“You sure this will work?” Martin asked worriedly.

“No,” I responded while I positioned the large cube full of runes into place below the teleportation scrambler.

“You could have at least lied to me,” Martin grumbled.

“And what good would that have done, hmm? Besides, the test worked fine, the only concern I have is distance. But I have a solution for that as well.”

“Fair point. Can you activate it separately from the shield?”

“For now, no. but if I had a few more days I could rig up a separate control for the drainer,” I replied.

“That is a terrible name,” Ska said.

“I'll leave the cool naming up to you and Martin,” I added, grunting as I squeezed past the massive block that took up most of the room in the small attic space.

I heard Martin groan and Ska croon happily. I chuckled.

“Are we ready?” I asked.

Martin flicked on his little two-way radio and talked with the guards.

“Everyone is in position and ready in case they attack. Ska could you join the wall guards?”

“Very well, give me three minutes,” He hissed happily before zooming down the stairs.

“Glad to see someone is enjoying themselves,” I stated.

“I think part of it has to do with that catkin we captured. I hope he's smart enough not to get involved with someone like that,” Martin sighed.

“You’re planning on releasing them?”

“Not exactly. The only other choices are to kill them or keep them locked up indefinitely but that poses its own issue. But I can’t do that either, not without a trial and exposing what Kurt did. I could lock them in slave collars but I imagine you might take issue with that,” Martin added flatly.

“You’re probably right, but then again I would just kill them.”

“If only it were that easy. I may be the Mayor but I have to follow the law as well. There would have to be a trial. And the law states they have to have killed someone by their hands to be punished by death or imprisonment. We can only really prove that one of them killed. Besides we don’t have the types of facilities to hold people for an extended time.”

“Sounds like a shitty law, who agreed to that?” I grunted in annoyance.

“The people of the city. Obviously, it wasn’t designed to take magic into account. I plan on having a vote to change some aspects of the law but for now, that’s what we have. Besides, they can’t return to Lord Vik’t or the Guild because I plan on telling the Guild just how cooperative they were in blunting the Guild's attack. That leaves them only a few options. Most likely they will request to work for us. Of course, I will get a magically binding contract to enforce their cooperation but it’s a start. Besides we need more people with their skillset, no matter how distasteful I find it.”

I mulled over what Martin was saying. He was right of course, to win the game you had to play it. I refused to play the game, it's probably why I kept finding myself in shitty situations. Hopefully, the Guild would back off after learning we had the ability to render all enchanted items useless. I doubted it though.

It wasn’t like with the Stygian Order. They were a purely Earth-based organization that operated in small cells of operatives. At least that was the impression I got from my dealings with them so far. The Guild was a multi-universe spanning organization of incalculable wealth and power. I doubt they would completely give up but their activities would be more circumspect. For now, that would have to suffice.

“I think it’s time,” Martin shouted up to me.

“Alright, here goes nothing,” I said, plugging in the last connection.

I had to avert my eyes as the massive mana heart I put together for this project, radiated a blinding glow before the energy slowly bled off and into the shield around the city.

I had to blink away the after images before I walked over and climbed down the ladder.

“Holy shit!” Martin said, “You sure that crystal will hold?”

“It should, the capacity is nearly ten thousand mana.”

He whistled, “Yeah, we definitely need to send a caravan down to… what did you say the city was called?”

“Huran,” I said, rubbing away the rest of the blindness.

“Yeah, definitely going to need more stones,” Martin muttered as he stared up at the still bright glow coming from the attic.

I sealed up the hatch and removed the ladder. The entryway vanished into the ceiling, hidden by another runic array.

“Come on, let's get to the walls to see how the enemy responds to this latest change.”

Martin nodded as we made our way down the stairs and through the destroyed command center of the central tower. I had to fight back the urge to punch something at seeing the damage and dried blood, all because of that fucking idiot Kurt. Even if what Martin said was true, the man was such a spineless tool the least he could have done is get himself killed instead of trying to get the entire town sacked.

***

“Commander Ashlam… we have a problem,” one of his subordinates said as he entered the command tent.

“Well, spit it out, what problem?” he demanded.

“Sir, our siege weapons are losing charge and the mages are having to constantly refill them.”

“So, why are you bringing this to me,” he stated flatly, “get the scribes to diagnose the issue and fix it.”

When the man didn’t immediately leave, Ashlam got upset. “Well, go!”

