The trio continued to descend down the long and winding tunnels which seemed to have been made for a giant to pass through. Strangely, there were no more guards or other sect members hanging around, only small groups of slaves chained to their location with the same magically hardened chains. Although they did not meet any other magic knights, they learned a great deal about the prisoners.

Most of them were from the three nearby towns, Coldwood, Northwood and Northfield. Simple captured citizens or debt prisoners bought in bulk. Other than the hard labor, they were really not treated too bad. They had to work in 8 hour shifts, day and night. They were fed at the beginning of every shift, and that allowed them to work until the end of it with no ill effect. After the shift they were led to another fully excavated area where they were allowed 7 hours of sleep. The only real danger to their lives was at the time of the shift change when large groups of prisoners were moving around, at that time, the sect released their demonic beasts to patrol the caves.

From the prisoners' description, the demonic beasts were hulking big cat-like creatures, with a shoulder height nearly as much as a human male, and full lengths of 25 feet, plus another 10 feet of a very nimble yet powerful tail. The cultists escorting the prisoners had means of repelling the beasts but if a cultist was not present or awake, then the big cat would make short work of the prisoners with none escaping the carnage.

In one of the lower chambers, they met a group most of which were from the original expedition to Coldwood. There were many people whom Tiana recognized. Most of them men, but also some of the stronger female magic soldiers. It would seem that the more stronger the soldiers were, the deeper in the excavation they were worked, also the closer to the actual center of the digsite. One of the reasons was security, as the closer they were to the center, the closer the were to the demonic beasts, and the less likely to successfully escape.

But there was also one other thing. It was the curious symptoms of an illness that manifested in those who primarily worked in the core area, the demonic beasts and the sorcerers overlooking the operation, cataloging the strange items however showed no similar signs. Most of the soldiers reported vomiting after their shifts, as well as loss of appetite and general tiredness. Some even developed itchy red areas like sunburns.

It wasn't just what the tall man, Lancelot, told Tiana. He could see the evidence himself. People with their whole bodies covered in dark red tan. Peeling dead skin, blisters and some even with strange scarring, evidence of some sort of radiation burns.

Some of the clues were also about the work these people were doing. There was just stone here being cut into rubble. No items or minerals being recovered. But what really picked Jack's interest, was the shape of stone being broken down and carted off somewhere. Some of the stone had smooth concave surfaces, as if it had been around a conical or cylindrical shape. Other pieces had as if empty smooth channels in them, of various shapes and sizes. Still others had strange imprints, which also looked somewhat familiar.

"What do you think they were mining here?" Mike asked.

This sudden question sparked a thought in Jack.

"They are not mining anything." He replied. "They are destroying all signs that anything could ever be found here."

After this he walked back to where Tiana was.

"What about the items you uncover?" Jack asked, interrupting Tiana. "You mentioned that you are to carefully remove the rock and sand from different kind of items that are then removed and cataloged, but what are these items?"

"They look like artifacts. If i could tell you what they are, I would. But there are boxes and carriages, tubes, and all sorts of cylindrical objects with sharp conical tips. Many are broken, but some are intact."

"Yes, that would explain it." Jack nodded. "About the other soldiers who work here. Anybody with their hair falling out, blood in their excrement or wounds that just refuse to heal?"

"We have seen blood in poop, but no hair falling out of stuff like that."

"One final question." Jack continued. "Anybody who suddenly forgets where he is or what he is doing, or just falls down and starts spasming?"

"No, nothing like that. But we only worked in there briefly. We only go back there after we finish with out work here.

And they have already opened up a new area, the commander was taken straight there. I have no idea, what the conditions are there, but I do know that they would likely be resting, eating and sleeping in the area we uncovered, after it has been picked clean."

"That might not be good."

Tiana finally grabbed Jack's shirt cuff and led him away from the people, out of their earshot.

"Okay, now tell me why those weird personal questions? Blood in poop, loss of hair, vomiting. Why is all that relevant? We are trying to find out where the commander and his men are. Why ask about some random things about the health of the magic soldiers? They are soldiers, like me. We are strong, we can handle some hard labor, why do you need them to report on their minor weaknesses?"

