Regaleon: The Forgotten Knight

Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, Aelric remained completely unperturbed in the face of the advancing Terracottas. While the others panicked, the green-eyed youth maintained his usual nonchalance, not merely because he possessed the strength to face the stone warriors, but because he had a trump card that was going to turn their seemingly desperate predicament into a triviality.

In the next instant, he showed them precisely why the foreboding sight had failed to disturb him.

Aelric took a few more steps within the circle and, in an almost deliberate manner, used his feet to tap several special engravings and inscriptions etched into the ground.

At first, the group watched him with expressions of bewilderment, their eyes swirling with questions as they struggled to understand what the green-eyed youth hoped to achieve with his seemingly erratic movements.

Then, suddenly, their eyes widened when Aelric finished taking the final step and completed the odd motion.

The instant he did that, the circle that had previously been glowing with crimson light immediately dimmed. Not only that, but when the group turned their heads toward the advancing Terracottas, they witnessed something that shook them to their core.

The instant Aelric completed whatever strange movement he had performed, the stone warriors suddenly froze.

Then, like machines that had run out of power, they became completely inanimate. The crimson flare beneath their visors pulsed brightly one final time before flickering out like a candle flame caught in a violent storm.

The sight was astonishing and somewhat surreal at the same time.

The terrifying predicament that had caused Vaelorin to behave like a damsel in distress—a fact the failed Pyromancer would probably deny until his dying breath—had suddenly become a problem that ceased to exist.

It had been handled so effortlessly that their fear and trepidation now seemed almost embarrassingly disproportionate.

Sylveris slowly turned toward the still-calm Aelric, her silver eyes wide with the fascination of a child who had just witnessed a magician pull a star from an empty hat.

”How did you do that?”

Her voice was soft, but within the sudden pin-drop silence of the crypt, the question seemed to echo with an odd resonance, reverberating through the hearts of the others like the beat of a war drum.

Inadvertently, the fourteen-year-old had voiced the very question occupying everyone else’s mind.

They all turned toward Aelric, their expressions resembling those of students who had just discovered that their teacher possessed an answer to a question they had spent days struggling with.

What they had witnessed seemed to warp their perception of reality.

The first time they had entered this crypt and activated the Terracottas, both Regaleon and Aureleah had been forced to stall the stone monsters, putting their lives on the line to buy the others enough time to find a way to deactivate them.

Yet despite all their deliberation and frantic experimentation, they had been unable to shut the warriors down.

That had remained true even after they destroyed the Mummification Array, which they had initially believed was directly responsible for powering the Terracottas.

How they had survived that calamitous predicament remained something that surprised them to this day and something they would remain thankful for forever.

It was also precisely why they had moved through the crypt with such caution and circumspection. But now, Aelric had silenced the entire army with a few steps.

Meanwhile, Aelric cast a glance at Sylveris before quirking one corner of his lips upward while answering her question.

”I told you before. I’m an expert when it comes to ruins.”

His explanation was so blatantly simplistic that it almost amounted to an insult to their intelligence.

After all, they had Kaeloris, a scholar, with them when they first came here. Although they knew the failed Gnost could not possibly know everything, Aelric using his expertise with ruins as an all-encompassing explanation was something that stretched the boundaries of credibility.

Kaeloris’s eyelid twitched. ”An expert, huh?”

Aelric ignored him.

Seeing that they remained unconvinced and dissatisfied, the green-eyed youth realized that he would have to provide a clearer explanation if he wanted them to accept his assertion—not that he particularly cared whether they did.

He released a short sigh before gesturing toward them.

”Come. Let me show you something.”

He pointed toward the geometric lines tracing the obsidian floor in a circular configuration.

”You see these lines? They are the crux of an Array known as the Aether Convergence Array. The thing about this Array is that, much like the Essence Pool you used for your breakthrough, it gathers Aether at a specific point and concentrates it to form a sort of energy reservoir...”

Before Aelric could continue, Kaeloris suddenly interrupted. ”I’m sorry for interrupting, Aelric, but I have a question.”

Aelric looked toward the failed Gnost and nodded. ”Ask away.”

Kaeloris adjusted his glasses, his expression becoming increasingly analytical.

”You just mentioned that there is another type of Array laid upon this dais. While I don’t doubt the veracity of what you’re saying, I’m confused by its sudden revelation.”

He gestured toward the floor.

”When we first discovered this place, we only managed to uncover two Arrays—the Mummification Array and the Necrolith Array. At the time, we believed the Necrolith Array was responsible for animating the Terracottas. So how has a third Array suddenly appeared?”

Kaeloris wasn’t attempting to prove Aelric wrong; instead, he was genuinely curious.

He considered himself knowledgeable, and although he wasn’t an Artisan, he was still more well-versed in Arrays than the average person and that had been precisely why the others had relied upon him during their direst moments within the crypt.

At the time, Kaeloris had concluded that whoever built the crypt had laid down two Arrays: one to preserve the corpses within the sarcophagi and another to activate the Terracottas should an intruder attempt to approach the coffins.

Although he had initially mistaken the Mummification Array for the Necrolith Array, he had eventually distinguished the two.

Yet despite all that knowledge, he had never solved the mystery of their power source and that omission bothered him, especially now.

Because he had just witnessed Aelric dismantle the Terracottas with an ease that bordered on insulting.

Aelric nodded the moment he heard Kaeloris’s question.

”You see, that is the genius of this particular formation. Whoever designed it ensured that the Aether Convergence Array was nearly indistinguishable from the other two. That was what led you into trouble in the first place.”

He paused.

”But have you ever stopped to ask what was actually powering those other Arrays?”

The group exchanged glances, perhaps wondering why Aelric would suddenly ask such obvious question.

This is because at the time, they had known that neither the Mummification Array nor the Necrolith Array could function indefinitely without another mechanism supporting them.

Unfortunately, they had simply been too preoccupied to investigate it; after all, they all were on the verge of dying.

Aelric continued.

”The Aether Convergence Array is actually a basic Array that most Artisans use as a power conduit. Its primary purpose is simply to channel Aether into another Array or an Artifact.”

He looked around the ancient crypt.

”I can understand why you didn’t notice it at first, despite the Array being recognizable under normal circumstances. This place is incredibly old, so there’s no surprise that most of its mechanisms would have been eroded and obscured after all these years.”

His gaze shifted toward the walls.

”Besides, the density of Nether in this place can act as a natural interference, obstructing your senses from detecting the faint traces of Aether remaining here.”

Aelric spread his hands. ”To put it plainly, whether or not the Array was still functioning was something nobody could have known for certain in an environment like this.”

Hearing Aelric’s explanation, the group finally realized the reason they had overlooked the hidden Array from the very beginning...