50 – The Paragon Stone

The walls were alight with color, pulsing periodically in the telltale blues and whites of magic. The whole room became alight when the field sprung into existence, and the feeble torches were discarded and burnt out unseen while Julian agonized on the floor. He had tried everything that had come to mind to free himself from this prison, but the more he tried to force the magical field, the more it responded by sucking away at his own life energy until he was forced to replenish it with ever less effective potions. His time was limited, and the more he struggled the quicker the clock ticked.

He wasn’t worried, however. This was because, just a few minutes ago, an idea had sprung to his mind. It all started with him considering the use of the minigate to summon a mighty ray of energy from the fourth floor’s sun, just like he did to destroy the kingly field at the top of this very castle. The idea was discarded just as quickly as it came, however, because since this field was sucking power from him, he would be killing himself way before the shield could suffer any damage. However, the gate could also be used in another way, not as a weapon, but as a proper Einstein-Rosen bridge. The technology was not made for that kind of use – this wasn’t the tv show Stargate after all – but it could be adapted to work. Julian’s superhuman attributes granted to him by the system would make sure that he survived the dangerous trip.

Julian had passed many hours studying the many documents that still lay on the table when Methias returned. His first reaction upon seeing the betrayer noble was to shoot him, but to his dismay the bullet bounced away harmlessly, deflected by the same energy field that was trapping him.

“Fuck you, you have a personal defense field.” He said, massaging his arm as a reflex. The bullet had bounced off, but the damage had been transferred onto him as the shield drained his HP to repair itself.

“Interesting, I thought you would have given up by now. You are much more resilient than I thought. Good.” The noble said.

“Heh,” Julian chuckled. “I know what you want to do. I saw the schematics. You have spent the whole year hoping I would come back, haven’t you?”

The noble laughed. “It didn't have to be you. Any traveler would have been fine. You’re not special.” He said, pacing around. He was holding something in his hands, a sphere of black marble with golden streaks that ran across it like miniature lightning. They moved and danced about, but they were dim and weak.

“How did you know? Did you figure it out yourself?” Julian taunted him.

“I did. I couldn’t be sure about that, of course, but from what I could tell the king accepted a deal from the system. To become hosts for travelers in exchange for… something. Once I figured what the something was… it was only a matter of time before I could take it for myself.”

“But that’s not enough for you, is it?”

The man shrugged.

“What a lucky coincidence that the next adventurer you meet is me again.”

“What a lucky coincidence indeed.”

Julian paced around the room glancing occasionally at the noble, gravitating ever closer to the desk full of half completed magical circles and notes. Methias was looking at him with a smile on his face, the smile of a hunter who had caught his prey and who was now savoring the sense of superiority that catching it granted him over it. Julian let him be, counting on that very sense of superiority to allow him to extract more information before he did his grand exit.

“Magic resonant composite waves,” he muttered, not raising his head from the notes written on the yellow papers. He was not showing any pain or fear now, and he could see Methias study him, looking for any indication that he was suffering.

“Interesting theory.” He continued. “Well, you couldn't know that but… they seem to have the same emergent property of the M-field.” His tone changed. “Isn't that fun?”

“What are you talking about?” The noble asked, furious, but then he shook his head and walked away. He didn't care about Julian’s answer, cutting him off before he could even begin to reply.

“You don’t care to know?” Julian pressed him.

“You know what I don't care?” he said, walking towards the center of the room. “I know what the Paragon Stone does and how to use it, thanks to you for the most part. I don’t need anything else.”

“What, the Paragon shitstone only controls the weather. What are you even going to use it for?” Julian mocked him.

“Oh, you’ll see.”

He took out the Paragon Stone, holding it up in his hands. The shimmering field that surrounded the room seemed to collapse around it, and around the noble, and Julian felt a tug very similar to what he was feeling from the field whenever he attacked it but much stronger. He downed another trio of potions, breathing unevenly. His mind became a sea of thoughts.

