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HEART OF IT ALL

A youth draped in simple robes sat in silence inside a dimly-lit room, his expression hardened . Below him, as always, a black-clad figure lay kneeling, his head lowered in a seeming shame . The atmosphere remained heavy for nearly an hour, only the sound of the tapping finger escaping .

" . . . what do you mean, you can’t locate him?" the youth asked, at last, lowering his eyes and looking at the black-clad man .

"Forgive us, Your Grace," the black-clad man quickly said . "We . . . we are unable to pick up his trace past the Shrinking Mountain . It’s almost as if . . . he simply vanished . "

" . . . nobody vanishes, not even the Harbinger of Chaos," the youth said, sighing . "Did you use all methods?"

"Yes . " the man quickly nodded .

" . . . what is your opinion, then, as to why you were unable to locate him?"

" . . . I . . . I imagine he’s fallen into temporary hibernation . "

"Hm?"

"He must have also realized the Descent would go after him," the man said . "Which is why he temporarily withdrew . "

"Well, it stands to reason that when you failed to find him, so will the Descent," the youth cracked a faint smile, shaking his head . "I wonder . . . how did he do it?"

" . . . I do not know, Your Grace . "

"Oh well," the youth shrugged after a momentary stillness . "Keep monitoring for any movements, regardless, but you can temporarily cease active search . Instead, focus on tracking the location of the Descenders . I imagine that information would be a decent bargaining chip once we find him . "

"Yes, Your Grace . "

The black-clad man vanished from the room, leaving the youth to his own thoughts and silence . A faint smile of bemusement hung on his thin lips as he resumed tapping his finger against the armrest .

Meanwhile, Lino observed in silent awe the blasting arrays of light that made up a commanding formation surrounding the fortress in sixteen layers altogether, all stacked on top of one another . Despite the fact that he had a fairly decent knowledge of formations, he had a literal zero clues as to what they all represented .

Next to him stood three figures: Eggor, Tim and Primul . Though Eggor and Primul remained seemingly unaffected by the spectacle, Tim wasn’t; his face lit up marvelously, a faint trace of jealousy tracing through his eyes . However many wonders Gods were able to fashion without Qi, there were still many sights that simply could not be otherwise replicated .

" . . . alright . Someone explain to me this shit . " Lino said after helplessly staring at the formations for nearly an hour, eventually relenting with a sigh .

"Tsk, your pride must have been taken to a shitter, huh?" Eggor cracked a grin, stroking his beard; it wasn’t often he was able to put the young lad back into his place, so he decided to always treasure those moments .

" . . . less gloating, more explaining, old relic . " Lino fired back, turning to Primul who smiled as he met the former’s gaze .

"Though it appears complex, the underlying core is rather simple," Primul said as he took out a strange, ring-shaped object with cyan light at the hollow center . A mere moment later, a screen shot up, one remarkably different than the flat one Lino was familiar with; the formation appeared wholly, rendered in midair to completion, down to the finest detail . "Sixteen layers are connected through the so-called ’basin tubes’," Primul pointed at the zig-zag set of lines darting at angles between the layers of the formation . "With Eggor’s and Tim’s help, I was able to re-fashion the original design so that it conducted not just Qi, but also other forms of energy, including Mana . The whole formation is separated into four sets, ending up as a four-by-four creation -- defensive, supportive, offensive and boosting sets . As it would otherwise consume too much energy, all but the supportive set must be manually activated to be used . "

"In effect," Eggor tagged on, pointing at the four separated sets . "The sets cannot be individually targeted, so someone can’t focus on taking out our defenses due to the inner workings of the arrays . The formation always draws energy to repair itself if damaged and can do so at probably unprecedented speeds thanks to Primul . There’s still room for improvement, but the core stability of the fortress would be compromised if we pushed it any further . We call it ’Eternal Orbiter’ . "

" . . . how does your guys’ project figure into this?" Lino turned toward Tim and asked .

