Echoes Of The Seven

“Now, here’s the situation,” Eris sighed. “I’m going to say the exact description of the Warden, and you have to decide whether you believe me or not.”

Eris kept careful eye contact with Pravala while she spoke. “If you believe me, you aren’t going to like what I say. If you don’t, you’re also not going to like it because then you’ll think I’m trying to trick you.”

The Summoner’s eyes narrowed. “Let me decide what I do and don’t like.”

Eris took a deep breath, then recited the Warden’s Inspect window. All of it. Word for word- no deceptions. In all honesty- she didn’t need any. If Pravala wedging the winch shut was any indication, the woman wouldn’t have trusted Eris no matter what she said.

So Eris told the truth.

When she was finished, Bailey, Elmas, and Pravala all stood silent and contemplative. Eventually, it was Elmas that spoke.

“If it’s binding your magical essence to the Obelisk, does that mean yet another thing preventing escape?”

“And preventing our escape?” Bailey added. “You know, since you’ve gone and tied a damned magic string between us? If you’re bound, does that mean the only person that can leave is Eris?”

Pravala’s eye twitched. “If that thing is going to act as another obstacle, then we destroy it once we get the magic we need.”

“And how would we do that?” Eris asked. “After all, it spent four freaking centuries buried in mud, fish crap, and a whole lot of other stuff that would have reduced literally anything else into nothing, and it’s not even missing a fifth of its Durability.”

“It is held for as long as we wish it to,” Pravala grit her teeth. “It can’t fight back, and you have an Altar that completely drains all magic from anything it touches. You will simply drain the Warden until there is nothing left of it, and then we can leave. When it fills all the Ichryte, you can give yourself all the extra magic as Desire. I’m sure the Warden would have enough to make that entire day we spent crafting look like a drop in a bucket.”

That thought made Eris’s throat scratchy, and she couldn’t deny that thought. Just how much power could she get if she drained the Warden dry and funneled all of it into her skills? It was tempting- incredibly so. What if-

“I’m not sure that another layer of restraint was the intent of that enchantment…” Elmas’s voice was calculating. Naturally, it made all three other girls look over for clarification. Elmas gave a short breath.

“The Obelisk itself has an enchantment that makes it so unauthorized individuals can’t use it, which would presumably be anyone except an Artificer. That would almost certainly include using the Obelisk from the inside, so any prisoners wouldn’t be able to activate the Obelisk to escape. That’s the first lock.”

Elmas held up her scarred hand with two fingers extended. “Next, there’s the enchantment that specifically makes prison realms one-way only. That’s the second lock, and definitely the biggest. The only reason we even have a chance of getting out is because the Obelisk is so heavily damaged and the enchantments are malfunctioning.”

The final finger of her ruined hand was extended, and Eris mentally chastised herself for even wondering what Elmas would do if she had another point to make.

“Finally, the Warden itself has an enchantment specifically dedicated to keep you from leaving what should already be an inescapable prison. That’s a third lock. Dedicating yet another entire enchantment just to add a fourth layer of protection seems… inefficient. Especially with the way it was worded. Eris?”

Eris took the hint and recited the words she still held in her mind’s eye. “While an Anchor is alive and remains in their designated prison realm, Control Trap: Alda 3 binds the Anchor’s magical essence to the Abstract of Eternity.”

Elmas nodded. “If the effect was meant to keep you in here, Pravala, why would it also have the stipulation that it only works while you’re still here? That’s completely redundant. I think that the binding is a separate effect that has nothing to do with keeping Pravala trapped, and only works for as long as she is trapped.”

Bailey furrowed her brow. “Okay, good point. But then what does Pravala being bound to the Obelisk even mean?”

“Not her,” Eris corrected. “Her ‘magical essence’. If it specified that, it'd have to be an important difference.”

“Could it mean that the Warden is connecting Pravala to the Obelisk in the same way that Pravala’s connected to all her enslaved?” Elmas asked. It was silent for a number of moments- nobody opting to try and answer the question. Eventually, it was Pravala that started moving. She took several steps in the opposite direction of the Warden.

“Where are you going?” Eris raised an eyebrow nervously. Pravala let out a loud sigh, waggled her fingers, then gracefully sat down in a black-iron chair that materialized in the exact same way during the start of the orgy.

