A plan was in the making. With the vicious castle servants in mind, with the gruesome tale of the journal still fresh in his memory, Vance felt a mounting pressure and an overgrowing apprehension. But he refused to give in to any negative feelings and chose to focus on his goal. He needed to eliminate all the enemies in the Incubator without starting a costly battle. The mother rabbit and her children needed to return to dust. And while it was easy to put this objective into words, it was not as straightforward to achieve it. I need to do a lot of preparations if I wanna get things right. He stood at the monitoring desk in the dreary Hall of Beneficence and put himself to work right away.

First, he gathered the Carcassian arrows that were strewn on the desk. Then he began to break the sharp arrowheads. He separated them from the flexible shafts and the eagle-feather fletchings. And when he was done, he gathered them in a small pile on the ground. The arrows themselves were useless as a weapon, since Vance had little experience with archery, but these arrowheads were indispensable for his plans. They were made out of the bones of a desert monster called the Cactus Mimic, and they were coated with a very special fat extracted from the liver of this same monster. This coating made them absorb Mana from their surroundings until a certain threshold. After this threshold was reached, they exploded and dealt extra damage.

There is high manaphile activity in the Incubator, so this amount of Cactus-Mimic bone should result in a powerful explosion. Carcassian arrows were normally fired to counter a magical barrier or to weaken a mage, but Vance imagined a more violent use for them. The radius of the explosion won’t be big, so I need the enemies to be gathered in one place … And I also need to prevent the explosive reaction from happening too fast. Picking up a heavy stone, he started to crush the small pile of arrowheads until he had reduced them into bonemeal. Then he grabbed the monstroscope that the defeated Turncoats had left behind. This rune-covered monocular was the perfect outer shell for a grenade.

I have to be careful with this. He drew his Larval Dagger and started to use it much like a can opener. After a lot of work, he managed to remove the lenses of the monstroscope. He put them aside with care and turned his attention to the insides of the adventuring gadget. I need to remove everything that could react with the Cactus-Mimic bones. He started to hollow out the monstroscope, and throughout this long process, he made sure not to damage its cylindrical body. He needed it to remain in perfect form because the runes on its outer surface were the key to preventing an untimely explosion.

The Ezran Runes on a monstroscope stop the user’s Mana from interfering with its functions. Vance rotated the hollowed cylinder in his hands. They will resist the flow of Mana for some time, and when they ultimately fail, they will send a Mana Shock that will trigger the explosion. Who knew that good old adventuring advice would come in handy at such a time? “Keep your companion monstroscope in your bag while you use magic, or you might break its inner components,” the Federal Guild had said. And now this advice had become relevant in the most roundabout and unexpected way—tools are meant to be used and abused.

Good. This should do it. Vance finished filling the hollowed monstroscope with the Cactus Mimic bonemeal, before he sealed it with the glass lenses again. He put his Larval Dagger away and stood up with a strange sense of satisfaction. The grenade was complete. In any other setting, it would be a highly inefficient and rather useless weapon, since it required more Mana than a conventional fireball or a familiar lightning spell; but in the case of the Incubator, where Mana was overabundant, there was no explosive more efficient or effective. Now all that’s left is for me to find a way to lure those lovely castle servants in one place—right there where the explosion will happen. How should I go about this?

There was no straightforward answer to this final problem, but there were still multiple gadgets that the dead Gadgeteer had left behind. I need something to lure the servants without attracting attention to myself, something that I can use from a safe distance, something that can cause panic to spread fast. Vance began to search through the gadgets, and while he had no idea what most of them could do, he did find a couple that fell within the scope of his knowledge. The first was a gadget jokingly nicknamed the “Hit-And-Run”; the second was called a Greed Compass. Vance had never used them before, but he had seen them save several adventurers in life-or-death situations.

