The Collector had observed the floating construct for an hour and forty-two minutes before it witnessed movement of interest. From the other side of the riverbank, a lone human approaching on the back of a horse signaled up to the pillar utilizing a stone capable of shining light.

Five rapid flashes of light.

From there, the pillar had quaked in slight but silent movement. Small platforms of a weakly visible, translucent substance formed beneath the pillar, forming into steppingstones for the human below.

Visual analysis of the translucent substance alone did not yield any significant information. The wavelengths of light emitting from them indicated only color. There were no anomalous energy readings, though there was a certain degree of heat emission from the substance.

As the platforms reached down, the human waiting beneath encountered attack from giant scorpions. The human observed signs of extreme distress but managed to defend himself to adequate degree, observing a show of force with the tool known as a sword.

He eliminated one giant scorpion, but his strength was insufficient to ward off the increasing horde drawn to the vibrations generated from the sudden and violent altercation.

The human did survive, however, leaving his beast of burden to fall to the scorpions while he ran up the platforms carrying behind him a sizable container of some sort.

The Collector did not make a move then. Instead, it watched as the human walked up to the base of the pillar. When the human slammed face first into the invisible wall of the pillar, he exhibited signs of anger, knocking at the wall with a fist.

An entrance opened up in the stone wall through a means that seemed close to atomic manipulation. The stone broke down into granular components that shifted aside, and when the human stepped through, the granular components reformed over the empty space and solidified back into stone.

The Collector continued to wait. It determined that the likelihood of this individual, based on its unfamiliarity with the structure and its prior harassment from the giant scorpions, was not the 'sorcerer'.

However, that the structure allowed access to the human indicated that the 'sorcerer' was present.

The Collector would continue the monitor the structure for changes. Visual confirmations of this 'sorcerer', if possible, but if this was not possible, then it would strike when the visiting human left.

In the span of fifteen minutes and forty-four seconds, however, it witnessed a chance to strike.

The upper segment of the pillar opened up, revealing the space where the previously identified human and, presumably, the 'sorcerer' resided.

The Collector gained visual confirmation of the sorcerer and analyzed him.

Fragile bone structure. Atrophied muscle mass. Slightly hunched in posture from continuous lack of physical activity. All signs of weakness, and yet, the Collector knew by now not to assume the strength of these 'sorcerers' based purely off their biological merits.

However, all the Collector knew was how to ascertain threats through their physical abilities and, in the case of tinkerers, their technology. In such a case as this, it had no prior data to base its actions off of other than the thrall.

If the sorcerer here also possessed the means to alter its state of matter such that it rendered itself impervious to physical harm, then at the very least, the Collector could confirm this was a common trait among 'sorcerers'.

Unlikely, however. The female sorcerer it had consumed had no such ability. But at the same time, the Collector could not reach any definitive conclusions.

It required more combat data.

Then it would strike and gather data for itself now, taking risk now so that it would better familiarize itself for these threats of 'magic' in the future.

Thus, it decided to strike while the structure seemed bared to the world, its walls uncovered and the soft, fleshy targets within vulnerable.

==

"By all the fucking gods there are, something is coming!" screamed the man. He stumbled backwards and began to run away from the opposite end of the open wall, drawing his sword almost as an after-thought.

Ekur kept his hand on his atelier's control conduit, his hand burning up as he expended mana to will his atelier to build up a forcefield around the room. The barrier's light blue shine glazed neatly over the circular walls right in time for an enormous…giant beetle to slam against the open space.

A monster? Out here? How? Why? It looked like a creature from the Darkwoods that grew nearby, but was there a creature this large? Ekur thought only the scolex worm in the riverbank was a monster capable of a C-rank threat rating.

The barrier, fueled by the atelier's impressive mana crystal and channeled through its magic-sensitive walls, prevented the monster from crawling in, but its impact upon the forcefield was enough to cause tremors to shake through the entire structure.