“I’m going to sit here and think while you start draining the Warden. Cut to it- I’d rather not waste time.”

Eris scowled. “The Altar needs to be touching the Warden to drain it, and I severely doubt that it can do a damned thing through a metric ton of ocean floor.”

Pravala narrowed her eyes in a way that was almost threatening. Then, the expression relaxed as she leaned back in her chair and waved her hand once more. Eris, Bailey, and Elmas’s feet all shot backwards in surprise as metal clattered against stone right in front of their toes. Looking down, Eris could see three long metal fabrications resting on the ground that looked like a crowbar for the most part, except the flattened prying edge was expanded to distinctly resemble something akin to a shovel.

“Then I suppose you should start digging,” Pravala said, placing her hands back in her lap.

It was like a hum- a tingle down her spine that sent goosebumps rolling over her arms. It rose and fell slowly- like the aura of magic around the creation was beating in time with an invisible heart, or swelling with metaphysical lungs.

Since neither Bailey or Elmas made any mention of it whatsoever as they mined, Eris could assume she was the only one feeling it. After all, it was too much to simply ignore or think nothing of. It was practically vibrating the shovel crowbar… shovel-bar? Crovel? Yeah, crovel. It was vibrating the crovel in Eris’s hands as she slammed it into the muck between the chain links wrapped around the Warden like a fishnet stocking. When the metal tip of her dark-iron digging tool caught on yet another rock, Eris grunted, threw down the crovel with a clang on stone, then turned to the Summoner.

“Can you help us or something instead of giving us some damned sticks?”

Pravala smirked. “I’d hate to get my dress dirty…”

Eris breathed loudly through her nose. “The longer we take to do this, the more chances there are for something to go wrong and for this thing to get free. You’d hate for that to happen, right?”

A tense staredown ensued for a number of moments before Pravala let out a disinterested sigh, waggled a few fingers, then reclined back into the chair.

About thirty feet away from where Eris, Bailey and Elmas were digging, the air tore open with a sound almost like a waterfall made entirely of sand and gravel. For a single second, Eris could see pure, unadulterated emptiness in the space that used to exist. It wasn’t just black darkness- it was a complete absence of the world itself. Then, a white, bony spike poked out from that void for a split second before a creature charged forth.

All three of the modern girls took several steps out of the way as a massive, heavy, rotund slab of a beast thudded across the stone while levelling its head towards the Warden. It almost looked like a bull, but slightly larger and with no fur. Instead, it had wrinkled grey skin wrapped over its rotund body, with no horns. Well, unless one counted the two sturdy-looking sharpened protrusions poking out above its flabby snout. Those two spikes collided with the Warden in a crunch of bone on rock, sinking until the beast’s entire face was pressing into the mush of mud. Then, it whipped its head back, tearing away a huge chunk of material and leaving a crater in the shell of the Warden’s mud armour.

“Could have done that a little earlier…” Bailey muttered sourly- trying and failing to wipe mud splatters off her arms.

While the creature that Eris was pretty sure was another extinct beast worked to tear open a path to the Warden’s body, she took the opportunity to reflect a little bit more on the information window she kept tucked away in her mind.

Control Trap: Alda 3

Durability: 82%

A perfected imitation of life, driven by a single purpose of restraining a higher power. Created by Balzonest Exxinter and Ihxal Wb’bami. Made from iron, steel, cadell vigso, blood from Balzonest Exxinter, and the soul of a grizzly bear.

Additional effect: Restraining Order

The first time an Echo bound to Alda, The Promise, enters the territory that Control Trap: Alda 3 has been set to guard, that creature becomes marked indefinitely as an ‘Anchor’. Once an Anchor has been designated by Control Trap: Alda 3, it cannot be changed, nor can Control Trap: Alda 3 mark a different creature as its Anchor. Control Trap: Alda 3 will do whatever possible to ensure that the Anchor will never leave the guarded location.

Additional effect: Guardian Protocol

While a creature is marked as an Anchor, Control Trap: Alda 3 cannot kill the Anchor or take action that would result in the Anchor’s death. Additionally, Control Trap: Alda 3 will ensure the safety and survival of its Anchor at all costs.

