664 10/12 4:36 (Autumn, Day, Midrar's Capital)
After a couple of minutes of travel, Sabel spending most of them keeping an eye on her Mates to make sure they wouldn't just wander off, the four finally arrived before the Human's home, a somewhat isolated mansion surrounded by a tall wall that seemed to be comprised of a single block of stone, around seven meters tall and with a depth of at least one.
Experimentally, Luna knocked on it a couple of times, feeling through her Authority the way Mana and Vital Energy alike reinforced and repaired wear upon the stone.
"This is too conductive to be stone, yet..." Luna's words were followed by pushing her hand against it, her Astral ichor pressing against the solid, sinking slightly with practically insignificant resistance. "Yet it feels like simple stone to my senses."
"Oh, it was updated! It wasn't this efficient in the past. Probably after the Rules changed." Sabel nodded to herself, feeling the slight drain upon her Mana and Vital Energy on contact with it. "And, as for the material, you are right. Most of it is simple stone."
Silence spread among the four, Sabel waiting urgently for her Mates to ask the secret behind it only to remain quite disappointed as they were all too busy examining the wall with their own Senses to ask her.
Watching them a couple of seconds longer, her rising impatience leading her Mates to feign ignoring her to tease her even further until Amber took pity on the red-faced Human. "How exactly did they make it?" She asked, giving up on figuring it out herself considering that observing the way heat flowed in the stone was not exactly the most effective method of gaining information, especially in this kind of field.
"Simple really." The Human, proud of her home, started explaining. "It was made through multiple methods. The stone itself is a single block through ample use of the Spell [Liquefy Earth], mixing together and solidifying back in a single mass with no separation.
"Before fully solidifying, Mana-conductive metal was inserted in the still liquid stone, both to reinforce it structurally and to function as a giant Runic Array. I don't exactly know all the specifics behind its Effects, but for example the wall is very hard and slippery, restores itself quickly and an invisible barrier fully covers the manor, both above and below ground."
"Even if this would explain some stuff, it doesn't reveal the reason behind the conductivity of the stone itself." Mafel added, aiming on gently pushing Sabel's for an answer, thing she quite easily succeeded at, eager as the Human was to surprise her Mates.
"The real trick is a step in between the liquefaction and solidification. To increase its conductivity, bones of Undeads were ground down into dust and then mixed with the liquid stone."
Sabel stood fully upright, puffing her chest out as she pridefully explained. "High-Ranked Undeads naturally obtain the Innate Skill Undead Creation. By paying four times the Cost, the created Undeads do not require an initial corpse. And by multiplying the resulting Cost by ten, the Undead becomes an independent Entity, leaving behind remains.
"And so, the Advisor makes this type of walls himself thanks to the High Lich's Innate Skill, Enhancement: Mana, to possess and Channel enough Energy to do all of this within a minute. Among the important figures of Midrar, having this type of protection is a point of prestige as they can't be bought by just money. Only through exchanges of favours either with the current king or the Advisor himself."
As the black-haired one finished her explanation, her head soon felt a slight pressure, a gentle one that led her to open back up her eyes, her deadpan expression towards the unrepentant Luna.
"If you behave this cutely, you may only silently accept this." The unreasonable sentence of the white-haired one met only a scowl, the Human trying to dodge away only to be unable to as the Lunarian followed her, her flight only serving to amuse the red-eyed one.
Amber watched them briefly, amusement clear in her expression, before she looked towards Mafel, her voice barely above a whisper. "So?"
Making certain that Sabel was sufficiently distracted thanks to Luna's efforts. "Something is wrong." Golden eyes met the Phoenix's own amber ones. "Her parents didn't lie, Souls cannot lie after all, but they can certainly not say everything." And the reason behind her certainly was her subtle use of Soul Vision to confirm their intentions.
After all, perceiving nearby Souls costs an insignificant amount of Mana, so little in fact that her eyes are able to remain in their natural state.
"If I was to guess, the Ghosts filling the air serve as spies for the Advisor. And considering their sheer numbers, it's impossible that they didn't notice a Vampiric Being entering through the front gate, especially as high alert as everything is right now, nor is it reasonable to assume they didn't share this info with their master at all."
"Right. So, I suppose our meeting with Sabel's parents was monitored. The reason behind the long path to the office?" Amber's question was met by a hesitant shake of the silver-haired one's head.