As the name implied, the Hit-And-Run was used to facilitate a swift attack followed by immediate withdrawal. It consisted of two markers—small metal disks that were covered in Ezran Runes and that stuck to any surface upon contact. Vance picked them up and recalled how they worked. The first marker was designed to be thrown at an enemy. It caused a total stun that lasted for 5 seconds and left the enemy helpless and susceptible to a Gadgeteer’s attacks (the hit). Meanwhile, the second marker was supposed to be thrown far away from the Gadgeteer. If it landed somewhere before the 5-second stun was over, the enemy would be teleported away to its location. And this forcible teleportation would allow the Gadgeteer to disengage from the fight (the run).

It’s almost like a failed Spectral Execution, but the enemy is the one that gets teleported away. Vance began to think about how he could use this behavior to his advantage. I only have to press a couple of buttons to get the basic functionality out of the gadget. I won’t have the bonuses that a Gadgeteer gets, but I’ll be able to teleport one enemy to a location of my choice. Only one. He looked more closely at the Hit-And-Run. But there’s another problem: if I use this gadget carelessly, I’ll be revealing my presence. It will cause the wrong kind of commotion. He didn’t want the enemies—the vicious castle servants—to spread out and search around the Incubator for a pesky intruder. He wanted them to gather in one place. I need to choose … or perhaps prepare the right target. And I also need to combine the gadget with something else. It won’t do the trick alone.

Aware of the shortcomings of the Hit-And-Run, he turned his attention to the other familiar gadget that was left behind: the Greed Compass. It was a small rattly compass, the size of an open palm, that beeped to the presence of precious metals, namely bronze, silver, and gold. Treasure hunters carried it around because it helped them differentiate between genuine loot and wicked traps, and it was especially useful for exploring elven tombs and dwarven ruins. This one’s not even designed for combat. Vance picked it up, turned it on, and walked around the Hall of Beneficence to see if it would react to anything. It’s nothing but a piece of junk right now, but if I get a reaction from it …

Only a few moments passed before he heard a tiny beep. The sound continued to grow and grow as he walked closer and closer to one of the tables in the hall. Then he stopped and switched it off, as it had turned into a jarring alarm. This is perfect. The compass had been beeping because of old surgical tools. He picked one up and noticed that beneath the rust and corrosion, there might have been an alloy of silver and another metal. I can use this. Yes … Now I have everything I need. He hurried back to the monitoring desk and fetched an empty quiver that the dead Archer had left behind. He stuffed it with the rusty surgical tools until it was full. And before he added each tool, he wrapped it with a piece of cloth to make sure that it wouldn’t chink or clank.

He was finally ready: he had the monstroscope-grenade, the Hit-And-Run, the Greed Compass, and the old surgical tools. And it was now time to put them all to good use—to orphan the children and vilomate the mother.

***

There were three main entrances to the Incubator—the door that opened to the Hall of Beneficence, a gate leading to the wide castle courtyard, and a short corridor connected to one of the castle towers. But Vance chose to use none of them. Instead of a casual entry, he relied on his parasitic feet to get him where he wanted to be. He held on tight to his new equipment and jumped high inside the Hall of Beneficence. This first test jump failed to get him anywhere, but the next one that followed helped him arrive at a narrow stone platform near the vaulted ceiling. He landed between small gargoyles and began to advance along the stone wall, with his back slightly bent so that his Mantis Helmet would not hit against the shingles above.

After a short walk parallel to this row of gargoyles, he found an opening that led into the Incubator. It was a circular hole in the wall that functioned both as a window and as a conveyor for several pipes and ducts. They’re carrying Mana to feed the devices in the Incubator. Vance examined the pipes, but he chose not to destroy them, since such an action would be detrimental to his original plans. With little delay, he continued through the circular window and arrived on the other side—onto another raised platform that ran, like a cornice, along the walls of the Incubator. He stopped there, between another pair of gargoyles, and looked down to scout the area.

