“Too bad there’s no video. We couldn’t hear anything,” Olaf spoke up. “I’d love to have a look.”
For once, I got the unanimous approval of the Watchers as the one who had scouted the Ziggurat and successfully negotiated with the demons. The only turd in the punchbowl was the Tiara of Prince Consort and no chance of looting the Ancients’ stuff.
AlexOrder: I translated the Kann-Elo from your screenshot. Do you still need it?
HotCat: Of course, go on!
AlexOrder: Well, there are seven pictograms in total. They make up two ideograms that I would translate as “put on” and “enter”.
Put on and enter.
The sneaking suspicions about the band I had found next to the Ancient’s body turned into certainty. The one who sat on the edra throne in the Ziggurat and put on that item would most likely get to control the Colossus in manual mode. Two things stood in the way: the band was unidentified, and the one who picked it up would be attacked by the guardians. I threw one more look at the Colossus and the wall of ice.
We were standing right next to it, examining it. The wall turned out to be smooth, as if built from glass or diamond. The outer layers were transparent, but deeper, the crystal turned white, hiding what was inside. The only thing we could see was the pillared facade, the ornamental frontpiece, and the open suite of the entrance that led into the unknown.
Komtur: What’s that?
Olaf: The Grand Temple of Shadows.
HotCat: How did you know this?
In response, Olaf sent me a link. I opened it to see background information.
When gods and the Ancients engaged in a deadly war, Dark, Light, and Shadow joined together to achieve victory. The Ancients were numerous, and their magic was powerful. Many gods who are now forgotten were killed or depowered, partly or completely. In order to weaken the gods, the Ancients destroyed or sealed their temples. The Grand Temple of Shadows was one of the victims of that war. The Ancients transported it into the inapproachable Helt Akor, hiding it, and sealed it inside the Crystal of Negation, assigning a guardian...
The blinding icon of the divine quest shined right next to me. So that’s why Tormis had sent us down that route. With our — most likely, my — hands, he wanted to free his temple from a millenia-long imprisonment. But how could I destroy that wall?
“What’s a Crystal of Negation?” I quietly asked AlexOrder, who was standing by my side.
“Nobody knows for sure,” my friend replied with a sigh. “They say, it’s the most powerful protective magic the Ancients had. Wiki mentions it, have a look.”
A Crystal of Negation is the dreaded magic of the Ancients that survives only in mentions. It creates a giant indestructible crystal. Inside, time stops. A Crystal of Negation completely ignores all magic effects. Its creation expends tremendous amount of energy.
The Watchers wandered around the Crystal, staring at it with fascination. Olaf, Komtur, and Abbot were discussing something in a soft voice. Quietly, I came right up to the translucent edge. Completely ignores all magic effects, they said. Finally, I realized why Tormis had picked me from thousands of others, and it wasn’t my trading skills. The flaming sword, the true fire that ignored any and all resistance. It might be the only way to damage that thing.
Aelmaris left its sheath, glowing with blue flame. Several heads at once turned toward me, curious. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Olaf startle.
“HotCat!”
The sword reluctantly sunk into the crystal, as if it was dry earth. The translucent mass gained a shaking scarlet outline and a health bar. I wondered how many hit points that thing had. What? THAT MANY?
You dealt the Crystal of Negation 3500 true fire damage! You dealt the Crystal of Negation 3500 true fire damage! You dealt...
The hit point bar didn’t move by an inch. On top of 100% resistance, it had an enormous amount of health. Quickly, I made the necessary calculations. If I kept dealing 3500 damage, I would have to slave away for a month. Billions of hit points. I had no idea there could even be so many of them.
“HotCat! Stop! What are you doing?”
But if the sword’s true fire damage was limited, the Blazing Warrior’s wasn’t. Basically, by activating that cheat-level skill, I transformed into true fire myself instead of dealing damage of that type, and true fire could destroy anything. Even Daine, a faction leader NPC with a good deal of health was annihilated on the stop. Should I go for it? I looked at the timer. There was still 1 hour 15 minutes until the Warrior cooled down from the last use.
Earth shook under my feet, and crushed stones began to grind. I turned around. The Colossus had stood up from its ziggurat throne and was walking toward us.
As a kid, I used to love the Tremors-inspired Japanese disaster movies, those with skyscraper-sized monstrosities coming out of the sea and razing coastal cities to the ground. Tanks, aviation, artillery, all the king’s men — nothing could even scratch it. Anyways, a metallic monster of similar proportions was coming right up, and stone boulders burst open under its feet.
* * *
Olaf: Cat, (censored), what have you done?!
Abbot: Raid, to battle! Mark up. Let’s try all together, electric damage. On the count of three. One...two...three!
Olaf: It’s useless! We can’t even dent it!
Abbot: Try to find out where to hit. Weak Spots, Know Essence.
Damian: Know Essence doesn’t work!
As it walked up, the bronze giant lifted a foot and stomped, raising clouds of dust. The stone floor of the cave trembled as it was covered with a web of cracks. The shockwave knocked everyone down, inflicting Stun and Daze on half of the raid. Blinding white rays shot out from the Colossus’ eyes, taking down a dozen players at once.
