27

As soon as Charles heard mention of a castle, of the Metalmancer’s castle at that, he immediately gave the conversation his full attention. He dropped everything that he was doing, and looked at Giona in the eye.

“I’m interested.” He said.

The guild master smirked.

“I knew you’d be. Now, as I was saying, I know where the Metalmancer went after he had to abandon his factory. I think I can lead you there, if you accept me as a temporary member of your… party, we might call it. What do you think?”

“You’re in.” Charles said immediately. “You keep an eye on him, right?” He asked Aura, speaking in his mind.

I’m always watching. She replied.

“I had this suspicion that the Metalmancer was hiding around somewhere.” Charles said out loud, half muttering to himself and half speaking to the guild master while looking around. “There was no way the Factory was the last we heard of him. I’m quite curious now. A castle? Aura, what say you?”

I say that we have to go there and check.

Charles smiled. “I wholeheartedly agree. I also think that we are in for quite a surprise, if I know my man even a tiny bit.”

Giona smiled for a moment. “Good, then. I will gather a few things for the trip, and we can leave tomorrow.”

Right as Giona was leaving, Eereen came in from the door. The two greeted each other briefly, and then Giona went out. Charles stared at the elf girl as she entered, the door creaking behind her. He muttered something about having to fix the hinges of the door again, and said nothing about his mild annoyance at the fact that everybody seemed to enter his place as they pleased.

“Trip? Are we leaving?” Eereen asked, after sitting on the bed. Charles had used it only once, and since then she used it every night; it was now hers by all means.

He studied her face, posture, and looks for a moment. She was somewhat cute, looking all lost trying to catch what was being said before she entered the room.

“Yep.” He replied. The elf seemed to already consider herself a permanent member of the party. “Going to the castle of our friend the Metalmancer.”

“Ooh.” She looked surprised. “He’s alive?”

Charles frowned. “I don’t know. But, why are you surprised? Didn’t you see the missing tapes from the walls of the computer room? He wouldn’t have taken them out unless he planned to use them somewhere else. That, and the mention of the instability in his diary should be a good indicator—well, what can I expect…” his voice faded to nothing. “You’re a forest simpleton, after all.” He thought, so that nobody but Aura could hear the words.

I think it’s unwise to be so dismissive of her.

Charles raised his eyebrows. Eereen studied his face for a bit, but then she appeared to lose interest. He, in turn, turned to face the wall and inspected a few instruments distractedly. He fiddled with one of the small hammers he lifted from the Metalmancer’s factory.

“Why is that?” He asked the AI.

Because, even if she was indeed a simpleton, such preconceptions would only hinder you. And, I have reason to believe, those preconceptions already have made you miss a few hints at something beneath the surface.

“You talking in riddles now?” he joked.

I don’t want to manipulate your perception of her. This was just to make sure you’re looking at the whole thing objectively.

He hummed in agreement. He placed the hammer back down, and rested his back against the wall.

“So, yeah, leaving for the castle. Tomorrow morning.” He told the elf. “Got anything you need to pack?”

She shook her head.

“Odd, isn’t it?” His tone was inquisitive. “Ever since you basically moved here, I’ve never seen anything of yours beyond the clothes you wear. Where did you even live before meeting me?”

“I used to stay at an inn, while I looked for help. I don’t have anything I can call mine,” she looked at the floor, eyes misty. “Not anymore.”

Charles decided not to pry any further than this. Aura’s words floated in his mind, and a few dots were already joining together to give him a picture, if partial and incomplete, of the situation. For now, however, he decided that he wasn’t in any immediate danger.

The next morning, they left an almost completely empty lab behind. Not even the bed was spared by the vacuuming frenzy of Charles’, which left in place only the forge and the generator. And that was only because the two pieces of equipment were fixed in place, and impossible to remove without tearing down a couple of walls. Maybe, one day, he would be able to lift the whole workshop inside the ring to carry with him.

That would be something. Aura chuckled.

Charles was mildly surprised and amused. Her sense of humor was still in its infancy, but the attempt was commendable.

The two met with Giona at the edge of the forest; he was waiting for them, and they all started to walk in the direction of the factory.

“Are we going back there?” Eereen asked.

“Seems like it.” Charles replied.

Giona nodded. “Yes, the fastest way to the castle is this. But the road is much longer this time.”

“Well, at least I hope we can finally meet this mysterious man.” The elf said, looking pensive.

Charles chuckled. “Oh, yes. I need to tell him one or two things about Maxwell’s equations.”

