Solera smiled as he saw the shrubbery that covered an entrance to the tunnel complex. They had made it back safely!

“Knock knock!” Chianti called out.

Immediately, a voice responded. “Go to the briefing room, Leera is waiting for you.”

“Dang, so her imps did spot us after all.” Macaw groaned, taking out his card and exchanging some Iotas with the smirking Verreaux. “I was so sure we were being stealthy.”

“Leera is a prodigy with her imps.” Verreaux said as they crawled into the tunnel. “That’s the only reason the United Duchies can’t find this base. Any Airborne scouts within a thirty kilometer radius of base gets devoured.”

“Didn’t stop the Airborne from sneaking past us.” Macaw smiled. “If she can’t see an army fly over, she shouldn’t see us decked out in black and being extra quiet.”

“It was a cloudy day. And who the fuck paid any attention to the United Duchies until two days ago?” Chianti said indignantly, giving Solera a quick glance. “You know how stupid that joke was.”

Macaw shrugged. “My bad.”

They walked the rest of the way in complete sentence. Solera limped along, using Guinness as support. His left leg had been injured less than the right, and was now fully healed. The parts of his body that had not been injured were actually feeling better than before. He would be completely uninjured after another few days.

This power crystal was comparable to having a medic channeling a moderate amount of healforce at all times into Solera’s body. The average medic could last a few hours at most at that rate, but Solera’s power crystal simply did not stop as long as Solera channeled power into it.

A power crystal whose power could automatically convert into healforce was completely unheard of! Vinoh had obtained this in the Wastelands, where the Garden once stood. It’s leader, the Gardener, had created many wondrous artifacts that were now lost to the world. Perhaps this power crystal was one of them.

Solera furrowed his brow. It was crystal clear that his father had a strange illness that no conventional medicine could cure. But wouldn’t a steady stream of healforce be able to alleviate his disease?

Solera felt some bitterness in his heart. Had his father known that this power crystal was not at all ordinary, then perhaps his Curse would have been healed long ago! Right now, what Solera needed above all was to return to the Grove and give his father back the crystal. Then, Vinoh’s disease could be cured and he could start back on the path towards immortality!

“Chianti.” Leera’s hoarse, rasping whisper drifted in from a side tunnel. Chianti swiveled her head, blinking in surprise, before walking into the room.

Inside were around three others of the soldiers who had been sent to assault the Genbu. They all looked tired and worn-down. One had bloodstains all over her clothes.

“Another four. That makes eleven who have returned.” One of them said, frowning.

Leera’s eyes swept over their group. “Did any of you-” She broke off her sentence with a hoarse cough. “-see Skadi?”

Chianti shook her head. “Last time we saw him, he was fighting with that Immortal from the United Duchies.”

“He had the upper hand, though.” Verreaux spoke. “From what I deduced, Skadi damaged that Immortal’s cultivation enough to bring him back out of immortality. Even if Skadi didn’t kill him, he shouldn’t have died.”

The other mercenaries nodded in agreement.

“Jeboro is eight hundred years old. When I was born, he was two hundred years old, but not very well-known.” Leera sighed. “He must have just made immortality. Now that Skadi has damaged his cultivation, it will be hard for him to-” She coughed again. “reach that point again.”

“Maybe you should take a rest.” Chianti said, frowning. “You’re nearing the end of your lifespan. Actually, you should Ascend.”

Leera croaked with laughter. “And leave Eden in its time of crisis? Once this war is concluded, surely. But until then, no. My duty is paramount, my loyalty over my life.”

“Leera, that battle just now must have been arduous.” One of the mercenaries said soothingly. “Chianti is right. Take it easy for a few hours.”

“Hmph.” Leera sniffed. “I’ll stop harrassing them when their leaders come back from squabbling over the Blessing. Leave me alone, now. Tell me if any other ones come back, and look out for Skadi.”

She closed her eyes as the mercenaries filed out. She was definitely looking through the eyes of her imps, fighting battles with the United Duchies. But to Solera, Leera looked like she was sleeping.