"Because it tells me what they are excavating." Jack explained in a slow and steady tone. "For example if the things they are excavating are poisonous. Somewhat poisonous when outside the body, but many times more, should it get inside. Also it can poison the sand and dust around it. So..."

"You think it is poisonous?" She asked. "How poisonous?"

"Somewhat, not so poisonous that people would die within a few hours, days or weeks. But poisonous enough that working even for not that long a time will make one weaker and more likely to pick up simple illnesses."

"We should save the others then, fast."

"Yes, we should." Jack said. "Will you let go of me now?"

Tiana said goodbye to her comrades and once again promised to come back for them after she had saved the commander. After this, Jack, Mike and Tiana continued down the dark tunnels. Soon they again heard the sound of pickaxes and shovels, but also something else. This something else was soft low pitch rumbling noise, transmitted by the stone walls and floor around them. As if something was rolling around in the distance.

They finally reached an area brightly lit by magical lights. And there Jack saw what other soldiers had been referring to by 'demonic beasts'. Coincidentally, this was also the source of that low-pitched noise. The demonic beasts truly were gigantic cat-like creatures, and the noise was caused by their careful steps when patrolling the huge area of the cave. A house cat or a tiger would not make any noise when walking or stalking, but a cat which was about 20 times bigger and weighing possibly over 10 tons... it was amazing they were as quiet they were.

From his vantage point, Jack could see there were different kinds of the cat. There were the creatures who looked exactly like soldiers had described them, gigantic cats, with a shoulder height of about 5-6 feet, with body length about 3 shoulder heights and a tail half a body long. And then there was a different kind. Bigger, more massive, the true source of the noise reverberating through the stone. These beasts were more than twice the size, with shoulder height of around 10 feet or more, body length of at least 40 feet plus the tail.

Luckily there were only 3 or 4 such monsters, while the lesser cats numbered between 10 and 15.

"Oh heavens!" Tiana whispered. "Those big ones are level 4 demonic beasts. The smaller ones are level 3 beasts. Even both of the magic soldiers squads here would struggle with a single level 4, While at most we could defeat 2 level 3s with heavy losses."

Jack had already directed his gaze form the creatures to the rest of the area. It was evident why the excavation was centered here. It was also evident that in addition to the imperial forces, there was also at least one other party interested in collecting the artifacts and artifact weapons. And seemingly, this party was much better informed on what was of value and what was not.

The whole underground area was essentially a garage full of heavy military equipment. From jeeps and humvees with HMGs to mobile missile carriers, TOW launchers, mobile triple-A batteries, but also simple covered military trucks. All seemingly encased in yellow sandstone. And not naturally, because the tons and tons of rock had not deformed any of the vehicles sealed within, not even the covered trucks with canvas over steel frame covering the cargo area. Not only was the steel frame not deformed, even the tent on it was perfectly preserved, as if one could just replace the battery, gas the truck up and get going.

However the most important piece was located in the center of the whole procession of still vehicles, a trailer without a truck in front of it, carrying a short plump airdropped gravity bomb. No propulsion, just a plump cylindrical shape with a blunt nose and four small fins at the back. As the design was obviously outdated, it left a very distinct possibility as to the nature of the strange symptoms the people excavating the area had manifested.

As for Commander Fichte and the rest, they were scattered around the sunken area, some running with wheelbarrows, some breaking apart large pieces with pickaxes, others using small chisels under direct supervision of the enemy mages to cut out the equipment and not damage it one bit.

"It is impossible!" Tiana said. "There is a total of 17 beasts, four of them are level 4! That means there must be at least 4 sorcerers, some at a very high level to handle a multiple of level 3 plus a single level 4 creature. There is no way we can get to commander and the others before we are detected. Plus they don't have their equipment."

"Tell me about the beasts." Jack said. "How are they connected to the sorcerers?"

"The sorcerers control them. The can command them with but a thought."

Jack shook his head.

"I meant, what would happen to the beast if the sorcerer controlling it dies? Will it unsummon? What happens to the sorcerer if the beast dies?"