The pillar began to tip over as the wind-control systems failed. Lightstones placed on the ceiling began to flash from white to red, signaling atelier systems failures.

"Take her! Take her!" screamed Ekur as he used his free hand to point at the daemon lying in the trunk. The trunk was slowly starting to tilt towards the monster. "She cannot be harmed!"

The slaver saw his entire retirement flash before his eyes and rushed to the trunk, picking up the chain attached to it and throwing it forwards. The trunk slammed against the other end of the room, breaking apart and spilling the daemon's limp body out.

By now the pillar had tilted enough for various things in the room, test tubes, vials, little trinkets of stone and metal, to start falling and clattering towards the beast before stopping at the barrier.

The slaver held onto a gap in the bricked floor and shouted. "Do something! This whole thing is tipping over!"

"I am employing the full breadth of my genius into this-," complained Ekur before the monster started to move again, slamming at the barrier with blows from its many claw-tipped legs. The barrier held up, resistant to non-magical blows as it was.

"Stop talking so much and fix this!" The slaver waved his gloved hand around to the tilting floor,

"Hehe, so long as I have my hand upon this control conduit, this brainless insect will never pierce the veil of my barrier!" said Ekur triumphantly before stumbling on the uneven ground, almost slipping his hand off the altar.

The slaver's eyes widened. "You won't have your hand on it much longer monologuing like this. Shut up and do something!"

Ekur mumbled under his breath before he focused and put in a hefty amount of mana into restoring the wind stabilizers. The sigil stones embedded in choice locations throughout the walls of the atelier glowed green once more, emitting the aura of wind that kept the whole thing afloat.

The atelier groaned as it righted itself, floating stably again.

Ekur's vision started to blur as he felt the mana drain from him, and he pushed down emotions of regret and humiliation that surfaced when he lost fine control over his magic.

The slaver sighed in relief and then stood up on shaky legs, pointing a sword at the hideous monstrosity splayed across the barrier. "Now do something about that!"

"I will show you, you who are so unworthy of the brilliance of my research, research that has had decades to crystallize, of the restoration of Chaos magic. Magic, as you may know, many revile and believe lost when Zerul fell. But I alone in my genius am capable of replicating it-," said Ekur as the circuit lines running from the altar and connecting to his palms began to glow from green to black.

A black magic circle filled with concentric, grey rings floated over the monster. A moment later, and a beam of pure darkness shot down.

The monster reacted nigh-instanteously, latching off from the atelier. But not quick enough. The beam grazed its tail, and though the beam only clipped off a small chunk of the tail, the chaos would spread and disintegrate the entire beast soon enough.

Ekur watched as the monster fell back down to the muddy depths. "Behold! Might that can replicate even an Origin Gate itself! Soon, this creature will be reduced to dust!"

The slaver tiptoed to the edge of the barrier, making sure the monster was gone. He saw the monster fall down, its white figure growing smaller and smaller, and sighed in relief before he noticed that the monster tore off its tail before the disintegration could reach up further to its body.

"It's not dead!" The slaver looked back at Ekur with his hands in the air. "Kill it! Now!"

"Your simple shouting annoys me," said Ekur. "The creature falls now to its death regardless of whether it has escaped my chaos. Behold, the reason why my atelier is fortified to the highest extent despite my own pithy mana."

The circuits on Ekur's altar turned from black to green again, and the atelier vibrated, generating a high-pitched noise that reached into the riverbank below.

"And is that supposed to do anything?" said the slaver as he winced in pain at the sound, covering his ears.

"Wind magic is my natural affinity, but I am cursed with low-grade spirit roots. How do I compensate, you ask? Through my wits." Ekur tapped his head, baring a smile full of teeth decayed from neglect.

A rumbling roar echoed from the riverbank as the shuddering sound of earth parting reached even up to the pillar.

"I use my magic not to create vast winds or tornadoes that I cannot muster, but to generate a sound," said Ekur. "A sound that agitates the scolex worm that slumbers below."