Newly Summoned Demoness 2 - Chapter 18 – Approaching Resonance (Continued) (Patreon)

Elania glanced at Yolani skeptically. The question pounded in her ears. She was very much not a God, or she’d know about it. Right?

Keswick shot the idea down with a shake of her head. “She is not a Goddess.”

The Magister turned her gaze onto Elania. It felt much too like she was appraising her. “But maybe after a thousand years, she could become something like one. The point is her potential is limitless. Unlike you or I, Miss Aetherhart.”

Elania looked down at her hands. “What does this have to do with me being here, though? What does it have to do with the Engine?”

With a theatrical flourish, Keswick held up her hand, conjuring a magic bubble between them. “The Engine creates a magical pressure around itself that prevents the weight of the earth from crushing this underground realm.”

They had just read that in one of Yolani’s books the day before. Elania’s hands slowly formed into fists as she squeezed them. “Yes? Are you suggesting the city and region are in danger? That something is wrong with the Celestial Engine?”

Keswick’s expression was grave. “That’s precisely why you’re here,” she said pointedly. “The Engine has been… discordant since… that day. It has been growing more so, by a measurable amount each day. I am not surprised you started sensing it already. It is your unique connection to the Engine that I hope to investigate and possibly use to restore it.”

Yolani shot up out of her seat, leaning forward with a furious look on her face. “You can’t throw her back into it. That’s a death sentence!”

“Calm yourself, Miss Aetherhart. I have no intention of doing so, and I doubt that such an action would solve things permanently in any case,” Keswick replied calmly.

“Then what?” Yolani said with slightly less hostility.

Keswick let out a tense breath. “Elania. You are a demoness, and demons have the ability to manipulate and transform based on their essences. Yours is primarily a mix of three: Human, Darkwalker, and now, Divinity. I would like you to exchange essences with the Engine.”

Elania blinked, confused. “How will that help?”

“In the same way that Demons have permanent affinities that dictate the mix of essences they themselves produce, the Celestial Engine works the same way. We believe that when the Seraph was consumed by the Engine, it shoved this balance out of alignment,” Keswick explained.

“Divinity is one of my affinities now… but I’m not sure how you knew,” Elania mumbled.

“Please, it’s very obvious to anyone with mana sight. Or anyone with eyes, for that matter. Have you not looked in a mirror?” Keswick raised an eyebrow.

Oh. Her golden eyes. It had been remarked upon by many, and there had been no missing it. It was just the implications had not been clear. While golden eyes weren’t common, it wasn’t exactly unique… was it?

“Okay. Yeah. We noticed some things… but even if you’re right, I don’t think I can actually separate my essences out? There are also… probably some chickens involved,” Elania replied.

The thought of interacting with the Engine again was both daunting and… intriguing. It was impossible not to feel a mix of excitement and fear, with her mind racing with the potential implications.

“What happened to the Gods? If they were like me, then… did they manage to… return home?” Elania asked.

Yolani shot her a worried look, but Elania’s attention hung on Keswick’s answer.

“I do not know,” Keswick replied. “What we know is that they fought amongst themselves. Eventually there was a conflict, and then they disappeared without a trace, leaving only their works and creations behind.”

Yolani’s hand found hers under the table and squeezed it. Elania glanced at her and smiled weakly. She wasn’t sure what she would have done without Yolani’s constant support since they had met.

“Well, if you think I can help fix… whatever is going wrong, I am willing to try,” Elania said.

Keswick nodded and stood up, glancing at the book sitting in front of Yolani. “That will have to remain here, Miss Aetherhart. If you wish to continue reading it, you can stay in the library until we are finished.”

Yolani glanced down at the book, then shook her head. “No. That’s alright, I’ll come with you.”

Magister Keswick nodded. “Very well. Follow me.” The woman turned and headed for the vault door.

Elania shared a glance with Yolani, and then they followed.

When they came to a stop outside the large metal door, Elania frowned. Her memory of it was hazy, and the events that had transpired after she had fallen into the Engine had never really firmed up other than a few vague notions. The buzz seemed to intensify as Keswick began to rotate the door’s opening mechanism.

It was like a bank vault, just without the fancy locks. There was a noticeable pop as the door swung open. Keswick didn’t linger and stepped through, gesturing for them to follow.

She remembered the large balcony that overlooked the Engine, but rather going to the railing and looking over the edge, Keswick led them to the inside of the tower’s wall. A small lift elevator was there, just large enough for the three of them to stand on it.

“It’s best to have a firm hold on the railing before we descend,” Keswick advised.

They both placed their hands on the lift’s railing.

The sudden plunge was rapid, and Yolani let out a yelp before sliding an arm around Elania’s middle and holding on tightly.