"The beasts are summoned, but they are also bound." Tiana explained, "once a demonic beast is summoned here, it loses its connection to the demonic plane, so it can exist here independently of the sorcerer. The sorcerer then binds the beast, turning it into a puppet-like slave. If a sorcerer controlling the beast dies, then the binding is broken and it will become an unbound demonic beast, its danger level will rise at least fourfold! So don't even plan on killing the sorcerers! If a beast dies then it will probably... anger the sorcerer? Summoning and binding a demonic beast is a sizeable investment in personal wealth and magical power. But I cannot tell if there is any negative consequence of the beast dying to the summoner and binder. Usually there is not, because the beast is a slave."

"Okay, I think we can make short work of the beasts and save everybody or at least most of the people." Jack said. "For that, I have to make it to that armored Oshkosh truck in the corner."

"Okay, what is an oskosh-truck?" Tiana asked.

"It is a.." Jack became quiet for a moment "It is that beige six-wheeled thing in the corner, with angular design and that pipe sticking out of some structure at the top. It has a weapon that should be able to take out the beasts with ease. Also it offers some protection from the beasts."

"That is something you can do," Tiana said. "But I have no idea how to use any of those things!"

"You.." Jack looked around.

There was nothing around with the vehicles, that he could instruct her to do. Magic was certainly an option, getting the other magic soldiers out was not. But he did fined something else not far.

"You, Tiana, have 2 things to do, one of them is magic to slow down any beasts that get too close to me. And the other thing is something you can do along with Mike."

Jack led them to an alcove right near the edge on depression being excavated. In that alcove were several metal boxes marked M72.

"This should be easy." Jack said. "These are single use weapons. You pick one up, extend, using this release, then set it on your shoulder, aim, and push this button here. Since the interior of the cave is the size it is, you don't need to worry about distance, so aim with the bottom markings and point it at the target. Once you shoot, you set it aside and pick the next one. This one is now armed."

He set the extended launcher carefully on the ground.

"Prioritize the beasts, also if the beast is closer to you than 35 feet, just don't, you will likely not survive doing that. Same with trying to save a comrade who is closer to the beast than 35 feet."

With those words Jack found a spot hidden from view so he could jump onto the roof of a humvee and then down on the ground. The bottom halves of the vehicles were all encased in stone, so there was no way of moving them, but that also meant that nobody would see him from under the vehicles.

He watched one of the big cats go past and then made it behind the next vehicle, a six wheeled IFV, this one had a big turret with a possibly 20 millimeter autocannon, so if he could get it started. Yeah, there was no way, no way the fuel was still good, he had no idea how long these had been here, but it was a good guess, that in this world and this timeline, a long time. However this meant also that there may have been no way that the gas or recoil-powered HMGs were still good to go. Or even the M72s he had found earlier. Right now, it was all based on faith.

A few vehicles later, he had finally made it to the shadow of the armored truck. Within the next few minutes he made it to the cabin. He tried to stay as low as possible while still loading up a box of black-tipped .50 caliber ammo. After he had finished with that, he took a deep breath, stashed his rifles in the cab and climbed to the turret.

He disengaged the safety and aimed towards the nearest level 3 beast, pulling the twin triggers.

The noise was deafening, at the same time a missile struck the side of the same best blowing its ribcage open and throwing black blood everywhere.

As soon as Jack saw the explosion, he turned his attention to the next nearest beast. Again it took but a short burst of less than a second to fell the beast, most of the rounds hitting its head. He then turned the gun towards the nearest level four and again pulled the trigger. This time he gave full fire until he ran dry, but it was only enough to force the massive creature back. The rounds hitting it blinded some of its 8 red slit-like eyes, and while the other round penetrated the skin and other soft tissue, they were not enough to penetrate the skull or other bones.

The level 4 panther ran for a charge, and Jack managed to retreat to the armored body of the truck just as it was struck by the demonic creature. The impact was so strong that the truck was broken loose from the rock it was fused in and nearly tipped on its side. If it had been anything else than a military truck armored against small arms and mines, then this charge would have been enough to flatten the whole thing.

Jack grabbed his FAL and made it out of the truck. In the confusion caused by Mike lobbing LAW rockets at the remaining beasts, Jack ran towards the nearest humvee with a mounted gun. He got into it, and discovered that it did not have an M2 machine gun, but rather, what looked like an automatic grenade launcher, the operation was really similar though. With no effort or not much thought he reloaded it, and directed the gun towards the level 4 beast, pulling the trigger.

