Wish upon the Stars chapter 398 (Patreon)

It had sounded like an easy enough task in the abstract, but getting out of the castle and into the mountains at the core of the ring was much more time consuming than I had expected.

The guards on the rear exit weren't the issue, as much as one might assume. Mostly the problem I ran into was actually GETTING there.

The castle wasn't just a whole mountain hollowed out, it was a space expanded mountain. Aside from that, it seemed almost specifically designed to be difficult to traverse, with a mazelike layout sectioned off in layers meaning we often had do descend into the depths of the mountain to cross into a different section, then climb almost to the peak to move onto the one after that. 

Between the two design principles at work we ended up needed to traverse miles and miles of complicated hallways and dead ends, and because of crowded design and the large number of people and buildings along the way we couldn't exactly run it at top speed.

"The person who designed this place should be shot." I huffed as we descended for the eighth time, drawing closer to the back exit.

"Oh he was." Said Anna-Marie. We all looked at her quizzically and she blushed an odd shade of lilac. "Not for the design. It was unrelated. He tried to poison one of the princes at the time. Apparently the royal poison taster had killed his brother. He figured the taster would intercept the attempt and die. The taster was out sick that day. Food poisoning."

Benny burst out laughing. "Oh that socks. Hope the prince was ok."

The princess just shrugged. "Got a little sick. He was obviously much stronger than a random food taster. Being royalty comes with some benefits." It occurred to me that she was F-rank and around the same age as us.

I'd been wondering about all the smaller kingdoms, but thinking about it I understood. Sorting people into smaller areas made generating the needed renown easier, and the king and his family had effectively managed to funnel it towards themselves. Not just their own kingdom either, they would be infamous in neighboring kingdoms, as would their best and brightest soldiers.

Considering how big the planet was (not to mention the size of the mountain) there was probably a LOT of people in this kingdom. Hell, we'd passed tens of thousands so far in the last hour or two.

That set off a little story time, with Anna-Marie telling us the more absurd and unusual stories of things that had happened in the kingdom. Some were funny, some sad, and some left us blinking at the sheer stupidity. 

Finally, we reached the last segment of the mountain we needed to traverse. The entrance was at the bottom of the mountain, deep in the earth.

"Alright." Said Anna-Marie. "This is the bulwark. The section directly abutting the exit out into Hopecrash mountains. The entire section of the mountain is designed to be a death trap for invaders, riddled with traps and choke points, and even supported by entirely separate magical supports so it can be collapsed in emergencies. The ramparts outside are effective, but knowing this is here has prevented most attempts to bypass them."

As we stepped from one segment of the mountain to the next through a door at the bottom, I could see what she meant. Gone were the massive expanded halls lined with shops and bars. Gone were the crowds of people. The hallways and staircases of the bulwark were tight corridors made of dark mountain stone, lined with enchantments and tight turns to cut line of sight.

Callie reached out, sliding her fingers into the shadows as she closed her eyes and whistled. "I can sense some of the traps, where shadows have gathered inside, and I somehow doubt that's all of them. This hall is a deathtrap."

Anna-Marie looked smug. "Yes. It's one of the finest defensive constructions in the world." She pointed at the door we'd come through. "That's one of the most durable F-rank enchantments ever made in the kingdom, and it's tied into the structure of the whole segment. The supports for this area of the mountain are tied to the defenses. This entire section of the mountain would collapse on your head before you managed to break through it. Millions of tons of stone and traps dropped right on anyone who managed to survive the gauntlet of deadly traps and elite units stationed along the descent."

The layout was mindblowing, and I couldn't help but be impressed. Based on the trip the mountain was laid out in rings itself, with each segment being circular and surrounding the core cylinder where all the important people lived. The bulwark though, didn't connect to the rest of the layout, being its own separate chunk of space designed to be collapsed at will. It was like an addition on a house, but bigger and way harder to survive.

It begged the question if the hollowed out mountain had even had a section like that, or if some Ascendant had slapped it on later. It seemed rude to ask though so I kind of left it alone.

The trip UP the bulwark showed us a LOT of what she'd been talking about. Going from the bottom up meant we saw the defenses in reverse, getting to see the choke points and kill boxes from the defenders sides. It gave us a firsthand view of exactly how fucked anyone trying to break in here was as we spotted various instances of cover and side chambers made for ranged attackers and spearmen.

The traps were, as Callie said, not all obvious, but even with my low level of trap understanding (I no longer had the Skill) I spotted about fifty hatches and holes for boiling oil and acid to pour out onto unsuspecting passersby.

Finally we reached the top of the bulwark, and after going through several VERY fortified checkpoints, we stepped out onto an absurdly narrow bridge overlooking a VERY deep canyon between this mountain and the next.

