When the lift doors opened, Naiad and Valeria came out with their guards raised. Valeria’s glaive was brandished—not that she thought it would do much good against the golems they’d been fighting—and Naiad’s power was at her fingertips.
But nothing jumped out to greet them. As far as it seemed, the short hall they stepped out into was devoid of life.
The place was also far less decorated than the entrance hall; much like the large empty room they’d explored, it seemed that this place wasn’t one meant to show off the power and majesty of the Thunderbird Clan. It was narrow enough to not need the tree-like columns of the entrance hall, and as far as Valeria could see, there was only a single door apart from the lift, and it was all the way at the other end of the hall.
That being said, the hall was a far cry from being hideous or even depressingly neutral—the floors had been polished to a near-mirror shine, the sloped walls had regular alcoves, and the light was soft and pleasant.
[Keep an eye on those alcoves,] Naiad commanded Valeria as they spread out a bit in the hall.
Valeria whispered, “Got it,” not feeling the slightest bit out of the place with Naiad giving the orders. In this case, she was perfectly happy following Naiad’s lead if only to stay out of her way if they ran into trouble of a violent sort.
[Notice anything?] Naiad asked.
“Nothing,” Valeria answered as they crept along the hall, Valeria’s eyes probing every shadow and dark thing in the hall, searching for any sign of danger.
However, the alcoves were empty; no golems appeared from either direction, the lift stayed on their level with the door open, and she detected no changes in the room’s natural aura that might have indicated the activation of a defensive ward.
Soon enough, they reached the other end of the hall, and Valeria got to work opening the door while Naiad watched her back. At this point, after having explored three lower floors already, it had become something of a habit for the two.
After clearing out the golems on the first floor, they’d gone down to the lowest floor the lift could take them to, but they’d found nothing of note down there, only huge storage rooms filled with metal boxes. Unfortunately, most of these boxes were filled with raw materials that weren’t of much use to the ladies, like huge slabs of steel and bronze. The second floor from the bottom was somehow even less exciting, with nothing but what appeared to be large theaters and meeting rooms devoid of furniture.
The third floor from the bottom, meanwhile, appeared to be the place where the people who used to work in the place would spend their off-time. There were only about two dozen rooms however, perhaps, Valeria theorized, because of the golems around to do manual labor. Each room had an attached bathroom, though no furniture to speak of. At the end of that hall had been what she’d thought had once been a large common area, though with it again devoid of furniture, so she could only guess.
Despite all of this, she and Naiad had managed to keep their guards raised. Having been surprised once by an unexpectedly silent attack by golems, they weren’t going to get careless again.
So, there on the fourth floor from the lowest floor the lift would take them, Valeria got to work opening the only door. By this point, she’d gotten so good at opening these doors that it slid into the wall in a matter of seconds, giving the two ladies access to what lay beyond.
And it was a beautiful sight. Whereas the rest of the facility seemed to have been evacuated, this room was the only one that still seemed inhabited. The walls had been enchanted to resemble hedges blooming with flowers of every shape and color; the center of the room was a small pool about the size of a large bath, flanked by four pillars that had been enchanted to resemble trees; the ceiling had similar enchantments, as well, showing a scene of bright blue sky with the perfect amount of fluffy white clouds lazily drifting through the firmament.
The rest of the décor was beyond luxurious, with a polished marble floor, a number of sofas, recliners, and tables made of ivory, green jade, and turtle shells. At the far end of the room was a large chair built like a throne made of ivory and emerald sitting upon a dais of green marble.
It was an almost unnerving shock to the two to be so far underground yet to walk out into what all of their senses were telling them was outside. It was shocking enough that their guard slipped for just a moment as they walked in, only for it to be immediately raised again when they noticed the four alcoves in the corners of the room which housed bronze golems.
“You needn’t worry about them,” said a bored-sounding voice from the hallway behind them.
Valeria and Naiad spun around ready to attack whoever had just snuck up on them, but both froze for a moment when they saw it was Leon walking through the door.
“Leon!” Valeria cried. “What’s been going on?! The golems have been—”
Valeria was cut off as Naiad held out her arm in front of her.
[That isn’t Leon,] the river nymph whispered into Valeria’s mind. When Valeria glanced over at her companion, she felt ice enter her veins when she saw the look of utter hatred and rage on Naiad’s face.
Not seeming to care about Naiad cutting Valeria off, not-Leon strutted right on in, walked past them, and stretched out over one of the recliners.
“Ahhh,” he sighed as he got comfortable. “I’ve been so long without comfort, I’d almost forgotten what it felt like to sit in one of these…”
[Who are you!] Naiad demanded as she and Valeria spread out into the room a little, with Naiad blocking the door, the only apparent exit not-Leon might be able to use to run away. Valeria, meanwhile, divided her attention between not-Leon, the golems in the room, and monitoring the doorway for any more unexpected arrivals.
