MAZE - The Endless Quest

Hera and Helena rushed back to the lab they were using. The Empress didn't call Vulcan just yet because it would be easier for her to move around the facility without him. The kangaroo was able to keep up with her speed, but that wasn't the problem. He struggled a bit to make sharp turns while moving quickly. Even in fights, if he had to follow an enemy or something, he would stop and turn instead of just turning while running.

It didn't take them even five minutes to arrive back at the lab. The Ophidianite quickly called Forge out together with the rest of the Court, as Helena started working on a few spell circles for them to test their theory.

"Empress? Is everything okay?" Vulcan asked, Viper and Crimson behind him, also with worried expressions.

"Yeah. Everything's fine. We just had an idea. What happens when we mess up a spell?"

Forge frowned, "When we mess up a spell? It doesn't work."

"I know, but specifically, what happens?"

"Many things. From the Mana just vanishing to the spell going crazy and doing something different. There's a list too long for me to specify every option."

"Okay. But isn't one of the possibilities that instead of the magic triggering, the Mana dissipates in a puff, like it goes out in a gust?" Hera asked.

Viper frowned, "I mean. Yeah? That’s happened to me before."

"Sure, making a puff of Mana is one possible result of a bad spell. But what does that have to do with anything?" Vulcan asked.

"What if we make that happen intentionally? Instead of trying to make a full spell, we focus on making a bad one. One that's going to go wrong and then let out Strength Mana," Hera said with a big smile.

Vulcan's eyes went wide as realization dawned upon him. But that only lasted a brief moment, and he instantly turned to his craft. The possibilities and ideas were already running through his mind. With a jerk, he turned to Viper, "Do you remember how the spell circle that you made was? The one that just created a puff of Mana?"

"I'm trying to think about that, but I can't remember. It's not the kind of thing we pay attention to. I fixed the mistakes one at that time and remembered the right way to do it later. Honestly, I'm not even sure if an order from Hera would be enough to help me remember this. "

"Yeah. I have the same problem," Vulcan frowned.

"Here!" Helena walked up to the group and slammed a piece of paper on the table. There was a very simple spell circle inside. One that would create a buff to increase your strength, using Strength Mana, of course. Its shape was a circle with a line going across it and an X splitting the formation into six pieces. Four of them were very narrow while the other two took about 30% of the space each. In the very center, overlapping with the line of the X, was a triquetra. It was one of the most basic spell symbols there were, almost looking like a flower with three points. That symbol could represent self, body, person, power, and many other things. It was hard not to find a basic spell circle that didn't use that particular symbol as part of its construction due to the sheer versatility it had.

"This is a complete one," Hera turned to the mage.

"I know. But I don't know exactly how we need to break it to make the Mana come out. So everybody uses this as a base and we start making mistakes on the circle. I figure we start simple," Helena explained.

"That was a good call. If we are all working on the same spell, it might be easier to find a way to make it work. I mean, not work the way we want it to," Viper explained.

Crimson turned to her brother, "You know that still sounds confusing, right?"

Viper nodded with a sigh, "I know, but this is all a bit messy."

"Either way, let's start. Crimson, I know you're not one for spells, but we could use your help, too. Especially since the rest of the Court won't be able to help as much," Hera said.

"That might not be the case," Helena took the paper and walked over to a copy machine to the side. "The ink they use here is made from materials from the MAZE, which means it's very Mana-friendly."

Forge frowned and spoke up, not even letting the mage finish, "Are you saying you can print the spell circle and it will just work?"

"Sort of. If you print the spell circle and put some Mana on it, the circle will activate. It will be destroyed right after and all the ink will be gone. The effect of the spell is going to be pretty much worthless. Like, if you try to make fire with it, the ink will only be able to make an ember. But, we can print them and have the rest of the Court change the spell circle. And someone just needs to put a little bit of Mana on the paper to see if it works," Helena explained.