Additional effect: Tether Essence

While an Anchor is alive and remains in their designated prison realm, Control Trap: Alda 3 binds the Anchor’s magical essence to the Abstract of Eternity.

There was a lot to unpack, even without that problematic last bit. The name, for example. Control Trap: Alda 3. At the very least, it almost certainly meant that this specific Warden was the third of something. It could mean that there were two, or even more other identical Wardens watching over other prisoners in different realms. Alternatively, it could also mean that this specific Warden was the third version of a model that had routinely been improved upon. Eris wasn’t entirely sure.

What she could be sure about was this Balzonest figure being important. Not only was he- was it a ‘he’, or was Balzonest a ‘she’? The name certainly sounded more masculine than feminine, so Eris just imagined that it was a guy. Not that it mattered much, since he had been present in the creation of both the Warden and the Obelisk just like Ihxal, but now his blood was explicitly used in this. Then there was the soul of a grizzly bear, just like how the Obelisk had the souls of its creators, but that then raised further questions.

What did using a soul as a crafting material even do? Did different souls have different effects? Why a grizzly bear? If the Obelisk had human souls, why was this one from an animal? What did it have to do with ‘cadell vigso’? Eris sighed, then leaned over to Bailey.

“Know anything about Cadell Vigso?”

Bailey glanced over and gave a small sigh. Obviously, she was also in the process of trying to piece together theories.

“It literally translates to ‘Soul Fruit’. It’s pretty much a kind of peach that doesn’t just exist physically- it exists spiritually. When someone eats it, it’s said to open their soul up to the Stream itself and let them see beyond the normal limits of the world. However, most people just use it as an insanely good crafting ingredient. For example, it’s literally the shit I use to make those permanent potions I was talking about a while ago. Alchemy just changes the body, you know? The reason shit’s temporary is because it goes against the soul and thus the body rejects it. You add cadell vigso to the mixture, and suddenly you’ve got a potion that changes the soul’s perception of the body. Therefore, the effects don’t wear off.”

Bailey then rested her hands on her hips. “Of course, that then raises the question of what the fuck it was doing with this craft. I mean, it’s apparently got the soul of a damned bear inside of it, so cadell vigso only makes sense because it’s already dealing with soul bullshit, but then why doesn’t the Obelisk have it? Furthermore, why would something like the Warden need Balzonest’s blood? Blood and stuff is almost exclusively used for alchemy, but there doesn’t seem to be anything alchemical whatsoever about the Warden. Pretty much the only thing I’ve ever heard of for non-Alchemist crafters using blood is to bind certain creations to certain people- making things moderately more powerful when used by the bonded target but substantially weaker when used by anyone else.”

Elmas lowered her own crovel, gently holding a hand over the scar in her chest. Eris couldn’t imagine that digging like this was doing pleasant and comfortable things to the soldier’s wound. “Is there any chance that the blood was used for binding, like you said, but the cadell vigso was changing so it binds the soul and not the body?” The Lieutenant-Major shrugged. “I don’t know how this works, I’m just tossing out theories.”

Eris hummed. “What, like making it so the Warden isn’t bound to Balzonest by his blood, but by his soul?”

“I was thinking more about binding the Anchor’s soul to the Obelisk,” Elmas shrugged. “After all, that last effect quite literally says it binds the Anchor’s magical essence to the Obelisk. The only thing I can assume it’s implying is their soul.”

“Alright, next question.” Bailey huffed. “Why is it specific to Alda, out of all the Seven? And that three in the name, does that mean there’s two other Echoes of Alda- sorry- at least two others imprisoned in the Obelisk being guarded by their own Wardens? And all their souls are being bound to the Obelisk? Why?”

The nose-horn beast continued to rip and tear through the muck armor without pause, though Eris saw Pravala abruptly sit up straighter with a wide look in her eyes. For a moment, Eris wondered if something alarming had happened somewhere else that Pravala was witnessing secondhand.

“It’s Ichryte…” the Summoner muttered.

