The remains of the first Sun Sect device lay smoldering in the wake of Karvus’s gleeful destruction, dust settling on the broken stones around them.
Still grinning, Karvus walked over and slapped Lassim on the back with enough force to jolt him forward despite his lanky fra.
"Co on! We’ve only just started!" he cackled, already lifting into the air.
Lassim groaned but steadied himself, quickly summoning [Aegis] preemptively for the next series of devices they’d have to disable.
As they lifted higher into the air over the Clearwater Isle, Lassim saw just how many of the forr Sun Sect buildings dotted the island and just how many were on the verge of exploding.
Each building had a distinct purpose as they made up the forr Sun Sect controlled outpost. So clustered together as if forming a training compound, others scattered farther out in small groupings like lecture halls or single residences.
Here and there, so structures were missing pieces, roofs torn off, walls crumbling—thanks to Karvus’s "infiltration" job when he took over the outpost; fully by himself as Lassim would later learn once he would eventually read reports about this odd Sect Elder.
For now, they quickly arrived at a much larger Sun Sect structure than the last, one built with intricately engraved panels of reinforced stone.
Golden hues shone faintly from within, flickering like a restrained fla that threatened to burst through the seams. Karvus landed in front of the door, eyeing the building as he took in a long breath. "This one used to be where they trained their disciples in amplifying raw solar energy through a series of coordinated enhancents. Their technology really is marvelous compared to what we have.
That old fool Volten should really branch out into more technology rather than relying on so many natural resources or the God’s Trial’s rewards for everything."
He sighed for a mont before continuing, I figure it’s probably three or four tis as packed with sun mana as the last one, but they had better safety asures in place to keep it more stable in the event of… well, events like having fun! Hahah! Don’t be surprised if it takes us a bit longer to deal with."
Lassim nodded and summoned his halberd to better amplify his efforts before focusing on extending the range of [Aegis] to cover both of them again.
He followed Karvus’s erratic stride as they landed and entered the structure. Heat instantly hit them smack in the face, the energy practically vibrating off the walls in sizzling pulses as soon as they entered.
"Elder Karvus," Lassim said, noticing the scorch marks along the walls and the broken corners of the roof. "Did you…?"
"Oh, I may have left a few gifts around here, sure," Karvus replied cheerfully, gesturing to the ruined stone with a lazy wave. "But trust , most of the damage you see here is from the flares." He looked back at Lassim, a glint in his eye. "Or at least… about half of it. Now, now, don’t judge too much, that’s why this place is the next stop!"
"How do you even blow the stuff up anyways?" Lassim asked, curious about the Sect Elder’s technique.
As they moved deeper into the chamber, Karvus launched into a monologue in reply, "See, when I was just a broke, snot-nosed punk I figured it out." He let out a nostalgic laugh. "Started with regular ESS, just testing it out and hoping to turn it into thunder ESS instead, making a massive profit.
But that first day, and first attempt, BAM!" He did an exaggerated motion with his arms flying to the sides, which made Lassim flinch n slightly, "My hands went flying, and I realized I was onto sothing."
"Let guess… a healer had to help you get your "hands" back?" Lassim replied, half-joking thinking he didn’t actually lose his hands.
Karvus snickered. "Several tis, actually. Every mistake was a series of lessons in ’how to not blow myself up.’ Little by little, and after several rounds of that over a few decades, I figured out I could turn almost anything into a bomb if I just manipulated the energy right. ESS, rocks, tal, even the ground beneath an enemy’s feet. You na it, I’ll make it blow."
A faint rumbling echoed from the chamber just ahead, and both cultivators froze.
They stepped forward carefully, coming upon the training chamber’s central device, a glowing orb set into a tall stone pedestal. Even from a few feet away, Lassim could feel the radiant energy building inside, expanding, only to shrink back, like a miniature star held barely in check.
"Stand back," Karvus whispered, his excitent barely contained, but a serious atmosphere ca over his posture as he said, "I’ll try to go a little gentler on this one, just in case. Your barrier’s got to be solid to keep the flares contained once I start. That star is ultra hot, so try and add so extra ice to my body if you could."
Lassim nodded, concentrating hard as he expanded the [Aegis] barriers, first around the orb, and then like a sheet of armor around Karvus. He drew heavily on Mari’s support as he layered thicker sheets of ice mana across the orb’s shield’s surface, keeping the temperature as cool as possible.
With a low hum and a maniacal gleam in his eyes, Karvus extended his hands to the orb, letting his lightning surge through his fingers in tight, controlled bursts that closed the distance between them. "Let’s see how much fun this little star has left in it."
The orb flared, releasing a blast of sunlight mana that hit Lassim’s shield with enough force to make it shudder. Lassim steadily reinforced the layers of mana as Karvus pressed his palm closer towards the orb’s surface, coaxing its energy inward.
"These controlled implosions are so tricky," Karvus grunted, his fingers sparking against the device. "Man, I’d rather just let it all go boom if we didn’t need this outpost in sowhat decent condition…" his fingers and hands twitched as the lightning continued to work as he utilized his technique, "…But, here we go! If you finesse it just right….
