The fall of Terra fortress. Chapter 5

She no longer felt any pain, once the heat subsided, only the feeling of an empty eye socket remained. Of course, she still had her eye in, but the phantom pain was superposed to it. She developed the spy eyes years ago, but could never quite understand that sensation. She can create four spy eyes at the same time, how can she feel the missing eye if she only has two eye sockets?

More than once she was curious on what would happen if three of her eyes were destroyed at the same time. Maybe she wouldn’t feel the third one, but knowing the pain she would have to go through always dissuaded from trying it. Leaving that stupid idea aside, her mind went back to the three people that were getting closer and closer to the building.

She had already imagined at least ten different scenarios on what could happen with their sudden visitors, but in times of such peace a conflict was very unlikely. Even if she happened to be right on her hypothesis and the strangers were sent by Mayhem then they most probably would be unimportant vassals, without the power or the authority to be a menace. No, the true reason they had to be extremely careful when receiving them was making sure that no one would ever find out about Ernst.

Moving long distances has always been a difficult endeavor. Terra once tried to alleviate the problem by making the sun move through the cusp of the dome to balance the heat in the entire land, but the experiment was unsuccessful. The only option they have a static sun, constantly heating the same spot and creating an enormous desert in the center of the land, alongside an exterior ring that heats and colds outrageously at different times of the day. Lawrence helped Terra research a better solution, but with their lack of resources they couldn’t come up with anything better.

The sun was gonna stay as it was, but the solution to travel long distances in such a precarious situation presented by itself a night like any other. A young innate karma user was found by Terra while she claimed the terrain for her fortress on the neutral lands. As she described it, he was like an animal. He possessed the capacity to speak, albeit in a quite basic manner, managing to convey the long years he spent living by himself in caves and forests.

Even then, the most notorious thing of all was his karmic ability. Ernst Eburios is a transmuter capable of creating anything without any restrictions, as long as he is in complete darkness. As a constraint, Ernst expressed that even the lowest lights caused him serious physical pain, going as far as thinking that direct exposure to any light would be enough to kill him.

Even if such limitation was quite important, such a powerful ability could never become a matter of dispute between the kings. In the end he became another one of the secrets Terra hid from the world, making him part of her research team, and at the same time solving any mobilization problems they had.

Lawrence finally reached the basement that, while staying in the facility, became Ernst’s home. On her way there she extinguished all the torches up to the last ember, even when she had lit them up just a couple of hours before. In a matter of minutes, the entire facility, except for the room Trevor was in, fell into absolute darkness. Even when she had an insulating jacket, she started feeling the cold seep in.

As she was once instructed, when everything is so dark that you can’t see the palm of your hand in front of your face, even so close as touching your nose, she opened the door to the basement. She deactivated her spy eye and as slowly as she could, completely blind, she went down the stairs.

The basement was once a records room, but it was remodeled and all registries were taken out. Ernst once said that having all those texts around when he was incapable of reading made him sad. As someone who had the same problem, Lawrence decided to take them all away.

It took her a moment to notice she had reached the bottom of the stairs. She could use the spy's eyes on the darkness, but Ernst had been very explicit on his desire to not be seen, and when they met, she almost suffered the consequences of unknowingly stepping over his wish. After her first near death experience involving him, she decided never to force the matter in any way.

“Ernst, are you awake?”

“No”

The voice came from someplace in the darkness. She could not even decipher the direction it came from.

“We have to leave immediately. Bring the umbrella with you”

“Where are we go?”

“For now, the refuge of the middle land would be fine. We simply want to lay low for a while and the location of this place has already been compromised.”

“I don’t want to go”

“I know. Look, if it’s possible, tomorrow we will decide if it's safe to come back here. As soon as it is, we will return. Would you like that?”

During the conversation the strangers had gotten a lot closer. It was still possible to escape through the backdoor, but if they weren’t quick enough the “visitors” would notice the lights on the main room. To make matters more worrisome for her, she had managed to elucidate the build of the three men, and their bulky appearance did little to assuage her fears.

“Ernst, believe me, this is very urgent. I’ll compensate you, okay?”

“Is it night?”

“Of course it is. We have enough hours to reach the refuge if we leave now”

“I will use the chariot. I hope there’s still food.”

“If there’s no food on the refuge, I’ll make Trevor take care of it, don’t worry.”

A quick succession of noises moved around Lawrence, scaring her a bit, just before something grabbed her hand.

“Ernst!”

“Sorry”

“I told you not to do that, you know I can’t see you.”

“I forgot”

“Again?”

“Yes”

After stumbling a bit on the stairs both reached the main floor once more. The main door was to their right while the main room, now completely dark, was to their left. The intruders were so close that they could hear the wind moving around them to keep their heat, even through the thick walls of the lab.