Torches illuminated the darkness and revealed a series of shocking sights. What in hell is going on here? Vance froze in place and spent time processing the bizarre scene that had just unfolded before him. There were hundreds of castle servants crowding together inside the small Incubator, with wine-red eyes that shone eerily in the darkness and whiskers that never stopped vibrating. Each had the body of a dwarf and the white head of a rabbit. Each wore a set of plate armor. And each had a birth defect to differentiate it from the other: an eye that popped out and dangled, a mouth whose lips were merged together, an arm that was the size of a peanut, a skull full of malicious tumors, or fingers that were half the normal length.

There was also a pile of corpses—dead Honeydew Flies. These flies seemed to have been electrocuted beyond saving, and their pincers were broken off their faces. My theory was right. Vance paused at this gory sight. Galvani did attack the flies. He killed them and stole my head. It was another piece of corroborating evidence. But why are their corpses gathered like this? Why didn’t Galvani revive these flies and use them to attack me? The question seemed puzzling at first, but then Vance noticed something: the castle servants were picking up the corpses from the pile and feeding them into the mouth of a large device—a Lifeforce Dispenser, whose captionless picture he had seen in his ancient guide. Galvani is using the corpses for something else.

But what was it? What did this device do? And why was the irregularly high manaphile activity needed? Vance followed the pipes and tubes with his Mental Eye until it fell upon the most disturbing of all sights. In the farthest end of the Incubator, there was a single chair placed against a wall. A female dwarf was tied to it, with her rabbit eyes blindfolded, with her rabbit mouth gagged, with the tubes continuing into her back. She was pregnant with multiple offspring, and her belly was almost the same size as the rest of her. A bloody piece of cloth covered her lower body like a blanket, and while the castle servants threw the flies’ corpses into the Lifeforce Dispenser, new rabbit-dwarf chimeras were crawling out from underneath this bloodstained cloth.

It was all disturbingly clear now. Galvani didn’t revive the Honeydew Flies using the Anima Elettrica, because he knew that he wouldn’t be able to keep them under control. Instead, he decided to use them as ingredients to create more of the castle servants—a crowd that was much easier to dictate, berate, and intimidate. That pregnant dwarf who’s tied down … she must be the mother rabbit. Vance was both surprised and sympathetic. He had expected to find a queen bee and her loyal hive, but he found a pitiful dwarf who was the abject captive of her own children. Day and night, she was in forced labor, and her body was little more than another device among the many in this room.

For a very brief moment, although he wanted to focus on the present, Vance remembered Shannon—her image as she was tied down to the interrogation chair overlapped with the image of the mother rabbit in her own chair. But then he purged the distressing thought. It was too stressful, too soul-draining to allow such comparisons. He cleared his mind and took a moment to calm himself down. Even if the mother rabbit was nothing but a helpless victim, the rest of the castle servants were a force to be reckoned with. He had to follow through with his plans and to get the last piece of the Staff of Galvani. I have to start moving … I can’t let anything distract me from my goal.

He sprung into action. Without making any sound, he sneaked along the high walls of the Incubator and searched with a bird’s-eye view for an isolated rabbit-dwarf. When he finally found one, in the northeast corner of the room, he put down Bearshield’s Counsel and the incomplete Staff of Galvani. Then he equipped his pair of daggers in preparation for an important sneak attack. It was the first phase of his plan and arguably the hardest. As he stared down at the unsuspecting rabbit-dwarf, he continued to remind himself of what he had to do. Don’t kill it. Don’t let it escape. Don’t let it alert the others. Like a jaguar on a tree, he concentrated with all his hunting instincts and waited for the right moment to pounce on his prey.

When that one moment came, when it presented itself like a sudden flash, he dropped down from among the gargoyles. Darkness was his veil. Neither did he make a sound, nor did he misjudge the distance. Cushioned by the grime from his parasitic feet, he landed right behind the isolated rabbit-dwarf. He swung his spectral dagger and stabbed the small beast without mercy, through its plate armor, through its dwarven back. It almost opened its mouth with a scream, but he moved the Larval Dagger fast and pushed it down its throat. The dagger scraped its tongue off and dug right into its esophagus—silencing it forever and inflicting a terrible wound.

