Chapter 163: Perfectly appropriate
It took basically all of ke''s remaining half mana pool to ''animate'' one of the Maker constructs. Yet another ''presence'' entered ke''s mind, though this one was far less intrusive. He grinned and looked at his constructs, still debating how many to use and exactly what to say.
He didn''t want all his constructs destroyed. On the other hand, he didn''t want to pull his punches in practice only to fail at the real thing. So he sighed, and stepped well out of the room before he activated the prompts. Then he selected all his permanent constructs with one piece of his attention, and the Maker with another. He had them target each other, and gave them all the same thought: destroy.
The Maker statue wasrger and more solid—more like a four legged animal that could stand on two legs and fight like a kangaroo. And <em>it</em> wasn''t built light enough to fly. It moved forward and started humming with some arcane sound, hands opening as it moved straight towards ke''s constructs.
His own creations—affectionatelybeled a, b, c, d and e—leapt into action. They all charged precisely the same way, soon unable to actually reach their target at the same time and sort of jostling into a semi-circle. But they at least struck first.
The Psionic constructs mmed their fists into the Maker, cracking its skin just before it reached out and seized one by the throat. The thing''s hand was clearly boiling with heat just as the first ke had taken to fight the demon. Steam or smoke rose from his construct as all the others started bashing and burning the Maker from every direction.
Bits and pieces of construct crashed or hissed as they struck the ground. The Maker eventually tore off ''e''s head and turned for another before its arm sloughed off. It swung the other but wobbled first and fell as a leg gave out. ke''s minions followed it, bashing and burning until it finally went still. Then they walked back into a line and stopped.
ke whistled at the swift destruction. Lumiere came zipping inside, frown etched as he stared at the broken construct.
"You''re as bad as the critter!" it announced with a sputter. "I must ask you <em>not</em> to destroy the Curator''s property!"
"Apologies," ke said, not at all sorry. His minions were effective but not at all coordinated and seemed tock any self-preservation instinct. He looked at his Mental Partition and decided he needed a great deal of if/thenmands to trigger to get them working properly. He supposed he could have one fight the rest to preserve any more statues.
He took another two full days of testing and battling with his minions to feel ready, checking in once with Ilya just to make sure she was OK. Nothing had changed, and though she seemed a little frustrated and impatient, he feltfortable with the dy.
Having destroyed his two Psionic minions in his test, ke re-made them with a few modifications. Firstly, they didn''t really need to be humanoid. This time he made something more like Lumiere—a big orb with wings, little legs, and ws. One day he hoped he could make them fly without the wings, but for now that knowledge was beyond him.
The Arcanes were working well enough and he didn''t want to destroy them just to streamline a little. So on the third day he''d regained his mana, had programmed countlessmands into his Partition, and felt ready to go.
"Well, Lumiere," he said, "it''s been real. You want toe along with us? I''m sure I could find use for a floating shlight."
The construct went through a range of exaggerated emotions before returning to the frowny base. "Why do you keep calling me ‘Lumiere’? In any case, I am unable to leave the Maker''s Hall. Good luck with your endeavors. Thank you again, Controller."
"Don''t mention it," ke said absently as he looked down the demonic...hole. He sent the constructs in first, following at afortable distance.
On the other end he found a room about as disgusting as expected—the same vaguely oozing walls, the same God awful stink. There seemed no discernible reason for this to be a room at all, in fact, as it seemed just to lead to another corridor beyond.
Something about that made ke stop and inspect.
"Navi, can you look around this room? Do you see anything unusual?"
"No, master." The orb robot seemed to scan, or at least its eyes wobbled around as it spun in a circle.
"So there''s nothing in here at all?" ke said with surprise.
"Oh. No, Master, there''s an inert demonic portal leading to one of the hell nes. Right on the wall there."
ke blinked and stared at his familiar. "You wouldn''t consider that <em>unusual</em>?"
Navi frowned. "No, Master. It''s a demon tunnel. It seemed perfectly appropriate."
"There are demonic nes in this world?" ke asked and pinched his nose.
"No, Master. Not in <em>this</em> world. But attached to it. There are a great many nes of existence, but I''m afraid I''m no expert, and couldn''t name them all."
ke mostly just stared, no idea what to do with that. He certainly intended to hear a great deal more about it, but for now he had more pressing issues to deal with. He led his constructs forward, soon hearing a kind of dull roaring from the area ahead. He stopped to listen, trying and failing to make out the sound. Was it a river? Some kind of gusting wind?
When he finally emerged on the other side, his constructs were already waiting in their usual line, seemingly not yet feeling in danger. ke walked beside them and stopped, eyes practically bulging when he saw what was causing the sound.
It was a waterfall. Of blood.
From some tform up above, the liquid poured over the edge in a steady but slow current. Steam rose from it as if it might be boiling, or at least very hot, and the whole cavernous area reeked of copper.
ke clenched his teeth and looked down to where it was flowing, an open circr portal about the size of a swimming pool. Through it, ke could see a river trailing out into what seemed an open air...ins.
"Is that...hell?" ke whispered, and his familiar nced and nodded happily.
"Yes, master, that is a <em>two</em> way portal. And quite active."
A two way portal…to hell. Great. Just super.
ke decided it was time to get out of there, and since it seemed the only way, he ordered his constructs to lift him and get up wherever that blood wasing from. This they did, and in short order, plucking him up with reasonable finesse, floating him up over the waterfall and onto a wide tform with several doors, along with a kind of trench that carried the steaming blood.
ke looked at the doors, not sure which to pick, before he heard a hissing growl from somewhere below. He nced over the side, rmed but not terribly surprised to find a red-skinned, demonic…<em>spider-cat</em> crawling up towards him from...well, hell.
"Kill it," ke said out loud even before he mentally sent the order. "Kill it very dead." He stepped back and fought a shiver as his constructs leapt over the edge, and took to the air.
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