Chapter 341. Finding Achemiss (Patreon)

Before meeting Euryphel’s allies in the lower level of Ichormai, Ian, Maria, and Eury conducted an extremely important experiment within one of Euryphel’s scenarios.

Ian used the transmission artifact on Achemiss.

After the experiment, Ian clumsily read Euryphel’s surface thoughts to regain his lost memory of the experience. Maria then received them through the lich bond.

In those memories, Ian saw himself appearing in a completely dark location. There was no source of illumination whatsoever, though he could move around. Ian quickly realized that he was in a sealed chamber, however. He didn’t have a sense of touch, but his mobility was affected by the density of the surroundings, so he knew when he ran into walls, and knew that the walls were too thick to move through–his transmitted self got stuck in them.

It had been what Ian had feared–a recreation of the secure chamber where Achemiss had kept his real body back in Eternity. It made useless the transmission artifact’s potent power to surveil a target.

Such a discovery had necessitated calling on Euryphel’s allies to devise an alternative way forward.

Now, as the discussion wrapped up a few hours later, the room was in low spirits. Everyone had thought through multiple angles of attack to both find Achemiss and deal with the potential fallout of him allying with the Sere Consortium.

They had considered all the resources and capabilities available. The Darkseers were already aware of the transmission artifact from Ian’s clandestine activities before descending. That was still one of the key elements of their strategy, as there were situations where Ian had confidence that with its help, he could find Achemiss and swiftly end him.

Thinking of the entire situation as a game of chess, they needed to arrange the board such that the transmission artifact would secure an unexpected checkmate. Achemiss was famously arrogant–Ian didn’t think that his defeat at the hands of a surprise attack would change that. So long as his body was hidden somewhere, he would think himself safe.

Ian knew that wherever Achemiss’s body was, it would be well-defended by a veritable army of constructs. He knew this because it was simply what he would do were he in Achemiss’s position. He’d carve out a section of a rift to serve as his lair and infest it with powerful decemantic sentinels made from riftbeasts. This way, if anyone entered the rift, they wouldn’t realize he was sheltering there unless they had an End affinity and had fate with him, which was unlikely for random people, or they chanced upon his lair. In which case, they’d end up dead, and others would likely just assume they’d had an unlucky encounter with the local riftbeasts.

If Ian were Achemiss, he would also have a backup plan in the case of unlikely discovery. He thought it most likely that Achemiss would acquire a list of backup rifts that he could migrate to. Assuming Achemiss allied with Sere, he’d use exclusive access to multiple rifts as a bargaining point. Achemiss would never share the details of his current rift with Sere, of that Ian was sure, and he wouldn’t trust Sere to simply give him rifts without secretly surveilling them. No–he’d station his own constructs at the rifts to ensure that all of them remained free of prying eyes.

That wouldn’t be a perfect solution, so Ian figured that if Achemiss needed to make a quick escape, he would create multiple fake bodies and relocate all of them to different rifts, confounding attempts by Sere–or any other powers–to find his true form. Of course, the real body would escape unnoticed, made completely invisible by Dark affinity. After all, why would Achemiss ever need to inform his allies that he had more than a Death affinity?

All those measures were just possibilities–Ian had no idea what Achemiss would do, even with Beginning helping him to strategize. But thinking through the situation with Euryphel’s Darkseer allies made everyone realize that simply finding Achemiss wasn’t the greatest challenge.

Their goal wasn’t just to locate the man–it was to kill him, and they could only do that if they held the element of surprise and could keep him in one place.

If the previously imagined scenario was real, for instance, and Achemiss were escaping to rifts nearby, the transmission artifact would be the key to finding the real Achemiss’s body and killing him. In such a case, Achemiss doppelgangers would emerge from one general location and split up, heading toward rifts provided by Sere. If the Darkseers got ahold of the rift list, then they could send assassins to all of them ahead of time, peak practitioners capable of evading Achemiss’s autonomous constructs. Such assassins would be equipped with weapons capable of destabilizing the rifts, causing them to collapse with Achemiss inside. That would be the easiest way of killing him. Of course, they’d have backup weapons as well, ideally artifacts provided by Ian and the most advanced glossware available.

But the true ace in the hole would be Euryphel and Maria.

After locating the rifts with Achemiss fakes, the real Achemiss would likely go to one of the remaining rifts. Both of the peak End practitioners would be able to follow Achemiss’s End arrows. Then, the duo would need to pull off a near-impossible feat–finding Achemiss’s rift within the duration of a single scenario, before he disappeared inside and his End arrow disappeared. With wind elementalism, fire elementalism, and the best glossware, it was possible for Maria and Eury to move incredibly quickly. But potentially flying even one hundred miles in one minute? That would be exceedingly difficult, even with ascendant energy empowering Maria’s lich body past its limits.

That was where the transmission artifact would be the key deciding factor. Throughout the entire escape, Ian could repeatedly use the transmission artifact within Euryphel’s scenarios. With his Beginning affinity, he’d be able to narrow the options down, giving Euryphel and Maria a key advantage. Even if they were unable to corner Achemiss before he reached a rift, Ian would be able to see the inside of the rift before Achemiss entombed himself, giving them a final clue. He’d be able to see the kinds of riftbeasts present and whether the rift had an ethereal or nethereal alignment. Then, unless Achemiss relocated again, the Darkseers could send their best Dark agents in Regret scenarios to investigate the most likely rifts while Achemiss remained unaware, lulled into a sense of security once nobody followed him inside his rift.

