The inspection of the dais was fascinating and altogether far beyond Leon.  This was where the first ritual that started the calamity that now gripped Arkhnavi had been performed.  It may have been shattered in his wrathful fight with Khaji’Yun, but even the remaining fragments were enough to show him the sheer mind-bending complexity of the thing was at least on par with his transformation enchantment, if not even more complex.

It was, after all, doing something he thought to be far beyond impossible: creating a stable connection to a Primal Devil outside of a living being.  Living beings—humans, to be precise—were integral components of the enchantment, but only that, and the whole thing, if working properly, was supposed to funnel all the magic power of the plane directly to the Primal Devil.  The free-floating channeler’s rift was, Leon supposed, what it was supposed to be, though it was now gone, preventing him from studying it alongside the dais.

The enchantment itself was spectacularly complex, and Leon quickly realized that it extended far beyond just the dais.  He considered him both lucky and profoundly unlucky for that fact—lucky as it meant most of the enchantment survived the dais’ destruction, but unlucky in that it greatly increased the amount of work he would have to do to understand it.

The dais on its own was not only covered in tiny runic etchings on every surface, but from the way that magic power flowed through it, Leon suspected that the internal structure of the stone had formed runes and glyphs, which made studying them in their entirety now impossible.  However, through following the flow of magic, even disturbed as it was without the dais, Leon discovered impossibly long veins of carved stone that only an absurdly powerful earth mage could’ve placed without discovery before the ritual.  These veins were not only intricately etched with runes, but formed runes themselves.

‘I can’t study all this…’ Leon thought to himself with great dejection barely an hour after he’d begun.  His meager skill with earth magic and magic senses—now considerably less restrained with the purple crystal gone—was only enough for him to get a good idea of the scale of the problem.  ‘I need help…’

[Hey demon,] Leon called out to his resident former Lord of Flame.  [Want to study something quite Devilish?]

[Why Leon, whatever’s put you in such a fucking generous mood?] Xaphan cheekily replied.

[Just thought you might want to check it out since you weren’t able to study that channeler’s rift.  But if you don’t…]

[I never said that, boy.  Let me out and I’ll do what you cannot.]

[One moment.]

Leon ignored the demon’s indignation before glancing at the Azurian Prince who, along with Tir’Anu, was busy evaluating possible routes through the Mandian Lands, while Mari had busied herself by partially disassembling a bit of her Ulta suit and was now frowning at the revealed internals.

“Hey, Prince Ard’Nara!” Leon called out, drawing the Prince’s attention.  “How do you feel about demons?”

Nara immediately snarled.  “Vile beings who have no place in human society!”

[Shitty little punk,] Xaphan grumbled.  [Let me out, Leon, I need to show this fuckboy who he’s denigrating!]

Leon continued ignoring Xaphan and responded to Nara, “I know one who can help!  He’s kind of an arrogant shitweasel, but I need the help with this thing!”  He gestured at the dais for emphasis, hoping he wouldn’t need to do more than that to remind the Prince of the predicament they were in.

Fortunately, it seemed that was all that was necessary.  Nara, still grimacing, stared at the dais for a long moment before his eyes drifted over the broken shell that was once one of the greatest cities on the plane.

“Can you keep the creature in line?” Nara asked.

[This little sewage gobbler,] Xaphan spat.  [I’m going to put my foot so far up his ass I’ll fry his fucking teeth!]

“Of course I can,” Leon said with a grin.

After another moment of agonized thought, Nara said, “Do as you will.  The consequences will be borne by you alone.”

Leon nodded and glanced at the other two members of the party.  The brief exchange had drawn Mari’s attention, and she now stared at Leon with a worried look.  However, a reassuring grin from Leon was all she needed to return to her work, though she was still quite evidently distracted as she stole apprehensive glances at Leon every few seconds.

Tir’Anu, on the other hand, didn’t look happy at all.  He, of course, already knew of Xaphan, though the two hadn’t yet met, so this was hardly new information for him.  However, he still disapproved of Leon’s contract with Xaphan, though instead of arguing against it, he simply held his tongue and bowed his head slightly in deference to Leon’s decision.

