When Olfric had mentioned that he would get a tour across town, Lukas had expected to be walking, or traveling on monsters or maybe, just maybe, some unearthly variation of mechanical transport. His time spent with the yokai hadn’t instilled faith in this world’s ability with technology, unless it was the magical kind. Not that he’d say no to flying carpets or worm-hole doors or anything fantastical, but knowing his luck, it was probably going to be stranger than fiction.

Still, he hadn’t quite expected… this.

Tanya grinned at him. “Like it?”

Lukas stared at ‘it’ for a long moment. “Like it? What the hell is it?”

The contraption before them was enormous. Vaguely reminiscent of a car, except that the front was so flattened that it might as well be a square, with several chubs of metal protruding out of it from the bottom. There was a single large glass-like, transparent layer covering the upper surface, and probably served as the entry point to the cockpit, with a pair of seats inside it.

No wheels. No doors.

Nothing.

“A High-Speed Jixin, fully automatic,” Tanya bragged like a mother about her child. “Jumps at three hundred miles an hour. You must have seriously done something impressive to get Zuken to lend us this big boy.”

Yeah, Lukas inwardly chuckled. I threatened him, but wait—

“Jumps?”

Tanya smiled. “Oh, yes.” She pressed her fingers against an elaborate graffiti of gold and silver near the cockpit, causing it to turn alive and contort into a new shape. The window glass receded, allowing her entry into the contraption.

“Don’t worry too much,” she said. “Sure, you don’t get to see a jixin out there very often. Zuken’s probably the only one to own one of these in Haviskali. The government provides the older platform model for Civil Transport, but just give a few years, and the Jixin will take over the market. You can kiss the conventional platforms goodbye.”

Lukas looked around warily all around him, wondering if he’d survive this. “Uh, I think I’d prefer a conventional platform, whatever that is.”

Tanya chuckled and began operating the terminal before them. It had no keys or buttons, and instead, had gold and silver squiggles drawn all over. Daintily, she pressed her fingers on it and dragged the structure into a bizarre shape.

“Now come on, in.”

The interior was comfortable. Lukas stepped in and strapped himself with the seat belt, just in time for the window panes to close from above. He swallowed hard and waited, hoping he’d survive this. Inanna would laugh herself silly if he got himself killed in a transport accident after surviving through everything he had.

“Comfortable?”

“Not in the slightest.”

Tanya snorted. “Just relax. You wouldn’t feel a thing.”

Roughly ten minutes later, an incredulous and slightly air-sick Lukas Aguilar stepped out of the death-machine that was the Jixin. He wobbled across the plank and literally threw up the contents of his stomach on the sidewalk.

“Gross!” Tanya scowled at him, before her expression changed to one of concern. “That bad, huh?”

Lukas rubbed his stomach. “Feels like I’ve been eating mud.”

She nodded. “Altitude sickness and gravity shifts. You’re lucky we only did a single jump. If we’d gone to another town in this, it’d have gotten your insides rolling.”

Lukas gave a wan nod and counted himself lucky. All things considered, it wasn’t as terrible as he had expected. The vehicle moved very much like an elevator, only traveling across a trajectory that spanned several miles at a stretch. The surprising part about the entire process was the complete lack of drag, except for the continuous shift in gravity as it traversed a distance of several dozen miles. Lukas had been ready to explode his way out of the machine before it collided with the floor. But fascinatingly enough, the collision had been little more than a bad road bump back on the streets of Ohio.

Friction and Momentum Manipulation seemed to be the likely culprit.

Wiping his face with a kerchief, Lukas stood tall, feeling the crisp breeze rustling the lapels of his sleeveless shirt. He squinted his eyes and tried to take in the world around him. Having a bird's-eye view was one thing, but to be standing in the middle of it felt—

Repulsive.

