Chapter 16: Springing the Trap
So far, Nathan hadn’t demonstrated a lot of finesse with his aura. Nearly everything in Esbus had been solvable with brute-force application of antimagic. But this door needed a more subtle touch. There were multiple components, but the two that Nathan cared about were the alarm and the anti-tamper mechanisms. If the door detected that it was being subverted, it would send out an alarm and fuse into a solid brick of metal multiple feet thick that would have to be cut through manually. It wouldn't stop them, but it would slow them down.
And it wouldn’t send the right message.
“I’m going to need a moment,” he said over his shoulder. “They should only be able to come in via the elevator. I’m blocking teleports into this level.” He saw the Heirs clearing the bodies and setting up in the now-vacant defensive positions. The emplaced weapons wouldn’t do them any good, but multiple inches of alloyed metal was a solid defense even if it had been stripped of most of its magic.
He turned back to the door and dove into the complexity of the wizardry. It was on the same tier as the most complicated enchantments he’d hacked in the Ascendant Academy, but this time he didn’t have the advantage of a week of practice on the same paradigm of enchantments. The wizardry on this door was notably different, structured in a hierarchical manner like the more standard style of Esebus enchantments.
Nathan’s goal here wasn’t to bypass the door in a stealthy manner. He wanted it open, but triggering the alarm was the goal, especially if the signal on the door went where he thought it did. He was pretty sure the alarm was more than a simple alert - it would also transmit information on the state of the enchantment. Nathan stopped jamming magical transmissions before he clamped down on the anti-tampering mechanisms that would sabotage the door. Then he brute-forced the opening mechanism. It was cruder and less precise than properly hacking the mechanisms, but it was certainly faster.
| Aura Control 6 achieved! |