“The paragon stone needs to be bound to somebody's soul to work.” The noble said. “It wasn't you who doomed us, who betrayed this city, it was the king. He wanted power and he wanted it all for himself: he bound the stone to his own soul so that nobody could kill him without also killing the city. And then he built this room. But he died nonetheless, didn’t he?”

Julian’s eyes were fixated on the noble as his mind processed all the information that he had at his disposal again. The king, the protective field, his death, Methias… Julian glanced at the notes again. There were designs there, and now he finally understood what they were for. They did talk about siphoning energy out of magically gifted individuals, but he had wrongfully thought that they were referring to the kind. Now he understood the truth, however. The king had devised a way to cheat the system, binding the stone to himself while siphoning the energy from somebody else. This way he could have lived forever, protected by the stone, siphoning the life out of other people in the process. He had only died because Julian’s weapon was too strong, and had overwhelmed the Stone’s field and probably also killed whoever was in this room to power it in the process. It was something that the king couldn't predict, a power well beyond what a traveler on this floor should have been capable of unleashing. That is why he was so cocky: he was trying to add Julian to his own human battery reserve.

“Is that why the king died after I left? Because the stone siphoned the life out of him?” he asked.

The noble nodded, savoring the panic in Julian’s voice. “This information is not going to help you,” he said. “You are trapped and you cannot get out of there. The more you struggle the more you will suffer. But don't worry,” He smiled evilly, “you have all the treasure that you stole from the castle to keep yourself alive. Your greed will only prolong your suffering.”

Methias went to work on the stone, disappearing behind a pillar. Julian made good use of this opportunity to gather his thoughts and go over his options. He knew that there were at least two if not three ways he could get out of here. They were risky, getting riskier by the second… But he needed to know more. He decided that the risk was still worth it, and he faked being distraught and desperate, begging for his life while trying to fish for information.

“Please, you have more to gain by freeing me than by keeping me here.” Julian said. “I am more than just a human battery, I can grant you powers that you cannot even dream of.”

Methias’ voice echoed. “Ah, you think you can fool me again with the same trick you used one year ago? I am not so naïve. Look at the damn schematics, once you see what this device can actually do, you’ll shut up.”

Julian swallowed what felt like a small rock in his throat, and slowly turned around to go look at the schematics again. He didn't even need to fake it, because for the first time he felt like he was in serious danger, although not mortal danger. But even that last certainty slowly faded as he read, his eyes darting to the notes and to the schematics, his hands frantically shuffling the many papers on the desk, brushing away what remained of the few crystals that had crumbled into nothing when the shield had activated.

“Oh my god.” He said.

“You see it now.” The noble said, emerging from the far end of the room.

“You want to become an adventurer yourself don't you? That's why you said that any adventurer would have worked for your plan. It doesn’t matter how powerful they are. You just want to gain the power of the system for yourself.”

The noble didn't bother replying, and only walked up towards Julian holding the Paragon Stone aloft. The closer he got, the stronger the pull Julian felt and he instinctively retreated away from the man, now big and tall and threatening with his ashen complexion and his silver beard. Despite his diminutive stature, it felt like there was a giant staring down at him. An oppressive power, beyond the actual pressure that he was feeling from the field. For the first time in a long time, he was not angry. He was scared. And the fear was stronger than everything else, and his mind went into overdrive. His escape route was still available to him, but the window was slowly but surely closing.

He mentally slapped himself. He couldn't go yet. Not just yet. There was something more important than this, something more important than all of this. And he was looking right at it, holding the torn note in his hands. A bead of sweat fell on the ink, and a small blotch expanded where the paper absorbed the salty liquid.

What he thought was simply an odd coincidence concocted by the system, the fact that the magic-resonant composite waves had the same emergent properties of the M-field, was actually much more than that. The note said it all. Whoever had written it knew.

“Who told you of the M-field?” he asked, voice trembling.

“What are you talking about?” The noble barked at him. “Just shut up and die. Your tricks will not save you now.”

