment for your help. Or your reward for taking back the Spire and returning it into our hands,” Atra added. “Besides, no one will complain. It’s not like they are able to with literal realms separating us.”

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“No taksies backsies later, gotcha?” Grea winked at the Valkyrie duo and ran away while giggling to herself like a little girl.

The rest of them focused on their main objective and began exploring the archive in search of any information on Tyr’s Aegis. They learned that each ARK’s Heart was slightly different, fine-tuned to the flying fortress’ main duty and the facilities most commonly found on their surface. For that, the spiritual energy of different elements was needed. For example, the ARK focusing on farming and agriculture had its Heart attuned to Nature, Earth, and Water first and foremost.

Although that information was extremely interesting, it didn’t really relate much to the object of their research. They could only speculate that Tyr’s Aegis had to make use of a spiritual reactor compatible with energies capable of producing an impenetrable barrier. That could potentially involve Sealing Magic too, which made Grea even more excited about the prospect.

An hour and a half later, they had studied most of the available material and still hadn’t found anything worthwhile on Tyr’s Aegis. Perhaps having their expectations raised slightly after their search in the previous section, many of them quickly started losing hope. After fifteen minutes more, they regrouped in the middle of the spacious chamber.

“I don’t feel like we have anything direct enough to convince those bitches from Tyr.” Grea broke the silence first with a groan.

“It’s extremely unfortunate.” Silvia nodded faintly.

“Should we try the section with myths and legends, then?” Miria suggested with a hopeful expression, glancing at their clearly worried winged friend.

“That might be our best bet,” Tina agreed. “We did stumble on some mentions in the other location but I don’t think they were any important either. Though, we have to verify that later just in case.”

They all turned to Asterios, curious about his opinion, and found him deep in thought. It took him a moment to notice that everyone was staring at him and awaiting his words on the topic.

“Sorry. I spaced out a little.” He smiled wryly and turned to Atra. “Say, do you maybe have a branch dedicated to documents in languages you aren’t able to decipher or identify?”

“Of course. There were many spoken and written languages over all nine realms. The gods had their own too. It isn’t that much but we have a small collection of texts that have somehow ended up in our world and were saved by the precursors on the day of the cataclysm,” Atra replied.

“So, some of the items in your possession have potentially been taken from the Spire before it was lost too, right?” he asked.

“I believe that there’s a high chance that it’s correct,” she answered. “Why?”

“I just had a quite far-fetched idea but if you are willing to take us into one more place then I think it’s at least worth a shot if nothing else.” Asterios shrugged.

“Oh, I think I know what you are getting at.” Grea snickered with a big grin. “I vote yes.”

Atra had gotten really curious about it so she agreed to lead them to the section with documents in other languages. It wasn’t that far from their current position and they reached the chamber quite fast. It didn’t surprise them that it was small, tiny even. It could be compared to a bigger broom closet or a storage compartment. Spreading out inside the room, they filled almost its entirety.

“What are we looking for here?” Tina asked, glancing around the open bookcases filled with various texts.

“This.” Asterios summoned a notebook from his spatial ring and the girls instantly recognized it.

“Knew it.” Grea snapped her fingers at him.

“What’s that?” Atra stepped closer to examine the item.

“This thing in particular has some notes on Summoning Magic written in a draconic script. We will try to see if your people didn’t get their hands something similar,” he explained, tapping the notebook.

“Do you think that Red is involved with Tyr’s Aegis, my Lord?” Selene rubbed her chin. “We know that he went to the Descending Spire but that was most likely after the cataclysm so the valkyrjas would have had no way of finding his secret notes there. He would have had to be there ages before that.”

“We don’t know how old Red is. Kaguya is easily centuries old, he could be a much more ancient entity considering what he is. His hideouts might or might not have been created even before they met,” Asterios replied. “Honestly, I’m as hopeful as I am scared. I don’t know if I want to learn that he got in contact with the residents of this or these realms before the calamity. There’s still a chance that he had his part in it.”

“Even if he had, those events clearly preceded your birth by a huge margin, Master.” Bryn placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled warmly. “There’s no use thinking about that now. I do agree that there might be a chance we will find something useful amongst the records here and that’s what we should focus on.”

All of Ast’s current mates nodded alongside her words and they got to work. Since Atra wasn’t familiar with the script, she joined Asterios and they browsed through the same area together. The search moved fast since they were able to easily disregard anything else, quickly moving between different books, notebooks, scrolls, and other pieces of paper.

Since the chamber was quite small, it didn’t take long before Tina called everyone over with an excited tone. Asterios hastily moved to her and received an old notebook with a leather spine. Fitting the contents he expected to see inside, it was dark crimson.

“It is written in the same draconic script that we are familiar with. And from the very first words, it does seem to sound like Red.” He confirmed with a nod, bringing excited smiles to everyone’s lips. “It’s quite thin. Looks to be just part of a bigger collection. If he has or had a secret room somewhere in the Spire too, this notebook must have been left outside by accident or for some other reason.”

“Does it say anything about Tyr’s Aegis?” Tina asked, peering into the notes alongside him.

“Maybe. I don’t know yet. But this definitely notes some things about that high-grade medical ward Bryn mentioned and we saw in my memory. It’s hard to tell if he was involved with it directly but he certainly at least had a chance to study it from up close for a longer moment.”

“I mean, that’s quite obvious.” Grea snorted. “He did know where to come and what to do in that flashback. I would assume that it’s not exactly easy to operate that thing correctly. Am I right, Valkyrie friends?”

“There’s no doubt about that.” Bryn nodded. “One needs at least some knowledge about the formations and spiritual structures woven into it. It’s not a tool that any fool can make use of.”

“I concur.” Atra fixed her glasses. “What more does this Red write about it?”

“Well, he was definitely doing his best to analyze it and learn how to properly utilize the power and capabilities of those formations and circuits for his own reasons. Some of the pages cover guidelines and instructions on specific parts of the entire medical chamber. It’s like a manual of some sort. I think it might be useful to you, Bryn, but as I said, it looks to be part of a whole,” he replied, continuing to flip through the notebook.

“So, nothing on the Aegis?” Silvia asked.

“Unfortunately.” He shook his head. “But now we are certain that he had some connection with this realm since—”

“Aha! Got me another one!” Grea’s joyful announcement captured their attention and everyone turned to see the scarlet-skinned woman wave a different notebook at them.

“Two? It must be our lucky day.” Miria giggled.

Grea rushed back to them and practically pushed her discovery into Ast’s hands. The moment he opened it on the first page, a smile arose on his lips.

“We might be onto something.” He pointed at a simple sketch of what closely resembled the spiritual reactors spread around the previous chamber.

The girls remained silent as he went through the pages at a moderate pace. They were all tense, barely able to wait for the final verdict. Most of them tried to keep their hopes low since they had already gotten insanely lucky by finding not just one but two items previously belonging to Ast’s father. It wasn't that easy, though.

“Well…” After a few short minutes, Asterios finally raised his gaze from the notebook and grinned at them. “At the very least, this does confirm that the Aegis isn’t a fairy tale.”

 

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