That made all three of the girls turn to face the woman. Eris raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

Pravala’s gaze seemed to shoot back into focus, training squarely on Eris with a thoughtful intensity that made shivers shatter down Eris’s spine. It was the same kind of look the woman had right before completely taking control of the orgy. Different emotions- the lust was definitely replaced with some form of deep consideration-, but it held the same hunger. A hunger for answers instead of flesh. She stepped forward eagerly.

“It’s pretty clear that the reason I’m in here in the first place probably has to do with the fact I’m an Echo of Alda. They needed an Echo of Alda to be a part of this creation they were making, and one of them just so happened to be sitting in a prison, ready to be used for something. If there’s a bunch of Echoes of Alda in here all being bound to the Obelisk, then there’s a very good chance that there’s probably Echoes for all the other members of the Seven, each with their own Wardens designed to bind those Echoes to the Obelisk. But it’s not binding the Echoes themselves- that’s why the Warden has specific enchantments to keep us trapped and keep us safe.”

Pravala turned back to face the girls, her eyes wide. In all honesty, the look now started to seem more like when Pravala completely broke down in Eris’s workshop before trying to kill her- insanity and desperation peeking around the edges of a mask struggling to hold.

“It’s binding our souls. The magic of the Seven; our skills, our classes, everything- it’s a part of the Seven that’s being gifted into the world through us. We carry parts of the Seven in our soul. And if the Obelisk has multiple Echoes trapped from each member of the Seven trapped, and all of their souls are being bound to and funneled into the Obelisk which is specifically shaped like Eris’s Skeleton Key so it can condense magic on itself and force it to do things that it shouldn’t normally be able to do-”

Eris furrowed her brow. “You’re saying that the Warden is using Echoes trapped in the Obelisk… to power the Obelisk?”

“No! Yes! Yes? Uhh…” Pravala glanced around for a single moment before the space she was standing turned into smoke that vanished almost as quickly. Off to the side, Eris then saw Pravala snatching one of the carefully-crafted Ichryte runestones of siphoning from the top of the two fully-loaded carts sitting beside the Adjudication’s Altar. Before Eris could say a single thing, Pravala was running over with the gem in her grasp.

“Your Skeleton Key works, and can create pathways to travel through, but almost definitely not through the enchantments of the Obelisk that is actively preventing us from getting out. So, you’re using Ichryte to forcibly overload the Key with magic, condense that magic into unstable but powerful forms, and cause it to produce a result that should be beyond what the Key is normally capable of.”

Pravala was breathing hard when her feet stopped just a bit away from the trio of girls. The look in her eyes was almost like a wild beast. Eris took an instinctive step back.

“The legends say that the Seven, and only the Seven, were able to imprison Akkaru’um the first time,” Pravala spoke practically without breathing. “If there really was no way for Echoes to be able to reach that kind of power, what if the Artificers found a way to replicate something similar? What if, by taking a bunch of Echoes from each of the Seven, then binding all their magic together and condensing it so it becomes unstable, that power was enough to match or even exceed what the Seven themselves were capable of?”

Pravala held for a tense pause, then lifted the runestone in her grip to look at it with an almost dreamlike expression. “I’m just a piece of Ichryte for a larger purpose…”

Bailey blinked. “That’s… a theory.”

“A theory that doesn’t change the fact that the world is still dying,” Elmas added flatly. “Even if this idea is correct- even if you’re part of some grand design to trap a world-devouring beast, the Hollow is destroying everything. You’re welcome to keep staying in this cave if you want, but Eris, Bailey, myself, and every single other person you have enslaved here are leaving- today.”

As if on cue, Bailey hopped in with a chirp in her voice. “That’s right- we’ll all do our part to save the world! You can stay in here, knowing that your presence alone is helping to keep Avocado-or-whatever trapped away in the Obelisk, so you’re protecting the world from that. Meanwhile, us and Eris will be back on Tonshlur, fighting against the Hollow and saving everyone from that.”

Eris was almost ashamed at how long it took her to realize what the two were doing. The Summoner had offered a theory, and now the two were throwing it right back at her in the biggest ultimatum Eris had ever seen; if Pravala left the Obelisk, she was risking the release of Akkaru’um, starting Miknalor, and ending the world. If Pravala prevented Eris from leaving, the Hollow would end everything regardless.

