5.8 Vault spiral

Difference: Minimal
AN: Sorry about the delay. Sometimes life just hits me a combination of writer's block, busyness, and crippling fatigue. As has been happening over the last two weeks as my uni semester has been ending and several months of perpetual sleep deprivation is catching up with me. As some of you may know, I cannot keep any backlog for the life of me, thus this situation.
Anyway, I will aim to get a second chapter out on Sunday/Monday, then return to regular posting. Enjoy.

Elizabeth and Desir tried to argue for more forces again, but their Domain mage was clearly unbothered by logical arguments. Even Irwyn could tell rather quickly that there was no real point in trying to change the man’s mind. It was not strategy that motivated his choice, after all, but pettiness. Or perhaps ulterior motives. Either way, A-something, perhaps hole, soon enough shut down even those complaints.

“Enough. The arranged time has come. We have to enter with the other groups, therefore, there is no further time for reconsideration.”

Irwyn glanced at Elizabeth, who frowned, but finally sighed and nodded towards their group. The Magelord was already leaning against the large building’s doorway, cracking it open. He had heard it referred to as ‘vault’, but that did not seem like the best word. From what Irwyn understood, it was an entire large complex with individual smaller vaults sprinkled within. It was also highly enchanted, a thousand strands of interwoven mana seeping deep into the thick walls, visible even from the outside but obscured in their nature.

More importantly, the moment the doorway was open, the smell got far worse. Irwyn did not actually say that out loud in front of their semi-hostile company, but he nodded at Elizabeth’s questioning glance. Then her distant cousin beckoned for them to go in first, so they did. 

Before Irwyn took so much as a step inside, he felt something impact on his barrier and try to force its way through. The spell failed. Whatever Concept had empowered it - because anything less would not have even registered so strongly - was seemingly focused on stealth and ambush than punching power. After all, no one seemed to have felt the attack coming. But that was why Irwyn always had his barriers running. Why he had even committed one of his two ‘available’ Concepts to them.

The idea behind that was simple. If he and Elizabeth were pretending to only possess two Concepts each at most, one had to obviously be Starfire for Irwyn, simply for the sheer breadth of options it provided. The second though was harder to settle on. Irwyn had eventually chosen to display the Concept of Empyreans unreachable, as it was at its best when always in use. As a defensive tool, he deployed it where people could see. And when it came to his offensive Concepts, he could be much more selective to ensure no witnesses if the need to use them arose. 

Irwyn had the leisure to muse on those idle thoughts while he waited for Elizabeth to return. He had not noticed the exact moment she had left, but they had an understanding of how each of them operated. When ambushed, she would be the one to counter. To stride out into the fray and cut their foes down before they even realized their sneak attack had completely failed.

Meanwhile, Irwyn was the fortress and artillery. With infinite mana and a powerful Concept behind them, his barriers were incredibly difficult to break to anyone even remotely close in power. He was the immovable point of retreat that Elizabeth could return to in-between striking out. At the same time, any target in the open he would burn to ash, or at the very least distract with the attempt. 

Just a few moments after the initial attack, Elizabeth reappeared inside his barriers. She had woven through the slightest precise gap he intentionally left for her - so complex that actually slipping thorough required not only the knowledge but also hours of explicit practice. It was their solution to maintaining Elizabeth’s maneuverability while Irwyn prepared to prevent even the most esoteric directions of attack. Like teleporting to or from the inside his barriers or the many obscure prismatic elements prone to outright bypassing them. 

“I took one down, draugr, stealth ambusher,” she reported.

“Is there a different kind?” Desir asked, raising a brow.

“Team ambushers that don’t provide their own openings,” she nodded. “Or social ambushers, so infiltrators. ‘Stealth’ means that the undead is hard to notice by itself.” 

“We need to move,” the Magelord interrupted. “The other teams rely on a strict schedule being kept.”

“If we are being attacked right by the door, there is no schedule anymore,” Elizabeth grunted. “The whole area has to be swarming. But yes, we should hurry if we can.”

So they stepped inside properly. The hallway by the entrance was wide and long, enough space to easily fit their entire group, unwanted passenger included. The walls were metallic, with the ceiling arched, and dark tiles covering the ground. Strangely, Irwyn could not see through the whole hallway, a veil of magical darkness obscuring his sight.

“Space is twisted,” Alice commented. “Stretched and expanded beyond reason.”

“Yes, the vault is larger on the inside for hopefully obvious reasons,” A-man launched a bit of a mocking quip. “It is not unusual.”