“Maxwell? Who is he?” the elf wondered.

“A fellow scientist. He was the man who cracked the mysteries of electricity and magnetism, something that our dear Metalmancer seems to have missed.” Charles snorted a laugh, at the expense of the Metalmancer no less, in his mind. “I wonder how his face will be as soon as he learns about what he could have discovered, but didn’t.”

Giona was silent. “I wouldn’t get my hopes up, if I were you.” He muttered.

“Why?” A curious elf asked him.

“It was a long time ago. He might as well be dead.”

“We can’t be sure of that. Although it is probable.” Charles agreed. “Or maybe not. He was quite old even at the Factory, after all, and still managed to build a castle?”

“Right.” Giona conceded. “And what a castle! You’ll see—you will like it.”

“Now I’m thrilled.”

***

Night came fast, covering the whole forest in a blanket of cold darkness, and deafening silence. All the animals were asleep, hidden in the warmth of their little holes, while no monsters roamed this close to the city. Giona assured them of that, and they allowed themselves to rest without being too on guard. Of course, Aura was always watching; but the others didn’t really know the extent of her capabilities.

“Fucking winter weather. We are wasting time, just because the sun has decided to settle too soon. Who even decided that? We’re not on a planet, there is no axial tilt responsible for seasons!”

The other two looked at Charles like he was uttering nonsense. They were all sitting by the fire Charles had lit using one of the skills he learned from the tournament. Using an explosive fire bolt might have been excessive in the eyes of the rest of his party, and despite his justification that he needed to try it out before he could use it in battle, he knew that he did it because his fingers ached for some action.

This world just accommodated his use of weapons so well, that in times like this it almost felt wrong not to use them. Too long since the last fight, even though not many days passed since the library. At least, there was rumor about monsters roaming the mountains, right where they were going.

The sweet scent of the meat roasting over the flames invaded his nostrils. His stomach growled in anticipation, and he sat down to eat with the others.

After the night, which was spent with his mind asleep and his body controlled by Aura to keep watch, they set out again. The sky was overcast, and the world was grey and chilly. The wind had picked up sometime during the night, and howled as it set the treetops in harmonic oscillations all around. Some stronger gusts of wind sent leaves flying, shaking them out of the quasi naked trees.

Slowly, as they progressed, the forest transformed. Many trees still had their leaves now, long and thin cones of dark green. On the ground, a bed of pine needles in shades of brown gave the place a Mediterranean scent, but at the same time the humidity and the dampness had everything stink of rot. Eventually, though, another smell became prominent.

The signature stench of rotten eggs. A clear indication that they had reached the lava chasm. Giona, however, seemed to already have taken into account the presence of this relatively new geographical feature, because without a word he led them along the very same path that Charles took the last time he went to the Factory.

How did he know? Aura asked Charles, to which he only replied with “guild master.”

The river of lava was significantly smaller. Barely a trickle, at the very bottom of the canyon, hidden in many places by layers of solidified rock and glassy obsidian. Small plumes of smoke and hot gases were making their way up the slope, going through many crevasses and holes. The smell was tangible, albeit quite a lot less than last time.

When they reached the Factory, Charles had the confirmation he needed. His hunch was right, and it was indeed the heat extraction mechanism of the factory itself that had destabilized the volcanic vent. Without it, barely a few days after the explosion, the volcanic features were unchanged but most of the underground lava flow had stopped. This area would never quite recover fully, but the damage would not spread around anymore.

Only a handful of mud pits in the vicinity of the vents, and some boiling water basins. Everything else was wet mud, a crown of dirt for the broken and crooked tower of the scientist of metals. Charles took a few moments to look at the ruined tower. It was still in the same position as it was when it collapsed, just without its luster now that the reflective surfaces only showed the same grey of the sky that he could see everywhere.

An icy cold drop of rain brushed his cheek. He dried it away with annoyance.

“Let’s go.”

“This way.” Giona said, and led the way.

The path took them along the thin strip of open land between the conifer forest and the first hills that rose above the flat lands below. The hills themselves made up a sort of ring all around the forest, at least as far as they could see from here, and after the first ring another strip of forest extended all the way to another larger ring of taller hills.

In the distance, mountains.

“Is it all rings like this?” Charles asked.

“Only close to the center. As soon as we reach the larger mountains, the rings won’t even be recognizable anymore.”

“I see.”

Going down the first hill, they were plunged back into the forest. Here, the temperature was slightly warmer than it was back at the central forest, and the vegetation reverted back to what it was before. There were still a few green leaves of some of the trees here and there, where they managed to survive so far against the incessant encroaching of the cold.