The grenade launcher was markedly slower than the Browning M2, but each of the grenades hitting the beast exploded, tearing huge chunks of flesh from its body, Finally the beast fell after about three seconds of sustained fire.

As soon as the beast died, Jack turned around with the gun, noticing three wounded level 3 beast almost next to him, held back by the recent LAW strike. Jack pulled the trigger once more and one grenade per beast was enough to finish them off.

He then heard an unreal roar to his side, and turning back, faced the second level 4 beast about 100 or so feet away. For the beast this was no distance at all, For Jack... he decided to pull the trigger, the gun started spitting out grenades again, while the beast charged. 100 feet was about a single leap for the beast of 45 feet in body length, but it didn't even manage that. The first grenade to the face was enough to kill its mometum, and the rest hit it in the chest, ribcage and rear belly, This final round did the most damage obliterating most of the area and musculature, and thus the leaping beast left behind a trail of entrails, collapsing just next to the humvee Jack was on.

The beast had landed on its belly and though it made roaring sounds and was still alive, it could no longer get up, while the massive pool of black steaming-hot blood was slowly expanding.

Jack did not linger for long, he leaped from the humvee and ran back towards the IFV, finding it open and getting in. Seconds later, the humvee was demolished by a bright purple bolt of lightning.

He quickly found the auxiliary ignition switch and to his great surprise, the diesel engine started up.

Moments later the hydraulics were pressurized, and the turret movable. Although none of the electronics would work. The indicator lights came on, but not the screens. Lucky for him these things worked fine the old fashioned way. With this he cleared out the remaining level 3 beasts, most of which were now converging on Tiana and Mike. The 40mm Bofors mounted on the vehicle took care of those, with torn apart bodies scattered left and right. He then turned the gun around towards the sorcerers and the final two beasts, but instead of firing the main gun, he fired one of the TOW launchers on the side of the turret, and then opened up with the 40mm main gun. The distance from the IFV to the balcony was just barely enough for the missile to pass the arming line.

The massive explosion of the missile showered everything in dust and stone chips, the cavern was rocked, with massive chunks of stone falling from the ceiling, centered mostly on the area of the explosion. This however revealed something interesting. As the fragile sandstone was rocked loose, it revealed a high ceiling of reinforced concrete. Some of the concrete was destroyed by the blast as well, and now the massive rebar embedded within was visible.

As the dust was still settling, commander Fichte was the first to procure a wand from a dead opponent and make his way onto the balcony.

Jack got out of the armored vehicle and took a peek inside the passenger compartment, where he had again left his rucksack and the rifle. But now something else was knocked loose, that he had not seen earlier. An M82A1 anti-materiel rifle. He pulled the magazine. Fully loaded. Green tip over silvery white. Considering the need to go against an advanced mage, a sorcerer, this a was much better a weapon than the FAL he had been carrying now. Although much heavier too, at nearly 30 pounds.

He advanced the front of the area at a quick pace, finally climbing up the ladder at the side of the structure. By now the dust had settled, and both Jack and Fichte could see the same thing: a black triangular mark partly on the ground, partly on the wood splinters that the balcony was made of, and also somewhat covered by the sand and stone which had fallen from the ceiling.

"This is not what I was expecting to see." Jack said.

"Yeah, they got away." Fichte nodded. "This is the mark of a very specific kind of teleportation spell. Most certainly a high level sorcerer artifact, because the cost in magic energies in incalculable."

"It is still a win though.." Fichte turned around.

As he did, out of nowhere emerged a massive head of the level 4 demonic beast and with a single whip of the tail Fichte was thrown away, like a ragdoll.

Jack shouldered the rifle and pulled the trigger just as the beast had closed the gap by leaning forward.

The black-tipped armor piercing round from the M2 may not have been powerful enough to penetrate the skull of the level 4 beast, but this was not the case with the Raufoss rounds loaded into this rifle. As all ten rounds landed at point blank range, the explosive effect tore skin and soft tissue, while the tungsten penetrator pierced the bone, so it was essentially only the matter of aiming which determined if the rounds hit anything that would stop the beast. Yet this was the last thing Jack had had time to do.