“But not like this,” Alice shook her head. “This is too far out of shape. I can almost feel the edges fraying from instability because of how much larger this place is than it should be even with Time magic. That seems like too amateurish of a mistake for an experienced enchanter to make.”

“They are trying to collapse the space then,” Irwyn deduced. “Burry everything and everyone in ruble when this place gets squeezed back into the normal world. They might actually already be ready to trigger that at any moment.”

“I don’t think that is quite the case,” Alice explained. “If that were so, it would likely be much more noticeable than just slight fraying.”

“Warn us if that changes,” Elizabeth decided. “It could well be the Rot preparing to detonate the enchantments like a bomb, but it’s simply not quite ready.”

“Or it will happen the moment we get too deep,” Irwyn added.

“Spatial collapse will have some force, but likely not enough to break your barriers,” Elizabeth shrugged. “So just stay within.”

Which was not meant for Irwyn, but Waylan. Who was likely still with them, but hiding from the Magelord. Or he could have stayed outside for all Irwyn knew. It was arguable which would be safer since Waylan could be in serious trouble if he was somehow detected by a hair-trigger mage.

“Incoming,” Desir announced, staring down the corridor. 

“Where?” Irwyn saw nothing of the sort.

“I just feel the Souls,” Desir answered. “Creeping across the corridor ahead.”

Irwyn still didn’t see anything. So, he set the entire corridor ablaze. Even when holding back on his power, it was trivially easy to flood a few hundred cubic meters of space with undiluted Starfire. With just the single Concept, the effect was still incredibly destructive. And if anything could resist, well, then he knew where that something could actually be found.

“Gone,” Desir confirmed, rendering that point moot.

“Good, but conserve mana. Even your Vessel has limits, Irwyn,” Elizabeth told him, then without a glance back urged the group forward.

He immediately realized his mistake. Endless supplies of magic were one of his greater advantages, but they could easily be misunderstood. After all, if someone saw him wielding quantities of mana that no two Concept mage could possibly possess, the easier explanation to stumble into was ‘he has more Concepts’ rather than ‘unprecedentedly anomalous mana pool’. Again, their hostile observer was making things complicated. Yet that wrong guess was exactly the impression they did not want to present.

“What was the stealth based on?” Alice interjected.

“By process of elimination, likely Realm,” Desir guessed. It was the element they had minimal coverage of - Desir had the affinity but next to no actual practice. “Melding into the tiles? They seem scorched or outright missing at points.”

“The walls would have rejected such intrusion due to the enchantments, but the floor only seems to be spelled beneath the flooring,” Elizabeth concurred. “Desir, confirm it isn’t used again with more subtlety as we move along.”

“I could burn all and any,” Irwyn offered.

“The material is still decently reinforced and thus hard to destroy. Too much attrition for dubious gain,” Elizabeth rejected. “I expect this flooring will be everywhere, and we could be in this engagement for a while. Move forward.”

“Can you see past the darkness ahead?” Alice asked as they began walking.

“Yes, two hundred meters of a straight corridor before a crossroads. Expect an ambush there. The blackness should naturally disperse in our immediate vicinity.”

There was tension in the air as they stepped ahead, but no other attacks came. At least not for the moment. With a measured pace, they reached the ‘crossroad’. Another corridor opened up to the left while there were thick metal double doors stood to the right. The enchantments on them seemed to surpass even the walls in sheer quantity.

“If I remember the map correctly, on the right should be a singular vault while the way forward is to the left. Is that correct, Lord Alazat?” Elizabeth said. So that was the A-name.

“Yes,” Alazat confirmed as much.

“Irwyn, you will hold the corridor. Block it entirely, just in case. The rest of us will clean out the vault,” she commanded, then got to opening the door. Her first measure was trying her insignia ring. As soon as it made contact with the door, there was an immediate reaction, making it crack open slightly.

“Remember that the contents belong to the army, not your family,” the Magelord mockingly reminded.

“Any contents should be secured lest the Rot misuses them and properly returned once the situation is contained,” she retorted. Then stepped in first. 

Irwyn watched as she immediately parried the bullet something inside had shot at her face. The projectile ricochetted on a wall once, then struck Irwyn’s widened barrier, which vaporized it. Meanwhile, Elizabeth was already rushing inside. The motion was far slower than what Irwyn knew she was capable of, but still blindingly swift. 

He felt the following surges of magic, but any further projectiles did not make it past the doorway. Desir and Alice stayed back while Elizabeth destroyed whatever hazards were apparent, and only went in when she gave the signal a few seconds later. Among the three of them, they should spot almost anything hidden within.

