Devourer

Chapter 110: No Fun

As I scanned this library the first thing that drew my eye was this massive book at the end of the room on this fancy gold pedestal. It was a really large book, it was about as big as Cecilia’s torso and it looked damaged. As I approached it I noticed it looked like it was missing parts of it. This must be a really valuable book if it holds the place of honour here even in its damaged state. 

Once I got a good look at the cover I realised why. The title of the book honestly got me really excited, but said excitement quickly waned when I realised the book was missing a good portion of its later pages. The spine was limp and from what I can tell it was missing at least a quarter of the later pages.

The title was simply “The Creation of Grahanam Crowns”

Rather simple title, to the point and direct. But judging from the state of the book, I won’t be figuring out how to create Grahanam Crowns. Still it shouldn’t be completely useless if not the creators of this vault wouldn’t have put this here in the first place. 

When I opened the text the first thing I checked was the index. As I scanned the listed chapters of this absurdly large and thick book I realised why they still kept it. Grahanam Crowns was not some simple contraption. It relied on the synthesis of this material called the Mirror of Blackest Glass. This was the black glass like material in the centre of the Grahanam Crown and as far as I can tell that was where the essence was stored. Most of the earlier chapters were just dedicated to the creation of this material. I flipped to the first chapter and saw that the words were dense and tiny. I definitely wouldn’t be able to read it now, there was just too much so I decided to put it aside for now.

I moved onto the nearby shelf and took out a random bullprint. I gazed at the blueprint in my hand and saw that it was dwarven in origin. It wasn’t a blueprint for a machine or some kind of contraption. It was instead a blueprint for a type of enchantment. It showed an ether script and how to inlay it into mithril. It was a cursed black fire enchantment, far more potent and also far more complex to inscribe than your average enchantment. This was also coincidentally quite effective against angels. 

There was a bit of a common theme here, most of the stuff here seems to have some level of anti angel application. Offensive spells and enchantments that are effective against angels. Defensive spells and enchantments that are effective against angels. Special contraptions that are effective against angels… 

We read and read, looking through as much of it as we could for the next hour.

“Oh I found the rune engraver.” Cecilia said and I turned to see her looking at me as she held a scroll.

“The angels are insidious with their lies. They sold the lie that the old enchanters could just do the enchantments without many additional tools like the way the current enchanters do it. It throttles progress because everyone is going about it the wrong way.” Mahaila muttered in response as she flipped one of the books.

“Anything interesting in that book?” I asked and Mahaila nodded.

“It’s a book of alloys, these offer a cheaper alternative to heavily enchanted mithril and there are some with civilian applications as well. There’s a metal here known as Veradnite. It's lighter than wood but slightly stronger than steel. It says here it’s commonly used in applications like wagons and other transportation.” Mahaila said as she flipped the page.

“Shouldn’t you know all of this? You’ve been around for so long after all.” I asked curiously.

“I’m a swordsman not an artificer, I mostly just know about the combat relevant materials.” Mahaila replied as she shot a look up at me through the corner of her eye.

“Aren’t artificers the ones that make magical artifacts?” I asked.

“These are considered magical artifacts because those wagons were usually enchanted back then. If it was just a normal wagon, then you would just hire a wagon maker.” Mahaila replied.

“Fair enough.” I said with a shrug as we continued to peruse the collection of texts.

“Hmmm, this is useful but I don’t think we can use this on our own…” Cecilia muttered.

“What is it?” I asked as I moved over to her. I looked down and understood what she was talking about, in her hand was a scroll that showed the blueprints for a magical construct, similar to the golems outside.

“I assume your smiths and artificers can’t make this?” I asked dryly and Cecilia gave me an amused look in response.

“Not in the next ten years at least. That is also if they did nothing but study this blueprint. The dwarves would have more luck on this. We don’t have any decent rune crafters either. We can probably do the enchantments but the engravings and the constructions are beyond their abilities.” Cecilia replied with a sigh as she rolled up the scroll.

“I suppose the dwarves just got more important.” Mahaila added as she put the book she was reading back on the shelf.

“Yes, well much of what is here can be put on the table as enticement.” Cecilia said as she took out her storage cube.

“How much stuff can you put in there? It’s taken in quite a bit by now.” I asked as Cecilia channelled power into the storage cube and all the shelves disappeared.

“It’s almost full actually. That’s why I brought a spare.” Cecilia replied as she pocketed the one she was holding and took out another one.

“It’s a clever little thing you know.” Mahaila said as she walked over and looked at the cube.

“It’s mimicking Dimensional Magic through a clever work around. But then again small storage spaces are easy enough to construct if you know how.” Mahaila said.

“Well this one needs to be recharged unlike yours, if it runs out of power the pocket dimension will collapse and all the items will be lost.” Cecilia said as she pocketed the cube.

“Well if mine gets destroyed all my items are lost too. That’s why most only store what is needed in them. We rarely put our entire fortunes in it.” Mahaila replied as we turned around and headed out of the room.

The next vault was rather boring, same as the first vault, nothing but gold and other valuables. The vault after that was actually an armoury. That wasn’t that interesting either to me for obvious reasons. Cecilia was also not that excited considering she was a mage, she just ended up looking around a bit. 

Mahaila on the other hand began taking the weapons off the ornate shelves and started examining them with great interest. Well she was a warrior so this reaction was to be expected. Cecilia on the other hand was just looking at the ones that looked the most artistic.

I watched as she reached for this short mage's staff. It was quite pretty, it was red and gold, the colours of her house. Every piece of equipment in this room from the weapons to the trinkets were all heavily enchanted. So this staff was no exception.

