Supreme Magus novel Chapter 4006

Chapter 4006: Unforeseen Variable (Part 1)

"Is lunch ready, Dyta?" Orion asked Jirni’s cousin, who acted as a maid and also as Jirni’s body double against the enemies of the Ernas household who couldn’t detect energy signatures.

"Yes, My Lord." She nodded. "The table has been set according to your instructions."

"Excellent." Orion dismissed her with a gesture. "We’ll be there in a minute. Just give us the time to freshen ourselves a bit."

Dyta gave them a perfect curtsy and initiated one last deep scan of the Ernas mansion for intruders, listening devices, and anything out of place. At her silent signal, all the members of the house staff who belonged to the Myrok Household conducted their share of the grid search with zealous duty.

Orion checked his clock and hastened his pace, leading Tista to her quarters and from there into a secret passage in the wall. Its mechanical nature made it invisible to magical means of detection, and the mastery of the craftsmen who had built it left no visible crevice in the wall nor created any draft.

Tista followed Orion through a warren of corridors that led them to the very center of the Ernas mansion. The last door required a magical rune and a drop of blood from a living Ernas to grant access.

Orion had to cut his palm and let the enchantments sealing the door recognize not only his descent from Juria but also the pulse of his life force and mana core.

This way, storing blood in a dimensional amulet meant nothing, and so did stealing an artifact that carried his imprint.

Only a healthy Ernas could open the lock, but contact with the door also allowed them to raise the alarm and unleash the mansion’s deadly defensive measures against anyone who might have taken them hostage. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

The door opened to a cylindrical room with a massive white mana crystal at its center. The walls, floor, and high ceiling were filled with so many lines and words of power that only a few patches of the grey stone beneath were visible

"Is this the energy core of the defensive array system?" Tista gasped.

She had never seen a white crystal of that size, let alone one so perfectly cut. Half of the crystal disappeared below the ground level, but what emerged was still thrice as tall as Orion.

On top of that, the density of world energy inside the room was so great that not only were the magical formations visible to the naked eye, but also the runes on Tista’s equipment lit up due to the sudden surge in the output of its power cores.

"Yes." Orion checked his pocket watch to time the process to the second. "I’m depowering the arrays, in 3, 2, 1, now!"

He pressed his bleeding palm against the colossal white crystal, and the countless arrays in the room disappeared, leaving only the torches hung to the wall as a source of illumination.

"I’ve left you a blank slate. Everything is up to you, now." Orion stepped away, leaving his place to Tista.

She shapeshifted into her Hekate form while maintaining her human size, revealing that her second set of wings had no feathers left and was no different from a Dragon’s.

She took a deep breath, taking in the violent flow of world energy from the mana crystal in front of her and channeling it into the feathers she had placed along the mansion via her Prismatic Wind bloodline ability.

If Tista’s hold over the giant crystal wavered even for one second, a wild surge of world energy would overload the incomplete network of magical formations and destroy everything she had built so far.

Tista gave everything she had and more, using the overabundant world energy to spark Vital Storm and bring her mana core temporarily to the bright violet.

"Whatever you are doing, you need to stop in 3, 2, 1, now!" Orion said the moment Mogar changed its position to the sun and the Ernas Parade slowly faded away.

"Thank the gods!" Tista’s knees gave out, and she slowly slipped down against the giant crystal’s surface.

She panted heavily, her body shivering in exhaustion. Orion let Tista sit on the ground for a while and waited for her to catch her breath before asking her about the results of her work.

"Everything went fine." She gasped. "I successfully set up every array you requested."

"And you have my eternal gratitude for that." Orion sighed in relief. "Yet you never got so tired when we practiced for this in the Blood Desert. I expected the mana crystal and the crystal wall to make your job easier, not harder."

"Oh, they did." Tista nodded. "They are even better than what you told me. This place is amazing. Are you sure that Ripha played no role in building the Ernas mansion?"