Abbot: Attention! Everyone, retreat! Scatter! Assemble at the exit of the cave!
Everyone darted off in various directions, while I headed to the looming pyramid of the Ziggurat. Our only chance for salvation was inside.
Thankfully, the bronze giant didn’t chase after me, busy with obliterating the raid. Abbot made the only correct decision, ordering everyone to run and try to leave the aggro zone. We couldn’t do anything to that monster — the strongest of our spells hadn’t even scraped it. Earth shook from the blows dealt by the Colossus as it crushed the raid, dust and slivers falling down from the walls and the ceiling of the cave. Oh, let it all crash down, for God’s sake!
For the third time in the last hour, I flew into the Ziggurat. The stone plate of the central entrance dropped down behind my back. Up, I had to go up!
In the hall at the top of the pyramid, I stopped before the glass edra throne holding, as before, the dead Ancient. I focused on the invisible band lying on the stone pedestal to the right.
?????
I reached out. I had only one chance of identifying the item — using the ring given to me by Green. If I succeeded, I would be able to put on the band, and if my guess was correct, gain the ability to control the Colossus. The pose of the enthroned dead man matching the pose of the seated Colossus, Kann-Elo runes translated by Alex — everything proved it.
The only problem was that using the Ancient’s item without permission could make the Ziggurat’s guardians turn against me. Those outside, Steel Predators and the rest, couldn’t get into the room. I only had to deal with those inside. I didn’t think there was a lot of them; the Ancients’ defense system was designed to repel outside attacks. I touched the hilt of Aelmaris. Hopefully, my flaming sword wouldn’t fail me.
I could hear booming thunder and noise from outside the cave. The icons of players in the raid went out at catastrophic steed. Going by the panicked conversations in the Courier chatroom, the metallic giant was trampling, burning with his fiery gaze, and stunning the Watchers, who were trying to flee. There was no resisting it.
There was no time to think. In several minutes, the raid would be destroyed. I grabbed the band, immediately activating Identification. Oh Green, you have no idea how yo
u helped me with your ring!
Gotcha! The band got identified, I saw its stats...and right at the same moment, the sound of alarm went off across the Ziggurat, a deep low sound, as if someone plucked at the top chord of a guitar. Blue glow shrouded the outer walls of the building, covering the arrowslits with a trembling veil. Was it something like an outpost’s defensive Dome? I was cut off from the outside by the impenetrable shield, but that was actually pretty good. At least the Steel Predators and the other beasts guarding the Ziggurat wouldn’t get to me.
Fortunately, I didn’t need any additional control skills; the band and the throne were enough. Still, I couldn’t do anything, as a metallic clang came out from the entrance and the staircase: the Ancients’ guardians inside the pyramid had finally woken up.
The blade of Aelmaris shone brighter with every second. Balabanov had said that it was a key, a developer weapon allowing the user to survive in a hostile environment. It was time to put that into practice.
The monstrous head of a steel spider showed up in the corridor. Two of its front limbs were raised, like the legs of a praying mantis, an emerald glow flared up on its moving mandibles. Scarlet beams blazing out from several eyes at once unfailingly intersected on me. I wasn’t going to wait until the creature did something nasty and hit it with a Fiery Lightning, taking it down, only to see more and more spiders climb the stairs in its place. I spent all twelve of my daily charges transforming the Ancients’ guardians into melted puddles of metal. Disappointingly, the lightning bolts didn’t destroy the spiders for good, even despite dealing critical damage and ignoring any resistance. Continuing to rain down blasts of true fire at the crawling bodies, I leaped forward to finish off the resilient beasts.
It looked like I was done. The wrecked entrance and the two top flights of stairs were cluttered with piles of metallic bodies, their remaining limbs still twitching. There didn’t seem to be any more enemies inside. An ordinary player without a weapon of the Seven would have never survived; even I had a hard time. The counter of Fiery Lightnings zeroed out, while the sword’s experience almost reached the next level. I really needed to improve my lightning bolts. It was the only ranged weapon in my arsenal.
I returned to the throne and carefully pulled at the Ancient’s corpse — time to vacate the chair, buddy — only to flinch back as the skeleton dissolved into dust. I had to hurry. Only a third of the Watchers remained alive, despite the healers’ efforts. I needed to save my clan. I scooped up the unidentified belongings of the dead man and resolutely placed the control band on my head.
Translucent armrests burned my hands with icy cold. I felt a stinging sensation under my eyelids and blinked. When I opened my eyes, the world around me was completely different.
Everything changed. I lost all senses other than sight and touch, and even they were, to put it mildly, unusual. Somehow, I was transported into the Colossus’ body and could look through its eyes.
I stood high above the purple-green flora of the cave. Small figures the size of a cockroach were scampering away, all outlined crimson — the mark of an enemy. Not far, I could see the Ziggurat. It was tiny, toy-like, no higher than my waist. If I raised my hand, I could touch the fog just below the ceiling.
