Chapter 109: Full of Surprises

As I looked at the vault door I was quite happy, it was a rather impressive construction. This one was obviously the most secure of the vaults so far. It was also the most out of the way right next to the mouth of the Primordial Font. Even though I just took a cursory glance at the font I could tell that place was different from everything else so far. I made sure to keep a distance so I couldn’t see it that clearly but the terrain was odd to say the least. Our next stop was certainly going to be interesting, luckily for us Mahaila has some special items that can protect Cecilia from all that raging ether.

The air in that basin looks like a miasma of ether. The terrain was warped with large glowing crystals growing out of the ground like barnacles. These crystals seemed to change to every color of the rainbow with each passing moment. They were very beautiful but obviously quite dangerous especially considering all the ether lightning that would streak out from it occasionally.

Deadly beauty would be a good way to describe that place. There were bright red mushrooms the size of houses, strange trees blooming brightly coloured flowers. Even some of the creatures I spotted were multi coloured. The colors in that place were all so striking with cyan, magenta, burgundy and bright orange being common. That place was most definitely dangerous for your average denizen of this world. In fact in the gap between the mountains I spotted abandoned fortifications. I heard the High Elves used to guard the primordial font but it looks like they have at the very least abandoned this side of the font. Not surprising honestly, judging by what I saw most couldn’t enter the area around the font anyway. As to those who were able to enter, I doubt the High Elves could stop them anyway. I heard their power has been decaying for a long time. They were now probably just a shadow of their former selves. That was something I could fix of course but they had to be willing to take my offer. But the Empire and its lands come first, I’ll get to them when the time was right…

“The Grand Collection…” Mahaila muttered as she looked up at the words carved into the top of the vault door.

“Security here seems rather substantial.” Cecilia added as she looked around the wide corridor. 

However, calling this a corridor wouldn’t exactly be accurate; it was large enough to be a hall. You could host a banquet here judging by how large it was. Instead of two lines of golems it was instead a hundred of the golems in neat formation. Their stoic forms standing their silent vigil for who knows how long.

“Perhaps this place holds something even more precious than the past vault.” Mahaila suggested as she cupped her chin.

“More precious than and dangerous than the right hand of the Eternal Mother? I find that hard to believe. How would they even contain something like that?” Cecilia replied as she furrowed her brow at the massive vault door.

“It isn’t more precious.” I said calmly as I shifted my gaze to Malegaros who nodded.

“They simply did not know what I was when they captured me. When the Eternal Mother fell, samples of her hive were captured by the first cult. They took us away and contained us. As far as they were concerned I was just an odd specimen.” Malegaros said, sounding slightly disgruntled.

If that wasn’t wounded pride I don’t know what is. Especially considering the massive database of genomes he had. Malegaros had good reason to be proud, finding out who he was made even Mahaila baulk. 

I’ve seen his memories, entire cities were slaughtered under his ruthless command. He spurred the hive on like a tide, his opponents often only survived because he let them win. The Eternal Mother on those occasions sometimes only wanted to prod the humanoids because she felt they were getting too comfortable or sometimes she was just bored. A fickle and cruel reason for a destructive war but to the Firstborn the humanoids were no different from insects. 

“The fact that you don’t have much combat ability probably only devalued you further in your captor's eyes.” I said and Malegaros nodded stiffly, clearly still frustrated by this fact.

“You were undervalued, your potential squandered. I will not make not that same mistake. But you should know there is power beyond the ability to wage war. War is a powerful tool but only one tool of many.” I said as I fed a little bit of my long term plan to him through the hive mind. I don’t disseminate this information lightly. It’s not that I don’t trust my underlings, it's that they lack lateral thinking. They were rather one dimensional in their mindsets. So giving too much complex and nuanced information would more likely confuse them rather than help them. Direct orders were far more effective as far as I can tell.

“A cunning strategy…” Malegaros said as he internalized my little plan.

“It began as her idea, we just improved it together.” I said as I shifted my gaze to Cecilia who looked at me in confusion.

“The dependency strategy, the one that makes it so that if me or you were removed the civilisation collapses.” I said and Cecilia nodded in understanding.

“Is that so…” Malegaros muttered as he shifted his one large eye towards Cecilia who just raised a brow in response.

“There is much to learn it seems…” Malegaros admitted and I felt his attitude towards humanoids change slightly. It still wasn’t favourable, but at least it wasn’t complete disdain. Currently it was more like looking at a new tool and wondering about its possible applications. But his mindset could still use some tweaking, it was still too short sighted. 

