Ascension of the elder

"Oh great sir we're going to pick up some men."

...

"Dylan I have to say sometimes you should think before you speak."

Kyle placed his head in his hands and feared for the future of humanity's IQ if Dylan managed to breed while Faye stood to the side with her hand over her mouth to stop from laughing. Dylan looked between them with a confused look on his face before a gradual blush worked its way up from his neck as he realised the meaning of what he said.

"No no no that's not what I meant."

Kyle laughed at Dylan's antics and Faye could no longer contain her giggles. Seeing the interaction between Dylan and Kyle she felt they were more like family with Kyle being smarter so he always lead Dylan astray. She felt that the alliance between them and her sister could be the best thing to happen to them in a long time. Once they had laughed themselves out she spoke to Kyle.

"If there is nothing else sir I will arrange the girls to be brought to you at first light tomorrow."

"That will be fine and please also know that if you or your sister needs mine or my peoples help just come over or if you can sneak over just come for dinner or breakfast. You are part of the family now."

Saying his piece Kyle stood up with Dylan and left. Faye was standing in the room thinking of Kyle's parting comment, how nice will it be to have people to protect and back them up now.

Kyle and Dylan exited the brothel and began walking back to the market to pick up the bandits and their steeds which they had left at the inn. As they were walking through the slums Kyle was looking around to get an idea of the layout of the place and how it could be improved.

From what Kyle could see, the road layout and some of the house looked similar to more affluent areas of the city just older and more broken down. There were buildings in various states of dereliction and everyone they saw kept their heads down and shuffled from one area to another. Every once in a while they would hear a burst of laughter or murmur of conversation but these indications of life and happiness were quickly stifled.

Kyle felt this place was a hole that once you fell in would swallow you with no chance of recovery. As they were walking Kyle noticed some ruins a way off from the main road, these ruins were different than the other broken down buildings as for one they hadn't been re-inhabited and the area they covered was far more extensive.

Kyle turned towards these ruins while Dylan followed a couple of steps behind. As Kyle reached the outlying stones he inspected them and realised why he felt a sense of familiarity with them. These stones were fused together like those that made up his mansion.

"Dylan is this one of the destroyed buildings which is similar to my mansion?"

Kyle asked Dylan as with the lower light he couldn't see clearly and wanted to check.

"We don't know for sure but a few people think so, plus they say it's cursed land so no one wants to live on the site."

Kyle started to look through the building with his eyes and soul sight active. Kyle could see many broken arrays on the foundations which were left with a few arrays flickering to life for a second before failing again. This would be invisible to the naked eye but people would get a sense of discomfort from the mana fluctuations which were probably where the rumours of curses came from.

While Kyle was walking around and inspecting the ruins he could feel Dylan getting agitated, so in order to distract him Kyle began talking to him.

"Dylan I'm curious about the slums. From what I can see the infrastructure looks similar to the rest of the city but the buildings are wrecked, do you know what happened?"

"Well sir before I was born this area of the city was very similar to the rest of the city and back then there were a few satellite cities further west. One day the satellite cities were attacked by demon beasts simultaneously."

Dylan paused here and swallowed trying to wet his throat.

"I've seen when the beasts attack a city, it's horrendous with people being killed all around and eaten right there. This one was different however as losing three cities in one day has never happened. The imperial governor of the city at that time ordered the army and as many commoners as possible to march out to meet this horde."

Dylan paused again at this point as he recalled the stories he'd heard when he had first arrived at this city.

"It was a slaughter, the standing garrison was obliterated along with the governor and fully 3 quarters of the commoners were killed. Then the horde reached New Grange city, they were met by the combined forces of the 3 noble families and all the remaining commoners. They managed to kill the horde with your family having the greatest contributions. In the battle this area of the city was hard hit and has never recovered."

"You said 3 noble families, who was missing?"

"The Miles family wasn't here back then, they appeared shortly after and seized some of the business that had been left by a destroyed merchant family."

Well wasn't that interesting the Miles was not a native family so where did they come from and why did they choose New Grange city as their base. It may have been simply opportunity with a weakened populace they could safely seize a slice for themselves before anyone else could recover.

As they were speaking Kyle had finished his inspection and found this place had a similar layout to his mansion but there were a couple of differences. This was probably due to them having different functions as his appeared to be some kind of training or research building while this one appeared more Spartan.

During his inspection Kyle found an array which was still active due to it drawing mana from the ambient air rather than from any mana source. This was an 'illusion' array located at what looked to be part of the former staircase.

Kyle approached this array and even though he didn't have the true means to unlock it he was able to use his soul sight to see responses from the control ring as he tried different combinations. This was like when someone feels for the clicks on a combination safe as they turn the tumbler, yup Kyle had now become a safe cracker.

The array didn't last long and within 5 minutes the array disappeared showing an intact stone staircase leading down. Kyle was feeling like a true explorer now all he needed was a leather jacket and a whip and he'd be set. Leading the way down Kyle was expecting 'light' arrays to trigger like they had when he had entered the sub levels in his own mansion. But nothing happened, looking at the locations the array's should be located Kyle saw they were intact but had no mana flowing to them so he inject a small portion of his mana into the arrays giving him and Dylan enough light to progress.

As they reached an open area which should correlate with the blacksmith area and formation chamber in his mansion Kyle looked around and found it was empty except for along the far wall where the entrance to the formation chamber was and they could see the door was blown outwards.

Seeing the damage done Kyle couldn't help but gulp as he knew how strong those doors should be and to see one bent and blown apart like this was a little scary, what could have the power or strength to do that?

They cautiously approached the gaping maw expecting something to jump out at any time but luckily or unluckily there was nothing there only shards of a shattered mana crystal and a gold ring which should have surrounded the intact mana crystal now in two pieces on the floor.

Thinking there was nothing he could do here for the moment Kyle began to leave but had a sudden idea. Returning to the staircase Kyle inspected the back and to his happiness he found another active 'illusion' array. He assumed the 'illusion' arrays were able to draw mana from the atmosphere in case the mana crystal was disabled or destroyed like what had happened. He would need to look at the control ring for these to find out who this was done and why it was only these arrays that were made like this.

Entering this new staircase Kyle and Dylan walked down to the next floor where like his mansion had a room made unlike any other he had seen with green stone and unknown symbols. Unlike with his mansion the centre of the room didn't have a constant flow of mana going through it and he could see what was there clearly.

Coming down from the ceiling was a smooth spike which ended about 5 feet above the ground and coming up from the ground was a circular pillar with a spherical indentation in the centre. The pillar came up about 3 feet leaving a gap of about 2 feet between them.

As Kyle approached he kicked something which was hidden in the dark. Kneeling down Kyle found 2 spheres of about 6 inches diameter which were made of some kind of black metal with patterns covering them.

Not knowing what to do Kyle took these spheres and with a last look at the altar he and Dylan began to leave.

"Hey Dylan what do you think about these balls?"