Just need to introduce a—ha!" With a final pulse of his lightning, the orb dimd as its core caved in with a dull thud, drawing all the sunlight mana inward before collapsing in on itself like a black hole and vanishing.
The microscopic hole that was torn in the fabric of space quickly nded itself in a rather anticlimactic fashion.
Lassim let out a slow breath, a bit concerned about the spatial fabric, but making a ntal note about it before letting the [Aegis] barrier dissolve as the chamber cooled. "Two down."
Karvus gave him a thumbs-up, looking extrely pleased. "Plenty more where that ca from. Co on, let’s get to it!"
~~~
They quickly made their way to the next building, a long hall lined with training chambers. Though less intensely unstable than the previous structures, the chamber was still bathed in an oppressive golden glow, with bursts of energy crackling against the walls in irregular intervals.
"This one is a target practice hall," Karvus explained, pointing to multiple sun-charged devices embedded in the walls and ceiling. "Each one used to project sunlight mana for target practice, kinda like our lightning turrets back at headquarters for when you want to practice your attacks against flying targets."
Lassim glanced around the room. "Oh, I haven’t seen those but it sounds fun. We have to disable all of them? There’s gotta be at least 20 in here."
"Right there," Karvus pointed to the largest panel near the far end of the chamber. It was vibrating, its sun glyphs blazing as they released erratic sparks across the room. "That’s the control panel. Once that goes all ’splodie’, we’ll be all good. Hopefully…"
Lassim didn’t waste ti. "I’ll reinforce the shield first. You can go whenever you’re ready.."
Karvus waggled his long fingers. "You’re catching on. Let’s dance."
Lassim sent out multiple ice walls, fanning them across the chamber to create several layers between the sparking devices along the walls in case they triggered a chain reaction or sothing while Karvus moved toward the main panel.
He watched as Karvus slowly channeled his lightning mana, focusing it onto the glyphs that pulsed along the panel’s surface.
"Big panels like this? Bit harder to turn into bombs," Karvus muttered, as if explaining his thoughts to Lassim, "…just… gotta.. find… the weak points."
He applied pressure to certain areas of the internal structure that Lassim couldn’t see with his lightning mana, a mad grin on his face. "Once I find those…"
He flicked his wrist, and the energy surged, concentrating into specific Sun Sect glyphs along the control’s display, "Boom!"
With a crack, the panel shuddered, the core exploding outward was a massive shockwave, leaving the entire wall covered in charred, now dimming, glyphs. The pulsing energy dissipated across the room, and the room fell silent once more.
It was that mont when Karvus stood up, face covered in soot and dirt from the wall surrounding the panel that Karvus’ perpetually upwards and back hair style finally made sense.
Lassim shook his head. "How many tis have you had to have explosions go off in your face for your hair to permanently be like that?"
Karvus just shrugged, flicking bits of debris off his fingers. "Eh, who’s counting? Nothing a few bandages—or five—can’t fix later. Co on, we’re halfway done!"
~~~
Their efforts followed this pattern of implosions and explosions with Lassim keeping the madman safe as the instabilities across the entire island lessened. This caused the overall brightness and gathering of the day elental mana to slow down the skyrocketing condensation that had been occurring.
Fortunately or unfortunately, Lassim needed to use his [Lifestream] technique only two tis to reattach a couple fingers, but Karvus seed so used to the process of losing limbs that he barely even noticed they were gone, only Lassim’s shock at being hit in the face by a flying thumb made the Sect Elder realize he’d lost a few digits.
This continued up until their next stop which was a small building nestled at the island’s edge on the highest part of the isle with a cleared out surroundings with no forest coverage overhead.
Inside, faint humming and the occasional flicker of sunlight mana lit the room, emanating from a device embedded in the floor that looked much older and different in design from the other chanisms he’d seen up to this point.
This one had a clear crystal-like do above its base, and suspended inside and below, an incredibly familiar, shimring liquid seed to dance and pulse.
Karvus approached it with a low whistle. "Ah, this is where they refined Sun Drops. Real ones, not that corrupted trash their leader used. Those fuckers sure we’re difficult to deal with once they drank that stuff. Thankfully, this stuff doesn’t reek of the abyss."
Lassim’s eyes widened. Sun Drops were a precious resource, refined from the purest sunlight mana and took forever to build a supply. At least, that was the assumption before the recent events that occurred. "So, what’s the plan here?"
Karvus’s eyes glead as he studied the device. "Well, this is gonna be tricky. Sun Drops are created by slowly condensing the day elental mana repeatedly over years, usually millennia, into this liquid and corporeal form. But from the looks of this device…" He trailed off, narrowing his eyes as he observed the do.
Lassim noticed it too—a faint crack running along the crystal, barely visible but pulsing with energy. The device was damaged and clearly unstable.
"We probably need to do sothing with all the sun drops inside first," Karvus muttered. "If this thing goes, it’ll release enough energy to scorch the island to ash at least ten tis over."
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