Chapter 159 – Refining the Route

That night, Mirian had them chain the oxen to the clearing right next to where Apophagorga would emerge. If she was right, she hoped the beast would grow comfortable finding the occasional snack.

She ordered the expedition back. Some decided to stay to witness the titan emerging, even though she warned them they might not survive. Most left, disappointed, but still hopeful.

The last days were the kind that felt surreal. Strangers would come up to her and talk. Sometimes they asked her questions, sometimes they wanted to tell their own story. They would praise her, or thank her, and she couldn’t help but feel like she was above them in some way—or less than human. Other soldiers left or scattered, off to spend their last moments with a loved one, embroiled in hedonism, or often, in thoughtful prayer.

As the final hours approached and the remaining soldiers watched the world end, she continued probing her soul with her new tri-bonded spells. The hole, it seemed, was deeper than her soul was thick.

And it seemed there was something in there.

***

For the next two cycles, Mirian worked primarily on coordinating both the hiring of the myrvite hunters and getting the Praetorians and soldiers to move into position with them. The first time she tried organizing both, she arrived later in Alkazaria, and was only just in time to stop the destruction of the fossilized myrvite stores. The next time, she worked on refining the first days of the cycle, and got Nicolus to do more of the paperwork and help recruit Calisto. It didn’t need to be her going down to negotiate trade contracts or open bank accounts. She had to focus on the parts that only she could do.

That got her to Alkazaria early. Then, she could really disrupt the attack. She broke apart the southern railroad tracks and made sure the western gate was closed. The resulting train derailment killed plenty of the Persaman soldiers outright. The initial surprise attack failed utterly. Stopping the siege after that was trivial.

For a third attempt, she got Torres and Jei to leave Torrviol and join her. Jei was easy to convince. Torres, it took some doing, but she eventually yielded.

She rushed down to Alkazaria again and started making preparations for the attack on the city.

Only—there was no attack.

That concerned Mirian. On one hand, it was a blessing; dealing with the siege took a great deal of time. On the other hand, it was worrying. Unlike Troytin, it seemed Ibrahim was much quicker to make drastic changes if something wasn’t working.

Does he know it’s me? Does he know about Troytin? Or was he so focused he didn’t even realize there were any other Prophets until now? And what is he doing?

She had no answers, and she had no intention of moving into Persama. If that’s where Atroxcidi was, he could stay there.

The change made convincing the Praetorians to join her significantly harder. Without Jei and Torres, she probably would have failed entirely.

Once again, she left a tasty snack for Apophagorga, and shouted a message of hope to her assembled fighters. Soon, she promised. Everything was falling into place.

The problem now was the Frostland’s Gate Vault.

***

The next cycle, she left Troytin plenty of surprises, then started hiking back to the small northern town.

Even if she barely spent any time sabotaging Troytin’s efforts in Torrviol, she just wasn’t moving fast enough to fit everything in. Ibrahim was missing, but she was still on a deadline; if the Praetorians didn’t encounter his army, they were still bound to leave Alkazaria to hunt the arch-necromancer. She had to be in the second capital before they left.

Organizing the hunters, recruiting the soldiers, and then going through all the puzzles—it would take several days.

The route is just too long.

Then she thought, the route through the greater horrors is too long. There’s too many puzzles, and I can’t fight the beasts. But what about the other route?

They had all guessed there was a second way to the Vault. It probably meant going through the death-trap obstacle course, the one that had seemed like a way to waste too many cycles.

Worth looking into, she thought. The first route had emphasized strength and intellect, requiring both combat and puzzle solving. There’s no way I could get anyone else to join me on that route. But maybe… is it possible to do alone?

If that was the case, mana management would be her next problem. I can levitate to speed up the journey, but then I’d arrive with almost no mana. Even using three mana elixirs, which is as many as I’m willing to risk, I’d either be short on mana for the trials, or I’d have to waste time resting.

As she walked, she tried to think of all the spells she would need. Is there a way to combine them? Minimize them? Damn, but there’s so many, and they take so long to scribe! But in order to get a proper spellbook…

Then she stopped walking. She already had the solution. There was a perfectly good spellbook, full of hundreds of spells, right in Torrviol. Better yet, using that spellbook would make Troytin’s life hellish.

Mirian, you’re so brilliant.

That would save her hours and hours of time, spread out through the cycle. Critically, it would save her hours of time at the beginning of the cycle. And if I can’t levitate the whole time, why not do what I did when I first visited Arriroba? I’ll ride an eximontar.

There were plenty of eximontar in Torrviol. The fastest one was Cassius’s.

Might as well steal that too. Then I’ll be off to steal gold and treasures from the Corrmiers, then steal the Holy Pages from the Sanctum, then it’ll be time to steal all the myrvite hunters and Praetorians. My father would be so disappointed in me.

Bitterly, she thought, well, who knows about my real father. Maybe he’s a hardened criminal and would be fine with it. There was still that memory curse to deal with, but it seemed the best way to deal with that would be to get rid of Troytin first so she could freely investigate the Deeps. Arenthia had said they were the ones who had likely done it. One step at a time.

As Mirian camped out on the Littenord Pass, she watched the wyverns swoop across the sky. Why is flying so easy for them? Wyverns and birds don’t need mana.

Then her brow furrowed. Huh. Designs started to churn through her head.

***

After a few days in the village, Mirian met Beatrice and her team outside one of the craft shops.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“What were you doing in there?” Beatrice asked.

“I hired his team and the artificer to see if they can make a design in a day.”

“Is that what the wyverns you brought into town are for?”

“Yup,” she said.

“Why not make it yourself?”

“Because I’m going to be busy. Let’s head down.”

They took the elevator platform down the stone shaft, then headed through the Labyrinth. Mirian didn’t bother checking the maps, which annoyed Cediri to no end.

“That bundle of supplies for opening up the early puzzles of the Labyrinth—where do you keep it?” Mirian asked Beatrice.

“In my room.” She cocked her head. “Why?”

“I’m probably going to steal it at some point,” she replied casually. “That’ll speed things up when it matters.”

Beatrice gawked at her. “You can’t just do that.”

“Why not? Tell you what, I can leave an apology note. But you’re absolutely not going to be able to come with me through the Labyrinth. Ah, Vault’s just up ahead.”

Cediri sneered at her. “She’s right,” he said reluctantly.