Chapter 2522.2: Ubiquity (Part 2)
"I know how to get in."
"Enlighten me." Lith jumped on his feet, interrupting Demon Grasp which he had used to refine his mana core and alleviate the mental stress.
"Our best shot is to attack the most complex array." The Drake's words made Lith furrow his brows, but he nodded for Ajatar to continue. "I know that it sounds a contradiction, but hear me out.
"As you have shown us, the barrier surrounding the city is comprised of hexagonal units, meaning that each array is surrounded by six more and they all interact between them. Correct?"
"Correct." Faluel nodded.
"This pattern repeats over and over so that tampering with a single rune of the barrier triggers a chain reaction that spreads to the whole system. Which is why the most complex array is our best shot.
"The simple formations require fewer runes so they can form a deeper connection with their neighbors by allowing them to overlap with the empty areas between their strings of runes.
"This one, instead..." Ajatar tapped his clawed finger on a magic circle comprised of so many runes that there was barely any space left between them. "Allows only for a partial overlapping and only at its fringes at that.
"It means that if we start unraveling this array at its center, our meddling will go unnoticed as long as the overall structure remains unaffected. If we pick a simple one, instead, due to the runes of the neighboring six arrays going deep, there would be no margin of error."
"I see what you mean." Lith conjured the Eyes, using what he had just learned to run several simulations with different starting points.
Just as Ajatar had predicted, attacking what looked like an easy array had a 1.3% chance of success whereas depending on the approach, attacking the most complex array had a 20.6% chance of success and counting.
"It gets even better." The Drake continued. "Once we are done studying the array and planning our strategy, I suggest you bring Faluel, Friya, and Morok along. This way, even if something goes wrong, you guys can combine your Domination to take care of it."
"It sounds great, but-"
"No buts, kid. You can't do this alone." Ajatar cut Lith short. "This magical formation is among the most complex I've ever seen. Even if I give you a step-by-step foolproof list of instructions possible, there's no telling if we missed something until you put them into practice.
"Remember that this is the work of generations of Tyrants. It's not a matter of if they've laid traps, only of how many."
"And I agree with you, but I don't know if Nalrond can handle so many people at the same time." Lith finished his phrase.
"I can't." Nalrond shrugged. "I can only bring two more people with me. Any more and we'd all die of asphyxiation. My bloodline ability is not meant to be shared."
"Sounds like a job for the Master of Space." Friya said.
"I don't see how dimensional magic can-"
"Just give me a minute." She ignored Morok and took a silver sphere out of her dimensional amulet.
A Forgemastering circle and a quick spell later, the surface of the sphere was covered in red dimensional runes.
"Keep it for me, will you?" Friya handed the sphere to Lith and gestured to Nalrond to start their descent.
She had dived underground with Nalrond enough times that they knew how to match their rhythm, moving faster and breathing more easily than Lith could. It took them but a few minutes to reach the point Lith had studied with the Eyes and one second to move right in front of their target.
'Please, give me all the air for a while. I can't afford to miss a single beat.' Friya said.
Nalrond had no idea what she was about to do but he trusted her with his life. He asked no questions and took one last deep breath before following her instructions.
The moment Friya felt the reassuring pressure of the air surrounding her face, she dropped the rigid breathing rhythm necessary to move underground and focused solely on her spell.
Her blue-violet aura burst forward as her long seven-streaked hair glowed with elemental power, whipping around due to the vigorous mana flow they could barely contain.
'Good gods!' Nalrond made sure to not send those thoughts via the mind link to not break her concentration. 'Whatever she's doing is taking so much air to sustain her mental focus that I can barely keep up.'
He was about to wonder what might take so much energy when the answer literally manifested in front of his eyes.
They were still underground yet they weren't.
Nalrond could still feel the pressure from the hundreds of thousands of tons of Mogar above them yet he could also breathe the fresh air and feel the sun on his scales.
"What the actual fuck?" Lith said while moving his eyes from the silver sphere in his hands to Friya, taking the words out of everyone's mind.
"It's simple." She shrugged as the effort of stabilizing the spell covered her face with beads of sweat. "Every dimensional spell does the same thing. It forces the coordinates of two points in space to bend until they overlap.
"My Ubiquity spell is no different. It just bends the coordinates of many points in space at the same time. This way, I'm hundreds of meters below the ground but I'm also on the surface with you.
"Even if there's an array scanning for anomalies in the density of the surroundings of the complex, it will detect nothing because everything is still as it's supposed to be. Yet it isn't.
"This way, everyone can pitch in to crack the array and we have all the air we need." A final push drove the matrix of the spell inside the sphere so that Friya's mind was now unburdened and could use her breathing technique to restore her strength.
"You are incredible." Faluel walked in and out of the dimensional distortion multiple times to make sure that it wasn't just a daydream.
Not only did Ubiquity solve the problem of Warping into confined spaces without cutting everything to pieces with dimensional magic but it also kept the flow of mana and world energy of the places it connected.
Were Friya strong enough to set the destination to Faluel's lair, the Hydra would be able to use her tools and arrays, giving her the home advantage even when away from home.
"If I ever had any doubt about making you my Harbinger, I take it back. Your talent, intellect, and mastery over dimensional magic are extraordinary. I never heard about a spell like this nor did I ever think it was possible."
"Thank you, master Faluel." Friya gave the Hydra a deep bow, brimming with pride and joy for those praises.
The stunned look on her friends' faces while they gaped at her made things even better.
The combined might of eight true mages made short work of the array despite its complexity. Now that everyone could look at it with their own eyes, they noticed that Lith's scan had recorded even details they would have missed at first glance.