But in the meantime, Elizabeth’s cousin took advantage of Irwyn being alone to approach. 

“So, are you open to alternative employment?” the man had the audacity to whisper.

“I doubt you could entice me,” Irwyn tried to be diplomatic. The answer was obviously no, but it was better to not let the man become certain of that. Ebon Respite taught him that certain men did not like getting a straight ‘no’. It was a needless risk to take while they were in close quarters like so. Halfhearted denials would not arouse suspicion, but make A-name think there was a chance.

“You would be surprised,” he looked at Irwyn thoughtfully. “My extended family always seeks more talent, and you may find the main House less steady than it appears. After all, it relies entirely on Ezax von Blackburg not dying in a Lich war. And even Dukes do, from time to time, as we have seen recently. He is no Conflagration in that regard.”

“Everything in life is a gamble, but I am quite happy with what I receive.”

“Which can be outbid, I am sure. What do they offer you? Knowledge? Wealth? Status?” He glanced towards the vault thoughtfully. “Sex? Either or all of those could be outdone. You appeared out of nowhere, yet aren’t a Shade in training… So, likely scouted from the public academies, but perhaps without the understanding of your own worth. Trust me, young man, there is nothing to drive up prices like a bidding war. And no surer way to undersell yourself than to forgo one.”

“I hear your words, but they are only promises,” Irwyn said, but tried to infuse some feigned interest into the words.

“Just think it through,” the Magelord added, then stepped away to try and play innocent. Irwyn was pretty sure everyone had heard anyway. Desir had an instinct for conversations like such, Alice was an unrepentant eavesdropper, and Elizabeth had potent enough senses to hear even a low whisper during active combat. Not to mention, Waylan had probably been standing right next to them and snickering throughout.

No one commented on the interaction afterward, though. Altogether, it didn’t take the group more than two minutes to secure the vault from when it had first been opened. Once they were out, Elizabeth merely stated: “Done, we continue.” And they went.

Down another long corridor that gradually twisted into a spiral after eventually coming to another intersection with a different small vault. The rest of the group had studied a map of the whole complex before entry, but Irwyn lacked the ability to properly read the layered mess of lines that depicted it. Because the geometry naturally didn’t make sense. Irwyn had trouble enough with normal maps, much less non-Euclidean ones. 

Nevertheless, he had questions. “Will the path from the other entrances eventually intersect?”

“Yes, but far deeper in than we have gone so far,” Alice answered. “Whoever built this place was going for form over function, and it shows.”

“The hallways together form a spell shape,” the Magelord actually contributed. “I do not know what exactly it depicts, but building the hallways as such empowers the teleportation wards. Even a Truth mage would have to break them to get in or out of this vault.”

“So more mundane infiltration has sufficed,” Elizabeth noted. “How was the security possibly poor enough to allow for that?”

“Right before the war started, someone had robbed one of the inner-most vaults - the damn Rot, in hindsight,” he said, frowning. “So the entire compound was being emptied before that same flaw could be exploited again. But the urgent inspection was put on hold because of the war and with the vast majority of value moved elsewhere there was no point in dedicating manpower to patrolling these hallways. Or at least it had seemed that way.”

“What was actually stolen?” Elizabeth pushed. “Under this many wards, it must have been something dangerous. Or more than one thing?”

“Just the Impresent’s mantle. An powerful old artifact mostly focused on stealth. Fitting for the current scourge, I suppose. It will be a menace when they use it - or rather, they probably already had without being noticed.”

“Oh?” A quirk of amusement slipped onto her lips. If Irwyn wasn’t making that very same connection in the moment, he would have thought it mocking. “I have heard about that. So it happened here, has it? The world truly is full of coincidences.”

Waylan was probably laughing himself numb at their expense. The bastard must have known since the moment they had entered the fortress. And he probably knew these vaults quite well too, since he had apparently once snuck right through them.

“Was it ever confirmed what has happened to it?” Irwyn couldn’t help but ask.

“Our divination only traced a tauntingly obvious decoy,” the man shook his head bitterly. “When the Lich war started so soon after, it was presumed lost to the undead. So we reported as much to the inquisition and stopped attempting to find the thieves. Not that there had been any real clues anyhow.”

Irwyn could just about imagine the obvious decoy slapping his knees at getting away with the whole thing. Though it did beckon the question of why Waylan had been punished at all if everyone had assumed he was basically a joke left behind by the actual vault-breakers. The answer was probably a bastard having a bad day and taking it out on a tangentially related thief. Something to look into after the war.