Wait, Julian’s mind said to him. The Paragon Stone kept absorbing energy from him until its golden streaks were bright and alive with power. Then Methias walked away from him and towards the center of the room, where a marble pedestal had emerged from the floor. He positioned the Stone on it and a small wave propagated through the magical field and passed through Julian. He watched in horror his status bar rapidly depleting, while a new affliction appeared in his vision. He grit his teeth. The affliction had no name, and no color, as if the system himself had not thought it possible for an something like this to exist. And it was filling rapidly.

Tough to Kill has yet to activate. After that, I will only have a few seconds left before I’m toast.

“You don't know, do you?” Julian asked

The noble said nothing

“You don't know!” Julian shouted at him, redoubling his efforts at trying to get the man to talk.

He began to laugh almost maniacally, coughing and propping himself against the desk as not to fall to the ground, clutching his chest in pain as his health dipped below 50%. For a moment he felt respite, as his skill, Tough to Kill, activated to protect him. It lasted only a few seconds but they gave him the clarity to finally reach the end of his train of thought.

“This is not your work,” he said calmly. Almost like all the pain and panic were not even real. Even he could not tell if they had been real at all. “You stole it. You have no idea of the potential of this work, this is way beyond what you are trying to do here.”

“You don't need to bother with it anymore,” the noble said, “you're going to die soon. Make peace with yourself.”

“No!” Julian shouted. His time was running out. “What do you know of the M field? You have read the notes, and you have developed this… procedure here. What do you know of it? What do you know of the M-field?”

“Why are you so obsessed with the M field?” Methias cried out. “You are sick in the head, even though you know you're about to die you still worry about trivial stuff.”

“I need to know,” said Julian and he didn't even care if he was showing his hand and if the noble suspected that he was not as scared of death as he was of something else. His eyes were bloodshot, and Methias paused when he stared at the alien complexion full of strange emotions. Julian’s face was truly scary to look at, but Methias could not bring himself to stop staring at it.

“Fine.” Methias said through grit teeth, heaving. “I guess I can tell you. I don't know what this M-field is and I do not care. There was math on those notes that I didn't understand, but I didn't need to. I have everything I need to get out of here and into the multiverse, as a free man! why would I care about discovering some esoteric truth that will only get me killed by the system, like it did the researcher who wrote the notes?”

“So you know who it was?”

The bar was almost full. Julian was about to die. And this death could be permanent. He felt scared, and yet…

“I never saw him.” The noble said, and Julian kept a tight leash on his mind the clawed at him and demanded that he escaped now. “I only know he disappeared a few days ago, I had to complete the work myself.”

“You never you never solved the infinite series, did you?”

“Silence.” The noble commanded, and Julian felt that the oppressive force pushing down on him was ever stronger.

“You never did, did you?” He shouted, spit and blood flying from his mouth in his last moments before death.

“No I didn't,” the noble said, then turn to stare at the Paragon Stone, as if horrified by the monster Julian had become.

“Well,” Julian finally said, “fuck you then. See ya.”

Just as he said that, a few things appeared from his storage rings. From one ring appeared half a circle of machine, and a small mound of shiny blue crystals. From the other ring appeared the second half of the mini gate, and a small object. It was black, perfectly spherical, and it landed with a soft tingling sound on the ground. The mini gate quickly drew power from the crystals, activating immediately, and Julian disappeared into it. The magical field of the room suddenly died, plunging it in complete darkness. Then the other device, containing one single F+ crystal, finally detonated. The explosion rocked the mountain but didn’t do anything more than destroy the gate and the shocked noble, who had only stared wide eyed at the swirling energy of the gate as Julian disappeared into it, unable to comprehend what was happening. He thought it was a weapon, not a transportation device. His instincts screamed at him to run towards it, to escape through it like Julian did, but he didn’t move quickly enough.

As he turned into Runes that flowed into Julian status, the rest of the city only felt a small tremor, but nobody paid it any mind.

Julian could have dumped all of the crystals he had on top of the small bomb, ensuring the destruction of the whole city but he did not, and this was the end of what he was willing to do to help them. His debt had been repaid.