"One layer of each set currently remains inactive and is not connected to the formation’s core," Tim explained . "Once we’ve completed the project, we’ll be able to attach it to the conduits that will convert Qi into raw electricity to power it up . The supportive set will be responsible for the aircraft deployment, the defensive set will be equipped with missiles, offensive set with rapid-fire cannons, and boosting set with manned crafts carrying supplies . Rather than connecting to the formation’s core inside the fortress, we’ll redirect it to the carrier instead . "

"Have you made any progress with cloaking?" Lino asked with a frown . "For the time being, that should be our priority . "

" . . . unfortunately no," Tim shook his head helplessly . "The most we can do at the moment is what we’re already doing -- using generators to dissipate naturally radiating Qi of the fortress and convert it over into electric energy . On casual inspection, the fortress wouldn’t show up on anyone’s radar, and if one did a deeper search, they’d most-likely mistake us for a billow of thundering clouds . We aren’t, however, in any way invisible or hidden . "

"Keep at it," Lino said . "If need be, ask Val to re-allocate more resources . "

"Will do . " Tim nodded . "Alright, I’ll head back for now . If you can spare some time, Edith and the rest have managed to whip out some new designs, so come visit and look them over . "

"Sure . " Lino nodded, shifting his focus back onto the formation . "How goes our armory build-up?" he then glanced at Eggor and asked .

"Slow," Eggor said . "We’re in a desperate lack of high-end smiths, especially with . . . well, you know . "

" . . . yeah . "

"It’s pretty much just Rion, Synthia and me that are gearing up the high-end cultivators . It wouldn’t hurt if you jumped in as well . "

"I’ll come by in a few days," Lino said . "To deposit some materials and craft a few items . I’ve no plans on heading out anytime soon anyway, so I may as well grind myself out . "

"Alright," Eggor nodded, turning around . "I’ll head back as well . Cae’s been asking about you, so swing by later today at least to say hi . "

"Will do . " Lino smiled warmly as Eggor left, leaving behind only Primul and Lino . This was effectively, Lino realized, the very first time the two of them were alone . Glancing at the man, Lino couldn’t quite pinpoint why, but he felt a strange closeness to him, one that went beyond the two of them simply being Empyreans . "How are you finding the fortress so far?"

" . . . unexpected . " Primul replied .

"Unexpected?"

"Hm," he nodded, turning back and glancing at the rising towers and carved streets full of people . "It’s much more . . . jovial than I expected it to be . And people are far less horrified . "

" . . . yeah, I keep it a point not to scare them . " Lino said, cracking a smile .

"No, it’s beyond that," Primul shook his head . "When I look back at my time and compare myself to you, I realize why I failed as a leader, and why I had so many souls stab me in the back . "

" . . . "

"If it was me from back then, and if I had survived what you had," their eyes met, both pairs eerily black . "I wouldn’t have withdrawn here . Rather, I would order every single soul here to march out with me into the war . "

" . . . " Lino remained silent, musing that, eventually, that was his plan .

"You’ve fashioned a breathtaking place, Lyonel," Primul said . "And, every day I’ve spent here . . . was a blessed one . I’d randomly take a stroll down a street only to be stopped and offered food and drinks, or to see one or another performance taking place amidst thick crowds . Not even in my wildest dreams would I imagine the Empyrean being the cornerstone of it all . "

" . . . I’m hardly a cornerstone, though," Lino said, glancing back at the fortress as well . "Sure, I may be the gathering point of all these people, a blanket they chose to hide under during the dark times . . . but, I imagine most of them don’t exactly think about me on daily basis . They’ve fashioned their own lives and created a community you’ve seen and experienced . Truth is that most people don’t need a leader or a ruler," he added with a faint smile . "Only a safe place that allows them to chase after their dreams . That, really, is what I tried to create all along . "

" . . . how noble . " Primul smiled faintly .

"Ha ha ha, hardly . They still have to work, regardless of their dreams . "

" . . . you say you aren’t a cornerstone, but you might be wrong, Lyonel . " Primul said after a short silence . "When the news spread that you’ve returned injured, the entire -- and I do mean this literally -- fortress came to a grinding halt . People lined up in front of one major figure’s house or another, waiting for days on end to hear how you were . Eggor and a few others were effectively forced to keep the whole place running themselves . "

" . . . "

"It’s true that, in their minds, you are most likely a very different figure than you are in reality," Primul added, slowly beginning to walk away . "But, every fantasy, however distorted, is based on reality . " he glanced back for a moment, smiling . "You are both their fantasy and reality . All these people would stand in fiery and bloody rain and would cry out your name even if the whole world scowled at them . That is why I failed as a leader, and you didn’t . You took on the hearts, hopes, dreams, and desires of your people," his faint footsteps slowly began growing distant, though his voice remained as mellow and as close as always . "And you’ve put them all in your soul . All people ever need in life is recognition of their counterpart . . . and the light to shine upon them when darkness descends . You are the latter, and you gave them the opportunity to find the former . Me? I wasn’t and didn’t . . . "