Chapter 692: Metarock
Sylas sat on his heels as he peered out from an array of honeycomb caves that surrounded a deep valley below.
There didn't seem to be much there, but that was to be expected. The rogue had only known the general location of the gang, but not an exact one. In addition, this location was subject to change, so it wasn't guaranteed that they were still there.
The battles that took place in this underground world didn't often take place directly at headquarters. Instead, they were territorial battles fought for resources, and they were much more sporadic than normal.
All of this tied back to the original reason Archibald wanted Sylas to come here... a special ore produced in this region. Or more accurately, by the volcano.
Metarock.
It was an odd name, but it was chosen as such for a very specific reason. The reports the Grimblades had given him didn't tell him what it did, nor did Archibald. But... the Madness Key had.
Metarock was an ore that was capable of tailoring itself to a previously held set of laws, tethering itself to them and allowing any Treasure forged from it to adhere to those sets of laws.
That was a very complicated explanation to say just one thing... it could be used to make functional guns.
Essentially, the change to Earth's laws could be ignored if this Treasure was used in the hands of a talented crafter.
In the wider universe, Metarock was an especially important resource, especially for more aggressive worlds that were established enough to invade others.
Worlds that shared the same general planetary systems and quadrants could have vastly different sets of laws that rendered sometimes entire systems of thought worthless. There were even some worlds where principles of Aether were completely different, causing certain Skills to either weaken or become duds.
One could imagine, then, why Metarock would be so important, especially now.
The only way to tether Metarock to a law was by having it in the presence of such a law. As Earth's Aether Plane quickly fused into their reality, there were starting to be fewer and fewer locations this could be done in.
Soon, Metarock wouldn't be able to be used to produce weapons of old.
At first, the existence of such an ore worried Sylas. The governments and hidden families almost certainly had stores of Treasures forged from Metarock in their long list of trump cards.
But... Metarock had a laundry list of weaknesses attached to it as well, the largest of which was its piss-poor Durability. Weapons forged with Metarock had half the Durability of equivalent Treasures. So unless there was an abundance, or it was an emergency situation, or there was more profit to be gained from its use, it certainly wouldn't be used easily.
Sylas doubted the two gangs even knew what they were fighting for, and neither did the majority of the soldiers.
What they did know, though, was that the Nexus traded Metarock for astronomical prices. That was enough for most of them.
This reality made Sylas even more wary of Archibald, though... how did he know the value of Metarock? And most importantly, what did he want to use it for?
'There...'
Sylas' wait finally bore fruit.
An individual seemed to appear out of nowhere. In one moment, there was nothing but a complex terrain of black and grey rock, making it difficult for anyone to get a full picture of what they were looking at, and in the next... poof.
'I didn't see through it... a veil of some sort? A treasure? A powerful one, to be sure...' Even the current form of this person was quite vague. Sylas had almost missed it, and would have if not for him sensing a new Will in that location. Otherwise, the person was practically invisible.
It wasn't until this person entered one of the many caves littering the region that the veil that covered them finally truly vanished.
Sylas thought for a moment. Should he go after this person? Or should he try and make it through the veil himself first?
The trouble was that there was no easy way to get to that person without first going through the veil. He was peeking in from one of many caves surrounding the valley below, and the cave entrance this person had left from was quite a distance from him.
'Take the chance it is...'
If he just sat here hoping that someone would end up walking into his particular cave, he would die of old age. Since there was no easy way to follow and question that person, he was just going to have to take the plunge...
The hard way.
Blackscales erupted across Sylas' body as he pressed a foot down.
With a silent surge, he moved so fast that it looked like he was running vertically down the valley walls.
He hit the ground smoothly and transitioned into an acceleration forward, crossing the barrier of the veil quite easily. However, nothing happened.
Sylas already expected this. If just running into the veil was enough to reveal it, then it
wouldn't be a good enough treasure to fool his vision to begin with.
That said, his appearance was almost surely noted by those hidden by said veil, and right now they were probably deciding exactly what to do about him.
Unfortunately for them, Sylas' senses had just grasped onto something. It was faint, but now that he was in the veil, he could feel something tugging at his Will to pull the wool over his
eyes.
Sylas' gaze flashed as a pair of Runes appeared within them. Lines of pressure filled the skies and suddenly...
CRACK.
The veil shattered and Sylas found himself surrounded from all sides, but there was a calmness to his gaze that seemed to belie that fact. There was a reason he had fused with the
Basilisk King before even running into any danger.
His gaze shifted as he landed on the person he had come here for in the first place.
Professor Fembroise stood in a perfect disguise. There was nothing at all that gave her true identity away. And yet... Sylas had seen right through her in the first instant.