Despite expending the magazine, the open maw was still coming forward, the body of the creature pushed him and the rifle back until finally it collapsed right in front of Jack's feet, right as he had dropped the Barrett to pull his sidearm. Jack sat there for a few seconds looking at the black bleeding mountain in front of him, as if just to make sure that it no longer moved. The Barrett was empty, he had no additional ammo for it, the FAL was left behind, the Mauser rifle was lost in the whole commotion, the pistol was the only thing left. And against this beast, it was not really a weapon.

"As I said..." a tired voice repeated. "It is still a win though. And you managed to kill an injured, yet unbound level 4 single-handed."

"There was another one." Jack said, still training his gun on the corpse.

"There was." Fichte replied. "It is dead. Ripped apart by that massive explosion you caused when the sorcerers escaped. I landed on the pile of its entrails. It is probably the only reason I am still alive."

Fichte, covered from head to toe in black ooze-like blood walked forward and stood next to Jack helping him up.

"We should get out of here." Jack said. "I know what they were excavating. It has been damaged as its leaking and poisoning everything and everyone around us."

"I figured that out too, as the itcing brown patches of sunburns started appearing." Fichte replied.

"Those are not sunburns," Jack replied, "and you are lucky, it is only a 1st degree burn like that. It could be a lot worse."

"I need to get a head count of my men. Tend to the injured, then we can go."

"What about your stuff?" Jack asked.

"You mean our clothes, armor and other weapons? It's gone." Fichte shook his head. "it was thrown down the same bottomless abyss as the excavated stone. It is nearly impossible to retrieve it now."

As Fichte and Jack were talking, Tiana and Mike made it up to the broken balcony as well.

"Commander, you're alive!" Tiana was uncharacteristically excited, running up to him but managing to restrain herself at the last minute.

"Yes, I am. Thanks to you. I remember you had some complaints, regarding being assigned to watching out for the two of them. Lets hear them, then." Fichte said.

"Nope. No complaints from me." Tiana said. "Everything worked out just fine."

"Good. How are my men?"

"Most of them are alive and well. We passed several work details on our way down here. Some working in this area were injured due to that thing that caused the big explosion."

"It could not have been helped." Fichte replied. "There are no gentle ways for anybody without a wand to take on 3 sorcerers and 2 level 4 demonic beasts."

"Well, the ones injured here will recover. I am more worried about Günther. I sealed him using the cocoon, but we should get back to him as soon as possible."

"Good, this is better than I hoped. We will gather up the men and then scavenge every piece of wands and clothing we can find, as well as any other weapon we can use. Then we will secure the caves, to make sure that there are no more enemy agents left amidst us or the other innocent people. Then we will secure the site, and send a party to Coldwood to notify the castle that we are safe and that we need to extract as much info and equipment from here as possible."

"It may not be wise." Jack said. "There are two things I am worried about. Some of the equipment here is poisoned, as is the air all around us, especially the dust we are currently breathing in. Unless you have some goods ways of cleaning contaminants unknown to you, we should leave almost everything found here, here."

"What is the problem?" Fichte asked.

"It is that round stumpy thing in the middle of the cave. I am pretty sure they were here to excavate that thing. But from the ill effects and the burns you and your men have suffered, I think the internal structure of this thing is damaged, and thus it is leaking poison."

"It is a vat of poison?" Fichte asked.

"Not precisely. It is an explosive type weapon, just that its explosive power is literally unfathomable. Powerful enough to wipe out several cities with nothing left, only a crater. But the materials that make up the weapon have very nasty effects on living bodies."

"What's the other thing?" Fichte asked. "You said you were worried about two things?"

"Yes." Jack nodded. "The other thing is that if I am correct and they were indeed trying to recover that stumpy thing, then the sorcerers may not have escaped, only retreated to regroup."

"To regroup?" Fichte asked, he looked over at the big artifact in the center. "If it is as dangerous and as destructive as you say then it is a valid assumption. That means if we do not escape as soon as possible, we are in for a fight we may not win in our current state. And if we do escape we may leave a very dangerous artifact to an unknown enemy."