It didn’t even matter if Pravala’s theory was real or not. It could have been- there was definitely support, but Eris wasn’t even going to pretend like she could perfectly guess every detail. For all they knew, the Obelisk might not have anything to do with Akkaru’um or Miknalor at all. It could just be some kind of ultra-solitary-confinement prison for awful people like Pravala, where the Wardens were taking energy and pumping it back through the Obelisk so that the old Artificers could use the big black pillar like a sap spigot in a magical tree. Then they could take all that magic from the banished prisoners and keep using it for whatever they so pleased.

However, all that mattered was for Pravala to believe in her theory. If the insane woman truly believed she was right, then that could be the simplest and cleanest solution to this entire problem. They could leave, and didn’t even have to worry about Pravala coming back and causing problems. Eris wouldn’t have to try and kill the woman. She could just leave, let Pravala rot in this damned place and never look back.

Eris decided to go for the throat.

“None of it was ever for nothing, Pravala.” That made the Summoner glance over with curiosity, but Eris continued. “Everything you did. All the bad, with no chance to ever do the good you were promised. Maybe you were supposed to do all those bad things specifically so you would get questioned by the Conclave, and in turn reveal your theory about Miknalor and the possibility of preventing it.”

Eris fought the urge for bile to rise, taking a small step towards Pravala. “That let important people like Vojemala know that maybe something could be done about it, and so they got to work on a solution to the problem based on your concerns. That alone would have been enough to make everything worth it as long as it worked, but then they went a step further and made you even more useful. They made you a part of their plan. They made you one of the locks holding back the end of the world so that even though you didn’t know it, you were saving everyone.”

The words coming from Eris’s mouth tasted like soured milk.

“You gave up everything to save the world from Miknalor, and you did. Indirectly, and not by your own actions, but everything you did eventually resulted in this exact scenario. The world isn’t being consumed by Akkaru’um, and that’s because of you. You saved the world, Pravala. And you can make sure that the world continues to stay safe from the threat you gave everything for. You can stay here and stop Miknalor, while I go and stop the Hollow.”

Eris bit the inside of her cheek. She really didn’t want to touch the woman, but she also needed to sell this BS offer. Eris reached up and rested a hand on Pravala’s shoulder.

“Everything has a return, like you said. You just couldn’t see the good you’re still doing.”

The redhead watched Pravala carefully. The woman’s face seemed to go through any number of expressions, not that Eris could even begin to understand how she may have been feeling. After all, she may have only come up with her theory out of the pure desperation she held to be useful, and now she had to weigh that chance against logic.

Eris wasn’t sure if she should be thankful or not for the distraction when all of their attention was torn away by the sound of a beast carving through solidified muck turned into a distinct clanging of metal. Glancing over, Eris could see a crater nearly as deep as she was tall in the shell surrounding the Warden, with that nose-horned beast absolutely covered in mud continuing to drag its face through the material like some kind of shovel. All the mud clinging to its body dropped to the ground in a splat as the beast fizzled into dust. Pravala waved her hand with a distracted expression.

“Go.”

Eris decided not to push her luck with trying to continue the conversation. Instead, she ran up and ducked her upper body into the hole Pravala’s beast left behind. Well, she had to squeeze through a gap between the chains criss-crossing the body, but that was part of the reason why she left the holes nearly five feet wide. After all, when trying to trap something the size of a building, there was lots of wiggle room that could be afforded. Especially when she would also need to wheel the Altar to touch the Warden, without having the Altar also touch and subsequently drain the magic of the chains holding said Warden in place.

The tingling of magic under her skin grew even stronger- moreso as Eris leaned forward in the hole. One hand tried to brace on the inside of the crater, finding a surprising amount of purchase in the mud. Although it was dripping in more spots than not and was definitely going to make Eris filthy, the rest of it was genuinely like armour. Eris could rap her knuckles against the rock-like clay, where four hundred years of ocean sediment had built up. Her other hand, however, was scooping away as much of the loose mud as possible further in until her fingers brushed more rock. Except it wasn’t rock- it had a slightly different texture and colour.