"That can actually help a lot," Hera turned to Vulcan, "What do you think?"

"I agree. And I have a feeling that Crimson would get very bored very quickly. We can leave her in charge of making more copies and testing the ones made by the Court," Forge turned to the spymaster, "What do you say, little one?"

Crimson froze and slowly turned to face Vulcan, her eyes glowing an ominous red as her neutral expression hid an insurmountable rage. Her reaction was so strong that everyone else also felt the sudden tension in the air. "We are trying to save your family, and you have a lot to do, so I'm not going to do anything about that now. But if you call me 'little one' again, I'm going to make sure that the good side of your face is the one currently filled with scars."

The red half-Naga walked over to the copier and took a moment to understand how the machine worked. She never really tried using something like this.

Trying to break the tension, Helena approached and pointed at the display, "You press this button to enter copy mode. Here you put how many copies you want and then press this one to confirm. The copies will come out on that tray and that's it. If it runs out of paper or ink, then we have a problem because I have no idea how to refill those on this model."

"And we keep the original there so the copies don't end up worse and worse, right?" Crimson's voice was completely normal, almost as if she had never gotten angry in the first place.

Helena nodded with a smile and walked back to work. As did the rest of the Court. Everyone was already organizing a table for them to make the changes to the circle.

While that happened, Viper passed by Forge, giving a gentle tap on the shoulder, "I think there are easier ways to kill yourself, but it's your funeral."

"I... I thought I was just being friendly," Vulcan stuttered, still staring at Crimson.

"You're kidding. Little one? You think that was being friendly?" Viper shook his head.

"I mean she is—"

Hera suddenly appeared from behind Forge, quickly holding his mouth shut. "Don't say that. Never say that."

'Is it really that bad?' Vulcan asked in her mind.

"Yes. There are some things you just don't say," Hera replied, and let go.

"What do I do now?" Forge turned to Viper.

"Make your peace with the system and pray that she doesn't want to play with her food. I'm going to miss your ugly mug," Viper said, preparing his table. Unlike the rest of the Court, he didn't need the copy, but he was still going to use it to make sure nothing went wrong.

"I'm sure there's something we can do," Forge gasped.

Viper continued preparing without looking away, "There's no we. It's you."

"Maybe, maybe, Hera can order her not to do anything," Vulcan turned to the Empress, who also refused to look in his direction.

"A ruler must believe that those around her are able to solve any personal issues by themselves. The only situation when they step in is if their subjects are planning a revolt. Spymaster, are there any rumors about a revolution, or is this just an issue between two members of the Court?"

"All the subjects are happy, my Empress. They all adore your rule and wish you nothing but the best. This is merely a private matter that I assume will be resolved soon," Viper replied, doing his best impression of a noble.

Hera nodded, "Very well. We shall hold a grand funeral for our youngest Titled Blade. He was taken from us too soon," she raised a water bottle that was by her side, "In his name."

"In his name!" Viper and Helena said, raising whatever they had around in place of cups.

"Hey! I'm still alive, damn it!" Vulcan protested.

"Not for long," Crimson replied, making Forge drop his ears and grumble as he started working.

During the past few days, when fewer members of the Court were able to move around, everyone realized that Forge wasn't as angry as he seemed. Sure, the Daemonic influence caused problems, and there were moments where he couldn't control his anger. However, that didn't mean any random reason would irritate him, not unless he was already on edge. Since the Spymasters were previously the youngest members of the Titled Blades, they were happy to have a little brother to tease.

Playing around helped everybody relax, and once they started working again, they felt more focused. For the rest of the day, they continued to focus on this approach to create a spell circle that would emanate a specific type of Mana. But no matter how much they tried, no one was able to replicate that effect. At one point, they even got help from the rest of the alliance team, but no one was able to find the right solution. Eventually, Helena created a different spell, a more complex one with more options to break or make a bad connection. But the results didn't change. No one was able to figure out how to create something that just exuded unfiltered Strength Mana.