Its mouth began to foam with blood, but it still refused to surrender. A set of thin, needle-like teeth started to grow out of its two jaws. They were sharp and hungry for meat. And they were about to dig into the Larval Dagger and the hand that held it. A bite would’ve not only dealt damage but also spread disease. Vance needed to avoid such an outcome at all costs, so he moved his hand away quickly. The rabbit-dwarf tried to bite again with a rapid forward lean; but he banished his spectral dagger, pulled it backward by the nape of the neck, and stabbed it once more with his Larval Dagger. This brutal stab pierced vertically through its jaws and shut its rabid mouth for good.

Having neutralized this threat, Vance wrapped his arm around the body of his victim and started to drag it into the darkness. For a while, it continued to struggle and resist. But then, after it had bled long enough, its muscles started to weaken and relax. It wasn’t dead yet, but it didn’t have much longer to live. Good. The first phase of the plan is complete. Vance felt some relief and looked around him. Although he had just attacked one of the castle servants, it was still business as usual in the Incubator. No one noticed. No one raised a weapon or prepared a shield. He had timed his sneak attack right and executed it with enviable flawlessness.

Now it’s time to set up everything for the explosion. Vance moved to the second phase of his plan. This should be the fun part. He took the plate armor off the body of his victim. After its pieces had all come off, he started to stab the dying rabbit-dwarf with the old surgical tools (which he carried in the quiver on his back). The scissors, the forceps, the scalpels—everything that had a morsel of silver in its composition went into the pale dwarven flesh. What a gruesome mess it was, but a necessary one at that. Having covered the victim in silver, Vance then activated the first Hit-And-Run marker and stuck it to the dwarven body. Immediately, the marker did its magic and caused a total stun.

I have five seconds to finish the set-up. He left the rabbit-dwarf lying helplessly where it was. Then he jumped up to the stone gargoyles again. From this high location, he swung his arm, aimed for the mouth of the Lifeforce Dispenser, and threw the monstroscope-grenade. As the twirling grenade headed for its destination, he didn’t stand and gawk at it. He took out the Greed Compass and the second Hit-And-Run marker. He switched on the compass and activated the marker. Then, with another powerful swing of his arm, he threw them both toward a spot near the Lifeforce Dispenser.

Three important projectiles were flying through the room simultaneously. The monstroscope-grenade landed inside the Lifeforce Dispenser. It began to absorb the Mana that was circulating inside the large device, and with this absorption, the countdown to the explosion began. At the same time, the Greed Compass and the second Hit-And-Run marker fell on the ground in front of the dispenser. A chain reaction started. The second marker stuck to the stone floor, and as soon as it did, the dying rabbit-dwarf was teleported to its location. The small beast had not only been marked for this teleportation but had also been stabbed with tens of surgical tools, and the silver in these tools triggered the Greed Compass. The gadget started to beep like a loud alarm and overfilled the Incubator with a jarring noise.

Of course, the rabbit-dwarfs didn’t appreciate this sudden disturbance. Was it a disruption in the flow of Mana? Was it the Lifeforce Dispenser suddenly malfunctioning? Galvani might punish us! Galvani might punish us! The castle servants gathered from all parts of the room and crowded worriedly around the dispenser. Their rabbit ears turned right and left. Their red eyes looked for the source of the sound. They discovered the corpse of their comrade and picked up the beeping Greed Compass. But before they could do more than that, there was a crash of earthy thunder and a resounding roar that shook the room. The Ezran Runes had finally collapsed against the flow of Mana. The Mana Shock occurred. And the monstroscope-grenade exploded.

