Steel and Mana

Chapter 133 – Wound

I was sitting on a horseback, riding out from the castle with a hundred soldiers, including Oleg and my Father. Was it a smart decision? Probably not, but that is why I didn't tell Sasha beforehand; otherwise, she would have rushed here to stop me from doing it. Where was I heading? Towards the corpse of the slain behemoth.

Elena left Avalon after staying with us for two weeks, and she didn't return to her city empty-handed. Merlin also went with her, along with fifty of my soldiers under Pion's command, there to oversee the installation of our 'sensors' and to make sure they would stay in the right hands. No matter how badly anyone else wants to use it, I ordered them to ensure that only our people could do so. If that promise gets broken, the whole deal is off. Period... and I made sure Elena understood it.

Thinking about it, I couldn't help but smile because Just as Merlin begged me to let him go, telling me he was alright, he wouldn't be able to blame me for doing this right now. As for why I was heading out now, the reason was simple. The magical ice disappeared somewhere in the past days. More precisely, its deadly effect was gone.

The previous night, the remaining and newly installed cannons roared to life again as we were attacked by a bunch of beasts looking like rhinos with six legs. They were rushing us down; their armored hide could tank one or two shots from the basic cannon fire before going down. They were fast, even in the thick snow, but they were slow to turn, which made them ineffective. Still, some reached the wall, crashing into it, cracking the rocks at the bottom, almost shaking the whole structure. That one attack told us that the dead corpse was no longer emitting a deadly blockade of ice as they passed by it without issue. So... here we were.

"Stop!" I shouted, leading the squad, my breath lingering behind me in the air.

We were close to the edge of the previous death zone. The massive corpse, looking at it so closely, was terrifying and breathtaking at the same time. I saw many great vehicles in my past, massive platforms that could deliver their payload dozens of kilometers away... but this? This was something else. All my blood froze within me for a moment because of a sudden gust of wind coming from the Pass, making me think it was breathing again! But no, its eyes were open, and there was no life within them.

"Bastard..." I chuckled, getting off my horse, which was already agitated, not wanting to get any closer to the dead monster. "Spread out, and we will go on foot!"

Of course, we were not going in blind or without tools. I made multiple 'sticks' with the anti-gravity formation on them. That little trick made them five meters long without proving an issue, and they became primitive warning sticks—our own version of a mining canary. The moment one of them showed a reaction, we would have dropped it and retreated at once. At least, that was the plan.

"Don't you find it weird?" My Father asked as we were slowly getting closer and closer at a snail's pace.

"What?" I asked, holding the stick, trying not to slip on the ice below our feet. Even though it was no longer freezing anything into an ice cube that came into contact with it, the weather was still abysmally cold, so it had not melted away yet.

"It isn't stinking, not like the previous corpse."

"I thought it was because of the cold," I replied, tilting my head and watching the giant skull get closer and closer. We could fit into its mouth and not even cause a problem for it to swallow us whole—what a monster. "Take samples from the ice!" I shouted, looking at Oleg, who nodded, ordering soldiers to stop, break it up, and fill the sleds we were bringing along.

"Do you think this is its blood? It is blue... and the clearest ice I have ever seen."

"Yep, I do think this is magic-infused blood."

"Could be... What are we going to do with the corpse when spring comes?" He continued asking, shrugging, "I want to have a taste of it."

"You are something else, Dad!" I laughed, licking my lips, "But I agree. I do want to have a taste, but we will deal with it then. Cutting this bastard up would not be easy, and with beasts visiting us again, we can't start it yet."

"If it starts rotting, it will be a major issue... thank the Gods that Sasha is no longer pregnant and can burn it away, even if it would be a waste! What do you think? Why did the freezing effect stop?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if it ran out of magic." I hummed, watching my stick's end because soon enough, we would be so close that if it reactivated, we would probably die before having a chance to escape. "I have periodically pointed a detector at it on the walls, and the feedback is now weaker at a recognizable amount. This tells me that the magic it was using for its breath attack has been constantly depleting from within its body and is no longer active."

"I hope you are right, kiddo..."

"I trust the animals' insticts more than human logic, Dad! If those rhinos who got through dared to get near and walk past it, then it has to be safe. When you are in a forest, and everything goes silent, you know you are in trouble! The same rule applies here."

"If they run, you run with them. Good observation, son."

It took us two hours to get so close to the corpse we could scale it if we wanted. Touching its skin, it was cold as ice; even with multiple layers of gloves on, I felt my fingers hurt, making me draw it back like I had touched a hot metal plate.

"Sovereign, look!" Oleg shouted, and after following his voice and walking up to him, I noticed one of the many, probably deadly, injuries on its massive torso.

"Collect some of its skin and scales! We won't stay long! Half an hour, and we are off!" I shouted, barking orders, making them work, jolting them out from the same kind of reverence I was feeling now.