I did it. I was controlling the Ancients’ combat machine. But God, how unusual it felt! As I tried to step forward, I stumbled and almost lost my balance. The Colossus’ center of gravity was located in a completely different spot. Apparently, I had to re-learn how to walk. First things first. I slowly stretched out my huge metallic hand and bent it at the elbow. I overdid it and hit myself in the chest, creating a shower of bright white sparks. Hush, be gentle... I tried once again. Better. I raised my fingers that looked like bronze logs to my face and started opening and closing them, getting used to the controls.
* * *
Olaf: Look, it stopped!
Komtur: Yes, it’s not attacking anymore. Has that rust bucket jammed?
Abbot: Healers, come on, raise the dead! The others, back away!
Olaf: What’s going on? What is it doing?
Right in front of the dumbfounded Watchers, the metallic behemoth was flexing its arms and bending its fingers one by one. Then it turned its head, made a careful step, reeling and almost falling, like a toddler making its first steps. The second step was more confident. It squatted, stood up, then squatted once again, stretching its arms forward; walked from one wall of the cave to another, swaying. Under the giant’s bronze feet, granite boulders crunched like breadcrumbs. It stopped in the center and bent over, holding its hand to the right half of its metallic chest. Each new gesture seemed steadier than before.
Komtur: Heh, it bowed to us, have you seen it?
Abbot: I don’t understand what’s going on!
Olaf: I think I get it. Where’s Cat? Can anyone see him?
AlexOrder: He’s not answering chat or PM...
Abel: Prophet, there’s one live signal — inside the Ziggurat!
Abbot: You think that he’s...
In the meantime, the Colossus got down on one knee, twisted its finger at the temple, squeezed its fist, and gave the Watchers the finger.
Olaf: Are you still in doubt?
After making the obscene gesture the giant seemed to lose interest in the raid. It turned its back on them and headed to the opposite side of the cave — to the crystalline wall that blocked it off. After reaching its destination, it stopped for half a minute, as if studying the shape of the building through the blurry mass.
Then it took a wide swing and punched the barrier with its bronze fist.
* * *
The blow made a dull booming sound. The crystal didn’t even reverberate from its crushing power. The system tauntingly informed me: I had dealt one point of physical damage.
I opened the interface, unsurprisingly discovering the bronze figure of the Colossus instead of my character’s paper doll, and read the laconic listing of its stats. It had only three abilities: Stomp, which created a local earthquake, Death Rays, which allowed it to shoot laser eyebeams, and Slow Time, which was the most interesting one. According to the description, it dilated local time tenfold for everyone but me. I could use it one in ten minutes for ten seconds, but sapienti sat. The Rays inflicted seven types of damage at once, making it impossible to block them. The resistance scores of the metallic body were also over the top, each exceeding 95%. Out of a million DPS, less than fifty thousand damage would get actually dealt to it. Its hit points were seven-digit. That was a real monster. I wanted to take a screenshot of the data, but chatrooms, Net, and other features didn’t work inside the Colossus. There was only the exit button, but I didn’t want to hurry. I had to deal with the Crystal of Negation first.
The Death Rays, as expected, also dealt zero damage, as well as the flurry of blows I rained down on the translucent facents. It was pointless; the glass seemed indestructible. I needed to find a weak spot, maybe a small crack, a chip, a scratch...
As my eyes wandered over the Crystal, my attention was drawn by a few black spots below, at the very bottom of the wall. Those were melted fissures created by Aelmaris; from above, they looked no bigger than needle punctures. I leaned on the Crystal so as to improve my balance, carefully aimed, and kicked that exact spot with my bronze foot.
Pop! Shards sprayed out, and the Crystal’s previously impregnable health bar faltered, decreasing by a wee bit. Once more, with feeling — and a web of cracks ran in all directions. I dealt one blow after another, accompanied by a deafening crackling sound, until the wall of ice snapped and burst, split from top to bottom. Excited, I grabbed the edges of the fracture with my fingers, pulling out the crumbling pieces, trying to make it wider. The Crystal’s hit bar dwindled before my eyes.
* * *
Ananizarte stood motionless by the pool inside her dark citadel. Her face was a mask of cold composure. The goddess counted down the final seconds before she would send herself into the mysterious Endless Paths. She was ready.
Ra
ghel, the invisible blade that could slay its target in all dimensions, was comfortably wrapped around her right wrist in the shape of a silver bracer. It was a weapon that even gods feared.
The ring with a golden spider frozen on a black onyx band was the terrible ransom gift of the Spider King.
The flickering armor woven of darkness itself was the aegis of the House of Darkness; anyone who laid eyes on it saw a different image.
And her own divine power. The grey swindler might be afraid to put it in use, preferring to act by proxy, but she was not. And let the Balance crumble!
After all, it’s not like she had a choice.
* * *
Komtur: Jeez, he’s really going to tear it down at that rate.
Abbot: Yeah, he’s almost there.
Olaf: I really wonder what happens next.
The Gene of the Ancients (Rogue Merchant Book #2): LitRPG Series Page 33