Solera knew summoners never slept. Barring special circumstances, sleeping would allow a summoner’s minions to wrest their souls free from the summoner’s control. All summoners were eccentric; sleep deprivation, and drugs taken to alleviate its side effects were probably why.

It was a good thing Solera was not a summoner. After eating and using the restroom, he collapsed onto his bed and instantly fell asleep.

He didn’t know how many hours had passed when he awoke. But when he did, he instantly gripped onto the power crystal, draining it of the power it had stored up while he had slept. Some popping sounds rang out from his right leg as its healing progress instantly shot forward. Solera gasped at the mix of pain and pleasure that resulted.

“Nice trinket.” Chip’s voice washed over Solera, breaking him out of his trance. “Can I see it?”

Solera groaned, inwardly berating himself. How had he been so careless as to let Chip find out about his secret? He hadn’t been thinking at all!

“Solera, can I see it?” Chip’s head appeared above him. He had a mildly interested look in his eyes.

Sighing, Solera handed the power crystal to Chip. Nothing he could do about it now. But what if Chip ratted him out? What if the power crystal was confiscated from him, and he couldn’t return it to his father? Solera eyed Chip nervously, a cold fear covering his heart.

Chip held it up to the torch, peering closely at it. The tiny amount of green power gathering inside the power crystal disappeared as Chip channeled, only to have a new dot of power reappear instantly.

“Very interesting.” Chip turned it over again. “Like the Tornado Towers in the Tornado Sect and the World Tree that once stood in the northern continent, this can generate power on its own. It’s less efficient and at a much smaller scale, of course, but… wow.”

“...Huh?” Solera looked at Chip bemusedly.

Chip handed the power crystal back to Solera, furrowing his eyebrows. “Where did you get something like this? The Ancients never passed down any blueprints for a device like this.”

Solera bit his lip. “I don’t know.”

Chip looked briefly at Solera. “Well, it’s incredible. The creator who made that was able to comprehend the inner workings of a creation of the Ancients, and then replicate it. If you were a creator, you would know how ridiculous that is.”

“Why?” Solera asked, puzzled. “If you couldn’t understand what you were making, then how could you make it?”

Maybe if he could keep Chip talking about this, Chip wouldn’t do anything shady.

Chip shrugged casually, but Solera could see a tinge of excitement in his eyes. “Creators can understand the function of the components they are creating.”

He went to his table and grabbed a talisman. “See this thing? It’s a transistor. It condenses the power moving through it, allowing for more lethal attacks when the power gets converted into lightning or fire. And this is a resistor. If you channel too much power into a low-quality gauntlet, the resistor prevents the gauntlet from frying itself.”

Solera nodded. “Okay.” He didn’t really see where this was going, but as long as Chip was happy, everything was fine.

“But how does a transistor do that? How does a resistor dissipate power?” Chip shook his head excitedly. “Power does not interact with any matter until it is converted into energy, like fire or lightning. These transistors are made out of plant seeds, animal bits, whatever. If power doesn’t interact with plant seeds, then how can these plant seeds affect the power? It doesn’t make any sense, but if we follow the blueprints of the Ancients, it works out.”

Chip, who was normally indifferent to everything, clearly cared quite a bit about this subject.

“Power comes in through rifts between Land and Sky. Nobody knows how rifts are created, but every human is born with one in the brain. This… thing, that you have, it needs a rift to gather power. The rifts that summoners create when they summon spirits collapse on their own. How was this rift made, how was it stabilized? How did the creator of this thing figure it out?”

Chip scratched his head. “I don’t know. It must be a bloodline that never revealed itself. That’s the only explanation I can think about. Whoever you got it from, you should befriend them. And tell me as well, I deal in knowledge, and lots of good things could happen to all parties involved if you could introduce me.”

Solera laughed awkwardly. He supposed he could send Chip off to the Wastelands to find the creator of this power crystal.

Chip stared at Solera expectantly.

“Ah… Uh… I got it from my dad, who got it from the Wastelands.” Solera mumbled. There was no way Chip would believe him, but it was the truth.

“...” Chip sighed disappointedly. “Well, you can tell me anytime.”