Aetherios System: Whirlwind

Book 4: Chapter 9: Reconstitution

Chapter 9

Everyone quickly surrounded Kate as she lay on the dais. Alex wasn’t even the first to reach her; that was Holly.

She lifted Kate’s head, resting it in her lap carefully. The fire mage didn’t even react to being moved, it was if she had been knocked utterly unconscious. Yet, she didn’t look to be in pain either. It wasn’t like the early tribulations, she wasn’t shuddering or throwing up black impurities. Alex could have mistaken her for having fell asleep.

“Her pulse is strong, and she’s breathing,” Holly answered the unspoken questions on everyone’s lips. “But it feels like she’s burning up.”

Sure enough, Alex watched through his [Aether Sight] that the aether energy inside Kate’s body was moving rapidly. It wasn’t random from what he could tell, swirling about in a pattern of finely set lines, loops and curves that was far, far too complex for her to do instinctively while asleep.

He also noticed something happening with the energy that he only ever saw once before, in himself.

Her body was absorbing some of the energy. Her muscles, bones, organs, and even her skin; all of it was taking in small amounts of the fire aether as it moved around.

“I, don’t know for sure, but I think she is gaining a constitution,” Alex said breathlessly.

“For real?” Cole exclaimed.

Alex thought a moment, looking more carefully before finally nodding. “Yeah, I really think so. I don’t know what it is, or what it will do but… its something.”

“Gaining a constitution along your path to power is rare. It is far more typical to be born with one, which is why noble bloodlines are held in such high regard. Items can sometimes grant you one, as you know from your Dragon Pill, but that’s even more rare. You might as well walk around trying to jump into radioactive waste pits, it’ll be far more likely.”Obby spoke in his mind as he watched Kate undergo her changes.

So I was lucky?

“Immensely so. And so is she. Whatever is happening to Kate, she might just receive a boon that could make her rival even you.” The rock continued.

What? That good huh?

“Well, probably not. Even in the realm of constitutions, there are good and bad ones, some even detrimental. And you are a unique case of a different order. An anomaly among anomalies. A flesh-sack like no other. Less fleshy than flesh, more sacky than sack.”

Do you even know what you’re saying?

“Sometimes, no. I kind of just roll with it and see what happens.”

Alex pushed Obby’s presence away with a mental shove, ignoring the rock. He wasn’t entirely helpful when he was fucking about. But what he said did give Alex some ideas of what to expect, which was good.

“You better get a move on with learning your fire attunement, Garret. I think Kate is about to become a truly powerful hot-head after this,” he said.

Garret tsk’d loudly and shook his head. “Not fair! You all get the good stuff.”

The was a moment of silence as Alex looked at him with a raised brow. He gestured to his back, where he had been implanting his almost insane arcane-totally-not-cybernetics, then at the bracer containing the Aether gems he had yet to implant. Garret seemed to understand his meaning and winced visibly.

“Right, sorry, my bad. You know what I mean though,” Garret muttered, earning him a slap on the shoulder from Cole.

“Is Garret being a whiny child again?” Kate voice drifted up from Holly’s lap, stopping all the idle banter.

“Hey girl, you’re okay. How you feeling?” Holly spoke to her as she stroked her hair, still holding close.

“I’m fine, I think.” She sat up, looking about blearily for a moment. Then her eyes gained focus and she appeared to scan the room as if looking for something, or someone. “I saw something. It was so weird.”

“Easy, now. What’d you see?” Alex said as he crouched down to look her in the eyes straight on. His [Aether Sight] was still active, and he could see the last strands of fire aether had stopped moving about her body and were forming a strange and intricate web around her body gate at the base of her nape.

“Uh… it was a beast. It had this huge serpent body, and a long tail,” she said.

Alex’s heart began to suddenly beat faster at her words. That sounded very much like a dragon.

She didn’t stop there, though. “It was a dark burgundy color, and had this long neck… no more than one, it had seven necks, and seven heads.”

“So… a Hydra?” Cole asked.

“Yes! Yes, it was a Hydra. And it said something to me, I think, I can’t remember.”

Obby?

“Hydras are among the Dragon-kin, just like Wyverns, Basilisks, and Drakes. But they aren’t true Dragons. If her constitution is linked to Hydras, it might have some interesting effects.”

Again, information Alex could have simply guessed. But getting confirmation was nice.

“What’s the System say? Did you get a notification?” Holly asked.

Kate’s eyes went glossy a second as she brought up her UI. After a few more moments, she refocused and frowned. “It says I received the Flame-Hydra Constitution, rank F? Something about spreading my flames across the world to consume my enemies. Not very helpful.”

“The System is like that, I’ve found. You’ll need to learn what your constitution can do, and how to rank it up on your own. Don’t neglect it though, it’ll probably damn useful,” Alex said. “How are you feeling? Can you keep going?”

“I feel fine, better than fine, actually. Looks like my constitution gave me a Vitality and Wisdom boost.”

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Garret groaned audibly. “Lucky.”

Kate shot him an eye full of flaming daggers with a glare and he promptly closed his mouth. Then she got to her feet, not all wobbling or shaking in the process, it looked like she really was fine after all.

“Well, if that’s all we got, should we try to figure out where to go from here?” Cole asked. “I don’t exactly see a new tunnel or door leading out of here.”

“I think I got that covered,” Devon shouted from the other side of the dais.

While Alex and the others were looking over Kate and figuring out her changes, Devon had walked away once she had woken up and said she was okay. Looked like he had been studying what was left of the lines and glyphs around the area in the meantime. His hand was poised over a section of the now inactive enchantment, and he sent a small pulse of aether into it.