The metal under Eris’s fingertips was scarred over in red-tinted rust, but it didn’t wipe off easily like Eris would expect. In fact, the rust was broken and cracked, splitting open to create fissures in the metal that were uncannily straight. The lines were clean, not jagged, and it was only after Eris traced the oddly smooth edge for a couple inches with her finger that she realized the cracks were engravings- the same markings she saw in Pravala’s memories. Except that shouldn’t have been possible. Unless…

“Did you regrow your runes…?” Eris mumbled.

“Huh?” A voice from the entrance to the crater made Eris peek back around to see Bailey peeking around the muck. Eris blinked.

“Oh- uhh… there’s insane rust buildup like I expected, but it still has the engravings and carvings. Almost like the metal remembered the runes and forced the rust to grow in a way that the runes were still present. None of the rust is breaking off or anything either- it’s all holding on despite the damage.”

“I’ve heard of similar phenomena regarding especially powerful items.” Elmas now stepped up to take up the opening of the hole in the shell. “Glass bottles from high level Artisans have the pieces slightly magnetize to each other if shattered. Frayed threads on a robe made by a Weaver will still hold together on the loose end. The effect is far more prominent with artifacts from the old Artificers. I heard that there’s an ancient spear with a head so rusted it’s nothing more than red sand, yet it still holds an edge sharp enough to cut steel.”

Eris blew a raspberry.

“Alright- uhh, maybe we can wheel the Altar over here? The sooner we start draining this thing, the better.”

”Tarmen.”

Pravala’s voice chimed from out of view, but Eris could look over Elmas’s shoulder and see some of the unnamed volunteers waiting by the Altar and the Ichryte carts spring into motion. Both Elmas and Bailey moved to the side to make space for the low wooden platform on wheels. Thankfully, the way that the Warden landed meant that the cart could be wheeled underneath the first chain stretched across the crater, but it did need to be tilted up and roughly rolled over the second chain along the ground. Eris even had to press herself into the mud wall to get out of the way enough for the small platform to squeeze past. The now-even-filthier redhead still had to partially crouch on the wheeled platform and shove with her entire body weight to inch the marble Altar just a teeny bit further until the back edge was pressing firmly up into the underside of the rusted Warden.

As for the Altar itself, Eris wanted to see it glowing. She wanted to see it humming with power and magic after what she went through in their ordeal to charge the damned thing. Instead, it seemed as though the charge of the Altar had no perceivable difference. It was just as bland as normal. Gaudy, given the white marble and gold design, but otherwise mundane. It almost seemed insulting- like nothing Eris went through mattered. Thankfully, Eris could feel otherwise. Something intangible- something almost like the buzzing of the Warden itself. A tingling underneath her skin that gave a sense almost like hunger- an Altar ready to feast.

Eris naturally had to position her backside to the opening of the crater while she grunted and shoved the Altar into position, meaning she fell flat onto the tilted surface with a wheeze when one of her feet slipped on the mud. Hands scrabbled at anywhere she could reach on the Altar- smearing dirt and grime all over the clean sides and back of the Altar until she could get her feet back under her.

“Woah, you okay?” Bailey asked.

“Yeah,” Eris grunted, lowering herself down onto her knees to look at where the marble was pressed into rusted metal. “Damned slippery in here.”

“I don’t doubt that,” Bailey chuckled. “Just be careful, okay?”

Eris simply gave a grunting noise in response, focusing more on making sure her arms wouldn’t be able to be seen from behind her. In one muddy hand, a whitish-translucent, ovaloid gemstone was held between her fingers. Meanwhile, the fixture on the backside of the Altar- the same side pressed up into the Warden and thus out of view to anyone that didn’t crawl all the way inside and over- was empty.

The Rune of Modification was almost glowing in Eris’s grip. She made sure to smear an extra-thick layer of mud across it to make sure any light would be snuffed out. Then, with one final look at the emergency plan in her grip should Pravala decide her own desperate theory wasn’t worth following, Eris pressed the crystal into one of the fissures splitting the rust into engravings.