The bridge was manned with multiple checkpoints, and based on the design of the mountain I was guessing it could be collapsed. "Isn't this all kind of overboard?" I couldn't help but ask. "Like it's impressive, but is it necessary?"

Anna-Marie nodded. "The castle is the only one of its kind. The rest of the kingdoms built their fortification away from the mountains. We're uniquely protected because of the natural fortifications, but we’re also uniquely vulnerable. The defenses prevent that vulnerability from being exploited. Ladrigan is not the most powerful kingdom in the ring, but we are the best protected. We've never been breached."

The truly scary part was that despite them not existing here, I was pretty sure this would kill an E-ranker. Perhaps even a peak E-ranker. This was my first time seeing large scale defenses enacted by an F-rank faction, and unique environment or not, this would be enough to hold back a real army.

I was so used to the idea of needing a powerful Ascendant to counter another that I'd never even considered something like this. As much as I'd like to say this was unique to the Glade because of the limitations, I knew there was nothing stopping a larger faction from doing this on a larger scale. I wondered if there were fortress worlds built with the cooperation of everyone on the planet, massive fortification of C-ranked defenses made to stop B-rankers or armies from other factions. The universe was much more dangerous than I'd imagined.

I felt Callie through the bond, having the same realization, and gripped her hand tightly as we crossed the bridge. To an outsider we might seem nervous about falling, but I could feel her awe and intimidation as well as my own.

Besides, if we fell I'd be able to use State of Grace to save us. Though I wasn't sure what was at the bottom of the canyon. It seemed far too deep to be natural. So I decided to ask about it. "By the way, what exactly is down there." I pointed off the bridge.

"That's the maw." Said Anna-Marie solemnly. "It's a natural moat surrounding the Hopecrash mountains. Spans the entire edge of the ring. Most of the kingdoms have natural bridged across. It's one of the reasons for the founding locations. Crossing any other way us nearly impossible. The gravity over the maw is massively amplified without the stone of the mountains around to nullify the effect."

I looked back. "I thought you said Ladrigan was the only kingdom with natural fortifications like this?"

"Oh it is. But there are connecting paths in multiple places. Mountain passes and things like that. They just aren't fortified like the castle. Like I said, most kingdoms build further back. They have camps set up at the passes, but it's not nearly as effective. We're not completely cut off of course. There are normal mountains like spokes on a wheel along the ring, but they're not impossible, just hard to navigate. We have to watch out for invasions from either side still."

The more I heard, the weirder this whole world seemed. I couldn't imagine this being natural, someone had to have designed it. But why and how? Was there someone with an earth manipulation Skill at B-rank that could make planets? Probably. There was probably a clan where you could have them customized. The unstable space could be done with abilities too, like Mad Madigans mazes. But it would take a whole bunch of powerful people working together to make a place like this I was betting.

Was it some sort of funnel for the moonlight to create the Dew? Sadly, this kind of question was so far above my paygrade I might as well not be asking, but it was interesting to think about.

When we finally finished crossing the bridge, we met a relatively large force with Wulfric, waiting for us beside a series of incredibly weird animals.

Goats, to be exact. Well, sort of. They had goat heads, but the bodies of hooded kangaroos kind of, with long bunched up hind legs and weirdly sharp claws on short arms that looked good for hooking into rocks.

Ten of the things, meaning these were our rides through the mountains. Wulfric gave us a nod as we approached. Sadly we hadn't figured out a way to get Randall through the Bulwark. Large animals normally had to climb the outside of the mountain through specialized protected trails that we didn't have time for, so Jessie's best defense had needed to stay behind.

To compensate all four wolves were with her, and they growled menacingly as we approached the goats. A gentle touch with glowing green fingers calmed them but their chests still rumbled with unhappiness. We thanked Wulfric and climbed aboard the goats, Anna-Marie having her own goat already independent from our ten. Then we set off into the mountains.

The goats were able to traverse the snow easily, hooves gliding over the frozen drift without really sinking in. They leapt and bounded up onto outcroppings and rock faces, moving almost unimpeded in the dangerous terrain, and I saw immediately why Anna-Marie had been so insistent we get them. These were an invaluable survival tool.

Once we got a bit farther away, sure we weren't followed, we stopped and my team turned to me expectantly. Closing my eyes with a grin, I reached into my Path of the Doom Sovereign and felt around until I discovered what I wanted.

With a click of intent, I began to sing, letting Song of the Wild roll out over the nearby mountain pass to search deep into the snow and the cracks in the earth for any plants as I looked for the flowers we needed. I came up short after just a couple dozen feet and sighed with a good natured grin. "Well good news is I found something good. Bad news is...this is going to take a while." I hadn't found the flowers I needed. I'd found another rare plant. Still, hard to complain about good fortune. Best get harvesting.