There was a theory in ‌aesthetics known as the Uncanny Valley. It held that when something looked almost similar to a human being — a robot or a mannequin — it generated an innate revulsion in the eyes of the observer, because its appearance was so close to human, yet just off enough to evoke a feeling of uncanniness, a mix of both familiarity and unease. A similar psychological effect pervaded his mind as he tried to grasp the world around him. One that was filled with creatures that looked like people, lived in places that felt like cities, and yet, this was not Earth. Instead, looming before him was a world of glass and stone, featuring a transparent, minimalist design that bordered on the impossible. Instead of the fixed structure that had been the Banksi mansion, the builders here constructed everything out of moving blocks, seamlessly sliding upon the other, often taking bizarre and physics-defying forms.

Lukas was barely conscious of the fact that a handful of people had scurried onto the runaway where the Jixin had landed and begun tending to it, or of the fact that Tanya had grabbed his hand and pulled him forward on an elevated platform, floating just inches above the ground. All around him were shops and edifices with people — all of which looked human at first sight.

He turned his head in every direction as he walked ahead, trying to look at everything at once. Gargantuan-sized malls that sold cosmetic products stood next to shops selling armor, gauntlets and tassets, with the red sun overhead shining brightly on the metal. He could see large buildings that could only be factories on the horizon, the air shimmering above them to create a striking effect of blue and yellow against the sky. And just turning to his left, he could spot two men bickering over a two-headed, horse-sized goat in one corner of a lane.

Talk about dichotomy.

It was only when the floor beneath him started moving that brought him out of his daze.

The floating platform was moving. And yet, Lukas couldn’t so much as feel the brush of wind on his face as the platform zoomed its way across the wide lanes of the surrounding town. It took him a second to recognize that an invisible barrier was present along the edges of the platform, similar to the one inside which he had fought Quonnan.

“So uh,” Tanya’s words brought him out of his daze, “Welcome to Haviskali. It’s not as big as some of the other towns and cities, but it’s home.”

Lukas blinked and looked around. Ryu had described Haviskali as a redneck town. Extreme environments on two fronts, lacking in sophistication with limited growth offerings, and composed of a small community of people, ruled by a single Overseer. Lukas had pictured Oklahoma or Cleveland from the kasha’s words.

This? This place looked like New Orleans meshed with a futuristic New York and rolled into one.

And this was a town?

“So, where are we heading to?”

“Well,” Tanya drawled, “I am supposed to kind of show you around the place, but Zwaray Keep is where we’re actually headed to.”

“Why?”

“To meet the svartalfars.”

Lukas did a double-take. “Act — I mean, why svartalfars in particular?”

Tanya pushed a lock of golden hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear. “Several reasons, actually. They’re the best at making enchanted gear. Anybody with the mezals to pay for fancy and durable equipment always go for the svartalfar-made stuff.”

“And people just go there and purchase what they want?”

Tanya snorted. “Hardly. Svartalfars are anal-retentive, bloodthirsty weapon smiths with a fetish for beheading others, and ferocious sticklers for privacy.”

“Charming.”

Tanya giggled. “Oh, and they loathe Asukans with a passion, and that goes double for Nobles.”

Lukas arched an eyebrow. “That doesn’t seem very conducive to business expansion.”

She shrugged. “Doesn’t have to be. Svartalfars usually sell their goods through third-party agencies, giving them the peace and privacy they want. It’s rare for someone to visit their premises directly.”

“Then how are we—”

“You’ll see,” she replied evasively. “Besides, we aren’t going there to buy, but to sell.”

“Sell… what?”

Tanya must have sensed the stiffness in his posture. “Don’t worry. We aren’t selling you. Well, not directly anyway.” She chuckled, “The thing is, these guys have a knack for finding the most dangerous borderlands strewn across the Empire, and they often traverse these lands to extract rare minerals for smithing. And for that, they hire adventurers, mostly non-bremetan.”

“What jobs?”

“Mostly security. Especially if the terrain doesn’t suit them. What we are going to sell them is a permanent job contract, hiring Zuken’s firm Iylaerion for the next ten years.”