There was no path through the forest. Giona and Eereen had no problems navigating through it, however, not hindered by a lifetime spent in space. Also, the forest floor was quite easier to cross here, thanks to the side effects of a winter climate. Or perhaps it was just the different kind of vegetation, Charles didn’t know.

Differently than the first time, he too was having little problem walking around. His suit was at full power, which allowed him to decapitate entire trees with one single powered machete swing, or to ignore the foliage and trudge through it like it wasn’t even there.

“We stop here.” Giona said, after a while.

It was around noon of the third day and they had made good time all the way here, earning themselves a good lunch and a quick rest. An icy cold river flowed next to where they sat, resting on stones that were flat and cold, but not as wet as the rest of the forest. It wasn’t raining now, fortunately, but the humidity had created a cold curtain of fog that enveloped the whole valley in its eerie mist.

Charles sucked some water in his ring, replenishing his reserves. He took care to separate the different temperatures of water, so that he could choose between them. While he was at it, he took the time to look around for a while. He wasn’t really feeling like he wanted to sit down and chat with the others, so he just wandered around close to the bank of the river.

In the distance, the looming mountains were growing closer by the hour. Today they would cross the last stretch of forest and make camp at the base of the hills, and by this time tomorrow he predicted that they would arrive at the base of the first mountains.

The barren trees moved in the wind. Their empty branches clashed with each other, each hit a wooden percussion creating the leitmotif for this forest. In the distance, a wolf howled. It was the first animal Charles ever heard ever since coming to this world, if he excluded those he found in the dungeon.

A rustle of leaves nearby. Someone was walking close to here. Branches snapping, loud steps were coming in his general direction. Stomping on the ground, he could hear them getting louder, but they changed direction and headed for the camp where Giona and Eereen were resting. Something was wrong with the sound.

“Aura, analysis.”

Bipedal, weight approximated at 500 kilograms, gait is unknown but speed should be around 35 km/h. It’s heading towards the camp, estimated 12 seconds to contact.

“Can we reach there in time?”

Negative.

“Shit.” He began to run towards camp, gun in his hand. His eyes scanned for every last bit of visual information, but there were still too many trees between him and them.

A roar. He heard a girly yelp, with all probability Eereen. The sound of a stone exploding in splinters.

“Shit.” Charles said again, and leveled his weapon. His vision’s crosshair showed him an estimate of where the three entities at camp should be. The confidence interval was not very encouraging.

He saw the three highlighted figures gain more and more resolution the closer he got. By the time he was almost there, however, he saw the large figure raise a gigantic club over their heads. Whatever it was, it was about to turn them into mush.

His finger pulled the trigger, and the weapon unleashed its single rod of metal at close to three thousand meters per second.

There was a tree in the path of the bullet. A few milliseconds after the impact, the massive discharge of kinetic energy made its trunk bulge and explode in every direction. The bullet continued onwards, only losing a minor part of its destructive power in the impact. It crossed the few remaining meters, shredding all vegetation to dust, and eventually reached the small open space of the camp.

Once there, it crossed the whole camp in moments. There was an elf and a man, frozen in time, defending themselves from a club so large that it could be considered a whole tree, coming down from above. Wielding the club, a troll that was five meters tall was growling at them.

The bullet didn’t care about the situation. It did what the laws of motion told it to do, and that was to keep going in a straight line until it hit a target big enough to stop it.

It grazed the side of the troll, tearing open a large wound on the side of its torso. It did nothing, however, to stop the club from descending on top of the elf.

“He’s here!” Giona yelled.

Eereen moved her eyes ever so slightly to acknowledge the fact that Charles was here now. The distraction cost her precious time, and she was about to get hit.

Giona jumped, lunging at her at full speed, and pushed her away from the trajectory of the club. He found himself at her place, but just as he was about to get hit, the wood of the club exploded, a circular hole appearing and expanding in just a moment until the whole thing disappeared.

Charles appeared from the foliage, panting, little clouds of vapor lifting in the air from his hot skin. He inhaled and reloaded the gun, then held his breath and aimed down the sights with a swift motion. With the next shot, it was the troll’s head that exploded. He let out his held breath in relief, the air stale and hot from his lungs. Then, he allowed himself to relax and catch his breath.

“How heroic.” He taunted the guild master. “Sacrificing yourself to save her. Well, it was your fault for distracting her, so it’s only fair. But you still have to take me to the castle, I won’t let you die before we get there.”