As the Ichryte began to crumble under Eris’s muddy fingers, that humming magic of the Warden suddenly became near-overpowering. She could feel the vibrations rolling up her arm and into her chest, then flowing back down her veins and into the Warden once more. Like a river flowing in a perfect circle. Furthermore, she couldn’t even read the Inspection of the Warden in her mind- she could feel it boiling in that same water. It was flowing quickly and forcefully- a wave of power that Eris wouldn’t be able to stop in the slightest. However, Eris could feel just the tiniest bit of malleability in that energy. It couldn’t be broken, but perhaps it could be bent.

More than anything, it felt as though Eris were dipping her hand into the water- cupping her fingers to make it flow in a slightly different direction. As the direction changed, so did the colour. Eris never realized that the magic even had a colour in the first place, but it changed regardless; into something that was equally hard to describe. Like the colour of how a pine tree would smell, turning into the colour of what it felt like to drag her hand across a carpet.

Eris expected that changing the functionality of the Warden would be like using Obfuscation- rewriting the sentences and having the effects change based on what was written. Instead, it seemed to happen in the opposite order. Eris felt the flowing river of the Warden’s energy shift and mutate into something new, while the words rolling through her mind shuddered in response. It was almost disorienting when the looping magic abruptly pulled away, wrenching free from Eris’s chest and forcing her to blink several times.

Her fingers that had been pressing the Ichryte up into the Warden were now pressing squarely against rust- the gem having apparently dissolved. However, Eris focused her intent to peek into the Warden’s magic. It worked- she knew it did. But Eris just needed to make sure. She had to.

Death Trap: Alda 3

Durability: 100%

A perfected imitation of life, driven by a single purpose of extermination. Created by Balzonest Exxinter and Ihxal Wb’bami. Made from iron, steel, cadell vigso, blood from Balzonest Exxinter, and the soul of a grizzly bear.

Additional effect: Restraining Order

The first time an Echo bound to Alda, The Promise, enters the territory that Death Trap: Alda 3 has been set to guard, that creature becomes marked indefinitely as a ‘Threat’. Once a Threat has been designated by Death Trap: Alda 3, it cannot be changed, nor can Death Trap: Alda 3 mark a different creature as its Threat. Death Trap: Alda 3 will do whatever possible to ensure that the Threat will never leave the guarded location.

Additional effect: Elimination Protocol

While a creature is marked as a Threat, Death Trap: Alda 3 can only kill the Threat or take action that would result in the Threat’s death. Additionally, Death Trap: Alda 3 will ensure the fatality of its Threat at all costs.

Additional effect: Tether Essence

While a Threat is alive and remains in their designated prison realm, Death Trap: Alda 3 binds the Threat’s magical essence to the Abstract of Eternity.

Additional effect: Orgasmic Reconstruction

While at less than 100% Durability, Death Trap: Alda 3 will absorb all humanoid ejaculatory fluid it comes into contact with, restoring 1% of its maximum Durability for every milliliter of fluid absorbed.

Additional effect: Cozen

Every time Death Trap: Alda 3 causes injury to a creature, one of their Active or Passive skills (if any) will be chosen at random and become Hindered for five seconds. If the Hindered skill is an Active skill, it cannot be used for the duration. If the Hindered skill is a Passive skill, none of its effects can apply for the duration.

By the Seven, it was perfect. As uncannily so as both the Adjudication’s Altar and the Skeleton Key. It couldn’t have been a better result. Eris had her doubts about the ability of her simple rune to change the effect of something so powerful, but she supposed that a single-minded purpose of protecting a target and a single-minded purpose of killing a target weren’t actually too different of a goal. The Warden’s entire existence still revolved around Pravala- just what it did with that existence was different.

Eris’s blood went cold. She had her weapon. She could do it. She could kill Pravala. She could end that woman’s worthless life. Not by her own hands, but she could still set everything in motion. It scared her. It excited her. It scared her because it excited her.

Eris wanted Pravala to die. She wanted to watch the woman bleed, and beg. She wanted to make sure that there was no chance whatsoever that Pravala could hurt anyone Eris cared about- especially not Jaxie. The woman couldn’t be afforded the chance to get out. The entire time up to this point, it had been a distant prospect- a ‘What If’ scenario. It was extremely easy to imagine firing a crossbow and ending someone’s life. Now, Eris had one loaded, primed, lifted and aimed. There was no more imagining. All Eris had left was a single choice- a yes or no question. Whether or not she was actually willing to pull that trigger.

