Magical Engineering

Connie looked around with shock on her face the moment we were all in the soul realm. “Whoa, this isn’t what I was expecting at all.”

“Yeah, it’s kind of strange here. I don’t really understand it, and without Otis to give us more information, it’s going to be all guesswork,” I replied, spotting two new bridges off of the same hub as before.

“I’ve read about similar System maintenance rooms, but the details are vague on exactly how they work,” Elody added.

“I considered those too when I first saw the place. Wouldn’t be surprised at all if there are a few rooms at the top of the Spire that look pretty similar to this place. Which is all the more reason to worry about what this means for us. The big players are rarely happy when someone else gets to see their toys. I know this from experience,” Karlinovo replied, already heading for the new bridges.

“Wait, what? Why didn’t you say that before?” I said, almost questioning how much the man knew that he wasn’t saying. But considering who he was, he had multiple lifetimes of experience with the strangeness of the Spiral. I hadn’t quite hit a year yet. What he knew that I didn’t would likely be a great deal of information for the foreseeable future.

“I wasn’t entirely sure yet. I'm still not. Didn’t really think you needed another thing to worry about until we had more concrete information,” Karlinovo yelled back from across the first bridge.

That was probably a good answer. With the amount of stressful mysteries occupying my mind at any given time these days, it was shocking that my anxiety hadn’t gotten out of control. “Yeah, that’s probably fair. Okay, we need to head to those two bridges out there. One of them will lead to a platform for Elody, and the other one for Connie. If I’ve got the strength after Connie’s, we can take care of Elody’s, though you might be able to do that without me. Chip did his own.”

“What do we do on our platforms?” Elody asked as we followed Karlinovo.

“So far, it’s been figuring out some kind of deeper meaning involving yourself. It’s been different for every person. But considering how developed the jester is within Connie, the hard part is likely going to be what comes after,” I answered, remembering how close the fight for the Twinoges had been. I didn’t want anything like that to happen again.

“Is that supposed to be me?” Connie asked, pointing to a figure at the center of one of the new platforms.

It was flickering between a Dwarven reflection of Connie and then something that looked like a jester with her hair and clothing. I suppressed a shudder as I tried to get a good look at it. Considering how much I disliked the body horror element of that second form, there was no way Connie was taking the sight well.

“Yes, and this is likely all the more reason we need to get that thing out of you now,” I answered, turning my head to Chip and nodding at him to start the process. “As soon as the light show starts, that means Chip has gotten the bridge safe to cross. We’ll start the second we’re across.”

“That is beautiful. Is it really Chip doing it?” Elody asked.

“As far as I know. I don’t know if there is something special about Pumakeys at work here or if it's just our own bond, but he was able to do this before I soul-bonded him,” I replied as I quickly walked across the bridge.

“Perhaps. I’ve already requested several books on his species from the Paladins of Conservation, but I have not received them yet…” Elody’s words were cut off as Connie’s horrifying mana reflection began to shriek.

The sounds coming from it were equally ear splitting loud as they were terrible. It was a discordant assault on my entire being. Reality started to slip away as the sounds crashed against my skull unrelentingly.

I fell forward, desperately trying to hold myself together as notifications from the soul chat poured in. Choking down my stomach’s attempt at emptying itself, I pulled up the chat window.