“Now then let’s see what this vault has stocked up.” I said eagerly as I held out the totem and the massive door glowed. 

I watched as before the concentric rings began to turn. I could hear the groaning and clicking of the internal mechanism echoing out from the door. The blue runes spun, some going clockwise for a moment then anti clockwise. Others did the reverse and others just spun in one direction. The most fascinating thing about this vault door was that there was actually a mural carved in the door. As each ring clicked into the place it slowly revealed the complete picture. The mural showed a simple image done in intricate detail. A single maw filled with fangs devouring a city.

At last the final ring clicked into place and I saw words appear on the stone in glowing blue letters. The language was old Dracoviss, I could understand it thanks to my stolen memories but judging by what I sensed from Cecilia she had no idea what it said. So for her benefit I decided to read it out for her.

We are defeated but unbroken

We are the righteous hand of god

Within is our final gift to the returning god unnamed

To the victor the spoils

“Rather dramatic don't you think? Referencing defeat in the first line but victory in the last.” Cecilia commented as the door slowly slid down into the floor.

“It sounds better in Dracoviss. Still one must give credit to their spirit, they lost in the first line but they have won in the end. Or so they believe anyway.” I said as the door finally finished opening.

“It’s a hope, when my people realised that we were about to be relegated to decay and stagnation by the angels some accepted it. But some did not, there was a war with the angels over it, we lost naturally but that just turned hope for freedom into roiling hatred. Eventually when the resistance groups were almost broken many flocked to the Syndicate, the angels in their infinite hubris managed to push all the scattered resistance cells right into the arms of the Syndicate.

This story replayed itself again and again in every civilization. Most were not heirs of the firstborn but they had their uses. So thus the First Cult merged with the Syndicate and that is how there are syndicate branches in every major city.” Mahaila said with a sigh.

“Most think the Syndicate presence is due to the Syndicates abilities but in truth these civilisations were sold out by their own people.” Mahaila said as I felt her vitals twinge in annoyance.

“I suppose that serves their purpose well. But on that note the Syndicate hasn’t revealed themselves to us yet. Why is that? There is most definitely a branch in Averlon. With so much going on in Elysia there has to be a branch there.” I said as I shifted my gaze to Mahaila.

“There is a branch, I met them before I showed up in your room.” Mahaila replied.

“I assume they are friendly?” Cecilia asked cautiously as she turned her gaze to Mahaila.

“For now.” Mahaila muttered in response.

“Yes, obviously for now. Allies turn to enemies and enemies turn to allies, that’s just the way it works when interests coincide and conflict.” I replied dryly as I gave Mahaila a look and basically told her nonverbally to elaborate.

“Like I said before, it’s a long story and honestly I need a glass of wine in hand to get through it all. So I’ll just say this, pretty much everyone wants Heaven to fall. The demons, the Syndicate, you two, me and my old compatriots, even some of the normal humanoid factions hate heaven. That part isn’t the problem, the problem is…” Mahaila said but Cecilia cut her off.

“The vision of the world after.” Cecilia said calmly.

“Exactly.” Mahaila replied with a nod.

“So what do you think the two of us are going to do after the fall?” I asked as Mahaila scratched the back of her head in visible frustration.

“I don’t know, you are unlike anything I have ever seen… You read romance novels…” Mahaila said as she gave me a really confused look.

“Some of them are quite good, you know.” I replied and I saw Mahaila’s eyebrow twitch in response.

“That’s not the point!” Mahaila snapped in response.

“You can’t even breed, why are you reading romance novels?” Mahaila asked in exasperation.

Well it was partly because I used to be human but I can't exactly say that…

But honestly I was just interested because apparently this breeding thing was something I was supposed to be interested in eventually in my past life. But of course I ended up freezing to death, so that whole thing was moot now. In essence I was just curious especially after the Beatrice Aaron incident. It’s so weird to me how humans behave when they want to precreate. So many strange rituals, but still it was entertaining to observe and learn about.

“It’s interesting, besides it looks like all of you humanoids are rather obsessed with this kind of stuff, especially the females. So it would be a good idea to know what’s going on. Plus those novels are so filled with stupidity it's basically half comedy.” I replied with a shrug and Mahaila shook her head in mild disbelief. We stood in silence for a moment and I saw Cecilia subtly roll her eyes at Mahaila’s confusion. 