So, without another moment of waiting around, Leon pulled on the connection forged between himself and Xaphan.  For a moment, he faltered as he brushed up against the similar connection he shared with Maia and felt nothing.  He knew that the connection had something of a range limit, but at the power he and Maia were at, they would hardly brush up against it so long as they were both on the same plane.

The fantastic distance now between them, however, left the connection feeling cold and lifeless, and Leon’s mood worsened by no small amount at the feeling.

Still, in a moment, Xaphan burst from Leon’s soul realm, illuminating the entire park with the bright orange fires that poured endlessly from his body—and Leon noticed that they were seeming quite a bit brighter than he’d gotten used to, with hints of yellow closer to the demon’s body.  Xaphan’s eyes, too, which burned yellow hot, were now looking a bit more white than yellow.

The demon was getting close to the human equivalent of the tenth-tier, Leon could feel it.

“You fuckwit,” Xaphan growled as soon as he appeared, his eyes locking onto Nara, “you think you can slander demonkind and just get away with it?!”

Leon blinked in surprise, though he supposed he shouldn’t have been.  Xaphan was speaking in fluent azurian, and he’d quite clearly understood what the team had been saying, but Leon hadn’t realized the demon had picked up the language.

Though, he was a little jealous at the ease with which the demon spoke it.

“Demons are fundamentally inhuman,” Nara confrontationally stated as he rose from the rock he sat upon and turned to face what had at one time been one of the most powerful demons alive in the universe.  “You treat men like cattle and care not a whit for our civilization.  You bring little save death and destruction to mankind.”

“Heh.  Got some balls on you, kid,” Xaphan said with some appreciation as he turned to the dais.  “Now go back to doing what you humans do best—nothing—and I’ll tell you little fleshy shits all about it soon.”

Nara scowled but seemed to think better of arguing with a demon, and returned to discussing possible routes to Tell Kirin with Tir—though Leon noticed he kept Xaphan in sight at all times.

“Just do your best, demon,” Leon said a little patronizingly.

“Did you not just hear me, human?” Xaphan shot back in annoyance.

“Why do you think I said it?” Leon asked as he took a few steps in Mari’s direction.  “I know you’re not an enchantment kind of guy, so just do your best, all right?  Let me know whatever you find, however little it may be.”  He flashed the demon a cheeky grin and then turned his back.

Xaphan growled something Leon didn’t bother to listen to as he walked over to Mari.

“So,” he said as if there wasn’t a bright demon now staring at a pile of rubble only a couple hundred feet away, “how’s your inspection going?”

Mari stared over his shoulder at Xaphan for a long moment before her eyes turned to him.  Confusion and fear were both writ large on her face, though Leon was a little gratified to see it was more the former than the latter.

“Makin’ all kinds of friends in this fuckin’ calamity, aren’t we…” she whispered to herself before finally addressing Leon’s question.  “Ya fucked me up, Lele, if I were to finally make old Mandy happy and tell the truth.”

“You weren’t thinking of being deceitful, were you?” Leon asked with an unserious look of accusation.

“Na,” Mari replied.  “I’m just not that godly of a bitch, ya know?”  She flashed Leon a quick wink and a nod before waving her hand at her suit.  “Ya busted one of the batteries, ya know?  And some other components were done in, too.”

Leon frowned and took on a much more serious tone.  “Apologies.  I wanted to be certain that my power could reach you.”

Mari’s expression froze for a moment, her eyes glazing over as if reliving something horrible in her mind.  “Yeah.  Thanks for that, Lele.  A bunch, really.”  She paused long enough to take a deep breath.  “Better a broken battery than a broken fuckin’ mind, right?”

“Depends on the battery,” Leon said, his tone soaked in sarcasm.  “And the mind.  I can think of a few people I might trade for a good battery.”

Mari giggled and lightly socked him in the shoulder.

