"Are you saying we could potentially replicate this thing?" Elayer asked.
Now wouldn’t that be something… he had heard reports about how good these golems were, and it was apparently something on a whole different level from your typical combat golem. If they could duplicate one of these, then this would be a huge gain.
When Elayer saw the two researchers share a knowing look with each other, however, he knew it wouldn’t be that simple.
"The issue is that the animation core has been totally shattered, and some parts of the spell formula inscribed on it are missing. Even after we compared it with the remains of other golem wrecks we have recovered from the city, we are still missing about 10% of the design."
Just 10%?
"And you can’t fill in the blanks?" Elayer asked curiously.
"Heavens no," the first researcher said, bursting into laughter. "The design for this thing is one of the most complex things I’ve ever seen in my life. Everything slots together perfectly, and even the slightest mistake would make everything collapse on itself. And considering how expensive the materials for the construction of this kind of core are, experimentation would be hellishly expensive. Never mind 10%, even a 1% gap would make this design completely unviable. Unless we managed to find an intact golem, the only thing this is useful for is for serving as inspiration."
"Alright," Elayer said, turning away from the wreckage and walking off. The two researchers quickly followed after him. "What is this about some mysterious books that I’m hearing about?"
"Ah, you mean the mysterious gifts some people have been getting?" The second researcher asked. Elayer nodded. "We have only managed to recover a handful of them from the people they were given to. Rumors of us confiscating them have spread among people fast, as has the fact they are of no danger to the recipient, so people no longer report them to us. But from the few we have in our hands, they seem to be full of novel magic specifically tailored for the recipient."
"If I may make a suggestion, it might be prudent to return the books we’ve confiscated to the people they were given to," The first researcher said. "We’ve already copied the contents, and it might motivate people to let us take a look at the stuff they’re currently hiding if they see they’re eventually going to get it back."
"I’ll think about it," Elayer said, not thinking much of it. He didn’t like the idea of someone handing over magical secrets to people like that, not at all. Plus, he had suspicions their mysterious saviors were behind this as well. Those gifts were evidence and he was keeping them, at least so long as his investigation lasted.
Infuriatingly, said investigation was encountering a lot of unexpected obstacles. The Triumvirate Church had clearly been heavily involved in the battle – there was a giant angel battling a dragon mage in the skies of Cyoria, for heaven’s sake! – but they refused to let him interrogate the priesthood involved, and the crown was reluctant to offend them. The church had been spectacularly successful recently, providing valuable help and information on necromancer hideouts, demon summoner bases, and some of the more awful criminal groups. Elayer had no idea how they had gotten so much critical information about Eldemar’s criminal underbelly, but they had, and this unfortunately meant they currently had an upper hand over him and his investigation.
At the same time, Elayer was having trouble keeping the funds and manpower for the investigation going. Eldemar’s attention had been stretched very thin lately. They had an invasion of Ulquaan Ibasa to organize, complicated heavily by the fact the Ibasans had somehow managed to take over Fort Oroklo without Eldemar realizing it. They were throwing a lot of money and manpower at Cyoria in order to get the city up and running again in order to make a show of strength and lift up morale, and these efforts often clashed greatly with Elayer’s own investigation into what had transpired there. Sulamnon, Falkrinea, and even many smaller countries were stirring, trying to see just how badly the kingdom had been hurt and whether they could fish in troubled waters while Eldemar’s forces were distracted elsewhere. And finally, there was that permanent gate that linked Eldemar with jungles of Koth, which had everyone and their mother excited about the incredible opportunities this presented. The gate was clearly related to the Ibasan invasion somehow, but Elayer and his men were not allowed to examine it closely in fear that they would destroy the precious, irreplaceable, intercontinental gate with their tampering.
Bah. And then his superiors complain he has no results. Of course he had no results! Just what did they expect when they constantly keep taking his money and resources, and don’t let him touch things or question people?
But Elayer was patient. His foes may have won this round, but he knew what to look for now, and everyone slipped up sooner or later. It may take a year, or even a decade, but they were bound to make a mistake.
And when they did, Elayer would be there, and he would be ready.
Daimen Kazinski was having a stressful, but very exciting month. From the day he had woken up in an unknown room in Cyoria with an entire month of his life missing from his memory, it had been a non-stop wild ride of crazy reveals and maddening complications. It was annoying, but truth be told, he kind of enjoyed it. A safe, boring life had never been something he coveted. He somewhat resented his little brother for wiping away a month of his life to save his friend, but he understood. He would have done the same in his place, probably.
At the very least, Daimen could safely say he had profited handsomely from this whole time loop business. Not only had Zorian gifted him a veritable treasure of research and notes he had apparently made for himself during this time loop, but he also indirectly allowed the Taramatula to seize the permanent gate linking Koth to Eldemar.
A permanent intercontinental gate… the sheer possibilities of that thing were breathtaking to consider. Eldemar’s forces quickly moved to secure their side of the gate, but they didn’t try to push through it to monopolize the whole thing. It would be too easy for Taramatula to simply destroy their side of gate back in Koth, and thus ruin this whole thing for everyone. Thus, the Kingdom of Eldemar and the Taramatula now found themselves in possession of a permanent dimensional link between continents. Both sides were positively salivating at the potential profits and other benefits involved, and since Daimen was closely connected to both of said parties, it was often up to him to act as a bridge and negotiator between these two sides.
And then there was Zorian… his little brother, the time traveler. Well, it wasn’t real time travel, but it may as well be, from Daimen’s point of view. He had beheld a doomed future, and then he had traveled back to their own world to stop it, and save as many people as possible in the process.
And in order to pull it off, he’d had to kill the original Zorian, and steal his body for his own uses.
Daimen would have liked to say he was conflicted about this information. Zorian was right: in a very real sense, his little brother had been murdered and replaced by an imposter. He should have been outraged. He should have been deeply disturbed by the implications, just like Zorian himself clearly was.
But he wasn’t. Maybe it was because the whole situation was so utterly ridiculous and it was hard to really know what to feel. Maybe it was because, by Zorian’s own admission, the original Zorian hated him something fierce. Or perhaps it was because he damn well knew that if he had been in Zorian’s position, he would have murdered his own original without a shred of hesitation and thought nothing of it. All he knew was that he’d simply told Zorian that everything would be fine, and that he shouldn’t worry about it. He had only done what he had to.