"I don't think so? Sabel felt no alarm about the wait. Not that she feels much of that emotion, to be completely honest." Mafel's amused response caused Amber to snort, feeling an endeared annoyance.
"But it's cute, isn't it?" The blonde answered back, earning a slight smile from the grey-haired one, before she turned towards Luna, smiling even wider at seeing one of her sharp ears twitch once, a sign that she heard everything.
Continuing to distract Sabel for around twenty seconds longer, enough that the Human wouldn't think about what their other two Mates were talking about in the meanwhile, Luna soon rejoined them, ready to enter the manor before them.
After calming down from her flustered state, the Lunarian having spent all the time doing her best to throw her off balance using a combination of words, actions and by freely sending her emotions to the Human, Sabel finally moved towards the gate leading inside, composed mostly of cold metal arranged in a diagonal grate.
Breathing in deeply once, she posed her left hand against a specific part of the grate, her fingers cutting themselves slightly open upon being pressed against a hidden edge, her blood being drunk in by the steel.
Under three very curious gazes, the metallic grate started to shine a slight red from under Sabel's hand until all of it was a bright red.
Finally, the metal started sliding to the side, within the stone itself, as the metallic gate fully opened, allowing access for the four of them to the manor itself.
Passing through a carefully curated garden, Luna carefully observed the minute amount of Holy-Attribute Mana filling each plant, bolstering their vitality slightly.
Upon Amber's passage, the last of the four to cross the line of the gate, it immediately closed back up, silently sealing the manor once more.
Mafel jumped slightly at the sudden movement, watching all around herself with her Soul Sight at full power, sighing in relief once she saw no one, only to purse her lips upon meeting with three very amused gazes.
"What?! With all the Undeads around, this count as a horror story! There is nothing wrong with making sure we are not being followed!" Mafel's hurried explanation only met with three faces full of doubt.
"Are you... No, you can't be. I must be mistaken. You cannot... you cannot be scared of ghosts, can you? You are a legitimate Medium. You were a Ghost less than six months ago! You are able to see Souls and interact with this World's Sea of Souls!" Sabel's increasingly exasperated voice.
"Don't be ridiculous, I am not scared of Ghosts!" Mafel almost sneered, holding back only because Sabel was the one that asked. "I simply don't want any of them near us."
At the Spectral Elf's resolute words, Amber blinked, confused. "Why so hostile towards Ghost? You were one yourself."
"Oh, please. Just because I was one in the past, doesn't mean I should care about them now. It would be like expecting you to care about Firebirds or Luna to care about Vampires in general."
Amber nodded understandingly at Mafel's words, figuring either case would be quite unlikely, before Sabel corrected them. "I don't believe your comparison is completely accurate. Amber isn't a Firebird that became a Phoenix and while Luna changed Race, she was never a Vampire. And considering everything... well, let's say that it would be quite hard for her to view a Vampire as an equal."
"Obviously. Being unable to disobey me despite wanting to preclude someone of being a peer to me." Luna's indifferent affirmation caused an awkward chuckle to escape from her Mates before her phrase caused Sabel to blink a couple of times, figuring the answer to a question she kept in the back of her mind.
"Is that why you never offered to turn me?" At Sabel's question, Luna stilled briefly before nodding in assent.
"Partially. Powerful enough Ancestors could theoretically move against me, thanks in part to their inability to feel my emotions. However, as you are my Mate, you can feel my emotions." And here Luna stopped speaking entirely, her eyes narrowing slightly as she started paying full attention to the area around her. "Let's go."
Her Mates, while watching her advance forward on her own, looked towards each other.
"Embarrassment or serious matter, you think?" Sabel asked, their Marks sharing no emotions, either because Luna felt nothing particularly intense currently or she was masking it, earning two simultaneous yet opposite responses.
"I hope the former. Seeing a shy Luna would be quite the sight." Mafel licked her lips once, imagining their Mate, red in the face because of shame, softly looking away from her.
"The latter. She is not the type to try and mask her emotions, especially not in so blatant a way." The Succubus-blooded one answered, being the only one of the three to think entirely rationally. "Now, let's not make her wait." The blonde noted, watching as the white-haired one was waiting for them at the large wooden door to Sabel's home.
---
Thanks for reading, comment if you have any thoughts about this chapter and story in general or any suggestion at all.
If you want to read chapters in advance of this and my other story, I have a P@treon.
( [email protected]/White_Chaos )