The building is very small, meaning that the backdoor was really close, only a couple of small rooms apart from there. Lawrence had the hope that the noise would help them escape unnoticed.

Ernst guided Lawrence until they reached Trevor, who had a bunch of papers now in a binder, now tucked into his jacket. When Ernst had come out of the basement, the entire surroundings of the lab had changed. From the depths of the darkness, thin, squiggly white lines had come out, surrounding the contorns of every object in the building. For Trevor, it looked as if the building had now been drawn with white chalk on a black board. As you can’t use any kind of light with Ernst around, that was the best compromise they could reach to be able to see things around him.

Unfortunately, such things worked for everyone except Lawrence. As much as she wondered how such a thing would look through her spy eyes, she could never appreciate such a strange phenomenon without risking stepping over Ernst's wish of not being seen.

“Hi Ernst” Said Trevor in the lowest voice he could muster.

“Hi” Said Ernst, without lowering his voice in the least, causing an echo that reverberated through the entire lab.

Soon after, their short meeting was interrupted by a series of strong knocks on the front door. The three of them started silently moving to the backdoor. If they heard Ernst, the idea of making the lab seem empty was now moot. Lawrence took her free hand to her waist and grabbed her sword firmly. A mere precaution, born from the constant paranoia she always felt.

The building was too small and the intruders were just there. If by any chance they were noticed and the invaders gave pursuit, their lights would instantly kill Ernst. That was a risk they absolutely could not take.

After making sure that she would be able to unsheathe the sword swiftly if needed she took a rushed decision. She threw her arms forward in an attempt to grab her two companions. With this, she first hit, but then managed to grab Trevor by his shirt and put his hand on Ernst's head, who shook it off without touching her. Lawrence moved forward a little bit more and now knowing where they were she grabbed them both from their shoulders.

“Ernst, I’ll need to activate my eye, hide in the main room, deactivate the contours and open the umbrella. Trevor, lit a torch, you’ll need to be able to see and defend yourself in case things go wrong. Worst case scenario, I’ll shout Ernst's name. Trevor, you’ll extinguish the torch and Ernst will be able to help us. If you feel we are in danger after deactivating the umbrella, you are allowed to kill them. Now, move.”

With velocity born from all the practice they did on their free time, the three took position. The sound of the umbrella activating was the signal that indicated Lawrence that she could activate the spy eye flying around her head to get her sight back. In the main room the only thing that indicated Ernst’s presence was a mysterious metallic sphere on the corner of the room. Like she was used to, Lawrence sent her spy eye to the roof, hiding it on the darkest and more inconspicuous corner she could find.

After preparing a quick unsheathe for the last time, she moved her sword a little bit behind her, and opened the door. Trevor had done a quick transmutation and created both a torch for his left hand and a knife for her right, which he then hid behind him. It wasn’t ideal, but at least it was subtle.

They were three men, the three of them muscular and if she could have seen her appearance clearly beforehand she could have immediately identified the three of them as forces. One of them carried a torch and the other two had their hands on their pockets, an important detail that she couldn’t identify on time due to the long cloaks that covered them.

Before she could even start the speech she had prepared, one of the men took a gun out of their pocket and shot at her without even aiming first. Lawrence’s reflexes were quick, but Trevor wasn’t as well trained as her and he simply crouched when he saw them take something out of their pockets.

Lawrence, on the other hand, moved out of sight behind the door, unfortunately giving them full range to shoot Trevor again. He had tried to move out of sight, but got hit on the arm and the torch he held dematerialized instantly.

Then, everything inside the lab fell into darkness, but one of the assailants still had a torch on. Lawrence still could see thanks to her spy eye, but Trevor was completely blind, crawling to the main room where Ernst was. The man with the torch got ahead from the shooter and after a deep breath he blew on his torch, sending an enormous wave of fire through the hallway that got quickly cut by the door closing.

Lawrence had managed to close the door, but she wasn’t nearly done yet.
As soon as the door closed she unsheathed her sword and immediately stabbed the door through with it, at the same height of the head of the man who breathed fire.

The assailants screamed the name of their fallen comrade, but nothing could be done. A force he may be, but even they could not survive a stab through the head. Knowing that he was dead, the shooter kicked down the burnt door and shot in the dark. His partner moved his hand in the air and a giant claymore materialized on it.

“Light” said the assailant with the gun.

In his hand, a small ball of fire materialized and shot through the hallway until it reached the backdoor, all the way through the main room. After scanning his surroundings, the man’s eyes started shining intensely. The building was now dimly lit, enough for them to see where they were going. They could not find Lawrence, but there were only two places she could hve gone to and one of those doors was closed. If she had entered the basement, they would have heard the door when it closed.

Their little bout had reached a short standstill, but that peace would not last long, as the two assailants neared the room where their two victims were scrambling, trying to think of a way to protect themselves from the danger that was now only a few steps apart from them.