They continued down the increasingly more twisted corridor until they reached the next vault. By then, the structure was bending enough that he couldn’t even see the magical darkness anymore - a turn was always too close for that. But the prolonged quiet was setting Irwyn on edge. The second small vault hadn’t even contained an ambush at all. It was making him nervous because he could definitely still smell the Rot, just not how close it might be due to the sheer omnipresence of said smell. That calm ended the moment Elizabeth entered the new vault.

Rather than a projectile, the vault detonated from the inside as soon as Elizabeth passed her ring against the door. Near instantaneous explosion was still rather slow by her standards though, so she managed to step back inside Irwyn’s barriers before the double doors even properly began to move. Then the hunks of metal slammed into Irwyn’s barriers, yet survived with next to no damage. The Conceptual incineration inflicted on anything his Starfire touched managed to only leave slight scorch marks.

That impact or the shockwave failed to damage Irwyn’s barrier, obviously. There was great force and energy behind it, but no Concept. What was empowered by those was the much subtler wave of mana trying to hide beneath the forceful distraction. Irwyn had noticed it coming, so he was prepared, yet the impact still startled him.

The spell wanted his barrier to Decay. Empyreans unreachable easily countered that much by insisting that there was nothing in the spell’s structure for the necromancy to reach, but Irwyn was still startled by the sheer intensity of the insistence from the other caster. Just because it was impossible did not mean it was not demanded. Continuously. He had not noticed it before as the prior attacks had been brief, but the current one was struggling to actively cling to his defenses.

It reminded Irwyn of something said all the way back during the siege of Abonisle. That undead were particularly dangerous in Conception, because that power was closely related to belief and willpower. And the undead were deeply malleable as well as zealots beyond any other. They were completely willing to be completely mentally twisted until only pure insistence remained. And that insistence demanded that their Concept apply to anything with utmost potency.

It was so very different from all the monsters Irwyn had faced during the Trial. Those had been basically the opposite. Much more raw mana and primal aggression, but they had been severely lacking in the department of conviction. They had still taught him much though. Namely, that while the intent of a Concept mattered deeply for equivalent mages, it was possible to just out-flood the enemy with enough additional mana. After all, even the best fisherman could not compete with three merely competent ones.

But the spell coming from out of the vault was not the only one. From the corridor ahead, a full barrage of projectiles opened. Several hundred spikes of magic approached with haste. Irwyn had enough time to start shooting some down, but not nearly what would be needed to hit all of them. Therefore, his barrier bore most of that impact as well. And refused to so much as crack.

Empyrean unreachable was such a wonderful Concept as Irwyn well knew. It wasn’t merely defensive, but it also won the game of rock-paper-scissor against basically any other Concepts he had run into. After all, ‘I am beyond reach’ was an incredible counter to almost any vector of attack. Together with his prodigious mana, he withstood the pressure of so many potent spells with… not ease, but without strain. 

Meanwhile, the rest of their group abused that safety with fervor. Elizabeth stepped into the vault and moved to quickly eliminate the threat within. The other two targeted the faraway group, which was at least visible at the edge of the curve. Desir would point at individual undead, and they would collapse - their animated unlife broken. Alice in the meanwhile picked out individual creatures from within their own barriers to teleport into close range with Irwyn. After the first time which had surprised him, he was ready to incinerate them immediately. Whatever defenses against those attacks the undead had, they were clearly not sufficient.

Once Elizabeth was done with the vault, she took over interception duty. With his burder diminished, Irwyn went on the offensive. He could not tap into Desolate Starfall due to their observer, but he still acted as artillery with just his Starfire that was still angled towards destruction.

Though the results were frankly minimal. His direct assault was encountering the same problems as the enemy’s. Most of everything was intercepted and forced to explode mid air, and the few attacks that landed were not sufficient to even shake the opposing barrier. It would have been different if Irwyn could actually put all he had into the magic, but with the restraints he could not easily overcome an entire mage corp’s worth of Conception artillerists.

Whose numbers were not reducing despite the constant casualties. There had been about two dozen huddled tightly in the corridor at the start of the fight. There were just as many still present

“They are replenishing,” Desir explained just as Irwyn was making the same observation. “Every time we destroy one, another comes from behind the corner.”

“Keep going while you can,” Elizabeth nodded. “If they learn to counter both of you, we might have to approach. Let’s inflict maximum damage before then.”