But, Pravala’s entire view seemed to be completely shaken by the Warden’s description. Her theory that she and other Echoes were a part of some bigger design certainly had possibility behind it. Would Pravala genuinely consider staying in the Obelisk? She’d been stuck here for over four centuries, holding onto nothing but the desperate hope that she could eventually get out and provide the good she’d been robbed of. The woman was so desperate for vindication it was tearing her mind to pieces. Would a passing theory be enough to hold the woman together until Eris and the others escaped? What if-

“Hey, Eris, everything okay?”

Bailey’s voice chirped up from outside the crater, snapping Eris back to her senses. She managed a quick nod, then started crawling back over the Altar and out of the divet. “Yeah, I’m good. I think we’re ready.”

“Cool, cool. So what, we just stand back while you turn on the Altar and start sucking the Warden, then wheel the Altar out to put all that funk into the Ichryte?”

Eris took a deep breath, looking over Bailey, Elmas, all the other enslaved pointedly staring at the bound Warden, and finally Pravala. Eris’s eye twitched.

If she left Pravala behind, that left the possibility of the woman somehow finding a different way out. After all, Eris might not even be able to bring her creations with her- particularly the Skeleton Key. For all she knew, trying to move the key while the path was active would end it instantly. That meant Pravala would be left in here with an item that had proven capable of letting people escape. Sure, the Key could only be used by ‘the creator’, but Pravala did technically help in making the thing, so what if the woman could use it?

Not only that, Bailey and Elmas were enslaved to Pravala by their very souls. What if Pravala could still possess or control them even if she was stuck in the Obelisk? What if she tried to hurt people?

What if, because of that connection, Bailey and Elmas weren’t even able to leave the Obelisk at all if Pravala chose to stay? Even if that last part of the Warden’s effect wasn’t something else keeping Pravala here, there was still a disappointing chance of the two being unable to follow. Of the thousand others being unable to follow. After all, Eris couldn’t imagine any particular reason that Vojemala would need to bring every single one of Pravala’s enslaved with her into the Obelisk, but here all of them were. Maybe they were transported into the Obelisk simply by proxy of being connected to Pravala- in the same way that parties who were physically touching each other were put in the same place when they entered. If that was the case, then if Bailey or Elmas tried to leave, it would either prevent them from doing so whatsoever, or drag Pravala out by force.

Neither option was acceptable.

“Eris?” Bailey asked, gently touching the Artificer’s shoulder. “You okay?”

Eris blinked, staring past the blonde at someone else. “Yeah. Just having the awful realization that Pravala’s one-hundred percent right.”

That made the Summoner raise an eyebrow. “In what way?”

“That we can’t be pure and still achieve our goals,” Eris said flatly. “In order to make the world better, we have to be worse. And in order to make sure that a job is done, we can’t take any chances. We take things into our own hands, and we do what we need to do no matter the cost.”

Eris took a step forward towards the Summoner. She never originally planned for things to play out this way. It was supposed to be; trap the Warden, modify the Warden, drain the Warden for all the magic Eris needed while it was still pinned, then release the Warden to let it kill Pravala. After that, she’d worry about using the Key to escape. That was how it was supposed to go. That way, the plan guaranteed the escape (as much as it could), while still having very high odds of eliminating Pravala.

Fuck the plan.

Eris couldn’t take risks. Not anymore. She couldn’t afford draining the Warden and potentially weakening it. She needed it in top shape to guarantee that Pravala died. She couldn’t afford going a few more steps in the plan and opening up more opportunities for things to go wrong. It didn’t matter what happened after.

She just needed Pravala to die- no matter what it took.

Eris sighed, staring hard at the smug-looking Summoner while reaching into her pocket and grabbing a wooden ball. “You taught me that Echoes need to be monsters. Now, I believe you.”

Pravala’s smug look suddenly shifted to concern, looking at the wooden orb with a small length of string hanging from the bottom, yet unable to Inspect it just like with most other Artificer creations. Her eyebrows furrowed. “Wait, what are you-”

Eris’s hands were shaking as she pulled the string, activating the world’s most powerful Smoke Bomb.