“Ow,” Leon said, pretending to be in pain.  “So violent.  And here I was, walking over to hand over some materials to try and help you with any repairs, and this is how you’re treating me?!”

“Are ya really a King?” Mari asked as she stifled more giggles.  “Ya don’t seem like one.”

Leon shrugged.  “I don’t often feel like one, either.  But a King I am, and to help me get back home to my family and my people, why don’t you tell me exactly what needs fixing, and I’ll see what I can do?”

Mari nodded and began walking him through the intricacies of the machinery and enchantments in the broken shoulder of her Ulta suit.  She may have admitted when they met that the suit was her father’s design, but the expertise she displayed made it clear that when she claimed to have built it, she wasn’t lying.  Leon listened to it all, fascinated.

When she was finished and Leon finished taking notes, he pulled out a few raw materials and some of his blacksmithing tools.  He had what was needed to replace what needed to be replaced, not to mention what might be needed to experiment a bit.  It only took him another couple of hours to create some replacement components and to etch them with the needed runes, while Mari worked on whittling down a piece of thunder wood that would finally be integrated into her suit.  When they were finished, Leon used Iron Pride to create a piece of storm crystal that would replace the battery crystal that he’d broken.

By the time Mari sealed the suit back up, the sky had once again been completely obscured by thick black clouds, but it seemed that their little break had been well spent.

“Everythin’ seems to be working,” Mari said as she squinted at a diagnostic console from the cockpit of her suit, though the suit’s chest was still open.  “Better than just ‘working’, even.  I think those materials and bits ya made are better than what I had, Lele!”

“Your words honor me,” Leon said, beaming with pride at his skill in blacksmithing paying off, though he could still almost hear Sid’s frustrated screaming at his lack of diligence in practicing earth magic.

At least he had the completely valid defense of having been spectacularly busy, though he wasn’t sure she’d be as sympathetic as he might hope for.  Regardless, the suit was operational if Mari’s diagnostics could be relied upon.

By the time they were finished, Nara and Tir seemed to have finished their own discussions and were quite hawkishly watching Xaphan work.

Xaphan seemed to hardly care, and as Mari closed up her Ulta suit to take it for a gentle test drive around the park, the demon called out, “You done over there, fuckboy?”

“You couldn’t possibly be referring to me, could you, demon?” Leon shot back.

“You couldn’t possibly be denying reality, could you, human?” Xaphan riposted.

“I think the real question here, former Lord of Flame, is whether or not you’re done,” Leon sniped as he smilingly walked over to the dais.  He took only a moment to relish the baffled looks on Tir and Nara’s faces at their exchange before focusing entirely on Xaphan.

“I’ve found more than you ever would’ve, Leon,” Xaphan proudly crackled.

“Bold claim,” Leon observed.  “Care to back it up?”

Xaphan responded with a booming laugh.  “I may not be Nestor—and I thank all who may listen for that—but I could read much of this enchantment.”

“Funny, that didn’t sound like an explanation…”

“I’m getting to it, boy.  I can explain the actual mechanics later, but for now, all you need to know is that this enchantment is a more complex version of certain demonic rituals that siphon power.”

“Yes, this stuff is designed to pull all power in the plane’s environment and funnel it into the Primal Devil.”

“Look at you, kid, using all that gray matter between your ears.  I’m almost shocked.”

“Focus, demon.”

“Bah.  Anyway, I was able to trace a bit of this power and found quite a bit that was interesting.  You three other shits, come over here and listen!”

Xaphan glared at the other members of the team who were undoubtedly already listening despite the short distance between them all and Mari’s continued slow testing of her suit.

“Such a foul-mouthed demon,” Nara whispered.

“And I’ll be even more so if you don’t pay the fuck attention!” Xaphan insisted.  “Now, I know all of you think of me as infallible and perfect in every way…”

“Hardly,” Leon whispered.

“… but even I make mistakes sometimes.  Yes, yes, I know, try to contain your shock and disbelief, but it does happen on rare occasions.  Today, though, I’m proud and thoroughly unsurprised to say that this is not one of those occasions—I was fuckin’ right!”