Vance took cover behind the gargoyles and watched. There was a bright flash. There were blue flames. There were screams of shock and pain. The children of the mother rabbit were caught up in the blast, and their bodies not only burned but disintegrated into skeletons and dust. Tens of them died in the matter of seconds. Those who were less lucky started to crawl away, with bodies that were half-skeletonized, through pools of their own blood. They traveled a few meters toward their mother rabbit before they surrendered and succumbed to their untreatable injuries. The plan was a great success, and the Incubator was now a veritable bloodbath.

***

When the explosions and flames subsided, Vance descended into a cloud of smoke like an angel of death upon an abandoned battlefield. He walked among the scattered flesh and bone and searched for any survivors to kill. He thought that he would still have to do some cleaning, but to his pleasant surprise, the Incubator was now almost empty. What a shame … No one wants to play with me anymore. The castle servants had either died in the blast or fled to the Hall of Beneficence for safety. He needed to do little more than stab a few corpses to make sure they wouldn’t come back to life. Then the smoke finally subsided, and he turned to look toward the far end of the room.

Everyone was gone, except the mother rabbit herself. Her distant seat had left her out of the radius of the blast. She was sitting still, with her eyes still blinded and her mouth still gagged. Vance wasn’t sure what he should do, but he walked closer to her. She didn’t pose any danger, and he didn’t think that it was necessary to kill her. In fact, he wanted to see if she could think or talk like Galen the Sagacious. Was she aware of what was happening to her? Were all the beasts in this castle still intelligent beings? Were all the beasts of Middlerift, by extension, also intelligent beings? These were the questions riddling his mind. He stopped in front of the miserable mother rabbit and removed her gag.

“Sabrina, is that you?” she said right away—almost gasping the words.

Vance said nothing.

“Sabrina … I waited … just as you told me.”

Vance was about to remove her blindfold, but then he stopped and chose to hear her out first. Her pale lips moved fast, and her voice was cracking. It was almost as if she was afraid that she would be gagged again, as if something had been effervescing inside her, as if she had to let everything out in one burst.

“You said they were going to save us all, but they killed everyone. They don’t care about us. No one does. They didn’t even destroy the Incubator. When I was brought back from dust, I found it here. It was still working. It’s always been working. Galvani tied me to the same chair again. He told me my body belonged to god … told me it wasn’t mine. Sabrina … I didn’t say anything back. I didn’t feel anything. He said it was my sacred duty to repopulate the castle … the same thing he said when we were losing the siege. I’m tired. So tired and cold. You promised me you’ll take me somewhere far away … somewhere peaceful. But I don’t think we’ll ever find it. I’ll never find it. Wherever I go, it’ll be the same.”

Vance said nothing, and silence ensued.

“You’re not Sabrina, are you?” the mother rabbit said.

“No,” Vance replied.

She laughed—a crazy laugh, tuned up with despair and toned down with pain. It lasted for several moments before she said, “I don’t know who you are, but if you’re here to kill me, it’s not worth it. The Lord of Lightning is back. A few days will pass. Then he’ll revive me and tie me to this chair again. It never ends. Save your energy … Leave me alone. I’m waiting for Sabrina.”

“Sabrina won’t come,” Vance said.

The mother rabbit laughed again—the same crazy laugh.

“You know that already, don’t you?”

Tears started to roll down from under her blindfold.

“Galvani won’t come back either,” Vance continued.

“Cheap words!” she screamed. “He always comes back!”

“I’ll make sure your suffering ends today.”

“Cheap words!” she screamed again. “My suffering will never end!”

“I—”

“Cheap words! No one cares … No one … Sabrina … I’m cold … so cold …”

The heartrending screams stopped; the overflowing tears stood still. Vance thought that the mother rabbit had calmed down, but then her head suddenly slumped. He cut the ropes that were tying her body to the chair, but she still didn’t move. What happened? He was puzzled by her unresponsiveness, since he had done nothing to harm her. After a few moments of confusion, however, he pushed her body gently to the side and examined her back. Several tubes were connected to her insides. They were supposed to pump the output of the Lifeforce Dispenser into her body, but now that the device was broken, her blood was draining into these tubes. It had been flowing out all this time, and now there was little left to keep her, or the offspring in her womb, alive.