Alex barely had time to realize what he had done before the dais shifted beneath their feet. The obsidian table split clean down the middle, light flowing upward out of the space like holy shaft of revelation. A deep, mechanical groan also followed, and the the ground around them moved and shifted into a set of stairs leading further downward.

“Found our way down,” Kate muttered..

“Or found the thing that made this dungeon unstable,” Alex said grimly.

Gaining a new constitution for Kate was great, but Alex hadn’t forgotten that the Dungeon they were currently diving into was nearing a breach. That the last team that had been sent inside was seemingly wiped out completely. He damn sure hadn’t forgotten there was something down below that whole place that causing the entire Dungeon to rumble whenever it decided show its displeasure.

Despite all those unknown, and known, risks, they couldn’t just stop there. Downward it was.

“Well… lets get going then,” He said, leading the way.

They stepped through together and they really didn’t have to travel for long. It was simply a steep stair-tunnel that appeared to take them a few hundred yards further into the ground. The descent tunnel opened into a cavern vast enough to swallow a fortress.

You have entered: The Heart Forge

Dungeon Floor 2 - Subdomain: The Forge

Objective:Defeat the Forge’s Guardian.

At the room’s center burned a massive smithing crucible.

The entire space was built around it with a working coal furnace, which looked to forty feet tall all it’s own, set neatly into one of the cavern walls. The space also contained tiered platforms of black metal with winding chains that pulled open vents in the ceiling. There were large three-foot diameter pipes and huge bellows connected into a massive crucible sunk into the floor. The smell of hot metal hit Alex’s nose instantly.

A giant anvil stood beside the crucible, its edges glowing faintly red from either heat, or the enchantments carved into it; possibly both. Tools of various kinds; chisels, hammers, tongs and more besides, lay scattered across a worktable large enough for a carriage to sit on. And beside the table, stood a figure.

It was a golem.

Ten feet tall, with a body built of layered plates that gleamed like tempered Grecian bronze. Its chest was a furnace cage, and its core visible through a lattice of glowing metal ribs. Each of its movements sent cracks of heat through its body and into the air. Faint sparks leapt from its joints as it turned, slowly, to face them.

It raised one hand, gripping a massive smithing hammer from the worktable.

Then itstepped toward them, moving far fast in mere seconds.

“Contact!” Alex yelled. He jumped back as the hammer came down toward him. It hit the floor with the force of a detonation, stone and rock spraying up like shrapnel.

The Golem let out a strange and eerie sound, as if it were speaking in dial-up. Shortly after, the forge appeared to come to life, the bellows compressing, shooting air into the crucible which began to glow. The Forge nearby even ignited, releasing smoke that rolled into the cavern.

Cole threw up a water barrier around the Golem, steam blasting outward as the its apparently super heated body contacted the liquid. But the barrier wrapped all three-hundred-sixty around its body, holding the escaped steam and leaving it only a path upward to travel. “I’ve got the heat, but barely!”

Holly’s wind surged through the chamber, and pushed the hot air and smoke toward the ceiling. “Then I’ll keep the air clear! Move!”

The golem came again, its hammer swinging through and bursting Cole’s water barrier in a horizontal line. Alex stepped inside the Golem’s attack, palm striking the thing’s metal arm. It was like hitting a wall, a thick metal wall. His entire arm jolted, and he felt pain even through his massive strength and vitality stats. He hadn’t stopped the Golem, but he had slowed its attack enough for the others to scatter and move away.

He rolled aside as the hammer crashed into a thick pipe behind them, sparks scattering in a wave of orange light.

“Its too strong!” he yelled out. “And its fucking weight’s ridiculous.” He switched to [Aether-Sight] in time to see the Golem’s core flash brightly for a moment and send energy down its arms as it swung its hammer once more, forcing Alex to jump away to dodge. “Its core’s feeding power to every strike! I doubt it’ll run out of energy soon, though”

Kate’s aura flared crimson beside him. “Then we need to cut off its feed, yeah?” She swept her rapier forward, tracing lines of molten fire in the air in the form of a spell pattern. The spell ignited in her [Crimson Bloom]. Streams of fire aether converged and detonated in a blossom of light against the golem’s chest.

The construct staggered a step, and molten ribs flashing hotter, but it didn’t fall or even look to be damaged.

Devon dropped to a knee behind a crate near the forge table, his rifle already cycling up. “I’ll suppress fire!” he shouted, sighting along the barrel.

The rifle cracked as aether rounds began slamming into the golem’s shoulder joint. Each impact left a glowing dent before the metal started to seal itself with liquid shimmer.

“Fuck! Its regenerating,” Devon hissed. “Not fast, but it’ll be effective enough for sure!”

Alex darted in again, sliding across the floor to close the distance. He feinted left, then drove a fist into the golem’s knee joint. Metal rang against his bone. The thing didn’t move, and his attack only left the barest of imprints on the surface which began reforming right in front of him.

“Alex, it’s drawing power from the forge!” Holly called over the roar of fire. “Look, the crucible!”

He turned to figure out whatever she was saying. Sure enough, as he watched the Golem’s core pulsate and send energy to its injured joint to repair it, the molten pool at the center of the chamber was pulsed in concert with the golem’s chest furnace. Each surge was sending new light down into the floor, and into the golem’s feet, feeding its limbs, body and core.

The entire room was set up to keep the golem going, probably as the main inhabitant and smith of the forge. They’d have to fight the golem, and practically the entire room, as once.

As always, the System always threw them into the shit.

“Fuck!” Alex screamed.