"That is the problem."

"In my place, what would you do?" Fichte asked.

"I don't think it is relevant what I would do in your place, because I have a third option, but I need your help."

*

Jack and Mike emerged from the underground to see the first rays of the red sun emerge from behind the horizon.

No matter how many times Jack saw the two suns in the sky he could never get used to it. Not only the weirdness of it, but also the beauty. But now he had other things on his mind.

"Well, master de Lune. What would be your course of action?"

"My course would be twofold. First we bring all the equipment that we can carry up to the ground level and store them somewhere outside the perimeter of the ruins. This is very important. I will probably have to stay down there to direct the logistics of what should stay and what should go. Secondly, we arm the whole facility. If there are weapons, then there are explosives, we arm it so when we finally leave either freely or under fire we will bury it all under itself. So that whoever wants to gain access to it will have to start digging from scratch."

"And this can be done?" Fichte asked.

"If we find enough explosives then yes. I already saw some equipment we need down there so it is likely there is more."

"Also a group of soldiers should be left up here to secure the aboveground and probably notify both Coldwood and our base that we may need reinforcements."

"Very good." Fichte said. "We'll follow this plan."

"Master de Lune. You've saved me and all my men and women. The entire company of magic soldiers assigned to this area, close to 200 people. And the townspeople from nearby towns. I have no way of properly thanking you."

"I was just doing what I could," Jack said, "nothing less, nothing more."

"Can you tell me how did you know how to use any of those artifacts down there? Were you perhaps a great warrior back in your world?"

"I have no way of telling you how I could use any of it. I couldn't even tell you or instruct you how to use any of it." Jack replied. "It is strange to me too. I don't know how to use any of it, but my body does."

That was the bare and honest truth. At first, back in the castle, Jack had set out to put together a kit of weapons for him and Mike to best suit whatever they were to encounter, that is why the glow sticks, the gas mask and a suppressed pistol. That was also why an FAL, high powered and good to aim, with one hit kill probability if hitting anything vital. Which he thought important to fight people with some sort of rapid healing factor, be it natural or magic. However when he found a Kar 98 based hunting rifle and plenty of 8mm ammo for it, he was really excited to try it out on the range, having had decent accuracy with air rifles both in the 10 meter class of hitting small paper targets and experimenting with shooting beyond 100 yards.

But things started to get weird when he had good accuracy to 700 yards and could even hope to hit a man-sized target at 1200 yards. This was certainly not what the rifle nor the round were designed for. Especially for getting that kind of accuracy in the night in heavy rain.

But the weirdness continued. Putting on the mask to shield himself from the pink mist was really a fluke, he had had no way of knowing if it would have worked at all. And then assaulting the church... no uncertainties, no fear. Like a favorite mission in an FPS computer game, something he had done a hundred time for pleasure, which would explain getting through it completely unscathed.

But then the situation with the town guard, followed by taking down the barrier and taking out all the remaining sorcerers. Entering the caves and all that equipment. Seeing the M72 LAW used in some media for comedic effect is a bit different than being face to face with one, about to enter a life or death situation. At least it should be, never mind knowing how to use a heavy machine gun, a grenade machine gun or an infantry fighting vehicle. And knowing how to aim the missiles at the exact spot so as to pass the arming distance.

This was too much. Too much knowledge that should have been forbidden, even to him in his previous world. Something one could not learn without experiencing it all in person.

"Master de Lune."

"Jack!" Someone finally grabbed his shoulder, waking his from his musing over the recent event.

"What's up?"

"Master de Lune." Fichte addressed him. "I have instructed to soldiers to start bringing up the crates of presumably weapons from the deepest chambers. I also warned them not to take anything in the vicinity of that central artifact."

"Good."

"I have also dispatched a messenger to Coldwood. We also recovered some of our wands from the dead opponents, apparently they did not discard all of the wands but, kept them for themselves."

"Is a wand valuable?" Jack asked, "can a stolen wand be sold, say in a pawnshop?"