“And why would they do that?”

Tanya smirked and took out a tiny vial from her pocket. Inside it was a shining, glassy, broken piece of rock fragment. One he recognized instantly.

FEATHERGLASS

Crystal Outgrowth. Indicative of stored information.

But that was not all.

Information about Featherglass Synthesis Found Lacking!

Creation of Featherglass within Territory Impossible without further information.

That was new. Synthesis? Creation? He had created nothing directly before. Sure, he had done some minor ether manipulation, but that was just False Construction, nothing concrete, and certainly not out of Anomalous Energy.

“Featherglass from the anomaly,” Tanya showed off, ignorant of his own mental tirade. “One tiny specimen. Unusable, because it already contains information.”

“But enough to prove its superiority over commercially produced ones,” Lukas finished, mentally reviewing through his Omphalos functions. Apart from the recently gained Territory Creation, he had activated nothing new. Perhaps Creation was an attribute within the Territory Creation function itself?

“—ere paying attention.”

He tuned back in.

“But you’re right,” she continued, oblivious. “It’s enough to get them to play ball with us. Our collection is small, but priceless. The anomaly’s destroyed, and that makes the tiny amount we have even more valuable.”

Not unless he could somehow reproduce the material from scratch. Anomalies were creators, their ability at forging was far beyond even Divine powers. That was how Inanna had described it. He suspected that if he reorganized the clutter that was inside the Blob, he’d have access to the featherglass synthesis process.

Reversing Corruption will require +597,531,354 units of power.

+47% chance of success.

Initiate Rollback Protocol?

No.

Command Acknowledged

Rollback Protocol Deactivated until further prompt from PRIME HOST

As if in acknowledgment, the Blob stirred a little before going silent again.

It made him wonder. Inanna had described Anomalous Energy as the truest form of Creation. The precursor to both lifeforce and mana. It was the thing souls were made up of. But the Rollback Protocol wasn’t about creation. It was about repair. Repair of Information. And if Anomalous Energy could take the randomized chaotic leftovers of the Crypt and restructure it into order, then what else could it restructure?

He’d have to think about that.

“..kas? Are you even listening?”

He blinked, and regarded Tanya, who was glaring at him, her hands at her hips.

“... Sorry.”

“You’re distracted,” Her expression softened, “is everything alright?”

“Just… figuring things out,” he replied honestly. “It’s a new world. New people. New situations. It’ll take some time to get used to things.”

Tanya found that acceptable, given her nod.

“So, why isn’t Banksi dealing with this negotiation stuff himself?”

“I can think of two reasons. He’s a Noble, and being caught with this stuff can be dangerous. Especially if the army comes in, sniffing. Also, svartalfars would probably throw him out the moment he gives his name out. Same for Olfric. And Elena’s… well, we don’t know how svartalfars would react to a changeling, so that leaves—”

“You.”

“Me, and you get to come along for the ride.”

“You’re too kind.”

“And don’t you forget that.”

This world was obsessed with understatements.

Back on Earth, the concept of a Keep came into use for the European nobility, referring to construction of fortified castles with the provision for emergency rations, usually employed as a last resort or refuge if enemy forces besieged the area. Given Tanya’s description, it fitted the svartalfars to a tee — sticklers for privacy shackling up in a fortified tower with dungeons full of armaments and the sounds of svartalfar craft workers striking the metal with their oversized hammers.

This… this was more like visiting an industrial belt.

Easily spanning for several acres on either side, there were three parts of this giant complex. The outer periphery, with large, floating stone pillars,each of them situated approximately ten feet from the other, giving a fence-like appearance. Dozens of buildings lay beyond that, constructed using the moving-block architecture he had seen earlier, all of them surrounding what seemed like a giant hill, with the middle portion replaced with an equally gigantic metallic machinery, exuding bursts of steam and purplish light from various exit points. The peak of the hill was still intact, maintaining the overall pyramidal shape.

“This… is the Zwaray Keep?” He asked.

