I need to stall him. I don't even want to think about what would happen if he completes the portal before Thoma and the others are ready, he thought as he looked for a way to buy time.
"But what if the Wardens discover what you're doing before it's complete?" he asked, turning to look at Nexis. "They won't," Nexis replied firmly. "But what if they do? What happens then?" Ardrin argued, prompting his master to regard him curiously. "Then we die fighting them," Nexis replied.
There's more to it than that, but it's a start, Ardrin thought as he processed the reply.
"In that case, I have a suggestion," he began, turning to look up at the obelisk once more. "Since you need an aqueduct of mana to use the dome, why not use a crystal instead of me? It would allow me to stand guard with a concealing barrier over the citadel, prepare the other empowering crystals, and add an extra layer of security to your plan," he continued, stepping forward to put a hand on the obelisk to reveal the door at its base.
Nexis thought on his words for a few moments with a furrowed brow. "That would only cost me more time," he finally said after a few moments. "Not exactly," Ardrin replied, hiding the thoughts that were beginning to form in his mind. "What do you mean?" Nexis asked bluntly.
"The attack on Coltend Castle proved two things to me: The first being that large amounts of mana can be stored within the crystal. The second is that, with the right runic combination, it's possible to perpetuate their absorption of mana at the same rate they expend it," Ardrin replied.
I know the second half of that statement isn't entirely true, but it is plausible enough to be believable. I just need to convince him that I can do it, he thought in the following heartbeats.
"Very well, then. We'll begin work on that immediately, but if you're wrong, I'll kill you where you stand," Nexis replied after a few moments of tense silence. Ardrin, immediately feeling more relieved than he thought he would, concealed the feeling as he bowed respectfully. "As you wish, my lord," he replied, putting a hand across his chest in true elven fashion.
Throughout the next few dozen cycles, Ardrin's work on the hegraphenes had come to a halt as he began to develop the correct runic sequence that would allow what he had proposed to become a reality.
He, as well as a handful of other augmented hegraphenes, was in the laboratory where the experiments had once taken place. However, many of the instruments, tables, and equipment had been removed to make room for their new task.
"No, no, no. The Inse rune should go here, while Ase should go there because Firra and Nome cannot be in sequence with each other, or the mana won't know which way to flow," Ardrin said with mild frustration to Devyr, one of the hegraphenes he'd recruited to help with the creation of the support for the large crystal to be placed within the dome.
"My apologies, my lord. It is still a strange language to me," she replied with a bow. "I've learned the runic alphabet, but I still get confused as to the rules of their placement," she replied with a frown behind her face plate. "Then you need to study more," Nexis said, interrupting the two as he appeared behind them while emanating a menacing aura and forcing the crystal lodged in the support structure to hum with dark mana.
Feeling the pressure bearing down on her, she was forced to put her hands on the ground to prevent her face from being smashed into it. "I-I'm so sorry, G-Great One," she stammered as she struggled to get the words out. "We've stalled long enough, Ardrin. Is it ready?" Nexis asked as he glared at him.
Ardrin, mostly unfazed by the pressure by emanating his own to counter it, rose to his full height and nodded. "This is the final version, as the others didn't resonate properly with the kataki in the way I'd hoped they would," he said, gesturing to a pile of other structures that were cast aside in the corner of the laboratory. "Their methods of wielding kataki are strange, but after much trial and error, we've finally done it," he continued.
"I see. In that case, let us begin," Nexis replied with a slight air of suspicion. Without a moment's notice, he enveloped Ardrin, Devyr, the structure, and a handful of other hegraphenes in mana as he transported them back to the Great Hall.
Needless to say, Devyr and the other hegraphenes immediately felt sick as the Great Hall lurched into reality before them.
"Stand up. It'll make you look weak if you don't," Ardrin said hushedly before moving towards the obelisk. With a flick of his hand, he conjured a tendril of mana to lift the large support structure off the ground, making it follow behind him as he moved. "Go ahead," Nexis said, opening the door at the base of the obelisk. "Yes, my lord," Ardrin said, gingerly placing the crystal and its support inside the hollowed space before him.
With a light clunk, the device was put in place as Nexis stepped forward, drawing a copious amount of mana before pushing it into the ringed support. It began to absorb the mana with a faint, violet glow, prompting Nexis to push even more mana into it.
The entire support began to glow much more intensely as the excess mana began to swirl and bleed into the crystal itself, eventually becoming self-sustaining in both its glow and monotonous hum. "You have done well, Ardrin," Nexis said with only a hint of pleasure on his face, giving Ardrin an uncomfortable feeling in his gut as he stepped out of the limits of the circular platform.
"You four," Nexis said sharply, including Devyr in the group he'd brought with him. "We've wasted enough time already, so you're coming with me. Ardrin, prepare the concealing barrier," he said, using mana to pull the hegraphenes into the dome as he reached for the obelisk door's seal.
Shit, Devyr's going to be trapped in there with him! Ardrin thought as she looked at him with widened eyes and an unmistakable sense of despair overwhelming her.
"Wait!" Ardrin called out, realizing she would be trapped in there with him. Unfortunately, the call came too late as the dome had already fully charged, pushing its barriers to the platform's limit and nearly severing his hand when it came down.
"Argh, shit," he swore, desperately resisting the urge to slam his fist into the humming barrier before him. "I'm sorry, Athar," he muttered through a sigh quietly before glancing around the visibly empty Hall before him. "You can come out now, Karak," he said, regaining his posture.
Karak gingerly poked his head out from behind one of the pillars and glanced around the room. "Can he hear us, my lord?" Karak's raspy voice hissed. "No, but we still need to hold up our end of the bargain. Fetch me another large crystal while I go and grab one of the other supports," Ardrin commanded, prompting the daemon to lower its head in response.
"We have work to do," he said to himself as he turned to scowl at what lay beyond the opaque barrier of pure, violet mana.