The close contact was enough to heat Elania’s cheeks, but she didn’t mind. To be fair, her extra strength made holding onto the lift easy, and she was much easier to hold on to than just the railing. The wind was cool as it whipped their clothes into a flapping frenzy.

Once they settled into the rapid descent, they had the chance to examine the Celestial Engine from the side, and up close. It seemed like the machine expanded the lower they went, the walls of the contraption reaching out until it was only a few meters away from them.

She was sure that they had plunged far below the base level of the Magistry and were well below the average height level of the city by the time they reached the bottom. Maybe level with the lake and waters in the canyons that sat below the city?

As they neared the bottom, the lift slowed to a safer speed, and Yolani moved away with a mumbled apology.

Regret thumbed its way into Elania’s chest. She wanted to tell the other girl she could have stayed like that as long as she wanted… but Keswick was there and as the lift clicked into the floor, her confidence in the thought evaporated.

The cloak of mana in the air felt heavy and thick. It was like breathing warm, humid air. Except it was raw [Power]… It was strong enough to remind her of her mana shard, before she had good control and it had innately seeped into her just by having the shard close to her skin.

Except this was on an entirely different scale. Like standing inside a mana shard, even?

“It’s incredible,” Yolani murmured, following behind Keswick closely, her attention riveted on the arcane looking consoles and levers. There were hundreds of them, but most of the panels were dead, obviously turned off. One large panel that sat at the front of the control area and closest to the Engine itself had a green line shimmering on what appeared to be a monitor.

It was sloping gradually downward.

Keswick’s voice cut through the awe. “Typically, every Magister exchanges essence with the Engine to keep it functioning. But ever since the… incident, this exchange has been… problematic. Instead of the Engine stabilizing, it seems to become worse with each maintenance.”

A frown appeared on Elania’s face. Why would the Magisters exchanging essence with the Engine help it? Didn’t that contradict the earlier explanation of what was going wrong? Yolani glanced at her, as if she had the same thought.

Keswick stopped beside a large pedestal with a dimly glowing orb that sat below the monitor. She gestured to it with a smile. “The exchange process is simple and works on its own. You simply place your hands on the orb, and an equalization will occur.”

“That’s it?” Elania asked.

“For Elania’s [Divinity] essence to be high enough to improve the engine’s ratio, it would have to be below thirty percent approximately… why is the Celestial Engine’s ratio so low?” Yolani asked with an edge in her voice.

Keswick met the girl’s gaze squarely. “The Engine always has had a low ratio. It’s a cyclical generator for [Power], but it utilizes a significant amount of harvesting to drive the process. Those that enter the Dwerven Dungeon inside the city…”

Elania’s shoulders tensed up. “They become the fuel for it.”

Yolani’s hands tightened into balls.

“Just so. The Engine generates mana shards and controls the encounters, engineering them so that the rate of production is in balance with the requirements for the Engine itself as well as to continue to encourage further ventures into it,” Keswick stated.

Elania took a deep breath. Yolani’s father had perished inside the dungeon… and she had a memory that somehow reminded her of him. The other girl had even told her she’d delivered a message from him, although that part was blank. The pieces clicked together.

She didn’t know how she felt about it, other than a general feeling of that it was wrong.

There was one fact that made her push that aside, though. If the Engine failed or the cycle stopped… everyone, and everything in Neftasu’s bubble would die.

That would be…

Yolani’s hand settled on her shoulder. “It’s up to you if you want to try. We could go home and think about it more if you want.”

Keswick’s expression turned grave, her lips turning into a frown.

Elania wondered for a moment. If she made that decision, would they have to fight the Magister to escape again?

She shook her head. “I’ll do what I can.”

Yolani followed closely as she stepped up to the orb.

“Why not cease the essence exchanges, then? If the Magisters’ human essence is simply diluting the Engine, stopping should solve the problem, right? Let the Engine build up its divine essence on its own,” Yolani said.

Keswick’s silence stretched thin, the question hanging in the air. The gears and arcane mechanisms continued to dance around them, oblivious to the tension.

The Magister finally spoke. “It would slow the degradation, perhaps, but it wouldn’t halt it. The Engine’s balance has been too disrupted. It’s trying to restore its lost energy, and by doing so, it is diluting the divine essence to levels low enough to cause strain. If it continues, it will damage itself before its [Power] levels have returned to its normal operating level.”

Yolani stared at the graph and then reached out and turned a knob.

Keswick reached out a hand toward her. “Don’t touch—”

The green graph zoomed out, showing a longer time period. The periodic blips in the slowly sloping line hinted at the exact timing of the Magisters’ maintenances.

“It was only half the truth you told us,” Yolani said flatly. “The maintenance you’ve been doing isn’t for the Engine, it’s for yourselves.”