Not-Leon looked at them with a smile of amusement, his almost playfully in-control attitude standing in sharp contrast to Leon’s significantly more reserved and stoic nature.
“I wondered how I should approach this,” he said. “I thought that maybe trying to pass myself off as your companion might’ve been a good idea, made all the more tempting by how utterly gorgeous the two of you are, but in the end, I decided against it. I am not Leon Raime, the man you journeyed to this place with.”
Valeria wrinkled her nose in disgust, and she noticed Naiad’s making a similar expression. This person was not welcome making even relatively tame comments like those, especially not wearing Leon’s face.
[Who are you?] Naiad repeated, echoing her question in Valeria’s mind for the sake of clarity. [Why do you wear his face?!]
Naiad’s aura began to rise, roil, and churn, reflecting her subtle shift in posture to a more offensive stance. It was clear to Valeria, at least, that if she didn’t get an answer she liked, then violence was going to ensue. But she couldn’t blame the river nymph, Valeria felt an instinctive revulsion at whoever this was aping Leon’s form. In fact, if they had more information on wherever Leon was, Valeria knew that Naiad would’ve already attacked, and she probably would’ve joined the river nymph.
“I am here to talk,” not-Leon said in a conciliatory tone. “I’ve been watching you two traipse all over my lab poking your noses into every little crack and corner, destroying my labor force, and just generally being kind of a nuisance. I want you two to stop.”
“You’re in charge here?” Valeria demanded to know, her hand clasping her glaive a little bit tighter.
“I am,” not-Leon replied. “You may call me Nestor, if you must call me anything. Now that you know my name, perhaps you two can relax and join me for a few words? Whatever you want, I’m sure we can come to some kind of arrangement—”
Naiad abruptly ended his sentence when she conjured a thin line of water in the air and, using it almost like a sword, she sliced Nestor’s sofa in half. Nestor himself was fine, leaping to his feet just before the water hit—and not being in Naiad’s line of fire, anyway.
[WHERE IS LEON?!] Naiad furiously roared into his mind.
“Now, now, there’s no need for that…” Nestor said, his smile slipping a little as Naiad stared daggers at him. He glanced at Valeria in what she guessed to be a silent plea for intervention, but if that was, indeed, what he wanted, then he was left wanting. Valeria sensed barely any magic coming from him; he didn’t seem to be much of a threat, his attitude notwithstanding, so she was with Naiad one hundred percent of the way. “All right, I tried,” he said exasperatedly as he started making some strange, arcane hand movements. “Don’t complain that you didn’t have your chance!”
Naiad needed nothing more. She conjured a small serpentine water dragon only about a foot thick and sent it careening in Nestor’s direction. It smashed through the horrifically expensive furniture without the slightest care on its course to clamp its jaws down on Nestor’s body, but Nestor nimbly leaped out of the way.
When he landed, he grinned at Naiad as the water dragon lost all bodily cohesion and collapsed into shapeless water, Naiad’s magic scattering beyond any hope of control as it hit a shining rune hovering in the air.
Valeria wasn’t idly watching this take place, she’d conjured half a dozen ice spikes—about all she could manage with her relatively depleted magic reserves—and had them hover around her. As soon as Nestor’s feet touched the ground, she launched one of these spikes at him, which he only dodged by the skin of his teeth.
“Oomph!” he cried in surprise, the exclamation sounding terribly strange in Leon’s voice. “And here I was thinking you were only kept around for your looks!” he shouted at Valeria, winking at her in a way that sent a shiver of disgust down her spine. She, without hesitation, launched another ice spike his way despite knowing that it would be pointless with his guard up and his eyes trained on her.
However, as he twisted his body out of the way, another of Naiad’s water dragons came roaring in from the side. It slammed into him with astonishing force, hurling him across the room before it followed its predecessor and collapsed into formless water.
Nestor landed on his feet, looking a little shaky but otherwise unhurt.
“Oof,” he quietly complained. “Not used to this…”
He didn’t get a chance to get used to it, though, as one of Valeria’s ice spikes almost impaled his shoulder, blocked only by a hastily thrown up rune that created a shield of light around him.
Suddenly, the runes that Nestor had conjured vanished, and his eyes widened in shock. His fingers moved in a blur, but no new runes appeared. In contrast, Naiad was winding up for another attack, with water already appearing next to her and forming into a serpentine shape.
“Shit,” he muttered as his panicked eyes went to the four golems in the corners of the room, which then began to move. Naiad didn’t waste a moment, launching a water dragon at the closest golem. A moment later, bits and pieces of bronze were sailing across the room, but the other three golems had already sprung into action.
One of them charged at Valeria. Given that she couldn’t see through the aura it emanated, she assumed it was much stronger than her and did her best to dodge and weave while Naiad dealt with them. She got in a few good hits, but otherwise remained on the defensive until a water dragon appeared to tear the golem into scrap metal.