This was one rough plan that they’d all come up with together, but nobody was very satisfied with it. There were too many unknowns. For instance, it assumed that Achemiss allied with Sere and negotiated to get a list of exclusive rifts for his own uses. It also assumed that the Darkseers would be able to obtain that rift list. Finally, it assumed that there was a situation that would force Achemiss to relocate–such as Achemiss thinking that he had been discovered, or at least that his rift’s location had been compromised.

Every strategy that they could think of relied on extensive deception and mind games. It made even Ian’s brain hurt.

Ian wished that he had a way to just find the man without all the trickery. It seemed so absurd that even with all his power, he couldn’t just brute force things. Back when he was a regular–it felt like an eternity ago–he’d always assumed that powerful practitioners got what they wanted under threat of leveraging their strength.

It was laughable. Practitioners were all so flimsy. Alone, they were vulnerable to assassination. Even Achemiss. Millions of Death constructs couldn’t save you from a targeted blast from a peak fire elementalist, especially one leveraging a top-of-the-line focus. Or a peak Dark practitioner, who could pass through an army, near invisible and incorporeal, to deliver a fatal blow. Artifacts might offer protection, but they weren’t foolproof.

That’s why, ultimately, Eternity was such a twisted paradise. It was a place safe from assassinations.

Ian’s lip curled. At least usually.

Finally, only Ian, Maria, and Euryphel were left. The door closed and clicked shut.

“I don’t think this is working,” Maria said, speaking first. Her lips pressed tightly together.

Euryphel bobbed his head. “I know. We don’t have enough information.” He glanced at Ian. “You think it would be better not to involve the others. You don’t know why I’m having them return here tomorrow.”

Ian frowned. “Since you’ve looked ahead at my questions, you must have an answer ready.”

“I do. First, I’m including the Darkseers because, despite what you think, their presence is helpful. You look down on them, Ian–I know you do–but they’re some of the most powerful people in the world. They’re my people, and by extension, your people.”

“I don’t look down on them,” Ian argued, his brow furrowed slightly in annoyance, “I just think we can strategize fine just the three of us, and there will be less of a chance that information will leak out.”

Maria sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose, her eyes shut. “You don’t trust Zilverna, do you?”

Ian’s expression darkened. “I never said that. I know he’d never do anything to endanger your efforts.”

She shook her head. “Regardless, please continue, Eury. You’ve only said the first reason for why you’re bringing the room to quorum again tomorrow. What’s the second reason?”

Euryphel held up two fingers. Ian noticed the scars on his slender digits, mottled burns that had been healed, but shone slightly under the overhead illumination.

“We’re meeting again tomorrow because we’ll have new information to share.”

Ian and Maria shared a dubious look. “Will we?”

Euryphel snorted. “Ian, what do you think about using the transmission artifact in some scenarios?”

Ian leaned his head on his hand. “I’m game, of course, but we have no idea if we’ll see anything useful.” When he used the transmission artifact on someone, it spawned him in close proximity. While he could try to hide, he was easy to spot if his quarry was paying any attention to their surroundings. If he appeared in the middle of a meeting room, for instance, his sudden appearance would throw said meeting into turmoil, ruining any attempt at information gathering.

It was an annoying limitation, but he knew the artifact hadn’t been designed for espionage. Its purpose was to facilitate long distance communication across all of reality. Using it to spy on people situated in the same world was an almost embarrassing use for it.

Euryphel scoffed. “I was doing more than just hosting a meeting to share ideas. While I had my experts assembled in the room, I could ask them all questions privately–with wind elementalism–within scenarios.”

“Why not just ask them questions out loud, in real life?” Maria wondered.

“When it’s just them and me, they speak more frankly. They’re also more willing to share less-certain information or their own opinions.” He smiled bitterly. “Everyone is aligned for one goal, but most of them are still high-ranking members of the Federation in direct contest with one another for power. They’re all careful about what they say around their rivals.”

Maria groaned. “You’d think with the world itself at stake, they’d let things like that go. But I suppose it’s not an active decision on their part.”

Ian understood her point. The former SPU princes, guardians, and other powerful officials had forged bonds through the adversity of the war with Selejo and the Ho’ostar Peninsula, but those bonds had limits. A lifetime of watching one’s words around rivals wouldn’t be nullified from a few months of war.

“I’m willing to use the artifact in scenarios,” Ian said, “but I’m also willing to just let you borrow it now that we’re in the same room together. If you think you can gain information that will help us, by all means use it.”

Euryphel’s eyes gleamed. “Then I’ll have to trouble you.”

Ian held out the transmission artifact. “Just press the button when you’re ready.”

Euryphel grabbed it gingerly, rotating the artifact between his fingers as he held it up to the light. “This is one of the most powerful artifacts in Eternity, isn’t that right?”

“That’s what I’ve been led to believe.”

He gave Ian a deadpan look. “Why does it look like a toy microphone?”

Ian shrugged. “At least it blends in.”

Maria snickered, holding a hand over her mouth.

Ian raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“I don’t think Suncloud cared about her artifact ‘blending in.’ I bet she thought it was funny to see countless powerful ascendants all fighting to acquire a power artifact that looked like a child’s plaything.”

Ian couldn’t fault Maria’s logic. “Honestly… fair enough. It is funny. I can use a bit of levity given the current circumstances.”

Euryphel laughed softly, but then motioned for the two to be quiet. “I’m going to start.”

Ian and Maria spoke together: “Good luck.”