"It can," Fichte nodded. "But it would not do much good. Wands are usually individually chosen or made bespoke items. And depending on the strength of a mage, one would need at least three, but some use up to five, since each wand is optimized for different level of magic throughput. Use a wand too weak for the spell and it may burn out or explode, use a wand too strong and either it will not trigger at all or it may consume far more mana for the same effect than a weaker more suited wand.

Without trying it out, one can not know which kind of wand it is.

The other issue is that when a person chooses a wand, there is a grace period, where they must use the wand almost too much, some people get around this by carefully using spells slightly more powerful than the wand it actually capable of handling. The reason is that their mana signature is engraved into the wand. Thus the wand becomes optimized to a single person. This is a destructive process. An optimized wand cannot be wiped and re-calibrated to another person. Thus, when another person tries to use it, it becomes a time bomb. Forcing mana it is not calibrated for through it will make the wand inefficient and also start burning out the existing calibration. One it is gone, the wand will either cease to function or explode. The trouble is that it is impossible to tell from feeling. The grace period of the new wand and forcing your mana into somebody else's wand will feel exactly the same."

"So if this is public knowledge only an idiot would buy a used wand." Jack said.

"Or somebody with evil intentions." Tiana added.

"Tiana, are you finished with securing the area? You and and a few others are the only ones with wands, so keep that in mind." Fichte replied.

"Yes. The area is currently secure, and I have set up detection spells. However I have no idea what we could do if the sorcerers are just somewhere nearby."

"It is being addressed," Fichte replied. "If we cannot recover our wands, we will use the same weapons as master de Lune did when fighting the demonic beasts. We also have a backup strategy in place for a tactical retreat."

"What's that?"

"Not important at this point." Fichte replied. "I will take personal command here. We will hold the site as long as it is necessary for you to finish the preparations below."

"Tiana," Fichte turned and changed his tone. "I will give master Jack de Lune the highest command on all decisions underground. What he says, goes, without question."

"Do you think that is wise?" Tiana asked.

"It is not your place to question the decisions!" Fichte replied sternly. "If you want to live beyond the next few minutes you will follow the orders as they are given. You are to follow Jack as his first assistant!"

"Very well, sir." Tiana acquiesced.

"I have also sent a courier to Coldwood." Fichte added. " Giving the message that we are free, we have no equipment, no wands, the opponents are sorcerers and they may retake the facility at all costs so they should prepare for our demise and a fight to gain control of it. I have also informed them of master de Lune's assessment and his proposal. Hopefully they take it seriously and arrive in force. Now go take the remaining mages with you, this needs to be set up as fast as possible."

Just as they were out of Fichte's earshot, Tiana started pestering Jack.

"So what is the plan, why do you need me and the mages with wands? Wouldn't they be more useful up here protecting it until reinforcements arrive?"

"We are going to clean out the base of everything we can carry and then collapse it, burying everything else. So that who ever comes looking, will have to start digging again."

"Hey, what if the sorcerers do not show up?" Tiana asked Jack when they were out of Fichte's earshot. "Then what? You would be burying everything for nothing!"

"We can always not detonate it immediately, but after we are done clearing it out. But we need the capability. Also this needs to be buried, at all costs."

Jack stopped walking for a moment.

"We need something else. We need people, a lot of people. To scour every corner of the facility for explosive material. We should go to the main hall, gather the people there, and I will explain what we need."

"I will assign some people to help you with the heavy lifting." Tiana said.

She waved to the two nearest tall and muscular soldiers.

"Edwin, Marcus, do you have your wands?"

"No. They took them from us. We thought we would make ourselves useful by getting some of these artifacts out."

"No need." Tiana replied, "at least not now. Fichte has given all executive command underground to our savior here." She waved towards Jack. "Come with us."

"What are we going to to?" Marcus asked.

"You are to directly assist and protect him. There is probably some heavy lifting involved. As for what we are about to do, you will notified when it becomes necessary."

"So you are like a.. vice commander to Fichte?" Jack asked.

"She is just a girl." Edwin chuckled. "Fichte's niece."

"Just a girl?" Tiana asked, "I remember you not having your sword nor your wand, yet I have both of mine, so...

"But because she said Fichte has given you command, uh sir, we listen to her." Edwin continued.

"It is not wise to take commander Fichte's name in vain. It is a surefire way to get kicked off the team." Marcus added.