Chapter 676: 676
Despite her initial panic, Solus quickly regained her cool and started to look around Kulah, searching for clues about the nature of what could possibly require an entire mana geyser as a power source.
Yet the buildings' repetitive nature gave her nothing to work on. On top of that, between the internal and external arrays, she was unable to pry inside the military compound with her mystical senses.
'Solus, are you alright? I'm getting tired here. What's taking you so long?' Lith's message made her realize she had lost track of time.
'I'm peachy! Sorry to make you worry, I'll be there in while.' She replied while rushing to Lith's position. When her detailed report received a lukewarm reaction, she felt forced to ask:
'You're taking this way better than I expected. Not even a swear word. What makes you so confident about our predicament?'
'Whenever we found a city built above a mana geyser, we have always been forced to make camp on another geyser. I hoped that the Odi might had not been able to fully exploit the world energy, but the more we are discovering about them, the more I realize mine was naïve thinking.' Lith replied.
'We must consider Kulah as if it was a lost city. If there are any more flesh factories around, then the number of our enemies is nigh-infinite. It was a long-shot and we failed, nothing to mope about.' Lith mind-shrugged.
The following day, after lunch, the Professors shared with the rest of the expedition team their discoveries about the Golems' remains. Constructs were the apex of a mage's work, so they had pooled their resources to grasp how dangerous the Odi were at the time they had founded Kulah.
"I'm sorry, but we have only bad news." Professor Gaakhu said. "After a thorough analysis, we concluded that even though the Golems had an outdated design, they had all the necessary firepower to wipe us out if not for our protective arrays.
"The constructs weren't as powerful as modern ones but their ability to process information and coordinate their attacks was something unprecedented. At first, we couldn't understand how it was possible, but after receiving Archmage Ernas's report, everything changed."
'Orion is an Archmage?' Lith was flabbergasted. 'Everyone always referred to him as Lord Ernas and I've never seen him wearing a robe.'
'It's not that surprising after he created the Gatekeeper so easily, crafted the anti Balkor weapons, and him being a Royal Forgemaster. It's just that the title of Archduke is probably more important. Now shut up and listen.' Solus said.
"We examined the internal structure of the Golems again and discovered cerebral fluids and brain matter mixed with their power core fragments. Our hypothesis is that they contained a Forgemastered brain." She took a pause, to let her audience understand the implications of their discovery.
"Do you mean they were alive?" Morok asked. His tone was more curious than disgusted.
"An organ can't survive for centuries without a body." Gaakhu shook her heard. "Yet it's likely that the regenerative properties of the Golem kept them intact and in turn used them to compensate for the lack of improvisation that arrays have.
"The reason I'm telling you this, is because if we face more defensive mechanisms with and odd behavior, then they are likely to be bio-weapons, just like the Golems. The only silver lining is that if we destroy their biological component, they should become inactive or at least have their abilities crippled."
'Forgemastering organs? Solus, is that even possible?' Lith asked.
'In theory, no. The mana of the person receiving the enchantment and that of the one casting it would just cause a mana poisoning, unless…'
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