“Yup,” Tanya said, “the real Svartalfheim is… somewhere up there, in the sky. The svartalfars have a contract with the Empire, and stay within these Keeps. You’ll never see them getting out of one, not that they need it. Everything they need is inside.”

“You seem to know an awful lot about them.”

“I should,” Tanya replied confidently. “I’ve lived here for two months.”

Something in her voice told Lukas she wasn’t joking.

“It’s how I escaped the Army. I’ve worked on jobs for them before, and instead of mezals, I purchased a favor from them. When the Cobalt Army came for me, I used the favor to buy asylum.” Her face scrunched. “It wasn’t nice. Svartalfars don’t like to be involved in diplomatic conflicts. Hell, even the Empire leaves them alone. You can be the freaking Overseer, but you won’t be able to take a step inside without their express permission.”

Right. The Cobalt Army. The SWAT-equivalent for this world. Utterly loyal, absolutely obedient, the Army only moved to fulfill the Empire’s will. Composed of high-leveled warriors and spiritists alike, there was no force stronger than them, or more trusted by the Emperor than them. There was not a thing they would not do. No act was too vile, and no punishment too cruel to them. Like fanatics fighting for their God, all was justified in the Army’s eyes. Normally they stayed away from regular bureaucracy, but involved themselves whenever Sin entered the picture.

Which was how Tanya had gained their attention.

They answered directly to the Emperor himself, who distributed them in small cohorts in every kingdom, while a major force remained stationed in the Sovereign, the heart of the Empire. Also, the Sacred Eight and the Shogun of the kingdoms had some say over them, which was how Zuken had called them off.

“Sounds tough.”

“You have no idea,” she replied dryly. “They granted me asylum, but made me go on endless jobs during my stay. Maybe they were expecting me to give up or get killed. Either would keep them from this bureaucratic stalemate against the Army.”

“And Zuken thinks you should approach them with this offer?”

She shrugged. “We don’t have anyone else. Sides, they’re a stickler for rules. They might burden you with lethal work, but they won’t go against their word. I asked for asylum. I got it. They made me work, and in return, gave me rations and living quarters and everything else. And now I’m free, so technically, they should allow me in, despite how much they’d loathe my presence.”

“And you’re expecting the featherglass to turn things in your favor.”

“Yes.”

“And where do I come into this picture?”

Tanya stilled. “... Excuse me?”

“You are already walking into the svartalfar territory in a risky situation. You’re hoping to change their opinions by giving them a deal they cannot refuse. And if things go south, not even the Overseer can do anything to help you. And you’re telling me I’m here for sightseeing?”

That put a crack in her mask. He saw her eyes flick up quickly to his face for a moment and then back away.

“I’m not saying I want to know everything, but I wasn’t born yesterday. You’ve brought me here for a reason, and I want to know what that is.”

There was another moment of stillness. “It’s because of my favor. The svartalfars are twitchy about giving out favors, and it took me over a dozen dangerous missions to get them to agree to one.”

“And you used it to get asylum against the Army.”

Her lips twitched. “And that’s why they’d be… apprehensive about hiring me again.”

Oh.

Oh.

So that's how it was.

“The svartalfars respond to displays of strength. And while I’ve worked for them before and proven myself in their eyes, Iylaerion — that’s Zuken’s firm, is an unknown commodity. They’d need some… confirmation of its ability to get things done.”

Which is where Lukas entered the picture. His ability with lifeforce and manacrafting was considerably high, and while he was sure Tanya could still hand his ass over to him, it’d not be without taking damage. And if Tanya wasn’t an option, then—

“Guess the demonstration against the Overseer’s security guy wasn’t enough. He wants a bigger, better show.”

One corner of her mouth crooked up in a smile. “Something like that.”

The two of them slowly traversed through the outer perimeter of the industrial zone, easily half a kilometer before they stood before the pillars. Even though the stone edifices were floating in mid-air, they released a constant thrum of power in all directions, making his Seismic senses all charged up and wary. Contrary to how it might look, the power was actually flowing inward, through invisible relay centers beneath the ground.