Frustrated, Forge decided to start actually making something instead of just planning. His main body was a forging hammer, which meant he was a crafter through and through. Instead of focusing on the spells, he started grabbing the materials and one of the weakest Mana crystals. It would only generate about 60 points of Mana every hour, but for what he wanted, this was more than enough. This was a test case, not the final product. He took a few pieces of metal and started hammering them together, trying to make sure that the Mana would connect to itself, forming a closed circuit. His hopes were that by adding the broken spell circle, he could make bubbles of Strength Mana. The idea more or less worked. After he engraved a simple spell, it would constantly fire off through the center of the ring. The problem now lay in not casting a spell, just releasing the Mana while maintaining its attribute.

He kept working, trying to create this effect directly on the material he was using instead of making a spell circle first. This was his domain, and that made him come up with a few unique solutions for the problem. Despite his creativity, none of them actually worked. Not for what they were trying to do now. In the future, some of those techniques could be used to create incredible things. Weapons that were constantly firing off different spells, armor that would have a buff running at all times, and even a shield capable of breaking apart any magic that was thrown at it. But emanating Mana wasn't in the cards.

Getting more and more frustrated, Vulcan had to lose a few hours to go outside and trigger his [Demonic Form]. Thankfully, the cooldown of [Heart of a Phoenix] was over, meaning that he immediately recovered after reducing the influence to zero.

On the fourth day after they arrived at the lab, as everyone was still struggling to figure out a way to convert the environment back into a place where the Strength Spirits could stay, Hera received a message. A message that made her face drain of all color.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit," the Empress groaned as she read through the message.

"What happened?" Helena was on a chair beside her friend, working on spells.

"The humans are fighting back because they lost this place. They are marching to the Beastmen capital. We already lost a dozen rooms, and the Harmony Gardens are going to help defend the rest," Hera explained.

"Can we get there?" Viper asked.

"According to Mila, yes. In three days if we take a shortcut. The rest of the team should arrive in four."

"But, are we just going to leave the Strength Spirits here?" Forge asked.

"We might need to. We're not making any progress on this, and right now there are people who need us. Our team is going to fight on the front lines, and I don't want them to be alone," Hera replied.

"But they're not going to be alone. They have each other!" Vulcan protested.

"Yeah. But the human army is filled with Soldiers of Strength. I'm not saying other people can't fight them, but I'm one of the few who has some experience."

"Can't we delay for a day or two? I think I'm close to figuring this out," Forge begged the Empress.

"You've been saying this ever since we started. I want to help them—the Spirits, I mean—but we might need to go deal with this and then come back. There are enough materials here to keep them alive for the rest of the month, so we have until then to come back."

"Give me one more day, please. I had a few ideas. This may work," Vulcan turned to the herald, "Daskka, you said Nimbus and the others should be waking up soon. If we wait a day, would that make a difference?"

Daskka paused, "I think it will. They are very close, so they should be up in the next few days. One extra day might guarantee that everybody is ready to fight in the war," she turned to Hera, who looked at the clock and sighed.

"It's already 10:00 p.m. So here's what we're doing. You have this night and the morning. At 10:00 a.m., we are leaving. No argument, no discussion, we're going. If whatever you're making didn't work, we'll come back later and try something else. If it did, but you're still not sure, we're going to leave the people here to figure out a way to make that work. I know you want to help the Strength, but they are not the only ones who need help. Deal?" Hera was trying to be fair, but it was hard considering the map that Mila sent.

The humans had just carved a massive spike into alliance territory, and they were now getting closer to one of the capitals. If they were unable to stop the guild, there was a good chance they would turn to another capital that was close to their territory. And the room closest to it was where her father and the dwarves were staying.

Vulcan nodded, "One night. That's all I need. I promise."

He didn't wait for another reply and just started working. Now there was a time frame, and he had to make it.