It was red with gold intricate accents and engravings that depicted dragons. It was about as long as an arm so rather short for a staff, at the head of the staff was a small pale gold statue of a phoenix that was spreading its wings.

“Good eye, that’s a good piece.” Mahaila said as she walked over a fancy greatsword in hand.

“What’s with the gold phoenix? I thought phoenix’s didn’t come in a gold colour?” I asked as I gazed at the statue.

“Perhaps it's just artistic licence?” Cecilia suggested but I saw Mahaila shake her head.

“That’s a Progenitor Solari Phoenix.” Mahaila said.

“Ah Malegaros had that genome in him.” I replied as I looked at him.

“Indeed, the Solari Phoenix has a powerful genome. They have a focus on fire based and divine attacks. They possess deadly bombardment abilities that few can resist.” Malegaros said with a nod.

“Huh…” Cecilia said as she looked at the staff.

“You said you needed a royal sceptre right? You could use that one. We can just say I gave it to you, like I have a little stash in the Black Box or something.” I suggested and Cecilia tilted her head as if pondering it.

“Yes I think this will do nicely actually. It’s a powerful staff so it works well with my mage abilities.” Cecilia replied with a nod.

“That one favours fire magic, it’s an ancient Zariman design. The old Zarimans worshipped the dragons but previously they also worshipped the Solari Phoenix. Its command over fire and light was undeniable to the Zarimans.” Mahaila explained.

“I suppose this will do well.” Cecilia said as she tucked it into the belt she was wearing.

“I think I should store these weapons. I’m not sure if your cube can safely store some of these. They might just break your storage cube.” Mahaila said as she took her own. Which wasn’t a cube it was an ornate gold orb with swirling runes inscribed on it.

“See anything you like?” I asked as I looked at Mahaila who was holding this greatsword in her hands.

“Nothing in particular, although if we want to get some good will and secure the loyalty of your existing vassals we can give some of these out. This one looks like a good fit for the Lord Warden.” Mahaila said as she walked over with the great sword.

“It’s made by Jotuns, you can tell by the runes.” Mahaila said as she gestured to the runes on the blade that glowed with an icy blue hue.

“The black ice enchantment is effective against angels since it drains power and slows them down. Angels rely on their mobility so anything that slows them down is extremely effective as an impairment effect.” Mahaila said.

“Is it powerful?” Cecilia asked as Mahaila handed her the blade and Cecilia began examining it.

“Not particularly. It's a legendary piece of equipment by today’s standards but in the grand scheme of things it would be a stretch to call it exceptional.” Mahaila replied and Cecilia nodded in understanding.

“Anything else here that looks interesting?” Cecilia asked as she handed the greatsword back.

“Nothing in particular but I think we should take inventory before we decide who to give what.” Mahaila said as she took out her storage orb and transferred the greatsword into it.

“Sounds good.” I replied and Mahaila nodded before transferring the contents of the room into her storage orb.

With that the smaller rooms were settled and we moved onto the final room that was protected by yet another door.

“Judging from the last vault this one probabaly contained something quite dangerous too. “ Mahaila said as she scanned the door.

“Yeah I guess so, hope the master key works.” I replied as Cecilia held out the totem and the door began to unlock.

“It looks like it does. Wouldn’t be much of a master key it didn’t.” Cecilia said as she put the totem back into her storage cube. 

What the door revealed wasn’t as good as the vault that held Malegaros but it was still pretty good.

“Decent specimens…” Malegaros rumbled as we entered the vault.

The vault was massive and filled with stasis chambers, even more than the one that held Malegaros. There were all kinds of creatures in every shape and size. I looked over to my right and saw what looked to be a blue dragon that was frozen in place.

“Chronomancy is certainly useful.” I mused as I looked at all these creatures seemingly frozen in place for who knows how long.

“Huh, seems like they are taking no chances with this…” Mahaila muttered as she stood in front of the blue dragon. Her eyes were glued onto this contraption that was strapped to its chest. 

“What’s that?” I asked as I looked at the strange machine.

“Release this one and find out.” Mahaila replied with a smirk.

“Won’t it go crazy? What if it damages the other chambers and releases the other beasts?” I asked as I looked at the myriad of other monsters held in this room.

“Don’t worry about it.” Mahaila replied nonchalantly as she calmly tapped on the console in front of this particular stasis chamber.

I was about to shoot forward and protect Cecilia when the stasis chamber just vanished instead of slowly unwinding like the one that held Malegaros. The dragon let out a gurgle before collapsing on the ground dead. I examined the dragon and noticed something. With the stasis chamber now down I could examine the dragon closely. Something about the stasis chamber interfered with my ability to read their physiology.

I saw the contraption on the dragon’s chest actually had a rod that was implanted into the chest of the dragon and the rod ended right next to the heart.

“The vest will send a spell right into the chest cavity of the beast, instantly killing it. If the creators of this place expected you to fight, this room would be destroyed in no time.” Mahaila replied with a smirk.

“They must have left me and my brethren alive on the off chance that we would be able to be controlled by the new Firstborn.” Malegaros said as he gazed down at the very dead dragon.

“Well that’s rather convenient.” Cecilia commented as she walked towards the corpse to take a closer look at the dragon with its shining azure scales.

“Yeah real convenient…” I muttered slightly disgruntled as I felt the discontent in my heart.

“You seem disappointed, friend.” Cecilia said as she gave me a curious look.

“It's just the they die without a fight thing…” I grumbled as I poked the corpse with one of my hands, half wishing it would get back up.

I mean I was worried at first about Cecilia’s safety. However, once the fact that every single one of these creatures are just going to drop dead like a sack of meat sank in, I couldn help but start to feel really disappointed.

Why?

Well it’s simple.

Where the hell is the fun in that?