Xaphan proudly stared at the team for a long moment before Leon exasperatedly asked, “About what, demon?”

“‘About what’, he asks!” Xaphan repeated with equal amounts of exasperation.  “About the fucking Primal Devil, Leon!  I just got done praising you for using your head; don’t be in such a hurry to make me take that back.”

“My patience wears thin, demon…”

“Fine, fine.  The Devil is still imprisoned, and thanks to the channeler crystals, I can trace where the entrance to its prison is!”

Leon’s eyes widened in surprise, and he was vaguely aware that the others were staring at Xaphan with an equal amount of shock.

“Ya gotta be fuckin’ kiddin’,” Mari whispered.

“Do not accuse a demon of deception, young human,” Xaphan crackled.  “We lie often, but we tend to dislike being called out on it.”

“Where?!” Nara demanded.  “Where is this enemy of Arkhnavi?!  Where must I go to kill it?!”

“Slow down, human,” Xaphan said.  “You’re utterly incapable of killing a Primal Devil on your own.  Best we can do is try and stop all this channeler shit and slam the door shut in its face.”

“Can we do that?” Leon asked.

“Yes,” Xaphan confirmed.  “If we reach the locus of this enchantment, then we can disrupt it.  The channeler crystals have been popping back up after you destroy them because they’re honestly not that important to the overall picture—the enchantments are already in place that are funneling magic, so it’s mostly just a matter of replacing a component.  But if we’re able to reach the locus of this enchantment…”

“Then we can unravel the whole thing,” Leon whispered.  “And if the entire thing is disrupted, then the channeler crystals will shut down…”

“No,” Xaphan proudly stated, “they’ll be destroyed outright.  All siphoning of Arkhnavi’s power will cease, and the Primal Devil’s prison will remain sealed.”

“WHERE?!” Nara again demanded.

“Map,” Xaphan succinctly demanded, to which Nara practically threw a large world map of Arkhnavi at him.  Xaphan easily caught it with his magic and then illuminated a certain spot on it.  “Right there,” Xaphan said.  “Isn’t it just fitting?”

Leon had to agree as his golden eyes took in what Xaphan was showing him.  A tiny bright spark marked where Xaphan claimed the locus of the enchantment lay, and that spot was almost right in the center of the plane—right in Tell Kirin.

That was where they’d find the locus of this enchantment.  That was where they might be able to stop this disaster.  And if they were unlucky—or lucky in a different way—then they might even find some method for leaving Arkhnavi in the city, too.

“The cultists… won’t be able to set all this back up, will they?” Tir asked.  “If this enchantment is destroyed…”

“Then it’ll be destroyed for good,” Xaphan stated.  “The enchantments are only here thanks to copious amounts of blood magic.  Many were sacrificed to set it up.  And now… well, look around you.  How many people are left who can be sacrificed?  No, such rituals won’t be feasible until these lands recover and are repopulated, and that’ll take thousands of years.”

Leon almost felt the sigh of relief from the other members of the team, as well as the much more powerful feeling of purpose they seemed to start exuding.

And he shared that feeling.  Ever since his silver twig failed to teleport him away from Arkhnavi, he’d felt kind of lost, unsure of what he should be doing aside from the general idea of heading to Tell Kirin to continue scouting the city out.  Now they had a more concrete plan.  Xaphan could lead them to the locus of this enchantment, to the core of it, and then all they’d have to do is disrupt it.

But… as simple as it sounded, Leon doubted it would be so easy to actually accomplish.  Still, he couldn’t help but start to get a little excited.  The team now had some real direction to work with.

Without much further ado, Nara and Tir led the way out of Naxor Amis.  Everyone was glad to be done with the city, and to cap everything off, when Xaphan returned to Leon’s soul realm, he began explaining the workings of the enchantment in all the detail that Leon wanted.  He’d even taken quite a few notes, delighting Leon further.

As far as he was concerned, it was the perfect ending to what had otherwise been quite a trying day.

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