Battle Result

You have defeated Mimi the Kindhearted, Head of the Servants.

Your victory instills fear in the castle servants and forces them to flee from Rocca Galeazzi. When you fight the Lord of Lightning, none shall interfere.

While Vance felt no obligation to honor the dead, it didn’t seem right to leave the corpse of the mother rabbit on her chair. He took her off it and laid her on the ground. After he removed her blindfold and closed her eyes, he covered her body with her bloodstained cloth. Golden butterflies started to appear around her corpse, but he turned away and paid them no heed. It was time to fulfill his original objective. He retrieved Bearshield’s Counsel and the incomplete Staff of Galvani. Then he stepped inside the remains of the broken Lifeforce Dispenser. This is where the staff’s orb is supposed to be hidden.

He used his Larval Dagger to remove some floor tiles from the area that had been right under the device. A curious layer of fine gray sand appeared, and he started digging with both hands. Only a few centimeters below the surface, his fingers struck against a glassy round object. He cleared the space around it and pulled it out of the sand. It was the one and only magical orb that fit atop the staff—L’Occhio del Ciclone. What an usual item it was. It consisted of no jewels, no gems, no gold, no silver. There was only a layer of transparent glass, and beneath this layer, there was a large eyeball that was still moving even now. Unlike a normal eye, however, this one had an iris the color of thunderclouds and a pupil the color of Mana.

Vance was mesmerized by its aura, but he was more interested in its powers. He wasted no time and combined it with the rest of the staff. It fit perfectly atop the crown and shone with a blinding light. When this brilliant shine subsided, the long-awaited system message came:

Hidden Objective Complete: The Staff Electromancers Fear

You have reassembled the Staff of Galvani.

Previous effects relating to its pieces have been canceled. While you hold this staff, it will attract all hostile electro-magic attacks, but it will also nullify their damage and replenish your MP instead.

Your current Intelligence allows you to use the following staff abilities:

Name Cost Description Summon Storm Once Daily You point the staff high toward the sky and summon a dry thunderstorm that blocks all light. Enemy healing is 50% less effective. Enemy Skills and Perks that rely on sunlight fail. The storm lasts for 30 minutes. After this duration, the sky returns to normal. Pure-Mana Beam 10 MP Per Second You use your MP to guide the power stored inside the staff, firing a beam of purified Mana that deals damage while it is active. Unlike normal magic attacks, this beam has no element associated with it; therefore, it is effective even against enemies who are immune to a certain type of magic. As a rule, the beam ignores 25% of the enemy’s base Magic Resistance. This percentage may increase against certain types of enemies, but it never drops.

Furthermore, for completing the Hidden Objective, you receive:

Name Cost Description Summon Thunderbeast Only One Use You call upon the authority of the staff and summon a three-headed Middlerift Beast to your aid. This summoning can take place in the human world or in Middlerift, but it will fail if it is used against the Lord of Lightning. Imprison Only One Use You use the staff’s orb to entrap a being of an affinity with electro-magic. You can use this ability to entrap the Lord of Lightning after his defeat in battle, or you can let him escape and save it for another being. The choice is yours. A Gift of Lightning Once Daily You wave the staff and create a beating electro-heart out of null. You can then gift this heart to an undead of your choice. This unholy gift dramatically increases the stats of the undead, especially during thunderstorms, and turns its attacks into electro-magic attacks. Beware, however, when the gifted electro-heart is destroyed, the undead is also vanquished regardless of its remaining HP.

Not half bad. Vance smiled inly and looked at his well-earned prize. I guess I haven’t been running around this castle for nothing. I’m immune to electro-magic now. He laughed. That’s one less thing to worry about in the upcoming fight. It was finally time to confront the Lord of Lightning—to slay the Middlerift Beast and complete the jinxed Class Ascension.