Aether Engineering

Chapter 47

Hydrabridge

The Voidlands North of Maston

Myles mind was racing a mile a minute. Kate had given him a small chunk of channium to use. Channium was the softest of the eight common metals. This was a crucial detail since Myles had no tools for creating an aether construct. He hadn’t expected to need them while on a mission.

Inscibing runes into the metal was a crucial part of the process when creating an aether construct. Anything less than a perfect representation of a rune had the potential to derail the entire construct. Normally, Myles would spend significant amount of time directly forging the rune into the metal. If he couldn’t do that, a careful carving of the metal with proper tools could suffice.

Now though, the only tool that Silas had available to him was his basium spear. It wasn’t exactly an optimal tool for this kind of work. In addition to that, Myles had to carve the runes from memory. He had reviewed the ones he needed for his design previously, but that had been two nights ago now. He thought he remembered them, but a slight edge of doubt hindered him.

Time was also against him. For all they knew that horrifying goat monster was already on its way up the main mine shaft that made up the depths. Kate guessed that it would probably take some time for it to realize that there were large numbers of people gathered above it, but it would realize eventually.

Myles kept himself as calm and focused as he could. He moved more quickly than usual, but he restrained himself from moving too fast. It would do no good to finish early but end up with a useless device.

The design that Myles used consisted of one major rune and a variety of containment runes that were put in place to make sure the device would only activate at the proper time. The premise behind the device was relatively simple. The water mana would be placed in one area of the metal chunk. This area was surrounded by containment runes that kept the mana from moving away from that area in any direction that weren’t supposed to.

The containment runes were placed so that when mana entered, it would travel to the rune that would consume the mana for evocation. The rune that Myles had chosen was the water mana equivalent to the rune that he had used on his spear. When water mana was moved into it, the mana would be evoked in a geyser.

Myles finally finished the runes, a bead of sweat on his forehead. He quickly moved into the process of priming the runes. The short minutes that had passed had allowed his aether well to refill slightly, but he was still forced to get help from Kate for this part. One by one, each of the containment runes were primed with pure mana. Myles felt a wave of relief when the final rune activated, knowing by the way his mana was infused into the metal that he had transcribed the containment runes correctly.

All that was left was the geyser rune. Unfortunately, Myles wasn’t going to be able to prime that rune in advance. It required water mana to prime. Their only source of water mana came from the stormbird core.

They would need to prime the rune at the same time as they activated the construct. Myles lacked both the mana and the time to create an activation rune as he normally would. That meant that as soon as the water mana was infused from the core into the construct, the construct would activate. This meant they would only get one shot and they would need to prime the geyser rune at the time of activation.

“Hurry!” Silas called. They had sent Silas ahead to scout out a route they could take to reach the main shaft. “That thing was about to start climbing.”

Myles cursed, stuffing the half-finished construct in his pocket and breaking into a run. Kate helped him out, allowing him to lean on her as support. Even with that help though, the reckless pace they took through the narrow tunnels was torture. With every step, Myles’ ankle gave a hot burst of pain. Still though, he pushed on.

The depths appeared to have been completely abandoned. Myles supposed that Samuel had made his people evacuate, knowing that the monster would attack anyone it could. That meant that when they arrived, the main shaft was almost completely dark, lit only by the light of the flaming root that Silas held in front of him. At first, Myles’ heart fell. He assumed they were too late. The monster had already climbed out of the depths.

When he heard the hiss of a snake and rock tumbling down, Myles realized they were simply too far away from the beast to see it.

The climb was far more brutal than the run had been. Myles had to effectively make the climb with only one foot. He didn’t trust himself enough to put weight on the foot. If he did and it gave out, he would be sent plummeting into the abyss below.

The group set a viciously reckless pace now. The monster might still have been in the main shaft, but it was already high above them. The only advantage they had was the many ropes, handholds, and short ladders that had been installed by the miners previously.

Myles indicated a ledge high above them. “We’ll make the shot from there.”

“We’ll be directly below it there.” Silas shouted. “Are you sure that’s for the best?”

Myles didn’t respond. He didn’t know if that was for the best. He knew they would need to activate the construct from a ledge. If they tried to do so while hanging off the wall, the force of the construct would knock them off. The ledge Myles was aiming for looked to be the only option they would have.

When they finally reached the ledge, Myles was keeping himself up by little more than willpower. Every muscle in his body shook from the rapid climb. He could barely feel his foot anymore.

There was no time to think about that though. Myles took the construct from one pocket and the core from the other. With a single blow against the rock, the core cracked open, releasing mana into the air. Myles delicately raised it to the geyser rune until he thought it must be primed.

He looked to Kate and Silas. They both gave him resolute nods and moved to brace him. As soon as they did, Myles put the core next to construct, guiding the mana into the metal.

There was virtually no difference between when the metal began taking in mana and when the geyser of water was pushed out of it. For a horrible second, Myles thought they were going to be pushed right off the ledge. Fortunately, though, Silas managed to stabilize them further by pulling against one of the ropes that had been attached to the wall.

With their position secure, Myles had another horrible realization. His aim had been off. The geyser was hitting the wall to the creature’s left, and he was running out of mana in the core. Myles frantically adjusted, causing the geyser to slash across the stone, its force breaking apart stone. At the last possible moment, the force of the geyser slammed into the creature’s hoof where it clung to the wall.

Not only was the hoof shaken loose, much of the rock wall was blasted apart as well. High above them, the beast began its fall. For just an instant it appeared as if the monster might save itself. It slammed its tail into the stone wall where it hung for a short moment until the snake lost its grip.

By the time the creature hurtled past them on its plummet down into the abyss, Myles, Silas, and Kate had all managed to move out of the way.

A collective wheezing took over them as they each realized they had been holding their breath. The tension left Myles’ shoulders and he collapsed onto the ledge.

Kate sprawled down next to him. “Now we just need to get out of here.”

Silas leaned against the wall. “Anyone have a plan to accomplish that one?”

Nobody spoke. The plan had been to use the stormbird’s core to cause a distraction. Without that distraction, their whole plan was in ruin.

A horrible moment passed over the group.

“I was able to steal another piece of channium. I don’t have it with me, but maybe we could make another distraction with it?”

Myles was already shaking his head. “That won’t work. The only mana type we would have to work with is pure. Pure mana simply wouldn’t be enough to cause a distraction?”

A noise from above alerted them to something. Suddenly, someone new dropped onto their ledge. “I may be able to help with that.”

Myles backed up so far, he almost found himself falling from the ledge. Standing right there with them, Paulo stood with a kindly smile on his face.