Chapter 4107: The Black Throne (Part 2)

"Correct, but I’m almost above one, and almost works for fireballs, meteors, and me. I’m currently sitting on a major world energy vein. Dig deep enough, and you can reach and tap into it, even if it means depowering a geyser.

"Now, you either walk through the door at the ground floor or you scram. We don’t have much time." The Black Throne said.

"Do you expect us to get in and be at your mercy?" Jorl sneered. "We can talk just fine from here. Nobody followed us."

"You fool!" The voice boomed with contempt. "You are at my mercy since you came into my presence. Inside or outside makes no difference. As for your second observation, you’re wrong again.

"Mogar hates when I do this. The old mudball gets bitchy fast, and soon it will kick me out. Yet this meeting won’t last so long if you don’t start following my instructions.

"Do you really think a one-kilometer-high mage tower is going to go unnoticed?"

"Can’t you cloak us?" Salanoth asked.

"Of course I can, but why should I?" The Black Throne laughed. "If you don’t get in, then I’ve nothing to say to you. You need me for sure. I might need you, but you first have to prove your worth to me."

Jorl couldn’t refute that logic, yet he didn’t like the idea of being trapped inside an insanely powerful and probably demented artifact.

"You came all this way to meet the Black Throne. There you have it." The voice said. "Yet this proves nothing. You don’t know what I can do, and you need to check with your own eyes if I serve your purpose. You can only do it if you get inside."

To prove its point, the Black Throne Warped everyone but Salanoth on the ground floor of the tower. The Ring of Space managed to escape the sudden spatial dislocation, but failed to protect the others.

Jorl had just the time to realize his deadly predicament when a second Warp brought him back to Salanoth’s side.

"As I told you, you already are at my mercy." The Black Throne said. "I could have Warped you inside a volcano or in front of the Awakened Council if I wanted. Now make up your mind and waste my time no more."

"Please, open the door." Jorl landed and swallowed a lump of saliva.

"A wise choice." The Black Throne welcomed his guests with a red carpet, closing the door and turning itself invisible again the moment the last Upyr stepped inside.

***

City of Mirana, at the same time.

Less than ten minutes had passed since Lith had been summoned. It was a perfectly reasonable time to call his associates and prepare himself for the fight.

"It’s about time." Crank the Hyperion snarled as Lith and his group walked out of the Warp Gate in Nestrar. "I hope you are as good at tracking people as they say, Verhen. By now, those Upyrs can be anywhere."

The guests saw only the sturdy room where the Gate was located, but they were actually inside a magnificent castle that once had belonged to a powerful and rich Countess who had betrayed the Kingdom to join Thrud’s army.

After the Mad Queen’s death, the castle had been seized and given to the newly appointed Baron Crank. The Royals hoped that luxury and finery would motivate the Hyperion to work hard for the Kingdom and increase his noble status.

So far, their plan had worked.

"They can be anywhere because you lost them." Lith offered his hand, and the short honey badger in front of him stood on his hind legs to shake it. "If they Warped away, their trail went cold the moment you stopped to call me.

"Also, we don’t know if they are Upyrs. What about the prisoner?"

"Sad, but true." Crank sighed. "No prisoner. He died fighting. We did our best to capture him, but when it was clear it was either kill or let him escape, we went for the kill."

"Scourge." Lith was surprised to see Phillard there as well, but he shook the Lindwurm’s hand as well. "Nice to see you. Ruler Menadion, I’ll never thank you enough for my axes."

"Keep doing your job and you never will." Ripha replied. "I’m getting better with modern Forgemastering by the day, and I could do wonders with those two cute little things."

The deal between Phillard and Lith still stood. For each person planning to capture a member of Lith’s family whom Phillard delivered for interrogation, Menadion upgraded his axes’ metal, crystals, or enchantments.

Time and plenty of victims had turned the twin weapons into minor masterpieces.

"I wish." He sighed. "Those cowards seem to be hiding in their holes. Just because a few dozen of them mysteriously disappeared, all the job requests related to the Verhens have dried up. Those scoundrels lack ambition!"

"Right." Lith didn’t know whether to be happy about the Lindwurm’s success or angry about Phillard wishing for more kidnappers. "Anyway, can you show me the records of the intruder? I need something to work on. I can’t track thin air."

’I can do better.’ Crank established a mind link with everyone and opened a Warp Steps leading to the site of the sighting. ’Sorry for the mind link, but there is no time to lose. Here’s what we saw.’

The Hyperion projected his and Phillard’s memories into his guests’ minds. An unknown creature had flown too close to a surveillance tower, triggering its defensive arrays by a hair’s breadth.

The creature was far enough away to avoid the magical formation’s barrage of spells and had promptly Blinked away, but the recording system of the watchtower had managed to capture his image.

’And you call this a picture? It’s so blurry that I can’t tell the arms from the legs.’ Lith said.

’I’m sorry, but these are the clearest images we got.’ Crank replied. ’That thing was damn fast, and distance only made things messier. Yet I’m willing to bet those are feathered wings and that’s fur. I say it’s a Griffon.’

’Maybe.’ Lith pondered. ’Now please shut up and let me scan the area.’

He activated his eyes and wings as a decoy while he put on the Eyes of Menadion. Time, the energy blast from the watchtower, and the cloaking device had left nothing that even the artifact could pick up.

’Found him.’ Luckily for Lith, he had no need for a trace. ’Him, or rather, them, went in that direction. I count two Divine Beasts, two cursed objects, and at least four Fae and plant folk Upyrs.’

Lith pointed in the direction the Starforge tower had previously detected Uragar’s energy signature and presented Menadion’s guesses as certainties.

’Good gods, you are even better than they say.’ Phillard was flabbergasted. ’It’s no wonder no one ever shows their face when they put a hit on you, and nobody accepts the job. If they fail, they’d never survive.’

’Thanks, but I can’t be sure from this distance.’ Lith raised his hands. ’The trace is very faint. We need to get closer. If we’re lucky and this is really Jorl, we’ll get all the backup we need to kill Narchat himself if he’s here.’

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