The silence in the Ironwood chamber was oppressive, broken only by the steady drip of water somewhere in the depths of the Crag. Kaelen and Elara huddled in the deepest part of the cave, conserving their energy and listening for any sign of movement beyond the sealed entrance.
"The Executor," Elara repeated, her voice a dry whisper. "I remember the entry. It's Valerius's ultimate deterrent. Not a mage, not a soldier, but a specialized construct. A Purple Rank, non-magical automaton."
"Exactly," Kaelen confirmed, tracing a protective, yet dormant, rune on the floor. "The Shadow Legion and Gideon are about magical warfare and secrecy. The Executor is for one purpose: undeniable, brute-force execution. It is resistant to all Aetheric spells, possesses incredible physical strength, and is programmed to ignore all political protocol."
"Its core runs on Thermal Energy harvested from the deepest lava flows beneath the Eldorian mountains," Elara recalled, accessing the crucial data. "It emits no Aether signature, making it untraceable to our magic, but it constantly radiates heat. Even Ironwood cannot mask that."
"Valerius will deploy it from a shielded transport. It won't walk; it will be dropped directly onto the Crag," Kaelen stated. "The moment the transport ship detects the anomaly of the Ironwood Crag's magical silence, the Executor will be deployed to investigate the only location not giving off a reading."
Elara's mind raced, searching the novel's climax for a weakness. "In the book, Lyra and the remaining rebels are cornered by the Executor. They defeat it by destabilizing its thermal core with a specialized Water-Infusion Rune—a technique only possible for a Red Rank Arcanist who has mastered the Elemental Flow."
Kaelen grimaced. "I am Blue Rank Peak, focused on Transfiguration. Water-Infusion is a sub-specialty, Red Rank at best. I am structurally incapable of casting a spell that precise and focused on a Thermal Core. My Aether would simply dissipate against the construct's anti-magic shell."
They had reached a hard, terrifying wall. The ultimate counter-weapon required a magical specialty Kaelen did not possess.
"We have thirty-six hours, tops, before Valerius gets the failure report from the Shadow Legion and deploys the Executor," Kaelen said, his eyes scanning the Codex blueprints he had internalized. "The Echo Guard will protect me from the Shifter Blades, but it won't stop the Executor's physical strength. We must find an alternative. A defense that relies on Transfiguration."
Kaelen reached out, his mind searching the depths of the Codex of Echoes for a solution—a hidden Varr technique that bypassed elemental requirements.