Chapter 1894 - 1893 - Failsafe

Ethry swept out her claws and ended an eerily still Fiend standing near a stone plinth. She was careful not to touch any equipment or trip anything hidden inside but the Fiends died like they were harvesting wheat from a field.

There was no joy nor celebration. They were still monsters responsible for untold billions of dead but they had turned on the Bastard. She would take one less worry but a disquiet filled her.

The Bastard had made plans within plans. The Realm Refiner was found too late because a purge of the divine bloodlines had ensued. The various forces were too busy with personal wars. Anyone that was involved with the construction was either consumed into the artifacts or were Fiend thralls that had no hope of betraying them in the first place.

The outer shell of the fortress had hidden it for so long that no one knew it was there. When they breached it, it was not interior corridors but Myriad Maze traps waiting with what seemed simple obstacles but they had lost so many to it.

Even when they got out, there were dangerous floating artifacts waiting to channel the Bastard's power to attack them when their guard was at its lowest.

They had thought they were facing one enemy but then they found thrall Fiends hunting them wave after wave until they were facing the main body in a special realm.

Each step only affirmed his patience, redundancy, and complete lack of trust that anything would stop them forever. All the struggles Lind faced in the Celestial Fields stemmed from the same mindset.

So, there was no way he had not planned for the loss of the thralls. The method might be surprising but the loss of them had to be accounted for.

She had any artificer or those from her Divine World examine every panel, artifact, or even a wall that gave her a bad vibe for any trap. Nothing. There was nothing.

She knew some thought she was paranoid but the splayed body of Goldthorn used as bait to try and kill her or her sisters was burned into her mind. He had massacred a room but left a familiar face alive to bait a trap.

If not for the sacrifice of others, they might have been consumed!

Her instincts were screaming at her not to trust the lack of traps. There had to be something else. There had to be something they were overlooking.

She then had an old memory rise up.

She was so small and Lind had taken her into an Inheritance. It was filled with strange artifacts but she remembered he was excited.

He talked about someone called George and had a look in his face of nostalgia she had never seen before that day. The revelation of the false Inheritance and the gruesome truth had led to Lind commandeering the mobile suit as he called it.

She recalled feeling danger but he had smirked as he took over and was able to make it work where its creator had failed.

The aftermath of Lind dying had stuck with her more, but as she found nothing wrong as they slaughtered the thralls, she remembered him mumbling about something from those old memories.

{Thankfully, he did not install a failsafe.} It had been a throwaway comment he likely was unaware he was saying as he was focused on infusing his aura into the artifact.

She had later asked about many things in his century of recovery. She had been getting trained by Mother Mira, yet she spent as much time as she could with him. He told her stories and that word came up again.

It was something that was meant to be a final safety measure that kicked in under certain conditions. It was not meant to be always made to work manually but to work faster than human thought.

Something called sprinklers were his best example but he gave a darker one too. It was from something called movies that rather than allow a piece of property to fall into enemy hands, it would destroy itself once the conditions were met.

She saw the thralls were becoming less and less. Her instincts were screaming at her as the numbers fell until she thrashed open the nearest control panel.

She had ripped the surface physically away and all her knowledge from Lind about Forging and refining artifacts to analyze what she saw. Most of it was crystal powder laid into inscriptions she could grasp but there were nodes of metal and gems that made no sense.

Yet, as she looked, she saw what was missing. The flow of power was not going to 3 nodes. One of the dark metals she knew as Fiend material while the other 2 were elemental crystals.

She could not immediately tell which they were but one of the artificers had come over during the commotion and one look made her go pale.

"What are those?" Ethry asked but the young human woman shook her head before nodding.

"I think those are fire and light crystals but they are set to be refined by that metal node. I am not sur–" Ethry grabbed her and projected it to everyone.

[GET OUT NOW! DO NOT KILL THE LAST THRALL!]

The last 3 thralls suddenly smiled wide in a crazed way.

[Clever dragon, but far too late.] The vile voice came through and Ethry understood why Lind had sent so many with her and the others. The thralls were fighting back but it did not mean they could resist forever!

The exposed panel lit up as the fire and light element crystals were consumed nearly instantly and it was not the only place screaming at her instincts of danger.

The brought forth all the power she had with prismatic flames engulfed all she could protect. A black curtain of vile Qi slammed outwards but when it came in contact with her own harmonic flames, it sizzled to nothing.

Sadly, she could not cover everyone. Screams reached her as over a hundred people withered before her eyes and were consumed. Her force had been so powerful and quick but it was all another trap.

Her cold reptilian eyes screamed along her connection to Lind.

She felt him pause and then his own aura could be felt. Emerald tendrils appeared on everyone. She knew what he was doing and waited with baited breath as the storm passed.

The silences stretched as many sat bonelessly on the ground. They had survived so much but the Bastard had too many tricks!

[Ethry.] Lind's voice was hollow. She feared the worst but kept her face calm. Her group needed her to be stalwart. [Thanks to your warning, Chu and Fey are fine. They were able to save everyone with them.]

That was good news but his solemn voice made it clear bad was to come.

[Shoti–Shoti is alive. No one else is.] She felt her body weaken. They had 200 each go with them of powerful warriors and expert artisans mixed in in case of need.

They had arrived with thousands and had been reduced to only 2000 after the special realm. Each loss was not small and after the many traps and issues to get to where Goldthorn was, they had dropped to less than 1500.

They were now down to just over 1000!

Lind had suffered losses as well, she could tell!

He was not telling her because Shoti's loss was bad enough. It also changed nothing. They were still committed. There was no retreat anymore. If they fell back now, they would only have given the Bastard a lot of information to make even better traps if they came back.

They were so close!

She picked up her people and they moved on. They now knew the danger so any thralls were killed at extreme range and reinforcements arrived. They looked grim but said nothing about what may have happened.

Eventually, Lind called out to her.

[There are no more thralls in your direction. Head after Shoti's group to help her finish her area. We are getting to a new area soon.] His voice was devoid of any satisfaction and she understood it. He was not letting the weight get to him but pyrrhic victory did not cover it if they won.

She also had to accept what he would not.

She would die to give him a chance to win. Her other Sisters would too. She knew he suspected they would and he would go through with it but what came after would be up to Lysanna and the others.

Lind might choose to rest. She did not want that. She knew he could do more! He had opened a path for all 6 elementals and so many others. He could not end his life after killing the parasite that was the Bastard.

His legacy was more than that!

Her group moved through the melted pathways he had created with his staff before returning to the hall they left. They moved to the path Shoti had taken and found her group cautiously killing thralls while the woman herself was looking exhausted.

Ethry quickly gave her some elixirs and hugged her Big Sister close.

"They sacrificed their lives for me. They got in the way and protected me." Her voice was soft but Ethry heard it. While Shoti also had access to harmonic Qi now, she had far less control or quantity.

She still relied on her whip Arts and other skills as a warrior.

It served her well but there were limits. She hugged her again and her eyes looked towards where she felt Lind.

"We will kill him. We will end this nightmare forever." Shoti nodded and became more stable as they proceeded to clean out the thralls while avoiding any more failsafes.

The 2 had only 1 thought left after all the death around them. The Bastard will die and it will not be quick.