Energy Drain detected within vicinity

He stopped in his tracks.

“... what?” Tanya asked.

“Is it… safe to just cross through them?” He gestured towards the pillars. “Those don’t seem friendly.”

“Don’t mind those. They are part of the Power Grid.”

Energy Drain detected within vicinity

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

Tanya arched an eyebrow, and as if to prove her point, walked ahead. She crossed the barrier without the slightest break in stride and stood on the opposite side.

“See?” She waved her hands. “Perfectly safe.”

Energy Drain detected within vicinity

“If you’re sure.”

Energy Drain detected within vicinity

He took a step forward.

Nothing came screaming out of the pillars at him. Nobody started firing shots either. So far, so good. He took a second step and put one leg past the pillars, wondering if his Schema had run into a glitch because it was unused to this new world. Maybe it was just—

Energy Drain Detected

Omphalos Energy Reserves Draining

1%

Activating Capacitance Function

Reverse Shift

Initiating Energy Absorption

Lukas barely had a second to glance at Tanya’s surprised face.

And then the pillar next to him went neon red.

Energy Drain Detected

Omphalos Energy Reserves Draining

1%

Capacitance Function Active

Reverse Shift Active

Energy Absorption

4%

What the hell was happening? Lukas tried to move, but nothing happened. His body wasn’t responding, as if frozen between the two pillars, trapped between the invisible radiation around him while the Omphalos System within him locked in a struggle with the Grid. Really, Tanya had walked through the pillars without so much as a breeze on her face, while he had gotten stuck inside the pillars with everything around him going neon red. It was probably a shock that it hadn’t started honking in alarm. That… was pretty much proof of what kind of day he was having right there.

On the other hand, he wasn’t sure what he’d really do with any other kind of day. He didn’t have to like it, but it was the truth — he was a walking, breathing, mayhem machine, backed up by experience and, to an extent, inclination.

Energy Drain Detected

Omphalos Energy Reserves Draining

2%

Capacitance Function Active

Reverse Shift Active

Energy Absorption

7%

Two things were happening. The pillars, and whatever was part of this Power Grid system, were trying to drain his Omphalos Energy Reserves. In response, the Capacitance function was draining the Power Grid, only its absorption rate was faster than the Grid.

Energy Drain Detected

Omphalos Energy Reserves Draining

2%

Capacitance Function Active

Reverse Shift Active

Energy Absorption

11%

Much, much faster.

Or maybe it was simply the difference between the amount of power both reservoirs boasted. Lukas knew he had more Omphalos Energy than he could probably use in ten lifetimes, unless he wanted to perform a spell of Inanna’s magnitude. But if this Power Grid was supplying power to this entire zone, then the power reservoir would have to be at least within comparable levels, if not greater.

Energy Drain Detected

Omphalos Energy Reserves Draining

3%

Capacitance Function Active

Reverse Shift Active

Energy Absorption

17%

Or so it seemed.

Tanya had frozen in absolute stillness for a second, her beautiful face confused. Then she opened her mouth to say something—

And then two pairs of hands rose out of the ground, grabbing Lukas by his legs, and pulled him below with unrelenting force. With a most unmanly shriek, Lukas dropped upon a cold, hard, stone floor in an unceremonious heap, with Tanya landing right on top of him, kneeing him in the groin‌ as she tried to get off him. He failed to suppress the whimper trying to escape his lips. Squeezing his eyes and scrunching his face in distaste, Lukas pushed himself up.

“That,” he declared, sneezing loudly, “was the worst experience I’ve ever had.”