But the entire fight lasted about a minute, during which Nestor had vanished.
“Bastard!” Valeria angrily shouted as she ran for the door, not even taking a moment to thank Naiad for her intervention. Naiad didn’t seem to mind, though as she followed immediately.
The two burst out into the hallway only to see that the door to the lift had closed. Valeria sprinted over and tried to call it, but there was no response.
“That fucking ass!” she shouted in frustration.
[Can you get it open?] Naiad asked, her body language speaking of calm but her tone speaking of the much darker and more violent thoughts she was not giving voice to.
“I’ll try,” Valeria said as she began looking for a control panel. “What in all the hells was that?”
[It was most certainly someone in Leon’s body, but his mind was not there…] Naiad said. [Someone must have somehow seized control of him…]
“Does that mean we can’t harm him when we find him?” Valeria asked, suddenly concerned that they wouldn’t be able to harm Nestor if they managed to find him.
As a response, Naiad only offered a quiet, [… We must be careful…]
Valeria scowled as she got back to work, though she did spare the time to whisper, “… Thanks, back there. You covered me, and I appreciate it.”
Valeria didn’t hear Naiad respond, but in the corner of her eye, she saw the river nymph briefly glance at her by her shadow and slowly nod in her direction.
---
Nestor swore under his breath as he stumbled out of the lift far below his relaxation chambers. He’d never been much of a fighter, and in a body that wasn’t his and without the lion’s share of his powers, he was deeply regretting going to challenge those two, especially when all the power he’d taken from Leon seemed to suddenly dry up.
“Underestimated those bitches…” he murmured as he limped down the hall, unable to spare the magic power he’d need to heal Leon’s body for the moment. With the power he’d stolen from Leon all gone, he barely had enough power left in him for a rune or two, not nearly enough to continue fighting. He wasn’t sure what happened, but he guessed he must’ve just overestimated what he’d gotten from Leon. No other scenario made as much sense in his mind, even though he was certain that he’d stolen more during their brief exchange.
His options ran through his mind. He could hole up down in the lower floors and restrict the access those women had to the rest of the facility, but such a passive act was hardly one that appealed to him. Besides, he doubted either of them would just leave in good time. He only had one more golem, though, and until he brought the entire facility back online, his labor force was going to be essentially just him until he got the facilities in the deeper parts of the lab back up and running.
His expression darkened as he realized that there was only one way he was going to be able to defeat those two and fully secure his lab without destroying it in the process: to fully seize Leon’s body. But that would take time and power, neither of which he had in abundance.
Down the hall, he saw his most prized golem, the last intact one that he possessed, hurrying over.
“Your Highness!” it cried as it bent down to give Nestor something to lean on.
Nestor was happy to let it take some of his weight, and as he directed the lead golem on to his destination, he asked, “Is your task complete?”
“Yes,” the golem replied. “The prisoners have been fully secured for further draining. The main crystal should be fully charged within eight weeks at our current rate of power consumption.”
Nestor smiled bitterly, knowing that that wasn’t going to be fast enough with those ladies breathing down his neck. He’d have to take more drastic measures to secure his position. He needed more power, and he needed it now. He could go all the way down to the other end of the hall and slowly drain what the prisoners had built up, but there was a much better source of magic power right there with him…
He glanced down at his golem. The entire thing was a work of art, with broad shoulders, a patterned chest plate featuring hundreds of Thunderbirds in flight, and dozens of modern runes all along its joints. The way its bronze plates weaved together like scaled skin, the brief hints of silver-blue light that peeked out from beneath it that hinted at the lightning wisp inside, the flexibility of its form, it all made Nestor smile to see his creation so lively and so beautiful.
Without hesitating for longer than a second, Nestor used the scant traces of power in the air and that Leon’s body had regenerated to draw another ‘collection’ rune in the air and directed it at his golem. It was small and unsuited for combat, but the rune was enough for his current purposes, especially since Nestor had built all of his golems to accept any draining that he needed to subject them to.
The golem froze as it bore Nestor down the hallway, magic power rippling out from it and into the ‘collection’ rune. A moment later, the bronze form collapsed into a heap of plates and tiny scales as the lightning wisp within was snuffed out, Nestor’s rune having consumed all of its magic power and funneling it back into Leon’s soul realm, where Nestor would be able to collect it again with the rune he still had down there.
With that, Nestor thought with only a modicum of sorrow at having destroyed his most prized creation, he’d have the power to enact his next steps a little quicker than he’d anticipated.
With no thoughts spared for comfort or his station, Nestor sat down right there in the hallway. He then got as comfortable as he could and closed his eyes, letting his consciousness sink down deep into Leon’s core, then into the younger man’s soul realm.
‘My soul realm, now,’ Nestor thought as he opened his eyes on Leon’s throne, a smile on his face.
When he saw what was waiting for him, his smile instantly died, replaced with fear and immediate panic.
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