“I think that’s enough idle conversation should we head in?” Cecilia asked nonchalantly, deciding it might be better to get on with it. I nodded in response and we began entering the vault.

To be fair this was the first opportunity we had to talk about the more secretive things with Mahaila. In the past she wasn’t allowed into the Black Box so we couldn’t exactly talk about most of the more secretive things. To be fair she never showed much inclination to talk before this either. I guess with that romance novel comment, she must have been watching us to decide if she wanted to open up and truly join our side.

With that we decided to head in the first thing I noticed was that the vault was not one single vault. The door revealed another corridor with two rooms at each side of the corridor and at the end of the corridor was another large door with additional enchantments. 

“So four smaller rooms and one larger fortified one.” Cecilia mused as she looked at the layout of the corridor. 

“Shall we check out the smaller rooms first? Leave the big vault for last?” I asked and Cecilia nodded.

All of us decided to take the first room on the right and what we saw was rather boring honestly.

“Gold, gold, more gold, even more gold, gems and Grahanam Crowns.” I remarked as I looked around the room. This was a lot of money but to me it was just a bunch of shiny metal.

“You know friend we can actually loan some of this out…” Cecilia muttered as she looked around the room.

“Loan? I’m not that familiar with human commerce.” I said as I turned to look at her.

“Basically we can lend money to individuals and organisations to further our empire’s development. Or alternatively we can lend it to other nations.” Cecilia explained.

“So we give them money and they have to give it back to us? But what if they don’t give it back?” I asked, honestly it just made more sense to just build the things ourselves and rent it out.

“Well for the local plan, it means we can do a more hands off approach. The people occasionally have some good ideas and letting development occur naturally can cause individuals of talent to appear. 

As for the other nations, if they don’t give it back we can just go and take it back.” Cecilia said as she flashed me a smile.

“Hmmm, I suppose spitting on good will can give us justification for war. Although it is unlikely they won’t pay given the circumstances. They know they can’t win so they will keep paying.” I said and Cecilia got this glint in her eye once I said that.

“Exactly, so they will pay themselves into ruin. All we need to do is lend money to a region with a corrupt government. Plenty of them in Zarima and Eastern Voleria. The country goes to ruin and we go in to save the day.” Cecilia said and I turned my gaze to Mahaila.

“You have a problem with this plan?” I asked and she shook her head.

“My people to the west are tortured by corruption regardless, if the end result is liberation I can have no complaints. My culture is but a pale shadow of what it once was. My home town is a ruin, if some chaos is what it takes to rebuild the glory of the ancients then that's fine with me.”  Mahaila replied.

“Hmm I always wondered what your moral line was…” I mused as I looked at her.

“The line is I don’t like needless cruelty. Sometimes bloodshed is inevitable but if there must be blood it must be for a good reason.” Mahaila replied with a sigh.

“History has a tendency to repeat, civilisations rise, they reach the precipes of a golden age and then wither, decay and die. That is the natural order of things, the real question is if something better rises from the ashes. I would like to avoid another Tralis usurper house situation, where what comes after is worse than what came before.” Mahaila said.

“Well I don’t think we need to get to the point where we need to rebuild from nothing. With the upcoming summit we’ll see how easily we can make them bend.” I said and Mahaila nodded. I sensed her stress levels drop.

“You know, I do admire some of the things you humanoids can make. I also enjoy the company of some of you.” I mused as I turned away from the pile of treasures and headed out with the rest. 

“Which is the most surprising part of this whole situation, believe me.” Mahaila replied dryly as she followed along.

“More surprising than a Firstborn reemerging. More surprising than two Firstborn reemerging actually.” Mahaila muttered as I shifted my gaze to her as we approached the next room.

“That bad? Well I’m full of surprises… just like you humanoids…” I said as I scanned the room. This room was a library filled with scrolls and books. 

I magiced a particularly large scroll out of one hit shelves and unfurled in front of me. What I saw just gave me more reason to preserve the humanoids. They truly are ingenious, what I held in my hand was the blueprints for a Spell Cannon. One of the old technologies that the angels confiscated because it had significant potential anti air applications. Point enough of these things into the air and the sky becomes a death trap. It’s basically a machine that can fire a predetermined ritual level spell by powering it with Ether Crystals. 

Technology, art, magical techniques. The sheer pressure of their weakness and the benefits of their intelligence leads to some extremely interesting ideas.

Yeah definitely full of surprises…