Turning back towards the hole in its body, I couldn't help but form a small smile. The skin was torn apart, carved bones visible within its chest, but all of it looked like red, blue, and magenta-colored ice shavings—a fruity smoothie. But there was more. Where we would have had our hearts, or where it should be for the beast, if we could make an educated guess, I could see a giant CC replacing it. It was the biggest I had seen so far, larger than our previous monster. Yet... it was different. Dim.

"Now we know why it was freezing everything and why it stopped." I chuckled, looking at Oleg and my Father, who followed my eyes and nodded in sync.

"It is no longer glowing."

"It bled out all of its magic." Oleg agreed, and I couldn't help but bob my head.

It all made sense now. The beast was charging an attack when we hit it. What I could see on its inner core was a giant gush, like a wound on a body. It was not a crack; it was not like when CC meets CC and breaks it apart. Those are usually smoother... This was like a nasty wound. A magical injury that proved to be fatal. It probably was the cause of its death, and after falling, its magic that was stored within flooded out, causing a death zone to spring up around it, just like radiation.

"When Merlin gets back, I will need to bring him out and take a look at it. This is... new. And weird."

"Weird? Why?" they asked me while I took a last look before I began collecting some samples myself.

"Because, so far, we thought that CC was indestructible! It turns out that, besides breaking it into smaller pieces with itself, it can also be injured. My question is, how did we do it? Was it the strength of the spell? Or Merlin's intervention? Both? It could be a hundred other reasons, too, but this is an uncharted territory..."

One thing was sure: if we recover its core, we will have to study it. Who knows, maybe something like this would make the whole thing unusable, but there was clearly a method to physically influence CC differently than just smashing two of them together to break it apart.

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Within the capital city of the Ishillian Empire, Pascal was visiting Empress Kathrien's chambers, arriving unannounced.

"I am banned from copulating with you by the decree of Nero. Our blood is still too close." She said calmly, lying naked on her bed, being massaged by four pairs of young hands belonging to two girls and two boys. None of them were wearing any clothes, and their eyes were covered with a silk strap, preventing them from looking at their Empress while caring for her.

"You know why I'm here." Pascal snorted, not even bothering to explain. He saw it all, did it all, and after multiple hundreds of years, he no longer cared about it.

"The construction is going well if you want to know. I am just taking a break! I can't force the auxiliary mages to learn faster, or do you want us to fail? They have the winter to master their part of the formation. You!" she moaned, slapping the back of one of her servant boys, "Use more oil!"

"What about you? Are you finished?"

"I memorized everything. I know the spell from start to finish. You said it yourself: It is not something that can be test-fired, so what else do you want from me?"

"Hmph. Don't take it lightly, or it will hurt you!"

"I am not a beginner, old man!" She snorted, closing her eyes while enjoying the moment, the pleasure coursing through her veins, knowing full well they all wanted her, yet none of them could get her. It was her favorite feeling, bringing her mind to new heights.

"When will it be ready?"

"By the time the snow melted. What else do you want? Watching me naked? Impregnate me with one of your spells?"

"I am here to hear the report about the Frontier."

"There is nothing to report. Salvation has made the first transfer to the League and is now doing the second round. We are already laying the groundwork, so they will be forced to do our bidding. We will compel them to destabilize the trade routes of the Kingdom of Scorc and its neighbors, cutting them where it hurts. Who knows, by the time spring comes, maybe our enemies will collapse from within."

"You did not answer me. Don't make me angry, girl!"

"Relax, the Frontier is fine. No monsters were discovered, and we had one of the newly raised dukes check it himself. His report arrived yesterday; you can read it!" She waved her hand, pointing towards an open envelope on her table.

Still feeling uneasy from before, Pascal walked over and read the three-page letter detailing how everything was as it should be in the Frontier. He also made sure to mention that his own daughter had been dispatched there to keep an eye on them and report any suspicious activity directly to him. After reading it through multiple times, Pascal managed to let out a relaxed sigh, forming a smile, feeling that he could finally rest.

"See? This is why you spare people from time to time. He may be the most loyal of the new dukes because we forgave his family! You should learn to be less impulsive, and then you could be a proper Empress."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, all of them wish to lick my feet; there is nothing new."

"Reward him." Pascal grunted, turning around to leave her chambers, the letter remaining within his fingers, "Make sure his loyalty is rewarded. The storm has yet to pass, and we need inner stability at all costs!"

Kathrien didn't answer this time, watching Pascal leave with one eye open, sneering as deep within as she was planning her own move. One thing was true: she was no slouch when it came to magic. She had already realized that the formation they were building would place enormous pressure on her with the possibility of being crippled by it. By now, she has already made changes to it that would decrease its power but be much more manageable.

"Old bastard... you just gave me the weapon to get rid of you. Enjoy the last few months because if I must, I will burn down the palace with you still within it!"