“Sir, we already had the scribes inspect the weapons and they are functioning properly. They can’t find any issue with the weapons.”

“Fine, assign two mages per cannon and keep the rate of fire up. The enemy's shield can’t hold out forever, now go, before I get angry,” Ashlam ordered.

The man bowed and left the tent. Ashlam mulled over the issue. It was obviously something within the city causing this. Ashlam didn’t believe in coincidence and the city’s shield dropping less than a day ago before coming right back up meant someone had likely entered the town. Probably the same man Lord Vik’t had been looking for. He didn’t know what was causing this issue but he would send someone back to notify Lord Vik’t about this latest situation.

***

“It doesn’t seem to be working,” Martin said quietly, making sure nobody else could hear his doubts.

“No, I think it was, you said they fired at regular intervals but it slowed for a time. They must be on the far end of the effect. I need to increase the range.”

“I know you said you could do that, but how?”

“You remember those sensors I built?” I asked, stepping from the wall and walking back toward the command room.

“Yeah, but I thought those were for detecting incoming and outbound teleports?”

“Well, that was true of the original ones but I added a few features to the newer ones. They were designed to interface with the city defenses. Other than the shield they can enhance the teleportation scrambling field and I suspect also the area of coverage that the drainer encompasses.”

“You’re sure?” Martin asked skeptically.

“Well, I'm sure it will help but I doubt it will extend the range very far. The devices aren’t really designed to handle massive amounts of incoming energy so I will have to limit their field strength until I can build more robust units.”

“Is there a chance they will burn out from this power?”

“Possibly, but we can have Fiona deploy replacements.”

“I’m not sure I like that plan,” Martin added quietly.

“It’s either that or disable the shield so I can fly the fortress out. But I’m not sure I could do that with the drainer active either. The mana hearts aren’t immune to the draining effect.”

“Fine, let's hope this crazy plan works, if it does I owe you a beer.”

“Deal,” I said, walking into the unassuming house that held the backup command room.

I had to chase away one of the techs as I rapidly twisted some knobs to align the sensor network for this purpose. A few of the sensors went offline due to overload but thankfully they were on the north side of the town. All the ones on the east side held and I let out a breath.

“Alright, that should do it.”

***

Ashlam was interrupted as a messenger ran in panting and wide-eyed. “Commander, all of the cannons are offline!”

Ashlam slammed his fist into the table, “dammit what are you buffoons doing out there, I thought I said to double up the mages!”

The messenger seemed to shrink before choking out a reply, “we did commander, we even increased it to three per cannon. But they are unable to keep up with the drain the weapons are receiving.”

Ashlam ground his teeth in frustration and stood up.

“That’s not all… some of our enchanted gear has started to break down.”

“What!”

Ashalm pulled out the sword gifted to him by his Lord.

Titan’s Might

Quality: Exquisite

Damage: 20-30 Slashing 15-25 Stabbing

Drained

Ashlam’s grip went white when he saw his sword was missing the enchantment.

“Send a message back to Lord Vik’t and pull our forces back until the effect wanes. I want to know how far this extends.”

The man nodded hastily and ran out of the tent. Ashlam walked out shortly after. “Pack up the tent.”

***

When the enemy stopped firing it was the first good sign we had received. The second was when they began to pull back deeper into the forest.

Martin slapped me on the back, “Guess I owe you a beer. You think they will have to pull back outside their range?”

“Most likely, the mana cannons have a limited range of effective fire, but even then the mana dissipates quickly. It's probably why they weren’t able to breach the shield so far. Most of the energy was lost due to how far they had to fire from. My modified weapons don’t suffer as much from that limitation but they also aren’t as powerful.”

“Alright, I need to get the men rotated out for sleep but for now we will leave the shield up.”

It was as I predicted. The majority of the enemy pulled back and started firing again but quickly realized their shots were dissipating before they hit the shield. They had to pull back even farther though as the teleportation scrambler was blocking them from leaving. I thought it served them right to have to walk through dense forest for a bit after what they pulled.

I knew they would be back but it would take them time to come up with a way around this newest hurdle. Until then we would need to build up our resources. We also needed to take care of a problem to the west. With this naked aggression from the Guild, it wasn’t safe to leave Houston in the hands of the Guild. I know Martin and Fiona had warned me against attacking directly but things changed. I would discuss the issue with them before going but I would still go and deal with it personally. Maybe Ska would like to accompany me. I imagined he might find the thought of revenge quite enjoyable.