He wasn’t jesting. From vampire bats sucking his blood dry to being trapped in slime, with acid-splitting fang-worms cuddling him, Lukas had suffered through a series of unfortunate, awkward and absolutely mortifying circumstances that made him want to find a rock and hide beneath it. He had been possessed and trapped in an illusion, and forced to fight naked in front of an alien audience. He had suffered through Inanna’s bone-shattering training regimen. There had been Tanya, ready to skin him alive and make a human-sized frost mannequin out of him. The Crypt was feeling left out, so it mind-fucked him once into becoming a cheesy villain. One would think it was enough punishment but the Crypt had enjoyed it so much it crafted a new Guardian in his image with a serious psychological dysfunction and utterly bullshit powers.

Oh, and being torn apart by a memory of his disintegrating world also counted, he supposed.

But all of that was nothing, nothing compared to feeling the rocky crust beneath his feet turning into thick, viscous jelly and being pulled down through it. There wasn’t a word in the English dictionary that could describe it. Feeling the earth on every inch of his body, beneath the skin, with sand particles traveling all the way upward. He could feel the bitter, metallic taste in his mouth, his throat and even his ears and nasal passage as something dragged him downwards, deeper and deeper, until he fell.

He sneezed again. Loudly.

“Terraportation,” Tanya replied. “Svartalfars use it all the time. I’m surprised you didn’t puke. I was sick for days after my first time.”

“Not my first weird trip,” Lukas waved her concerns away. “the jixin earlier caught me a bit off. Terraportation, did you call—”

He bent down and threw up.

“It is,” Tanya muttered.

Lukas stood up, wiping his face. Carefully, he took stock of his surroundings. This place was obviously underground, with slabs of smooth rock covering the walls and the floor. It was like a modern basement, minus the pillars. Dimly luminescent bluish crystals protruded out at several points on the walls, their positions too perfect to be natural. Obviously, the Eternal Light did not penetrate this far. Maybe the ground itself repelled Amaterasu’s fancy lighting on general principle?

⸻ Not surprising. As if that fake Truth had any business being called a La⸻

Lukas blinked.

And just like that, the thought was gone. Like it hadn’t even been there to begin with.

It was then that he noticed Tanya was being suspiciously quiet.

“Tanya, where are we?”

The aeromancer let out a sharp whisper. “The dungeons.”

“Of… what?”

As if to answer his question, the Screen flickered alive.

Prey Found You

The earth abruptly became liquid near his feet, causing him to step back on instinct. And then heads — multiple of them — popped out of the ground. Then came their bodies. Bipedal and inordinately muscular, these humanoids had grayish skin, triangular faces, pupil-less black eyes and large, floppy ears, and arose out of the ground as if sprouting out of it.

Lukas blinked. He had seen Solana perform subtle and powerful terramancy back in Yokai Camp, and Zuken had shown some quick and dirty boulder action as well. Even the khorkhoi had dug in and out of the ground like swimming through it. But this? This was almost like phasing through the ground itself, much like the yurei had done. Only in their case, their bodies were fake and were constantly deconstructing and reforging their bodies with self-metamancy.

Are these… svartalfars?

“Um, hello?” He offered. Truly, he was a master of diplomacy.

A dozen ‌melee weapons protruded out from the walls and the ceiling. Swords, spears, and javelins, crafted out of rock, crystal and metal with murderously sharp edges, all of them pointing in their direction.

“Lukas,” Tanya hissed, her eyes both furious and wide with near-panic. All five floppy-ears were focussed on him intently. One of them even carried a massive, double-bladed axe in his hand. It raised the weapon above its head, as if preparing for a blow.

Tanya instantly genuflected before them. “My apologies to your people. We were just—”

“Intruding!” The tone was acerbic and gravelly, the kind that made skin crawl.

Language Identified

Faecani

Replicating…

Lukas tried not to gape in surprise. Faecani? Here? Solana, Nihil, Ryu — several of them had spoken in that language. But the svartalfars too? That was one hell of a coincidence.

“Trespassing into our territory and draining the thirteenth ward stone is a blatant crime against our nation.”

The large, double-bladed ax shone in the creature’s hands.

“The sentence for this violation is death by decapitation, to be carried out at once.”

The blade swung high.